This year has been a busy one with new suspension ideas for the 4th gen. Instead of the usual crap parts that are offered I went outside the Maxima.org suspension box to bring some new mods to the forum.

Figure I would start a main page (possible to make this a sticky?) and detail each new design with a thread for each new part. I will link those pages to this main page for any one that wants to look up those individual parts. The overal progress of the car will be detailed in this thread.


So far these are the new 4th gen mods (that I am aware of) -

Tein rear mounts modified to fit 2.5" coilover springs - Done!

Adjustable front sway bar end links - done but on hold

Adjustable tubular lower control arms - 1~2 months they should be done.

Bump steer adjustable outer tie rods - Done!

Bottom Mount Camber/Caster plates - Done!

Adjustment of bump steer and roll center - I have all the measurement tools available. Just need to get the alignment done with the stock LCAs and outer tie rods, then get a bump steer & roll center baseline.

These mods have been done before by others but are being put into this car -

Koni Yellows with custom valving & trouble free operation - Done!

Transmission with the Quaife differential - Done!

Battery Relocation to trunk - Done!

Corner Balancing and custom alignment - Will take place when the car is all back together.

 

Reserved for future stuff

 

Bout time , btw, you can do 15pics a post now

 

btw when you going to make your "how to make kick *** coilover thread"

 

When I get my struts back from PropartsUSA.

But your right I did say that, when everything is back in my hands I will take pics.

Oh and they will be kick *** for the Maxima crowd but they are average for the rest of the car world.

 

Heads up to anyone that wants to get bump steer adjusted. First step is to center your steering rack!!!

I counted 24 threads on the left tie rod and 8 threads on the right tie rod with the wheels pointing straight. These are the threads on the inner tie rods that are exposed, the jam nut and outer tie rod use the rest of those threads. Regardless the steering rack was way off and the inner tie rods were seriously unequal length, this will cause two different nasty bump steer arcs for each side, not good at all!

Years ago I replaced my steering rack with a rebuilt one and didn't know about this problem so I am posting so that others do not make the same mistake when replacing the rack.

Anyways I removed the outer tie rods and removed the inner tie rod boots. Then turned the steering wheel until the inner tie rods were at an equal length. Both sides were around 14 & 3/8 inches and that was the closest I could get to equal length. Much to my dismay the steering wheel was no longer straight but now pointing a 1/4 turn to the right when both inner tie rods were at equal length.

Spent about 3 hours of pulling the rack apart, swearing, adjusting, and measuring to get the steering wheel pointing straight with equal length inner tie rods. Think I'm close to getting it right but giving up for the night to get some sleep.

EDIT: Rack was adjusted correctly this weekend. The lengths of the inner tie rods on both sides will not be equal.

When I got the rack properly centered the driver's side the length was about 14 " including the part of the rack that comes out and the inner tie rod. Passenger side was about 15".

The easiest way to test is to set the steering wheel so the wheels are pointing straight and count the turns lock to lock. The A32 Maxima wheel has 3 turns lock to lock. From dead center of the steering rack with the wheels pointing straight I had 1.5 turns left and right till the steering wheel stopped. So the amount of steering wheel turn for both sides is now equal!

 

Adjustable tubular lower control arms - 1~2 months they should be done.

Bump steer adjustable outer tie rods - Done!

Adjustment of bump steer and roll center - I have all the measurement tools available. Just need to get the alignment done with the stock LCAs and outer tie rods, then get a bump steer & roll center baseline.

HOW CAN I PICK THESE PARTS UP? AND CAN YOU POST PICS OF WHAT THE MEASUREMENT PROCESS LOOKS LIKE?

 

The ACLAs maybe a lost cause at this point. I am so fustrated with this shop and how they keep dragging their feet making excuses. They are almost going out of business because of **** poor management of the company. If somehow they do get them done I would expect them to charge $700 ~ 1200 for a set of ACLAs for the A32.

If you want bump steer adjustable outer tie rods goto the Sentra forums and PM this guy with the screen name Octotat. His real name is Chuck and makes adjustable outers in small batches about once or twice a year. Tell him you have a A32 Maxima and want the bump steer kit, he will know what to do. The kit was $200 shipped. I test fitted my set but they have not been installed on the car yet, would need the ALCAs along with the bump steer kit.

http://www.sr20-forum.com/bolt-bars/...steer-kit.html

When I get all the parts in my hands I have the measurement tools for everything and will take pics along with a small write up on this thread.

We need much more dynamic negative camber gain. Under roll all the A32s I've seen goto postive camber even my car with -2.2 degrees of negative static camber dialed in.

 

Positive camber from -2 degrees? really?

Ive been thinking about bump-steer correction for a while now and wanted to see what I could do to adjust it, and came across this thread. So, the bump-steer kit resets the Lowered geometry to reduce roll?

Since the ALCA might never happen, could there possibly be a chance of being able to fit roll adjusting Ball joints in the LCAs? I've been getting my research together to see if I can maybe fit a higher performance ball joint in the stock mounting space but still have lots of questions, like what size diameter is the ball joint?

I'm tracking my car and suspension geometry is priority for me. I always want to upgrade my sway bars, do you happen to know their diameters, I want to able have them in a larger diameter with adjust-ability.

 

Yes.

http://www.303imaging.com/photos/ind...ewImage=254646

Stupid rear beam still gains more negative camber than the front suspension.

No it is two different problems. Bump steer is the dynamic change of toe that occurs when an independent suspension compresses or droops. Either hitting a road bump, pothole, or driving through corners; they change the toe of the tires. This causes the car to self steer and does not inspire driving confidence. It is caused by the control arm and tie rod having two different arcs during the suspension motion. Which will induce dynamic toe in or toe out; it depends on alot of other factors.

By correctly changing the location of the tie rod relative to the control arm you can get rid of most bump steer.

No one makes longer ball joints that fit the A32 LCAs. Custom making ball joints would require a fabrication shop to make several hunderd sets at a considerable cost. If you are really keen on getting adjustable LCAs you are in Cali and Technosquare does custom Nissan suspension stuff. They could weld aftermarket heim joints onto the stock LCAs and machine the hubs to accept the taper of the heim joints. Then you can use spacers to correct the roll center and then use the bump steer kit to fix the dynamic toe change.

Call Technosquare or any Cali fabrication shop that does Nissan stuff and have your credit card ready.

 

Some interesting reading here... - in as much as California does have some great shops for custom working Nissan parts, I'll be getting mine local here in Florida.

 

True, any good friendly fabrication shop should be able to build these parts for Maximas. Its that exsjulio is in Cali and shops there such as Technosquare specialize on Nissan stuff such as the B14 & B15 Sentra suspensions, which are very similar to the A32 suspension. So it should be alot easier for him to get all the custom work done without having to convince the shop to work on a Maxima.

But learn from my lesson with the ALCA project and research any shop before giving them one cent of your money. If you hear any bad things recently about said fabrication shop go somewhere else. The guys making the adjustable control arms are friends of mine so I gave them the business knowing they were in some trouble but I wanted to help them out, big mistake.

The shop near Boston that I goto that does my cornering balancing they also do race fabrication. The owner of the shop likes my car and wants to fabricate up a 4 point roll bar, weld tabs to make an adjustable front sway bar, and build a jig to bend the rear beam to get rid of any remaining rear toe in that my car has. He quoted me under $500 for all that work and to give him a day or two to do it all with no excuses.

 

Bump for finding a shop that can properly bend the rear beam since the guy on the SR20 forum seems to have disappeared....

 

He was in Colorado last I heard.

I have some extra rear beams sitting in the shed so I can mess around with an unbent one and see how it goes.

Question is if I get that guy to make a beam bending jig and get it working would you be willing to drive that far? We could also set your suspension up and corner balance it if you get coilovers.

 

Yeah, I think he's still there but he hasn't responded to my PMs and hasn't replied to the thread I had going that I bumped....I think he's out of the picture.

If you can get a shop to do it properly I will absolutely drive up there, no problem. I'm too much of a puss to get coilovers tho...as bad as I want them I wouldn't be able to deal with the upkeep. I'll stick with a bent beam and be happy with that...I head it's a rather dramatic difference, even compared to a RSB.

 

You guy can get QT adjustable link to get your alignment back
Check my thread over here
http://www.b15sentra.net/forums/show...99#post2544599

btw i am new dude here so...I still can't make any gb or fs thread sorry...

 

And here's the link for installation:
LINK

 

yeah that's my how to...kind crapy hope you fellows can understand ...

 

Yeah I was thinking of trying this adjustable link to see what alignment specs change when adjusting this part. My understanding is that it helps the rear tires become more parallel to the front.

Example -

Before -

Front tires | |
Rear tiress / /

After -

Front tires | |
Rear tiress | |

To change the individual toe of each rear tire would still require beam bending or adding more weight to that particular corner or corner balancing. IIRC after my last alignment and corner balancing I've got 1/32" toe in on the right rear and 1/16" toe in on the left rear.

 

hi anyone,
I have a 2004 nissan maxima.and i'm thinking lowering my car.what kind of spring i should get. and how low should it be from front, rear?
thankz

 

Yes the concept is easy to understand, by showing so much pics just want people know how this links work out. Also, check with your rear tires and rear quarter fender to see any noticeable unknown scratches.