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Well the Supra LCA came in and had them installed friday. Also had "The uneven drop problem" pretty severely, so had the car leveled. Much nicer
Car runs tighter. Don't have the main situation I didn't like. The lean in turns and corners is totally gone. Mountain curves "here I come"
Now just have to get used to this whole new coilover drive But have to admit I like the new stance a lot
Bullet is looking good to me and even the mountain truck guys at the shop said they Liked it. Wow!
Just won't be able to say anymore, "I have one of the most original SC's out there". Oh well Stuff happens____Stuff wears out!
Have some picks of a Big Hot Rod Show in a small town up here from last weekend
thanks Barbary
Have a Tale of Woe w an eventual happy ending, but also may be instructive to some
Here are some pics w the coilovers and finally leveled out. The new stance
Interesting thing about the over 20 yr old paint job is it looks very different in different lightings. (shade or bright light)
The car has one purpose: to go long distances. at hi speeds, so that's about as low as it will get 💜
Photos taken yesterday in the High desert
The Tale of Woe;
I got these new wheels, Yoshihara reverse's, Love them, around a year ago and the ride has never felt right. Also got my Goodyear Eagle Sports, best tires ever had, by far at the same shop. Won't name it, could be any of the majors and they offer free lifetime balance and rotates, as most of you know. I went back and had the wheels balanced a few times and still never felt right. So I started replacing much of my suspension, which was OK w me because it was all almost 30 yrs old.
Coilovers, control arms, power steering, etc, etc. And guess what the ride still sucked. So I'm getting ready to drive the car to the SF Bay Area where there are mechanics that know SC's. Out of desperation in my small town I went to a corner 2 guys tire shop and had a balance done before I left. The guy did me a 4 wheel balance for $30 and he nailed it! I now have the new car ride I have been looking for for the last year.
This corner shop guy just eye balled it and the fancy shop w the uniformed guys and their gloves and computerized stuff numerous times never got it right
Well I'm Good to Go >>>
First I want to thank this club for everything. I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am without you guys
I'm not a mechanic or mechanical. I'm a Driver. And I really admire you guys that do these amazing builds. Most of it is like a foreign language
But then I got lucky. Got it in almost pristine condition from family it's never been broken in the whole almost 20 yrs. I've never had to fix anything. Didn't have to learn all that stuff. Just know where to stick the gas pump
.
Only thing I can take credit for is, slowly I learned what a gem the car was and was smart enough not to sell it
I bet you guys like me have had a bunch come up to you and say " I had one of those, wish I still had it"
Kahn; that Daft Punk vid was great, captured the essence of it. Nailed to your seat, taking it all in! It is also the Star Trek adventure, being out there
Fortunately I have nothing left to build, then you might be seeing pics taken w the build "Out there".
I look forward to seeing many pics of your SC400 out there in the wild! Glad to see you've got it as you want it to be, Barbary! And I thought you'd probably appreciate the mood of that driving scene from "Electroma" Blasting along those desert and mountain roads in an SC is a great experience!
Ran into a situation lately that I'm looking for some advice from members
Things were running along fine until now. The car has started bouncing at regular bumps. Not sure what has happened, I've never driven or even been in a car w coilovers so I don't have a reference point, don't know if the coils have loosened up or what?
Took it back to the shop here in the mountains where they installed the coilovers, they put it on a lift looked around and they didn't know what to do. I told them there is a wrench to tighten but the owner said if he tightened it would raise the car. I don't want that.____so this is an aside:
Can't really blame anyone here. I've been running out here in the 4 corners states in a Chevy 4X4 Blazer since the 90's now the Lexus for the last 20 yrs. I don't know how hard it is to believe this. From the top of Utah to Arizona/Mexican border. From Colorado to the California border I don't recall ever seeing another Lexus SC!
Now having lived in this area for a yr and a half. In the Bay Area it was easy to see another one. I have never seen one here, for all I know the "Bullet" might be the 1st and maybe only one
They Love the car here, I get nods and comments. I'm at a gas station filling up yesterday, a guy on the other side is looking and looking, finally can't help himself, (usually they can't help themselves), that's the funny part, comes over says he had one at one time, told him it was the 400 and had a quick chat. The guys working in the shop on my car started talking they liked it. Another thing might be hard to believe; I've never been hassled up here for driving a purple car and I've been all over the place, really out there.
I need help in stiffening up the suspension and getting rid of this bounce. I told the shop its a big bounce.
All advice is welcome
Barbary
The coilovers you have installed do probably still need a bit of "preload" in order to keep things from coming loose and to provide a nice ride. This means tightening that lower collar up towards the spring a bit to put a little bit of compression on the spring. It may raise the car a hair, however, not having that preload can allow the spring to float in there over decent bumps and can cause issues with the ride.
When I first installed my do-it-yourself coil-over system in my SC (the "Gixxer-Drew" setup that is hard to replicate these days) I also had an issue initially with not quite having enough preload on the rear springs. Over some bumps (such as at train crossings) I wouldn't get a bounce or handling issues but I would hear a loud "PONG!" noise as the springs re-settled after the suspension was near fully uncompressed for a half second before it became re-loaded again.
The solution for me (and that coilover system) was to install a set of additional "helper" springs on each rear shock in addition to the main springs. I bought the correct helper springs but still haven't installed them because it has been a very long time since I have noticed the issue since. But I probably should at some point.
The "bounce" you're describing could be due to a lack of pre-load that can be solved by tightening the adjustment rings on your coil-overs or it could be a new development due to the relatively new coil-overs on your car having settled, finally. All new springs and coil-overs "settle in" eventually after they have been installed. Probably a small adjustment is all that is needed if the issue persists.
Another factor is how stiff the shock settings are, the spring rates at the front and rear and whether or not those coil-over springs are "progressive-rate" or "linear-rate".
06-11-21, 02:41 AM
Blasting along those desert and mountain roads in an SC is a great experience! 