seattlejester

Appreciate the insight! Car is fueled, pre-registered, camping equipment is packed, just need to grab some food and water.

^Same. Just remove the one on the cylinder and replace it with the datsun one. Makes it very simple.

Good to know on the wheels I do have a soft spot for 5 spokes, is the option when you order direct from us wheel?

Finding someone who says they can weld is pretty easy, do your diligence now rather than later, you want to see some test pieces and make sure he shows you the welds before he goes and covers them up with paint or seam sealer. These are really structural pieces take caution. Stay away from cosmo. It is just a spring setup with an adjustable perch, might as well go with a ground control kit at that point which has way more options, better design, and you can convert to a camber top. Those star wheels are pretty neat, but looks like the most they come with is 5.5 aka 0 offset. You might be able to run them with real thin coilovers, but you would want almost an inch more outboard probably via spacer if you wanted to fill out flares, that is quite a massive weight package. For the effort, I would say trying to find a cd009 over the cd001 you have would be beneficial. I'd almost say making sure the trans fits would be better before you went and welded in the floors, once you weld new floors in it kind of locks the trans tunnel in place makes it harder to stretch out or manipulate. Granted I guess you can't really hammer the trans tunnel without a solid connection to bend around. Looks like you have an earlier Z which means quite a bit of material removal will be required. Might be worth taking a look at how you want everything to fit and then try and build around it rather then weld everything and have to cut it up to make room again. Depending on how bad the floor is it may be easier to just put in a new floor and it will be cheaper to if you just make it flat.

Query, how long does this usually run? 4-5? I need to get back before 6 on sunday might have to bail early sunday if i make it

Definitely learned some things. Socorob's wisdom is on point, really assemble everything before welding. I realized that on more or less final assembly that the datsun shaft sits quite high up in the housing, so I will loose about 1/2 an inch of spline engagement, luckily I maxed out the spline engagement to start with so still more than 1.5 inches or so engaged. I also ended up cutting the saturn shaft housing a bit too close to the motor housing, with the penetration from the welding it seizes pretty hard the last 1/8 inch or so. The motor definitely will need more than this little stamped flange will hold to support the torque assistance anyways so not too concerned. Here is the welded shaft. The plastic is a pretty good idea, but you really need it super tight to make sure you have perfect alignment. My inline switch to the printer started acting up and seized shutting off the final print of the adapter so I had to make do with one that was a bit shorter, took a couple tries, but I'm happy with it. Also managed to press the gear back into the housing. I'll have to remember to grease it up later as quite a bit was wiped off, but the shaft spins freely for now. Here is the datsun column stop welded to the saturn lower column. If I had left about a quarter inch or so more it would have been perfect, but as it is I was already fairly tight on space. Here it is loosely assembled. I definitely did not account for the hump of the motor in my jig, the motor hangs quite low, but I don't thing it should interfere with anything in this orientation. I wanted to leave the control box face down so I could access it to manipulate the potentiometers. Once again socorob is correct that there is a lean to the column from stock. the flange that attaches to the firewall is offset away from the steering wheel inboard towards the trans tunnel. I thought I could get by this, but here I am a bit hesitant as I realize that the upper support can rotate. I hope I made the jig with it in the correct orientation. Luckily this setup is built with some misalignment allowed in the enlarged holes for the dash to column mount and the u joint after the motor which should allow an angle if needed. I definitely think some clamps will be instrumental in holding the bearing support to prevent the that from moving about. I am a bit afraid that there isn't much to prevent the column from sliding forward given there is now hard stop. I'll have to devise something to prevent the collapsible portion from moving until it is needed.

Oh and depending on what you get, figure out your adapters ahead of time. The port is american, it comes with two adapters, one for 3/8 IF I think and another one with a 3AN male fitting. I luckily had some banjo M10x1 IF fittings so I was able to use those.

That sounds about right. I think people who run the 16x8's are at a higher height or running more camber. I rub on my 15x7 +0 wheels with 225/50/15. Also that is a consideration as well. Tires can fill out or limit the rim choice. Generally you get about an inch of inboard space with coilovers which seems to be what you have found. I think the absolute max I've seen where a guy could barely fit a coin between the perch and the rim and the rims were very flush with the fender were 16x8 +4 on viczcar if memory serves.

A lesson is worth whatever they charge. I've taught a few people, some who have said they have welded before, and they also end up way better after about 20-30 minutes with a bit of tutelage. I've taught someone while I was under the car just based off of how the welds sound. Might be worth while going to your local welding shop and seeing if anyone has time to give you a lesson on a day off, or as many have said take a weekend class at a trade school or community college. Or you can lookup local people who have good technique and ask if they have an hour or two you could bother them for or pay to inconvenience.

Concurred, just pointing out a potential interference point. I think most people will run a poly mount anyways, and given the weight of this transmission I will say even that seems like it allows for quite a bit of squish and movement depending on the durometer (sp), but probably will be minimal overall. I'm not really planning on dropping any more money at the moment, and I'm pretty happy with my setup, just putting it out there it is an option. A remote setup would be interesting, but you would have to engineer a reverse mechanism to flip the setup pattern or do something like a 180, 180. Really either moving the transmission forward a few inches or buying the forward mount shifter and running an offset shifter backwards would be the easier option. I will say I am curious about the solid shift housings. The CD009 ones which have rubber bushings on the shift tower has a surprising amount of play. Probably to mitigate NVH, but it can make the shifting feel a bit inprecise.

Wilwood 3/4 with the 2.25 bolt spacing if memory serves. I bought the traditional one, but a compact one should in theory work apparently.

Hmm in that design it should be able to handle any side to side play, the problem would be if you encountered the play while shifting the gate may shift from where you are used to as in if you are used to moving towards the power button on the radio to engage 3rd or something, you may have to move towards the rewind button or something if you have a normal rubber mount and you are trying to shift while going through a corner. With it mounted on the transmission you would always be shifting it in reference to where the knob started as the shifter would rotate with the shifter. I guess problem may be too harsh of a phrase, maybe inconsistency?

Some other information. 350z driveshaft is carbon fiber sleeve over a metal splined section. You can cut the sleeve and pry it off. Not sure how sturdy just the splined section is. My shop charged a little over $500 for the driveshaft all said and done. I think they cut me a deal since they were a part they rushed did not show up. They had the spicer joint in stock and they upped the u-joints to 1310's if I'm not mistaken. The 1310 is a big joint and requires a big flange, the stock bolts seems to work, but you cannot use the lock washers if you want full thread engagement, I used flanged locking nuts and loctite. Use bread or wet newspaper to try and push out the bearing, skip the grease as it has a chance of blowing out the seals. If you have an old plate it wants you to bolt the starter through the adapter plate. If you have the means drill through the starter and weld appropriate sized hex bolts to the plate. Will keep you from having to drop this heavy f*er of a transmission if your starter goes bad. The holes for the flywheel are not blind. That means they are open to the crank case through the crank and additionally means oil can seep out. You want to use a thread locker of course. 243 is an updated formula with better retention against non adherent surfaces from what I understand, so it is recommended for this application. Some people have used FIPG, others have used the red 272. I used the 243 as someone said it due to its properties acts more like a sealant as well as a thread locker. When I pulled my old flywheel off no oil was to be seen. As others have pointed out the pilot bearing adapter should not sit flush or bottom out. Measuring it I believe it has something like 7mm of engagement if you do bottom it out. Less if the bearing pushes in. Online someone said to leave about 1/4 inch or so. The number 16mm stays in my mind for desired engagement. The pilot adapter is also a tight fit to the flywheel. People have suggested taking the outer diameters down to make room. I did as I wanted to make sure the flywheel did not push in the adapter. Check this first and save yourself some head ache. An old bolt and in my case a heavy duty zip tie lets you torque the flywheel bolts without having to rely on someone to hold the crank. Instructions say to torque to 56ft lbs in 20lb increments. Someone suggested 70 after reading the ARP instructions, but I wasn't sure if they looked up these extra long bolts going into aluminum or the shorter stock style bolts. I torqued mine to 60 just to round it out.

Something I have not heard or seen before for this application. Seems chassis mount shifters are a thing now. https://www.facebook.com/BellRaceworks/ Featured in The allure would be a fairly simple way of mounting the shifter no tig welder required. You would have to have some play either in the shifter retainer or nearly solid mount the transmission to the body as the shifter would be attached to the transmission tunnel. How it looks with a shifter relocator pushing it forward. As it is mounted now, your elbow does rub the back of your seat on the lower gates. The shifter extension helps push it forward out of the way enough that it isn't too much of a bother. The extra height makes for a longer shift, granted this is on a short shifter so they cancel each other out somewhat, but still a fairly long throw. If I had all the time and space I would suggest moving the assembly forward another 2 inches or so. The engine would still sit behind where the stock L series would, you wouldn't have to cut the shifter hole, and you would have access to the top bolts on the transmission. In my application with my crank mounted trigger wheel, that is a bit of a riskier prospect.

Hello, it seems you have posted in the FAQ section which does not allow for replies. Please take a moment to verify you are in the forum section instead of the FAQ's for responses to be allowed. I've moved your post into the drive train section so hopefully someone can respond.

Hello, it has been reported that you have posted in the FAQ section. This seems to be a recurring issue. Please take a second and make sure you are in the actual forum section instead of the FAQ section prior to posting as the FAQ section does not allow for replies. Everlast mig, harborfreight omni, hobart handler, lincoln hd, are some affordable mig units. If you are asking how to weld, planning to do something like this is probably out of your reach at the moment. There are some great videos on youtube, but really you need someone to critique you and give you some active hints to really get a good feel for it. They will also be able to tell you if your machine is problematic, welding on a bad machine it can almost be impossible to get a good bead.

Using the saturn column did cross my mind, just swapping the upper mounts out would be fairly easy comparatively, the length would be easy enough to hit with the collapsible lower end. Granted I think the datsun sliding bushing setup is a bit more elegant in some regards. Although thinking about it now, I'm concerned there isn't much to stop the steering wheel from being pushed forward as the stock setup was held back with the bellows that I am deleting, and the lower saturn portion has almost no resistance.

3/4 is more than enough especially with the stops removed. I actually added the stop back in for the clutch and took up the back stop. It is a bit firmer, but that may be from the heavier duty pressure plate.

Since I'll be welding I decided I should try and separate the shaft. The nut on the back is fairly large. It should be metric, but the store ran out after 24mm, so it is probably a 27mm or something of that nature. A 1 1/16 seemed to work well enough. Then I separated the shell with the 2 bolts. The shaft stays in the lower portion. A few smacks with a piece of wood and a hammer and the shaft came out. It is pretty neat, I think the pieces in the middle there are trigger teeth that get picked up by the control unit. There is a pin that will separate the upper shaft, unfortunately I didn't have the right setup to do so. Here is the layout of all the parts involved. The mounting points on the plate are fixed and everything kind of lines up in this picture. you can see the input into the datsun column is lined up almost exactly with the point where the shaft on the motor gets wider. That meant my cut lines were pretty much where the shaft on the motor get wider for the power steering unit, and right after the splines on the datsun shaft. While the shafts are close 17mm on the saturn unit I think 16mm on the datsun unit, given the cut point... you get the splines which are 17.4mm and the fatter portion of the shaft which is 23.9mm. the fat point has about 14mm of engagement room there is a gap of around 17mm from the fat point to where the splines on the datsun shaft will start given the cut point. You could eyeball this, but given that we are welding an outer shaft, at best it will spin off axis, but more likely it will bind if it isn't exactly centered. Given I have the time and tech, I decided to print my centering piece. Kind of the norm with printing, you have to expect a few iterations. The first was really tall and also the shrinkage was probably a bit more than I was willing to overcome. So the next revision made more room in the center, the diameters were increased, the bottom to 18.2mm and the top to 25.1mm if I remember and lopped off the ends. It may work, but the final iteration will have a bit more length to center the weld point while giving max engagement, all while making more room so I can fit a torch down in there.

Join the darkside I have the trans tunnel completely sealed with aluminum tape to the shifter stand and now the shift boot on top as well although it isn't secured. I'm gonna try another layer of the insulation over the top. If it is still too warm I'll order some of the reflective trans mat for the bottom and try and sneak it up there some day, I've been looking at z car depot and they have some cushioning for the carpet that seems like it would act as a pretty good barrier as well.

Actually that is almost passable. Given the frame rails in the engine bay aren't tubular and are C channel if you didn't run bedding posts you would pull the top portion down as you tightened the bolts which would crush the C channel as well as pull it away from the wheel tub/strut towers. By welding the plate they basically spread the load so that was a good idea, but I feel like welding an L instead of the plate that ties the bolt points to the wheel tub/shock tower would have been more beneficial. The way John designed it seems very purposeful. Wish he were still around to ask if it was indeed done so it wouldn't pull down the frame rails given it is its own spreader or if he made it like that to avoid the wiring harness clips in earlier cars or something more arbitrary.

Finally got her back home. Had a scare when I noticed the oil pressure gauge was reading 0. Pulled off the road to find the little plastic nut on the sender had worked its way off and the wire had slipped off. Going to have to find a nylock nut or something to secure it on there. Looking a bit snazzier, added a plate to cover the trans and a little shifter extender with the benefit of also shifting the shifter forward about 2 inches. I also bought a weighted shifter, but with the extender and the leverage I was a bit concerned it would pull out of gear while braking or accelerating. I'm not married to the height, friend suggested it to see how I would like it being close to the shifter, but with it that tall the shift length is also quite long. Maybe when I drop it I'll throw the weighted knob back on to play with. The ball valve is awesome. Quick flip and the car can be held pretty solidly. I added some insulation, but goodness there is so much heat down there. I can't imagine it is all from the exhaust. I imagine the transmission itself puts out quite a bit of heat. Really wish I had put some reflective material up there before I put my transmission up, but I didn't think it would be that bad (R154 was fine after adding the insulation). Short of dropping the transmission anyone have any suggestions? Someone suggested a carpet kit might help. Definitely going to buy the aluminum silica mat thing for the underside the next time I do some major work, but something for the top side would be helpful.

Hmm haven't heard of anyone getting a crank counter weighed just for lighter pistons. I've heard of balancing rotating assemblies which usually require the crank. If it is a serious build like that he may want to query a serious builder like real street who builds tons of these. In my head though given the way they move and how it is inherently balanced, I would think similarly as SleeperZ and you in that it probably is not required. I will say it never came up in conversation with my machine shop when I was planning on building my 7mgte.

Just run a new harness. If that harness is compromised and heats up you are are going to be providing it with a lot of fuel being enclosed like that. If I remember it is only a handful of wires for the tail and reverse lights.

Looks good!