I'd finally got together all the components to get the suspension sorted out. I had the Racing Beat springs and got a set of four Kayaba shocks fof the sussies. KYB made the OE shocks so these ought to work, they were just uprated (ie gas-assisted) versions of the oil-only originals. Or so I thought...
I took the car to a mechanic mate to fit all this because I'm old and fat and I didn't fancy trying to drop the axle beam out lying on my back under the car on stands. Not when there's a perfectly good two-post hoist five minutes round the corner
The rear all went together top bombing without a hitch, springs and separate shock struts;
The front showed promise that not only would the firmer spring rate do wonders for the handling, but the shorter springs ought to drop it from its 4 x 4 current ride height
It was at this point things went weird. In the first place, the reason for the dodgy and inconsistent brakes was pretty soon uncovered
So ashamed! Y'know, at no point did I think to check the brake pads, I just assumed they needed replacing sooner rather than later and put it on my "to do" list. When I found this, I was just embarassed as much as anything. Shocking.
*ahem* so I procured some lovely Hawk Carboceramic pads toot sweet. These are awesome, the brakes are now more than good enough to overwhelm front grip if you're too heavy on the redal in the wet. Hmmm, dunno if that's such a good thing put like that
You know what I mean though
Not sure why I put that pic up, you know what brake pads look like lol. Anyway, they're very nice brake pads. The front shocks were utterly FUBAR. They literally fell apart and gawped their oil everywhere
This was the second bit of weirdness.. the new ones didn't quite fit. The "instructions" seemed to show a spacer being needed to sit on the top of the shock within the MacPherson strut and lock against the threaded insert that held it all together.
Without this, the shock could move slightly inside the strut, which clearly wasn't desirable. Kayaba were less than no help. At first they refused to talk to the mechanic about it because he wasn't the customer. Then when I rang they refused to talk to me about it because I hadn't bought them direct, but through a third party (on eBay, what's worse). They insisted the thrid party had to send them the items back and then they'd issue replacements. On no account would they just send the missing spacers.
Fortunatelty, the eBay shop were a massive parts supplier with a proper phone number and they couldn't be helpful enough. They got back to mepretty quick to say KYB were now claiming the item was correct and didn't need the spacers. By now I was mad enough to hunt down and kill every single person who worked or had ever worked for KYB at any time through human history, but my mechanic mate managed to calm me enough to try talking to them again.
This time they again claimed the shocks I had were correct, they didn't need the spacer. That was the kit they sold as all the RX-7 replacements. When quoted the part number off the original shocks, they said it didn't exist and they had never manufactured any of that type/part number. Which is odd...
...because they quite clearly have OE KTB part numbers and logos stamped into the struts and shocks. Despite my being in possession of the physical evidence, they continued to claim they'd never made any such thing. By this stage I was incandescent with rage so for my own sanity I told them just to **** right off and walked away before I blew a gasket. We bodged it instead.
Dave put an O-ring in between the shock and the locking collar andthat was exactly enough clearance to stop any movement. It's held up too for a few months, but even if it does degrade it's easy enough to swap a new one in. Would I use KYB for anything, ever again? No. Surprisingly not. Not even as a bad example. Was it worth it?
Hell, yeah! The car is transformed, the wider track, stiffer springs, improved brakes, decent tyres and new shocks all combine to make it an excellent-handling car. It goes where you point it, the sloppy steering is gone, it's taught, responsive and there's none of that sawing away just to go straight. You can persuade the back end out on the throttle, but only when you want rather than at random or when there's an "R" in the month. It's awesome fun to drive, the handling more than makes up for the lack of outright grunt. There's nothing funnier than going round the outside of much newer, more "capable" tackle on a roundabout in my crappy old 80's jalopy ;D
OK, so it's not dropped right on its belly, but I never wanted it to be. It's my daily driver after all. It could go a bit lower, yeah, but that'd mean getting special springs made up and I dunno if i CBA. I'm happy with it as it is. The springs have bedded down a bit already, and may still give a bit more. Here's some pics of it sharing space on the FDUK/Exile stand at the recent Street Nationals at the Pod;
Not bad for a parked outside, daily driven, 28 year old car, I reckon. I hope you enjoyed my humble little build. As I said at the start, it was never going to be an extravagant build but hopefully its an example of what you can do with a bit of light and sensitive alteration. A car that looks near stock but goes, stops, handles, and looks better than it did when new is good as it gets in my book. Thanks for reading up till now, hope you enjoyed it.
I would say there's nothing I want to do now, but of course that'd be a fib. There's always something you can do... I've a spare sunroof I thought I might stickerbomb, and some extra FD seats that look like they ought to fit, and I need to get underneath with the POR 15, and rough plans for an LED rear light conversion, and a different look for the front grille, and....
..well, watch this space
I took the car to a mechanic mate to fit all this because I'm old and fat and I didn't fancy trying to drop the axle beam out lying on my back under the car on stands. Not when there's a perfectly good two-post hoist five minutes round the corner
The rear all went together top bombing without a hitch, springs and separate shock struts;
The front showed promise that not only would the firmer spring rate do wonders for the handling, but the shorter springs ought to drop it from its 4 x 4 current ride height
It was at this point things went weird. In the first place, the reason for the dodgy and inconsistent brakes was pretty soon uncovered
So ashamed! Y'know, at no point did I think to check the brake pads, I just assumed they needed replacing sooner rather than later and put it on my "to do" list. When I found this, I was just embarassed as much as anything. Shocking. *ahem* so I procured some lovely Hawk Carboceramic pads toot sweet. These are awesome, the brakes are now more than good enough to overwhelm front grip if you're too heavy on the redal in the wet. Hmmm, dunno if that's such a good thing put like that
You know what I mean thoughNot sure why I put that pic up, you know what brake pads look like lol. Anyway, they're very nice brake pads. The front shocks were utterly FUBAR. They literally fell apart and gawped their oil everywhere
This was the second bit of weirdness.. the new ones didn't quite fit. The "instructions" seemed to show a spacer being needed to sit on the top of the shock within the MacPherson strut and lock against the threaded insert that held it all together.
Without this, the shock could move slightly inside the strut, which clearly wasn't desirable. Kayaba were less than no help. At first they refused to talk to the mechanic about it because he wasn't the customer. Then when I rang they refused to talk to me about it because I hadn't bought them direct, but through a third party (on eBay, what's worse). They insisted the thrid party had to send them the items back and then they'd issue replacements. On no account would they just send the missing spacers.
Fortunatelty, the eBay shop were a massive parts supplier with a proper phone number and they couldn't be helpful enough. They got back to mepretty quick to say KYB were now claiming the item was correct and didn't need the spacers. By now I was mad enough to hunt down and kill every single person who worked or had ever worked for KYB at any time through human history, but my mechanic mate managed to calm me enough to try talking to them again.
This time they again claimed the shocks I had were correct, they didn't need the spacer. That was the kit they sold as all the RX-7 replacements. When quoted the part number off the original shocks, they said it didn't exist and they had never manufactured any of that type/part number. Which is odd...
...because they quite clearly have OE KTB part numbers and logos stamped into the struts and shocks. Despite my being in possession of the physical evidence, they continued to claim they'd never made any such thing. By this stage I was incandescent with rage so for my own sanity I told them just to **** right off and walked away before I blew a gasket. We bodged it instead.
Dave put an O-ring in between the shock and the locking collar andthat was exactly enough clearance to stop any movement. It's held up too for a few months, but even if it does degrade it's easy enough to swap a new one in. Would I use KYB for anything, ever again? No. Surprisingly not. Not even as a bad example. Was it worth it?
Hell, yeah! The car is transformed, the wider track, stiffer springs, improved brakes, decent tyres and new shocks all combine to make it an excellent-handling car. It goes where you point it, the sloppy steering is gone, it's taught, responsive and there's none of that sawing away just to go straight. You can persuade the back end out on the throttle, but only when you want rather than at random or when there's an "R" in the month. It's awesome fun to drive, the handling more than makes up for the lack of outright grunt. There's nothing funnier than going round the outside of much newer, more "capable" tackle on a roundabout in my crappy old 80's jalopy ;D
OK, so it's not dropped right on its belly, but I never wanted it to be. It's my daily driver after all. It could go a bit lower, yeah, but that'd mean getting special springs made up and I dunno if i CBA. I'm happy with it as it is. The springs have bedded down a bit already, and may still give a bit more. Here's some pics of it sharing space on the FDUK/Exile stand at the recent Street Nationals at the Pod;
Not bad for a parked outside, daily driven, 28 year old car, I reckon. I hope you enjoyed my humble little build. As I said at the start, it was never going to be an extravagant build but hopefully its an example of what you can do with a bit of light and sensitive alteration. A car that looks near stock but goes, stops, handles, and looks better than it did when new is good as it gets in my book. Thanks for reading up till now, hope you enjoyed it.
I would say there's nothing I want to do now, but of course that'd be a fib. There's always something you can do... I've a spare sunroof I thought I might stickerbomb, and some extra FD seats that look like they ought to fit, and I need to get underneath with the POR 15, and rough plans for an LED rear light conversion, and a different look for the front grille, and....
..well, watch this space
, James Willday only just go there this year after about a decade. Is the plan to enter the J Drag Series with it? 
Still, we didn't get like four feet of water in the house like some poor souls so I figure we were lucky really. It only took a couple of days for the electrics to dry out enough to get power back 
