Shoeshear's 370z journey/journal

Shoeshear

Finally got around to installing the suspension goodies. And the brake ducts from Z1, but not without a lot of drama.


Went to my buddy's place in Phoenix to knock out the suspension stuff. We figured it shouldn't be too bad, but the brake ducts were a bear. The wheel bearing really didn't want to come off and finally some slide-hammering later, we got them out. After a bunch of swearing, the stuff went in.

The SPL arms had really stiff bearings where it slides into the pinch bolt and was a huge pain.

The rears coilovers, toe arms, and camber arms went in like butter though.
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We button it up and I go to roll away and it feels like the front brake is on. I can hear it drag and it is not rolling. Now it's late, I have work the next day. F***

How she sat before we dug back in.
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Wheels come off and the rotor isn't spinning freely. At first I thought we somehow damaged the caliper piston or install the rotor wrong, but I took it off and found that the Z1 brake ducts were rubbing REALLY hard against the rotor on both sides, circumferentially. Compared to the stock dust plate, the Z1 plate does not have a kick inward and continues on a single plane throughout the plate.

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My work is not one where you can really call out easily and I HAD to get back. So, out came a hammer and I beat the plate into submission. Bent it enough that it cleared the rotor without interfering with the caliper. Honestly, it's one of those situations where I feel like it is an inherent design flaw. I'm not sure if they tested it on OEM rotors, but this was rough. We also realized we installed them on the wrong sides... with the tab facing upward instead of covering the lower ball joint. Either way, it would have rubbed the rotor, but now when I have time, I'm going to have to go back in there and swap sides. Fail.

Of course the problems didn't stop there. We bled the brakes a little bit because disconnected the caliper, but for some reason the brake and ESP light came on. The brakes felt great and at that point, I didn't have the time or energy to deal with it.

Turns out, you guys have had this problem too. Even if the brake fluid reservoir is above min, if the level isn't high enough, the car doesn't like it. I topped it up the following morning and voila, no more problems.

Too bad the car drives like crap now... it's like a monkey aligned it (me).

Now to hunt for an alignment shop that'll do it. Nobody in Tucson does track alignments or corner balancing and I want the shop to corner balance and set a more even ride height (which will be subject to corner balancing to some degree). The rear is too high right now and I think the front will be too low to the track.

About 26.5" fender to ground in the front and 27.5" in the rear.

Not sure if anyone reads this, but any ride height recommendations along with alignment? Seems like 27ish all around would be more reasonable. The front doesn't seem to have a lot of room for travel. Running 12k front and 8k rear on Fortune Auto's recommendations (swift springs, true type rear).

It's a street/track build, but it will need to be somewhat drivable on the road every so often. Based on what I've read, for a mixed duty car, probably somewhere around -2.5 camber in the front with +.03 toe. Probably about -1.5 camber and +.05 toe. I have no idea about caster... I'm not really sure what's in the ballpark. I've seen people throw around +6?? But I have no gauge for where on the spectrum that is.




Still waiting on Z1 for my Enkei wheels (ordered in November...). Idk if anyone else is having Enkei wheel delays, but I may have to cancel my order at this rate.