[Flyin' Hawaiian]

Heh! Thought that would get ya to click this post!!!
Okay, so I've been wondering if anyone has tried to contact Tokico, to see if we can get another production run on the struts they discontinued for our Supras. I'm assuming that if we could get enough people in on a group buy(I'm thinking 50+ people here), that we could get a one-time run on the struts from Tokico(or maybe another company that had adjustables for the Supra).
I'm willing to call and get the buy together if there's enough interest, but I wanna have my info straight before calling them only to find out 6 or so people want them.
So, here's the deal. The poll is for 2 front adjustable Illumina struts from Tokico, part # HZ3062. Only vote if you're really able to purchase them, I'd like to give them a pretty close idea of just how many of us want these struts!

 

[FWDsux]

That'd be great if we could get these, but why not the whole set? From what I understand the valving is different and maybe the mounting points, so I don't see it being a big deal for them to do a strut AND some shocks....I know, tell them that I'd like the whole shebang, however, I would deal with only front struts if that proved the only option.

Deposit of $.02
Nick

 

[pdupler]

Koni, WILL do it. I asked them about 5 years ago about getting custom struts (rear shocks were still avail then). What they said to do was send in a strut housing and they will choose an appropriate unit from their existing catalog that fits the housing and revalve it appropriately for the supras weight if necessary. Cost back then was going to be around $200 each for a one-off order. I'm sure if you had a group, it'd make it more worth their while and they'd give some discount. Good luck.

Phil D.

 

[SlimFastSupra]

Aren't there still some KONI's floating around, or are they all gone?

Robert

 

[dohc82]

There is a set of TRD 7 way adjustable rears on Ebay right now for the MK2
wish I could afford to bid

-Wil

 

[Flyin' Hawaiian]

I'm not against going with Koni, but I'd like to see what Tokico can do for us . I think Tokico will be a bit cheaper than Koni will be, so let's try going thru them first. We don't even know if they will be open to the idea of opening another production run of a strut they discontinued years ago, so nothing is set in stone as of yet. We may just have to go thru Koni in the end!
Chris

 

[Malloy]

I know a sales manager @Tokico. I will email her and see what it takes to bring these back from the dead. I assume it will require a large wty that we will never fulfill.

 

[CJSREDPRA]

Chris,

I would be in for it also, BUT, as Nick mentioned, I would be more interested in them IF it was a complete set (front strut carts & rear shocks). I would LOVE to have a spare replacement set, when the current Illumina's that I bought from Don Lew finally die, I really wasn't looking forward to going back to the HP's.... Damn Illumina's have me really spoiled now.. 8) :shock:

Phil, Yes the Koni's are great, but the Illumina's are so much nicer, when you can get all 4 shocks/struts adjusted in about 30 seconds (pop the hood & hatch, remove the top caps, whip out your midget flatblade screwdriver & start turning to 1 of 5 positions/settings), vs. doing ?????? to adjust the Koni's.

 

[jdk_ii]

The Koni's Phil referenced are adjustable ON the car.

The ones at Classic Garage are off-car adjustable.

One of Koni's large distributors can re-make struts/shocks for the MK2.

I have the original Koni's one MK2, Illumina's on the second.

They both are very nice.

Koni's are slightly smoother, more so in the front, as they
do not have 1-5 "stops".

 

[jdk_ii]

I know a sales manager @Tokico. I will email her and see what it takes to bring these back from the dead. I assume it will require a large wty that we will never fulfill.

When I talked with them moons ago, they said 50 minimum. I suspect this is 50 sets.

Maybe your way with the ladies will help. ;-)

 

[Flyin' Hawaiian]

Okay, I'll work on getting the rears also, but I'll keep them as a separate buy in case folks only need the front or rear set. Does anyone have the Illumina rear shock part # handy?
Malloy, that would be great if you could get some inside info and possibly some help! I'm just hoping that you can at least get a person's name and number whom I can call for some straight answers!
I'm going to hold off calling anyone till next week, see what kind of response I get here. As it looks right now, there's not a whole lot of interest in the Illuminas, although its only been a day.
Jdk II, that's a bit of good news for me, as I was expecting a 50-minimum order anyway. I'm hoping they can still offer that to us at a reasonable price, say around $110.00 per strut.

 

[FWDsux]

I believe the rear Illumina number is BE2321. I hope that 50 sets isn't true.......Good luck, also, the front number is BZ3062; HZ3062 are the HP's.
Perhaps Tokico will pull their heads out and make another run for us!

 

[CJSREDPRA]

Nick,

The parts#'s that you have for the Illumina's are indeed the correct ones. 8)

 

[Flyin' Hawaiian]

Thanks for the heads up on the correct part numbers! So far, we really don't have enough interest in these struts, so unless we get another 20+ people really interested, it looks like I may be trying the Koni struts.
In any case, i WILL call Tokico just to see what their minimum order would be to bring these things back to life for the Supra! Who knows? They may just say 10 units to open it back up!

Yeah I know, wishful thinking... :wink:

 

[Malibyte]

Crap, wish I'd known this was in the works before I bought a and installed a set of Illuminas on my '84....!

I'd consider it for the '85 if the price was right....! The stock ones are still in real good shape, but I'd love to have a set of on-car adjustables.

-- Bob --

 

[Flyin' Hawaiian]

UPDATE!!! And it's not good...

Well folks, here's the deal, straight from Tokico's Tech line supervisor...
It seems that there were very few of the BZ3062 struts sold, that they discontinued it several years ago, and when they did remove it from their line, Japan destroyed the tooling for this strut(although I think this is just bs to get me off their asses about bringing them back). Unless we had a few THOUSAND orders, they would not be interested in re-tooling for these struts.
On top of that, Tokico will not divulge any information on the damping numbers on this strut, nor will they do any comparison to another similar strut they carry. Seems that they are taking the stand of, " it's mine and you can't have it!".
He did check the BZ 3074 numbers in his book, and after a little whining from yours truly, told me this:
Illumina cartridge lengths:
Supra: 15.500" BZ3062
Celica: 15.563" BZ3074

I also got one more listing, one that might be a little more compatible with Eibach springs(and others that lower the vehicle slightly). It's the BZ3038 cartridge. Seems that this is may be a better match in terms of vehicle's weight and requirements for rebound/compression figures. Here's the specs:
BZ3038 14.875"
NISSAN 280ZX 79-83 Front
910 Maxima Sedan 81-84 Front
910 Maxima SM 80-84 Front

Now for the million dollar question! Is there anyone-ANYONE AT ALL- who's able to take a cartidge for one of these vehicles and compare it to one from a Supra? It does NOT have to be an Illumina. Hell, it doesn't even need to be from Tokico for that matter! The info needed here is the diameter of the cartridge, a verification of the extended length from each, bolt diameter and thread pitch, and maybe a few compressions/rebounds on each to see if they feel similar in pressure exerted to compress and time for rebound! We're basically looking for any differences between the two. The only difference that should be noticeable should be the length, that's it!

Now, with all that said and done, once I exhaust all avenues to a Tokico replacement, I'll start on Koni!

Chris