trwebb26

zcarnut has the ticket.... heavy85 (cameron) taught me that trick - pry out the stub axles with two screwdrivers/pry bars - one on each side of the shaft. It keeps the splines from binding up with you are trying to separate them... It makes all the difference.

I ordered my gland nuts from shox.com. I think it was $26 shipped for 4 of them. The gland nut screws into the top of the strut housing. I wasn't talking about the gland nut in my previous post - I was talking about the nyloc nut on the very tip-top of the strut "piston" - about an M12 or an M14 thread. The nuts that came with mine were the wrong size. I called them and they sent me out some new ones.

I'm clearancing my brake calipers to clear my wheels - how much room do you think I need between the wheel and caliper? 1mm - 2mm's - 3mm's - more???

The 240 strut tube is a smaller diameter than a 280's. I'm not sure about the 260s though. Do yourself a favor and call tokico USA directly - speak with somebody in tech support about it and they will gladly send you out a set of gland nuts (probably free of charge). Make sure the nut on the top of the strut actually threads onto the top of the strut shaft... mine didn't and tokico next day'd me some new nuts free of charge.

Holy crap!!! If my wife saw me with "dirty" car parts in our house - rebuilding them on our carpet... I would be looking for a new place to sleep.

Can you please take a picture of how the tubes attach to the firewall. I'm trying to figure out how the design allows you to take the bars in/out easily for engine service.

They were stamped with a "B" on my 78' 280z.

I got to thinking.... I have a 2000 V6 S-10. I can buy a class 3 hitch for ~$200. Do you think I would be safe to haul my 3600 lb boat and tailer around the flatlands of illinois? My wife has an 06' Jeep wrangler w/ 4WD - If I got a hitch for that - do you think it would tow it? I'm worried I may be compromising safety if I don't just pony up for a bigger rig - but my truck is paid for and I'm trying to keep some spending money freed up for the Z .

I may go look at this one: http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_id=220181480&dealer_id=612528&car_year=2003&search_type=used&num_records=25&keywordsfyc=&make=TOYOTA&transmission=Automatic&make3=DODGE&model=&distance=200&make2=NISSAN&address=62526&only_price=1&default_sort=mileageDESC&advanced=y&certified=&model3=&model2=&max_mileage=45000&max_price=20000&sort_type=mileageASC&min_price=12000&first_record=101&only_photo=1&body_code=0&end_year=2006&keywordsrep=&color=&start_year=2001&drive=4+wheel+drive&pager.offset=100&engine=&body_style=TRUCKS&fuel=&doors=&style_flag=2&cardist=158 And it is supercharged - too! Just screaming for aftermarket add-ons!

We could totally go skiing - if any of you actually LIVED in central illinois. The early Z population is scarce around here!

Here it is... a 2001 Mariah Diablo 180 w/ 190 horse 4.3L merc engine. Gotta admit - I'm pretty stoked to be picking it up tomorrow. My little S10 isn't stout enough to haul this thing around (2WD - small S10 w/ 4.3L motor). I'm lookin for reccomendations for a used 4x4 truck. It has to be an extended cab or "crew" cab that I can wire up for surge brakes. I'm hoping to be out the door for less than $15K. I don't do a lot of high mile driving - just looking for a good looking dependable truck that I can add some aftermarket fun to later. I'm thinking: Dodge Ram 1500 Ford F150 Nissan Frontier ??? What do you buy if you were in my shoes?

The timing could be off 20 degrees because the oil shaft isn't clocked right.

If you don't mind what it looks like - the ends of an extension cord can be cut off and that can be VERY cheap as far as wire goes.

Nevermind - Ross sent me the instructions. Thanks Ross!

I just got the final piece to my suspension - Ross's Z31 companion flanges. I did not get the writeup on how to shorten the shafts by flipping the CV cage around - and Ross has trouble keeping up with his email. Can somebody please send me the instructions to reverse the cage on the CV shafts. Thanks!

I had it blasted with everything in it - cover on and all... They were nice enough to tape off the breather hole in the diff cover. I would be skeptical if the face seal rubbing on the pinion flange is my problem... I drove the seal in a little deeper than I probably should have (about 2mm past being "flush" with the end of the housing). After reviewing the section view of the diff in the FSM - I don't think that driving it deeper would cause my problem. Come to think of it - the face seal was awfully stiff compared to the one I took out of there. So knowing what I know - would you go ahead and snug up the nut to the minimum 120 ft-lbs and live with the extra pinion drag?

I didn't mess with the pinion bearing - and there were no shims between the pinion companion flange and the bearing?

I bought a set of Rota grid wheels from the group buy a few months ago. I'm getting ready to put everything together and (like I was warned) - the hub-centric portion of the wheel hits the front wheel hub (67mm ID wheel vs. 72mm OD hub). Most people are running spacers to "fix" the clearance problem. Because our wheels are lug-centric - do you think there would be a problem with busting out the die grinder and cutting some clearance for the front 2 wheels (to avoid running the spacer)? I'm sure that the center part of the wheel isn't structural - and there will be plenty of "meat" between the lugs and the new - opened up hole. After all - we are only talking about taking off ~3mm of radial clearance. Thanks for your opinions!

I just installed my powerbrute (from the RR group buy) into the r200 yesterday. I took the thing to the media blaster beforehand. They didn't mask off the pinion (like I asked them to) and the pinion seal was packed with little plastic blasting balls. There is a proceedure in the FSM to replace the pinion seal (a requirement for me at this point) so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I ordered a new pinion seal and did everything it says. I torqued down the pinion nut to factory specs at 120 ft-lbs. I then measured the pinion "drag" and it was MUCH higher than the starting value. I messed with different torque settings on the pinion nut to achieve equivalent pinion drag and I can only torque the pinion nut to 80 ft-lbs to get the same amount of drag as before. My opinion - I should leave the pinion nut torque at 80 ft-lbs to avoid destroying the pinion bearings - and put some loc-tite on the nut. Drive the car for a while and then re-evaluate the pinoin torque/drag. What do you guys think?

There is a setting for craking RPM under the "crank/warmup" heading (more cranking stuff).

do a search for "ron" and "tyler" and "diff" and "mount" or some variation of those 4 words.

It just so happens I took a set off of my 280z yesterday that I'll give you for the shipping. I'm pretty sure they are the same between the 240 and the 280. I'd imagine shipping won't be more than $7 to $10 (I'll only ask for what FEDEX or UPS wants for them). Email me if you are interested.

ASSUMING the error is with your adapter: From the MS&SE manual: http://www.msextra.com/manuals/MS_Extra_Tuning_Manual.htm#software "If using a USB adaptor and you are finding communications is intermittent try setting the Received Buffer and Transmitted Buffer values lower (these can be found in Device Manager – Ports), I have found setting them as low as they will go can help cure problems." I also reccomend to make a brand new MSQ file from scratch. They seem to get corrupt after a certain amount of time for some reason which can lead to all kinds of crazy problems.

you need to check the basics... 1) Is there spark? 2) Have you checked to MAKE SURE you have fuel? 3) What do the plugs look/smell like?

If you want a full set of 4 for the car - ebay is the way to go for sure. If you are sectioning and have to order by the pair - shox.com isn't a bad site.