74_5.0L_Z

I've had good luck with the following very low tech method of removing the rear stub axles: Remove rear driveshafts Remove nut and inner washer/spacer Cover end of stub axle with a rag Place end of 4x4 (approximately 2 feet long) against stub axle and thread other end through control arm and below the differential. Place blanket under stub axle extending outward ~ 3 feet. Use a 5 lb sledge on end of 4x4 to drive stub axle out of strut housing. This usually take me 5 to 10 good blows with the hammer before the stub axle lands on the blanket about 2 feet from the car. Just make sure that the 4x4 is parallel to the stub axle before you start pounding. I've done this on 2 separate Z's with complete success.

zxtman, You are correct. If you look at the picture, you will see what remains of my left front T/C tube on the ground next to the tire. Mine T/C set-up was a swaged tube from AFCO racing, a rod end, and the end of the stock T/C rod (cut down and threaded). The failure was my own fault. I had shortened the front struts a few months prior to this event, and not verified that the wheel could go through its complete motion without interference. This course was faster than anything that I had previously run, I was on stickier tires than ever before, and I now had more suspension travel. This allowed the T/C tube to contact the bottom of the frame. The frame contact slightly bent the tube which then failed under hard braking.

The damage is actually pretty superficial. There was no structural damage to the car. I should have the body kit here in a couple of weeks, and installed by mid-January. I am contemplating installing the rear quarter with DZUS fasteners rather than bonding them on. That way, they'll be really easy to change next time I mess up.

Yes, I was very lucky. I hate depending on luck, but I wouldn't want to leave home without it. The wheels are 16 x 8 Centerline Billet Pheonix (style 816). The tires are 245/45/16 Hoosier A3S04 (they are magic).

I've been lusting after the Subtle Z body kit for quite a while, but I've always had parts that were higher up the priority list. The SubtleZ body kit just made it to the front of the line. I had some intimate contact with some mangrove trees at the Bay Bottom Crawl. Luckily, the incident occurred at relatively low speed, and I only destoyed my left front fender, hood, and air dam. There were some portions of this course that I was near 130 mph . John Washington has been great to deal with, and I will receive my new fenders, air dam, hood, and rear quarters very soon.

These weren't by any chance aftermarket door seals. I had similar trouble with some aftermarket seals, and finally had to bite the bullet and get Nissan OEM seals. Even the OEM replacement seals are a little tight when first installed. Good luck

I have the battery tray itself, but not the sheet metal below the tray. It is in perfect condition (sandblasted and painted). The original spot welds were drilled out, and the tray reinstalled with 1/4 x 20 bolts. You can have it free if you pay for shipping. Dan McGrath

Which brakeline? What are you using for new brakes? If its an aftermarket setup (Wilwood, Outlaw, etc...) then you probably need to adapt to SAE flared fittings, and need to replace the brakelines anyway. Some of the brake lines are easier than others to remove and replace with the drive train installed than others. The ones going to the wheels are generally not that difficult, with the possible exception of the passenger side front. If it were me, I would remove the broken line back to the nearest flared fitting (be careful not to distort it). Then measure the length of the brake line, and get one of the nearest length from the autoparts store. The lines from the auto parts store are straight lengths with fittings already installed. Then, using the line that you removed from the car as a template, bend the new line to match. Finally, install the new line in place of the removed one. For the bending, you can use a brake tubing bender (available from the autoparts store for about $9.95), or you can just bent it by hand (be careful not to kink it and use really generous bend radii). I have completely replaced the lines in my car twice without any problems using a combination of bending tool and my hands.

I run mine in Emod, and I have deleted the brake booster. I prefer the brakes without the booster, but I've replaced all the brakes with aftermarket pieces. Here is a list of what I am running: Stock 260Z master cylinder Front 11.5 x 0.81" vented rotors (coleman machine) Outlaw 2800 series 4 piston calipers (1.75" pistons) Rear 10.5" x 0.81" rotors (1985 maxima front discs that have been slightly modified Outlaw 2800 series 4 piston calipers (1.375" pistons) Wilwood propotioning valve in line to rear brakes adjusted to nearly full decrease Hawk HP-Plus pads on all four corners. I love my brakes. My car stops very well. When I take my car to the drag strip, I drive it hard through the traps (and then some) at Orlando Speed World and easily slow it down from 115mph to make the first turn out for the return road. The brakes have great modulation and really don't require too much effort. To delete the brake booster I made a 1/4" aluminum plate that has the bolt patterns for both the booster to master cylinder and booster to firewall concentric with each other. I also dismantled the booster to acquire the push rod that goes from the pedal to the booster, and used it (with slight modification) as the push rod for the master cylinder. As far as using a larger master cylinder, don't bother. Increasing the bore of the master cylinder increases pedal efforts, and the stock 260Z master cylinder provides plenty of capacity. I'm including pictures: one that shows the adapter plate installed less master cylinder, and the other with the MC installed. Oh, and please don't compare us to Zcar.com

Just for you Terry

I believe that he wants a 15" wheel so that he can run a tire with some sidewall. Tires with a taller sidewall are better for drag racing. The BFG DR are available as 235/60/15 and 275/50/15. I do agree that it is easier to get the clearance with a larger diameter wheel. My 16" wheels/tires have slightly more clearance than my 15".

My 1974 260Z with a full interior, 16 gallons of fuel, full interior and me (190 lbs) weighed 2800 lb in street trim. Since then I have wrecked the car, and rebuilt it with a tubular front end, subframe, and half roll cage. The new version has no undercoating or sound deadening material, no windshield wipers, no HVAC, no emergency brake, and no bumpers. The car does still have stock seats, all of the glass, the full dash and interior trim panels. The motor is a 1989 5.0L with Edelbrock aluminum heads, Cobra Intake, 24# injectors, 73mm MAF, 65mm TB and Crower cam. The transmission is a T5. I put the car on wheel scales recently and here are the results with 16 gallons of fuel and me (190LBs) in the car: LF = 648 Lb RF = 607 Lb LR = 751 Lb RR = 710 Lb. Total = 2716 Lb Here are my percentages: (LF + RF)/ Total = (648 + 607)/2716 X 100%= 46.2 percent on the front 53.8 % on the rear. (LF + RF)/ Total = (648 + 751)/2716 X 100% = 51.5 % on left and 48.5% on right. my diagonals are equal ie.. (LF + RR) = (RF + LR) -> (648 + 710) = (607 +751) = 1358. The 260 is a slightly heavier car than the 240, and I have not done all that is possible to lighten the car. The doors could be gutted (they weigh 67 lbs each in full trim. The gutted doors would weigh less than 10 lbs. each. The rear glass could be replaced with lexan, etc....

I have two sets of wheels for my car. Set 1: 15 x 8 with a 5 inch backspace have 245/50/15 Dunlop SP8000 tires. The tire clears my rear coilovers by <1/4" and is even with the fender lip. Set 2: 16 x 8 with 5 in backspace has 245/45/16 Hoosier A3S04. Again my tire clears the coilovers by 1/4" and is even with the stock fender lip. My coil-overs are Ground Control units with 250#/in 10 inch x 2.50 springs. It would be possible to run more backspace and a wider tire if you ran a shorter spring (8"). The shorter springs will let you raise the perch location above the tire and get more clearance. The additional clearance could let you squeeze a 15 x 9 with a 5.75" backspace and a 275 if you also roll the rear fender lip. That is the only way you will get the 275/50/15's under the stock fender. Unfortunately, you would have to run a stiffer spring (300#/in +) to keep from stacking the short springs, and stiff springs are not ideal for drag racing.

This is the bender that I am getting ready to buy: http://www.jd2.com/M3B_Features.htm I've heard really good things about it.

My subframe ties in right where the original sway bay attached. Fortunately, I have an after market rear mount style sway bar (which I Don't use). My experience is that these cars handle better without a rear sway bay. They get out of the corner better if you tune rear roll stiffness with springs.

Before you switch to toe-out, try running zero toe. I run 4.5 degrees caster, -2.5 degrees of camber, and zero toe up front. In the rear, I run -1.5 degrees of camber and zero toe. I also have spherical bearings in place of all the stock bushings. Zero toe will also give you the least rolling resistance. Toe-in or Toe-out cause the tires to wear because they are trying to go in different directions. My car is very stable on the highway with my street tires on the car, and turns very crisply at the autocross with my R tires.

My wife, daughter, and I have evacuated to Tallahassee. We left town with our most valuable possessions: family pictures, our pets, and my Z. We left town thursday at 1:00 PM and arrived in Tallahasee at 11:30 PM. I love to drive my Z, but 10.5 hours of gridlock is pushing it. I have the car stored in a garage up here to keep it out of the weather. After the storm, we'll drive home. Hopefully, we'll still have a home to drive home to. At least my family and the Z are safe.

For an NHRA street class, the limited slip R200 differential that came in the 87-89 300ZX Turbo should be sufficient. ScottyGNZ of this forum used to run a 240Z with a buick grand national motor in it at the drag strip alot. He started out using the R200 rear end, and it worked fine until he got the car into the low 11's. The R200 is a straight bolt-in and your 280Z may already have one (probably an open version though). If you are not going to drive it much on the street, you can weld the spider gears. Check out RossC and Modern-Motorsports LLC. He has lots of great parts for putting the stronger CV axles into the older cars. Several members here are now experimenting with putting the R230 differential into their cars. I do know that these are stronger, easier to find with factory limited slip, and more difficult to install. About the tires, with small diameter coilover rear springs, and the right offset wheels you can fit 9' tires under the stock wheel wells. But I wouldn't let that bother you. A couple of members here put their car into the low 9's with 9" slicks (a small block with nitrous helped a little too). Look for posts by ScottyGNZ and Japtin. They will probably be the most useful for drag racing questions.

The way you guys are doing it sure makes it easier to attach the fenders. But I managed. The back half of the car is Monte Carlo Blue Pearl. The rest of the car: well...... [/img]

Your front end looks good. I was faced with a similar dilemma after I wrecked mine. I considered trying to graft a new front end on the car, but I ended up taking a slightly different path.

For several years I ran coil-overs without sectioning the strut housings. The car was lowered approximately 2", and I had very little shock travel left in the front shocks. I killed two sets of front shocks by bottoming them out. I just recently sectioned my front struts and installed the Koni 8610 adjustable dampers per johnc's write-up in the sticky section of this forum heading. I deviated from johnc's instructions by removing the material from the top half of the tube (removed 2.125 " from just below threaded end). Removing the section from the top makes the weld interior more accessable for clean-up. I wouldn't be afraid to remove the section from the top half as long as the weld is done properly (TIG).

Zero, I received the tubing for BrandenZ's half-cage last week, and have bent his main hoop and made the plates for the top of the struts. This coming week I'll borrow a friend's 240Z and do the final tube fitting before I take it to the welder. I'll probably be working on this cage for another 2 or 3 weeks, then I'd be happy to build others. If all you're interested in is the main hoop, then let me know and we can work up a deal. Dan

Really like the cage. My main hoop attaches to the floor with a similar but smaller box where the seat belts mount. I assume the you car is going to be an automatic, because it looks like the tube going to the front strut tower would interfere with the clutch master cylinder. Also, I agree with johnc about the bar that goes across between the main hoop legs. You could really strengthen that by adding bars that go from the center (top of drive shaft tunnel) to the plates on the rear strut towers. As stated by others, I am not criticizing. I like the fact that every cage that I've seen posted by this group is unique. Please post more pictures as your progress continues.

I am using most of the factory datsun wiring, although I have simplified it where ever I could. I am also using the Ford engine harness and computer. I got rid of the Ford alternator and went to a Powermaster 1- wire alternator (no external regulator). There is very little overlap of the Ford and Datsun wiring. The computer really only needs power, ground, and wiring from the fuel pump relay to the fuel pump. I also added a relay in the ignition circuit to protect the Datsun switch as I believe the TFI ignition draws more current than the stock Datsun set-up. From my 260Z service manual, the Black/Blue wire BL goes from the ignition switch to the C-5 connector (green) to middle terminal of the ballast resistor for the ignition coil. This wire is hot only when the key is in the start position. The Black/White BW wire from the ignition switch is powered while the switch is in the on position, and while in the start position. This wire branches several times and powers instruments, and the interlock relay as well as other things. This wire I cut from the connector at the inter-lock relay and redirected to power the TFI ignition (pin 30 of the ford computer). The Black/Yellow (BY) wire goes from the ignition switch to the C-5 connector to the interlock relay and to the emergency switch. I assume that you will delete both the interlock relay and emergency switch. I would take the black /yellow wire or the Black/Blue wire and redirect it to the tang on the starter solenoid. All of the above is from looking at my Datsun 260 factory service manual, and from Charles Probst's Ford EFI book. I would double check my observations before connecting anything. Good Luck, Dan McGrath

I am using the factory mini starter, and yes the positive cable hooks directly to the large lug on the solenoid. I also have the main power leads for the engine and chassi nelectical systems attached to the large lug on the solenoid on the starter. The only wire that goes to the small tang on the solenoid is the start wire from the switch.