Dropping 510

[torqued]

Ive had a picture tucked away for the longest time relating to this.
Couldn't find it right now. But after a quick google

510-10.jpg

[DJZ]

Swap the lower arms for something else? Z or R30 or R31 etc etc?

[broke]

Off that thread relating to adjustable arms off the 510 realm. Apparently a few of the yanks have had tha happen, they do salt the roads over there though.

[85_Z31]

When the euro guys convert their E30's to coil overs ( they have exactly the same issue ) they make up a big plate sand which washer to spread the load around. A carefully designed piece of 3mm steel is going to spread the load over a large area, rather than just the point where the shock bolts in.

I can see the main concern is when you bottom out hard the shock/coil over could poke through the sheet metal and you would lose control and have an accident.

But there is no reason you can't keep the bump stop on the factory location and adjut the height so that the bumpstop activates before the shock/coil over bottoms out.

And thus the shock mounting point will never see the full forces of a hard bottom out. And the oem bumpstop location will see all the forces exactly as they were designed too.

I have noticed that the metal points a 610 bump stop pushes against do hang down awfully low, it seems to me like you could chop 30mm off the metal part that hangs down, cap it and spot weld it back on.

This would give increased travel and low ride heights.

Adam I can draw up some diagrams if you can't picture what im saying

[torqued]

Cheers dude I get what you are saying. I was actually looking at that hanger bit today thinking the same thing to shorten it

[hsepwr]

I too think the original loading points are not up to the stress of the shock and spring and think the top would be easy enough to strengthen up but unsure how you would make the bottom arm on the mount stronger. I think coil over is the way to go in the rear but am unsure of strength. I know shane bre510 has added strength to the top tower but don't know if hes done anything to the bottom.

[Bartman]

Draw me a picture James.
I want to properly understand what you mean.

[85_Z31]

CBF drawing a picture.

However you do it, to strengthen the top sheet metal is the easy part.

That picture shows a pretty serious failure, but I'm skeptical its the designs fault when several other Nissan use a very similar shape bottom arm with the shock/spring hanging off the back.

Using somebody like Southern QA to determine material thickness, and any cracks in factory welds would be the way to go, Once you have solid facts on whats what, it can be decided if the bottom arms needs gussets and extra material added to make it stronger. ( or even if it can be used at all )

An ideal method would be to JIG up a bottom arm and build a Cromoly one. Use the original bearing carrier and such and not be reliant on 40 year old metal parts.

Greg and I discussed this all at great length, and we came up with the fact that a spring wound to his specs and height would be the easier way to gain his required ride height. Simple rubber shims can be used to adjust preload/ride height and then you don't have to do the whole faff of going coil overs. This keeps the spring in the stock location and no further issues.

As long as the OE bump stop location is used, the shock's mounting point is never going to see the full shock loading of a bottom out, with such a light car a spring rate of 250 - 300 lbs is not going to cause a massive failure like that without seeing a very hard impact / bottom out.

[sr1600]

Tend to agree with you there James.

I'm struggling to see how you would load the arm to have it fail like that , the shock mount is a much smaller cross section than the arm where it's failed. Ever the standard bump stop wouldn't load it like that

I'd love to see the wheel that come off there , maybe a slide into a kerb or something would load that enough to do that.

I have reinforced my bottom strut mount , a little tickle with the grinder round the washer/stopper and it fits inside a 38.1mm tube. Pushed some tube over and shaped the end to suit the arm, tacked the tube on before cutting/grinding it to length in place. Then gently welded around both ends.

So rather than the 16mm mounting arm sticking out has a 38mm cover over it to stiffen it up.

I have modded some coilovers to fit the 510 , spun up some new tops however they just didn't go short enough to suit the height I'm after however I see it being easier having some springs made to fit in the standard spot. I have a set of adjustable perches from a Mazda Atenza and they fit the standard spring spot however the springs are about 3mm to small on the Inside diameter to fit over them so ill just have some made slightly tapered to suit.

That's the plan of attack now , anyone know/recommend a good rear spring rate?

Mark

[Datto_610]

With the type of rear irs our datsun's have you multiply the front by 3.8 to give you the rear spring rate. Eg my fronts are 275lbs so going to be getting as close to 1045lbs as I can.

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