Well, I finally got around to installing my AGXs w/ Maxspeed springs and the Motivational rear upper mounts. Took about 5 hrs. The front went in pretty easy, but the rears were a bit of a pain b/c of the Motivational upper mount. As a newbie on this forum, I just wanted to thank all the veterans that quickly answered my questions - Vesaijan, OgreDave, njmaxseltd, Lime - THANKS!

Now, for the archives, here's my experiences in installing my front and rear springs and struts/shocks:

1) KYB dustboot and bumpstop - They fit fine. As njmaxseltd pointed out, the bumpstop on the front pair DOES NOT fit into the upper mount like the stock dustboot, but it's not a big deal. They are a pretty snug fit and does not rattle around or anything. It is OK for the bumpstop to move around on the shock piston. The rear KYB bumpstop/dustboots fit perfectly - snaps right into place. It's a tight fit, but a little bit of soap and it popped right on without much trouble. The front and rear KYB bumpstops are definitely shorter than stock and do not require any cutting. This is good, especially for the rear, b/c if you were using the stock rear bumpstops, you would have to cut the middle section of the bumpstop.

2) Zipties - the KYB dustboot installation instructions indicates you should zip tie the bottom of the dustboot to the strut housing. The shape of the KYB dustboot allows you to easily zip tie them to a perfect fit. I like this over any stock dustboots which are simply open on the bottom. Just follow the simple instructions. Nothing complicated about this step.

3) Motivational rear upper mount - Surprisingly, it was pretty straightforward to replace the stock upper mounts with these. The Motivational upper mounts add about 1" of added suspension travel. The stock upper mount is bowl shaped: \_/ with the top of the shock piston attaching to the bottom of the bowl. The Motivational upper mounts are flat (no bowl shape) - thus, you gain extra suspension travel because the shock piston is mounted higher up (imagine if you replaced the bowl with a flat plate). As Vesaijan pointed out to me, this in itself does not affect ride height as the spring mounting point is unchanged from stock - only the area where the top of the shock piston is raised higher. Together with the shorter KYB bumpstop, even though the car has been lowered about 1.4" or so, I am able to retain 100% of my suspension travel in the rear.

4) Some difficulty w/ installing the Motivational upper mounts - removing the rubber gasket from the stock upper mount was VERY difficult as it was glued on with some strong rubber epoxy and I had to chisel the hell out of it with a hammer and screwdriver to get the rubber gasket off. Also, the Motivational upper mount comes with a couple of extra washers and bushings that need to be installed. This increased the stack of stuff that needed to be bolted onto the shock piston and it was somewhat difficult to compress the spring enough to get them on. This would have been easy with high quality spring compressors, but was very difficult with my cheap spring compressors. I was able to finally get all those bushings and washers on by using some woodworking clamps which I used to compress the bushings enough for me to thread the top nut on. Other than these 2 issues, installation was easy and the parts fit as good as the OEM parts.

5) Spring compressors - up to this point, I had been renting them from my auto parts store. They had these $50 ($5 per day to rent) compressors that were very strong and beefy and high quality. Then, I saw some $9.99 spring compressors from Harbor Freight. I thought what the hell, they claim to be impact rated so I'll try them. By the end of my install, the threads on one of the compressors were almost stripped. These cheap compressors are NOT worth the $10 I paid for them. Do not skimp on spring compressors - either buy or rent a high quality pair.

6) Impact wrench - I don't have an air compressor and air powered tools so I've been using my Dewalt electric impact wrench for the past 4 spring/strut installs I've done. Once again, this tool was indispensable. This electric impact wrench is super reliable and has enough torque to do pretty much anything I need. I believe the Dewalt and the Craftsman electric impact wrenches are identical. These are great to have for rotating tires, etc.

7) spring coil wrap - I bought some clear vinyl wrap (1/2" inside diameter and 5/8" outside diameter) from Home Depot - it was such a PITA to get on that I went to radioshack and found the helix cut Spiral Cable Wrap. I'm glad I used this instead as it was much easier to install, cheaper (about 2.75 for 10 feet) and is made of a much stronger material (imagine thin PVC tubing). I wrapped only the top coils of the rear springs. I didn't wrap the very top coil as it was going to be sitting on a rubber gasket. I started at the 2nd coil and wrapped all the way down about 2 1/4 revolutions (basically all the coils that were very close together and would come into contact with each other. So far, so good - ZERO strange noises from the suspension.

8) another thing about the spring coil wrap. People have asked if the front and rear springs are the same thickness. At least for the maxspeeds, the fronts are thicker than the rears. I didn't measure them, but based on the vinyl wrap I tried to put on, I believe the rear coils are about 1/2" diameter and the front springs may be 5/8" diameter. Stick with the helix cut spiral cable wrap and they will work for both front and rear (I just used the stock coil wrap for the fronts as the spring coils were not too close and it didn't appear as if they would touch).

9) What stock suspension parts did I replace? On my 96 GXE with 69K miles driven only in sunny Los Angeles, CA, only part I had to replace was the stock dustboot/bumpstop. The dustboot was completely disintegrated. I guess I could have replaced the stock spring wrap, but it was still OK. All the other rubber bushings and even the strut bearing appeared to be in good condition. All the metal parts were fine too. I just cleaned the parts and greased the parts that had grease on them - basically only the strut bearing.

I'll post my driving impressions in another thread.

 

Glen, I am going to use the same setup you have. The AGX's are in the mail and the Maxspeeds are sitting at home. I've never heard of these rear upper shock mounts. I was looking at their website and didn't see anything for front upper mounts. Do they make them for the front as well? I don't see the point of increased travel in the rear if you don't get the same ~1.4inch travel in the front.

About wrapping the coils. You used a vinyl sheet? Kinda like Seran-wraping them? Has anyone had probs with Maxspeed coils making clashing noises under harsh conditions before?

Got alot of questions since these are new things to me. These redesigned upper mounts should be a must for anyone with a lowered max. I wonder why I haven't heard of them till now. I've been living under a rock, I guess.

I probably should order the KYB bumpstops and Motivational mounts soon before the struts/shocks get here. Damn winter is right around the corner. I'll be a pain working on my suspension for 5 hrs. when it's >29 degrees outside...

 

They do not have something similar for the front upper mounts. Instead they sell their shortened Konis which does the same thing, ie. allows your car to be lowered while maintaining full suspension travel. Unfortunately, their shortened Konis are very expensive - about $125 more in addition to the cost of the higher priced Konis. They do not offer shortened AGX front struts - only Konis.

No. The coil wrap is a 10 ft long black tube that has a helix cut (imagine helix strand of DNA). There is a picture posted by clee130 in this thread:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....l+wrap+picture

scroll down to the 7th message by clee130. It is that black split tube wrap. It is sold at Radio Shack as "Spiral Cable Wrap" and is made of polyethylene. You put this wrap on the top 2 or 3 coils on the rear springs as these springs are very close together and can be noisy when they clank against one another. People have indicated that using this wrap took away the noises from their suspension. I applied this wrap on my rear springs and do not hear any noise at all.

Read the rest of that thread. Lots of good info there by other people.

There's very few people with these rear upper mounts. I did extensive searching on this forum and found a small handful of threads about it. I would say 99% of the people who have lowered their 4th Gen Maximas do not have this in their car. Personally, I think the upper mounts, while expensive at $125 a set, are worth it. Whenever you can lower a car and still maintain full suspension travel, this is a very good thing. It will keep your car from bottoming out. From my experience of lowering every single car I've ever owned, I think bottoming out is the one thing that most adversely impacts handling, ride quality and longevity of your shocks and your car. On my G20, which has very little suspension travel, I used to bottom out so hard that my windshield wiper stalk would activate and the upper map light would actually become dislodged when I hit a hard bump or a bad set of rail roadtracks! The bottoming out ultimately caused me to crack 2 rims.

Definitely get new bumpstops/dustboots (they're 1 single unit). I like the KYB ones better than stock b/c they are already shortened and don't need cutting. Plus, I like the zip tie on the bottom thing (OEM dustboot is open on the bottom). I believe KYB dustboots may also be cheaper than OEM ones too. If you get stock bumpstop/dustboots, you MUST cut them to gain back some suspension travel.

Sorry to hear that. And here I was whining to my brother about how cold it was in balmy 65 degrees Los Angeles when we were just finishing the installation about 5 hrs ago. Good luck with your install. Let us know how it turns out.

 

I really wish I bought the rear upper mounts. When I installed my AGX's 8 months ago, I noticed that I had a stripped bolt. PITA to remove (used a Dremel to grind the nut off the bolt). Then I went to Tustin Nissan and spent $35 for a new mount with prefectly threaded bolts. In hind sight, I wish that I would have known of the Motivational mounts.

Well, live and learn. I'm thinking about getting a set and was wondering if anyone else was interested too. I was wondering if we could get a better deal if we had a good sized order. I go to school in Long Beach...I was planning on just dropping by their place.

 

I picked up my upper mounts directly from there. He basically works out of his house. Call him first. Actually, e-mail him. Mike never returned any of my calls, but instantly responded to every one of my e-mails. Nice guy to deal with.

The upper mount is only a piece of machined and powdercoated steel. I'm sure he would be willing to work out a group deal as he probably has a decent amt of profit margin built in at $125/set.

 

I see... Now I'm wondering about the functionality of the rear upper mounts if the same increased travel is not avaliable in the front for me(because I'm getting AGX's). The back springs are softer so they will compress more so it may be more useful in the rear? But then again most of our weight is supported by the front springs.
Also, with the travel length of the front struts remaining the same and the rear shock length being 100% stock, will that upset the handling balance between the front and the rear of the car. i.e. make the body twist more during hard cornering or under harsher conditions?

My past car was a 94 G20. I loved taking turns in it. One of the best FWD handling cars IMO. If I had gotten the mod bug earlier, I would've tried to drop in a sr20det on her...

Thanks, I definately plan on getting the KYB stops/boots. Tougher material than OEM and I'll take whatever suspension travel I can get.Haha... I wish I were somewhere warm now. I lived in Pasedena years back. Weather was great. Hot sunny days, cool nights...oh well, I'll have to endure the upcoming week of rain/sleet/hail/snow showers. I'll let you know how it went!

Thanks for the thorough reply Glen

 

Personally, I think it is OK and would not upset the handling balance. Basically the car will be balanced exactly the same whether or not you have the Motivational upper mount. The only difference is, in situations which would typically bottom out the rear suspension, it will be less likely to bottom if you have the Motivational uppers installed. Given that we are talking about extreme cornering situations, I believe having more suspension compliance (either in the front or rear only or at BOTH ends) would be a good thing, IOW, if you are cornering very hard and hit a bump that bottoms out the front but not the rear, this is better than if that same bump bottomed out both the front AND rear suspension. When this happens, it is much more likely to cause you to lose control, ie. rear will kick out due to loss of traction from bottoming out.

No problem

 

good write up on your experience..

 

Thanks!

 

all of this information has been immensely helpful.

I already have the maxspeeds and agx shocks/struts in the garage and the kyb dustboots/bumpstops in the mail. Lots of good comments on the motivational mounts but they have a 3 week wait for the next batch of mounts and the $125 plus shipping doesnt really appeal to me at the moment. I may reconsider this at a later time but considering 99% of the gen 4 maximas are lowered without it, i'l probably go ahead this weekend without them. If they were cheaper, it would have been a definite accessory.

again, thanks for the writeups and information sharing.

Happy 2003

 

Just curious, but did you try to compress the lowering spring without the spring compressor. On even H&R's, you should not need to compress the spring to install it.

Also, I do not think the Mo mounts gives you 1" more suspension travel as it puts the shock piston in more of a stock position where it may be in better operating range.

 

The Motivational rear upper mount does not give back more suspension travel than stock. However, on a lowered car, it does give you back around 1" of suspension travel. It pulls the strut piston out about 1" higher. Thus, when the car is lowered about 1.5" or so with lowering springs, you only lose .5" of suspension travel vs. 1.5" of suspension travel.

This really does work. I've read many messages where people complain of harsh ride quality and bottoming out after lowering their Maximas. I have yet to bottom out my rear suspension on my lowered car.

 

On my install, I did not try to compress the lowering springs by hand only. From what I recall, the Maxspeed springs had to be compressed a fair amount and it would not have been possible to do it w/o the spring compressors.

On the rear, the spring compressor was mandatory as the Motivational mounts included additional bushings and washers which added to the stack height.