I have 120Y disk brake struts in my 74 1200 sedan which were there when I bought it. I have always thought that the front sits up in the air a bit. I noticed from a previous
discussion that somebody said that the 120Y strut has the spring carrier mounted a bit higher than the 1200 which would explain my nose up attitude since I'm using 1200 springs. How
much higher are they mounted? Does the 120Y have shorter springs to compensate cause I'm looking for ways to drop the front. Barry.

i have a 1200 ute and replaced the front springs with bluebird rear coilover springs. i had to cut 2 coils off. this sat level and solid as a rock. with about 2 inches gap between
the wheel and the arch with 185/65/13s and the springs rattle if you lift the front end off the ground. as well the sway bar off a 120y bolts straight up with no effort. the 16mm std
is then replaced with a 20mm one. no body role at all, and mine carries extra weight with gas fitted so yours might sit higher, hope this helps, bye buzzard

That was probably me mentioning that.
I believe that the 1200 and 120Y springs are all the same.

It's fairly easy to move them down.

1. Measure how much you want to drop them eg. 1-2 inches?.
2. Remove struts by removing calipers, Loosen the nut on the top of the strut until it's past it's nyloc locking section, undo the bolts from bottom, then bolts at the top, lever the strut
off the balljoint and out from under the guard.
3. Mark a line around the strut with a good black permanent marker.
4. Using spring compressors(safety issues discussed in a previous thread) remove springs.
5. Using a hack saw, carefully cut around the strut (just above the weld holding the cup on). Don't cut through the strut tube. Once you have made a decent cut all the way around the cup
base, using a rubber mallet hit the cup until it breaks free from the strut, you might need to trim up your hack saw cuts to allow it to break free.
6. Using an angle grinder or flat file, file the weld ring flat to the surface of the strut tube.
7. Position the cups to the lines marked previously to indicate the new position.
8. Using a MIG welder reattach the cups in the new position. The dude at your local muffler shop may be able to help here, if you don't have a MIG welder. ARC welders are not the right tool
for this job. You could use an Oxy/Acet torch, but you may need to heat treat the strut afterwards, to regain structural hardness.
9. Reverse the removal process to put the struts back in.
10. Any further adjustments should be made by using harder/softer springs or by changing their length. The original springs are much softer than some sports springs, and off the shelf springs
are generally tuned for original ride height.

This is pretty much the same process i just went thru when i had to change cup size on my c210 skyline struts. It wasnt hard at all but i do have access to welders, grinders and
stuff since i am the local exhaust dude! I slitly mounted them higher than where the stock cups sat. I did this for clearance as 195/55/14's just scraped in. I dont think u could
lower the actual cups on 120y struts as i think they would foul the tyre??? maybe not?

Scott
Davo

A word of warning when modifying your struts, they will be oil filled if standard and pose a fire risk if you weld them assembled. Undo the top nut it's usually an awkward octagonal shape
and drain the oil out. Use 2 containers 1 for each strut and then you don't have to guess the correct amount to put back in. Unless the inside of the strut tubes is clean the heat from the
welding can burn the oil residue into flaky hard pieces of crap which can block up the valving in the bottom of the strut assembly. If you have gas inserts the same rules apply they will
happily explode when heated. I seen on two occassions, "experts" welding on assembled struts catch them on fire, and its quite impressive!!

Another thing you might want to consider is upgrading to an insert while the strut is out. If you are going to a B-210 or other large diameter Nissan strut you can also cut it shorter
and use VW inserts. This not only gives the lowered car more suspension travel than the stock struts, but there are loads of different high perfomance inserts for the VW. I can't
remember which model VW insert to look for but if you know any Z-car or 510 people they could probably tell you. I'll try to find more info on that and let you know.

This was mentioned on the Bluebirds list recently. It's 83-84 Golf GTI inserts apparently. I havent tried this trick myself so I can't garantee it. I'm fitting struts from an S12 Silvia
to my 510 and they are nearly 2 inches shorter than stock struts but you have to add more negative camber to make up for the different leg to spindle angle. The have 10.75 inch vented
disks. (Min 14 inch rims needed) I will be trying these on my 1200 2door sedan too as they are pretty easy to get here.

Eddie

If you weld on struts, (or anything else for that matter) clean the struts by soaking them in vinegar (or pickle juice) overnight and it will dissolve the flaky hard pieces of the
oil reside ash.

HmmYeah...I forgot to mention about the removal of the oil and
insert...silly me..
I bet it would be pretty impressive.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Lowering the spring cups isn't an option because they will foul the tyres (185/65/13). I'll be looking around for some
shortened springs. Barry.