Learned'd VIII: Less Bewbs, Same Nonsense

[sx moneypit]

Good morning folks!

[WDRacing]

Mornin' Bart.

Anyone have quick cures to quiet down a mild exhaust leak for inspection? Header wrap perhaps?

Yeah they have a few different kinds of exhaust wrap for holes at autozone etc.

[Hijacker]

Mornin' Bart.

Anyone have quick cures to quiet down a mild exhaust leak for inspection? Header wrap perhaps?

Move to a state that doesn't care?

Header wrap will work. If you're super worried about it, there's epoxies you can put on the exhaust to plug the holes. If it's a big hole, you can take some sheet metal, wrap it around the hole and weld it in or use JB weld with some clamps.

So I pressed my bearings in last night.

[frapjap]

FINALLY GOT THEM IN!? What'd you have to do?


Its not exactly a hole. One of my down pipe bolts is very hard to tighten more than it is due to its location right under the downwards bend. Thus, there is a good seal, but not a perfect seal on the downpipe to turbo. Its not offensively loud, and the guy is usually pretty good about older cars, but the noise might not cut it this time. I was hoping that wrap around the seam might help to quiet it down some.

Alternatively, my t/a has a leak at the Y pipe/exhaust manifold but the leak is tough to hear over the rest of the exhaust. I know its there, but otherwise goes unnoticed.

[Hijacker]

I bought a 12 ton press off a guy on craigslist to get them in. The camber bearings are a b**** to get in. The tension rod bushing housing is right in the way, so I had to get creative in positioning the knuckle. I screwed up one getting it in, so I'm contacting SPL about a replacement. The bearing is fine, it's the machined housing it sits in that deformed. I was trying to perch the camber housing on an angled slope, and forced the bearing to go in crooked, which ruined the housing. That's when I started playing with the setup and decided to jury rig the table.

[frapjap]

Bummer that you ruined one. Hopefully SPL comes through for you. The big companies usually do. After all, what do those bushings really cost them?

You've really got me worried about doing my own bushings in the Miata, haha.

[Hijacker]

SPL's awesome. The bearing itself is undamaged, so they're shipping me the shells at cost, which is like $16.

Doing the job is easy. I just didn't see the proper setup last night when i was doing that one bearing. Once i get the new one in, it'll go in easy peasy.

[WDRacing]

If you're just looking for temp jury rig Ray, you can take some aluminum foil and wrap/pack the whole area and it will muffle any leak noise pretty well.

[frapjap]

Glad SPL is making good, that's pretty awesome of them. You certainly get what you pay for.

I've never heard the aluminum foil trick, I'll give it a shot today. WAY cheaper than header wrap considering its in the kitchen.

[WDRacing]

Werd.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I pretty much agree: the poly bushings and adjustable FUCAS I had on my Q were the neediest parts of the car. Though I did appreciate the handling. With the LS, I think I'll stick to sway bars, springs, and shocks if I start fiddling with suspension. Nothing like greasing bushings when it's -10 degrees fahrenheit.

[WDRacing]

I avoid climbing under the car period anymore.

[float_6969]

I think poly has it's places (diff bushings, sub-frame bushings, swaybar endlinks) but I hate them on the suspension arms. I did it to my S14 and I hated it. I ended up pulling them ALL back out and put the Megan Racing rubber bushings back in. WAY better.

[WDRacing]

Better and cheaper is pretty much my favorite combination. Right up there with hot sisters!

[elwesso]

Better and cheaper is pretty much my favorite combination. Right up there with hot sisters!

Especially twins....... Everyone likes the switcheroo....

[Hijacker]

I avoid climbing under the car period anymore.

You should apply that to your approach with men.

I think poly has it's places (diff bushings, sub-frame bushings, swaybar endlinks) but I hate them on the suspension arms. I did it to my S14 and I hated it. I ended up pulling them ALL back out and put the Megan Racing rubber bushings back in. WAY better.

I was gonna go with all Nismo rubber, but Nissan Japan had already taken 3 months to get the toe and shock mount bushing to Concept Z. I just gave up and cancelled the order. My GT-R knuckles are like TT Z32 knuckles, so the toe bush was a HICAS ball joint, which has a slightly larger bore. S chassis bushings just wouldn't work. Otherwise, I would have ordered the MR set instead. But sphericals will do just fine. I kind of feel like I'm clobbering suspension precision if I go with MR rubber for the LCAs though after putting sphericals at every other link hinge.

[frapjap]

Since we're on suspension-

Do any of you guys have experience with KYB AGX shocks? I'm thinking of picking up a set for the Miata. James has a used set on his 240 and they've held up well, but some more opinions would be appreciated, too.

The goal with the suspension is to have it stock or slightly better. There are coil overs and better suspension setups out there, but spending $700-1000+ on a car that isn't worth very much if it were hit doesn't appeal to me, hence the budget suspension questions.

[Hijacker]

I've had AGXs on the vert since '04 and have put near 100k miles on them. They're great dampers, but even with a discount, I spent near $600 on all 4 plus tein s-tech springs. I think I would have preferred a coilover for a few extra hundred more. Performance wise, they handle well, but the progressive springs don't control body roll in light turns enough for my taste. But that's the sacrifice with progressive spring rates. If I were worried about staying in a specific street class in the SCCA, the AGXs would be a good option. I'm in street mod, so anything goes and they just don't quite compete well enough in that class.

[frapjap]

WOW! That's awesome to hear that they have that kind of longevity! Thank you for that confidence.

A lot of reviews seem to favor those shocks when they're on lighter cars vs. heavier chassis like fox bodies and F bodies.
Most acknowledge almost exactly what you said though- they're not awful, one could do better, but they're not so bad that you felt really unhappy with the purchase. However, the money saved in buying them will allow for bushings and possibly a better sway bar. The sale on rockauto is for $367 out the door.

Its really scary to spend more than a grand on coil overs knowing that they may not last more than 10k miles.

Anyone else have experiences?

[Hijacker]

A good set of sway bars would make the AGX/s-tech combo feel a lot more confident.

[danshaz82]

woah, what knuckles are those bart? theyre not the gktech are they?

[Hijacker]

woah, what knuckles are those bart? theyre not the gktech are they?

Factory GT-R knuckles. I had them blasted and hard anodized and pressed in the SPL bearings.

[Ghostdrifter88]

[Hijacker]

Oh yeah. Forgot to mention I'm pretty annoyed with GKTech over my knuckles. They have little to no updates on when they plan on shipping them, and I'm apparently in the last batch to ship. They for some reason felt it was a great idea not to have all the little pieces ready to go, so a lot of us have been waiting for nearly 2 months on them to get the final pieces in to ship the assembled deal.

[Razi]

A ghost from the past!

Oh yeah. Forgot to mention I'm pretty annoyed with GKTech over my knuckles. They have little to no updates on when they plan on shipping them, and I'm apparently in the last batch to ship. They for some reason felt it was a great idea not to have all the little pieces ready to go, so a lot of us have been waiting for nearly 2 months on them to get the final pieces in to ship the assembled deal.

Pretty dumb of them for not planning ahead.
What steering arms did you get for the knuckles?

[danshaz82]

Factory GT-R knuckles. I had them blasted and hard anodized and pressed in the SPL bearings.

they look so good

[frapjap]

Morning fellas. The Trans Am is legal again (especially after finding out that neglecting to get an inspection sticker in MA is a criminal offense!).

Anyone have big plans for the weekend?

[float_6969]

[quote="Hijacker"I kind of feel like I'm clobbering suspension precision if I go with MR rubber for the LCAs though after putting sphericals at every other link hinge.[/quote]
The main issue with the RLCA's is that they're designed to have changes in toe depending on cornering and braking. It's designed to create stability, but it doesn't allow the car to rotate well in a turn. (ie, creates understeer) You can fix this with a poly bushing, but we all know the drawbacks to poly. Then it's down to a spherical, which usually means a new RLCA... which means $$$

Unfortunately, as I've messed with stock, poly, and MR bushings now. I'm realizing the RLCA bushing is the only rubber bushing (in the rear) that has a lot of compliance built into it. The MR bushing reduces this some, but the RLCA really needs a spherical to fix the "safe" design that Nissan gave it.

Unless someone designs a rubber bushing that removes the designed compliance, but I doubt that will happen.

Since we're on suspension-

Do any of you guys have experience with <a class="vglnk" title="Link added by VigLink" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://motors.shop.ebay.com/sch/6000/i. ... </span></a> AGX shocks?

We have a set on the wife's Miata. They've been on there for years with no issues. They're a good stip/street damper.

[Kompresshun]

Mornin' fellas

No big plans here this weekend. The wife is working, so i'll probably spend the weekend trying to figure out why my riding mower keeps chewing up drive belts. I also need to track down a suspension noise in my car as well, so I may try to tackle that this weekend too.

[Hijacker]

A ghost from the past!

Oh yeah. Forgot to mention I'm pretty annoyed with GKTech over my knuckles. They have little to no updates on when they plan on shipping them, and I'm apparently in the last batch to ship. They for some reason felt it was a great idea not to have all the little pieces ready to go, so a lot of us have been waiting for nearly 2 months on them to get the final pieces in to ship the assembled deal.

Pretty dumb of them for not planning ahead.
What steering arms did you get for the knuckles?

Standard steering arms. The others are better for drifting, and I want more control and precision under grip.

Float, the passive steering comes from the links during suspension travel. The RLCA doesn't move for steering. It should only be moving along its coplanar axis of rotation through the inboard bushings. Their compliance does allow a shift under cornering load that throws the camber and steering curves off, but that's a side effect of the rubber compliance.

What I might do is look into designing a press in housing for a set of bearings like SPL uses if I can't find an OTS solution.