www.RX7fb.com

Right, after sorting the rear coilovers out I thought I'd soften the front up with some 350ib/in springs. I started getting one of the coilovers off something looked bent.



I realised it was the coilover.



The damper rod itself. it turned out both sides were bent.



my struts use a sleeve with female thread to mount the coilover to the spindle, which allows for separate ride height adjustment.




I did some researching and unfortunately these zeal coilovers use a 51mm thread on the body, and most other use a different thread. this makes replacing the coilovers pretty tricky without re engineering the struts.



For now I have straightened them as best as I can and have put the softer springs on. The car seems to ride much better although I haven't been able to properly drive it. I think the damper rods are likely to bend again now, so I need to find replacements.

They look a hell of a small diameter.

Wow You have lateral force running amok there or catastrophic compression of the damper rods. OMG

Are your strut mount bearings seized/operating correctly, that amount of force could well have damaged other componnets ?

TOOL wrote:They look a hell of a small diameter.

you mean the damper rod diameter?

KiwiDave wrote:Wow You have lateral force running amok there or catastrophic compression of the damper rods. OMG

no reason there would be anymore lateral force acting on the dampers as far as I can tell, and the dampers won't have bottomed out.

DKWW2000 wrote: Are your strut mount bearings seized/operating correctly, that amount of force could well have damaged other componnets ?

The top mount bearings turn freely (although they look original so are not as new condition). nothing else looks bent or damaged.

I can't really see any reason for more force than normal to have been acting on the dampers. The damper rods must just be woefully under engineered.

Yeah, what's the rod diameter?

TOOL wrote:Yeah, what's the rod diameter?

14mm, can see on my diagram. It must be a hollow tube though as there is an adjuster at the top and presumably a linkage through the rod, which must've been damaged when it bent, so the adjuster just turns round and round.

I am going to just use my spare struts and use a simple weld on sleeve to get the front end sorted. Ill use rally design sleeves and the 350ib springs I already have. Ill use the oem dampers that are in the spare struts, but if these aren't up to the job with stiffer spring rates then I'll use some koni aw11 rear adjustable dampers. hopefully get the white car driveable soon, it's been sat for a while. Also need to fit my new door seals!



I'm also still waiting 12months on for ACBRON coilovers... not very impressed.

I've kind of abandoned the idea of building a hybrid 12A/renesis/gsl se engine for now, so I got looking for a donor FC engine. I looked at an S5 T2 lump, the seller said it was a running engine with good compression, but the apex seal springs had no tension when I poked at the seal through the exhaust port. I didn't buy it, but apparently another FB owner has since bought it.

I came across an S4 N/A 6 port engine, only 40k miles on so I bought that. Although I was set on rebuilding an engine I decided this would be be a cheaper option to buy a runner that I can swap over without spending much on, than the prices of seal kits and that, particularly as the £ is now weaker and parts would probably be bought from overseas. I intend to clean it up a bit, fit my 48IDA and a header, and run it on my 12A alternator.

Smart move, buy that stuff while you still can.

Whoops I forgot to reply to this. Why use the 12a alternator on the 13b man? Chuck on that series 5 alternator I gave you. Once I get mine sussed I'll be able to wire it easy as