yeah you did!!!
calibrator, do me a favour please.
i'm not sure if you still have an s14 in your shop, but if you do, please could you compare the tie rods and tie rod ends between the s13 and the s14!!!
it would be a great help.
i have a feeling the s14 tie rod end has either, a greater length (resulting in a shorter tie rod) or has a greater diameter (and therefore wont fit on the outer tie rod. or it has both of those attributes!
many thanks in advance!!!
i've found out that some of the guys in the porsche 924 challenge are using spherical bearings/rose joints as replacements for their tie rod ends, because they keep bending or breaking them.
they've apparently sourced them through bearing man.
i will go check if they can supply suitable replacements for our 200sx's.
also, i've found out that there may be toyota hilux tie rods that are much stronger that would be replacements for the s14's. and these are much cheaper than both the nissan and tein tie rods.
if i can find these elusive tie rods and find suitable rose joints to replace the tie rod ends, we may just be able to develop a tie rod and tie rod end upgrade that will be reasonably affordable.
will let you know!
Just keep in mind that the weakest link will always break (bend) 1st. So if you beef up the tie rod, what is the next weakest link. Will the next link give you a warning or will it kill you 1st time! 😢
i think i found out why i bent the tie rods in the first place.
got this from a skyline club website http://wiki.r31skylineclub.com/index.php?title=S13_Suspension_Conversion
One issue I might raise... my friend has that setup on his aussie 31 and went to get a wheel alignment the other day. The guy told him that the tie rod ball joints were at absolute maximum tilt because the car is so low (perfect stance imo!) and its really dangerous...
Picture this: with the steering rack sitting level, the tie rods are pointing upwards towards the steering arms. then in order for the ball joint to go into the steering knuckle they have to be aimed outwards as far as possible. This becomes more extreme as the suspension compresses (i.e. over a bump). seeing as the ball joints are at max to start with, when it compresses there's no movement left so all there is to do is bend stuff... - Decs
my car is very low and this could well be the problem. will have to check it out tonight!
i'm really not sure if you guys care or not, but i keep finding more stuff, so i will just keep posting more:
here's a really good picture that explains all the terminology and shows how the steering spacers add more steering angle, as well as how you can adjust for bumpsteer, especially in cars that are heavily lowered.
i'm not sure that the pic is from an s13/s14 but it carries the same principles!
my car is very low and this could well be the problem.
You cant just lower a car and expect everything to be hunky doory. It messes up the entire suspension geometry, so all you doing is lowering the center of gravity but messing up every other setting. If you want to lower a car get all the supporting mods to get the handling 100%. Maybe put it on a "suspension dyno" and get it set up properly.
Gary57 wrote:
my car is very low and this could well be the problem.
You cant just lower a car and expect everything to be hunky doory. It messes up the entire suspension geometry, so all you doing is lowering the center of gravity but messing up every other setting. If you want to lower a car get all the supporting mods to get the handling 100%. Maybe put it on a "suspension dyno" and get it set up properly.
thanks for that insightful piece of information gary. perhaps you could recommend a good suspension dyno specialist in joburg?
(edit) also, i am posting this information here for the benefit of other sx owners, specially those who will be putting their cars on a racetrack.
thanks for that insightful piece of information gary. perhaps you could recommend a good suspension dyno specialist in joburg?
(edit) also, i am posting this information here for the benefit of other sx owners, specially those who will be putting their cars on a racetrack.
Ill try find out where their is a suspension dyno, know there are a few.
What I was saying is lowering the car doesnt nessesarily make your car handle better, it will lower the center of gravity which will improve the cornering but there might be better ways of improving the handling without messing up the geometry of the car.
Anyway take it as you wish, just trying to help.
Gary57 wrote:
thanks for that insightful piece of information gary. perhaps you could recommend a good suspension dyno specialist in joburg?
(edit) also, i am posting this information here for the benefit of other sx owners, specially those who will be putting their cars on a racetrack.
Ill try find out where their is a suspension dyno, know there are a few.
What I was saying is lowering the car doesnt nessesarily make your car handle better, it will lower the center of gravity which will improve the cornering but there might be better ways of improving the handling without messing up the geometry of the car.
Anyway take it as you wish, just trying to help.
yeah i know that now, didnt know it at the time of changing the ride height. here's an excellent link to some more info, but its hectic reading.
http://texasnissans.com/tx/forums/showpost.php?p=33708&postcount=3
actually, this link is better, cos it regards all points of suspension tuning!
http://texasnissans.com/tx/forums/showthread.php?s=66e727ea9d03f8f7010c6c32468268fa&t=3691
ok, found a solution for the standard fitment of s13 tie rods.
regarding the fixing of the bump steer problem - found a solution available locally, but its not as cheap as i thought it would be, and requires modification of the wheel spindle!!!
anyways, check out the 200sx.za.net website for the part numbers soon, and check out the articles section for an tie rod and ends installation write-up.
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