seattlejester

Welcome to the forum, Congrats on your find. Somebody has really had a go at the car, seems like they put in a few upgrades and also did some pretty poor looking repairs in some parts. I'd be concerned about some of those patches, and those blue patches seem quite odd. Looks like you got a set of tubular rear control arms which are about 1/6th the price of the car. Along with a rear disc brake conversion kit, stainless steel lines, and 4 pot front calipers being about a 1/3rd the price. The tokico springs could be promising, although the 240z ones are not very good and actually had problems, so hopefully the part number matches with the 280z springs. Looks like you did quite well in just parts alone, hopefully that doesn't speak too ill of the chassis. Not sure what makes you think it is ready to accept an R230, looks like a stock mustache bar for an R180 and the threaded axles sticking out of the rear hubs point towards being regular stub axles, probably 25 spline for a 240z, which would mean they wouldn't fit any adapters of any sort on the 240z half shaft flange. You have a good plan, lots of research would be good. As always we advise against a roll cage in a car if it is going to see any street time. A roll bar would be more recommended for mild racing if you plan on keeping it road worthy.

Just ordered, thanks for the details!

C&D in Kirkland was doing a race head for a datsun when I spoke to them last. They charge quite a bit though. They are also putting an L28 together for a friend so they are familiar.

Kind of depends on what you need it for. Replace every part is indeed quite vague, if you *need* this upgrade then you should also look at a new mustache bar, front diff mount, diff hanger, lower control arm mounts, etc. Other parts in the rear include control arms, shocks, coilovers etc. Also depends on how easy it is to acquire parts, the TTT kit I think is 2800 or so and if you can find the parts out of the donor car for less then 400 you would be ahead. That kit also supplies you with the new mustache bar, coilovers, and other bits, which the modern kit does not. If you just acquired an R200, then the assumption would be you have a 240 or 260z. The 27 splines from the 280z are quite a bit larger diameter then the 25 splines from the 240z or the 26 spline from the 260z, so depending on the need for the upgrade that could be an option. You can also buy a stronger 27 spline or step up to the 39 spline or what not units and convert to z31 turbo with the shortened shafts, that would replace all the driveline parts and still be under 2kish. Converting to 280zx turbo cv's with the 280z 27 spline is by far the cheapest option running about 500$, although the strength of the axle is probably questionable. WHP also supplies an adapter to convert to porsche CV's which would make your weakest point the input stub in the differential. If you are putting out enough hp and torque then it might be advisable to convert to something that can take it like solid axle as suggested.

Your suspension is very colorful! Thank you very much and for the measurements as well, seems like they shrunk down the nut on the bottom as well. This bodes very well as I have a stack of 15 inch wheels and if you have 25mm of clearance with the 16 inch wheels and a 1 inch smaller diameter wheel would be 1/2 an inch smaller in the radius so hopefully enough space there.

Clunk in the rear when shifting can be from a few things, most likely the front diff mount. Try driving in reverse and forward from a stop and see if the clunk is louder in one direction, that will help narrow down which mount. Alternatively it could be the half shaft joints, once under load they wouldn't make noise but when you get off load to shift the u-joints can clunk. First thing I thought of is a loose belt. That would be similar to your truck as you state, probably a seized AC compressor or a glazed loose belt causes the belt to slip when the AC compressor kicks in. Your car I would say this would be most similar to a loose accessory belt. The faster the crank spins the faster the belt has to spin. What does your volt meter say as you drive, do the volts drop? That would very easily indicate a slipping belt. Have you checked the tension? Grab the belt and twist it, if you can get it 90* I think that is the industry standard for too loose. Short of that it could be something like your engine rocking over and contacting something under load. Although that would not be screeching, more of a scraping noise.

I wouldn't be too afraid of working on it, the curvature might be hard to replicate on the top of the roof, but putting the glass in I found out that you have quite a lot of leeway with how the glass sits. You could do the old transfer tape or butcher paper and magnet trick to get a nice template and find someone with an english wheel to get the right curvature into it. Re-skinning the roof is quite the process, but looks like you have the know how to do it.

Thank you very much, I'm quite curious as to the distance from the wheel to the bottom nut without RCA's installed.

Welcome to the forum. We do have a nice section called trouble shooting for...trouble shooting so I would post there for questions of this nature. This is a pretty basic procedure. Start at the return line, take it off and turn the key on, fuel should leak out. If it does not, start going backwards until you find the source of your problem or end up at the fuel tank. Based off of some of the information you provided it sounds like the pump is potentially running dry or contaminated or breaking down. Taking out the fuel pump and the fuel pump filter and making sure the lines are clear of rust will help a great deal, you can also test the fuel pump off the car to check that it is working.

Spherical rod end on the LCA connecting the toe link vs the ring is what it looks like. Edit: Sorry that should read tension arm not toe-link, too much thinking on the RLCAs.

Got it installed? Very interested to see.

Very cool, I was just about to place an order and was lamenting that these new arms were frowned upon by the forum and was planning on settling for the older setup. Are you running RCA's? Do you think you will install these soon? I'd love to see how they sit.

I shaved down the non height interfering bushings, the very bottom one and the very top one. I think the answer though is to go get a longer bolt.

So I looked up the part number that sears provides with the joint. It came up as the CV boot. After a bit of searching through Febest, I found that they only charge 15$ for the boot so paying the 50$ should indeed be a kit and that sears has the wrong reference number. Just received the joint yesterday, complete joint with boot, clamps, c-clip, joint, and housing. It is however missing the CV grease seal for the bottom kind of like a paint lid can. They probably expect you to take this off of the old joint since you will have to remove it to install the new one. 50$ CV pathfinder axle came in, made in china, looks to be a genuine copy it has the same grooves and such. Planning on removing the hub shaft to get to the splines, waiting on my second 280zx turbo axle to come in. This is apparently used quite a bit by the 510 guys, it is shorter then a 300zx turbo axle so a better fit for them potentially. First 280zx turbo axle has come in, it looks a bit long, but the listing says it is for the 280zx turbo. The bolt pattern is smaller then the 3x2 pattern used on the later joints fits the turbo cv adapter perfectly, but will not fit the input flange. Driver side is theoretically done. 27 spline 280z stub axle, to 280zx turbo cv adapter, to 280zx turbo cv axle. Passenger side may need a shorter axle just based off of eyeballing. It will be the 27 spline 280z stub axle, to 280zx turbo cv adapter, to 280zx turbo cv, to pathfinder axle, to path finder cv joint, to infiniti input shaft. I am hoping that the path finder axle and the CV joints can compress enough to fit in without binding. If that is not the case, I hope the 280zx turbo axle is a full length axle and can be cut down and resplined to accommodate the pathfinder cv joint further down. If that doesn't work I will have to find an axle that is fairly large to be turned down and splined to fit both the cv joints. More information and specs once I pull apart the second turbo CV and find my micrometer.

http://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/gallery/mclaren-650s-faster-than-f1-hypercar-performance-and-pricing-announced_3.jpg

You get there eventually . Ordered a couple axles, the WD21 pathfinder axles look short enough that they might just work, have to order one more turbo axle to steal the joint off of that one. I wish they would just sell the bloody joints by themselves.

Starter died twice in two weeks in my daily...if this one dies again I might throw it through their window. Well, I was browsing through craigslist and decided to search for sand blasting on a whim, my interest was peaked when this guy had pictures of datsun parts blasted and polished. I reached out to him and he wanted to get the parts to blast right away, so that kind of forced me off my butt to get to working a bit. Spent some time with the bearing press pulling the bearings off of the stub axles. Almost grabbed one of the 240z ones, the difference the two splines make is that a 27 spline flange with spin freely over the 25 spline 240z stub. Cut the front strut tubes down a bit, will have to measure the height to get them perfect, but enough to have him clean it up. Met up with the guy dropped off the parts and within an hour I had pictures of his progress: Couple of hours later he had it done. We met up the next morning, and boy they almost sparkle compared to all the crap that was on it before hand. Crazy fast turn around. That is the type of one man operation I like . Planning on having him do a couple of small things as well. Also sprang for the 280zx CV adapters. If the internet is correct in what I am reading for the driver side I can just run a regular 280zx turbo axle, so that is taken care of, hopefully out of the joints and axles I ordered I can cobble together a solution for the passenger side. Rang up a powder coating company to coat my control arms, going to clean them up a bit more before hand, but I think I'm getting close to finishing them off. I figure I might as well have them coat the adapters and some other small pieces pending price. Burning a hole in my wallet, but I think I'll be ordering some TTT parts for my birthday. I do have a set of the 280z struts. Maybe I'll see how much shipping is to see if I can get a bit of a core value for them.

Well glad you figured that out. I will say it was fun going almost to redline in two gears on freeway on ramps and still being below the speed limit, but the drone at 3k rpm going about 65 was pretty terrible. I just ran the math and it says you will be at 3300 rpm if not higher depending on your tire size.

Hmm the 4.11 I have felt super short, I can't imagine how that would feel with a 4.38. You can see the side gears moving in and out so you definitely have some slack somewhere. http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/49194-differential-cv-lsd-hp-torque-r160-r180-r200-r230-diff-mount/ Has a post about early R180 being 110mm vs 115mm, might account for the gear gap.

You can just run ether to bypass the fuel system for the time being if that is a concern. I hear you on the corroded terminals, that could be problematic to chase down. Just an FYI going carb is not necessarily an upgrade per say EFI with a tunable computer and a TPS instead of the AFM will deliver much more uniform performance across the board, but as you say, if the connectors are all shot then a carb car has more power then a non running EFI car. Just wanted to make sure you weren't planning on putting on carbs and regulating the stock pump down, more then one person has thought that would be ok. The 180 off is common, but the fact you said it ran makes me think a little otherwise. Just check that the distributor is pointing at the first cylinder and pop the oil cap off and see if you can see the lobes pointed up on cylinder one. Then it is 153624 from there. It really seems like the firing order is off if it is backfiring out the intake or timing is way off. You can get timing lights with RPM read outs pretty cheaply or you can buy a cheap eBay gauge for the RPM as well.

So will know more today, but a set of 280zxt turbo adapters came up for sale so I may pick those up and try to stay nissan throughout the rear end and save on headaches. Found some information that the J30 input shafts will fit into a long nose 300zx differential without any modification needed. Ordering a bunch of test parts so pretty excited about the whole deal. May have a full rear end swap to just throw up there and be able to pull my other setup out completely. Thinking I will pick up the Techno toy tuning tension rods for sure, not sure if I'll grab the FLCA's quite yet.

Ordered an OEM replacement 27 spline CV joint for later nissans and a CV axle for a pathfinder. Seems like eBay has a couple turbo axles so I'm thinking of ordering one just to see if they fit and if not if they can be taken apart to use or if they use different CV's and just match of the flanges.

That doesn't seem particularly wise until you figure out if it was purely EFI based. My initial thought is timing being off, enough fuel gets in there you can diesel the car for a few moments which may sound like it is running. Firing order is another simple one that comes to mind. If switching to carbs be mindful of the pressure requirements, you have to swap out the fuel pump and such.

Thanks for the warning, hadn't thought too much about the fact that could be done. The CV replacement part came up when searching for infiniti CV joints, so it came up with the one CV joint for a variety of Nissan Vehicles without any cross listing for domestics so I'm hopeful, but I'll be mindful. The spline count seems right so ever hopeful. Thanks will do, some sights have been great about specs, others have been pretty lacking. I'm going to just try matching end to end, and see about ordering a couple to take apart.

So starting from scratch again, sort of. XenonZ31.com has pictures again, I'm going to have to save those for later just in case. Method one with pictures looks real promising for my case, it uses the tripod CV from the Infiniti J30 from 94-96 and puts it onto an NA Z31 tripod CV axle. The NA Z31 tripod CV flange has (if the internet is reporting correctly) the same pattern as a 280zx turbo tripod and so a companion flange adapter from Joe or Modern Motorsport should yield a straight bolt on setup. Problems that may occur are two fold. 1. Length. The method is for a seemingly bolt in setup for an NA Z31. That does not neccessarily mean it will transfer directly to the S30 chassis. In fact we know that the Z31T axles are already too long as it is, so this may end up being too long even though it is bolt in. 2. Parts. The 94-96 infiniti J30 axles can be acquired quite expensively through the parts store, the same can be done the NA Z31 axles. Right now, the only ones I have found easily want about 200$ for the NA Z31 axles and about 300$ for the infiniti axles. I'm hoping to go bother my local Napa to take some measurements, but if my eyes don't deceive me, it looks like Nissan used the same CV joint on quite a few vehicles. Pathfinders for example have axles that are quite short and also quite readily available and cheap running about 100$ for a pair. It also seems like these joints are available from sears at about 40$ a piece. Ideally I would have just taken the joints off at the junkyard, but as it sits now if the splines are correct, I may be able to get out of this with 300$ in parts or 500$ at most. The benefit also continues with the path finder axles as they are quite short. This would mean that I could make an axle and then space it out correctly with some simple aluminum spacers to take up any slack. So it seems like this will be the route I follow for the moment. The pieces of information I will need and will find out is... Total length needed/used from differential to stub axle _______ Total length of 280zxt companion flange ________ Total length of infiniti differential input ________ Total length of CV joint _______ Taking the full length and subtracting all the above and accouting for how much axle sits in the CV joint itself should give me a small range for the actual axle shaft needed. This will of course be different for both sides. Part number for the axles used _________ ID of the axle used __________ CV joint spline count __________ Will go out and buy the CV joint from sears for testing and might pick up an axle or two once I get the bolt pattern down in detail.