Solid Top Mounts ?

S

samuri-240

Well-Known Forum User
Will be fitting the Arizona Z coilover conversion to my Z shortly but not so sure about fitting the whole kit though as fitting of the camber plates involves chopping the strut towers & doing away with the top rubber mountings, would this make a road car too harsh ? have had different feedback from people I have spoken to but most say don't fit them. Any comments are most welcome. Thanks.
 
Depends on whether you're going for ultimate handling. I take the view ( and others disagree) that solid top mounts put extra stress on the turrets although the shocks themselves absorb much of this themselves. This is probably not so critical on a road car but in a rally environment I'm not so sure.
 
i think for your aplication if u don't need to use the solid mounts then leave them in the box as u will feel every bump on the road surface and remember there wil be no road/ wheel noise insulation, do u have to use the solid top mounts to facilitate the use of the adjustable camber plates ?
 
Gwyn - you are going to get more road noise from a combination of vibration & harshness coming into the Bodyshell from the solid strut tops, that's for sure.
However, It depends on how long you intend to drive the Z at any one time & how much you can put up with it.
If you had them on an ordinary Road Car & drove it for a few hours every day, it would become very obtrusive, but if, as most of us, you want to take it for an invigorating blast at weekends, then you may like the 'rawness' of that sort of experience.

And isn't that what having a Samuri is all about ?
 
tel240z said:
i think for your aplication if u don't need to use the solid mounts then leave them in the box as u will feel every bump on the road surface and remember there wil be no road/ wheel noise insulation, do u have to use the solid top mounts to facilitate the use of the adjustable camber plates ?
Click to expand...

The adj camber top mounts are provided with the kit no provision for rubber top mount, if you look on Arizona Z .com you can see the kit & the instalation process, I could modify the original top mounts to suit but is this doing half a job ? as on a lowered car the camber changes quite alot, hence the reason I have decided to invest in the set up :eek: Getting so many different responses now, some say don't do it others say its not a daily driver so it'll be ok :confused: Has anyone got the whole kit fitted ? I need to be sure before butchering my rust free 38 yr old shell :eek:
 
rallymanDP said:
Gwyn - you are going to get more road noise from a combination of vibration & harshness coming into the Bodyshell from the solid strut tops, that's for sure.
However, It depends on how long you intend to drive the Z at any one time & how much you can put up with it.
If you had them on an ordinary Road Car & drove it for a few hours every day, it would become very obtrusive, but if, as most of us, you want to take it for an invigorating blast at weekends, then you may like the 'rawness' of that sort of experience.

And isn't that what having a Samuri is all about ?
Click to expand...

Thanks Duncan I'll add you to my go for it list :D You may have swayed my thoughts now to go for it with your comments, just still abit worried about how harsh the ride will be cos as I say once its done its done no going back :confused:
 
samuri-240 said:
The adj camber top mounts are provided with the kit no provision for rubber top mount, if you look on Arizona Z .com you can see the kit & the instalation process, I could modify the original top mounts to suit but is this doing half a job ? as on a lowered car the camber changes quite alot, hence the reason I have decided to invest in the set up :eek: Getting so many different responses now, some say don't do it others say its not a daily driver so it'll be ok :confused: Has anyone got the whole kit fitted ? I need to be sure before butchering my rust free 38 yr old shell :eek:
Click to expand...
Well in that case u need to fit the whole kit then as u will allways wonder, try to get in your mind that if u do a nice clean job of the top mounts it will look like a very proffesional mod
 
It would be good to see some pictures of the components.

I still have rubber top mounts and would like to keep them but still be able to get more negative camber. I have 'slotted' my strut towers by 0.5 " already.

I can understand your concern, especially as you have a valuable shell.
 
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rallymanDP said:
Gwyn - you are going to get more road noise from a combination of vibration & harshness coming into the Bodyshell from the solid strut tops, that's for sure.
However, It depends on how long you intend to drive the Z at any one time & how much you can put up with it.
If you had them on an ordinary Road Car & drove it for a few hours every day, it would become very obtrusive, but if, as most of us, you want to take it for an invigorating blast at weekends, then you may like the 'rawness' of that sort of experience.

And isn't that what having a Samuri is all about ?
Click to expand...

Agree on use/harshness.
However without the adjustable mount you will probably not be able to optimise your camber setting when you change the ride height.
It is an integral part of the kit IMO, and should be used.
It might be possible to inset a thin sheet of vinyl/polypropoline type material to help with noise /shock transmission.
I also agree with Nigel that with hard Rally use you are in danger of sending the stress elsewhere in the shell.
Welded in properly/neatly the tops will just be an integral paert of the shell.
Im guessing that once its all done and fully aligned the car will handle as well as many modern sports cars.
You will probably need some bump steer spacers as well;)
 
Rob Gaskin said:
It would be good to see some pictures of the components.

I still have rubber top mounts and would like to keep them but still be able to get more negative camber. I have 'slotted' my strut towers by 0.5 " already. Why do you have to remove the rubber mounts, do the camber kits use different spacing of the strut mounting bolts?

I can understand your concern, especially as you have a valuable shell.
Click to expand...

Cheers for that Rob. If you go on the Arizona Z site you will what is involved with this set up. I am not happy about chopping my Z about as it is the best one I've ever owned its never had a welding torch near it apart from the rhd conversion every time I look at it its hard to believe its 38 yr old.
 
pmac said:
Agree on use/harshness.
However without the adjustable mount you will probably not be able to optimise your camber setting when you change the ride height.
It is an integral part of the kit IMO, and should be used.
It might be possible to inset a thin sheet of vinyl/polypropoline type material to help with noise /shock transmission.
I also agree with Nigel that with hard Rally use you are in danger of sending the stress elsewhere in the shell.
Welded in properly/neatly the tops will just be an integral paert of the shell.
Im guessing that once its all done and fully aligned the car will handle as well as many modern sports cars.
You will probably need some bump steer spacers as well;)
Click to expand...

Cheers Pete I guess that is the final comment, I will have to go for it, just what I was thinking if the whole kit is not fitted then your losing the beniefits of it. Suppose it will be a much easier task than cutting mint arches out to to fit ZG flares though :eek:
 
I have yet to go down this route, but would think it would be best to fit the whole kit, this will as Pmac said to give you optimum adjustments. go for it!!
 
Can you fit the coilovers without the camber kit and see how it is? At least then you will know you are doing the right thing.
 
Rob Gaskin said:
Can you fit the coilovers without the camber kit and see how it is? At least then you will know you are doing the right thing.
Click to expand...

Yes that would be possible, but the kit is designed to lower a car properly retaining the correct camber & also the shocks will not be working on their last one or two inches of travel. Just need someone to come along who experiinced solid top mounts fitted to a road car or even better this kit fitted to their Z, then I will know to go ahead or not, it sounds very tempting at the mo. Would like to thank you all for the input so far, this is a major decission because my shell is so original & rust free.
 
I've got adjustable camber plates fitted to my car and it handles great. Ride did not seem to noisey or harsh either.
 
Thanks Darren Its looking like I'll be fitting the whole kit now, don't see the point in doing half a job, my minds made up I think.
 
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