GreenState

Well, summer was fun. Got the Z on the road, aligned, and worked a few kinks outt. My correct front sway bar bushings for the ST bar finally showed up, no thanks to FedEx, so I could replace the front bar after driving around with the stock one for a few weeks. When installed with the endlink spacer proved in the kit, the sway bar bottoms out on the frame with my setup. Removing the spacer completely and using a shorter bolt solved the problem. The 235/40 tires weren't going to work either, they rubbed in the back and I needed more clearance on the front to get any positive caster angle. I got a set of Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs in a 215/40 and swapped out the 235's. Problem solved. Before I started this project, I had a certain expectation/hope of how well this car would handle when I got done with it. I've still got some more work to go, but I've surpassed what I thought was going to be possible.

Still a work in progress, but I washed it today so I figured I'd take some pictures.

To bleed a Wilwood MC (the easy, fast way): 1) Use two fittings and make two very short (~2") 1/8" hard lines and connect them to the outlets on the MC. 2) Using 1/8" ID tubing from the hardware store, connect the hard lines to two syringes full of brake fluid. 3) Clamp the MC level in a bench vise. If you have a vise that rotates, even better. 4) Using the syringes, push the fluid through the MC, filling the reservoirs from the bottom but leaving some fluid in the tubing/syringes. 5) While holding the syringes pointed down, use a screwdriver or other such pointy object to cycle the push rod. You may see some air bubbles come out in the tubing, if you do, let those float to the top of of the syringe before continuing. 6) After you've cycled about 2/3rds of the fluid out of the reservoirs, repeat step 4. 7) Rotate the MC in a few different positions and repeat steps 5 & 6 until you're bubble free. The piston has to be moved to dislodge any air bubble that may be hiding in the MC. Bleeding the lines before you hook up the MC will be a waste of you time and brake fluid. Before you attach the lines, make sure to take the Wilwood MC outlet fittings apart and verify that the springs for drum brakes are removed and the compression fittings are oriented in the correct direction, mine were not from the factory. For bleeding the rest of the system, I'm a huge fan of the Motive Products Pressure Bleeder. The Subaru fitting works on our cars if you use clamps to hold it on or you can buy the $30 240z adapter. Good luck!

You have to have the whole assembly off the car to use a press, but if you do that's the easiest way.

Also an option: Tilton Pedal Box

Bolts. Are. Awesome. Spindle. Pins. Suck. It takes a LOT of hammering to mushroom a grade 8 bolt like that...

I looked at these awhile ago. I like the idea, but I don't like the execution.

Hey All, I'm trying to find a 3.9 final drive transmission from a 1980 - 1983 280ZX non-turbo to swap into my 240 that now has a 3.9 STi rear diff. Cruising at 60 mph at 4k RPM is getting old and sucking gas. I'd love to go to a yard and pull a tranny out of a wreck, but Nissan sports cars are few and far between here. Anybody have a tranny at their place they'd be willing to part with? Thanks!

No, there is no difference front/rear. You're going to need some different bushings for the rear. Interesting that you didn't get any bolts.... I took photos when I did mine, they're here: Greenstate's Build Installing these took a lot longer than I had anticipated. I think I still have the template if you'd like to use it I can email it to you.

Yep, I can do that... Thanks for the thought, my brain was mired in gear ratio math. That's much easier.

I recently swapped the rear diff in my 4 spd 240z from the stock R180 to a STI R180 with 3.9 gears. The service manual says the 4 spd has a 3.3 final drive. I'm thinking the speedometer is reading a bit faster than I'm actually going. Am I correct, backwards, or just wrong? Thanks.

So more work has been done, starting with making some room for the wheels. Stock vs. New. There's a bit more rubber there now. This is going to need some work... Starting with a 1" pipe to get things going in the right direction. Fender rolling tool to flatten the lip Flat I've got some more room now, but I'm not sure it's going to fit these tires. Plenty of room in the front, but the back is going to be a challenge. On to the brakes. Bench bleeding the master went really well. If you use some syringes you can suck and push fluid through easily and get the bubbles out of the MC. Installed with prop valve. I was psyched to find out the MC cap on the Wilwood/Datsun is the SAME diameter as my Subaru so I was able to use my Motive power bleeder easily. There is a 240z adapter, but it's $32 and I didn't need it. If you haven't used one, I highly recommend one. You can bleed the brakes as fast as you can walk around the car. All I had to do was clamp it down since the cap threads are bigger on the Suby. Since there's a front and rear circuit, the bleeder gets switched between reservoirs when you move from the back to the front, other than that it's just opening the bleeders until you get a bubble free stream of fluid. I ended up bleeding the system 3 time since it was new and I wanted to be sure all the air was out. I think I got 90+% of the air out the first time, there were hardly any bubble the second time. The third time I did it just to be sure and I didn't get any bubbles and the pedal felt solid. Now that I had all the lines run and checked for leaks I could drop the engine back in! I also used the same bleeder unit to bleed my clutch while I was at it. I'm glad i did as what was in the line was some black chunky fluid with a huge air bubble. Clutch feels solid now with firmer pedal feel. Engine back in place, still stuff to connect. I didn't do anything to the engine except remove all the CA smog parts. It took another few hours to connect everything else and fill all my fluids. Transmission fluid sucks, it's like molasses. As soon as I finished I remembered the trick I learned about putting a tube on the bottle and using a air compressor to pressurize the bottle and get it all out in a hurry. Doh! I discovered that the radiator wiggled a bit on one corner as the goop that had held it in place from the factory had let go. JB weld to the rescue. So, all the fluids are in, fuel pump is primed, there's a little bit of juice in the battery... Maybe it will start... Less than five seconds of cranking from a weak battery and the engine roared to life! Best sound I've heard in so long! Next I put all the wheels back on and did some eyeball alignment to get it down the street. I started it back up and slowly backed outside checking the brakes several times along the way. It was go time: I pulled the car out onto the road for the first time in 7 months and cruised up the road. Soooooo nice to be back in the Z. After a few miles I had the engine warmed up and went through the bedding in procedure on the new brakes. BTW, the AZC kit is awesome: They already feel great, I can't imagine what they'll feel like when they get a few more miles. Big change from the stock system. Today the Z got it's first washing of the year: No where near done working on stance adjustment, but I had to get the car out of the garage for the summer. I'm getting some tire rub in the back on large bumps and I'm not sure I'm going to try to roll/pull a little more or get some narrower tires and run a bit more stretch. I've got some definitive black marks on the fenders now to referecnce where I need more room though.

Actually it does. For $1,200 you get the kit with the plates OR you send your stock rubber top hats to them to be modified to work with the Megans. McKinney Motorsport plate on left, Ground Control on right:

-19

I've seen a number of race cars that have the same issue going, they've all got heat shield tape wrapped around the rubber dust boots. I'm planning on doing the same.

Yes, I should add that to the list of engines that I considered. I remembered this morning that I'd also spent a great deal of time researching the VQ35 swap as well as VQ engine building before shelving that idea. I really want to keep this one non-electronic, normally-aspirated. Not that I don't love turbos and electronics, but my WRX has plenty of both to deal with. More progress... Needed to mount the Odyssey battery and since I had to remove the battery tray to get to the one bad rust spot on the car, the stock option no longer existed. I got a 7" deep U-bolt from the hardware store for $4 and used my vice, a piece of pipe, and a MAP torch to bend it so it fit around my battery and trimmed a bit off the threads. It's now bolted to the firewall, doesn't budge. Bent U bolt: Installed: Before the transmission went back in, I needed to do something to address the shifter bushings that had the durometer of a marshmallow. Best part of this mod is that it was free and took about a minute once I figured out how I was going to do it. I found two washers that fit inside the bushing bore of the transmission and reamed out the inner diameter until the shifter just cleared. Using the stock washers everything snugs up tight and the shifter feels much better. Washer stack: Installed, no more bushing slop: Best part though, is the car is now sitting on its new wheels. Rota RB-R 17 x 9.5" all around with 235/40 Nitto NT01 tires.

Moving forward... The rear strut assemblies are together with new bearings, studs, and brake adapters. As I was tightening up the bolts on my coilovers I noticed that the top nut wasn't bottoming out on the bearing, it was several mm shy of being tight. Before: Well, either I needed to find some spacers that were just right size or find a different set of nuts that perfectly fit the GC plates. Right... After some thinking over a PBR and starring at what was in front of me I had my moment of clarity. I grabbed a stock front brake caliper bolt and stuck it in my vice and stacked some nuts and washers over it and snugged the top nut down on the bolt upside down. I measured the strut shaft, it was 11.9 mm found a 12 mm drill bit, it happened to be a 31/64". With some care I drilled out the threads from the end of the nuts, the stack of nuts kept me from going too deep and the bolt protected the threads. Result: Win: One of my hopes of going with the GC plates was that in front the top of the COs would clear the hood. We'll see when I put it back on. Rear brakes Swaybar installed

You eat peanut butter sandwiches for dinner so you can get back to work on you Datsun quickly. Just my reality this week.

Yep, apparently with enough money those two go together: Turbo Triumph

On 240Hokes car with the custom VQ exhaust he ended up cutting the bottom of the muffler off and welding on a flat piece to get more ground clearance. Here's the whole page: Exhaust Install

Ah, the motor plan. I had originally wanted to go with a RB25DET, then I found out how much they weigh. Then I was thinking about doing a built SR20, but realized that the powerband of that motor wasn't going to be what I wanted. So currently I'm planning on using a Rebello 3.2 with triple Webers. Great torque, great hp, great sound. No computers or electronics to mess with either. I still reserve the right to change my mind, but it won't be a domestic V8. For this summer I just removed all the CA smog equipment and got some air horns for the SU carbs.

Well, I wish the car was back on the road, I'm only a month off my goal, but actual work has been really busy. Good for paying for parts, bad for having enough energy after wrenching on bikes all day to come home and pick up another wrench and crawl underneath the Datsun. I'm motivated to get this thing back on the road soon and have been in the garage quite a bit. Here's my current update. The interior is back together minus a few plastic rivets. Looks mostly the same except for the camber plates sticking out of the rear towers. I've decided to try to fit these wheels without flares, hopefully I can make that happen with the adjustability I've got in the front end. All the parts are back from the powdercoater and look much better then when I removed them from the car. The wheels didn't get done because the guy was afraid of messing them up. This worked out 'cause later I talked to a guy who had a moto wheel done by the guy and it didn't look so great. We agreed that the guy was great for brackets and undercar parts, but for showy wheels he may not be the best option. I decided to mount up the tires and make sure they fit and I like them before finding someone else to make my wheels a custom color. These tires should be pretty darn fun. No expecting high miles, more like miles of smiles. The last part of my brake system to plumb was removing the residual pressure valve from the rear and the supposed prop valve/t-fitting. The T fitting had no valve in it, despite what other people have said on here. It mush depend on year. The pressure valve I opened up and once you pull a rubber seal you can get the snap ring out and gut the thing easily. Like pretty much every bolt and part that I took off the car, these got wire wheeled before being reinstalled. Installed: The STI/Datsun side axles from John C arrived perfect as can be so I was able to get the diff installed will all fresh bushings as well as the TTT control arms/TC Rods I pressed new bearings into the front hubs and packed them with fresh grease after mounting up the AZC rotors. All the original wheel studs were removed and replaced with the Nissan Quest studs from Napa. Since I won't be running spacers I decided not to use the extended ARP studs I had here. As I slid the first hub on for the initial test fit, it went smoothly and then stopped with a clunk before bottoming out. Somethings not right...yup. The LCA hits the rotor. It's mentioned on the AZC site so I'm not the first to encounter it. I got out the open grinder and a used blending wheel and changed the radius on the arms so the disc clears in all positions of the turning arc and also under load. Yes, that's plastic wrap on the rotor to keep my greasy paws off it as much as possible. Now it fits. Calipers installed: Holy crap, there's a wheel on the car! My next goal is to get the rear hub assemblies together and mounted up. Lots of work to do still, but it's awesome to be putting things together!

Well, this spring hasn't quite gone as expected.... The heatwave in March got my business going early and I've been doing six day, sixty hour weeks since. Little time/energy to work on the Z but I got back in the garage this week and I've made some progress. Fortunately the paychecks from those weeks are paying for parts. I bought an Eastwood Pro Brake Flaring Tool so I could get my Wilwood parts installed. I really can't say enough good things about it. It allows you to do a OEM quality flare in under 30 seconds. Every time. I cut the metric fittings off the stock lines to the MC and replaced them with 3/8 fittings needed for the Wilwood MC. I thought for a long time about where to put the prop. valve. After searching on here, it seems that once it's set you don't have to fiddle with it much and mounting it in the engine bay keeps passengers from spinning the knob. I ended up getting a couple of elevator bolts and welding them to one of the brake line mounting brackets on the firewall. I used the flaring tool to add the 3/8 fittings to the stock line. The 280z booster was a bit more of a PITA that I had anticipated. After realizing just how tight the fit was going to be, I ended up making a drill template out of scrap to make sure I got the new holes in the firewall in right places on the first try. That worked out well and i knew I was going to have to do that. However, the ridge/seem on the firewall prevented the large booster from sitting flush. I was able to hammer the ridges flat and after several minutes with a die grinder the seem was ground flush. All set now? No... What took some extra time was the fact that the threaded rod on the 280 booster was larger than the 240. So the piece that connects the booster to the brake pedal didn't fit. I drilled out the threaded part on the 240 connector to clearance the threads on the 280 booster and welded a nut of right size to the end of it. Problem solved. The 240 dust boot fit better on the new booster as it didn't interfere with the hole in the firewall like the new one did. Getting the nuts on the booster tight is also a challenge, there is very little room for your fingers and wrench. The final step was setting the pushrod depth. The sticky on the Wilwood MC covers how to to do this in detail. Not to difficult in concept, but the tolerance is .3mm so it's a lot of adjust/measure/repeat. I got this digital multi-gague for $20 and it made this procedure rather painless. 5 stars for that thing. Anyway, they're in: Next step for me is to bench bleed my MC so I can get that installed.

Bosozoku Style! http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/05/12/event-gt-gt-bosozoku-meet.aspx

I saw a chicks red Mini with these the other day. It was actually very fitting for that car, it already looked like a lady bug.