noelawinslow
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Posts posted by noelawinslow
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So, Sean73 wrote up a basic... writeup of how he did the rear disc brake conversion with Maxima brackets and calipers from the late 80s rear brakes (85-88), and it was still fairly vague as to how exactly it was done, and I intend to provide a supplement as I study and work through this project conversion. So far, the list of parts is as follows:
85-88 Nissan Maxima bracket - you will be modifying this. There's a good chance you could just bolt it up and use 1/4" wheel spacers after boring the center hole but the extra weight is like two or three pounds higher, and nobody wants that, especially unsprung, so if you have access to a mill then you can get this done, or find a buddy with a mill and pay him to do it. The machining is so simple someone without any sort of training can do it and has.
85-88 Nissan Maxima Calipers - Buy these remanufactured if you want to be certain they won't give out. If you're getting these from a junkyard, you can't be sure they'll work properly. Rockauto sent me Tokico calipers brand new for pretty cheap, around $150
84 300zx 4 lug 11.4" front rotors - You have two options for getting these to work properly. One is to lathe them down about .3", the other is to cut the caliper's mounting ears open a bit more to allow the rotor to fit. I did a combo of the two so the lathe work in the future for new rotors will be a bit less intensive. You CAN do the work on a brake lathe if you can mess with it yourself. I did.
Optional 280zx master cylinder - You will have increased pedal throw without it, and may not get the same pressure to the brakes. It might be possible without, but I'd recommend you do it, it's a good idea.
Tools:
Mill
Dremel
Sawzall
Patience
Punching bag
Start by taking your bracket to the machine shop, be it yours or someone else's. I bored the hole to 83mm because it's a common enough tool to find, but if you can get it to 82 it should fit. Then, cut the outermost hole opposite of the two caliper mounting holes off. You will have to do this with only three holes in order to allow yourself to mount the bracket over the axle. BEFORE you surface the bracket, go to the axle and cut the back plate for the drums off. There, it's permanent. You have to finish the job now.
Go back to the mill. Surface the back of the bracket where the axle flange meets the surface of the bracket. Take it down about 5.5mm at first, then flip the bracket over, and cut about 5.5mm off the surface of the mounting ears where the caliper bolts on. That gives you a rough estimate before going back over it. Layers of rust, or other things, can build up enough to offset a specific measurement, and I can't be held accountable for you jumping the gun and whittling it down without being careful. This is a starting point, it's up to you to find what fits your car. Bolt it up and stick the rotor on.
You will find the rotor extends a bit too far out to mount the caliper. You will be mad if you are not expecting this. Punch the punching bag 19 times. You have the choice of fixing the rotors or fixing the caliper. Your options are extensive here. So go crazy. I wound up using a brake lathe to take down the outside diameter about .1" at first (it's not built for this purpose, but it's still a lathe, and every shop has one, it shouldn't be too hard to convince someone to let you do it, it just takes a bit of thought to get it to work properly) but I took measurements and found I needed another .2"ish off before it will fit.
Alternative route - take a Dremel with a grinding stone and grind off the inside ridge of the caliper. You will find it doesn't give you all the clearance. Punch the punching bag 38 times. Feel better? Good. I don't feel comfortable saying it's a good idea to grind out the caliper, but your mileage may vary. My setup has quite a bit of clearance required that Sean73 didn't seem to have an issue with, so trim accordingly.
E-brake is a different story. I haven't wired it up but I will and will explain the process.
Pics coming when I get my camera back.
After all is said and done, I'm still in search of figuring out how to perfect the bias with the stock valves, I'll figure that out and edit accordingly. My goal is to get this all balanced for the street, then go to track use, but honestly, you DON'T need to do this. My reasons are primarily cosmetic. I want my car to look retro and modern simultaneously.
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Do you still have the inital switch setup? When I wired in some of my prosport gauges, to keep them on during daylight I added a wire to the stock headlamp switch so with the switch off the lights are on, added the needle to constant 12v+, and then ran a relay to the ignition wire that switches the ground on only when the car is set to on or start. Works beautifully. Where did you wire the relay to? Is the switch supposed to have a voltage regulator in it to limit the voltage to EXACTLY 12v? The z actually operates in the 13.4 to 14 range, so 12v isn't enough to power a lot of lights, especially the original bulbs. Try swapping out to LEDs, much easier to get to work properly and adafruit, sparkfun, and ebay have them for cheep.
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http://springfield.craigslist.org/pts/3824766261.html
not my ad, bunch of z31 parts in the springfield area.
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I have the Z emblem from a z31 and the Nissan Turbo emblem.
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I'm looking for a barbed pallnet rail preferably without the cold start injector line. It'll be shipped to 72653.
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ISSUE RESOLVED:
Turns out the CAS was dead, the Z31 cas unit drops in with some machine screws easily enough, and spinning the CAS fires the transistor and injectors again.
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Checked pin harness. Pin 27 and 35 are getting their 12v switched, 114 gets constant 12v, the ground at 28, 36, 107, 109, 112, 113 holds continuity. Are there any other sources the ecu needs to start working?
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My 78z has a five blade relay for the fuel pump. You might have the ten blade relay that also contains the EFI relay. IIRC it's just two relays in the same housing. So two five blade relays will do the trick. Actually, since the relays are set up to be used as normally open, you could just get two normally open 4 blade relays and wire them in, but in the end it's no different.. The FSM or a good wiring diagram will tell you what wires to go where, but the harness might be designed so any Nissan 5 blade will fit and operate without modification.
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Impressive. This is really quite beautiful workmanship, especially since it seems you're working from a budget, but that's the point of these cars anyway.
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I meant both sides of the injector connector were getting 12v positive, which I presume was from the melted wiring, because the voltage went away.I think I know why they heated up, the positive side was grounded at one point when I wasn't paying attention.
The reason I went with Z31 is because they're not supposed be far less picky about having sensors unplugged. what exactly does the ECU need to run? Would a dead CAS cause the injectors not to pulse? Does no pulse = no spark?
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I've looked at other threads, the most helpful one was over on Ratsun, but it turned into someone offering to come over and fix it, so I didn't get much information from it.
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I was under the impression it was just a marked up kit, they look identical. I would go with Dapper Lighting, because MSA is nearly impossible to get support from in my experience, and the guys at Dapper Lighting were willing to pay for shipping to replace one of my shrouds (one came in gloss and the other matte), but since I was painting over them it wasn't a big deal.
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Head to the junkyard. I've got a good 20-30 relays that I've pulled from relay boxes in anything from Fords to Daewoos, they tend to use the same size blades. Got all of 'em in one day for $20. I promise you, that's a good $400 of relays if you bought 'em online new. It's just an electronically operated switch controlled by the ecu in this application.
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I'm pretty sure the heater doesn't have duct work that goes to the center vents. At least, I've never had it. AC blows through the upper vents an the circle pods on each end of the dash, but the heater operates the lower vents and defog. Pull the switch on the column and check it with a DMM or a continuity light. I pulled mine apart and fixed a few bent areas and it works beautifully. However, it sounds more like you have a dead bulb somewhere in your blinker assembly. Whenever I change the resistance the blinker doesn't operate, but the hazards will, when I was replacing lights with LEDs I just dropped in a different blinker that blinks at a higher rate when a bulb is dead.
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I had it running, after cleaning up some wiring I stopped getting spark. At first I just ran to the junkyard and grabbed some other power transistors (PWR2, of course), and picked up the solid state coil from a z31. Mounted it, tested both parts and they work. I'm getting the fuel pump to turn on, and the 6 second prime is working too. Error codes are the standard 23, 24, and 31. According to the FSM, they're supposed to say that when you start the test, but I can't get them to go away. I have four different ECUs to try it out with:
84 auto fed
84 5sp fed
85 5sp ca
87 5sp ca
all of them are turbo models.
Checked all grounds and 12v sources, but I could have missed something. Then I realized the injectors weren't firing anymore either. Checked the CAS to see if it was getting ground and 12v, it was. According to google, I can check for a 0-5v signal on the other two lines, but I'm not sure exactly how to do that. I also did swap the CAS from the 82 to the 84. I have access to two 84 z31s I can pull parts from, but I'm not sure what could be causing this. CHTS is new, connector checked and it has continuity to the ECU harness.
I figure the no spark and no pulse come from the same thing, but what's stopping it? I also tried wiring up pin 10 to ground to simulate a neutral switch, but still nothing.
Thanks guys. I'm getting really frustrated about being worked back into a corner after getting it running finally.
UPDATE, on a whim I checked the injector voltage. All six are showing 12v+ on both the 12v and the ground side of the connector. At the ECU plug, without an ECU, the pins read 12v+.UPDATE 2, There was a melted section of wire in the injector harness, just separated them and covered with tape, but that makes me curious why they were melted in the first place.
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I'm looking to collect a list of economic alternatives to the stock PTU. The GM HEI upgrade has had mixed reviews, but its install write-up is here, courtesy of Skittles. Www.zdriver.com/forum/showthread.p hp?t=27569
Has anyone used junkyard transistors? Any tips for compatibility?
EDIT FOR MECHANICS
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LOL :^) Im 19 and its a pain!
I had to ask the smallest girl I knew if she could reach up there and attach the vacuum line. Ten seconds before she arrived I managed to slip the line onto the water cock.
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Look for something that goes back to the fuse link.
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Is there an alternative method to the OE actuators to at least turn them into radial knobs?
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Stock 280z setups use a vacuum system powered by manifold vacuum to operate various the water cocks and FICD. On a turbo system, without the vacuum accessories like the tank and VCM, using the heater is theoretically difficult, plus the control panel looks out of place in the surprisingly modern interior of the s30.
So why not swap out all the vacuum actuation, and the mechanical linkage, and install the modern HVAC controls from a newer vehicle? Has anyone done this? My overall dream is to make my s30 a formidable GT even by modern standards, and it's coming along well.
If nobody has tried this, I may need a few pointers as to vehicles with relatively standalone HVAC controllers. A 2000s Mustang comes to mind. The more I can shrink the size the better the end result.
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I'm running turbo, so that might change the dynamic a bit.Yup. That is what I have for today (going away tomorrow).
6-1 headers with MSA Twice Pipes and glass packs, nothing else.
Raspy higher pitched tone that gets many compliments.
Tj
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Yeah, I just realized that. My bad. Wiring colors are off too. Seriously, a red wire on the cathode? The light results in a pretty fierce stinger looking thing on the ground in front of you, but it only trails out 2 or 3 feet so you won't see the dark spot if you're sitting inside.
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Time for a continuity test. Pull out the trusty multimeter and check for ground on each light first. I would say ground is not the problem though. Probably a 12v line back there is shorted, and when you hit the hazard light it feeds a different 12v source to the turn signal. I'd say either a cut line or a short.
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Ignition is black/White striped, headlights are red wires. The plugs have a marking on them where the lamps plug in. Drive is hi beam, pass is low beam. Ground is ground.
Custom Fiberglass Dash
in Interior
Posted
With any luck I should be in San Bernardino for Nocturnal Wonderland. It'd be excellent to see your work. I was considering doing some modification to the center console and dash area, as I can't stand the retro AC controls when the rest of the dashboard looks so nice. I personally am not a big fan of the single cowl over the center gauges, and I doubt I'll need more than the stock holes to get all my vehicle information in the future, though I'm sure it'll take planning. But it's still awesome to see this sort of work going on.