240z.drago.com.au - Adventures of rebuilding a 1973 Datsun 240Z

Today I spent a little time getting the last of the suspension parts painted before I begin putting it all back together again. Before I started the painting though, I checked to make sure that the shockers would fit into the strut casing. Guess what, no go!

I couldn’t believe it. They fit into the replacement that Dad bought, but not the old one. We spent a bit of time cleaning out the rust and dirt and filled down a few burrs on the shocker, and eventually, I got it to fit in.

I took the hub apart from the strut that I was replacing and decided to take apart the other side as well (didn’t realise how easy it was). With everything apart, I hung all the parts to give them a going over with the POR-15. Everything is looking rather neat. Next session, I’ll be able to start putting it all back together again!

Yesterday Dad went back to the Z Shop and swapped the strut over for one with the right dimensions. The only thing wrong with this one was that the bracket for the brake lines was missing. Dad fixed that today by taking it off the old one and welding it to the new one. Dad also cleaned up the threads for the gland nut on each of the struts and made sure that the old gland nut could go down all the way and seal the tube nicely.

Today, I payed Sid at GT Suspension in Flemington a visit to pick up some new inserts. I decided to go with KYBs for the moment. I didn’t want to spend too much money, but I didn’t want el cheapo’s either. In the future, if I decide to lower the car, then I’ll think about Koni’s ;). Sid was nice enough to find a couple of rubber boots for the inserts too. Hopefully they will help to stop (or at least slow down) the problem of the inserts rusting in the strut housing.

Dad went for a drive today and stopped off at Z Shop to see if they had a replacement strut that we could buy. Fortunately they had one. Dad bought it and took it home. One problem though, when he got it home and measured it up against the old one, he found that the Spring seat was 20mm lower on the new one. He rang Lindsay up and organised to go back down and swap it for one with the same measurements. Whoops!

Well, the guys at Pedders finally had some luck. They managed to get one of the inserts out. The other one isn’t going to budge. I told them not to worry about it and that I would work out a way around the problem. I picked them up and saw that they even tried heating the casing to see if that would help to crack the rust.

Rust. Gotta love it don’t you, not.

Well, I took the struts to Pedders today to get the gland nuts cracked. They used one of the biggest wrenches that I’ve ever seen. It took a bit of effort to get them to crack, but they finally did. With the gland nuts off, it should have been a simple, pull the strut inserts out and slip some new ones in. No such luck. Both inserts were rusted in tight. And to top things off, the strut that had the gland nut only part the way down had most of the thread rusted away.

I left the struts with Pedders to see if they could get the inserts out for me. They were going to soak them over night to see how if that would help a bit. Here’s hoping.