tonycharger72

I remember with when i was bleeding my chargers brakes i had the same problem, turns out that the Master Cylinder needed new seals, from memory the MS was leaking where it connected to the brake booster, when you are bleeding the brakes get someone to stand near the MS and see if you see fluid leaking out anywhere - with mine it was quite obivous

That Falcon suspension looks so much like my old Charger's, its an A Bodied mopar, Big difference was the Charger had torsion bars instead of springs, but otherwise looks very similar - upper and lower control arm, Old Valiant stuff is much much cheaper to get your hands on than the ford stuff , i think i still even have a bunch of my old Charger stuff like upper and lower control arms atleast,

Ive sent one back mate, I should hopefully have some pics of the "shackle-bush" type engine mounts in a week or so, Just so all the good folks on Hybridz know, 1 - Have to modify your hood latch like the 350chevy JTR folks, 2 - Wont be able to run Air-Con & Power-Steering at the same time as the engine mounts on the drivers side use the AC compressor holes - so you would have to make a choice and if did choose AC you would have to fabricate a custom bracket and mount 3 - Have to modify the shifter hole location and centre console (hopefully will have a template of this to help), 4 - the "shackle-bush" type mounts will hold the engine in nice and firm so will feel alot more vibrations and such, but they will be based on rubber, not urethane, so it shouldnt be to bad Cant think of anything eles at the moment,

Dont think it would be terribly expensive to replicate, like $50-75US, Send me a PM with your email address mate, Im having a thought though............... My engine mounts are based on the original zed engine mounts, and im not 100% certain they will hold up to 2jzgte torque, What i was thinking of doing was re-designing them like a "shackle-bush" type setup, more vibration, but much much more rigid and could stand up to alot more punishment, Would be about the same price id say, There is another bloke who is keen on some mounts aswell, Would be cheaper if there were more people interested, if there is anyone eles interested, speak up and ill do a run

Q: Just currious guys for this swap, what did you guys use for engine mounts?? A: Made them from scratch, can make you some if you like, Q: and if you went with the supra's 6 speed tranny how did it fit any problems getting it in?? A: Yes - the Getrag is huge, you will have to trim the zeds original tranmission mounts within the trans tunnel if you use this 6speed, if you use the supra 5speed you wont have to modify anything, Q: also where did the shifter come up at in the cockpit? A: with mine the shifter location is a little bit further back than stock - this is because i mounted the engine as far back in the engine bay as possible, i will need to modify the centre-console and shifter hole, Another issue that arose with the engine position is the stock hood latch will need to be modified in the same way the JTR 350 chevy guys mod the hood latch, As for the wiring, if you werent all that keen on doing it yourself, im certain that you would be able to find someone in the states who you could send the engine wiring harness to, have the cut out all the sh#t you dont need and give it back to you labeled, then all you would have to do is find a suitable position for the ECU and graph it to the zed wiring harness, Or ditch the stock harness (or most of it) and get an aftermarket ECU

This might sound like a dumb question............ But what if you take a zed that has not been lowered, its at its stock ride height, then used bumpsteer spacers, would this not put the LCA at a similar angle to what you would achieve by doing the JTR mod???

I wouldnt be bothering with slotting the top of my struts, be best to take your advice, and not worry about shortening the lower control arms, i dont know if i will use the JTR crossmember ive made as ive read through your faq and your way of dealing with bumpsteer seemed like a better idea to me Jon,

jmortensen I was reading through your bumpsteer faq and wondering about something, im copied and pasted some extracts, "The next most common modification is the JTR crossmember modification or some variation of it. This involves redrilling the control arm hole up ¾†or 15/16" and out ¼†in order to reduce bumpsteer and add negative camber at the same time. Raising the inner control arm pivot is in essence the same thing as installing a ¾†bumpsteer spacer. Moving the pivot out ¼†will gain more negative camber, but it also exacerbates bumpsteer, because now the control arm length is now shorter than the tie rod length. Again, this approach will be helpful to the roll center, but will not “cure†bumpsteer." "Now we’re into the not-so-common methods for dealing with bumpsteer. One method I have used is to slot the front crossmember. I did this by drilling a hole directly above the original control arm pivot hole then connecting the two holes with a cutoff wheel. I then measured the bumpsteer with a gauge and adjusted the pivot up until it was at 0. I've run my Z this way for more than 5 years, autoxing and doing track days on slicks and have not had the pivots move at all. " If we use the JTR method, but dont move the pivot point out, ie........just move it up 3/4", arent you effectively doing what you say is your prefered method for eliminating bumpsteer?, With the exception that your method is alot more exact, because you have an adjustable pivot point and a guage so you can get the LCA angle at a precise point, I know i might be missing something here - but in essence, isnt this pretty much the same way of dealing with bumpsteer as the JTR method except its alot more precise??? Which means, that you could do this with bumpsteer spacers aswell, just play around with different thickness spacers untill you get the right one............

Those Yellow Calipers looks kinda cool, might paint my R32 calipers

How much you guys paying for fuel in the states, Its just hit about $1.40AUD over here (bout $1.05US) a litre, which is $3.98US per US Gallon,

"Also, the 240Z strut suspension needs tire sidewall to help with compliance. The suspension has a noticeable amount of stickyness and friction (stiction) and tire sidewall helps grip by absorbing small road impertections that don't overcome stiction. If the tire complinace is not there, those small road imperfections cause the tire to lose a little bit of grip. Enough of those imperfections and the tire skates." John - so sticking with say a 16" rim and having a decent amount of tyre sidewall instead of going with a 17-18" rim with less sidewall to no sidewall would actually make your zed quicker for the reasons you listed above??? I know its probably pretty hard to say a definitive YES or NO to my above question, but all other things being equal, ie........identical cars, just different wheels & tyre sizes.............

I also have a spare crossmember which ive modified, bout 18mm up and 6mm out for the lower control arm pivot point, (JTR mod) not sure if ill use it, but this means that my track will have increased 14mm/side or 28mm in total at the front if i do use it, I have a theory though............. What if i could get some custom'd front lower control arms which would be shorter then stock lower control arms, but make them so they have a large amount of adjustment outwards - so when i install them, and if they are in their "stock" position the front lower control arms actually reduce the front track so its the same as it would have been if i hadnt changed the brakes and made the crossmember modification, ie........the track is stock, but then i could adjust then out and increase my front track if i wanted to............... Just a thought??? As for adjusting out the rear toe, besides buying MM's tranverse links or making them myself i can thinking of any other way to adjust the rear toe, is there any other way that you know of mate???

Front brakes are finished, They are the same idea as the aforementioned brakes, but the brackets arent as pretty, my brackets could be trimmed up quite a bit though im thinking, they are 10mm thick plate steel at their thinnest, Heres some pics http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=4018&cat=500&page=1 http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=4020&cat=500&page=1 http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=4019&cat=500&page=1 The brakes are, Hoppers Stoppers Custom 5-stud hubs, R32 GTS-T 4-Spot Sumitono's (30mm spacing), 2001-on BA Ford Falcon Rotors (298 x 28mm), And the custom'd caliper mounting brackets, You can get these BA Falcon Rotors in undrilled, so im pretty sure you could avoid the Custom 5-stud hubs, use original 1970-78 Zed hubs, modify the rotor for the correct PCD and centre hole diameter and everything eles should be a straight bolt-up, so would just need your original hubs, R32 or Z32 Calipers, Undrilled BA Falcon rotors and the brackets - cheap'n'easy

Thanks for the praise fellas, I ended up going with a set of Hoppers Stoppers hubs, was a really tough call, but i thought they were the best compromise for me to go to 5-lug, They are $320AUD/pair, look identical to those trailor hubs except that made out of 4140 steel and not cast iron, they use the stock zed bearings, have a provision for ABS (grab the abs sensors off a VN Commodore), if you could mount the rotor to the back of the hub there would be no change in offset, but the hub flange is only 10mm thick so you would have to drill 5 extra holes for the rotor to bolt to, so 10 holes in all (5 for the rotor, 5 for the wheel studs), Hoppers said it would be strong enought, but i ended up mounting a BA Falcon rotor over the front of the rotor, this has increased my front track approx 8mm/side (that thickness of the rotor hat over the hub face), not as cheap as the trailor hubs, but still not as expensive as some custom hubs id been quoted,

Just got some more pics uploaded, This photo shows where i cut the caliper mounting bracket, http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=3977&cat=500&page=1 This photo shows the caliper mounting bracket mounted onto the zed rear struts, http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=3976&cat=500&page=1 This photo shows where i had to grind the rear strut so the rotor would clear, http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=3975&cat=500&page=1

With coilovers you will buy yourself probably about 10-15mm worth of clearance, this would mean at the front of your zed that your allowable back-spacing for your wheels would be somewhere around about 125-135mm (5" to 5.5") max, So if you have a 10.5" wheel and have 5.5" of backspacing this would equate to still running around about a -10 to -15 offset with your wheels to clear your suspension, a 12+ or 15+ offset with a 10.5" wheel just aint going to fit on your zed, even with coilovers,

Im thinking ive either using a aftermarket VDO speedo or an adapter box, but ill have a capt'n cook and see if i can do the speedo conversion like you described it, As for the plumbing, i was thinking of using a 3" exhaust just because if i ever wanted to go to the 2jzgte i wouldnt ever need bigger, but at the moment its just the NA 2jz, but i will probably still got the 3" complete exhaust, because in the ACT i can have the car up to 96 decibals , and if i ever went the turbo'd version i'd have the 3" exhaust to suit, So the only tricky plumbing job will be the air intake, but im probably going to bastidise other cars intakes and put the air filter at the front of the car............untill i decide if im going to go out and buy the 2jzgte and get pollished alloy pipes everywhere

Hi guys, thought i'd share what ive been doing with my rear brakes, http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=3969&cat=500&page=1 This is basically the complete rear brakes from a 1985-1987 XF Ford Falcon, What ya'll need for this conversion is, Complete XF Falcon rear brakes, get everything, calipers, caliper brackets, rotors, all nuts and bolts, grab everything!!! Try and do this privately, there is always someone wrecking an XF Falcon in Aus , The brakes are 286 x 24mm vented rotors with a PBR alloy single piston floating caliper with a 44.45mm piston and an external mechanical handbrake linkage, To start with, You have to get the rotor to fit over the hub, There is 2 issues here, 1 - the rotors centre diameter is 71.5mm whereas the datsun hub centre diameter is 68mm, 2 - the hub is 5-stud, whereas the datsun rear hub is 4-stud, For the 1st problem - you can either weld a spacer on the hub or you can press a spacer onto the rotor, either will work just fine, For the 2nd problem - you can either re-drill the rear hubs to suit 5-stud or re-drill the rotor to suit 4-stud, once again either will work fine, as the ford pattern is 5 x 114.3mm (4.5") so there is enough room on the Datsun hub or Falcon rotor for the re-drilling, (i have pics of my new hubs but my camera seems to only want to give me pics that are 1.66mb so i got to re-size them as ive run out of space in my album), Now, pull the rear hubs outta the rear struts, remove the backing plate aswell - should be looking at a bear strut, Grab the XF Falcon rear caliper mounting brackets, these need a bit of modifying to get them to fit properly, there are a number of issues, 1st issue - the XF Falcon caliper brackets centre hole is to small to fit over the zed strut, so it needs to be enlargened (sorry i dont have a measurement or pic as my pics are too massive , 2nd issue - the XF falcon bracket needs to be cut otherwise it will hit the struts (you really need pics for this as its bloody hard to describe), probably the best way to describe this is that the XF calipers have a bleed screw that is pointing north, so when cutting the caliper mounting brackets you need to keep in mind that when you mount the calipers this bleed screw needs to be close to pointing north, 3rd issue - this kinda ties in with the 2nd issues, you need to swap the calipers over, driver on the passenger side and the passenger caliper on the drivers side, this is because the Datto's hub is offset, so when you mount the caliper mounting brackets and the calipers, the calipers will hit the struts unless you swap the sides (sorry i pic would be better here aswell), 4th issue - when you install everything, the XF Falcon rotors, mounting brackets............etc..........etc, onto the z struts the Falcon rotors are slightly to tall, this means that the caliper does not centre itself properly over the rotor, so you need to put a 3mm spacer underneath the caliper mounting bracket (sandwitched between where the backing plate mounts and the caliper mounting bracket) to bring the caliper mounting bracket outward, thus bring the caliper outward, and get the correct spacing of the caliper over the rotor, what i did was cut up the backing plate and use it as a spacer, just cut everything away except were it mounts to the strut and it seems to work perfect , 5th issue - you will have to drill 4 new holes into the XF Falcon caliper mounting brackets to suit the z rear strut mounting position, there is plenty of room for this, if theres not, you have the caliper mounting bracket in the wrong position : -) So do all of the above, caliper mounting brackets are sweet and ready to go, mount your spacers and caliper brackets, bash your rear hubs back in place, now................ Grab your XF Falcon rotors and slip them on - DAMM!!! they hit the bottom of the strut, you have to hit this with the grinder to remove just a little bit of the bottom of the strut (once again need pics!!!), Now you have done your grinding at the bottom of the rear struts and the rotor clears (give about 2mm clearance for good measure), i removed about 5mm of meat approx from the bottom of the strut, Then it pretty much bolts straight up, if you can do all of the above machine work, this is an extremely cheap brake upgrade, I paid $30AUD for the entire rear brakes of an XF Falcon (they are f#ckin everywhere in aus, just go private) and repco and a few other brake places locally will do a trade in for the rear calipers with cores for reco'd ones for about $200AUD/pair, I havent yet figured out the handbrake, and i dont know how useful this going to be for yanks as you guys probably wont see to many XF Falcons your way, but for Aussie's this is a pretty cheap'n'easy rear brake upgrade Also..................there is a rotor from a Mitsubisho Evo 4 that uses a 296 x 24mm vented rotor with an overall height of 46mm, this would need a pretty chunky spacer underneath the caliper mounting bracket, but would mean that you wouldnt have to grind the rear struts for clearance - its the right thickness for the XF rear calipers, i will probably end up using these rotors as i dont wanna grind up anymore struts ,

Im certain that all 1970-78 zed wheels, be they 4.5", 5" or 5.5", all had the same offset, Which is 15+, Folks just recommend when going to 7" rims that you change to a 0 offset, but the original zed wheels did not have a 0 offset, all had 15+,