before:


after:


Over this weekend had pleasure meeting with Pat(Ivolley) and his famous 365k 95 5 speed maxima . We installed weapon R coilovers with KYB AGX struts - the install was pretty straight forward but for person like me and Pat who never seen those things put together and installed it was quite a workout. If you thinking about installing coilovers - do reserch on installation info before
because weapon R instructions are worthless !!!
the front KYB AGX needs to be modified in order to accomodate the coilover sleeve - just grind the strut crovn all around as shown here:


so the sleeve can fitted over strut body as shown here:

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...348507&page=18




The coilover setup to me suprise rode pretty darn good - less stiffnes than my Sprint springs while back, and yes - Pat's "monster" max chirps in 2nd and third gear as well !!!

BTW - swapping drive axles is 10 minutes job now- with proper tools

Nick

 

360,000 miles?

 

i hope my max goes that far...

 

How low did you drop it? How much lower can you go?

Thanks,
Mike

 

it's Pat's(ivolley) 95 SE 5speed - the car runs great and chirps 2nd and 3rd with stock y-pipe !!!

after driving his 5speed , my auto felt so heavy and sluggish

i think he can go lower than that - btw he's on 15" rims .

Nick.

 

I also have a 5-speed SE, with 15" sawblades. My car easily chirps 1st and second, stock exhaust pipe and air intake. The car is light-footed because of the stock wheels. Going to 16" might yield to negligable power loss but going to 17" and up will be very noticeable. I'd love to go to at least 17" wheels but I'd hate the loss of power, unless I pay top dollar on some really light racing wheels. Maybe next year.

Just to clarify something, the weapon R coilover is basically a sleeve with a threaded body that slips over the existing strut with an adjustment and locking rings, is that correct? What's the price difference between this and a real coilover/strut setup?

 

dam thats a real dramatic drop! looks good, dam 365K miles, crazy dude, is that on the stock motor?

 

Nick,

Thanks for all your help I have assisted in a previous spring install but the coilovers are totally different. I have not measured the drop but I would say it is slightly over 2 inches. The pics were taken immediately after the install I checked this morning and it appears they have settled some. As Nick mentioned we replaced the driver side shaft and I can tell the difference. We ran into a few obstacles but we worked through them Nick is a great guy, he sold me the KYBs and helped me install them. As far as the car I am truly amazed everytime I drive it. As I have posted before before it feels just as healthy as my previous VQ (97SE 5sp 70K miles) honestly stronger. I could rarely break the tires loose while cruising in first. With the car if I am going about 10-15 mph and step on the tires will spin. With the 97 with intake/Y/ amd centerforce dual friciton clutch I never chirped 3rd. I chirped third in this car last week only mods intake and nuespeed Muffler. I am looking forward to adding the Y as far as Nick car I don't know about the sluggish part but you can't beat a BLK/BLK fully loaded Max, this is the first Max I have seen with the heated seats and auto climate control. Thanks again BM2

2DaMax,
YOu are correct with the description, the only difference is these are dual springs the upper spring is actually thinner than the lower (main spring) when the car is lower the smaller spring (the one on top) is completey compressed. My understanding is the dual springs works better than just a single spring doing double duty (1) lowering the car and (2) supporting the car.

95emeraldgxe,
Yes this is the original motor

 

365k!!!

 

Nick - Whats wrong with our instructions? tell me so maybe i can try to fix them more so they become more installer friendly. Also where you said grind down, those were to be taken off by cutting the 3 little welds and take that washer off and it would be ok (MAKE SURE YOU DONT CUT THE SHOCK HOUSING)

Pat - The Dual Set-up is used best when road racing because you have a coilover kit that has shorter spring so the helper spring(FLATSPRING) expands when body lifts accours and helps to keep the suspension in the same place to create the correcrt geometry for same suspension reaction every time.

 

Another question about the +2" drop. Won't it dramatically change the camber which in turn would wear out the tires unevenly?

 

2DaMax - As with any lowering kit you would expect that so a camber kit would be needed

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chris@WeaponR
[B]Nick - Whats wrong with our instructions? tell me so maybe i can try to fix them more so they become more installer friendly. Also where you said grind down, those were to be taken off by cutting the 3 little welds and take that washer off and it would be ok (MAKE SURE YOU DONT CUT THE SHOCK HOUSING)

Ok - the instructions were plain horrible and didn't make any sense to me and Pat and couple of other guys that work in the hobby shop here ( btw - them guys here know what they are doing )

don't get me wrong - you have pretty good product - just needs better installation instructions :

here's whats wrong :

-the paper was hard to read - print quality needs some work
-the instructions spend to much time instructing on how to take the stock strut assembly from the vehicle, and not enough on how to put the coilover assembly together.
-your instructions assume that " STOCK " struts are used - hence the part in which hamer and chisel is used to knock off the crown from the stock strut. The KYB AGX use screw on type crown which needs to be grinded down.
-a pic or drawing of assembled coilover set-up would make the job million times easier.


" good instructions assume that the installer never done or seen it before"

Nick

 

I installed the Weapon R / KYB AGX combo 15 months ago before most Maxima geeks had heard about these coilovers.

I had the same trouble with the directions. It took a lot of trial and error to get the rear put together right. Accurate illustrations of both the front and rear setups mounted to the strut/shock would have been helpful.

The drop changes the front camber dramatically. I corrected this with a set of Ingalls 3542PR FastCam bolts, which run about $35. http://www.ingallseng.com/parts/3542PR.htm Well worth the price, when you consider that I wore the inner side of a brand new set of 18" tires almost bald in just 5000 miles before I installed the camber bolts.

On a warm day, the front sometimes makes creaking/cruncking sounds when I turn the wheel. It doesn't happen when the weather is cool. Have you noticed similar symptoms? It's a little annoying, but the sexy drop is well worth it.

I have a 0 finger wheel gap in front and 1 fat finger in the back. The front can go a bit lower, but the rear is as low as it can go without removing the flat helper springs (very bad idea; I tried it once, and every time I went over a little bump, the rear of the car would come crashing down so hard that my CD player would skip).


(this picture was taken with a heavy load in the trunk to make the rear sit a little lower)

 

Well a mild drop has negligible effects on tire wear. But a drop such as Nick's is something to pay special attention too. A camber kit is a definite must on that.

 

Lowering is lowering and it still has a camber change so you always need a camber kit thats all im sayin

 

Spining tires from a roll and chirping into gears is more a factor of tires than it is power. If I put my stock 42lb 15s back on, I can easily spin the tires from any sort of roll in 1st and get dramatic spin into 2nd. With my 41lb 17s, I can't get any spin from a roll in 1st and rarely do I chirp 2nd. There's definately more inertial weight and drag from the bigger rims and tires, but most of the reason I don't have traction problems is because I have W-rated rubber instead of H-rated rubber.

As for a 365K VQ, that's simply amazing.


Dave

 

Exactly the point I was trying to make when I posted this earlier: "I also have a 5-speed SE, with 15" sawblades. My car easily chirps 1st and second, stock exhaust pipe and air intake. The car is light-footed because of the stock wheels. Going to 16" might yield to negligable power loss but going to 17" and up will be very noticeable. "

 

i don't think you had to grind that down
im on stock shocks and ground controls
the sleeves on my ground controls don't fit over that crown either...but you can take off the crown, insert the sleeve, and put the crown back on...

im not sure if the kyb's are like that...but they should be

 

Exactly. The 97SE had 16s whereas the 95 had 15s. The VQ had an easier time pushing the 15s.

Anyhow, the 365K miles, it makes me much proud to be a VQ fan

ivolley, you should talk to Nissan corporate about your car. Maybe they'll take it off your hands and give you a 2004 Max in appreciation so they can use your 95 as a wonderful example of VQ durability, power and longevity.

Jeez, 3 hundred and sixty five thousand miles! What did you do, drive to the moon and back?

DW

 

kyb is different

 

I definitely agree on that...use to have the stock 15's with MV4s...could pop 1st 2nd or 3rd, and was in the car with my cousin by marriage when he ripped 4th??????

but now that I have the dunlop sports on its very rare that the tires make any noise at all...even when I am just trying to burn them up...

 

Questions

How the heck did you run up 365k miles?


How many clutches/transmissions later was this?

How would you describe your driving style?


What were the top/most expensive repairs during the time you owned it?


congrats

I thought i had a lot

 

Man! I sure hope I don't see you in Stone Mountain in this max.

 

My turn to comment. Weapon R's main competitor for this product is Ground Control. Weapon R should ride softer in day to day driving due to the "helper spring", which's a spring with softer/lower springrate. Think of progresive springrate springs (almost all aftermarket springs for us are progressive)

Since u got an extra set of springs, you're likely to squeek more. Ground controls used to be notorious for squeeking, but their Gen2 that came out last year are supposed to fix that.

Gen2 Ground controls are more specific to the struts you use them with. I believe the sleeve diameter is different, and possibly the springrate too. However, springrate isn't an issue..when you order from Ground Control, they will consult you on what springrate to go with. So you can go softer for a show setup, or harder for track

WeaponR is supposedly track tested springrates. I'm not sure if they factored in street driving or not. If they did, then it's probably on par with Ground Control's default/standard springrates.

I believe OBX has copied WeaponR, and there's been comments that "OBX sux" but I can't remember any member even trying them. OBX is much cheaper too. I was leaning towards WeaponR until I they told me I can't request a higher springrate, nor will they tell me what their springrate is.

Jae

 

btw, what's your opinion on WeaponR's locking mechanism? Seem secure?
Jae

 

[B]btw, what's your opinion on WeaponR's locking mechanism? Seem secure?

To put some spotlight on the helper spring - all i can say is that the spring is completly compressed when the weight of the car is resting on it .

The locking mechanism seems pretty ok , as longest you keep the dirt and road debries away from the threaded sleeve.

BTW - Pat (Ivolley) should give you more details.

 

I had a coilover set up (shock's body is threaded w/ coil spring, collar, and adjuster) to lift my truck to allow more ground clearance and bigger tires. I have taken it thru puddles, mud, and sand dunes and it's really hard to jam things up. As long as you spray tons of liquid silicon or WD40 all over the threaded body before moving the adjuster. I would think the same applies to a car's coilover kit.

 

NYCe MaXiMa,

Check this post, the car belong to an older woman, she traveled throughout the midwest. The car was dealer maintained, original engine and tranny, I find the tranny part hard to believe because I had a new bearing kit installed on my 97 with only 80K miles (throw out bearing and slave and master cylinder) So I am expecting to drop an engine within a year. I will have the Y pipe on this weekend and am going to take her to the track.


ThurzNite,

The locking mechanism is secure but I think it is impossible to raise the car without putting it on lift. These springs are alot quiter than the Maxspeeds I previously had, no thunking when turning the wheels turn. There is a piece that seperates both springs so the springs to not actually contact eachother. So far so good.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....5&pagenumber=1