zcarnut

To follow up on the fire extinguisher suggestion, be sure to mount the extinguisher near an exit door and not buried in a back corner of the garage. This allows you to approach a potential fire with your back to an exit allowing a quick retreat in the event the fire gets up of control. If you have to dig the extinguisher out of an "out of the way" corner you may find yourself surrounded by flames when you turn around. Additional info can be found by reading your local fire codes.

The caliper in the top pics does appear to be the 1982-83 280ZX one, while the caliper in the bottom pic appears to be the 240SX one (has the bolt on e-brake cable holder). The bottom rotor looks the early Z31 rear version (notice the 5-bolt wheel pattern). The bracket appears to be the [desired] Maxima one.

Like on the early Z cars watch out for RUST! A few years ago a co-worker of mine bought one of these "baby vettes" to fix up and jacked it up to do some under carriage work. One of the heavily rusted frame rails gave way and broke in two. My friend carted away what was left to the scrap yard.

If you have the fuel injection pump a bad fuel damper will cause the fuel pump to be more noisy. Also check the rubber mounts on the rear pump. As they age they can harden up and transmit the pump vibration to the chassis. And a lot of the aftermarket "high performance" pumps are just louder than the stock Nissan pump.

The bronze bushings in the rack ends were never available separately from Nissan. You can inspect and replace the pinion ball bearing and pinion bushing on the 240Z rack. The ball bearings for the 260/280Z steering racks are special and are NLA.

Before you remove the front races check for "race rotation". The races are a press fit but sometimes they loosen up and will turn in the hub. Once this occurs the hub is ruined and will need replacement. New races will not cure this as the races are much harder than the hub so the wear occurs in the hub. I have changed over 50 front wheel bearings in Z cars and I have seen this happen in Z hubs. A trick I use when replacing bearing races is to use the old races to install the new ones. Just take the old races to your bench grinder and remove a few thousands from the outside edge so it is a slip fit into the hub. Place this old race on top of the new one and hammer tap on the old race, thus avoiding damage to the new race. Don't forget to install the inner seal.

Just put a resistor in series with it and connect to 12V. Using a 5.6 ohm 25 watt resistor will limit the current to 2.14 amps. Most amp gauges have a +/- 10A full scale meter movement.

I hope you got a digital meter and not an analog one... To answer one of your questions: The quickest way to check an alternator is just to measure the battery terminal voltage. With the ignition OFF you should read 12.0 to 12.9V depending on the state of the battery's charge and the temperature. Use the DCV function. With the engine running you should see an increase in battery voltage because the only way to charge a battery is to force current through it in the reverse direction. And to do this, you must first exceed the terminal voltage. So, with a good alternator, the battery terminal voltage will then measure 13.5V to 14.5V (with the engine running).

I have re-build several sets of Weber DCOE 40's. Some tips (that I can remember): 1. Check for corrosion where the throttle blades meet the throat of the carbs. Close the idle stop screws completley and shine a flashlight down the throat looking for leakage around the blades. Minor pitting can be repaired with JB Weld. 2. There is no need to remove the throttle shafts unless you have to repair/replace a bent shaft or replace the ball bearings. They are a pain to remove without damage and the throttle blade screws are swegged (spelling?). 3. Corrosion in the float bowl can be removed by blasting with walnut shells or plastic media. 4. There is a BB sized ball used in the check valve of the accelerator pump (two per carb). Watch for them. Easy to loose. 5. Use a quality rebuild kit and follow the exact instructions about setting the float height.

A much better website for Earl's products is their UK site: http://www.earls.co.uk/ You can even download their catalog.

I like one that would fit a L28 that has a bore of 89mm. Those HKS and Nissan head gaskets for a 3.1 liter stroker are getting expensive (~$150). Do your homework on using copper head gaskets. There are a few companies that make them (but not for any L6 Nissan motors). Copper head gaskets are very resistance to damage as a result of increased cylinder pressure, but they do not seal water or oil passages well. The copper head gaskets should be annealed before use. You can use 0.030 or 0.040 thickness copper for a head gasket. Of course, a thicker gasket can be used, but it gets more difficult to fabricate and of course more expensive. I do plan on making a L-series intake/exhaust gasket from copper, as you do not have the oil or water sealing problem.

In addition to what has been mentioned, the wall thickness of the tubes in an aluminum radiator can be made thinner than a copper tube due to the higher strength of aluminum. A thinner material allows more heat to pass from the water to the air.

For suspension parts I recommend powder coating. Very durable. It's just more expensive than the other options mentioned

I bought the 20 ton Harbor Freight press after inspecting (and passing on) the 12 ton version. The 20 ton press works great! Well worth the $159 price tag. I have used it on several diffs and probably a dozen axle and drive shaft U-joints.

Passing note here: If you plan on doing a lot of painting, then you should be using a different gun for primer painting than the gun use use for top coats (color coats). Reason being is that primer paints have a larger precentage of solids and will wear the gun tip orfice more. Save your "best" gun for the top coats. "Primer guns" can be of a lower quality. I use one of the cheap [pressure] import guns for my primer work.

No, I did not. Both the 1974 260Z 4-speed 2+2 and the 1979 ZX 2+2 4-speed used a R200 with the 3.36 ratio.

Well they did make a _3.36_ R200 (the 2+2 4-speed 260's).

If the LSD diff you get happens to need a re-build, then add another $200 for new bearings, seals, gasket and shims.

Don't believe everything you read... Your '78 alternator is rated at 60 amps. The 280ZX alternator is also rated for 60 amps. The 280ZXT (turbo) alternator is rated at 70 amps because of the electric radiator fan. This alternator can be used in your 280Z with no mods. The 300ZX (Z31) alternators are rated at 70 amps as well, but you have to swap the serpentine pulley with an earlier V-belt one. However, this alternator will bolt right up to your present L-series engine alternator mount. The alternator to get are the V6 Maxima alternators which were rated for 90 amps (starting in the late 1980's) and 110 amps (starting in the mid 1990's). Again, these require the pulley swap. The output terminal of these alternators is later(8mm) than the earlier alternators (6mm) so you will have to modify your engine wiring harness.

All the rear wheel drive Maxima sedan's came with R180's.

Near the inner tie rod there is a 1/8 inch threaded hole at the end of the rack. You can screw a grease fitting into this hole and pump some lube into the inner tie rod bearing surface. Be sure to remove the grease fitting when you are done as it will interfere with the rack travel.

Strange...the 4.11 R180 I got out of a 1982 4x4 Nissan 720 truck has the "bolt in" stub axles. Nissan must have used both versions.

According to Automotive Industries the new Titan engine is based on the Infiniti 4.5 liter VK45DE engine but the bore was increased from 93 to 98mm and the stroke was increased from 82.7 to 92mm for a total displacement of 5.6 liters. Other differences to the VK45DE are the use of steel valves instead of titanium, the lack of variable valve timing and a reduced compression ratio of 9.8 instead of 10.5. BTW, the Infiniti engine has 340HP@6400rpm and 333ft-lbs@4000rpm. The Titan engine is rated at "over" 300HP and 375 plus ft-lbs of torque.

I found the Roadster LSD site: http://www.gordon-glasgow.org/lsdtech.html

The LSD carrier housing length dimension will affect the pre-load on the side bearings. So, this will need to be re-checked, even if you re-use the side bearings. The LSD carrier housing is under spring tension so after you unbolt it from the ring gear run bolts through two of the ring bolt holes and secure with nuts and washers. Then remove the phillips head screws that hold the LSD housing together. Gradually loosen the two bolts you put in to relieve the tension. Reverse the process for re-assembly. The LSD shims, spacers and spider gears should be cleaned and inspected for wear. The shims and spacers go back in a certain order so mark everything! There was a web site about re-building the Nissan Motorsport LSD used in the Roadster rear end (solid axle). However, this Roadster one is almost identical to the one used in the Z31, so the web site has some information on it. Do a search for it. Still, the best technical reference is the 1988 or 1989 300ZX factory service manual.