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3 points
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Yes, still working on then, just have not posted anything. Bought some expensive components that take time to recover from. A blank PAMS head, that I then designed and has DelWest make me titanium intake valves, Inconel mnemonic stainless steel exhaust valves, also MoldStar 90 seats and guides. Had it assembled, and ports cleaned up for some nice flow numbers. Also purchased a Nismo 6 Speed Trans that was also strengthened and modified by HPI in Japan. I take some progress pics soon.3 points
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3 points
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Just looking at the picture that you posted of your steering shaft, it looks like the u-joints aren't phased correctly. It may be an optical illusion from the angle of the picture.2 points
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My photo album for the build is located here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/FEXaWgYEMedA2FJv9 My first project car is a 1973 Datsun 240Z. Like many cars, it was mostly stock with a lot of rust when I bought it around 5 years ago. I taught myself to weld and did all the rust repair. I replaced floorboards, frame rails, and many small patches in the fender wells. Then, I rebuilt the braking system and replaced numerous broken or rusted-out parts. Next, I re-gasketed the engine, drained the fuel tank, and cleaned the fuel system. I took the car down to bare metal and tried a DIY paint job. After that, I drove the car for about 3,000 miles around town and on a couple of road trips. I had my fair share of trouble. I had to replace a fuel pump, the alternator only puts out about 12.5 volts, and the wiring harness is starting to show its age, and the previous owners that created a rat's nest. Recently, I purchased another project car that came with a lot of parts and swapped them on. I added TTT coilovers all the way around, Arizona Z Car lower control arms front and rear, Arizona Z Car tie rods, upgraded front sway bar, new front valance, fender flares, and trimmed fenders for clearance, Watanabe wheels, and Toyo R888s (215 front and 235 rear.) I also cleaned up the interior a lot with new door cards and interior trim pieces. Recently, I replaced the billet diff mount with a new polyurethane one, fixed a lot of my early welding, did a full engine service, got the door handles working promptly, and modified the exhaust because it hung about four inches too low. After this, I put about another 2,000 miles on the car. All this work has the car in pretty good condition, but there are still a few things left to have a true daily driver quality car: 1.) Fix the exhaust. I got it tucked up nicely, but between my poor welding and previous owners, there are several leaks, and it sounds terrible. 2.) Rewire the car. I have the brake, reverse, and running lights working. However, I have never been able to get the turn signals to work, and the gauges work very seldomly. I have purchased a 21-circuit harness from EZ Wiring and will rewire the whole car in the next month or two. https://www.ezwiring.com/product-page/ez-wiring-21-standard-wiring-harness 3.) New gauges. EZ Wiring sells new gauage kits. I'm not sure if the 50-year-old gauges are broken or if the wiring harness is bad. So, I think I'm just going to replace the gauges with a set I know will work with the new harness. https://www.ezwiring.com/product-page/shark-mechanical-gauges 4.) Re-attach the skid plate. I had cut the plate off because the bolts were rusted and stuck in the car. I fixed the plate by welding some washers on the bolt holes, but I need to drill out all the old bolts and tap for new ones. I don't have the car lowered that much, so I'm not too concerned about it, but it would be a nice piece of mind. 5.) Alternator. Ever since I have owned the car, the alternator has not worked properly. Recently, I had the alternator rebuilt with quality parts and bench tested. I know it works, but the car is only putting out 12.5 volts when running. I have played with the wiring and got the alternator to put out 14 volts, but then you can smell the wires burning from too much juice. Like I said, there is a rat's nest from the previous owners. I am at least the fourth owner, but I don't have a full history of the car. I have an FSM, but the wiring guide no longer matches because of all the other owner's work. This is why I plan to replace the whole harness. I'm hoping the new harness with better relays with fix my charging issue. 6.) Alignment. After I put the new suspension on, I did a garage alignment, and it is pretty good, but I would like a professional to take a look. I have that scheduled for next week. 7.) New Dashboard. My current dashboard is pretty rough. It has several cracks and looks pretty bad. I have a newer, crackless dashboard. When I rewire the car, I'm hoping to swap the new one in and put some sound deadening behind the dash while I'm at it. I'll post my progress if anyone is interested, and I'm sure I will have a couple of questions. I know the last finishing touches take the most amount of time. I'll also answer any questions anyone has, but I'll warn you that I'm a hobbyist. My full-time job is as a lawyer, and I'm by no means the best mechanic in the world. My welding has also gotten a lot better, but it surely isn't that good. Thanks!2 points
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Please do post updates! It's always great to have another project thread on the site2 points
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When are you hoping to get this car on track? I'm hoping to do an SCCA track day at Sebring in February. It would be nice to see you guys there.2 points
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More work on the 4200 today. cleaned up the rest of the block and head, and then pulled the oil pan and cam cover. NO SLUDGE. very clean inside. I got the outside of the cam cover clean enough to at least get started on the modifications I will do to it (add an alloy oil fill to the back, add a breather port, shave off 2 original ports, cut off unnecessary brackets, weld up the original oil fill hole and probably lower it a bit as it is very tall . To fit under a Z car hood it has to be chopped about an inch......although a small rectangular hole in the hood with the polished cover sticking up can be made to look really cool. Yeah I had an adaptor snap on me, the crank bolt is SO tight, I will probably need heat and PB blaster and smack it a few times to shock the treads to get it off. I need to clean behind it and it needs to be cleaned up and painted.......I wonder if the heat will ruin it? Before I called it a day, my AR5 transmission arrived.....in need of a rebuild, the pilot shaft has wiggle room. pics follow:2 points
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So after doing a valve adjustment my ITBS did sync up better . I guess I will have to keep an eye on that. I took out most of the injector trims and my afrs between the banks paired up better -especially at light cruise . I also worked out linkage issues I was having. You get no instructions with this kit and there was adjustments that I could have done better like the main rod-the only rod-to bellcrank. I didnt have it pulling the linkage in a straight line. Also found the linkage on the side of the ITB loose . This caused the linkage to rub against the body of the ITB. I got all this sorted right before ZCON . It was 4.5 hours to Nashville on smooth highway. 80 mph is where she likes to cruise . AFR's were around 15 on flat ground. No issues on the round trip. Got some great compliments from Peter Brock on my airbox . Cold idle is still 650rpm and about 800rpm when hot . AFRs at idle are normally around 13.1 Now to move on to IAC . I gave up on it right before I left .2 points
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2 points
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2 points
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You are 100% correct, thanks for pointing that out. You don’t know what you don’t know. The new steering kit lets you attach the u-joint in any configuration, I wasn’t even thinking there was a right and wrong way to install them. Quick google search and see what you mean and how to align them properly. Glad to be able to fix now, rather than find out later, love everyone’s help on this forum.1 point
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After several weeks of various distractions, I was able to commit a bunch of hours to working on the "track car" this weekend. I recently purchased some nice tools to make fabrication projects easier. Here are some pics of tools: And with those on hand, I was able to make a nice battery tray for the new Braille battery. The spot welder I bought several years ago was awesome to use as well. I, am very happy with how this part came out, even if it did take me about 9 hours to make it (!) I still have to design a battery clamp down mechanism to hold the battery to this new tray, so I will work on that soon. With the battery tray temporarily in place, I again mounted the dry sump tank, and started figuring out all the fittings I will need for the lines for the dry sump system. I plan to order those soon and then mock up some hoses.1 point
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Thanks, will do. I’m hoping to get a good amount done this weekend, and my apex rear suspension kit should be coming in soon.1 point
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Wow, that's like something out of a Rube Goldberg cartoon! Great progress you're making....keep the updates coming!! 👍1 point
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I like the external slave cylinder. You may have to clearance the driveshaft tunnel a bit, and it will create another obstacle to routing headers. I'm using a Tilton hydraulic throw-out bearing. Works great and doesn't take up space in the driveshaft tunnel. The downside is that if it leaks then you have to remove the transmission to fix it...1 point
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Got a few goodies today, first I found a cool bracket that can allow me to use a hydraulic set up for the clutch, it’ll let me get rid of the weird mechanical set up someone rigged up. Second was an impulse buy, while getting the turn signal/light switch and relay they had this emergency power stop button and solenoid.1 point
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1 point
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Ok, well back from the EFI conversion posts, back to just regular fun stuff posts. I decided to try custom length spark plug wires again. I ordered a set of the wire "cranes" from Lonely Driver Company and then ordered a set of 8.5 wires form Amazon and installed them today. As the pics show, it made more of a difference than I thought.1 point
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Nice placement in your engine bay. It looks like you just ran a positive off the battery terminal (?) to your box and all the accessories are using the chassis for the negative side. It is B+ only. No ground. It connects to the + terminal of the battery. Accessaries draw fused power from the fuse box. Each accessary is grounded to the chassis.1 point
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Luigi: I used a $70 "universal" power window kit that can be obtained on Amazon or eBay. A current Amazon vendor is JDMSPEED. This is quite similar to the SPAL that was marketed some years ago. What I found in my research was that several marketers offer the almost, if not, identical units on these shopping sites. As the units are all made in China - perhaps by the same manufacturer - this kind of makes sense. It's like every corner convenience store selling M&Ms. Earlier this year I started collaborating with Dave Irwin (Zs-ondabrain) to update and expand a thread he created in 2006 on the Classic Zcar Club website www.classiczcars.com). I decided to alter the wiring so that just two switches are used and the controls are mounted on the sides of the center console. The article has kind of stalled out as I went on to do other things on my car but I swear I'll get it done and posted there before year's end. In the meanwhile, here's a photo of the drive unit installed in the left door of my car. The drive unit is on the lower left and the "engagement gear" is on the right. It has plenty of power to work the window mechanism but, my goodness, you absolutely must have the window track alignment perfect or it binds up.1 point
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Hopefully you are converting to all SAE / AN brake fittings. It's a real pain to have a mix of metric and SAE. I routed my brake lines inside the cabin to get the brake lines away from heat. I'm running a Wilwood Tandem Master Cylinder (7/8" bore) and use a proportioning valve installed on the drive shaft tunnel.1 point
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I found it just by digging around online. Wilwood makes the assembly, allows me to run two different sized master cylinders for front and back, and on top of that the horizontal bolt close to the firewall allows me to adjust brake bias between the cylinders, lots of adjustability. It comes with this cable so I can adjust the brake bias from inside the car. Yes, all new brake lines. I bought pre-bent hard lines and some distribution blocks. Once I get the rear suspension off, I’ll replace the lines, then figure out how to attach the cylinders, probably get some flexible stainless steel lines for that.1 point
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1 point
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Good evening gents I got my first inspection cleared with some minor things to fix so now i have five years to finish the build (he wanted to see me at the end of August ) . With that done i was able to pain all the weld, start interior work and mount the Datsun back up again, sooooo, it's done just waiting for my half shafts. The half shafts is actually the only thing that keeps me from a test run. Brakes, clutch are bled, emergency brake mounted, it's pretty much only interior work that has to be done Cheers Christian1 point
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1 point
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On the jeep one I had to yes, fairly easy though. I think I pulled out the jeep one and replaced it with the datsun one... and put the c clip back in.1 point
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1979 to 1986 cj7 jeep master is 13/16 Or something like that and is $35... bolts right in. Worth a shot. Supposed to be 7/81 point
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As to keep the technical stuff a bit separate I decided to post the next bit as a separate comment. Last Tuesday I temporarily insured the car and drove it over the highway to S2 Classic Cars in Hengelo (The Netherlands) as they are a highly rated classic car restauration shop in the area with a beautiful showroom to booth. There I had the car thoroughly inspected in preparation for the APK (something like state inspection, MOT or TÜV). This gave me some good and also very bad news. The good news, my work on the engine paid off as the car drove great with good AFR readings while driving and an CO emissions gas reading of 2,4% of the 4,5% allowed for this model year. The inspector also noted that judging by the other reading the engine was very healthy and in great condition. The bad news on the other hand reviled that the chassis of the car was is much less of a condition. Both left and right frame rails are rusted thru which they tried to cover up at some point with underseal. They where also both dented badly in the front by improper jack usage and the passenger side frame rail had a big rust hole in it. To add on top of that the inspector noticed the rear axle was crooked. This caused the drivers side rear wheel to stick out more with an toe out and the passenger rear wheel to have way more negative camber. The inspector couldn’t find anything at this time underneath and suspects the chassis might be slightly twisted or crooked. To know for sure I will need to find a shop that has the proper equipment and reference measurements to measure to chassis. I’m quit mad about both these things as they will cost me a lot to fix (at least they are fixable so thank god). More over the car was advertised and sold to me as “…without rust and free from structural damage.” by both the seller and the auction company. The auction company even inspected the car before it got accepted into the auction and wrote the advertisement texts for the car. Because of this fact, and the surprise bill for thousands of euro’s, I’ll be taking legal steps to try and claim at least some of the costs of the repairs on the seller and auction company.0 points