DuoWing

I remember having taken apart the combo switch, but I don't think I actually took it apart to clean the contacts for the lighting circuit. I'll have to give that a try. I've completely unhooked the plug that came with the clock pod and was still having it blow the fuse. The fuse on the passenger side is not the one that's blowing. Since I did the relay upgrade it's the one that's inline with the line coming straight from the battery. I don't know if that wire coming from the switch that is now trigger the relay is what could still cause me to have a problem, but like I said I'll have to take it apart. I also pulled the glovebox light out in the thoughts maybe I pinched the wiring or caused some kind of issue while removing the glovebox. Unfortunately I need to now go buy more fuses. I was attempting to do what I found in another thread. I took the bulb holder and the two wires that I removed from the old clock pod and hooked them into the fuse spot that keeps blowing. Flipped on the switch and tried working my way around the car to see if the bulb would dim or brighten, but I wasn't finding any change. I'll have to keep looking.

Well I have a weird issue. Up until recently I've had no issues with my interior lights/parking lights. I've even done the parking/interior relay upgrade harness on my 280z from MSA. My headlights are the HID dapper kit so those are all relayed separately as well. Anyway just the other day I took out the clock to gut it for my autometer boost gauge. I also removed the glovebox in the process. I haven't even reassembled anything yet, but now when I go to turn on my parking lights/interior lights I immediately blow the fuse over by the battery that's inline on the relay upgrade kit. I started swapping different fuses in, then finally I had one left a 30amp. I threw that in there and for some reason my interior lights/parking lights were working fine. The fuse wasn't getting warm or anything. I flipped it on and off several times. The next day I came home from work and went to flip them on to see if they were still working and again the fuse immediately blew. Turn signals, brakes, headlights, the brake light in the speedo, and hazards all still work. Just not the parking/interior lighting. I'm not really sure what's the best way to start tracking this down. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I was sitting in my friend's RX-7 FC. Her car has the RX-8 seats swapped in them and I was thinking that these could make good seats for the Z. They seem to be about the same size as the S2K seats.

Like what Tony said my 280Z when I purchased it had a hitch that had been attached into the stock huge bumper. I don't remember if they had done anything else to reinforce it, but they just cut a hole in the bumper so the hitch would fit through.

My booster had a toothed metal clip, then the rubber seal around the pushrod, Once that clip is out, just play with it a little and it'll pop right out. The seals are probably just a little stuck.

When I got my remanned Centric booster, I had a heck of a time adjusting the pushrod on it. Once I finally got it to move it loosened up and became very easy to adjust. They may come with some sort of thread locker on them.

I would say a 280ZX would be a better choice for a daily commuter. I'm probably one of the few people aside from when they were new and available that's actually driven a 280ZX as a daily car. All year long, rain, snow, heat, etc. Once I made sure the EFI was all running properly I had no problems with cold starts even on 0*F days. Would start right up alongside all the other cars from the 2000s. As for reliability like I said, once I did a good tune up and replaced some of the old and aging parts I never had any problem. Only one time the car left me stranded and it was because of my poor wiring attempt at bypassing an old fusible link. I was lucky it didn't burn up my harness. Other than that I never had a single driving issue. Did a 4-hour trip one time and my Uncle called me crazy for trusting such an old car. For 3 years this was my only car. When I would switch between my S30 to S130 or even Z31 it was so weird hopping back into power steering. My 280ZXT at best got about 22mpg, but this was also with a 3-Speed auto. So I was cruising at a higher RPM range when on the highway. A 5-speed N/A should do much better. They're a little bigger and a little more comfortable than an S30. The A/C in my ZXT worked amazingly well which is one of the few old cars I've ever had that actually had A/C that functioned. I really miss my 280ZX and plan to buy another to go along with my 280Z.

I installed these and I really like them, but I think I need to pull them back out. I clamped the retaining ring a little too tightly on them so it's not allowing a proper adjustment? Were you guys able to get these to adjust decently? I feel like mine are aimed a bit too low. When I switch to high beams they work great. Otherwise these lights are fantastic.

Sorry to double post in this topic, but I'm past the point of editing my previous post. Anyway I'm curious how you guys judge when the case is snug? I'm in the process of doing this and basically what I'm doing is just leaving the diff on the floor and using a wrench to tighten the bolts until the point where I can't tighten the diff case bolts anymore without holding onto it/clamping it down. So every turn past this is at least now starting to register torque on my digital torque wrench. Is this a good way to judge or should I be further back?

I can't remember where I read it, but despite the cost supposedly running the AZC Wilwood setup front and rear with a rear proportioning valve can be balanced out to have a very good brake bias. Seeing the person who said the AZC fronts come out lighter than the actual stockers has me considering this upgrade if I end up not liking my 240SX rears.

I figured I'd throw this here as well. Back when I first started my motor swap I got two Spicer U-joints. Not knowing much about U-joints and that you could order them through MSA the mechanic who was helping me opted to install one joint in each half shaft. The remaining u-joint in the driver's side half shaft needs replaced. I not realizing that MSA sold two types of u-joint ordered the standard thinking I was ordering the Spicer. Should have realized when the price was so cheap. Anyway I have the GMB or whatever brand, I installed one into my halfshaft and went to grease it. I can only get grease to come out of the one cap. To the point where I'm feeling extra pressure and it's all then backing up from the zerk fitting. I was doing a search and found this to not really be a good thing so I went ahead and opened up the other GMB u-joint. Took all 4 caps off, hooked up my grease gun. Only managed to get grease to come from 2 of the sections of the joint before it started backing up. Thinking maybe it's me or my gun, I remembered I did have a spare Precision joint I never used. Took the caps off and hooked up my grease gun. Grease comes from all 4 points no problem. Are these GMB joints just junk? I don't really want to put the half shaft back in my car with a joint that's going to likely fail soon. I think I'm just gonna find somewhere to order the Spicers or go buy the brute force joints. Also I saw it mentioned on some Z forum that the Spicer joints for the Z are really just reboxed Neapco joints. Anyone have any info on this?

I went to Autozone and bought those Zinc plate class 10.9 M10-1.25x20mm bolts and they fit perfectly. The 20mm are just slightly longer than stock. This is on my 280Z.

Yeah that's why I figured I'd post in this thread. Good tip on the heat. Reading around the internet and the way people talk about make sure you install the axle exactly as it came apart, and these things are all supposed to be specially balanced and heat treated, I wasn't sure if using heat on it was a good idea. It didn't occur just heat it until it loosens. I also have a MAPP gas torch and they do come in pretty handy. Anyway I went up to Autozone and rented the ball joint press tool and then I just used my impact to drive the u-joint through. My vice is unfortunately not big enough to put the half-shaft, and two sockets...

I was going to start a new topic, but I figured I'd throw this here. I've seen many people say when changing U-joints to use the big hammer and a socket method. I'm sure if I continue beating it for a while that it should slowly come out, but seems like a pain. Some people say use a press, but some say that using a press or a ball joint press/vice can ruin the ears on the axle? Is there any consensus on any of this. Does everyone just use the hammer method or is the press fine?

So after reading this thread I went ahead and got myself the 240Z sway bar kit. I was kinda hoping for the green sway bars. I'll hopefully get around to installing these this upcoming weekend. Looks like it should be a fairly easy install.

I too just got my OBX, which I decided to go with after reading through these threads. Haven't opened it yet, that will be the weekend project. Anyway from what I can tell through the small holes on the side that it looks like my gears are actually facing the correct way, but I'll find out once I open it up. I have the rbryant rebuild kit ready to go so this should be an interesting experience.

Does anyone know for sure if these are progressive or not, at least the 280Z springs? Johnc did mention in that one thread he thinks the 280Z Tokico spring set is a very good kit for any S30 just that you would need to cut them for the earlier Zs. I mentioned that I saw one person say the fronts were linear. My Front springs look pretty much like my rears, they don't have the series of extra more tightly wound coils, they look pretty even throughout the whole spring so I'm going to go with that they're linear. I'm really pretty much a suspension newbie, so I keep reading through things on here trying to learn more.

This turned out to be more interesting than I thought. I can't tell for sure, but they don't really look different. In that faq Tokico thread I thought it was mentioned the 280z springs are linear fronts. I can't really tell if there's much difference or not. I'll find out when I get the front on jack stands and take the wheels off. I'll be able to actually look at them easier. I figure it won't take that long to swap as I can probably just unbolt the few things attached to the shock tube and leave it connected to the control arm and swing it out enough to change the spring

So a couple years ago my forever in project status 280Z had the full Tokico Illumina/Spring set put on it. The car has only seen maybe 200-300 miles since they were put on. I've been in the middle of the Modern-Motorsports rear disc/Wilwood 1" master conversion. Anyway when I got up front I noticed that the passenger side spring has the writing flipped upside down on it while the driver's side has the writing right side up. I was wondering if this matters, should I just pull out that strut and swap the spring around? I was looking through what papers I had and I don't see anything mentioning about a proper way to install the springs so I'm not sure.

Unfortunately I was already in the process of the 240sx rear swap when I started coming across people saying about not such a good brake bias with the Toyota/SX setup. Although it seems to vary. I've seen some people claim too much from the rears, others get none. Also one thing that seems to be a difference is at least in my situation I'll be running at least hps pads in the rear which should be an improvement over stock. As for the fronts I'm running the smaller non-vented 12+8 calipers. I've seen it mentioned that bias might be a little better with those do to the smaller size and the 2 smaller pistons vs. the bigger S12W calipers. I'm taking my time to make sure everything is bled very thoroughly. Maybe getting a little more off topic, but something I've been wanting to post about and discuss is the mention of the check valve that gets used in the Master for the rear drums. I've been curious if you were to run that check valve only on the rears with calipers. Would you be able to set up the rears to almost grab faster, maybe not changing the bias so much, but allowing the rears to begin to slow slightly before the fronts take over? It might be kind of a band-aid fix, but it's something that interests me. I believe I've seen there are VWs that are set to be slightly more rear biased or to at least engage rears first to help prevent nose dive on heavy breaking and give more of a nicer braking experience.

Since you have a 240Z it should be easier, but what you can do is go here: http://949racing.com/wilwood-brake-prop-valve.aspx as they sell a Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve with NPT threads along with NPT to Inverted Flare 10x1 fittings. This way you can remove the stock proportioning valve, and then just use the adapters to connect the original lines right to the Wilwood. This is what I did. Just make sure you add in the adapters for a Miata. The Miata uses the same standard inverted flare and metric size fittings as our Z.

That looks like a good option ktm. I may have to pick that up. The Wilwood proportioning valve and NPT to Metric inverted flare adapters I'm using I picked up from a Mazda site so the Mazda/Miata community might be some viable alternatives to some of these things.

i sent johnc a pm so I'm hoping to hear back if he does. I have a 280z, and I've seen it mentioned that the Tee at the rear which splits the left and right side has some sort of proportioning valve in it? I just assumed it was simply a tee. Anyway I've been looking for a 3/8-24 male inverted flare to 10x1.0mm female inverted flare and they don't seem to exist. I was searching for these to easily adapt the Wilwood to the Z without having to make and flare new lines. Interestingly I came across a post on a Miata forum where the guy was saying it was easy to make NPT to 10x1mm adapters and that all you had to do was chamfer the ends of a 10x1 tap and then run it through the 3/8-24 section of the adapter. This now has me wondering if it really is that easy we might have a really cheap solution for some of these things. Especially for the Wilwood. I'm a little off topic at this point, but it is frustrating seeing how little there is in the way of 10x1 inverted flare fittings when they don't seem to be that uncommon.

Alright I've been searching and I'm not hitting the right keys, or something, but I'm in the process of doing the rear 240SX conversion on my 280Z. I decided to go with new hard lines at the rear splitter/tee so I could shorten them and run the stainless braided lines from up near the entrance to the wheel well rather than cutting out the old mount and just leaving a brake line floating there unsupported. I'm having a really rough time getting these lines out without destroying them and I'm hoping I'm not ruining the threads in the tee in the process. The fittings seem to thread in ok after the old are removed, but I'm not sure. I can get them to start to brake free then after about a half turn the things start getting really hard to turn and my flare wrenches start tearing up the nut. I managed to finally get one out after using vice grips in 1/6 turn increments. Anyway I've been trying to source a new 3-Way 10mmx1.0 inverted flare tee in case I have to replace mine and I'm having a really hard time finding one. A few of the Earl's fittings I've found I don't know if they're inverted flare, bubble flare, or if the block is 10mmx10mm. So if anyone has any options on this. Also I haven't gotten under and fully checked, but I'm assuming the line that runs from the factory proportioning valve all the way to that rear tee is a single line with no unions. I'm hoping I don't have to remake that...

I don't know how efficient it would be, but I had a thought for lines from the new master adapting to the rest of the system. I was thinking you could simply buy say the 14" long Stainless Braided lines that have two -3AN Female fittings and then just use a -3AN male to 10mm male on one end and a -3AN male to a 3/8x24 male on the other. This way you wouldn't have to deal with bending or flaring lines and you'd have flexible lines that easily allow you to move the master cylinder around for adjustment or having to pull the booster. Alright I was searching Ebay and it turns out I just wasn't hitting the right keys, but I found these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brake-Line-Thread-Adapter-Male-3-8-x-24NF-Female-M10-x-1-Inverted-Seat-/390439357312?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5ae7ffcb80 So maybe we finally have an option for making the Wilwood swap even easier.