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460ZGT Project Build


yellowoctupus

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Tranny is out, putting in another T-45 (lets hope this one shifts into reverse!). I'm putting in a reman LUK clutch/pressure plate this week, and figured while all this is out, I might as well finish up the shifter so it fits under the stock center console. Needless to say, it's really tight up there. The shifter comes out of the transmission right below the rear defrost/ haz light switches, so there's maybe 1" of room for the shifter to move back and forth with. It's too bad it's so tight, I got a T-45 B&M shifter at the pick n pull and wanted to use it (it has adjustable stops), but there's no way it would fit. No way no how.

 

I had some broken 3mm German Allen drivers from work that somebody threw out, they're made out of some really nice steel with a funky red rubber handle (actually pretty ergonomic). I reefed on one in a vice exerting at least 4x the force I would shifting and it didn't bend at all. (It's 5/16" in diameter). I am still using the stock shifter ball joint, but I cut it off super short, drilled a 5/16" hole in it, and pressed in the allen arm. Once I gave it the crazy dogleg bends (heated it up with a oxy/act torch) and test fit it in the car with my junk console, I welded the shaft end into the hole to prevent it from rotating during gate changes. (from the 1-2 to 3-4 gate; Left to right movement, etc)

 

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Next up is the speedo/tach. I don't have pictures yet, and they're not 100% done (still have to finish up backlighting, check engine light etc) but I massaged a set of gauges from a 1994 T-bird into the stock tach and speedo pods. I put them in a day before pulling the tranny, so I at least got to test them first.

 

Speaking of the speedo cal, after I put them in, of course the speedo wasn't dead on. It has a 21 tooth driven gear, and what it needs is a 23. Ford Racing has a good chart of part nubmers -->http://www.fordracingparts.com/download/tipsPDF/SpeedometerGearUsageChart.pdf but of course no 23 tooth gear. The only FORD solution is pulling the tailshaft extension housing off and changing the drive gear from the 8 tooth to the 6 or 7. Luckily for all the actual Ford racing guys out there, Steeda and a bunch of other companies offer a non Ford PN 23 tooth gear! Yay! -->http://www.uprproducts.com/mustang-23-tooth-speedo-gear.html

Edited by yellowoctupus
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  • 4 weeks later...
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Sooooooo, with the new clutch in, the crazy Chrysler dual brake MC I put in just barely doesn't push enough fluid to disengage the clutch. The car's basically undriveable, although I kinda revmatched it around the block once or twice.

 

Here's a PDF of the Tilton Master Cylinder I'm putting in tomorrow. It's a 1" bore, 1.2" stroke brake/clutch universal MC. Scored it from evilbay, and it came with a drawing dated 1985. It's great to see a company come up with a design and then keep it for years in production, instead of coming out with some throw away design every other year, making your three year old part unserviceable. Ok, sorry for bichin, I'm off my soap box.

 

FYI, clutch pedal stroke is maxed out at 1" at the stock pushrod location. Maybe you could stretch a little more travel out of it, but that would require removing the floor bumpstop, or changing the adjustable 'topout' bumper. With a 7/8" slave cylinder (Wilwood pull) and 1" Tilton MC with 1" travel, I can get 1.4" travel from the slave. I was going to upload an easy clutch component calculator I made in excel to this post, but I can't attach it for some reason. Send me a PM if you want it, and I'll email it to you. You just put in the three of the four things you know (MC travel, slave travel, slave piston diameter, MC piston diameter) and it will spit out the last variable for you.

 

The 'doglegged' shifter arm I made JUST BARELY fits under the hazard light switch in the center console (maybe 3/16" clearance), I wasn't kidding about having to cut the stock shifter down short. Also, I had to make a fancy pocketed shifter hole cover since the shifter arm dips so low for clearance. I may make the shifter arm a little bit longer, as it looks like a short shifter with the console pleather boot installed.

 

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I also now have the full wiring figured out for my stock Hitachi radio, including how to run an MP3 player into it. smile.gif I have a jack wired into the ashtray in the center console, so it's still bone stock looking inside the passenger compartment.

TiltonMC.pdf

Edited by yellowoctupus
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  • 2 weeks later...

Not a 4.6 update, but the radio's all hooked up. Kind've a pain to do with no stock brackets, but it's pretty sturdy and all lines up nice. There's a switch in the ashtray; you switch power from the radio to one of the pins on the Aux input plug, and the amp is powered through the AUX input instead. Kooky, eh? I'll post wiring details later. Nissan did some weird stuff that is left out of all their factory wiring diagrams like switching wire colors at harness plugs etc. Also, FYI the center knobs are not stock, I was missing one of the black plastic ones, so I put a set-screw into some solid aluminum ones from a 70's Sanyo radio on it which worked out pretty well.

 

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Edited by yellowoctupus
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  • 1 month later...

Ford cruise control is in and is working. Eventually I'll find a better switch location, but this easily housed all the resistors/ switches for easy prototyping. Not sure what the box was for originally, but whenever I find little switch/project boxes like this I horde em. DSC09725.jpg

 

Helps to have big hood scoops for running wires cool.gif

 

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I also got the stereo working with WAY better sound quality, originally it just has those two 3" speakers right below the quarter windows, I put in some 8" Alpines and ran an Alpine amp under the rear deck floor, for a completely clean installation. You wouldn't know anything was different unless you pulled the seats back. IMHO it is a way better setup than taking up the little space that is in the hatch area with separate speaker boxes. Overall they came out real nice, and the sound quality is not even comparable (compare watching Starwars on your crappy TV speakers or at the movies). I actually ran both the subs and 3" speakers in parallel with no crossover to the amp and the amp to my mp3 player in the ashtray (where the toggled power switch is) and they sound RELATIVELY balanced. Maybe a little too much power to the 3" Boston Acoustics, but it's not bad. My old 8" Alpines were completely blown when I took them out of their boxes (who knew??), so with some Aleene's craft glue and new foam surrounds (from Bootapest on evilbay, under $10 shipped), they are working great again! Way cheaper than replacing them with even crappy speakers. Another note, if you get 2+2 carpeting, it's almost EXACTLY the same as 2 seater rear carpeting, except you have to trim some extra material at the tranny hump (at the back of the center console). I got some for $2 at the junkyard in great shape, sure beats my old tan household carpet that was back there!

 

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Almost forgot, this is a real handy trick for protecting wires, hoses etc on rough/ sharp holes. It's just plastic wire loom conduit, when you put it in a cutout, it springs tight and won't fall back out.

 

 

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Edited by yellowoctupus
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  • 1 month later...

Well, I've had the car up on jackstands the last two weeks on my original quest to find a rear end vibration which has led itself into a quest for giant brakes. Hmph. In the meantime, I found some interesting things while digging into the brake system.

 

My booster was full of brake fluid. Like, there was over a cup in there. It's been in there for the last 5 years, as I replaced the MC back in 2007. The insides are nice and clean (and paint free). I would not recommend taking one of these suckers apart, as they're a PITA to put back together properly, and not have any leaks where the two halves come together. I ended up (after the third try with these tiny vacuum leaks on the seam) putting it together with a bead of RTV on the diaphragm edge. I let it sit for two days, and it seems to have fixed the problem. I haven't had the car fired up again to see if the booster is good to go now. I think the only other problem I might have is if the air valve isn't unseating for some reason (old, swollen rubber or something) then I'm getting no pressure differential ie, no power brakes.

 

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Front Discs. I'm sure the concours guys know this, but I hadn't noticed it before; the calipers are painted half yellow, half black.

 

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I decided to do a brake swap up front, using the four piston Toyota 4x4 brakes. Instead of the S12W variants, I got mine off a 1994 4Runner, which are S13WB calipers. They look similar, and bolt right up to the mount in the same manner. However, as has been mentioned before in the FAQ section, they are different (Overall wider, and also require a wider rotor). I'm using the 84ZX vented front rotors.

 

I had to grind down the cooling fins a bit to clear one of my sets of wheels. I also have to run 3/16" wheel spacers, and I will be using the Dorman PN 610-403 Nissan Quest rear wheel stud. (I have attached a three page PDF of the Dorman catalog with this info in it.)

 

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I'm thinking of making some 'pad spacers' to reduce this gap instead of finding/ machining another rotor.

 

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Making the rotor spacer, I somehow already had discs cut the right OD and thickness laying around the shop. Odd, but convenient. The tool I used isn't the best quality, but I replaced the crappy keystock cutter with a HSS flycutter, and it will do some rudimentary machining.

 

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Spacer mounted.

 

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Rear Discs:

 

 

I have slightly loose rear wheel bearings, which I'm planning on replacing. While I have the rear end apart, I have decided to go to discs too. I have a late 80's Maxima caliper bracket I'll probably use, not sure which rotor/ caliper yet.

 

Pulling the rear stub axle was tricky, but I made do with my homemade puller. I had a front motorcycle axle laying around (81 CB650??) that has the same M12x1.25 thread, and I pulled the top cap off an extra lug nut to make this puller. Worked great, but still took a lot of hammering.

 

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Has anyone seen this grease before?? It's blue!

 

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zstuds.pdf

Edited by yellowoctupus
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This PDF is from a Lexus training manual, it's got GREAT explanations of brake boosters etc. I really tried to put my tandem Dodge Viper booster in, but it majorly interferes with the valve cover. angry.gif

 

This is the reason I'm slow with my Z project --> my wife's 65 that we just finished a complete resto on this month.

 

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brake05.pdf

Edited by yellowoctupus
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  • 4 months later...

So, I finally got around to making a real cruise control switch panel, to update from my prototype box (earlier post, #24). I built my prototype box per the EVTM specs, and it worked perfectly (you use different switched resistors to select coast, acc, res etc).

 

On the latest revision however, I used the accel/coast rocker switch from a Ford steering wheel, and two momentary switches for 'on' and 'off'. The crazy thing is that it appears from the factory Ford made their circuit board backwards! At least it doesn't match up with the Mustang EVTM or the cruise control switch itself. The circuit board that the switches are soldered to is printed 'coast' under the 'accel' button and has the correct 'coast' resistor there. Which makes it operate backwards. Hit coast and it accelerates. Lol. What next?? Thankfully it's an easy fix, as I can just take it out (glad I wired in disconnects in my harness) and swap the resistors.

 

I just used the empty filler panel that sits next to the hazard and rear defroster switches. Nice of Nissan to think ahead for me smile.gif. Was there ever another option for that panel? I haven't seen one yet.

 

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Edited by yellowoctupus
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I'm in awe of the amount of work you have put in to this.

 

My wife agrees it's better than boozing and chasing women, so she lets me spend a ridiculous amount of time in the garage.

 

Nicely done! A bit less cumbersome than the 1st iteration. :D It will be nice to have cruise in the Z for those long highway trips.

 

Now that I shimmed up the engine mount on the passenger's side, the exhaust manifold doesn't vibrate into the frame, and in turn my foot no longer falls asleep after a 20min drive. Nonetheless I do love cruise, as I have fairly bad speed regulation (normally to the high side....)

 

Thanks for the props, I'm kinda whittling down the really neat projects, but I still have some maintenance items and a few more cosmetics to knock off my list. (Bushings, struts, paint/install the rear spoiler, new front carpet, finish up my gauges, align the headlights...hmm...wow. I need to spend more time looking at other people's projects and get some ideas for more work!)

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Well, I've got close to 8k miles on the swap now I think. I'm looking for work right now, so I'm trying to really buckle down and finish some of the stuff I've been meaning to do the last few years (v8 swap excluded).

 

My Dad always laughs when he's visits me; I think he's only been able to ride in it once. It's always in pieces for a supercharger, or engine swap, or transmission work or something else ridiculous. You're right, I probably should just drive it and enjoy for a while.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you sooooo much for sharing this with all of us. You really have a sweet ride. A chevy is nice but this is really classy and exotic and something totally different. I own a 1976 280z and a 1994 lincoln with a 4.6. The other day I was looking at the two and going Hmmmmmmm. So needless to say, I am really excited to see the pics and read about this. Please keep up the updates....Thanks, Coolness

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This PDF is from a Lexus training manual, it's got GREAT explanations of brake boosters etc. I really tried to put my tandem Dodge Viper booster in, but it majorly interferes with the valve cover. :angry:

 

This is the reason I'm slow with my Z project --> my wife's 65 that we just finished a complete resto on this month.

 

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This is kinda funny, I have an S30 (obvious that I would own a Z car being on the site), and my Girlfriend has a '65 Mustang as well, that we are in the beginning stages of starting a build on. :D

 

You may want to consider something like this for the shifter:

http://www.mustangsplus.com/tech/speedshifter/index.html

Edited by Six_Shooter
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Yeah, they seem go to hand in hand. (Great minds think alike, etc.) I had a good friend in SC that when I met him, he and his dad both had 240's and he was building a 65 Mustang for his wife.

 

My wife's Mustang is on the road, pretty much all restored, runs great etc. And I have a 351w + 4sp I just got, 8.8 rear end, etc etc. Looks like it'll be back off the road for a little while.... :roll: Why don't all cars just come from the factory with the right engines. Oh boy Detroit, maybe someday you'll learn.

 

I didn't know anyone offered those shifters as an aftermarket unit. I found lots of guys who were making them for Miata swaps, and other T56 transplants. There is NO WAY I can fit something that big under the stock console unfortunately. I really wanted to run the B&M shifter that I got at a U Pull ($7!!!!) but it was entirely too large. All of the Ford guys say to run an aftermarket one with adjustable stops, as many of the blown T45/T56 trannies are due to overshifts with the stock Borg Warner/Tremec shifter. In the end, I made my shifter a 2 piece unit. If you follow the shifter handle down about 2" on the straight part of the shaft, I cut it, and made a coupling/clamp that fits under the boot. This was to get the shifter handle up higher, and to make getting the console in and out easier. Shifting feels great, I was REALLY surprised it wasn't all wonky.

Edited by yellowoctupus
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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd like to add my thanks for the amount of detail you've supplied. Like many here I've been looking at my 240z that coming back from paint and thinking since it's not the original L24 in it why not put the 2001 4.6 4v SVT I have in it. I've got it soup to nuts from the tranny to the dash wiring. I've read ALL the post here on the ford v8's and while some others have worked on the 4v swap none I've read are on the road. Even though yours is a 2v seeing it on the road helps. I believe between the other 4v post and what you have here I can sort it out. Before the critics start in I'll state I already own that 4v ( was intended for my Studebaker) and can't really afford to see it sit while I fork out more cash for a chevy LS. Also, like a lot of folks here it seems kind of cool to open the hood and see nothin' but motor!

 

Thanks again for sharing all this with us.

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  • 4 weeks later...

cool ride man that grease by the way looks like Marine grease. it is that light blue turquoise color. actually pretty good stuff to use for normal applications. if you don't need high temp or any specialty grease it does just as good a job as normal grease and is slightly better at repelling water

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