ImJustMe555

I see both of you are from the DMV too. I know I have a Spec-V and not a Max, but I'm planning on going down there eventually too. I'm sure that my boy Phantom-V will want to go too.

sergofast

iTrader: (22)

Weight reduction = remove box from trunk = free....now you can get a panhard rod lol

things are good. I "almost" have the wiring figured out to drop in my 3.5 full swap! I cant wait lol Then ill be in the same boat as you...headers....or panhard rod...

Yeah that would make since...road trip!!

98SEBlackMax

iTrader: (9)

If you do decide to get the panhard rod swap done make sure you remove any material from the trunk. They have to weld to the frame underneath on the passenger side around the rear strut tower and next to the muffler. If you have any sound deadening or trunk carpet it could catch fire. I did not know this but luckily at the time my car's trunk was stripped down to bare metal so it made the panhard swap go much quicker.

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

I have Dynamat lining my trunk and it didn't catch on fire when mine was done It must not be in the area that they did the welding....

98SEBlackMax

iTrader: (9)

That is odd because when they went to remove all the stuff from the trunk of my car; they were happy that the carpet and everything else in their was already gone.

Kuhn_man

iTrader: (8)

dynomat isnt flamable if i remeber right

Blue Mesa

Does the panhard link have any negative effect on ride comfort (other then noise)?

Id love to get this done but roundtrip to GA would cost me about $500 in gas ontop of the price hes asking which is alota cash for a single susepnsion mod on a 10 year old car.

98SEBlackMax

iTrader: (9)

It just makes it a bit noisier. If anything the panhard swap improves ride quality in theory. The bar that 2JR uses is aluminum and they cut off the rear beam’s SRL on the beam which is mostly steel. So this reduces some unsprung weight off the rear beam which should help ride quality, however the beam is still pretty heavy so I didn't feel any difference.

I like the handling on this car now, aside from some twitchiness from the front end. On the road course the car goes through corners faster than I am comfortable with driving. For what little is commercially available for suspension upgrades on the A32 it is one of the better handling improvements IMO.

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

It's funny you mention front end twitchiness. I got the 8k/9k BC coilovers installed at 2JR a few weeks ago (along with 10mm front and 15mm rear spacers) and I've noticed some odd handling characteristics that weren't there before. Now, when going around corners, the front end occasionally feels like it goes over a patch of ice and completely loses grip. I almost had an accident because of this but was able to correct in time. I'm honestly kind of scared to drive the car hard now because it seems so unpredictable. Hopefully after I race it this weekend I will become more comfortable with it, but for now I must say that while the car rides 10x better than on the Koni/Eibach setup and has zero body roll, something just doesn't seem right.

Oh, and to keep this on topic, this is what the bracket for the panhard rod did to my gas filler line when I was on Konis/Eibachs:





When I was down there a few weeks ago Joe cut off the top portion and cleaned it up, but it makes me wonder if this was caused by the rear suspension compressing so much versus a car on coilovers....

98SEBlackMax

iTrader: (9)

The unstability I get is mostly from TQ steer, road crowning, and **** poor corner entry/exit. This started when I ran a couple of degrees negative camber up front. The front tires want to grab every rut coming out of a corner when I am on the power. It sometimes takes some quick hands to keep the car going in the direction I want it to go. On smooth roads, race tracks, and highways its not so much an issue.

I would say on your car those high rear spring rate coupled with all the other mods will make your car more oversteer prone. I cannot account for the sliding of the front tires, that would be terminal understeer? How much negative camber and toe out are you running if you don't mind me asking?

Now that you have coilovers I would get the car corner balanced with a good alignment. 2JR's alignment on my car caused a bit of unstability and throttle off oversteer. I like a tighter setup that is not as twitchy, so I got the car dialed in shortly after I got home. If you feel like taking a drive you can come up to Mass and we can go to the same place I get my car setup.

Kuhn_man

iTrader: (8)

need some better tires yo. ive had it happen where the tires got to hot from hard cornering and poof no grip whatsoever until i slow down and straiten up so they cool a bit

BEJAY1

iTrader: (19)

Could the fronts be bottoming out? How's the shock travel?

Prophecy99

iTrader: (1)

whats your wheel offset? i have 5mm spacers up front on stock 40mm wheels and with summer 35mm wheels, and the just the 5mm spacers alone have made the front end squirrely aka twitchy. and I can completely relate to how you described the patch of ice and looses grip when you push it which wasn't really around before the spacers, I took that as the change in the scrub radius.

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

Joe sent me to a new shop that set it at -1.7 camber and 0.1" toe out.

Joe is of the opinion that corner weighting our cars with the rear beam doesn't work. He said he has the best results with the car sitting even at all corners. I'm going to assume you've had your car corner weighted, so how did you like it?

That's a bit presumptive given you don't know what kind of tires I have. I have Michelin PS2s, and in my opinion the only street tire that's better is their new SS. So no, my tires are not the problem.

I don't know if I can answer that question! The road this happened on was pretty smooth, so I wouldn't think it was bottoming out. Right now the ride height is set around where it was with the Eibach springs. I believe the BCs have pretty decent travel, but I don't think I'm low enough to exploit it.

You know, I'm actually not positive of the offset for my DD wheels. I believe they are +35, but they might be +45. Like I said, I have a 10mm spacer in front and 15mm in the rear. I'm not familiar with scrub radius, got any more info, or know a good place to read up on it?

98SEBlackMax

iTrader: (9)

Yes we have rear beams but the front suspension is still independent.

Corner balancing changed the way the car felt, made it much easier to do lane changes, and dodge stuff in the road. The first time I setup my coil overs I just guessed and set the ride height even left to right and kept the factory rake. The cross weight was 48% which is terrible, a cross of 50% +/- 0.1% is the ideal. IIRC this makes the weight shift equal on both sides when cornering. Trick is to make the left side a little bit higher than the right so the car sits even when the driver gets in the car.

Fill the tank to full, put on your race tires, prep the car as you would a track day so remove everything you don't need, add weights to the driver's seat to simulate the driver being there, and disconnect one of the front sway bar end links before you start the corner weighting. Corner balance the car and re-attach the end link, adjust end links if possible to eliminate preload. Then once the corner weighting is done you can do the alignment. Keep the weight of the driver on the seat when aligning the car as well. Left front camber changes a bit when you sit in the car, depends how soft the springs are.

This is the only way I've been able to get my steering wheel and car to point dead straight and not drift on the highway. No other alignment has ever come close.

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

It's been so long I can't remember what the factory rake even is! Right now I have the rear set a tad higher than the front. It sounds like you noticed a significant difference after getting corner balanced, I'm guessing you don't have any regrets? What do you make of my alignment settings?

The shop that did them told me that as I dial in more negative camber (at the track only) that the toe will keep going out with it (which should also be good for track use). Is this correct? I am also under the assumption that as long as I make marks on the camber plates, I can reset my camber to street settings (-1.7*) and the toe will follow it back to my street setting of 0.1" toe out. Is all of this correct? Meaning, I don't have to get an alignment after every track day...

I'm a little confused about disconnecting one of the sway bar end links when doing the corner balancing. Why is this done, and is this something the shop doing the work should automatically do without me asking? How can the links be adjusted to eliminate preload when reinstalled?

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

Brian chimed in in my auto-x results thread and mentioned I might be experiencing bump steer. I had just removed my 2JR bump steer kit the week before, so this has me concerned. I didn't like the design of the 2JR kit and how much noise it made when wet; do you remember who you got your bump steer kit from, and if they're still available? Is yours sealed?

98SEBlackMax

iTrader: (9)

Rake is around 0.5" higher on the rear. Your alignment is similar to what I run, -2.0 camber with a little toe out. I run this constantly on the street and track, the Stillen plates are maxed out and cannot go any lower on camber.

When we did set the car for more negative camber the toe goes inward on my car. The guy who does the corner balancing/alignment was suprised as only a few cars he has worked on toe in with negative camber. It might be something weird with my car so I would check that out on your car on an alignment rack.

The end link has to be unbolted as most sway bars are not perfectly built or are uneven with the chassis and ths induces some preload, which messes up the corner balancing. When your done corner balancing you can reattach the sway bar and check how much weight it is inducing and then adjust the endlinks to eliminate this problem. Working on a adjustable endlink solution.

My bump steer kit is working just fine, got it from guy named Chuck on the Sentra forums. Use the search as I forgot the exact details but I know that I posted about this bump steer kit. I do have to re take the new bump measurements sometime and post the results to see if it helped at all. Problem is I have to remove the coil over springs and that requires that I get another alignment when I'm done. If that is the case I would rather change alot of other things before hand and then get the car corner balanced/aligned again.

98SEBlackMax

iTrader: (9)

Finally got around to installing these rod end boots on the Panhard. I ended up tearing up one boot, but I got them to seat in there and had to TQ them by hand. Downside is you cannot use an impact gun to install or remove the bolt. The bolt thread catches some of the rubber and tears the boot up, hence how I destroyed the first boot. On a plus side they help keep out dirt so in theory the rod ends should last a little bit longer on a street car.

As far as noise reduction goes I would say they quiet the rod end noise down by 70~80%, mostly the low speed clanking which was driving me the most crazy. On the highway there is still some suspension noise going over sharp bumps but one of the rod ends has some small slop which is causing the majority of that noise.

On the 15th I have a track day at Limerock so I can test out how the boots hold up under track conditions. So far they have not torn up and have stayed put.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Seals-it-RERS3-Single-Rod-End-Boot-Heim-joint-Spherical-Metric-Male-Female-/321074394786?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4ac18676a2&vxp=mtr

ImJustMe555

Nice. I'm glad it worked for you. What size are the rod ends?

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

Those are awesome Joe, great idea! Have you replaced your rod ends yet? What type of grease are you lubing them with? I'm had good results from switching from the Permatex gray anti-seize to wheel bearing grease.

98SEBlackMax

iTrader: (9)

They are the original rod ends that 2J installed. Think they are 5/8-18 rod ends, haven't ordered any yet. One is left hand thread and the other is right hand thread

From what I understand, not supposed to use grease on rod ends it just acts like a magnet for dirt and grit. But I think having them installed in those welded on brackets helps keep out a bit of dirt.

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

That sounds very likely. Unfortunately, the grease works too well for me to want to remove it all! Are you going to grease yours now that they're in the boots? I think you will be pleasantly surprised with what wheel bearing grease can do.

98SEBlackMax

iTrader: (9)

With about 100 miles of track driving yesterday at Lime Rock these boots didn't last.

I had thought something broke in the rear suspension after my final track session. Crawled under the car and saw that the boots had torn off the rod ends and were back to their normal clunking sound, everything else looked ok.

clintb3astwood

iTrader: (10)

What's the word on this bar, is it still being made? Is it lowered car friendly?

98SEBlackMax

iTrader: (9)

Still being made last I heard. But it is a custom part that requires installation at 2Js shop outside of Atlanta. You got to call, schedule an appointment, pay ahead, and drive down there to get it welded and fitted in.

As far as lowered goes one of the welded on brackets sits low on the rear beam but if the car is that low the front would be scrapping a bit. They give some adjustment for roll center with the weld on brackets if you plan on changing the ride height.

When it comes to noise I would find it nagging on a daily driver. I put about 1000 miles on my Maxima a year, most of the time for track days or just going out for joy rides. So it is a non issue for me. Check with Nick on his I30 setup, think he daily drives that car.

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

Meh, with all the other noises my car makes I barely even notice the panhard rod But really, with a little of the gray anti-seize on the ball ends, the noise isn't so bad. Speaking of which, I should probably apply some new grease, it's been a while....