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Stephonovich

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About Stephonovich

  • Birthday 02/10/1988

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    Charleston, SC

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  1. Thanks for the answer, John. I definitely need to get it up in the air and take a good look. I crawled under it a couple days ago and it looks like maybe there's brake fluid, or at least something shiny around the right rear wheel cylinder. I haven't had the time this week to do more than slightly educated guessing.
  2. For what it's worth, I replaced the broken set, and took apart and re-greased the other. The other side appeared to be massive over-torqued, severely squishing the bushings. I read 15 ft lbf as a torque spec somewhere. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a torque wrench up there and see it, so I went with the "feels about right" method. The pulling is diminished. I think after re-checking torque (one side seems a little low based on thread protrusion through the nut) and letting everything settle, it might disappear entirely.
  3. Yesterday my '75 280 started pulling to the right under braking. This morning I did some troubleshooting. No wheel appears to be not contributing to braking, although it's possible there's a blockage not permitting full force on a wheel - my crude method was just to jam the brake pedal and turn the wheel. Increased effort = OK. When I looked at the suspension, though (suspecting tension control rod), I found this on the right sway bar. It has some play in it. Could a blown sway bar bushing cause a braking pull? Googling was ambiguous; some said yes, some no. I plan on replacing it in any case; they're only $16 EDIT: Sway bar end link, to be precise. My mistake.
  4. Since I got my '75 280Z, the passenger window hasn't worked. Once it came down, it stayed down. I figured some part of the regulator was broken, and decided to try to fix it. I found very few threads discussing it anywhere; the best I found was a service manual at XenonS30. This is also where I discovered that they changed the regulator design in '77, making the pieces way beefier. Oops. I ended up just re-greasing mine and putting it back together, worked like a champ. I took what pictures I could; I apologize that everything isn't documented. As the afternoon drew longer I got tired of taking off gloves to snap a picture. Side note on that, I strongly recommend you wear Mechanics Gloves during this. You'll be reaching inside the door a lot, and while the metal is rolled, it'd be quite easy to slice your finger. You will need: Optional: A new regulator set for a '75/'76 280Z. I imagine the procedure is pretty similar for the 240Z and later years of 280Z (2+2 has more parts involved, sorry guys), so do what you can. Not optional: Lithium grease - I recommend the white spray variety, but I used high temperature goop because it's what I had. Large Philips head screwdriver 10mm wrench/socket - almost all the bolts are 10mm with an integral Philips head. Wrenches/sockets have a lot more torque potential than the screwdriver, but use what you want. Start by removing the door trim. Mine was held on by three screws; one clearly visible on the upper left of the armrest (I assume there's a cover over it normally), and the other two sunk into the lower part of the armrest. There are also some plastic snap-in pieces on the perimeter. My interior is in pretty bad shape overall, so these popped out quite easily for me. YMMV. Note that you have to pull off the following two pieces to get the door trim off. Clearly aftermarket (previous owner), these just unscrew. No idea about stock. The silver plate that covers the door latch is held on by a single black screw. OK, pull the trim piece off! It should look like this when you pull the trim off. The two screws/bolts on the far left center hold the front guide channel (called a front sash in the manual) in place. The two screws in the middle (yep, there should be four - that's how I found it) hold the crank assembly in place. Kind of washed out, but the two nuts in the oval indentation, right side, above the hole - those hold the rear guide channel in place. It has studs attached to it, which protrude through the door. There are two screws/bolts holding the door handle to that metal plate at the bottom. Remove them, and wiggle the cable off the handle. The four nuts holding that metal plate in place come off, which allows you to pull the plate out. You'll need all that room, believe me. You also need to pull the window trim (the metal runner along the top of the door, parallel to the ground) and the door sash (metal trim that the window rolls up into) before you can remove the regulator and glass. The trim just pops off; the door sash has screws/bolts - two on the leading edge, on the first angle going forward from the flat; three on the trailing edge, where it meets the door jam (one at the bottom, two near the top). You also need to remove the window crank - mine was already off, as it was broken. From what I've read, there's a C-clip you have to pull off with needle nose pliers. There's probably a better way to remove the assembly; I unbolted everything (supporting the window) and then pulled it out one by one. The window comes up through the top with some trouble, and the crank assembly comes up with a lot of trouble. The manual states it can go through the holes in the door, but I wasn't able to do that. Pull everything out however you can. These two demonstrate the year differences. The newer looking stuff is froma '77. Not only is it beefier, the arrangement of the spring and gear is different. And, this is where the pictures stop. Not much to it after this. If you have a new set, make sure the guides are well greased. If you're re-using your set, as I did, clean everything off well, and re-grease. I used PB Blaster to get the old gunk off everything. For re-installation, the easiest way I found was to install the front sash first, but only secured with one bolt. Angle the window towards the front of the car and slide it down, then line up the guide rail on the window with the front sash and partially slide it in. Use the window crank to raise/lower the regulator until the rollers are near the guide rails on the window. Use force, coercion, and magic dances to line them up. It took me about 10 minutes to get all three of them aligned. Note, you can pop the long gear off the crank if you force it past its normal range of motion. If you do that, you'll have to pull the regulator out and push the gear against the tension spring to get it to re-engage the crank. Once they're all in place and tightened, raise and lower the window, making sure all the moving parts are greased as you do so. Replace the door sash. When you roll the window up, you will probably notice that it's cockeyed in some way. If it's wrong parallel to the top of the door sash, loosen and adjust the front sash (the long guide near the front of the door). If it's cockeyed fore or aft, loosen and adjust the guide channel (the small one to the rear of the door) - specifically, if it angles to the rear of the car, move the guide channel up; if it angles to the front of the car, move the guide channel down. Once the window is aligned, replace all trim, and hope you don't have extra or missing bolts.
  5. I had heard bad things about rebuilt Z MCs. Not sure how much truth there is to that (I've bought reman parts with no problems), but I was basing my pricing on a new MC. Wilwood 1" is cheaper than a new OEM. I concur, especially after I drove it today - started pulling like crazy to the right under braking. With luck, the two are related, but I highly doubt it. Pull was too strong for it to be a rear brake, if it's a brake issue at all. Could also be a tension rod. Sigh. Thank you all for the advice. I'll get it sorted out one way or another.
  6. As a bump, and also some more info, I do plan on honing the cylinder while I'm at it. I know throwing new rubber into a possibly scored cylinder is useless.
  7. Several months ago, my brake pedal went to the floor when I was backing out of my driveway. It had some stopping force, but barely. Determined that the rear-most cylinder on the MC was empty. Refilled it, and eventually got pressure back. I never got around to bleeding the system or doing any more troubleshooting because I was moving soon. I decided to try a rebuild kit, on the basis that it's the original MC, and the seals are probably shot. I haven't taken it apart yet to check the piston. I found this page, which mentions the two brands being Tokico and Nabco. Mine is a Tokico. Well, I ordered a rebuild kit, which is Beck Arnley, and the interior package says Seiken on it, with a P\N of 071-3511. Googling hasn't turned up very much about Seiken. Does anyone know if this is compatible with a Tokico MC? Also, I found this thread, which holds the opinion that it's a waste of time to rebuild a MC, and also discusses the difficulty with the vacuum booster. I don't intend to touch the booster - when you unbolt the MC from the booster, is the spring referenced in the thread exposed? Bottom line, if this isn't worth the time or energy, I'm probably going to do the Wilwood 1" swap. Otherwise, I was perfectly happy with my braking system when it was working (Brembo front rotors/calipers, stock drums rear).
  8. Thanks for all the help, guys - as it turned out it was a combination of the cable sticking and the nut (which I removed). Ended up not having to bend the shaft.
  9. I realized today while looking under the hood that my gas pedal only opens the throttle about half-way. I destroyed some throttle cable (lucky there's a lot) re-mounting it to the throttle body before I realized there's an adjustable nut beneath the gas pedal, on the floor. I completely removed that nut, and then found out that I was still getting the same amount of throttle travel - there's increased stress that can be felt after some pedal travel, but the throttle does not open any more. Pushing the cable through the guide results in the same, as if there's an internal stop. I'm using the stock pedal, stock LS1 throttle, and a Lokar throttle cable.
  10. I have Centerline 16x8 +0, with Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec 225/50R16. I had horrendous rubbing on the rears until I got the fenders rolled. I suspect they still do a bit, but as others mentioned, it's very difficult to prove. My only other recourse would be to tighten the suspension more, but it's already at 3 out of 5 (Tokico Illuminas). Alternately, I could go with small tires. Nah. Besides, the only other size for Star Specs in 16" are 205. I'm afraid that might not be enough for the LS1. 225 is already pushing it; traction is really only solid once you hit 3rd.
  11. Just put in some fuel stabilizer, since it won't be driven much for awhile. The bottle said to run the engine for 5 minutes after. Seemed reasonable. Dry roads and daylight proved beneficial. Wound the motor up to near readline (at least, the torque tapered off - still no tach) in 2nd and 3rd this time. Got going way too fast, discovered something: the rear tires are too wide for the fenders, even after being rolled. Result is they are being shaved at a disturbing rate. I'm wondering if I stiffened the suspension (on all 4 wheels, naturally) if that would help; the Tokico Illuminas have 5 settings, and it's currently on 1 [Lowest]. Only other alternative is, of course, fender flares, which I am loathe to do.
  12. First of all, here's a video of it revving, and two more pictures (because everyone does). The "HEY!" at the end is my wife coming out to yell at me for making the house rattle:D Quick idle rev As to the clutch, from what little I've driven it so far, I like it. It's quite grabby (550 lb-ft max rating), but smooth engagement. Not abrupt at all. No more difficulty in clutch feel than stock 280Z (never driven an F-body, so I can't comment on its feel).
  13. My original Z, a '78 in beautiful factory metallic blue, suffered a fatal electrical fire (internal battery short, fire investigator said) in October of '09, so eventually, a replacement was had. A fellow in TX had a "mostly rust free" '75 in Maroon. Shell only, with aftermarket wheels. For $500, why not? It was a real doozy. There was also a hole in the passenger footwell (which he had alluded to), some minor rust on the front right quarter panel, and as it turned out, all over the seams for the floorpans. Also, the rear strut braces. Due to my boat (USS MISSOURI) being gone for most of the year, I gave the car up to a local speed shop and waited. And waited. And waited. Nine months later, I finally took delivery. The tach isn't in, the speedo sending unit isn't working, the heater doesn't work, the turn signals don't work, and it goes like a bat out of hell Drove it home tonight in the brisk New England air, ambient temperature 14F. Surprisingly, the Dear-God-These-Are-Summer-Only (Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec) tires actually bit around 3rd gear. Didn't do any hell runs to avoid attracting imperial attention, but anything below 5th pushes you back, and past what I assume is about 3K RPM, glorious, glorious noises ensue. Fine, I lied... on the onramp I nailed it in 2nd and after it decided to go straight, I snagged 3rd (traction, yay!) and watched as headlights behind me disappeared. Probably only about 80 MPH or so if I had to guess, but getting there is such a rush. So now, specs: '99 LS1 w/ T56 JTR CAI Sanderson shorty headers Texas Speed ported LS6 oil pump South Bend Stage II clutch Stock rearend, w/ RT Diff mount JTR radiator w/ Lincoln MK VIII fan Stock ECU w/ Wait4Me Performance tune Speartech reworked harness Stock rear brakes, Brembos in front w/ Hawk HPS pads, Russell braided brake lines Painless 18 circuit wiring harness Tokico Illuminas Urethane bushing kit Camaro fuel tank, with Racetronix kit Centerline 16x8 +0 offset (those also took about 6 months to snag...) Total price was, um... probably pushing $11K all said and done. (and it still needs paint!) I love it!
  14. 1999 LS1 ~35K miles, T56, ECU, all accessories - $2500 (also a "I spent 6 months perusing forums for this" steal) In fairness, it was missing three coilpacks, the MAF, and the clutch was smoked. So that was another $870 for everything. Did get a South Bend Stage II clutch, though, so it wasn't all bad.
  15. Quick poke to revive this topic... my swap is done, and these will soon be available for sale. It'd be great to know what they are/what they're worth.
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