so I found a (apparently an infamous alignment specialist) here on the west coast who comes highly recommended by everyone in socal whom autoX's or does road racing...

apparently he is one of the only guys on the west coast which has a machine/apparatus which bends our solid rear beams and does so without damaging them or weakening their integrity...in order to zero the toe...to get the car to rotate better...apparently the sentra se-r's swear by this (as they have rear solid beams as well)...he wants $150 to do it and another 160 for my cornerweighting and front end alignment since the rear is non-adjustable anyway...

I've researched it online and the pics of the machine and it's process look scary to say the least (according to him and many websites, he has done tons of these rear beams and is truly proficient in it)...but if the performance benefit is truly there then I will prolly go for it...I will keep you guys posted on the improvement on rotation, turn-in, and at the limit behavior in case anyone else in interested but doesn't want to shell out the money just yet...

has anyone else on here had this done? if so can you share your experience/results?

 

I assume you're referring to Darin @ WestEnd? It will absolutely help. I've heard if you're rear toe isn't even L/R today you can offset the jig and even it out correctly. I'm gonna do this this winter after some other changes are finished. I should've done years ago.

 

yeah Darin...I have an appointment with him next wednesday...my friend went there to get cornerweighted when he got his coilovers installed on his MR2 back in the day...

 

I would want this done soon as well...

To bad I dont know anyone on the East coast who does this, I may have to make a road trip to Cali.

 

There is somebody out east with a similar setup. I don't have his e-mail here at work but if you search it's been on the .org as part of an Ohio or similar GD.

Update - found the e-mail. His name is Steve Foltz and he'll be doing another deal in May 2006 in the Pennsylvania area.

 

Sweet, I should have my Maxima back on the road by then. I can make my way down to Pennsylvania in a couple of hours, well depending on what part of Penn.

 

steve will be at the 2006 SE-R convention, he is not able to do the max, i already asked him...

 

Are you sure? He e-mailed me last month and sounded like he could handle 4th gens but maybe not 5th gens because of the relocated lateral link.

 

maybe the 4th gens>>actually the 4th gens he can do, read post 47

http://www.sr20forum.com/showthread.php?t=132269&page=3

post #51 >>no dice on the 5th gens though

edit for link

 

That post says he's in Colorado, is this the same guy who's in PA?

 

steve was originally from virigina, he just recently moved to colorado. i dont recall him ever living in PA, but he is coming to the ser convention in PA to do the beams..

 

My rear beam was set to zero toe.

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=348463

it was done in Cinci

 

How does it feel? Was the effort worth it and how much did it cost?

 

The previous owner, a VERY active Sentra guy had it done. I think its around $150?

Compared to other Maxima's I have driven it plows less and with rear tires with medium wear the rear end will step out a tad on EXTREME (things you don't need to be doing anyway) cornering.

I have not experienced the "snap" oversteer that people associate with RSB's (I do not have mine installed) so I am very happy with it. You really have to abuse it to get it to come out.

I have done a full on mountain run and stayed with a set of MR2's (untill the straight where one of which (NCTURNAL from teamECI) would just disappear )

My current susp. mods are:

D2 Racing Sport 32-way adjustable coilovers
Stillen FSTB
rear beam set to zero toe

Laying on my garage floor as decoration: RSB

 

That sounds good.

I was concerend that the car would become tail happy with 0 Toe but from your experiences it seems that it balances out nicely. Im also considering getting K-sport coilovers as one of my last suspension mods.

I noticed some snap oversteer with certian driving conditions with an RSB on my otherwise stock suspension '98 Maxima that I used to have. With the lowered '96 the RSB seems useless IMO, however I will experiment with different setups before I completely dismiss the effect's of an RSB. IMO Id rather go without it and save on some weight.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking. The car will be able to rotate but not so much that it will be a negative trait.