Help with rear s14 8610 and housings

[tdm racer]

I just had my rear z32 knuckles and rear 8610's installed on saturday, we noticed when we put everything together it seemed a little short compared to the stock setup, we then installed the 8610's on the car. When we lowered the car, the tires tucked in the wheel wells and the car is now slammed.

I'm running koni 8610's, richards housings, ground control sleves with 400# springs. The initial setup was with zero preload ( the spring perch just holding the spring against the top mount with little tension ) the results were the tires being up in the wheel wells. We then tried to preload the spring, with it preloaded about an inch ( yeah I know, doom ) the car is now has about 1/2 inch wheel gap. This doesn't seem right to me... We looked at the car when it's off the ground and noticed that even at full droop there is only about 1 inch wheel gap at the rear fender. ( this is with using z32 non turbo rims and 225/50 r16 tires, essentially stock rolling diameter )

I was tired and had to call it a day... I'll try removing them and taking measurements this week if time permits.

[McCoy]

Sounds like you might have the S13 housings... just taking a guess though.

From Richards picture that he posted in the update thread. Do you have the rear housing that is on the upper left (S13 rear), or the lower left (S14 rear, longer housing).
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3172/2843468150_32e84e0bd4.jpg?v=0

[tdm racer]

I've got the bottom left style body ( but in black )

[McCoy]

That's good, I guess well wait for Richard or PJ to chime in on this thread then. Can you post up your spring rates/lengths also...

[tdm racer]

rear springs 7 inch length, 400lb rate.
front springs 7 inch length, 450lb rate.

[veilside180sx]

rear springs 7 inch length, 400lb rate.
front springs 7 inch length, 450lb rate.

Can you snap a picture for me? It shouldn't be that short.

[tdm racer]

No problem, I'll take some pix this week when I have time to remove the coilovers from the car. I figured the car would use up about 2 inches or so of travel when static, from the cars weight, but man what a suprise :eek:

I'll take pix both on and off the car if possible. :D

[tdm racer]

Here's some pictures.

1st. Rear suspension at current height far view

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/9928/dsc01319oa5.th.jpg (http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01319oa5.jpg)

2nd. Closeup of rear height. (approx. 24.5 inches)
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9021/dsc01320ta2.th.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01320ta2.jpg)

3rd. Closeup of rear height at full droop ( measured from center of wheel to fender )

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/1362/dsc01323aw7.th.jpg (http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01323aw7.jpg)

4th. Full pict of rear coilover removed from car. (approx 26 inches from top of strut adjuster to bottom of mount)

http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/5606/dsc01324th6.th.jpg (http://img61.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01324th6.jpg)

5th. closeup of bottom mount ( reduced area of housing body ) I think if this were at least 2 in or so longer, everything would be ok.

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/9486/dsc01326jo4.th.jpg (http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01326jo4.jpg)

6th. closeup of super compressed spring. ( it's compressed about 1.5 inches ) eibach 7 inch 400 lb spring. It was the only way to raise the car enough to get out of my shop driveway and drive home.

http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/2937/dsc01327ci9.th.jpg (http://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01327ci9.jpg)

7th. closeup of top measurement approx 1.5 inches from top of adjuster and top of top hat.

http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/2281/dsc01328hp3.th.jpg (http://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01328hp3.jpg)

8th. closeup of full measurement from top of top hat and bottom of body/mount.

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3527/dsc01330zo4.th.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc01330zo4.jpg)

So total length is approx 26 inches

Without the spring preloaded to hell, the car is zilvia style tucked...

I know about the ground control coilover, it's mounted on the top of the strut body, not the mounting ring that richard welded to the body, this is because when I ordered them from ground control, they sent me coilover sleves for the normal koni rears. I now have some shorter length ground control sleves for the rear which mount properly. I just didn't have a spring compressor to take them apart and put them on yet.

[veilside180sx]

The inside of the sleeve has a black ring on your current GC sleeves. If you use a 32mm socket and a hammer it'll pop right out.

[tdm racer]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll try that on the rear sleves, and also Ill send you the bodies when you pm me the address.

[chuonthis]

I have those blue housings in the pic. They look about the same length as the black ones next to it. I am running them with the same springs, 7" 400lb. I have about 2 cm of spring droop and could go another 0.5-1.0 cm lower on the threads. With the wheel on, car in the air, I have about the same gap as you do. On the floor, it's right around 62cm to the fender which is the height you have now. Except my springs are drooping 2cm. Sorry, I don't have pics or better measurements.

Maybe you have different shocks? Or maybe you need to take some dead bodies out of the trunk.

[tdm racer]

Hmm, the rear inserts are the koni 8610-1436's

stroke 143mm
max l 500 mm
min l 357 mm
body 290 mm
width 43.5mm
threaded area 50mm

I'm not sure why yours and mine would be different...

Dont worry about the dead bodies... They're swimming with the fishies now :p

[veilside180sx]

8610-1436 and 8611-1257 are identical in all dimensions.

[tdm racer]

Yup, from what I've read, the dimensions are totally identical. I'm assuming at a later date I can change over to 8611's too :)

[veilside180sx]

Yup, from what I've read, the dimensions are totally identical. I'm assuming at a later date I can change over to 8611's too :)

Yup=)

[tdm racer]

Thanks for the help richard, I just got the rear struts boxed and am mailing them out today. I'll send you the tracking #s