nissan 180 rear coils in rear of my vit (dial up)

[SiKiD_01]

like it says, i just put some stock nissan 180 rear coils in the rear of my swb soft top vit. i havent actually measured, but its close to 3" lift above standard vit coils.

they may be a tiny bit stiffer than stock vit coils, but with the lift, its great. they are also soft enough to allow full flex on the vit rear when using some commo shocks or anything longer than standard.

i think for a hard top swb vit, they would be perfect for about 2-3" of lift, maybe more? and with the extra bit of weight on the HTs, these 180 coils may be a good cheap solution.

the thing is, at any jap wreckers, or ricer forums, standard 180 coils can be bought for cheap, cos they are always wanting to get coilovers, or lowered coils.

someones junk is anothers treasure.

also try to stay away from gas charged shocks on the rear end of a soft top swb vit, or invest in a kidney belt. just thought i might post up some more vit sus stuff.

[Barathrum]

Nice find. What made you look at the nissan coils as an option?

And ya multiple posts have been deleted.

[SiKiD_01]

sorry about that. the board wasnt loading, and apparently timed out, or something, so i clicked pn it again. just lately the board has been slow for me.

anyway, i found them when i was helping my mate put some coil-overs in his 180, so naturally, i took the old stock coils, as i'm always keeping an eye out for any 100mm-110mm diameter coils for the rear of my vit. i just put them in this arvo, and its actually pretty good.

there are heaps of 100mm diam. or close to coil springs out there, but not many have the free standing height that is longer than stock vit ones. but the 180 ones give about 3" or a bit more over stock, and are good and soft, not too stiff like GV coils.

i will try to take them out again, and put them on the ground, and take some pics and measurements. i have the stock vit ones, some out of a datto sedan, and the 180 ones. the datto ones are a bit taller, but a lot softer, with more winds and a smaller wire diam.

i'll post up pics soon.

[SiKiD_01]

oh yeah, and i'm also looking out for some new honda accord coils, they are apparently heaps soft and heaps long.

still havent found any up here yet, no ones rich enough to buy an accord, and no ones yound enough to want to toss the old coils for some lowered ones.

[SiKiD_01]

i got bored, and made a dodgy ramp.





here are the coils:



ok, and here are some measurements.


1. Stock Nissan 180SX rear coils
Wire diam: 11mm
Coil winds: 9 1/4
free height: 355mm
coil diam: top - 98mm, bottom - 100

2. Unknown (but maybe out of rear of early datto sedan)
Wire diam: 10mm
Coil winds: 10 1/2
free height: 360mm
coil diam: top - 98mm, bottom - 100mm

3. Stock 2003 Toyota Corolla sprtivo front coils
Wire diam: 11mm
Coil winds: 7 1/2
free height: 325mm
coil diam: top - 84mm, bottom - 106mm

4. Stock Suzuki Vitara rear coils (swb)
Wire diam: 12mm
coil winds: 8 1/2
free height: 310mm
coil diam: top - 95, bottom - 105


the corolla ones are useless anywhere, waaaay too soft for the front, and too short for the rear. worse than stock vit coils. i got these for free, so it doesnt matter much to me.

the datto ones are what i have been using for a while, they are real soft, and give 2" over the stock vit rears. even though they are pretty tall free standing, with the weight on them, the compress a bit. good ride, and good rate. i used these with a 1" coil spacer to give my 3" at the back.

the nissan ones i have only just put in, and give about 3" or a bit more over a standard vit coil. these are a bit stiffer than the datto ones, but do hold their height a lot more. i'm not worried about this extra stiffness, as i'd rather be able to put a couple of people in the back, or some recovery equip or tools, or when i need to tow a trailer. this just means that the rear end wont be as low as if i had the datto ones in.

even with the nissan coils in, i can almost compress the coil to near solid like this.....



........ which means they are a pretty good rate. well to me anyway. but if i were to get some custom ones made, i'd work out the rate of the datto coil, and use that, but make them long(er) to give the amount of lift i wanted. and in this case, i want about 4-5" over standard with this rate. i wonder how long the coil needs to be then.

one of my bro's mates has heaps of TE gemini fron coils lying around, and so i'm waiting on them to be dropped off, maybe this week end, and then i can build my dodgy ramp again, and change the coils. and yes, this is how i change my rear coils..........easy...........

[12uke]

SiKiD_01


What do you think about the 180's in a JLX wagon whould they hold there own. I don't know what is in the rear but i will try and get some flex pics on sunday. When I jacked the rear up to work on it I got 695mm from arch to center of axel and the springs are wired to the axel to stop them falling out.

[SiKiD_01]

12uke, i havent had much to do with vitara wagons, and so i'm not sure on how heavy they are and so on. i also havent got a pair of rear lwb coils to test in my swb.

i would dare say that the 180 coils may not give as much height, maybe 1"-2" max? if its about 3" on a swb. but i would think it would have a softer rate than what the lwb have as stock, and may provide a better softer ride, with a bit more flexibility.

i think using 180 coils in the rear of a lwb, would almost be the same as me using the datto ones in my swb.

i guess there's only one way to find out, and thats to 'borrow' some 180 coils, and put them in and see how it goes. but the rate of them would be good for a heavier car, and if the height is not to your liking, then a 30mm/1" coil spacer on top is another way to gain some height.

if you do go ahead with it, be sure to post up.
cheers

[kimclive]

Hi SiKiD,

Long time no talk. I've been busy!

My LWB JLX has Pedders springs and "Comfort Gas" shocks.

I agree 100% with your comments about gas charged shocks. I am sure they have their place, but the back of my Vit is NOT that place. It is just too hard and unforgiving on even the slightest bump.

My springs are also a much higher rate than yours. They almost look like yours compressed when they are standing on the floor! I am sure the suspension on my Vitara would hold a Landcruiser or Patrol up nicely.

I just counted coils. Mine have 9 and yours have 7.

I'll be off to my local wrecker to check out Nissan shocks as soon as I escape my current workload.


Cheers

Clive

[SiKiD_01]

I'll be off to my local wrecker to check out Nissan shocks as soon as I escape my current workload.

hmmm? maybe nissan 180 coils, or if you want the extra length, commodore shocks, or cressida ones, which a few have used already.

Clive, if your coils are too hard, then probably look around for any coils that may fit, ie, 100mm diameter. if you can find the nissan 180 coils, give them a go, and see how you like it. they may be just right, as you also have a 30mm spacer on top of the coils. i am running the 180 coils with out any spacers.

[Beastmavster]

With the datto coils.. I used datsun sunny coils which gave about 2" lift and much softer ride... looks very similar to yours.

Sound slike the 180 coils are a good find. nice tech.

[alien]

Would this also work up front with 180sx?

[kimclive]

hmmm? maybe nissan 180 coils......

Woops, That's what I meant. I also realised that when I was counting coils on your pic it was the Corolla one I was looking at. Having a shocker!

Your Vitara springs and mine seem to have the same coil count. The issue could just be that the springs are new and the gas shocks are hard.

Cheers

Clive

[RIKSTR]

STD coils from a GV work wonders too!

[SiKiD_01]

Would this also work up front with 180sx?

if u mean using front 180 coils in the front of a vit, then no. front 180 coils have a humungous diameter, and only a few winds, like 5 or so. they are on the strut itself, so yeah, wont work.

standard GV front coils will work in the front of a swb, but i have heard that they are stiffer, giving lift and thus, making the front more bouncy, and a spinning wheel that bounces ends up with a shattered CV.

so if ur not using the stock ones with a coil spacer, or a OME on its own or with a spacer, then the only other alt is to get some custom made. i'm looking into this at the moment, but i want it to have a slightly softer rate, and give the amount of lift i want.

lots of coil winds mean a smaller wire size can be used, and it makes the coil a softer rate. i think thats a general rule, but dont hold me to it. i'm all about trial and error.

[alien]

how do you reckon it would affect control arms? is there an easy fix to that?

[alien]

*bump bump*

thoughts anyone?

[SiKiD_01]

how do you reckon it would affect control arms? is there an easy fix to that?

how do you mean? which control arms? rear lower? rear upper? front lowers?

for every inch of lift in the back, there should be a spacer for the upper control arm of the same size.

for the rear lower arms, its good to keep the bushes in good condition, or get some nice flexy ones. they aren't that long, so mega flex isnt as possible as it would be with some longer ones.

front lower arms may be affected by a long coil. there just isnt as much room in the front as the back for a long(ish) coil.

[alien]

is there a good / easy replacement arm available?

[kinky_simon]

hi can u tell me what year the 180sx was as looking to buy some springs for my lwb vitara anny other cheep lift iderars woulb be good as well thanks

[SiKiD_01]

hi can u tell me what year the 180sx was as looking to buy some springs for my lwb vitara anny other cheep lift iderars woulb be good as well thanks

i think it would be a 1002 model, or '92 -' 96 maybe.

i have the coils in the rear of my swb soft top, so if you have a lwb hard top, may not give much lift. you can also look into some coil spacers for added right height.

[petah from oz]

nice flex in the back, what shock you running. Im building up a 89 hard top and this info is helping out.
Ill post some pics of my modified front control arms soon, dropped the pirches by about 40mm to get longer custom coils in on my 4door, but found the the OME struts to be a bit to hard. What you running in the front.

[Rotazuk]

Hi
I will have a search but just reading through the post and it seems that the datsun coils talked about may suit my cousins vitara . 3 inch is too much lift for us , 2 would be max . Any more details on what datsun they came out in , sunny is mentioned . Any year info .

Thanks

Chris

Now to go find the post about longer shocks I read months back , commodore ones I think .

[cj]

Ill post some pics of my modified front control arms soon, dropped the pirches by about 40mm to get longer custom coils in on my 4door, but found the the OME struts to be a bit to hard.

That's unusual, i love my OME struts and certainly have never found them too hard. Everyone else I have heard of that has gone with them loves them compared to other struts that they have run. I suppose you could just go back to stock and use strut extensions or spacers as the stock will be the softest you will get.

[petah from oz]

cj, hard is probably not the right word, a little harsh might be more like it, i was getting a gut shacking on the hwy with to standard struts, so changed them, fixed the shakes but found bumps more noticable. I had a Liberty wagon for 3 years before the zook so was spoilt.

Heres a photo of a arm mod

[icekayak]

hey any chance of gettin a bit more info about the 180 they came from? do you know what year or exact model?

[Gutless]

hey any chance of gettin a bit more info about the 180 they came from? do you know what year or exact model?

Pretty sure all nissan 180 SX are the same.

[icekayak]

and is that the same as a s13?

[Charged_ZooK]

hey fellas

i have a 90 swb vitara tin top.....

i cant seen to find what you would use for coils and struts in the front.... i understand the 180 sex coils and commodore shocks in back but what in front....?????????

cheerzzz

[mroffroader]

[quote="Charged_ZooK"]hey fellas

i have a 90 swb vitara tin top.....

i cant seen to find what you would use for coils and struts in the front.... i understand the 180 sex coils and commodore shocks in back but what in front....?????????

cheerzzz[/quote]

yea thats what i wamt to know to... what coils and struts do you use for the front...a;so how bigger tyre could you run with these? 32's? will the vit stand up to the abuse of 32's? eg. cv's etc and will i need lower gearing? cheers

[Charged_ZooK]

whats the go in the front.........?????????

i have got all rear now just needed to no what to do on the front of the beast.....