Pop N Wood
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Posts posted by Pop N Wood
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The link in this posting describes double clutching in excellent detail
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Having grown up poor with POS cars I couldn't afford to fix, I can tell you every time that has happened to me it was the master cylinder. Either the MC is rusty, or the rubber cups that slide along the cylinder walls ard old and have gotten hard. The harder and faster you hit the pedal, the more likely the rubber cups are to flair out and make solid contact with the MC walls. It only scares you the first couple of times it happens. After that you know to plan ahead cause you may have to "double clutch" the brake pedal to stop.
Either way flush all of the existing fluid through all 4 corners before installing a rebuilt MC, then flush another can of fluid when bleeding the new MC.
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Looks an awful lot like the ZF racing control arms
Some interesting comments on that layout
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Who actually has auto insurance that covers a blown transmission?
It is not like they hit anything.
Car insurance goes witht the vehicle. Loan someone your car and it your insurance that pays for what they did. Believe me I know. IMO the BMW owner is just SOL. But personnally I know I would step up and offer to help correct my mistake.
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Bullet is cheaper Remember we are running this Country on a deficit. got to be cost concious.
Mike
Nah' date=' a knife is much cheaper, it is reusable. Or a guillotine. I say make a slow moving guillotine that the person lays on their back to watch move down at them.
[/quote']We could always borrow an idea from the middle east. Sword, chopping block.
Better yet, use a wood chipper and turn them into something usable: compost.
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You need to replace the strut isolator with one that still has a D shaped hole. MSA sells used ones mail order. IMO doing anything else is unsafe.
When I bought my Z it had a slight clumping noise in the front end. I figured it was a loose ball joint because that is exactly what it sounded like. I went over the front end top to bottom and couldn't find anything wrong. It wasn't until two years later when I decided to up upgrade the struts that I found someone had done exactly what you are trying to do. The D shaped hole had worn into an O shaped hole. This allowed the strut to wobble around ever so slightly. The scary thing is this movement had worn over half way through the strut rod!! I still can't believe the rod never broke on me.
If you decided to ghetto rig it by overtightening the bolt, just make sure you pull the strut every year of so to ensure no wear on this suspension critical part. That one nut is the only thing holding one whole corner of the suspension on your car.
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You have just described my car. Made in December of 1970, registered as a 71, and dents on both "subframes" when I used a floor jack on the "subframes" to swap my autocross tires.
The subframes on these early Z's are notoriously thin. I only jacked the car up once or twice like this, but that was all it took.
On the plus side what you have described is about as close to rust free as these early cars get. My California Z has almost exactly the same rust you describe. Believe me, the battery tray being "great" says "rust free" to me.
Snap that thing up then take out the dents when you put in some full length subframe connectors. There is a recent thread with tons of pictures. Also do a search on 240 vs 280's. There is quite a bit of antecedal evidence that the early 240's flex considerably more than the 280's or even 260's. Also note that the early 240 "subframes" only go about 3/4 back before they end. Full length connects should help immensely.
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The plate is visible in the video. Might take a little photo enhancement to get al the details but seems like if someone cared they should be able to track him down. Would be pretty hard arguing that one in court.
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If you look at the import numbers, the overwhelming majority of the early Z's brought into the US never made it out of California to begin with. Combine that with favoriable, semi-arid climate with salt free roads and CA is definitely the holy land of early Z's.
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You can get raw material at McMaster Carr. They even list tensile strength and things like that
Quite a few people have machined bushings because sometimes the ones you get with the kits don't quite fit. If you search through the old archives, there are a couple of places that sell complete kits for Z's significantly cheaper than MSA or VB. Might be more cost effective since you will have to pay shipping to NZ for the McMaster-Carr stuff anyway.
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Didn't Pete buy his 406 from the same guy? How did his turn out?
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If the search function is working today, there are some old posts from Z guys running the Subaru R160's in their Z's. They considered it their secret weapon, a cheap source of readily available LSD's. You can probably buy 2 or maybe 3 of those for the price of one new R200 LSD. The old posts also pointed out that an automatic tranny will greatly reduce the "shock" on the diffs. Thus an R160 might live longer with an auto.
Also from past posts, when R180's "grenade", they usually fail in the spider gears. As someone said, it is the "one wheel burnouts in the bleach box" that kill them. I figured welding an R180 would completely eliminate that concern. But what I have wondered is if putting a Quaiffe into an R180 wouldn't be the hot ticket. The R200 is a hell of a lot heavier.
As for gear oil, how important is that with a Quaiffe or welded diff? Clutch pack, or even viscous, LSD's have to dissipate the heat from the slipping clutches. Thus those guys will overheat and burn up. But the ATB and welded diffs shouldn't have that problem. Just cheap insurance?
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FYI... ITS prepared 240Zs run on 225/50-14 tires and are very fast around racetracks (1:34s at Willow Springs, 2:03s at Thunderhill, etc.) If I was building a street 240Z I would run 225/50-15 tires regardless of the horsepower. Remember, tread compound has much more to do with traction then tread width.
Man, glad to hear that. I have a set of 225/50-15 BFG Auto-X tires on zero offset Riken wheels in the garage. I use to auto cross with them back in California. They were probably the #1 choice among the auto crossers I hung around. That was some years ago, so probably better tires available now.
I will second the compound comment. My street tires are 205/60-14 (on stock steel wheels). Going to the auto X tires was absolute night and day. Go into a hard turn with the street tires and I would get a lot of noise and excitement. The first time I took a hard turn with the auto-X tires I practically ended up in the passenger's seat. Compound will also make a huge difference in the rain (as anyone who has ever upgraded tires on a pickup truck can tell you).
As for feel? The 225/50's definitely transmit more road feel into the car, but if anything the steering is lighter and more precise. 225’s are definitely not excessive. The auto X tires have about a 1/16 inch tread depth so hopefully I will never experience them in the rain.
IMO the #1 mod you can do to ease parking is to replace the rubber steering coupler with a solid one. Replacing the coupler and upgrading to urethane steering rack bushings made an immediate difference in turning effort. I went from needed two arms to crank the wheel while parked to using just the palm of one hand. No BS.
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This engine comes up quite regularly here. If the search function is working, you will find there are many problems with this engine in a Z. The engine is too tall for a Z bay, there is some issue with the oil pan being where the cross member wants to be and the bellhousing bolt pattern is unique vastly limiting transmission choices. There are a lot of electronics, including variable valve timing, that will complicate things.
Being so new, the engine will undoubtably have a high buy in price (not exactly littering the pick and pull) and a limited (read expensive) after market. And the aftermarket will be important, otherwise you are installing a torquey truck motor in a sports car. Not my first choice.
Hard to justify all the work when the V8 option is so available.
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What about the MSA TC rod kit? They allow things to pivot
They also have adjustable
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You may want to do some more research before you start hammering the tunnel. The shifter loction on the ZF6 is not a good match with a Z. The one picture of an attempted install I saw had the shifter coming out in the middle of the driver's hip. The guy was asking for advice on what to do, but unfortunately he never posted a solution.
When I was considering an LT4/ZF6 package, about the best advice I got was to sell the tranny to a vette guy for big $$$ and pick up a t56. The trannys are very expensive to work on.
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Check our G force tansmissions
http://www.g-forcetransmissions.com/tran_gt-5.asp
Don't know much about them other than their web site. But sounds like a valid option to me.
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Man I love my screen name. Something about educate people calling me "sup dog" that I can't get over.
All I know about the t56 I learned on this site. Quite a few members have commented about the gear ratios. Phantom and Mike Kelly come to mind. Good tranny in that it is well built, but read the comments. 6 speeds are somewhat excessive.
Went on ebay today and $650 is so low I almost have to ask what is wrong with the engine that they have priced it so low? Type "LT1" into the car parts section of ebay and you wil see what I mean. That is a phenomonal price. But like I said, have to worry about used cop motors. Miles and condition will make a difference.
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LT1's from F body cars with the t56 transmission generally go for over $2000 on ebay. The manual transmission really drives up the price, but if I remember correctly (and check ebay for recent sale prices) $1000-$1500 is not uncommon for an F body LT1 with auto tranny.
The Caprices with iron heads do sell for less, especially if they are beat to death ex cop cars. That particular transmission has been discussed to death on this site, so doing a search will quickly tell you that it is a good choice. Many guys are using it.
On the plus side the 95 engine is probably the best year to get. It has the reprogramable ECU but not any of the OBDII restrictions (if smog legal is of interest to you). There is some issue with the optispark, but I think it is easily overcome. Do a search on LT1 and read what the guys who have done the swap say.
The iron heads are no big deal if you plan on upgrading to aftermarket aluminum anyway. Some people claim the iron head can be ported to flow better than the aluminum, but i still think aftermarket is a better way to go.
I have been planing a swap for some time now. I have just about concluded a 95 Caprice LT1 is what I want. Mainly because I plan on upgrading the heads at some future date, so why pay the premium for factory aluminum? $650 for the set sounds very reasonable to me. But once again, check ebay to get an idea of what similar sets ups sell for.
My only hang up is the transmission choice. I want a manual, but the t56 sounds less than ideal for a Z. Pricey, heavy and with less than usable gear ratios. The only other potential options that will handle the power of a built up LT1 are even more expensive (Tremec, G force T5, ???)
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Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations and is generally considered the father of capitalism. His writings were very influential in the formation of our country:
http://www.dallasfed.org/research/ei/ei0201.pdf
I think a number of people on this thread would strongly agree with what he says.
But even Smith warned about the power of monopolies and oligarchies. To think people can “vote with their feet†when there are no other options is unrealistic. Microsoft is probably one of the smartest companies ever formed (IMO). But there comes a point where consumer options become so limited that what use to be described as “competitive business practices†more closely resembles “highway robberyâ€. Not a simple issue but at some point people have a right to protect themselves.
But getting back to the point of this bill, I think it’s primary emphasis is not so much specialty tools but the computer codes used to run modern cars. Try fixing a modern car without a book telling you what the engine error codes mean. The OBDII standards force manufactures to define the basic ones, but there is still a LOT of manufacture specific output that is extremely helpful if you know how to use it. I am not a professional mechanic, but from what I have read try looking up info on a computerized transmission, ABS or air bag system. It is not as straight forward as some of the engine codes.
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Where exactly does it say you have the right to force someone else to give up their intellectual property?
It happens all the time. Think Microsoft. Even the founding fathers recognized the need for a capitalist society to protect itself from monopolies. Try reading Adam Smith instead of the Ayn Rand.
It may smother R&D and innovation by the Auto makers. AFAIK, the dealerships make the huge majority of their $$ on service, parts and accessories, not all that much on the selling of vehicles......The profit margin on a typical SUV is somewhere around $15,000. Even more for a high end German import. Maybe the dealers aren’t getting a big chunk, but it still shoots holes in the idea above.
The "intellectual property" argument is really invalid. Given adequate resources it is possible to reverse engineer just about anything on a car. So just who is GM or Ford trying to protect their "property" from? Certainly not other car manufactures.
This is a growing problem, especially as cars become more technologically advanced. For the most part I don’t think car manufactures are guilty of any great conspiracy. I think they have trouble keeping up with their own technology and getting information out to the masses just gets neglected.
I like the idea of having choices for car repair. And my number 1 choice is being able to fix it myself. But how can I do that if a company the size of GM decides they don't want me fixing my own car, so they purposely restrict information to force me to hire them? One would like to think the free market would force such companies out of business, but even Adam Smith recognized the limits of this.
Believe me, as a card carrying member of the NRA I am highly suspect of government over regulation. But I don’t feel this law is inconsistent with the way our society operates, and as car guys it is definitely to our advantage.
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My official stand is...
Horsepower and Torque always cross on a Dyno chart at 5250 rpm's and thus are always equal at 5250.
Only if you measure power in units of horsepower and torque in units of foot-pounds. Pick up a foreign car mag and you will see torque rated in Newton-meters and power in terms of kilowatts. On these graphs the power and torque curves will not cross at "5252".
So by bar bet rules (where you try to sucker someone into losing on the most BS technicality possible), your buddies win. Although probably not because they know what they are talking about.
Power and torque are mathematically related, just like speed and distance. That is where 5252 comes from. The link posted above tells you exactly how to compute it.
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Another drawback(???) to chromoloy is that it must be TIG welded(pretty welds).
You can also do it with a torch, some people feel this is the better way of doing it:
Remember we are running this Country on a deficit. got to be cost concious.
[/quote']
200+ cd player?
in Miscellaneous Tech
Posted
I was going to say. CD changers! You guys are low tech. If you get a hard drive based system you can easily load hundreds of hours of music and never have to worry about flipping (or losing) CD's.
Another option is an MP3 DVD player. The burners for home computers are finally getting cheap, and a single DVD will hold over 7 CD's. Since an MP3 CD holds roughly 10 normal CD's worth of music, that is like 70+ hours of music on a single DVD.
Yet another option is a 20 Gigabyte Apple iPOD with an FM modulator. You can use this in any car or even your home FM radio, and 20 gigs should hold almost 300 hours of music.