I usually have limitless patience for my car, but today its been pushed further than I'd like. I was honestly considering parting it out today and just walking away from it. However, both problems likely have simple solutions.
First, I began installing my spherical bearings into the z32 aluminum uprights. Everything was moving along smoothly until it came time to install the bearing for the toe arm's mount. Lined up the bearing into the hole, let it go to grab my tools and it fell through the ****ing hole and hit the ground. Turns out I have HICAS uprights, and the knuckles bearing cup is about .005 larger than the bearing. Awesome. Now do I buy Kuah's Hicas bearings, or epoxy the ones I have in? removing the ones I installed is out of the question, as I don't want to **** them up. I end up deciding to come back to it later.
So I begin the next project, S14 conversion bushing install. Should be easy to install them right? It is, installing them required cleaning the cups, a few blocks of wood, some string, and a hammer. I got the grooves in the SPL conversion bushings DEAD ON. This is where the fun begins. The subframe will not fit onto the car. I'm still confused as to why. So I measure the posts on the car, they are 42.25" apart in the front from the middle of each post, and the rears are 23.75" apart. Now here is the interesting part. Measuring from the inside of each hole on the S14 subframe and I get 41.50" in the front, and the rears are 23.70" apart.
So Thinking something is wrong with the front bushings I press them back out and see how the subframe fits without the front bushings and just the rears installed. Its almost like the damn thing is physically too short to reach the empty bearing cups in the front with the bearings installed correctly in the rear.
The only thing I can conclude is there are three possible issues, which I've listed in order of probability.
1. I suck, and can't install bushings correctly
2. I have something that is not an S14 subframe (J30 maybe? It has the two bolt rear diff mount, not the 4 bolt the S13 has)
3. My car is somehow different.
To rule out the first one, would anyone with a S14 subframe measure the distance from the inside bearing cups. I'm getting 21.5" for the front and 39.25" in the rear. I was too tired to think of the obvious and measure my cars original frame which I'll do tomorrow.
So yea, FML. 12 hours of work with 0 success is AWESOME.
First, I began installing my spherical bearings into the z32 aluminum uprights. Everything was moving along smoothly until it came time to install the bearing for the toe arm's mount. Lined up the bearing into the hole, let it go to grab my tools and it fell through the ****ing hole and hit the ground. Turns out I have HICAS uprights, and the knuckles bearing cup is about .005 larger than the bearing. Awesome. Now do I buy Kuah's Hicas bearings, or epoxy the ones I have in? removing the ones I installed is out of the question, as I don't want to **** them up. I end up deciding to come back to it later.
So I begin the next project, S14 conversion bushing install. Should be easy to install them right? It is, installing them required cleaning the cups, a few blocks of wood, some string, and a hammer. I got the grooves in the SPL conversion bushings DEAD ON. This is where the fun begins. The subframe will not fit onto the car. I'm still confused as to why. So I measure the posts on the car, they are 42.25" apart in the front from the middle of each post, and the rears are 23.75" apart. Now here is the interesting part. Measuring from the inside of each hole on the S14 subframe and I get 41.50" in the front, and the rears are 23.70" apart.
So Thinking something is wrong with the front bushings I press them back out and see how the subframe fits without the front bushings and just the rears installed. Its almost like the damn thing is physically too short to reach the empty bearing cups in the front with the bearings installed correctly in the rear.
The only thing I can conclude is there are three possible issues, which I've listed in order of probability.
1. I suck, and can't install bushings correctly
2. I have something that is not an S14 subframe (J30 maybe? It has the two bolt rear diff mount, not the 4 bolt the S13 has)
3. My car is somehow different.
To rule out the first one, would anyone with a S14 subframe measure the distance from the inside bearing cups. I'm getting 21.5" for the front and 39.25" in the rear. I was too tired to think of the obvious and measure my cars original frame which I'll do tomorrow.
So yea, FML. 12 hours of work with 0 success is AWESOME.
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