Hello everyone, I am a newbie to the forum. To give you a little quick background, I purchased a 1200 GT car last spring and ran it in MC and SCCA. It’s a full race GTL or GT5 race car. I race most of the road course tracks in the Midwest US. This winter im redoing a lot of the car (brakes, suspension, etc). I have never worked on Datsuns prior to last year, I raced E36 M3's prior to this (I switched because of the cost to race those machines). So now im trying to get some insight from any of you on what to do and what parts I should go with (because its not easy finding race parts for a 1200).

First and foremost my suspension, I currently have a setup which I believe called a strut disc assembly (strut and spindle attached). I have been looking around at big name companies im used to (Koni, Bilistien) to find a replacement for this setup but no luck anywhere. My idea is just to upgrade suspension given the struts are shot and nobody local seams to know anything about these (rebuild).

So my main question is does anyone have a good setup for sale or can point me to a company that provides a good race setup?

Also im looking for different rear end gears or complete rear ends that I can unbolt from the leafs and install at the track given what track im at. Right now im not sure what gears I have but im quick at short tracks and a dog when it comes to longer tracks.

Also If any of you guys can give me some pointers on the 1200's for racing setups or ideas and tricks that I may not know I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for your time and I look forward to discussions on this forum.

p.s. sorry in advance if my lingo is wrong on any parts or descriptions of the 1200.

hi, welcome to the club.

yes, Datsun 1200 uses McPherson strut front suspension. You can buy Koni or Nissan/KYB strut insert cartridges. That's what most people have used since 1980 or so, rather than rebuild the strut.

A lot of hobbyists replace the struts with heavier ones from a 280ZX or other newer Datsun/Nissan.

Race parts are perhaps more common that stock parts in a way. Contact Peter Zekert, he was the foremost 1200 racer in SCCA and I think he still has some parts left. http://peterzekert.com. He's in the midwest.

Peter is who I bought the car from. And Im kind of confused on the word "insert", is that the threaded sleeve the spring sits on? Because I have found that from Koni. And I have the sleeve and spring in good condition. Its the shock that is shot and I need the whole assembly (shock and spindle) replaced. Thanks for your responce.

threaded sleeves that springs sit on are not stock.

An insert is a shock absorber for a McPherson strut. It's the only part that can wear out. Original the strut housing had valves and oil in it and the strut was the shock. But then they came out with the insert cartridges, no rebuilding necessary, just pop a new shock cartridge in the housing.

Nissan 56105-H5025 about $50 each from Nissan, for Datsun B110
They are white but look like these aftermarket Bogen units:



I heard some reports of local Nissan dealers saying they can't get them anymore. I bought my last set in 2010 from Nissan.

I also bought some KYB gas-a-just and a friend just bought some Konis last month. They are new old stock, so search the web to find them.

Koni S1003

But my "shock" is welded to the spindle. How do I get the insert out of that spindle/strut housing?

Try posting some pics to help us see what your talking about

I hope this helps.

Attach file:

---

  DSC01376.JPG (163.88 KB)


  DSC01375.JPG (163.38 KB)


  DSC01374.JPG (165.19 KB)

OK you appear to have a sealed unit. Normally there is a threaded collar at the top of the strut, this is simply undone and the cartridge is removed. In the picture it looks like the top is sealed.

Now as for the assemble, even back in the day these were a fabricated part for race purposes, a threaded spring perch was welded to the strut housing, the housing was also cut down to a shorter overall length and then an appropriate damper / shock cartridge was put in........................unlike your E36 your not going to find off the shelf race parts. As your current struts have a set spring height this may be a good time to redo the front suspension.

If you can take a picture of the lower control arms and radius rods on the car one of us can tell whether it's 1200 or Z car or 200sx etc. and give you a course of action.

For the rear end several GT-Lites guys use Winters quick change rear ends, Dave Patten (I think) had one for sale on GT-racecar.com forums.

As to the problem of long tracks, is the car over revving or does it hit the aero-wall like mine, I.E. you get above 90 MPH and the motor starts struggling to overcome the drag.......my car no puts out about 80 horsepower at the rear wheel, a full SCCA National level car will put out 100 rwhp.................so this may be a case of your used to an M3 which doesn't have this issue.........................I'm assuming you have Weber DCOE's on the car, tell us what size (40, 44 or 45mm) and what main jets are in it....................this will give us a rough idea of how hard the motor is tuned.

As for the gear ratio in the diff now, mark the drive shaft and tires, spin the drive shaft and count the number of turns at the wheels.


Overall the 1200 is no different from the BMW, you set the camber, caster toe etc. Like most people running the car I have a fabricator for the big bits.

You can send the motor to Rebello Wirth etc like some racers do but if it already has the good bits then it's simply a task of up keep. A lot of people get parts from Peter Zekert as he does a lot of them. Isky stocks valve springs, JE & Arias pistons are still available and a hole host of companies can grind cams. A series buzzing to 9000+ will need freshening after 6 hours running.

Transmissions run from $700 to $7000 depending on whether you're using the A series Nissan 4 speed close ratio or a sequential box from a big name company

Rear ends are everything from stock H145 to modified H190 or quick change.

Suspension tends to be custom: I have the common modified 280ZX struts on my car. The class morphed from C-Sedan to GT and cars became tube frame the suspension went to custom unequal length A-arms, this was also common on cars that were tubed from the firewall forward.................read the C-sedan suspension manual on this page. Also read all the strut swap info. Sway bars, the 7/8 front 5/8 rear Addco bars are still available but beyond that it is custom bars usually tubular.


As for Gaskets I get most of them at the parts stores......of course over 25 years running a 1200 I pretty much have 3 of everything.

I'll give you a quick break down on my car just as an idea:

The motor is a JDM GX engine with:
Reground cam (.460 lift 280 duration) purchased from another GT-Lite driver , it cam with new lifters.
Porting done by me (suorevsion from a friend)
Isky valve springs (New)
pushrods from Peter Zekert
Keihin Flat slide carbs and manifold bought used from a DSR competitor who converted tobike engine

The gearbox is a 4 speed close ratio bought from San Fran region driver used

Diff is H145 with LSD..............purchased used along with a huge stash of parts from Arizona region SCCA member.

Rear springs are Nissan comp with Koni shocks were in the huge stash of parts from Arizona.

280ZX front suspension (used) was picked up from Tom Neally (GT-5 / Lites car builder)


Basically read everything on here and GT-racecar.com and you should get an idea of where to get everything.

Tom

If you go to the downloads section, its in the top left of the page you can find a downloadable PDF of the Factory Datsun 1200 Competition Suspension book.