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USA NOPI, Atlanta

Typical items are NGK or Bosch leads for around 63-70$US/£38. Neither Bosch nor NGK leads are available in the UK.

USA Items

Shock absorbers
UK MX6/626 cars use Tokico Black, fluid non-adjustable. European struts are a slightly different length to their USA counterparts. Sourcing in the UK is best done from the USA via USPS surface shipment offering significant saving.

Tokico Blue = Gas charged, non-adjustable (HP Illuminas Gas, 100$US)
Tokico White = Gas charged, adjustable (HP Illuminas Gas, 5-way adjustable, 130$US)

Koni offer Sport (yellow) adjustable shocks for the Probe, part # Front: 8610-1305SP & Rear: 8610-1306SP but it must be noted these are inserts. Fitment is therefore complex requiring dissassembly of your Tokico strut, but does offer the option of easy rebuilding & revalving by Bilstein/Koni. Koni red are similar inserts but require total disassembly for adjustment. On both offerings the waiting time is likely to be several months.

Leda offer coilovers in 2.25" in gas-charged adjustable, fluid adjustable, and fluid non-adjustable versions. True coilovers allow the use of linear tender/main-springs and progressive-tender/main springs. Thus a ride can be tailored to specific requirements (US autox to medical). Ground Control coilovers are available, but only main springs may be used and they require modification to existing struts for fitment. In addition for a decent ride to be maintained they need 8"-300lb/in springs up front to be fitted which would result in ride height increase for Probe owners albeit with a vastly improved ride & handling - formula ford like.

Clutches
Centerforce, www.centerforce.com, offer a range of clutches with 30%, 60% and 90% (dual friction) uptrading. All offer the same pedal-load but increasing clamping capacity (tackling a short-coming in the stock clutch). All clutches are a standard design using the Daiken clutch plate with take-up dampening springs, and gets increased clamping capacity by weights on the clutch spring fingers experiencing centripetal force with rpm.

ACT offer clutches, but require the clutch master-cylinder damper rod to be adjusted to ensure total disengagement and involve higher pedal effort.

Ferodo in the UK list a fitment, and AP/Borg-&-Beck are likely to be able to make one up with higher than 1510N pressure-plate clamping force which is an insufficient increase over the 2.0 for the torque of the 2.5.

In choosing a clutch some factors are critical: "puck" clutches that lack take-up springs are unsuitable for road use and will cause shock loadings to the crankshaft & gearbox. Since the crankshaft is forged, the gearbox will be the sufferer regarding spider gear shafts, and thrust bearings. This applies to any road vehicle - race clutches are not for street use.

Last Upload: 24th October, 2002. V1.52a
URL: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dorothy.bradbury/probemx/p_m1.htm