tonycharger72

Hey Marc280 any updates on the conversion mate? How's the wiring going/headers going? Get the clutch sorted?

I wasn't 100% sure where to post this, here or in metal fabrication, Anyways, I am slapping in new frame rails and had an idea, I am using a 1UZ and it would make life so much easier to use a crossmember that resembles a "K" frame - Like in your 60's/70's Mopars (if anyone has a Mopar , What I am thinking is, Remove the TC bracket, ditch the stock TC rod and make a new crossmember, This new crossmember will bolt in where the stock crossmember bolts in at the front, and at the back, will bolt in where the TC bracket used to be! Then, make an A-Arm, combine the TC Rod and LCA, make them one uniform piece, Instead of the TC mount facing at an angle, it would be angled the same way as the LCA mount - pointing straight outwards, Basically something like this - sorry its a pretty crude drawing !!! Note: the little blue tabs are bolts, & the crossmember, it will sorta look like this, basically it's intended to do away with the stock TC bracket and TC Rod and use a pivot similar to that used for the LCA to crossmember! This makes engine placement for me a lot easier - not real keen on welding ears to the chassis rails and my sump gets in the way for a 2nd crossmember, also looks like someone had the bright idea to chisel out the TC rod hole,, This design is just a lot easier to make the rotating the TC rod like it is there now,

Not really the point of the thread mate , sure there is lots of stuff folks do to their Z's that is probably a bit wasteful, like the two weeks after work I spent making fibreglass guards to evnentually decide I would prefer to just stick with stock wheel flares (made fibreglass guards with integrated ZG flares) I am interested to see how many people have actually done this and what they did to make it all work! I got my hands on an MX5 Crossmember, funny looking little thing! But, I really think it would fit, the distance between the LCA' is about 630mm, not to different from the Z, however you would most likely have to shorten the Miata Control arms if you wanted to run anything more than 185mm tyres and keep them under the guards, Enjoy guys!!! Arrows point to the Upper and Lower control arm mount points - the 810mm measurement is where the crossmember bolts to the frame and the 710mm measurement is for the Upper Control Arm mounting points, weird design, sits in-bound of where the crossmember bolts to the chassis! Pic from the front, It would certainly be easier to use the Miata Rack with this setup ! & this is what I think would be required to get the MX5 into your Z, I think it would be far to difficult to use the MX5 crossmember though, be probably a lot easier to build ur own crossmember and use the MX5 arms maybe!

Thanks man, I would never have done any of this unless this site existed, special thanks needs to go to Mull's "Hugo" documentation in the projects section - extremely detailed and gave me a lot of ideas of how to do mine!!!

Yeah thought about that, but reckon it looks kinda ugly, like a dodgy after-thought !!! And you right, I pretty much don't have clearance, my sump is bang smack in the way, I need something that resembles a K-Frame, like what is in a Mopar, Dont think there is many other options open to me for the crossmember, besides welding mounts onto the chassis rails!!!

From Mr Oxendale - thats handy to know !!!

I got my hands on a non-geniune Honda Legend Rack-End but it was 10mm longer and had M12 threads - this was the only one they had listed for the 1991-1996 Legend! I called the local Honda dealership and they actually had the same part # as the one shown a few posts before, however its not on the shelf, it was really expensive and they want payment up front, not all that keen on purchasing it as have my doubts that it will actually fit!!! I was just wondering though, What if you used a different tie-rod end, something like this, Short Tie-Rod end, There appears to be alot more choice for Rack-Ends if you go to a longer size - 180-200mm, My only concern with this is the shape of the stock Z Tie-Rod end, it is notched, will changing to a straight Rack-End/Tie-Rod end effect steering geometry? A Local Steering place said the only thing I would have to worry about when changing from bent to straight is Sway-Bar clearance and that is usually the only reason why Tie-Rod ends are notched, However, as people are actually running straight Rack-End/Tie-Rod Ends with their Subaru/Z conversion I am assuming this isn't an issue? Anyone with some insight as to what effects, if any, there will be from going to a straight rack-end/tie-rod end from the bend Z design?

Any opinions on the really big mouth for the crossmember mounts on the chassis rails? this a good idea or a bad idea structually? The reason I want the really big mouth is because I am using a 1UZ, engine mounts are located centrally on the block so wanted to design a crossmember that was much further back in the engine bay, but because the LCA's are in a specific location it also has to be pretty far forward to,

Ooppss, measursing Kingpin inclination through the ball-joints, Macpherson strut (like the Z's) measure this angle through the top of the strut tower as it doesnt have a upper ball-joint, on a double A-Arm setup you have two ball-joints so strut tower placement isnt as critical right?, even if your donor's vechiles strut was moved about to suit the Z wouldn't cause all that many issues? I would actually prefer to stick the rack behind the crossmember if possible, make my engine conversion easy I think !!!

If you slapped in some other cars front suspension into the Z strut towers and its Kingpin inclination has now changed to suit the Z's, wouldn't you be stuffing around with that car's suspension that you transplanted, primarily its scrub radius - most likely making it worse and end up with a crappy conversion? Unless you could modify the stock strut towers so you could more or less mount the shocks in the same location as they were found from the donor vehicle, you would probably be better of whipping up your own design?

I have had good look around on Hybridz and can only find one example of a Double-A Arm front suspenion modification in a Z, fellow put Lexus front end into his Z, Has anyone else done this conversion on their Z? Be interested to see what setups were used and how fitiment issues were tackled!!!

Nice work mate! What engine/gearbox are you running mate? I am cutting the original Trans mount out of the tunnel and installing another sort of cross-brace, I need the room !!!

Started on the floor pans and rails just after Christmas Yeah I want to get rid of them, very hard to get in there and weld up all the joins so new moisture will get into my rails, heaps prefer a nice flat surface to mount up the underbody rails!!! Thats very nice, could just run that bolt top-to-bottom through the chassis rails, very neat!!! Oh, thought I would mention, the original rails hung down about 10mm from the original floor-pan, the new rails are 65x35x2mm box section, to compensate for the added thickness (35mm vs 10mm) I raised the floors up 25mm (1") to I wouldn't lose ground clearance and so I wouldn't have to put up with a bloody great big bar inside the cabin !!!

Don't need a giant oven for Carbon Fibre, you could lay it with the same stuff u lay your fibreglass with, nice and cheap polyester resin.............just dont want to f#ck it up as it aint cheap !!! Having said that there is many, many different grades of Carbon Fibre available, For example, get some 250gram weight chop strand mat for about $2AUD/M, the cheapest CB I have found was around $35AUD/m - then if you want the stuff they use on the A380 you are looking at $125AUD/m, but it is difficult to purchase the really good stuff in quantity as those A380's appear to use a lot of it............ Or you can get your own grade made up like the F1 boys do! Wonder what the Lotus is made out off............wonder if it is all CB or just a top layer of CB - and why would u make the entire outta layer of a car out of CB, when CB crashes it smashes into a million pieces - I thought in F1 you werent allowed exposed CB anymore, had to cover it with something like FB because of the way it reacts when it hits something, it shatters............... I was recently stuffing around with Fibre-Glass front guards, very cool once ur done !!!

Hey guys, thought I would share some pics of my new new floor pans and chassis rails, me about 10 full days and was a lot of work These are the new floor pans installed, bought this cool tool that punches a hole in the sheet metal, so I was able to clamp the seperate pieces together and plug welded it all together - my Mig has a timer on it, which made lie easier!!! Then once flipped it over knocked the new floor pans into shape and tacked it all on the reverse side! Flipped over! I still have not decided if I am going to keep the original TC brackets so this area has not yet been fully welded - still trying to figure out what do here! I made new chassis rails a few months ago but was not happy with them and made them out of 3mm sidewalled 65x65 tube, probably a touch to thick, so have whipped these up instead - should taper out to 710mm and will use 10mm bolts for the sway-bar, Still haven't worked out what I will do with my crossmember - I am running a 1UZ and the mounts are in the middle of the block, so was thinking of increaseing the engine mount area on the crossmember - this is the theory, This is so I could make a larger crossmember so I wouldn't have to offset the engine mounts - but still deciding if I will do this with the new ones!

There we go !!! Rack End Honda LEGEND OUT R/L 53521-SP0-004 Products Visitors:8 Original Image Item:Rack End Honda LEGEND OUT R/L 53521-SP0-004Packing:Your Packing Or Neutral PackingDelivery:20-60 Days according your items and quantityMarket:America and EuropeQ C:ISO9000:2000 & TS16949 Sign up for our free newsletter for new products Detailed Product Description or O.E.M. No.DescriptionModelYear53521-SP0-004 53521-SPO-004OUT R/L M14*1.5 M14*1.5 RHT L-140mmLEGEND II (KA7) LEGEND II COUPE (KA8)01.1991-02.1996 01.1991-02.1996

I managed to get my hands on a 280zx Inner Rack-End to see how it would fit, This is a pic of it - its M16x1.5 thread (rack end) and M14x1.5 (Tie-Rod End) and 151mm, & it is a very good fit, can basically replicate the stock Z Inner-Rack-End and Tie-Rod-End length as seen below!!! This seems almost identical to the S80 Volvo Rack-End except that the Volvo is 141mm in length (which is probably more ideal as the shorter length should allow more adjustment!!!) This is an approximate measurement between the LCA pivot's on the crossmember, The housing for the 280zx Inner Rack end is a touch smaller than the Subaru Rack end, so you need to remove approximately 11mm of the end of the Subaru Rack to reach 600mm total width of the Subaru Rack & 280zx Inner Pivot Points (results may vary depending on the Subaru Rack you are using!!!), BUT..............and this is a big one..............the thread of the 280zx & S80 Inner Rack-Ends are M16x1.5, the end of the Subaru Rack is 23mm, and on one side of the Subaru Rack it tapers down to 20mm, as seen here, So once you cut of the ends (11mm) and cut out your new thread to suit these Inner's you are left with very little side-wall on the Subaru Rack, like 2mm/side and 4mm total, down from 4.5mm/side, which is where you are before you hack 11mm of the end of the Subaru Rack - thats losing quite a bit of meat by opening up the Subaru Rack to suit these larger rack ends, See the difference in Stock Subaru Rack-Ends and 280zx Rack-Ends, Therefore, I really don't know if it would be the wisest Idea to use these Rack-Ends, I think it would be better if it was possible to find a Rack-End that was just as small in overall length, 140-150mm, but kept that M14x1.5 thread on the Subaru Rack-End, and still managed to keep the M14x1.5 so you could run you stock Z Tie-Rod Ends, otherwise I would be cutting down some other Rack-End to suit the Z Tie-Rod Ends that way you don't have to hack a M16 thread into the Subaru Rack!!!

Awesome stuff Mark & ezzzzzzz, thanks for sharing your information!!! 280zx inners & Stock Z tie-rod ends & S80 Volvo and Stock Z tie-rod ends are a workable solution!!! I can get S80 Volvo rack ends locally from the dealer for a princely sum of $250/side - damm dealership prices !!!

No such thing as a stock Z pump, PS didnt appear until the 280zx, and highly doubt the 280zx does anything more than supply "X" amout of fluid, I may be wrong, but doubt it is variable............. Went out to a mates house and cut the end of the Subaru Rack and basically extended the threaded down 15mm - did this by placing the tap into the existing thread before we cut it and cut the new thread, then hacked 20mm of the end - there is a hot spot on the spine of the shaft, so hack-saw couldnt make it the whole way through, had to use the angle grinder - touch crude Bit of a lousy pic (camera phone, 5mg my a#s , but this is the new thread cut!!! This is a pic of the stock Subaru Rack-End installed onto the Subaru Rack, The other side is a little bit more complicated, there is a taper in the Subaru Rack Shaft, however there should still be enough meat in the Subaru shaft to run a 14mm thread - narrows from 23mm to 20mm approximately!!! I have put the Verniers to show 35mm, this would be the 20mm you cut off the end of the rack and further 15mm worth of thread required to fully seat the Rack-End you would use!!! This is a pic of the Subaru Rack ends, Datsun Rack-End with Z Tie-Rod-End and Z Tie-Rod-End on its own, this shows that there really isn't enough room to be cutting down the stock Rack-End so you could run the stock Z Rack-End!!! This pics shows where the Subaru-Rack-Locating washer sits in the end of the Subaru Rack, once you cut 20mm of the end of the Subaru Rack you lose these ears, however don't think it would be to much trouble to cut the end of the "new" shorten rack to include these "ears"!!! I think it would be important to be able to retain the stock Z outter Tie-Rod ends because they are a pretty weird shape, NOT STRAIGHT, if you werent able to use them I would be thinking this conversion might be a touch dodge.......................anyone else got an opinion on that one? NOTE: REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT, no one go out and hack 20mm of the end of their Subaru Rack just yet , until I find the appropriate Rack-End, which may have a different sized housing and therefore locate the pivot point in a slightly different position, which means less than 20mm would be required to lop of the end of the Subaru Rack!!! Therefore, need different Rack-Ends, so have to get my hands on some S80 Volvo or 280zx or late 80's Celica and see what they look like bolted together, more to come!

Sorry, if I didnt not make myself clear before, but I assume, like ezzzzzzzz said, that almost all PS pumps have a limiter in them that keeps pressure at a given rate, like 2 gallon/minute (whatever, figure is a random number), but not entirely sure you want this constant pressure when at high speeds - what I am after is "VARIABLE FLUID FLOW"!!! But after reading through this, it appears it has been standard kit on cars for 20years , BUT...............they don't always just mount them on the pump and they don't all appear to be mechanically controlled!!! http://www.aa1car.com/library/2004/bf10434.htm Illustration on the page (couldn't get rid of the 2nd pic sorry ) .window.google_render_ad(); Some units use an ECU to limit/increase the fluid flow, the GM appears to use Magnets on the rack with it's "MagnaSteer" setup, whilst Ford T-Bird uses a valve on the pump, Hhhhhhhhmmmmmmm, think it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that not all pumps have a "variable fluid limiter" in built in them, as it appears some manufactures have used other means to limit fluid volume from the pump, via ECU, things on the rack, magnets, etc, etc, think with the Subaru rack slapped into the Z you would need to use a specific pump to gain this feature!!!

Sure it's longer than the Z rack or because the tie-rod end design is different and screws into, not over the end of the rack like the Z rack-ends that you percieved it to be a different length, Like this...............this is flat out wrong, the Z rack is longer, not shorter than the Subaru rack!!! And until I measure my own racks I to believed the Z rack was shorter than the Subaru rack when in fact its a fraction longer!!! Also, this picture appears to illistrate how most folks have gone about completing this conversion, not worried at all about where the inner pivot points line up in regards to the LCA pivots, all seem to have just focused on getting the overall length correct!!! I had the exact same experience in Australia , the fellow behind the counter couldn't tell me a thing, I literally had to go back to the wrecking yard and grab a VIN number!!! ezzzzzzz, On the ends of the Subaru rack where the rack-ends thread in, originally there is a locking washer installed, if you cut the end of the rack you also cut off the locating nubs on the end of the rack for this washer to locate itself and completely secure the rack-ends in place - did you do anything about this or just use Locktite or something on the rack-ends into Subaru rack threads??? Local Subaru mechanic said he often found it tricky to get in those special little washers and usually ended up having to use Locktite instead!!! I disagree with this one, sure there is a "sticky" with lots of great information, but until posting this particular thread I had absolutely no idea that people had cut down and re-threaded their Subaru racks so as to properly align the LCA pivot point, Also, there is a great deal of random parts used, 1. Stock Subaru rack ends, cut down and re-threaded to use 90's Corrolla Tie-Rod ends and then reaming the Z steering knuckle to except the Tie-Rod, however you drop from a 14mm to 12mm thread to except the Corrolla rack ends! 2. Late 80's Celica Rack-ends and stock Datsun Tie-Rod ends, 3. S80 Volvo Rack ends and modified Z tie-rod ends, I may be wrong but 78Zlt1 does not appear to have modified the Subaru rack in any way at all............ 4. From my own investigation and inability to attain S80 Volvo ends, I got hold of some S70 Volvo rack-ends which thread perfectly into the Subaru steering rack and leave about 13cm's of room for a tie-rod end, they had a very course thread though, from memory different from the Z tie-rod ends, 5. 280zx's inners and stock Z outters, BUT.............from reading through what other members have done I really haven't gotten the impression that anyone ever bothered with trying to align the Subaru rack-end pivots and the LCA pivots??? Maybe I wasn't reading closely enough! And there is some pretty random old combinations going on there , Sure everyone isn't using the same exact rack, I have a 1991 Liberty and a 1994 Legacy (they appear identical), but from looking at pics of other's racks and the different year's and model Subaru's they came out of they look awfully similar to mine!!! Maybe the later Subaru racks are completely different, they are certainly a lot more expensive , but they all look pretty dammed similar! So no matter how fast your engine is going your pump doesnt just keep spinning and pumping out higher and higher volumes? it stays at a constant pressure no matter how fast the engine is going? Why would you need a product like this then? Guess it is for really old PS pump's without that particular feature or if you just want to change the feel of the factory setup? http://www.heidts.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=210/category_id=88/home_id=88/mode=prod/prd210.htm

Awesome mate, thanks for going to the trouble! Well done on the conversion too! So with the 280zx inner's and Z tie-rods you were able to replicate the length of the original Z inner's and outers? And by cutting and re-threading the rack you were able to correctly align the rack-end pivot points with the LCA pivot points? One more thing concerns about me about this swap (any PS swap actually), is being able to limit pressure at high engine speeds, I know there is that Heidt pressure valve, but its manually operated, ideally would like to have it automatically controlled - has anyone who has done this swap (or any PS swap) managed to automatically via mechanical or electronical means alter the PS fluid flow through the engine's RPM range?

My Rack is early 90's Legacy, but from all the Subaru Racks I have seen from 90's Subaru's and other members racks on Hybridz they appear very similar, 2004 is very late model though, might be more meat on the ends? Any pics of the rack, the 280zx inner's installed?

How is that possible? Subaru rack is a hollow tube, what did u drill out? What Subaru rack did you use? you use Z rack-ends or another Datsun??? Z rack-ends (inner tie rod ends) are of a completely different design and thread over the top of the rack end, not into it like the Subaru..........you wouldnt be drilling anything out to accomodate the Z inner tie rod ends mounting to the Subaru rack, you would be putting a threaded collar onto the Subaru rack to except the female thread of the Z rack-ends................which would be equally as tricky as the Subaru rack tapers at the very ends as seen in the above pics................ More information mate ?

Possible, But its just a hollow tube, so cant just drill a longer hole and tap it unfortunately, I stuck a scew-driver in the end of the Subaru rack to illustrate, EDIT: It appears as if Jon's suggestion would be a goer for this conversion, The Subaru rack is hollow as shown above and is threaded at the end for about 10-15mm, it appears as if the tube diameter is slightly smaller once you go past the thread, which would infer that a thread was just cut to suit the length of the rack-end threads! Therefore, cutting the end of the Subaru racks and running a thread inside the tube should work out! The rack pictured is just a dummy rack, so not to fussed if I make a mess of it, I will cut the end of the rack and see if I can get a friend to run tap (as I don't have any) in the Subaru rack, Will post the results as soon as possible!