seattlejester

Fuel lines were bent up and clamped, the last bend seems a bit flattened, so that may be looked at if I get fuel starving issues. Plugged in most of my wiring harness, friend came over and we worked through it. It's pretty entertaining with all the stuff I don't have anymore. Couldn't find my fuse box...so wasn't able to finish. But got all the way around to the tail light, and connected and identified most of the front harness. And as earlier picture may have hinted, the dash is in! Still need to address cracks, but figured I'd put it in while I have help.

Hah, when my car is running! The seats were dirt cheap, <100 if I remember. Ran into a little problem today, the seat belts are a bit too tight. I'm almost out of adjustment and I barely fit. It's a 50 inch belt, but including the seats and distance to the mounting points it's a bit tight. Guess even my car is telling me to loose weight! On a separate note, are their any gurus nearby that I can convince/bribe/beg for help with wiring? The PO had attacked the harness to add an aftermarket stereo and I've been staring at wiring diagrams for a few hours now. Really don't want to start over and rewire the whole car, but tracing wiring is proving to be a bit of a headache. I know I'll understand it eventually, but if someone has experience and the know how, I wouldn't mind stepping aside . From what I gather, upgrades worthwhile/needed are: Modern fuse box Honda wiper motor ZX alternator (which means getting rid of voltage regulator, and purchasing a bypass) Headlight and Taillight relays Replacing fusible links for starter and ignition with blade type fuses Wiring up fuel cell and electric fuel pump Leaving a wiring setup for a blower, possible stereo, and eventually the electric radiator fan. Getting rid of door ajar buzzer circuit Getting rid of blower motor and heater adjustment and stock stereo control

I bought mine new Will edit later tonight after I figure out what I want to work on.

Oh yea they are very very comfortable, not quite the rsx seats i was planning but the fit was a lot better. A lot of the other seats with bolsterings have little wings that get bent in by the door. They were eBay brand, just no name seats. I welded in some flat mounts, tied them to the frame rail, and bolted through the floor, lowered the seat a good 2 inches or so, I think almost 3 inches in the front. Plus I got to move the seat a little bit so it can clear my roll bar mount. My roll bar is super tight, hugs the roof with a few mm to spare so head clearance is great, even with a helmet. Plan is to have the seats reupholstered and re foamed once the cheap foam collapses or the cloth tears. A friend offered to fix my dash so that will be next week, followed by wiring and fitting. Tax refund is dribbling in so hopefully I can start on engine work pretty soon.

Will probably need to take it out again to put in the dash, but felt like it was time. Still missing one bolt, but it is really snug, can't wait to get some pads. Both quarter windows are in. Still hesitant to put the hatch until the doors are in to balance everything out. Next on the list is the dash, followed by some wiring, then drive line .

Not sure why the bubbles form, but it shouldn't pose a problem as the fuel all ends up in a bowl in the carburetors before it gets used by the engine. My only guess would be either it just is the way it is the fuel is entering a relatively large volume compared to the line when it enters the filter, or you have a small crack in your fuel line or your fuel pickup and you are pulling in air with each cycle of the mech fuel pump.

Hatch was painted over the weekend. Found a ridiculous amount of rust on the bottom edge, really didn't want to start working on the hatch as I'm pretty sure it is rusting under the glass as well as the bottom edge, the hatch will just have to be replaced when I have the funds. Currently just treated and seam sealed the holes. Friend came over and we pounded out some work on the car. Mounted fuel lines and fuel pump. Brought it out to the front. It runs fairly close to the drive shaft, so I hope it clears without any incident. The diff shouldn't move so I don't expect any problem on that front. What we did find was that the material the metal fuel line is made out of really likes to kink even with tube bending pliers and benders, so we'll have to wait a little bit to finish it up for sure. Hopefully I'm now done spending large amounts of time under the car. Future ponderings: the pump is rated for 15 gph at 4 psi. The su's want somewhere between 2.5 and 3psi? I was told approximately 1 gph per 10hp would be a rough estimate, I'm really hoping that this will be adequate to fuel my engine build: E31 head N42 block Su Carbs MSA headers L28 or L28 flat based on condition of stock pistons, viability with carbs. These motors aren't suppose to make too much power in this stock of a trim from what I gather, so I hope it doesn't make more than 150 for at least a large rpm range (how many times have you heard that before? lol). I have some projects on the side for stage two for the motor so the fuel pump will be upgraded when that happens.

I ordered the MSA boots, they are cut too fit. The tie rod end needs no trimming but the steering rack side needs a bit cut off. I definitely would go in partial increments, IIRC the first ring was too small, but cutting off that ring made the gap too big. It is a boot though so as long as you use a thick zip tie or a cv boot strap you should be good. Took me about 15 minutes once I had the tie rod ends off to slip the old boot off, grease up the new boot (with multipurpose grease) and install them. Only complaint is the lack of increments, and that they look a bit stretched when my steering is maxed out in either direction, then again I don't remember how they looked with the stock boots. I was told and though I had to replace my boots, turned out they were just a little fuzzy from when I heated my tie rod ends to get them off and caked in grease. A little clean up and they are ready to be used if these boots every bite the dust.

Better be writing that door lock write up, jk. The horn works by two contact points. There should be a little tab behind the steering wheel that is in contact with a brass colored ring. The tab is attached to the back of the steering wheel, so that it is always in contact no matter how the wheel is turned. On the front of the steering wheel there is a wire that is screwed onto a ring with a spring in between the horn pad and the face of the wheel. When you depress the horn pad, you cause the spring to compress and the plate with the wire and another plate connect, completing the circuit. I'll have to go see if I still have the stock mechanism to take pics. I know that the tab on the back of my steering wheel had corroded and broken off, so I had to rebend the tab to reestablish contact.

Oh crap, I didn't see this, I just graduated on friday so it was a little hectic. For future reference, there is absolutely nothing to do in bellevue. The eats aren't that great, there's no tourist attraction, it just has a few nice houses, some upscale chain stores, some big companies, and that's pretty much it.

Yes definitely interested as well!

I'd say it's based on the mindset. There must be a reason for both parties to trade. You are looking to get back into a Z, the other guy we can only guess. Either he wants a more modern car with modern comfort, power steering, modern suspension and not deal with u-joints and drums, or there is an underlying problem and he wants to get out of the car, based off of his picture album, leaning towards the former. And breakdown of the car with the limited info is as follow. The Rb's in his size are 750 for a set and that's with the group buy. They're regularly ~850 shipped. If you look through his picture thread it looks like the car was stripped down to bare metal, some filler is used but looks to be minimal. The cost for a rust free chassis is easily more than 2k+, a chassis that's been stripped down to bare metal and fixed, quite a bit more (I was quoted 2k for full sand blast and epoxy primer, that didn't even include body work, price of car, or any welding). Paint and primer look to be pretty professionally done, (who knows a 3-5k job based on paint and shop granted they did it themselves). RB25DET motor with appropriate rear wheel tranny in running order (3-5k job based on shop chosen and work done), quite curious what the diff is. That combined with the J-spec body package and a clean interior and you are looking at over 10k of work/value (granted not too many people will pay that much). Problems: the wear on the tires indicates either a lot of burn outs or toe wear, toe isn't really adjustable on a stock Z rear suspension, thus you will need control arms or eccentric bushings, drums in the rear with that much extra power may need to be addressed. For some reason they didn't paint the interior, just put what looks like POR over the rusty bits but left the orange color underneath. And if there is still visible rust spots even after all that work, it could mean there is some serious rot that wasn't addressed. On your side: S14, 146k on chassis, stock LS3, megan coils, stock interior. Problems: Body damage in the rear and new paint needed for the front fenders. The way I see it it's a coin toss. Unless there's something wrong with either car, I don't think anyone is getting screwed in fact I think you would be getting the better deal. An s14 even with an ls motor is not particularly rare, that coupled with a stock interior, a stock motor sans tune and intake, and quite a bit of body damage really doesn't put it at it's asking price. An S30 with an RB swap is a small percentage of swaps on a limited number of available cars though. Granted the downfalls are as mentioned, old tech regarding suspension and brakes. And if you have 13k in your car, he could counter and say he has way more. Just look at insurance values. My honest opinion? Check it out a little more than pull the trigger. The 240Z will only appreciate in value, while the 240sx will only depreciate.

So funny stories: I was so focused on getting the dings out of the hood that I really didn't give much attention to the other parts of the hood that had little scratches. The part that I worked on turned out great! Unfortunately the parts I hadn't given attention to showed up under the white paint. *Sigh* at least it looks infinitely better than my fenders and doors. And as mentioned a few posts ago, I was dealing with some brake fluid leaking near the master. I thought I had tightened it pretty well only to find it had once again leaked. I tried tightening some fittings some more, but they really didn't have much to give. One thing that's been nagging me is that the company I ordered from sent two different types of fittings, one long and one short. I was worrying that this may have been a problem, when I noticed the side of the master was wet as well! Followed up the side to find my tilton reservoirs were leaking from the side! So I drained the fluid, took the reservoirs out, cleaned the o-ring and tightened them down, hopefully that will be the end of that problem. Now I have to go chase down where the fluid leaked and scrub off the bad paint and re-paint for the third time. A friend came over last week, and helped me line up and install my fuel cell. Loved how well everything fit from the top! Unfortunately... from the rear it's a different story. We also found that the vent setup I wanted is a little to tall, so I'll have to order a 90* to flatten it out so I can run a closed system. *Sigh*, I could shave a few inches off of the little box with some different fittings and such, but alas this will have to go in the "fix it later" file. Function over form right .

@webezeeed: Did not know such a thing existed, will have to look into it. @omak: Blah, I'll have to do more reading regarding an inline hydro brake, for now, I just need the assurance I can walk away from my car and not find it in my neighbors yard. I still think I whole heartedly suck in the bodywork department, so I decided I'd try some things I had read when I found a few more dings in my hood as well as changing my paint. I usually fill lightly then sand until I can't feel a transition anymore. Which ended up not working, since I usually don't have the patience to use the finer grits, then use the heavier grits end up taking too much off or leaving deep scratches, have to re-filler, then eventually just give up, coat it, and call it a day. This time around, I used my orbital polisher with a 120 grit to take off most of the excess fillers (save myself the initial sanding session), then used a nice rubber sanding block with 220 grit to take off the transitions. Followed by a coat of pretty decent primer to fill in the low spots, than sanding again to take out the high spots. This also really helps to show really bad transitions that you may have missed as the primer tends to sand away from the higher spots. Worked out pretty darn well, and I'm actually excited to paint my hood, first time I've been excited to paint something white since I painted my car . Unfortunately rain is predicted for the next week, along with finals, so no major work for a while.

Your car looks great, really digging the rims! I considered that for a bit, and actually it's still on the table, a forum member is fabricating a piece I'm very interested in. But immediately, that would require an extra caliper, a different brake bracket, and a hydro e brake setup, all money. Reusing the stock mechanism just took a bit of welding, so very very cheap. Currently repainting part of the engine bay, brake fluid ate right through 6 layers of paint and all the way down to the metal. Parking brake lines are mounted, just have to finish making the passenger side end and adjust for slack. Have to make my rounds of the lock smiths to see about having my locks re-keyed. Only thing holding me up on the doors. Currently trying to add weight to the front to offset all the weight added to the rear.

For the cheap cells, you just stuff the foam into the tank, they're very porous so they take up space while still allowing almost the same volume, and fluid movement dampening. I've heard the foam starts to deteriorate after a few years (crumbles, not neccessarily melts) but as long as you have a filter it should be fine. With that said, I didn't order any foam as I knew mine wouldn't be ready for fuel for a few years. I think it was itzgoten's tank I was thinking of, not myrons? But regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing that custom tank!

Since the booster isn't on (no engine) it really is unfair to dismiss the line lock, but at the same time, redundancy never really hurt. Brakes are fully bled, so moved onto solving the parking brake dilemma. So went down to the hardware store for the correct thickness lines hardware and springs. Then looked at the brackets the lines mount to. The one that came with the caliper has the correct bolt and nub combo, while the factory one has the correct hole diameter and thickness. So combine the best of both... Voila. Since the diff was in, I really didn't feel like removing it, possibly more than once after the line stretches, so I decided to invert the parking brake mounts. First brought the lines into the car and drilled holes through the little divider. Then mounted the modified parking linkage in the cabin, followed by the modified parking handle assembly. Voila! Getting pretty good movement, the linkage isn't bothered by the passenger seat, fully adjustable and accessible from the top, what more could I ask for . Friend also started helping me mount the brake line holding clips, just a few more to go, then I can figure out the rear sway bar/mounting routing fuel/and look into a rear tow hook possibility, how DO people get towed with a shaved rear bumper? Really hope I will have the car mostly done by the end of the month, less than 2 weeks!

So went to autozone to pick up a master cylinder bleeding kit thinking that I had air in my cylinder somewhere, and talked with the nice folks. After I tried to buy the kit, the guy said he didn't think it was the right thing for my symptoms. Instead he sent me to home depot to buy some tubing (2$ in tubing instead of 9$ for the kit)! We went over a bunch of possibilities, a customer suggested the submerged fluid method for bleeding alone, and right before leaving, one of the guys asked "are there were any check valves in my Tee's". When I replied "no" he suggested bleeding both sides simultaneously. Went home, and low and behold when I cracked both and used the submerged method, the driver side would pump fluid, but the passenger side wouldn't pump fluid! After the driver side had finished, locked it and pumped again and the passenger filled right up. From what I can gather, when I was bleeding individually using the vacuum pump, I was actually sucking the fluid out of one set of lines and into the other, since the fluid from the other pipe was easier to pull, than trying to pull all the way from the master cylinder. In summary, a vacuum bleeder works pretty well, if you have 4 lines going to the master. When they are split and not going through the stock splitting manifold, best to just use the old fashioned method! I even got the chance to test my line lock, and it didn't really instill a lot of confidence. When the button is down the rears are solidly locked, but during one of my 3 tests, I heard a pop, and the button had popped back up while I was out of the car! I don't think I got a 100% good bleed, so hopefully it's combined with that and the rear proportioning vavlve not being set, but I think I may be looking into making the parking brake work . Also finished both doors. My biggest biggest biggest advise is when you try to get the window on the regulator, do so at half height with the window pushed towards the front. Figuring that part out alone took a friend and I an hour or so, I did the second door myself in 20 minutes. One of the problems I think I will run into is that the door handle sits where front roll bar brace will be heading. Won't know 100% until the door is actually mounted, but found a possible solution from speedhunters: After 2 days and 10 hours, back on track .

Finally got the diff in. But for some reason the RT mount didn't want to hold the front. I ended up having to add a little tab in the front, or run the mount with only 2 bolts. I'm sure it's due to the combination of a 200sx turbo diff or the mustache bar from a 2+2 or something that's messing with where the differential is suppose to sit. Sigh, came up to my first real hurdle in putting the car back together, the brakes don't work. I started bleeding the system, started with the rears than worked my way forward with a vacuum bleeder. After I saw a good volume flowing from each corner of the car, stepped on the brakes, and absolutely nothing. Just straight to the floor, no matter if I go slow or fast. Bled it 3 more, and the master cylinder itself 2 times all around, still no firm pedal. Although it is showing a little movement on the front brake caliper that I can see from the drivers seat. If anyone can help me with this I'd be greatly appreciated. Problem: pedal goes to floor. Parts: rebuilt toyota s12+8 calipers, solid 240z rotors, maxima rear calipers, 300zx rear rotors turned down to fit, 15/16th rebuilt brake master cylinder, rebuilt 240z booster, tilton resevoirs, new hard lines, 2 brass T's to split the lines, wilwood proportioning valve and jamar line lock enroute to the rear brakes. Attempts: bled 3 times with bleeder, fluid flows to all 4 corners, master cylinder bled at the master bleed ports.

Started dicking around with the differential and ran into a few problems . Only one side of the mustache bar wanted to seat correctly, hopefully some more jostling will get it to seat, right now, the passenger side still needs ~1/2 an inch and it won't budge, even with the full weight of the car on it. I'm thinking we'll have to undo the other side, lower it, than try to raise it perfectly evenly. The front diff mount is posing a problem. I bought a RT style diff mount from technoversions, but it seems like the mount itself is not going into the correct place, like the mount gets caught on the lip where the old straps used to go. Any insight/tricks will be appreciated, I'm looking up every thread and article I can find. Edit: found out that on an early 240z, you need to grind the tabs off to ensure the RT mount will fit, and grinding the ES transmission mount will allow one to reuse the stock lateral mount without any modification. Also started finishing up the brakes, thought I finished, when I noticed the lines supplied in the Las Vegas Rear disc conversion aren't long enough, with suspension travel it looked like it would surely snap. And seeing as how I don't have a banjo fitting at the moment...will have to look into that as well.

A little bit of work to share: 79ZX 15/16th master cylinder mated to a rebuilt 240z booster, checked for the loose reaction disc. Clutch master seemed to have been replaced recently so I'll leave that for now. Front brakes routed, waiting till I'm 100% happy with the routing and making sure it won't interfere with anything before drilling the mounting holes. Not very happy with how the rear is starting to take shape, it looks a bit out of place but we'll see after everything is together. And found out where to mount my line lock/rear proportioning valve. I'll have to cut out a bit of the center console and a bit of the choke plate. Doors were painted over the weekend, but the paint started spider webbing, so I think I'll try sanding it then using a different paint. Paint is definitely not my favorite, nor my strong point, nor my friend. Should have the diff and rear axles installed this weekend along with the front diff mount and rear brake lines. Next six or seven things on the list should be pretty fast, then I just have to build the engine, and find some wheels .

Benefit is that it that it is much cheaper than a custom tank or even having the factory one cleaned/repaired. You can also have a filler neck installed to fill from the original location, add foam for baffles, upgrade or downgrade size fairly easily, and upgrade material or make. With that said, that tank is gorgeous and if I had known of its existence I may have gone another route, granted I'm 100% sure it's out of my price range. If you like the stock tank you can always take it apart, add baffles, and a sump like myron did and call it a day.

So for anyone that's curious, the clevis clips from grainger are too short >.<, the distance from the end of the threading to the hole is 32mm, factory looks more like 50mm. I only have one of the factory ones, which the brake system has to use (the brake pedal hole is much further than 32mm). So in order to try and make use of the 30$ I spent on the clips (20+10$ shipping ) I'm going to try seeing how much of an effect it has on the clutch. Looks like it shortens the clutch pedal 10mm or so, but the clutch shouldn't require the full throw of the pedal right? I'm loosing the bottom 10mm. Sigh, the little things that keep popping up.

Actually wouldn't mind a little help sometime this weekend or next week, I'd like to get my diff in so I can see how wise/stupid I've been with my spacing for the fuel cell and sway bar, and I reaaaaaally think that it's a 2 person jobs to jack/balance/align the diff in, beer (for those of age) and food or we can tackle a little project of yours in return. Well went into the garge today to find that the diff had rolled from it's perch (had it leaning against another diff) and had ended up with the vent pointing downward, spilling an unknown amount of oil. Which means I'll have to go out and buy another 13$ bottle of gear oil . Started bending my brake lines. Before I started, I had one of those, now what are you getting into, moments, where I just stood in the garage for a bit, then like usual just bit the bullet. 2 more lines to bend for the front, and quite a few left to bend in the back. Basic list of things left to do: Finish routing brakes/bias controller/line lock Install Diff/diff mount and axles Install fuel box and cell Route fuel lines/electric fuel pump/and fuel filter Install Dash and start figuring out wiring Install seats Install exterior glass Finish exterior panels Finish and install rest of driveline Install exterior panels And trouble shoot. Really not looking forward to installing the windshield and figuring out all the things that are problematic with a Z's wiring .

So I've been finding out how expensive all the little things are. Every little piece I want to replace or can't find is really adding up. And apparently the clevis pins are pretty difficult to find, and it doesn't help that o'reiley never returned mine... Onto pictures: Shot of the rear almost assembled. And had a little fun with the interior today. Figured I needed to mount my booster to start running my lines, and that would need the pedal box and one thing led to another . Unfortunately a staged shot, missing the lock washer so I will have to go out and find one, the wheel was taken back off shortly after the shot was taken . Back on the list of pondering things is the parking brake situation. The maxima calipers are so easy to run a parking brake it would seem a waste not to at least give it some consideration. Going to have the original setup sand blasted, and then take the line portion and see what I can come up with at the hardware store.