370Z suspension and brake upgrades with Tristan75 and BenMiata

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Well, after selling most of my Miata parts, lucking into killer deals with outgoing Z owners and with the invaluable help of Jean (Tristan) and Ben from Spain, I was able to do some Z upgrades. This is just an entertainment thread because we were too busy to take a lot of step-by-step photos with the intent of doing technical write ups.

I would like to start off with a huge thank-you to those two guys who dedicated their valuable time in the middle of a tight schedule until 2am cranking bolts until everything was done. They're also starting a fabrication business in Spain called Ad Hoc Garage and if their work here was any indication of their talent and perseverance, it's going to be a success. http://www.adhocgarage.com/

First the goodies. I wish I had taken a lot more individual pictures of everything because the comparison to Miata parts is pretty funny. The links are much beefier, the massive brakes make the Miata's look like paper plates and the sway bars look like they're made for a Humvee.

We got all the parts on or near the table so we could see what we were up against: TWM short shift kit, Whiteline anti roll bars, Whiteline rear links, Whiteline sway bar lateral locks, SPL front links, Kinetix adjustable upper control arms for the front, adjustable camber bars and adjustable toe bars for the rear (the Z uses separate "toe" bars to push or pull for toe adjustment) all with poly bushings, 355mm drilled and slotted rotors with new pads, Swift Spec-R performance springs (higher rate and 1" drop) and finally some 20mm H&R Trak+ magnesium spacers for wider stance.

Not pictured: Tylenol.




None of us had ever worked on a Z before so I spent the night before studying threads and manuals in order to get an idea. Fortunately, most of this stuff was pretty obvious and if you can work on a Miata, you can work on a Z.

First a preliminary shot of the stance which shows the wheels appearing "sunk" in too much for my taste, oh and a nice view of my cool low-profile jack.





Probably note the best angle but the Z's stock height a little too much for me too

[— Agent☣Orange —]

First challenge was getting the beast up on stands. You wouldn't believe it but I had to suddenly look up jacking points and safe locations for the stands. That took a little while as Jean loosened some rear lugs. Determined that the center jack point for the rear is the differential.


The electric driver was pretty much worthless so had to use manual tools instead. Good reason to invest in a big compressor and air tools.


Obviously we decided to tackle the rear first so we crawled underneath to see what would be involved


Okay, Ben thinks we're all set to start


The rear involved replacing the sway bar, installing new springs and brake rotors and spacers

[— Agent☣Orange —]

There are two kinds of spacers, those that bolt on to the hub (DRM) and those that use longer studs (DRS). The Z crowd refers to these types as DRM and DRS but I still have to figure out what those mean. ;) Since I don't trust the bolt-on types, I went with the stud-replacement version and that of course mean removing the stock studs and replacing them with longer ones.

After removing the brake rotors, Ben is hammering out the old studs. You can see the Z uses both disc and drum type brakes in the rear. The skinny drum brake pads in the picture are for emergency/parking braking


Then one by one the new studs are pulled through


Using an old, discardable socket and manually pulling it into place, Ben was careful to get the lug splines aligned before pulling. Otherwise, the stud may end up spinning during wheel mounting and that is a whole different nightmare


New studs in place and reassembling the drum brake pads

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Next was installing the new rotors and pads. The drum bakes had to be adjusted in so that the rotor can slide on


Success and then a test of the spacer



This is were is gets a little tricky because once the rotors are on, I had to adjust the ebrake on each rotor via a tiny access hole and a screw driver. This is also the procedure for adjusting the ebrake handle in the cabin once the adjustment bolt on the handle is maxed out.

We were really impressed that many of the suspension components were forged aluminum compared to stamped steel. You can see Ben's left hand is holding the rear upper control arm. Unlike the front, the camber movement on the rear articulates on the upper control arm while the adjustment is made via the lower camber "bar."

Since my brake handle was annoyingly in the almost vertical position when applied, I spent a lot of time back and forth between the rotors and the ebrake handle. I had to make sure there I adjusted the drums so I could feel slight resistance and then back off one click. So after several trips between cabin and each rotor fine tuning, the brakes were perfect and the ebrake handle only goes up to the first click in near horizontal position before the ebrakes are applied. You may remember the Miata uses a similar process but with the hidden hex bolt in each caliper.


Since the car is getting new Swift performance springs with a bit of a drop, the camber and toe are affected of course. Many people with Swifts report that they can just barely get their camber within spec with new camber bolts but it's still iffy. If this car were set up for track only, I wouldn't mind 5 degrees of camber but with tires costing $250 a piece, I thought it better to go with the better option and get fully adjustable camber arms instead. Besides, I got everything for nearly pennies from a former Z guy so why the hell not?

The stock camber arm is a fixed-length piece ending where the screwdriver is. Right above it, you can see the toe arm.


Any time there are this many changes on a suspension, an alignment is absolutely mandatory but I need to buy a little time to let the parts settle, especially the springs before an expensive alignment. So the thing to do is set up all the new parts approximately where the old ones were set at which is really just a matter of guessing and holding old and new parts together to get them eyeball right. First though, we marked the current camber bolt setting and you can see the skinny stock sway bar is already detached.


Camber arm is dropped although I forget what the hammer was for.


Remember, we're also removing everything else at once so we can get the new parts in so I'm not sure what order I should put the pictures in but basically, the more we worked, the more intuitive it became what had to be removed first.




What you're looking at: the stock camber arm is gone and you can clearly see the toe arm remaining. The Z uses a separate mount for the spring which is the big aluminum "tub" in the upper left. This would come in very handy later. Finally, dangling down on a hook is the rear brake caliper. Since this is the Sport model Z, it uses larger brake rotors and performance aluminum calipers like Wilwood. It was amazing how little it weighs. The diagonal piece handing down is part of an elaborate bracing system. This thing is so well braced, it's hard to imagine any aftermarket structural improvements over stock here.


We did run into one snag with the hardware. The Kinetix toe arms reuse the stock mounting bolt which ended up to be too short as in they'd only go in about two threads. Don't know why they didn't figure this out and include longer bolts but I'm not going to risk losing a toe arm at highway speeds as that's the primary component that keeps the wheel pointed straight.

So, a trip to Ace and we got longer bolts, too long in fact but that's all they had so I had to cut them down a little


Then Ben stepped in and filed new tapers and beginning threads

[— Agent☣Orange —]

We finally tackled the rear sway bar and adjustable links and this is where there was a stark difference with the Miata. For instance, swapping the rear springs on a Z is super easy considering you don't even have to remove the shock, just lift, remove the spring cradle bolt and pull the spring out with one hand.

However, the sway bar requires dropping both bracing and exhaust to get to it. We didn't have to remove the exhaust, just drop it.




This is where I wish I had taken more pictures of the new Whiteline sway and adjustable links because we too busy and my hands too dirty to keep taking pictures but when I go for the alignment, I'll take more extensive pictures of the suspension, bracing and all the upgrades and post them here.

Sway bar in and brackets lubed, it was time for the rest of the goodies


Ben probably wondering how he traveled thousands of miles for a car and air show but somehow ended up working under some stranger's car. ;)


Miata is always smiling


Already a long day with errands and a parts run, we got a late start. Good news, cooler weather. Bad news, mosquitos.


Thought this was a cool shot of Ben

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Finally everything is in place which you can see the camber arm and sway bar in the upper part of the photo. Now it's just reattaching the exhaust and double checking everything

[— Agent☣Orange —]

INTERMISSION

We should have had the front end halfway disassembled by this point but spent the day on some other business before getting another late start. Ben had to ship a propeller for his airplane and Jean had to ship a ton of parts I'd been holding for him so we spent the day all over town looking for shipping materials and then packing but finally, mission accomplished!







BTW, these photos don't even detail the nightmare of a box Jean had to ship! With the Mazdaspeed spoiler, the box was too big and would cost $1200 to ship. After he folded the spoiler in half (which hurt to watch!), the box cost $200 to ship. Go figure.


INTERMISSION OVER ;) BACK TO WORK

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Okay, the day passed taking care of errands and now it's dark so after a quick dinner it was time to get back to it. Really, I was already tired from the previous day's work and Miatapalooza the day before and I would have been happy enough just getting front up on stands and calling it a night but somehow these guys don't know what quitting means.

There's nothing better than getting help working on a car, especially from folks this good that I was learning more and more. Talk about ingenuity. Every time there was an obstacle, Ben being a formal mechanical engineer always found a solution or fabricated a took for the job. Tristan (Jean) also has the ability to look at something first and figure out how to proceed.

Since I removed the center console was out for the ebrake assembly and while the car lifted, it was the best time to install the TWM short shifter.


While Ben and I cinched up the back end, Jean was already in the cabin getting the short shifter installed (The Z requires disassembly both on the shifter turret as well as linkage beneath the car).


Quick consultation with the instructions about the reverse lock out


Then well into the night, we got the front end up and started disassembly

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Here's a look at the front suspension, once again very nice aluminum parts


So while the back was easy to swap springs, the front are typical spring-compressing nightmares


Just ask Ben


Camber adjustable upper control arm installed

[— Agent☣Orange —]

With the adjustable upper control arm installed, it was time to start reassembling



Fitting the new rotors





I was beneath the car working on the sway bar and SPL adjustable links. I wish I had done a comparison photo with Miata links because the SPLs are twice the size!



On a Miata, the links just mount to the bar and frame. On the Z, the upper part of the links (thick part) double as the lower connection point of the shock, very cool engineering. Of course, we needed the help of the floor jack to lift everything up a little in order to get the link in.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

As you can imagine, there were many, many more steps involved but we were on auto pilot, not really talking much and getting one thing done after another until there was nothing left. So about 2am, we lowered the car off the jacks, admired the work and sadly parted ways.




The guys had to get up in a few hours and go back to Lakeland for the big air show that day and then down to Miami for their flight back to Spain. If there were a triathlon for driving across the state three times, working on a car until the early morning hours and packing and shipping tons of stuff, they would be wearing gold medals.

So, I'm ending this thread like it began: with a huge thank-you to Ben and Jean for all their help regardless of the time. It would have taken me a month by myself to do what we all got done in a couple nights.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Amazing!

I feel exhausted and I didn't even work on the car.

[kulluminati777]

Amazing!

I feel exhausted and I didn't even work on the car.

hahaha i know right. Great work. The yellow is sooooo hawt!! I wish my car had brand new great parts like this