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Project Nissan Sentra Spec-V part 5; Lessons in Geometry

Mike Kojima posted on April 20, 2010 16:09

Nissan Spec-V rear hubs 5 lug conversion

The rear hubs were not so simple. The stock rear hub material is thin in areas where there is no stud so we could not redrill the stock hub. Instead we used hubs from a 1995-1999 Maxima.

Sentra Spec-V 5 lug hub adaptor
These hubs have a larger bearing so Technosquare had to make some adaptor sleeves on a lathe to fit over the stock axle stubs. Using the sleeves, installing the beefier hubs is a simple bolt on matter. Next we pressed out the short stock Maxima studs and pressed in the longer racing ARP studs.

Machining Sentra 5 lug adapter

Now we can have quite a choice of different high quality wheels in the proper size as well as have a more sturdy connection between the wheel and hub. We chose the lightweight and strong Volk TE37 from an RSX Type S fitment. We will discuss the wheels later.

The Nissan Sentra Spec-V is a pretty decent handling car but the suspension is plagued with problems due to its econobox heritage when the car is pushed to the limit. Since our car is a serious maximum effort to build the fastest track going Sentra ever, we will now have to get into seriously re-engineering the suspension geometry to try to make up for the cars inherent short comings.

VOLK TE37

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Posted in: Magazine, Tech, Project Cars, Browse by Vehicle, Nissan, Project Spec V, Sentra

Actions: E-mail | Permalink | Comments (12)

Comments

# mikemiessler

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 11:06 PM

do you think these tricks would work on the B14 since the suspension is basically the same with floppy MacPhearson fronts and a torsion beam rear?

# Mike Kojima

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 12:01 AM

Yes we did the same stuff on this car.
http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/tabid/59/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1411/The-Dog-II.aspx

# Horsewidower

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 9:17 AM

Great job and some nice fab work. Did you use a computer model to determine your geometry changes? I still get a lot of satisfaction out of drawing them out on grid paper.

# BenFenner

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 9:21 AM

I'm reading through the article and I like the simplicity of the 5-lug conversion on the front but the rear is more complicated. Was any thought given to beefing/welding up the rear hub so the same process could have been used?

Love those ARP wheel studs. I had endless problems with NISMO studs and fell in love with my ARP studs once I installed them. They are exceptional in every way.

# Mike Kojima

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 7:37 PM

I probably should have figured out how to use the Maxima front hubs, I heard the RTR car used them.

# sticky667

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 11:00 PM

from the Speed WC tech docs. looks like they only used the knuckle/hub and lower control arm. ball joint is larger but didn't matter since they relocated the pivot anyways. the arm matches up with the subframe mounts.

# Joe

Thursday, May 06, 2010 12:00 AM

It was interesting to read the article, everything Mike was describing with the car I can relate to with my car.

I like the work done to convert the rear beam and the trick adjustable swaybay. My '96 Maxima has alot of load on the outside front wheel on hard cornering and bump steer issues from lowering. Adjustable bits are being made for the front suspension but I was stumped on how to reduce the roll center on the rear suspension, until now. Thank you for sharing with us Mike.

Also I agree that the NISMO wheel studs are not so good. I think a FWD car Running R compounds and track driving with them is looking for trouble. I stretched the threads and broke one stud after a two day track event at NJMP. I switched to ARP Mitsu EVO studs on all 4 corners and went back to NJMP with no wheel stud issues.

# SE-Rviceenginesoon

Saturday, May 15, 2010 2:33 PM

Mike - I have always wanted to mimic your tie rod end mod, and have discovered there are a lot of us sentra owners that want to as well. One owner has made adapter sleeves to change the thread pitch to standard, but I noticed you have found female M12x1.25 rod ends somewhere. So my ? is ... where, for the love of God, did you find those? I am only able to find M12x1.75's. If you were to point me in the right direction many of us would be super appreciative.

# Mike Kojima

Sunday, May 16, 2010 2:32 PM

No they are 5/8"

# Nismo Sentra S-Tune(99)

Thursday, July 01, 2010 6:19 AM

Hey, the relocation of the ball joints by welding a bung and using a heim joint...do you think something like that could be used on a street car? do you think it can handle the rigors of everyday driving and autox? Figure i'd ask the pro's before i attempt it, or should i be a guinea pig?

# RedDragonV09

Wednesday, January 05, 2011 1:14 PM

Hey Mike, Im in need of doing the bump steer fix and roll center fix to my b15 track car. Are you willing to release the measurments on all the hardware, where you got them, and a measurement of where to cut the control arm where you welded the bung for that spherical bearing? Id really appreciate the help!

# Chris

Wednesday, April 25, 2012 7:46 PM

I know on one of the B15 boards, they have a sticky on how to convert the hubs to 5 lug without drilling the hubs. So if you want to do the 5 lug, you can do what they do

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