olivers ca18det powered datsun 1600
Olivers CA18DET 1600


Datsun 510 Front Suspension
 

Up front I have used Kings Super-Low springs combined with koni red adjustable shocks. I have currently set the shocks to about half setting. This will of course be changed over time once I get a feel for how the handling of the car is setup.

I used 180B front struts (perfect for VL Turbo Calipers) and painted them black to look nice and new.

 
180B front struts awaiting paint  180B front struts painted  koni adjustables and rear sway bar
 

I also replace the front lower control arms and castor rods with adjustable versions of both. Well I got them modified! I also bought new nolathene bushes for the castor rods. If you plan on doing this conversion then you'll have to enlarge the holes for the castor rods as the modified ones are quite a bit thicker and will NEED to buy new bushes even tho you should do this anyways!

Fitment is a breeze - the only real pain is adjusting the lower control arms as this requires almost taking apart the entire front end. So be careful to measure the exact length of each one when fitting them. I ended up taking my front end apart about 6 or 7 times before getting it right and even now I think i'll need to go thru the process a few more times.

There is actually a front adjustable lower control arm kit available through whiteline that makes use of shims rather than a thread(like mine). This would take 5 mins to adjust (i highly recommend going this route!).

 
datsun 510 adjustable castor rods and lower control arms
 
Also up front i've got a 24mm swaybar that I got with my maddat.com.au fitting kit. The only adjustment I had to make to the front sway bar was to bend it a little to fit on my adjustable control arms - this had nothing to do with the kit - mad dat provides awesome fitting kits.
 
Datsun 510 Rear Suspension
 

On the rear i've also gone for kings super lows combined with koni adjustable shocks with same settings as the front end for now. I do plan on fitting different springs all round as I have a feeling that the current springs are a little too soft. But that is another matter.

I should note that I also put new nolathene bushes in the rear x-member when I opened up the exhaust hole (for 3" exhaust to fit thru). This helps to tighten up the rear end a little and the 30+ year old originals weren't looking the best.

If you have trouble trying to remove the old rubbers in the rear X-member then give this a try. Burn the bastards out! I simply poured a little petrol on the old rubber and lit it. Took about 15 minutes to burn out and with a little sanding it was as if they never existed! Also to note here - if you try this then make sure you don't burn down your house/garage and do it outside as the fumes are toxic! If you have a blow torch then the rubbers will come out in 2 seconds!

 
datsun 510 rear springs  datsun 510 rear X member nolathene bushes
 
 

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