shortening & rethreading the shock shaft >> ANY REVIEWS ??

mr. mindz · Postby **mr. mindz** » February 17th, 2011, 2:16 am

well jnqaz is kind of on point with his info there.......

the shock shaft was rethreaded down to 3" of threading instead of the original 1"...
when i mounted it up, the car didnt go more than half inch lower, than the already 2.5" drop...
giving me just about 3" of drop instead the 4.5" which was desired...

i then whipped out the shock / spring and removed the spring, upon realising the tension of the spring was keeping the car up...

we took of exactly 1 coil from the HKS spring (half of which was inactive), and bent the spring to properly fit back into the upper spring seat...

upon doing this... the car went down by another half inch... giving a total of 3.5" of drop.

i didnt want to sacrifice anymore spring, so cutting more was no longer an option...
the problem now was, my front bumper is 3" of the ground and so is my oil pan / cross member...

but i still had 1" fender space upfront...

so everything was once again removed and the lower spring seat was unsweated and lowered to exactly 1" with additional threading on the shaft and the excess cut off from the top, instead of it poking through the enginebay as jnqaz said... the reason i cut it off is because i didnt have a socket that long to tighten the strut mount.

the car now sits 2" off the ground with almost no fender space, with 8.5" wide 215/35/18...
with 1/2" clearance from the top of the tire to the lower spring seat...

in addition... the factory 1.5" long studs were removed and replaced with stronger 2.5" long wheel studs, with 1" spacers upfront... having the wheels fit flush to the fenders....

the 215/35/18s will be replaced with 205/40/18s to give the front tyres more stretch, and clearance when the wheels are locking left to right.....

with the shaft shortened to suit, the shocks still have as much travel as the manufacturer intended...
the cars suspension upfront is a little tight though because of the weight of the JZ...

i guess its just to wait and see now, how long it might last and how it would ride on long distances...

will try to post some pics up soon...

wheel whores · Postby **wheel whores** » February 17th, 2011, 5:31 am

205/40/18 where did you get that?????

mr. mindz · Postby **mr. mindz** » February 17th, 2011, 11:10 am

well.... if u live Rio Claro, then u've probably heard about Ramrattan Tyre Traders.... they're actually the largest suppliers of tyres in the Country, and he's my neighbour.
they supply 98% of tyre shops in the country.

red_dragon · Postby **red_dragon** » February 17th, 2011, 11:12 am

mr. mindz : u could have gotten some coilovers with separate height adjustment and u in the game

most important how is the ride at speeds over 140? on the nice roads we have

mr. mindz · Postby **mr. mindz** » February 17th, 2011, 11:20 am

red_dragon wrote:mr. mindz : u could have gotten some coilovers with separate height adjustment and u in the game

most important how is the ride at speeds over 140? on the nice roads we have

cudnt afford it yet bro.... this is just to get the car to the desired height, to make adjustments and enough clearance to the body before its painted.........

when it's done. i prefer to invest in a 'new' set of coilovers...
seeing that we've had some pretty bad experiences with the foreign used ones..... the ones im watching are in the $10k range... so i should start saving from now.. :lol:

in time we'll see how it works on the highway, but i don't have much intentions of crossing that 140 :wink:

, esp not with my crank case 2" off the ground.

belalegosi · Postby **belalegosi** » February 17th, 2011, 1:01 pm

^^^skid plate.

A friend of mine in town who slammed his, had his oil pan just an inch off the ground. He got a polished aluminum front airdam as his "guide". The air dam would scrape or take the hit of objects that are too big (which usually is everything)

mr. mindz · Postby **mr. mindz** » February 17th, 2011, 2:01 pm

made one already... but with steel tho

belalegosi · Postby **belalegosi** » February 17th, 2011, 4:14 pm

careful with the steel though.. You want the air dam to flex/bend if you hit something too hard. The steel [i]may[i] bend/damage the attachment point on the chassis.

mr. mindz · Postby **mr. mindz** » February 18th, 2011, 2:46 am

thanks for the info jnqaz, will take that into consideration...

is ah nite pic eh.. so doh kill meh.

front finished... now just the back to drop, the front isnt too stiff as a coilover... and still retains a bit of softness in comparison. now its just to see how long it might last...

the Ohlins back setup is a bit different...
but i hope a similar method works out well in lowering it 3" more.

Conrad · Postby **Conrad** » February 18th, 2011, 9:08 am

bcozier · Postby **bcozier** » April 14th, 2011, 10:55 am

good read yo!!!

ryan666 · Postby **ryan666** » March 24th, 2015, 9:57 pm

mr. mindz wrote:i don't really like the idea of cutting the springs up front,

i dont wanna tamper with the spring constant, because its already tensioned to suit the diameter and length of the spring, the material, and the number of active coils...

i honestly cant afford the correct coilover setup YET....

and the HKS is designed to give a 2.5" drop, but i need a 4.5" drop still.....

i'm running a 205/40/18 stretched on a 8.5" wheel, so because my tyre profile is very low... i have a noticeable wheel gap.... which i hate.

the car isnt setup for any perfect handling or anything, since it's not fully performance oriented...

dropping the saucer may not be an option because it might touch the back of the wheel..... i honestly think rethreading is the only reasonable option here.

205/40/18 is low? I'm running 215/30/18 [FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY][FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY][FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY]