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they look like they are in very good condition. If you ever decide to rebuild them, z1 has the rebuild kits cheaper than the dealer. Its one thing that is on my list for my Z
Scrubbed on the brakes and they cleaned up nicely. I will touch them up with the paint tomorrow. Not going to go to crazy with it for obvious reasons. Quick question. It will be at least three or four weeks before I install them. Anything I need to do to then since I washed them. Will the pistons rust or anything with water in the line?
Blew it out with compressed air.
Last edited by Jim Stephens; 01-28-2020 at 03:23 PM.
Long as you didn't get water inside the caliper you will be fine. Remember they are open to the elements on the road
Doubt you can wait that long to install them though hahahah
Long as you didn't get water inside the caliper you will be fine. Remember they are open to the elements on the road
Doubt you can wait that long to install them though hahahah
You are right of course!! Just looking at the pic this morning, thinking, well, maybe I can install the shocks and brakes at the same time. What the heck.
You are right of course!! Just looking at the pic this morning, thinking, well, maybe I can install the shocks and brakes at the same time. What the heck.
You're already in there, kill two birds with one stone.
Installing the shocks. So a few questions. It was quite a challenge getting the old shock out and the new shock in with the clearance of the shock itself. Even with the spring compressed. I did get it get in though. I think I may have made a couple of mistakes on the installation, but hopefully not too late to correct them.
1. The bilstiens do not have the square head for the top bolt to hold the rod from turning when you put it on. I went to the OEM nut which enabled me to get it on far enough to remount the shock and then bolted it on the rest of the way after it was installed. The bilstien nut had a nylon insert which was preventing me from getting the nut on(the rod was turning). OEM nut does not have that. I suppose the tension on the spring allowed me to get the nut on the rest of the way. I then discovered that on the top of the bilstiens there is a hex bolt to hold it from turning. So, I am screwing it down to get it torqued correctly today, do I need to get that hex key in there which enables me to hold the bolt and get it torqued down? It appears that bolt is going to keep on turning until it reaches the end of the threads for the shocks? I will take some pics to illustrate. I stopped at that point before trying to torque it yet.
( Actually, now that I took the pictures it looks like there is plenty of threads at the shock and it should clamp down and torque before I run out a thread I think. It was just bothering me that so much of the bolt was coming out at the top of the shock.)
2. I torqued all the other bolts of the car suspension down. I then saw a video that states I should not torque the bolt down on the bottom part of the shock until the suspension is loaded (tire on the ground). I have not lowered the car yet, so I could easily loosen that bolt. Load up the suspension and then re-torque it at that point. Sound good? This kinda makes sense to me because it would avoid twisting on the shock while the car is on the ground. I have a 4" drive up lift available which most likely will allow me enough room to torque the bolt resting or I could just put my floor jack under suspension and lift it up that way and torque it?
By the way, I compressed the old shock and it never came back out! Sucker is completely dead.
All the "little" details add up ...
Last edited by Jim Stephens; 01-31-2020 at 04:44 AM.
Looks like you're getting it whipped. I was planning on doing my brakes today as well, but its gotten cold and rainy. I would have to shuffle the motorcycles around to make enough room.
Since my son is on home leave for a couple of days, we were planning on doing the brakes and riding.
I got my Federal ss595 in, well 2 of them showed up. The other 2 were lost but they found them after 48 hours? Sorry, FedEx, sounds more like a thief in your warehouse. Was planning on going to an SCCA Test and Tune next Saturday, but now will be mounting the last two tires.
If you need some moral support Jim, you have my number. I'm just hanging around waiting for my son to get back from Recruiting duties at his old High School.
It took us 1.5 hours to replace the lines with stainless steel lines and flush the whole brake system. Pads are brand new, so the ones that I bought will stay on the shelf until the brakes need replacement. Depending on how many events we attend, that might be a couple of years!
2. I torqued all the other bolts of the car suspension down. I then saw a video that states I should not torque the bolt down on the bottom part of the shock until the suspension is loaded (tire on the ground). I have not lowered the car yet, so I could easily loosen that bolt. Load up the suspension and then re-torque it at that point. Sound good? This kinda makes sense to me because it would avoid twisting on the shock while the car is on the ground. I have a 4" drive up lift available which most likely will allow me enough room to torque the bolt resting or I could just put my floor jack under suspension and lift it up that way and torque it?
For what it's worth, it's easier to install the front shocks if you disconnect the ball joint at the upright. This will allow the lower control arm to droop out more and makes getting the shock in a breeze.
The reason for tightening the lower shock bolt when the car is loaded is that the stock lower shock bushing is rubber and works via twisting. If you were to tighten it at full suspension droop it would stress the bushing. Now the twisting of the bushing is relatively small, so it's likely not a huge deal, but I still wait to tighten the lower shock bolt until the car is loaded. I use a jack under the lower control arm to get the load prior to tightening.
Just put on the rear shock. Nice and simple. LOL. My son gets to put on the other two on the right side with me talking him through it. As all things, the second time will go much faster. Not much stopping and thinking about it. Mully, thanks for the explanation on why you lift the wheel up. That makes sense too me so I jacked up each wheel before I torque'd the bolt down.
Done! The right side went much smoother. Still took quite a bit of time, but I was not rushing either. To get the shock out I had to unbolt the shock nut, sway bar nut, and the one nut on the upper control arm. Then I compressed the spring and turn the steering wheel to the right and it all came out pretty well. putting it back was just much of the same thing. Not nearly as difficult as the other side. Few small snags like I could not get the nut to feed back on to the sway bar bolt. Most likely I damaged the bolt threads because it took some banging with a hammer to get it out and also some up and down with the jack underneath to free it . Nothing more satisfying than breaking out the tap and die set measuring the thread count having the right die and just feeding it on and off to clean up the threads. Worked like a champ. I took the car out for a 15 minute ride as it is time for the Superbowl pre-work! I would say it was not a "wow" moment. Would I would say is the car felt more "firm" without being harsh and I definitely could "feel" more of the road. There is small drop off my driveway and if you hit square the front end will rub. Does not happen anymore? Will discuss the ride more when I have more time to try it out, but I am happy with it. Better road feel for sure!!
Last edited by Jim Stephens; 02-02-2020 at 02:10 PM.
Thought I would try to describe the difference of the shocks better this morning as I was pretty beat yesterday and rushing. I would say the big difference is the car went from feeling "numb" to very "detailed". Meaning I could actually feel the road surface better with more sensitivity to it than before which should be the case in a sports car. The ride quality while firmer, was just incrementally so to the point that I really have no complaints about it at all just driving down the road.
Ironically, I have a first generation Hyundai Genesis sedan and it has a very firm suspension and incredible road feel. This of course, is not liked by the luxury car set that bought the car and there have been many complaints about it. As one person quoted, I can literally feel the paint stripes on the road and of course he was not happy about that as he bought a luxury sedan. That pretty accurately describes how it feels with the new shocks. Not rough or jarring, just really good road feel with a bit more firmness.
Best description I can muster up with words. I need some more road time with them for sure, but the rain is coming today in Texas, so the car is in the garage.
Last edited by Jim Stephens; 02-03-2020 at 04:31 PM.
Thought I would try to describe the difference of the shocks better this morning as I was pretty beat yesterday and rushing. I would say the big difference is the car went from feeling "numb" to very "detailed". Meaning I could actually feel the road surface better with more sensitivity to it than before which should be the case in a sports car. The ride quality while firmer, was just incrementally so to the point that I really have no complaints about it at all just driving down the road.
Ironically, I have a first generation Hyundai Genesis sedan and it has a very firm suspension and incredible road feel. This of course, is not liked by the luxury car set that bought the car and there have been many complaints about it. As one person quoted, I can literally feel the paint strips on the road and of course he was not happy about that as he bought a luxury sedan. That pretty accurately describes how it feels with the new shocks. Not rough or jarring, just really good road feel with a bit more firmness.
Best description I can muster up with words. I need some more road time with them for sure, but the rain is coming today in Texas, so the car is in the garage.
Jim,
You will notice the biggest difference the next time that you and your son go out to autocross. The dampers should make it feel much more planted compared to stock (were they blown out and leaking or just worn out?). Not as much as say replacing the front sway bar or getting specific rate springs.
Hope that your son is enjoying y'alls time together. It's time that can never be replaced. I know.
Pretty excited as my son and I will be running in our first autocross this Sunday, so long as the weather holds. Took a bit of work since he is a minor (15) to find the "correct" form and then it required Mom, Dad and son to sign documents in front a of a Notary to get that all checked off and sent back to the National SCCA offices. They were actually quite prompt and easy to to work with as soon as I found the right email address and person who could help me out with that. So, we are signed up, have helmets, magnetic numbers and are basically ready to go. Will take some pics of the day and share them when we get back Sunday evening. Should be a fun and we are both looking forward to it. At some point when we I get the time, I am going to get something going with Drivers Edge and get some track instruction and "rules of the road" worked out for he and I. That may still be some months away yet.
You can see the Allen wrench inside the socket to hold it in place while I torqued the shock bolt down. Pretty awkward, but it got it done. I actually had to cut about 1/2" off the Allen wrench to fit it inside the socket. Obviously this would have been better to do when the shock was out of the car.
Well, waiting...just got a notice that the Autocross event on Sunday is up in the air right now. They went to check the parking lot and found that it as not in good enough condition to run the event. So they cancelled that. They are scrambling though to make it happen at a place called Grandsport Speedway which I have never heard of, but looks like an excellent place to run. Crossing our fingers.
t
Last edited by Jim Stephens; 02-07-2020 at 03:32 PM.
You can see the Allen wrench inside the socket to hold it in place while I torqued the shock bolt down. Pretty awkward, but it got it done. I actually had to cut about 1/2" off the Allen wrench to fit it inside the socket. Obviously this would have been better to do when the shock was out of the car.
Well, waiting...just got a notice that the Autocross event on Sunday is up in the air right now. They went to check the parking lot and found that it as not in good enough condition to run the event. So they cancelled that. They are scrambling though to make it happen at a place called Grandsport Speedway which I have never heard of, but looks like an excellent place to run. Crossing our fingers.
t
Grandsport Speedway is way on the south side. Near Keemah if I remember correctly.
We had a great first Autocross! Too much fun! My son started slow and kicked my butt by the end of our heat. All that go kart racing and video game racing helped I think. He even recovered the car when he got it sideways once. We both agreed we are doing this again. Great people running the race and a huge turnout. Great car watching. From exotics to camary’s.
The car performed great! Got some good advice and on the hunt now for some smaller track wheels and better tires. Lol. Love how well balanced the car is in a turn.
01-28-2020, 11:48 AM
