mom'sZ

Yes I'm working on it. When I ordered the autopower roll cage, I asked if the cage was in compliance with the new rule. He said some had been updated, others had not, the zcar had not. So, what he did was send me all the stuff to add the second bars myself at no extra cost. What I got was the two extra prebent door bars and the four tubing pieces, prenotched to weld on, plus extra tubes and bolts to attach them with. At first I thought there was no way they were going to have anywhere to weld in with the design of the main hoop. But after I stuck the whole thing inside the car and trial fit it, I think it's going to be made to work pretty well. The door bars that are already there run very low in the door opening, they actually run just under the arm rest on the door. It seems that it was designed to fit inside the stock car without having to remove or change anything. Well the car sits pretty low and with the door bar so low in the opening I'd be worried about something hopping right over it and coming inside with me. But then I held the extra door bar up there, positioning it about 5-6 inches above the first one and it appeared to be a very effective nascar style side protection. The stub to mount it will need to be welded on around the area on the main hoop where the diagonal comes down (see picture above) and around the same place on the other side and the arm rest will have to be removed. The arm rest on my side is already gone for elbow room so no biggie. With a vertical brace or two between them this thing would be very stout side protection. Overall considering the compromise of having to fit with nothing removed from the interior, I think it fits pretty good. There isn't a lot of room inside these cars for a cage. not sure I follow you, look at the picture above, does the cross bar not do that? please explain continues where? through the roof of the car or out the side? Again... I don't get what you are saying. I mentioned in the first post that I am indeed planning on using a FIA approved seat. I'm in Palm Beach County on the south east coast. Thanks I'll keep it in mind The whole thing... every word??? well... not quite, but damn near.

opps... forgot to mention.... the msa cage is the autopower cage I'm pretty sure edit: opps again... I forgot to mention in this thread, got a little mixed up with the other current thread about cages and such, yes... I have one out in my garage. It isn't installed in the car yet, but it has been mock assembled inside the car. see the other thread for some pics of mine and others. the thread is entitled race harness. Also search, it's been discussed ad naseum

Cameron: nice... nice work. cool idea for stiffening without a cage. For mig welding everything has to be CLEAN! clean, did I mention clean? Did somebody else mention it? I agree with workinprogress, sandblasting rocks. But everybody hates it. It makes such a mess, goes everywhere. Nothing works as well. It rocks. It looks like you cleaned the inner fender apron panel rail piece with a grinder. Take that to your plate. Like Jon says, I can still see the coating on it. Flap wheel thingies might work ok, but be a manly man and grind it!! wear googles. It will still weld ok, but the mig works a lot better if it's clean. Oh and what Cary said about pulling the collar back brings up a good point. Don't mig in the wind or breezy day outside or with a fan on you. The shielding gas just blows away. more pics!!

ah... ok mine's a little different hope this isn't huge picture I guess your's is just a roll bar. It didn't come with a cross bar? You had to add that? wow... that seems... odd. And obviously no diagonal either. Well anyhow, I obviously have a cross bar I can attach the sholder straps to. Again not to seem dense, but it's pretty clear in your photo the harness wraps around the bar, then what? is there like a cinch or buckle or something (do ya tie the damn thing in a knot) and could it slip under extreme circumstances? nice work on the floorboard by the way 280ZForce. What does everybody think of this thing? Yes, it bolts to the wheelhouses. I knew it did, and I'm ok with that but I figured the rear stabilizer bars would go to the strut tower tops. They don't, I guess in the name of making it completely bolt in, you would have to remove the stock seat belts. It will definitly bolt right in with no modifications to a stock z whatsoever. Check out the flat bar running from the diagonal to the main hoop behind the driver's head. It's like 3/4" x 1/8" flat bar. I called the guy and asked what it was for. He said it's a 'head rest' and it just has to be there to pass tech. I said what??? Does the seat have to attach to it? he said no, nothing attaches to it, it just has to be there. The other goofy thing about the cage is it showed up with no bar for across the top of the windshield. I called up and told him, he made me describe every bar I had, and then said, ok... you need a windsheild bar. Few days later the ups man left it on my door step.

OK. I live in florida and can tell you for a fact, no red lights on the front of the car... period. bad idea lay off the blunts

OK... sorry, I'm super dense when it comes to verbal descriptions. I know they go around your legs, but where do they anchor? and how do they wrap around your legs? I know where the crotch strap goes, where it anchors, do the leg straps anchor in the same spot as the crotch strap and come up between your legs or around the outside of your legs? I'm not getting it. I'd like to use one, (a 6 or 7 point) but if the implementation is going to be difficult in a stock bodied s30 with just a bolt in roll cage, I'll skip it for now and do it later when I have a pro cage fabricated. Also, I've got some ideas on an anchor point for the crotch strap, but anybody want to give some advise on how they did it in an s30, please do. 280ZForce: you say you attached yours to an autopower bar, how? any pictures? doubleXL240z: you say it wraps around the bar. Is that how it mounts? I suspect that is the roll bar mount version. I've seen them 'wrap' but how is it secured? is there a mechanism on the belt to grab itself. I've seen weld on tabs on the bar that the ends of the belt bolt to. I have to do some welding to add the second mandatory door bar to my cage anyhow so I could add some tabs.

V8260: I'm unfamiliar with the specifiic rules of solo competition, but being in the middle of the preparation of an s30 for wheel to wheel action in SCCA ITS, the GCR is very familiar to me. In my class the scattersheild is not mandatory, but allowed and recommended. I believe on his first point AK-Z is incorrect. I don't believe the scca requirement for a scattershield has anything to do with the u-joints. I believe the requirement is specifically for the containment of a catastrophic clutch failure. (proported to be as powerful as a grenade - thus the doc's comment) I agree with his second point though that it doesn't seem to be a big problem for L type trannies. If you switch to a v-8, all bets are off. Unfortunately the scca doesn't write the rules specifically just for zcars, so the requirement may be based on a need for other models. So... if you're required to have one, I believe you have two choices for the L type tranny. If you switch to a V-8, like doc said, there are a number of aftermarket solutions available. For the L type you can use a fabricated plate, made from (I believe) quarter inch thick steel or aluminum. Jon Mortensen has one on his car, I saw a picture of it in a recent thread. Basically you bend the material into the rough shape of the inside of the tranny tunnel and attach it to the unibody in the area of the bellhousing. He's not real proud of his, but I think it works and am considering mimicking it. Aluminum would make it super light-wieght if that's an issue, but it isn't a bad place for wieght on the car and steel would be strong. Your other choice is a ballistic blanket commonly made for automatic trannies used for drag racing. (available from summit or jegs) I'm familiar with these from my procomp crewcheif days and know one could be made to fit. They used to cost 2 or 3 hundred, no idea now. Anyhow, it wraps like a blanket around the tranny and secures with velcro. Either method will save your ankles, one would probably be cheaper if you have some fabrication skills. On your second question about the roll cage, I believe if you look at the interior of your zcar, you will realize there is NO way to place a full cage in a zcar that is not going to place at least one tube very close to your head, if not actually touching. In a race car, with a helmet on, this is a nessasary compromise. For a street car with no helmet on, this is nothing but outright dangerous. Think twice.

I trying to pick out a racing harness. My car is a 1977 280Z prepared for SCCA improved touring road racing. I have an autopower bolt in roll cage that I'm installing. My questions are these... which mount style to choose? And 5, 6, or 7 point? I'm looking at a MOMO start seat. It FIA approved so I won't need a seat back brace mounted to the roll cage. It pretty reasonably priced. Anybody have one? I'd like to get MOMO harness to match. They have long and short styles and one they call roll bar mount. If you have direct experience mounting a race harness in a zcar with a cage please give some pointers. Also the 6 and 7 point harness, I know the two extra belts go around your legs, but how? Where do they mount? To the lap harness mounts? I'm going to go with a four point plus sub belt (5 point... min. requirement) or a 6 point with sub belt (7 point, not required, but suggested)

opps.. sorry... and the DRIFT COURSE!!! hey, I'm an old guy, so I kinda don't get it, but it looks cool and if you're into it... more power to ya man!!! we're still brothers! it's all about the car

look... I noticed it's been 16 hours and nobody has replied so I'm just going to throw this out there. it is a wild guess. I thought I recall someone saying that when the electronic ignition modules go out, they run then get warmed up and die. Since you've already tried AFM ECU dizzy and it seems to get better if you leave it alone for a while. Again... just guessing since it sounds like your in a pickle.

yup, the exhaust manifolds warp and it breaks the end stud, usually flush with the head, like you said. Don't make matter worse by busting an ez-out off in the head. Then yer sunk. Use a center punch to start a place to drill it out. An old trick is to get a counter-clockwise drill bit. take it slow, don't get frustrated. Last one I did, I could not get to come out and ended up having to do a heli-coil on it. Oddly, the rinky-dink auto parts joint had 8mm heli-coils. Edit: dude.... how do you pronounce the name of that town you live in? holy cow...

Careful removing the busted off stud. I bet it's on the end right?

Yup... my 280 has them as well

I think Pete S is right. These bolts have a smaller head to fit in the tight space where they live. And they are high strength bolts because of the application. Pete: I think you did the smart thing by going OEM

I think you can get the mustache bar bushings separately. Like OTM said though, go ahead and get the front diff mount first, that is what makes the clunk.

Most jumper cables made now-a-days are junk!! The cables themselves are to thin to carry much current, the end clamps are toys. Most are junky $hit that somebody gives Dad as part of an emergency kit for father's day and he throws it in his trunk and never even uses them. Years ago a mechanic buddy of mine was helping me try to start a dead car. I'm telling him, 'I tried to jump it, it won't start', he says 'let me see those cables' looks at the cables I'm using and goes 'those things are junk'. He pulls out a set with big thick cables and guess what, car fires right up. After that I made my own set from some 00 cable I got off an old welder, and some nice ends. Had them for years and never failed to work. I think you should put a battery in the car. Check the cables, cable ends, make sure everything is clean and tight. Like somebody said above, those jumper boxes are made for used car lots on cars that just sat up for to long. Until you have a know to be good battery in the car, you are just wasting time trying to diagnois a starting problem.

sounds like the front differential mount

I agree with Mark

ahhh... yasin, man that sucks.

Sorry for your misfortune. Anyhow, it's not to much more complex then that but one thing I'd like to point out as a former collision tech is you have the order of operation slightly off. First square the chassis, then cut off the bent core support. Use the bent core support as your attachment point, try to envision the wreck, as it happen, and reverse the order of the damage. As you pull on the bent core support it will pull out the secondary damage to the rest of the structure. Look for slight kinks and bends in the inner fender structures and tap on them with a body hammer as you apply pressure. Steel has elasticity and wants to go back to it's original shape, you just need to give it a little help. Just about the time the bent panel is about to tear it's welds loose, the adjoining panels will be realigned. In fact, I used to quite often use the frame machine to remove (yank off) the damaged panel. Then replace the entire panel. welding it back on in the same place the old one was welded. Good luck!!

I'm with ZR8ED... I love halloween, it's my favorite night of the year!! I bought this candy bowl on sale after halloween last year. It has what appears to be a severed head in it, you ever seen one? Anyhow you push a button and it's eyes move and it says some different stuff. Well, it's pretty real but I didn't figure it would fool to many kids. What a blast, one older boy goes running down the driveway 'Mom, they got a HEAD in the bowl'!! One little girl started to bawl and I felt bad and had to go 'look, it's fake, it's made out of plastic' as I'm knocking on it with my knukles. Oh yeah and my girl has a shetland (sp?) shepard (dog) and between us we have 6 cats.(two black) So we're always joking how the dog thinks it's a cat. So she finds a cat costume for the dog. Ahhh.. what a riot and the dog actually wore the thing for like two hours.

synthetic brake fluid dot4

he he he... just a thought... maybe they could sit in your lap!

DCZ: I'm not an engine guy so take what I say with a grain of salt. Also, some folks act like pulling an engine is no big deal, and all though it's easier in these cars then a lot of others, it's still a big job. BUT... if you just rebuilt this thing 15K (barely broken in IMHO) ago, and compression and leakdown results like that, pull that thing out and take it apart and see what's up.