What did you do to your Z this week?

jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
I’ve been fitting my Illuminas. They’re bz3015 for 240z front, but they’re going in the rear of my 260z.
They’re about 2” shorter than the std inserts To match the lowering springs:

4a46bbd7d455a013db9c2300d6150291.jpg


However, I’m not shortening the tubes, so I’ve made spacers for the top of the Illuminas:

38aea7a821957b48a41f5e55a8595320.jpg


cd38f6bb86897b2af1f542ed2c209826.jpg

The spacers are all snug at each end so I’m optimistic it’ll work well :thumbs:
 
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Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
I’ve been fitting my Illuminas. They’re bz3015 for 240z front, but they’re going in the rear of my 260z.
They’re about 2” shorter than the std inserts To match the lowering springs:

However, I’m not shortening the tubes, so I’ve made spacers for the top of the Illuminas

The spacers are all snug at each end so I’m optimistic it’ll work well

The conventional way of doing it - and it's the way Tokico themselves do it - is to put the spacer at the BOTTOM of the insert.

Putting the spacer at the top reduces the stroke of the damper.
 

jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
The conventional way of doing it - and it's the way Tokico themselves do it - is to put the spacer at the BOTTOM of the insert.

Putting the spacer at the top reduces the stroke of the damper.



Thanks Allan,
Considering how the std KYB insert worked out, it just seems to me better with the spacer at the top;
With the KYB, the spring is loose at full droop which doesn’t seem ideal and the Illumina would be even worse with the spacer at the bottom:
6277eb1cf0f0912f8f3d0dfd7fb52424.jpg


With the spacer at the top, the spring is still compressed a couple of mm at full droop.

37b60ee1f6a35959abdc728fabef1b51.jpg


And the wear on the KYB is all in the final 1/3rd - putting the spacer at the top looks to me like it’ll have it working in the middle of its range. But I could be wrong.
At least it makes me unconventional, and thats good, right? :unsure:
 
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I’ve been fitting my Illuminas. They’re bz3015 for 240z front, but they’re going in the rear of my 260z.
They’re about 2” shorter than the std inserts To match the lowering springs:

4a46bbd7d455a013db9c2300d6150291.jpg


However, I’m not shortening the tubes, so I’ve made spacers for the top of the Illuminas:

38aea7a821957b48a41f5e55a8595320.jpg


cd38f6bb86897b2af1f542ed2c209826.jpg

The spacers are all snug at each end so I’m optimistic it’ll work well :thumbs:


Hi, wouldn’t the dampening rates be off if you’re using them at the ‘wrong’ end?
 

jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
Hi, wouldn’t the dampening rates be off if you’re using them at the ‘wrong’ end?


I don’t really know - I posted it partly to get feedback on this.

However, in addition to my previous arguments this seems logically the same as what you get when you section the strut by 1.5” and use this damper (except the last 1.5” of travel is unavailable in my case)
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
I don’t really know - I posted it partly to get feedback on this.

Tokico are quite happy to recommend using the inserts at either end of the car, and they have such a wide adjustment range that they can probably be dialled-in regardless (the 'Illumina' is a fairly 'one-rate-fits-all' multi application design anyway) so I would not worry too much about that. Tokico are also quite happy to recommend - and supply - spacers for their inserts, but they always go UNDER the insert - not on top.

jonbills said:
However, in addition to my previous arguments this seems logically the same as what you get when you section the strut by 1.5” and use this damper (except the last 1.5” of travel is unavailable in my case)

I'm just concerned as it seems counter-intuitive to restrict usable damper stroke in order to get round some other problem. And once you put the bump stops on you're not going to have much damper travel left, are you? I'm sure it will work, but it seems far from ideal.
 
Tokico are quite happy to recommend using the inserts at either end of the car, and they have such a wide adjustment range that they can probably be dialled-in regardless (the 'Illumina' is a fairly 'one-rate-fits-all' multi application design anyway) so I would not worry too much about that. Tokico are also quite happy to recommend - and supply - spacers for their inserts, but they always go UNDER the insert - not on top.



I'm just concerned as it seems counter-intuitive to restrict usable damper stroke in order to get round some other problem. And once you put the bump stops on you're not going to have much damper travel left, are you? I'm sure it will work, but it seems far from ideal.


Doing it the way he has, would he be less likely to hit the end of the travel of the damper but a hard stop instead? He’s got say 10% of the stroke unused?

Agree, lovely view.
 

Albrecht

Well-Known Forum User
Doing it the way he has, would he be less likely to hit the end of the travel of the damper but a hard stop instead? He’s got say 10% of the stroke unused?

Hard to say without seeing the whole leg on the car. I presume (hope!) a suitable bump stop is going to be used.

Being gas-charged, the Illumina insert will tend to stay extended whilst 'free' to move, but will squash down a fair bit when it has some load on it. My feeling is that the remaining usable range will be quite short between full bump length (limited by the bump stop) and full rebound (limited by the spacer on top of the insert), and I wonder whether it will lead to a situation where a wheel can come off the ground at full droop a bit earlier than it would with more droop available?

All academic, possibly. Especially if limited to running up and down the tarmac once used by the Mighty Eighth's 92nd Bomber Group.... ;-)
 

jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
Yes I think the way I’ve got it at the mo has maybe 10-15mm less range at full droop, so the wheels will come off the ground that much earlier. Is that a problem? With the KYB at that droop the spring has parted company with the top cup which also seems less than ideal.
In terms of bump, I didn’t have a bump stop before but I’ve put powerflex ones in now (pointy end up). I don’t know whether it will limit travel or if the springs bind first - I didn’t fancy compressing the springs that far to check it out - maybe I should.
It’s not a huge amount of effort to switch it around so If it ends up feeling weird I can certainly try the other way.
 
Hard to say without seeing the whole leg on the car. I presume (hope!) a suitable bump stop is going to be used.

Being gas-charged, the Illumina insert will tend to stay extended whilst 'free' to move, but will squash down a fair bit when it has some load on it. My feeling is that the remaining usable range will be quite short between full bump length (limited by the bump stop) and full rebound (limited by the spacer on top of the insert), and I wonder whether it will lead to a situation where a wheel can come off the ground at full droop a bit earlier than it would with more droop available?

All academic, possibly. Especially if limited to running up and down the tarmac once used by the Mighty Eighth's 92nd Bomber Group.... ;-)

Fair point, I didn't consider if the dampers useable stroke was 100% of whats there.

I've got some bump stops if they are needed/wanted.
 

Jake RAH

Well-Known Forum User
I realised last week that I've not been on the website for ages so thought I better make a post just so ppl know I'm still alive. Fitted new Pirelli tyres all round on the Z about a month ago, WOW what a difference they have made. Compared with what was fitted before these Pirelli's give a firmer ride but also a less harsh ride, in other words I don't feel every tiny bump & pea in the road like I used too, yet the ride is solid & firm. The car handles a lot better. Very happy with them.
Also put the car through another MOT. I didn't do any prep just booked it in and hoped for the best, and it passed :) I got the job of sitting in the cockpit(as I call it) and pressing the pedals, flicking the switches etc which was fine by me. I had a slight panic when water didn't squirt over the screen at first but it got going soon enough to keep the guy doing the mot happy. He looked at my exhaust a little confused(those who know my car will know why). I pointed out to him that it didn't need testing for emissions, he went and checked this out in the office, came back out and carried on with the MOT not mentioning the exhaust again :) Happy dayZ :)
 

johnymd

Club Member
I've not looked at the blue car since someone reversed into me a couple of weeks ago so today I pulled it out of the garage to asses what to do with the damage. Although it's only minor, it has effected a few panels: headlamp cowl, bonnet, bumper and moved the wing. I may get away with straightening the bumper irons, straightening the headlight cowl, bending the bonnet down a bit and moving the wing forward. Ideally just painting the headlight cowl and bonnet. Or do I just leave it as it is?
 

uk66fastback

Club Member
Did they leave a note/were you in it at the time?

I had someone reverse into the back of my 944 with what looked like a bike carrier on the back with the pedal making contact on my hatch, denting it ... grrrrrrrrr

Did they leave a note? Did they &*%^

I'd get it straightened if you can - was the paint broken?
 
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