I just wanted to share with everyone some of the stuff I have been learning about B14 suspension setup. I have know all along that the B14 is not going to respond to the same tuning as a B13 (because it just never did). After sinking tons of time, energy and money in my suspension I have learned that the most important thing to do to a B14 is get the rear beam bent to zero toe. It comes with ¼ inch of rear toe and that just makes the car handle like a pig in every corner. It understeers no matter what you do to it. Once you take that toe out it will be significantly better. The change is dramatic and until that is done you will not have a good handling car. The reason this is requires some visualization. Rear toe-in means that the rear tires are pointing toward the engine of the car/centerline of the car. When you turn the car into a corner most/all of the rear weight of the car shifts to the outside tire. This outside tire is pointed toward the corner and will do everything it can to follow the arc toward the corner due to that rear toe in. Now lets toe that rear tire “out” or the oppisite direction away from the engine/centerline of the car. Now when you turn the car into the corner the rear of the car will become loaded on the outside and that tire will try and take an outside track around the corner. In other words it will want to spin more readably. With a B14 rear beam the tires have minimal camber deflection/change under cornering and as a result the rear of the car is extremely stable/planted in a corner. You add that “toe in” and it is far to stable for competitive driving or even fun street driving. The b14 needs zero rear toe for properly handling of any sporting nature. Remember only about 5% of the b14’s were se-r’s and most are setup for the average person just going to work. I hope that helps people understand why a seemingly small change in alignment in the rear can make such a big difference in the way a car handles. Mike Kojima has stated on several occasions that with a Bent Rear Beam the B14 handles better on a roadcourse then a B13. After getting the beam bent you have some choices. All the discussion from this point forward assumes that you have a B14 with the Beam Bent to Zero toe.

The rear beam on an A32 is almost exactly the same if not identical to the b14. It fits perfectly on my jig, so yes I can bend the beam on your maxima.

Although the 1995-1999 B14
Sentra and 200SX is basically a very good
handling car, it is hampered from obtaining the
best possible cornering prowess by a feature
built into its rear suspension geometry by
Nissan. The rear axle has about 1/4 of an inch
toe-in designed into it. This was done to make
the car understeer under hard cornering.
Understeer means that at the limit of traction,
the front wheels will slide well before the rear
wheels.

Although this is a safe way
for a car to handle for an average or below
average driver, excess understeer is frustrating
to the experienced or competition driver.
Understeer slows the car down in tight corners
where a little oversteer is desired to help make
the car rotate, with minimal scrubbing. This is
the most critical in Autocross where most of the
turns are very tight and in some slower turns on
a road course.

On a B14 the toe is not
adjustable so the axle must be bent to adjust
the toe. The B14 axle is pretty complicated, it
has a U channel housing that contains a tubular
torsion tube. A special fixture is needed to
bend the axle properly without damaging the U channel or the torsion tube.

Darin Nishimura of West End
Alignment has developed a special fixture that
can bend the entire axle without any damage. The
fixture supports the U channel and torsion tube
and bends both parts equally. It is essential
that this method be used as simply bending the
axle can damage or weaken it.

We bent the axle on Project
200SX to set the rear toe from 1/4" toe-in
to zero. This greatly reduced understeer,
without causing excess oversteer. We highly
recommend this inexpensive mod which is just
about mandatory if you are a track racer or
Autocrosser.