I forgot to measure the stock ride height of my ute before I started pulling it apart. For a legal lowering job, you're supposed to retain 2/3 of your bump travel.

Can some one with stock suspension please measure the ride height for me?

From the inside face of the strut tower to an easily recognisable mark in the strut, i.e the joint where the strut bolts up to the steering arm.

Dont jack the car up, just put the steering to one side for access and chuck your measuring tape up the strut tower. It will take about 30 seconds

Thanks.

Wow I thought I was the only one who wrote rambling essays in this place . good to see you're enthusiastic.

not a lot of stanza info here, except about the bits that can be shoehorned into a 1200. there are a few active stanza people on the ozdat forums and a lot of the threads on hotting up 1600's will apply because it has the same basic engine.

If you are looking for new wheels, I can tell you that you have a 114.3 pcd stud pattern and a +28 mm offset. Offsets a couple of mm either way wont cause you any problems.

*BUMP*

someone must know about this. share your knowledge before I get my angle grinder out again.

Dont have one but I'm interested in the probelm.....
So what's the clearance like around the front of the engine? What's in it at the moment?

Different rate?

so how do you get the different rate? thicker wire or more coils?

It makes sense to compensate for driver weight but I'm not sure how you would do it without getting a car that sits on an angle?

Yup, I should be go to go by october as well...... perhaps even with some nice 15" rims, If I can find any that will fit this frankenstein.

Kegs,
You will gain 10mm each side from the LCA's. You can work out if you are going to gain more track from the disk assembly by measuring from the hub face to the CL of the strut and comparing.

I'm pretty sure the sunny radius rods are the same as the 120y ones because I measured them up on 2 cars side by side at the wreckers. I ended up taking the 120y cos they were cleaner. They are about 5mm shorter than the 1200 ones for better castor, but no actual mods are needed to fit 1200 ones unless you want the castor....... and then you would have to get out the lathe to machine more thread on. Best bet is to get the right R/rods- they're not going to cost more than $5-10.

BTW: my experience is with a 78 ute... apparently earlier cars had a different ball joint set up which may change things.

hope this helps.

Took the stanza struts apart- no bump stops. Newish looking monroe gas inserts, so I just figured the mechanic was slack.

Took the 1200 struts apart.....what do you know? no bump stops.

Is this normal for Datsuns?

When I got the stanza springs out one was slightly longer than the other and had about 1/3 turn extra on the coil. Thought to myself "that car must have sat on an angle"......... whipped out the grinder and cut 2 coils out of each so that they were lowered & both the same length. (I figure I'll cut these ones to get the ride right & then get some made up to spec)

The joke was on me. Now my car sits on an angle

Is it normal for one spring to be longer than the other (i.e. a compensation for the drivers weight)

Update.

Got the stanza struts in. As datsic said they give about a 2" lift and sh!tloads of positive camber. no good.

the problem: 1200 struts are 615mm from hat to control arm, stanza & 120y are both 660mm, so you have 45mm to make up. When you combine this with with the stiffer stanza springs it blows out further.

I replaced the stanza springs (400mm free length, 11 coils) with the 1200 springs 325mm free length, 9 coils. this gave an approximately standard ride height.

I then cut down the stanza springs to 320mm (which is the shortest you can go on them and still maintain some pre load) and got a ride height that was a bit lower ( I have yet to measure it, but 2 1/2 to 3 finger gap between tyre and guard instead of 4-5 finger as standard.

All measurements were done using the stock rims. (brake calipers were not on the struts at the time)

I am concerned about bump clearance for this conversion. You are supposed to maintain 2/3 of original bump, so to keep this conversion legal, I suspect you would have to keep a stock ride height.

Quote:

Took me a couple of go's to get my head around it (see edits in my last posts), but I dont reckon that's right. the dizzy turns at half engine speed, so 45 deg on the dizzy is 90 deg on the motor....... which means that your secondary is firing at 83 deg ATDC when the piston is almost halfway back down the bore.