DaveB

That's great stuff, thanks guys. So we could say that R34 fits S2, with slight modification to factory fan shroud? Could you tell us what you had to do to the fan shroud exactly (like cut some off, or reposition the bolt holes etc?)

Hi all, Before you say "use the search button" I've searched and found some conflicting advice; I read that R33 fits, and R34 fits? I've contacted a Natrad dealer here in SA but it's been a couple of days now and nobody seems to know anything. JustJap have got alloy radiators for a good price but no autos. Could you help by filling in the table... I'll start with what I "know" from reading the posts here... Obviously the manuals should suit their manual equivalent Series 1 auto = R33 auto radiator, stagea fan shroud will bolt back on? Series 2 auto = (R33 or R34 auto radiator)? stagea fan shroud will bolt back on?

Well FYI, I had radius rod (castor) bushes and camber bushes supplied and fitted to my S2 for ~$450, which I considered a reasonable price. Plus a 4-wheel full alignment shouldn't be much more than $70.

anytime

I can't find any specific mention of R34GT front shocks being tried (it is mentioned however that R34 rears are forks and thus will only fit a manual stag') though the thread is long and I haven't searched much. However SK does make it clear that the valving is all wrong for a wagon with '33/'34 shocks at the front.

Nice... please tell me where I can find an alloy radiator with the auto trans heat exchanger in the bottom!!

Hi Scott, I see it's your first post - welcome! I assume you mean C34 stagea as I don't know of a m34 model (C34 or M35). The C34 shocks are covered in detail throughout this thread; but basically in summary I am pretty sure the fronts are R33GTR, rears are R33 GTST (but the valving of the rears is *not* suited to the stagea - they just physically fit). One way I can think of to raise it might be to get hold of some Bilstein shocks as they have a circlip-located spring seat which is height adjustable; you can read all about that here http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/St...lin-t85592.html EDIT: Ah do you have a 260RS? If so then the rear shocks need forks, not eye bolts... see above-mentioned thread for details and have a read through here re. RS260 PS You might actually have to "lengthen" the bump stops lol. Raising the C34 has been discussed before - have a search through this thread.

Thanks Is that to say (forgive me for not re-reading the entire thread) that a R33 GTR rear swaybar will fit C34 stagea? (RS-Four auto if that makes any difference) because the stagea-specific bars have dropped off the whiteline list and the Selby ones are *very* pricey in my area. But R33 GTR would have a few more options.

Note that in the last picture above of the standard front bump stop, the yellow and orange lines indicate that one must trim the bump stop below the top. Once the bump stop is trimmed like this, it will no longer sit captive at the top of the shock shaft, but will instead slip down until it's sitting on top of the shock body. Then it will bounce up and down with every compression of the shock absorber, making an annoying noise Does anybody have a solution for keeping it captive at the top of the shock, after it's cut? The reason, for those unaware, is that the hole through the bump stop constricts right at the top, meaning that's where it catches on the fatter part of the top of the shock shaft (below the thread, where the little washer thing sits), causing it to remain there and not slide down all the way (which is a good thing; keeps it at the top of the shock shaft).

Hopefully this fixes the images... I think this post *with pics* might be useful to me (maybe others too)

Thanks for the article Josh, always wondered what that sensor was for. Just thought I'd mention, that I have an auto and a Nistune in my series 2, and the tuner told me he bypassed the boost cut with the Nistune software. I've been running up to 18psi without issue (now I've just gotta solve that pinging...)

Another pointless question... in the beginning of the thread re. fitting instructions, trimming of bump-stops is mentioned. Unfortunately most of the images have been lost. But I have been able to work out from the text & images in SK's gallery that he always advises to trim the bump stop from the thicker end, so as to make them more progressive etc. So how have people done this, since in the stock bump stops, the restriction which keeps the bump stop trapped at the top of the shock shaft is in that part that has to be cut off. ie. when you cut that part (like I did on the rear bump stops), the bump stop is then free to slide up & down the shaft, and will inevitably spend its life sitting on top of the shock body and sliding up and down with each bump... which is not really desirable... if you see what I mean? How have other people gotten around this?

Thanks, yeah I'll give it a while see what happens.

Hmm, thinking about it, if I lower the spring seat by, say, 40mm, the car sits 40mm lower. The spring is compressed/"pre-loaded" with the weight of the car, exactly the same as when the spring seat was higher. But now there's 40mm less travel. So I take 40mm off the bump stop. Travel is now the same as original, spring "pre-load" (if that's the right term) is now the same as original... so what is the reason for the ride to get harsher? Why does the ride need to get any harsher/NVH increase? If suspension travel and spring "pre-load" is the same, I must've done something wrong to make it 200% nastier...?

Thanks that's a series 2 isn't it? I'm not sure how many grooves from the top I am - I counted mine from the bottom lol. Plus I'm pretty sure the rears I have have had some extra grooves machined into the top... so I'm 4th groove, counting from the bottom, on the rears and 3rd, counting from the bottom on the fronts. Pretty sure I'm well below yours though - think there's about 5 or 6 grooves above, and my ride height is the same (about 365mm). Though since I have the same springs (stock), and series 2, I don't know how that can be... I am measuring from the centre of the centre-caps... it seemed I had to drop the spring seat a long way though to make a difference. Maybe I need a few more K's to bed it all in... can't tell if it's hitting the bump-stops but it squeaks a bit when I drive up the 45-degree angle kerb into the driveway etc. (all round). Feels better than yesterday. Done almost 150K's now. Still pretty harsh but improving. I plan to trim the bump stops some more and maybe go up a groove front & rear. After a couple hundred K's more driving. Then a wheel alignment.

Thanks I hope that's the case; really launches off bumps now lol. Feels like there's too much bump-stop... or not enough... or something. But I think it's better than it was yesterday after about 50ks or so... but that could just be me getting used to it. I might raise it a circlip front & back in case I didn't take enough off the bump stops (about 20mm off, lowered about 40mm).

Well I finally finished installing stagea-spec' bilsteins all 'round. I had to solve the problem of finding dustcovers and bump stops to fit. I ordered 4 bilstein bump stops and dust covers back in December '09 but thus far they haven't turned up save for two extras which SK sent me, which did. But I wasn't sure about the quality & fittment of the bilstein covers and the bump stops feel like soft, spongy foam... ~2 tonne wagon... So I found that the Monroe brand "strut mates" universal dust covers fit perfectly; there are about 4 types but the dust cover is the same size in each and just has a different sized ring & bump stop (which doesn't fit, in any of the 4 types, so I just threw that away). They clip onto the metal cup jobbie above the "pre-tensioned" rebound damper thing. They're made from high-quality feeling rubber, not plastic, and will seal to the shock body with a couple of cable ties (the bilsteins are apparently made to just hang there as they are about 20mm oversize compared to the diameter of the shock). I would be interested to know, from those who have installed the bilsteins with the stock springs... - what ride height did you set them to (more specifically, how many circlip grooves from the bottom?) and - what bump stops did you use and what height did you trim the bump stops to? I found that after a fairly long test drive, the ride over bumps in the road ranges from about the same to rather harsh (like bump-stop-hitting harsh) though probably this is to be expected; however it's almost as though the shock absorbers aren't damping very well... the car seems to 'bounce' for a little bit after a bump and doesn't stay settled very well. I only hope that the shocks have got to wear in or something? I haven't gone radically low, although I was pretty high before (about 400/395mm centre-to-guard front and rear), so I have taken a fair bit off - about 40mm - to take it down to about 360mm front and rear. Front is 3rd circlip groove from the bottom (standard springs) and the rear's are 4th circlip groove from the bottom (standard springs). Even this much is only just noticeable to look at it. 4-finger-space down to about 3, tyre to guard. I re-used the original bump stops; I trimmed about 20mm off the front and rear. So, anybody who's used standard springs with the bilsteins, who might know why the ride is jarring and bouncy? Two traits I'm not particularly fond of lol. I'm guessing I may have a) gone to low for the standard springs and now need stiffer ones to keep it off the stops and/or b) not trimmed enough off the bump stops / need to replace the standard bump stops with the mega soft/spongy (when compared to stock rock-hard rubber) bilstein ones ?

holy crap that's a lot of compressed gas they have hidden away!

Some more info. This is I think the post that was mentioned to me, about Aristos with their hydraulic storage units in their fancy electro-hydraulic brakes, which fail in pretty much the same way as our attesa accumulators. I hope nobody is offended by my posting this link as it is to an offsite forum... but it is about Toyotas so I don't think there's much 'conflict of interest' In that thread, the guy who fitted the external charge connection to his Aristo's accumulator is an engineer, and offering this as a service - via post even - for a very reasonable rate. I will post there and see if he can do the same for our units.

Thanks, yeah there's no obvious filling point - at the hydraulic end is a threaded connection through which I think you can see the piston (but not in this pic') Someone PM'd be about it and said that he had his fitted with an aircraft-style nozzle so it could be recharged from the outside... don't know what this is about yet. Also FAST appears to show the accumulator disassembled: and looking at it it appears to come apart above the flatted base (where you shouldn't, presumably, disassemble it whilst it has gas in it!) So maybe they can fill it and reassemble. I wonder if anyone with a series 1 has ever had this problem?

Well I was wondering that myself. Unfortunately no. I was just kinda hoping that the recharger would know. It's a pretty solid cylinder; and as long as the pressure is high enough I guess it should work, because there's a pressure switch in the circuit. It's just there to store some pressure I think. I don't *think* the pressure is tooo critical (but boom is too much). It does say on the label not to disassemble as it "contains highly pressurised nitrogen gas" and it actually advises to "wear safety glasses and drill through (spot marked X) to release pressure before disposal" so I guess it can't be too high...

Thanks for doing the hard work tracing the wires Chook (or whoever it was that looked them up originally ) I just did this swap tonight and I really wish I had've done it ages ago... now it is how it *should* have been. But, they got pretty much everything else on the car pretty spot-on, so I can't complain

Well I should pretty soon know; I have another cannister right here waiting and I have had my transfer case removed & replaced before (which meant drain/refill/bleed hydraulics on the ATTESA system) by MV autos and that didn't fix the clicking. So if this does then I think the fix is pretty obvious... fingers crossed. Maybe the mechanic will get time to swap it when I take my car in on Saturday... I doubt it though he's pretty busy.

Ooh, red LEDs Probably the usual IC orientation issue, but I don't have the instructions with me atm... Do you have the wire link that goes under the DB25 connector (hand controller socket) installed? From memory I think it is installed on the underside of the board or something; I did the same trick and I can't see it in your shot... but I can't see much (as u noticed) TBH

Easy - for future reference, just release the hydraulic pressure in the ATTESA system, and remove the accumulator - here's what it looks like (it's the cannister on the right, with the yellow label on it): Then either recharge, or replace it with another (charged) accumulator, and screw back on, making sure to replace the O-ring first. Too easy ...but remains to be seen if it will fix my problem, I haven't replaced it yet. Just got the old one off.