Suspension and Brakes
After I sorted out the engine, I moved on to the suspension and brakes. The car had 810 struts with 240Z calipers in the front with unknown cut springs. The rear suspension and brakes were stock and also had cut springs. I decided I wanted 4 wheel disk brakes, fully adjustable suspension and Energy Suspension bushings throughout.
We'll start with the front. The front struts were scrapped and 280ZX strut assemblies were purchased. The stock spring perches were cut off, Ground Control spring perches were welded on and Ground Control camber/caster plates were installed. Tokico Illumina inserts were installed with 175 #/in Eibach springs:
A 280ZX 15/16" master cylinder, Whiteline strut tower brace (mounted backwards to clear the taller LZ22 engine) and a Baer Brakes proportioning valve finish it up under the hood:
The rear started off bone stock:
I fabricated custom mounting brackets for the rear 280ZX calipers:
A Damb Penultimate rear crossmember was purchased from Kelvin Dietz to add the adjustability in the rear. A Subaru 3.7:1 LSD diff was installed, as were cut t-bird springs and Energy Suspension bushings. These springs were only in the car for ~ 1 month before I replaced them with NISMO roadster springs. The T-bird springs are much larger diameter than stock 510 springs (you can see in the picture), stock springs will almost fit inside of the Ford springs. Supposedly they work fine on a stock 510 rear suspension, but the Penultimate rear crossmember spaces the semi-trailing arms back about 1/8" farther than stock. The combination of the MUCH larger springs and the Penultimate crossmember caused them to rub in the lower spring perches any time they moved. The NISMO roadster springs are the same OD as stock (slightly smaller ID due to the thicker wire size) and work perfectly with the modified suspension.
The e-brake handle from a 280ZX (noticing a trend here?) was installed and the cables were modified to work on the 510:
The brakes were finished up with a set of Techna-fit braided stainless brake lines:
