So the more I get into fixing up the 1200 coupe I aquired the more things i find that the previous owner modified.

I was going to replace the brake calipers so without knowing how I disassembled the whole front left suspension, but that is beside the point.

This in turn is what I found...

1) first of all I noticed that the car had camber plates before I took it apart

2) then I compared the strut set up he had on the car to the one in my manual as you can see the spring is not compressed by the shock like it should be

3) this close up shows the order in which he had the parts with the shock nut being on the very top on top of the camber plate. The small round thing is a bearing which I am not sure if that is stock.

4) the next problem is that at some point in time the shock tower was cut off the three bolts were welded in place inversly and it was welded back on.

5) the last photo is of a set of 280z racing struts with cut springs that i aquired I'm hoping that with the parts I have someone can give me a suggestion on how to put the suspension back on the car and it would be nice to lower it too.

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looks like the stock set up to me but the cap should not be on the top of the tower thats for sure. all that weight on 3 nuts, not nice.

usually all the weight would be spread on the inside of the tower by the metal plate he has slotted for home made camber adjustments (not a bad idea).

you would be better off moding the tower as per the wiki and datsn competition manual of diy.

looks to me like the strut tower has actually been raised a bit too, which would lower the car without loosing suspention travel

yes I think they might have done this, and I do see that he used the stock parts to do so I'm just wondering should I rent a spring compressor and just put it back the way it was or do something else.


I say this because the way it is right now I cannot get the strut back on the car the spring is too much longer than the shock and I tried putting the shorter 280z spring on but it's too short.

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the stock top hat doesnt really look strong enough tolast in that setup

so i'd be knocking/cutting those studs out and putting it back the way it is stock
then if you want the extra camber plates it should be that hard to find some rea camber tops from an S13 or something

so your talking about the rubber piece in the center of the top

no put the whole silver part ontop of the strut and bolt it in from under the tower.

manual spring compressors are only $30 from superrubbish etc. no need to rent and better to have just in case for later.

I understand how it goes back together but PIGDOG was saying that the top piece doesn't look strong enough.

It goes together like this:




Then you stick the whole assembly up into the strut tower and just the bolts go through the sheet metal. This lets the entire ring spread the stresses out. The loads are up into the strongest parts of the tower.


The official Nissan-approved way for home-mode camber plates:
Slot the strut-top mounting points per the Nissan Competition suspension manual

it is hard to show in any photos but the piece before the bearing, the top spring mount I believe still rides on the inside of the shock tower so I trust that the weight is still distributed.