Derek

I was doing the installation instructions for the CD009/L6 bell housing. I started on the cross member section and that is when I researched drive line angles. As soon as I walked over to the car an looked at the pinion flange I realized that it was a lot more than 3 degrees. I'm going to bring it down to match the engine and see how it goes.

Agreed. I think the more critical number is that the output shaft of the transmission and the input shaft of the diff are the same or nearly so. The video shows pretty clearly how an elliptical movement can be generated by miss matched angles. The Tremec app measures the output shaft angle, the drive shaft angle and the pinion angle and then gives you a report if they are within specs.

I think the laser is appropriate for horizontal alignment. but an inclinometer is a much better choice for vertical. The 5 degrees I measured was with my Subbie 3.9 diff installed. I have since put my stock diff back in to test out how the 3.364 ratio plays with the CD009 but like an idiot I didn't check the pinion angle. I'll be pulling the drive shaft again soon and I'll check the angle again and see what I get.

The Tremec app works really well. And it's free:) I exchanged a PM with Madkaw over on classicz because I saw a post he made on it. He said he measured his and it was 2 degrees so the plot thickens. Everything I read says no more than 3 degrees. I'm going to double check my measurement and see what gives. Here is a video showing the importance of having the same angles on the transmission and pinion.

I saw those and may make one at some point to check horizontal alignment. Tremec makes a pretty good app for taking measurements with your phone and it does the math for you. The 5 degree pinion angle is so far out that until I get some clarification on that I'm not going to change anything. It seems they had to have had a reason for designing it with 5 degrees tilt . I wonder if it was trying to correct a vibration problem. My 73 has the stack of steel plates under the diff X member so there was for sure some sort of issue.

Actually I was already thinking what I would do if I wanted to rework the cross member. That looks like a practical solution for sure. I think the stock angle on the motor was right around 3 degrees. When I was working on the 6 speed install I kept looking at the pinion angle and thought it was odd. There is a fair amount of data out there on the principles but my understanding is no more than 3 degrees on either angle and no more than 1 degree difference between them. There is more to it than that but that's the general gist. The 5 degree pinion angle is way out. I have heard of dropping the pinion flange so that under hard pulls it lifts into position but it's 2 degrees out of spec even before torque is applied.

So since I put in my CD009 I decided to do some checking into proper driveline angles. The transmission output shaft is right around 2.7 degrees which is good from what I read. but the pinion angle in it's factory position is 4.9. Anyone ever delved into this? I did some searches but I didn't see much about it. Is there a reason why Nissan put so much angle in there? I have a Ron Tyler style mount and I can top hang the diff and dial in the angle but before I do that I wanted to hear what you all had to say on it. Thanks Derek

The 04-05 3.9 STI diff I believe is a Suretrac. No clutches. At least that is what mine is. From what I understand it's more like a Quaif unit.

I know it's a long shot. Looking for a used input shaft for a CD009 6MT. The critical parts of the shaft are the pilot area and the front bearing. I need to make a QC test rig for the bell housing.

I seriously don't think I would be doing this stuff if HybridZ didn't exist. It's really sad that people have taken to FB to find answers as opposed to going to forums. I read some stuff there and just shake my head at a lot of the answers. Back to the CD009. Working great. CD009 transmissions are notorious for gear rattle in neutral with the clutch out and mine is no different but other than that functionally it's fine. I think for my driving desires the 3.9 is a tad too much. The revs are a little high in 6th. I think a 3.54 would be a better choice. But the gear spread from 0-50 MPH is really a lot of fun in town. I think I'm going to put my stock rear and axles back in to get a feel for that and see how it goes.

Actually I'm glad I have to cut the tunnel. It's my way of flipping off the series one purists:) I got a six speed and you don't na na na na naaa na.

Thanks for all the kind words and what I think is a marriage proposal from Seattlejester. I love you too but you still have to pay full price for a KN20. Nice try though. Crap I missed a picture when I did the post. So I machine the bosses on the Nissan cover to the same level which keeps the bell housing parallel to the transmission. The three dowels keep the bell housing centered on the input shaft. Longer M8 bolts sandwich the whole rig together. If you look closely you can see the new boss for the clutch pivot so that it is on the correct side. The internal ribbing probably is over kill but I thought it looked cool. Every conversion system other than Hokes that I know of uses these bolts as the mounting point. From what I can tell I'm the first to use the existing cover. as part of the system. As part of the assembly procedure I recommend a dry fit with no clutch or pressure plate and the transmission in gear. Bolt the transmission to the motor with a pilot bearing installed. You should be able to turn the output shaft by hand if the input shaft is riding in the bearing properly. I'm confused by "just paid for the bell housing" I haven't sold any yet. Something else I missed was the fact you have to modify the tunnel just like every other CDXXX conversion. I'm putting the finishing touches on the installation instructions and I'll post the PDF here so people can get an idea of what is involved. Edit: Just talked to Chris at Godzilla. I'm no longer confused:) Well I'm still confused but that is my general state of mind.

I know a lot of you follow this thread and I wanted to give you a heads up I'm coming out with a CD009 bell housing. I just posted a pretty detailed build thread over in Driveline. https://forums.hybridz.org/topic/131751-cd009-bellhousing-build-thread-warning-lots-o-pics/ There is a bonus video towards the end:) Thanks Derek

Ever since I was a small boy I dreamed of having a 6 speed transmission in my Z car. Ok it was actually in 2014 when I heard that people were retrofitting the CD009 into various different vehicles and thought that would be awesome. At the time I was up to my ears in KN20 development and I put it aside immediately. Fast forward to a few months ago and I decided to finally bite off doing my own system. The Hoke system is a great piece of engineering but it wasn’t what I wanted. JWT offered a conversion plate but you needed to source a used bell housing and like the Hoke adapter required a special flywheel. The solution for me was always going to be a cast bell housing. My goals were to be able to use my existing clutch, pressure plate and flywheel. I contacted Chris at at Godzilla Raceworks too get his input on the feasibility of my approach. I know a lot about castings but my knowledge of what components play nice with other components is seriously lacking. Based on the info Chris provided I decided to move forward. Step one. Jump in with both feet by buying a brand new CD00A from Z1 Motorsports. Step two. Cut the bell housing off of a brand new transmission so there was no turning back. The first thing I needed to determine was can I get 100% spline engagement on the clutch disk. I setup a block, crank and flywheel on the bench. I removed the pilot bearing. I then slid the transmission into the crank until the pilot shaft bottomed out. I pulled it back 6MM and made a reference mark on the bench. Visually the pilot shaft looked like it would play nice with the pilot bearing so I moved on to the next step. Check spline engagement. I bolted an old PP and disk on and slid the transmission back into place. I had over 100% engagement and it looked like some version of the longer release collar would bridge the gap. So now that I was confident the math would work I had to work out how I was going to machine the casting. The big problem for me is my CNC mills are converted Knee mills and they don’t have a lot of Y axis travel. I also don’t like doing uber precision work in a production environment. I decided early on that I was going to leverage the existing front cover to be the “glue” between the transmission and my bell housing. My plan was to sandwich the front cover between the bell housing and transmission. After confirming that I had a decent machining strategy it was time to collect data. I scanned an old 5 speed case I had. This is what I refer to as a dirty scan. It’s only for me to design around. I import the mesh into my solid modeler and it becomes a reference for the features I want to add. All of the critical measurements are done with a touch probe in the mill or conventional calipers and micrometers. First step was to align the mesh with the bell housing holes I acquired with the touch probe. I also pulled the input bearing hole from the case when I got the bolt pattern. I then then positioned the scan and the probe data I made of the CD009 cover centering the input with the input from the case. And then I push a couple of keys and suddenly like magic a bell housing casting model appears. Ok there is a lot more to it than that but you get the gist. Next I had to design the machining fixtures. All of the important stuff is done in the first setup. This ensures the input shaft of the transmission lines up with the pilot bearing in the crank. Pattern time. Without getting into a ton of detail here is the finished tooling just before I shipped it to the foundry. So while I waited for the castings I worked on all of the fixturing. By using the existing front cover I was able to save a ton of precision machining. But the cover has to be positioned properly. I accomplished this by making a fixture that indexed the cover on the input bearing. I then bring all of the bolt face bosses to the same level and then ream 3 of the bolt holes to accept a 10mm hollow dowel. Here is the finished cover with the dowels installed. So I guess I was in a hurry on the machining since I didn’t get any process shots. Here is a shot of the first test after machining the engine flange. This is testing the cover fit. This is before the clutch lever and slave work. And the finished product. I designed the cross member to be as versatile and adjustable as I could. I also decided to share the load between the floor/frame and tunnel. On most of our cars the tunnel is probably one of the most unmolested rust free parts of the car. It uses the crossmember from a 72 and up and an Energy Suspension transmission mount. Both ears are adjustable up and down and the ears are slotted so the cross member is adjustable side to side. You can remove the transmission just by removing the ears. The floor/tunnel bars stay in place. Here is a slightly fuzzy shot from underneath. And the finished product. What’s next? Now that I have a running car I’m finishing off a second bell housing and cross member and sending it out to Chris at Godzilla. He is going to test fit it in a 280Z and check the fit of the cross member as well as the clearance on some headers. Godzilla Raceworks is going to be a dealer for these and he took care of having the drive shaft made. As soon as we verify the fit on his test vehicle I’m going to go into production. I’m not taking pre orders but if you want to be on the list of pioneers you can contact me or Chris at Godzilla. When the bell housings are done you will have the first option to purchase. Pricing: Bell housing. $900.00 Crossmember. $295.00 Labor charge for modifying front cover. $75.00 You must supply either a brand new cover or brand new take off as a core. No used covers will be accepted. So far I’m really liking the gear spread on the 6 speed. I currently have a Subaru 3.9. I’m going to put the stock 3.364 diff back in to see if it brings the revs down at 75mph and see how it effects the first and second gear feel. For me that is the most important thing. Thanks Derek

As in Ohm readings? No not really. Since I used the calibration feature of the MeterMatch as opposed to the pre configured method there isn't any way to know for sure.