gramercyjam

Didn't know those things were so hard to find. I took a locking cap off of my '73 and bought a stock one at the Dealership. It is sitting on my shelf labeled "I'll never use this stuff, but can't bear to throw it away". There's gold in them thar shelves! --John

I had an '83 zxt since it was new until it had about 100K+ miles or so. Problems started coming up after a few years that seemed premature. Here is what I remember about it for what it's worth: Ignition - bad transitor on coil. Turbo - bad bearings (I was running a dino oil in it. After first turbo replacement, switched to Mobil 1. 5 speed - premature wear on input shaft and input bearing. suspect this was due to excessive heat put out by the turbo. Revisited this issue several times. Finally machined tranny housing and put in much larger/better input shaft bearing. headlight switch - burnt contacts Radio/Cassette player - electronics problems Idle air valves - worn air valves causing vacuum leaks, poor idle, etc climate control - poor temperature regulation. A/C not really up to the job in South/Central Texas. Power steering rack oil leaks Mushy stock suspension. Rear trailing arm setup results in lots of squat. Leather/suede seats that were mostly plastic and tore up rather easily (got a ~$300 credit from Nissan on that as a deceptive advertising lawsuit settlement. Used the credit to buy new rear brake calipers to replace the original ones). Leaking T-Tops Bad power antenna Fuel injector problems and connector corrosion. Under hood plastic electrical connectors disintegrated - more problems that were probably related to high under hood temps from the turbo. Never had problems with digital dash though. The car wasn't all that bad really. It was fun to drive and made several road trips to the North East from Texas without problems and was my primary transportation for may years. The car was eventually wrecked (totalled) and the still strong engine and tranny were donated to an early 240Z conversion project. After that, I replaced the 280zxt with other cars that I still have (C4 Corvette, a pickup truck, an SUV) but my weekend "fun" car is now a '73 240z. --john

If your new tokico shocks can move up and down in the strut after tightening up the gland nut, something is wrong. How much can they move? An inch? two inches? The correct tokico shock will not move up and down in the strut when installed in the strut. Sometimes, a spacer/washer is required between the shock and gland nut to take up the slack, but that is maybe only 1/16" thick. Perhaps you got the wrong shock model number for your Z? --John

Most people who shop for suspension parts at GC are looking to compete and want the car _much_ lower too. GC will sell you some shorter Tokicos and they have the coil-over parts, spring perch, etc and instructions to section your struts. When you are done it will corner like it is on rails. I have done all that and more to my suspension and the difference is huge. On the other hand, my car hardly ever sees the street so I don't mind that there is no ground clearance, or that the suspension is so hard my butt is sore after I drive it. --John

FYI. I got the old front and rear struts from Andy Craig's National Champion F Prepared car (now Tom Holts - can be seen at http://www.ccsi.com/~tholt/ ) for my car when Tom upgraded his. The _front_ inserts for the 240Z are the Tokico BZ3099 MR2 rear inserts. John B.

I have one from an '83 ZXT that measures .900 in. or 23mm if it helps. JB

Just dealt with the same problem this weekend. What I did was: with the rear end jacked up and jack stands under the body, wheels removed - bolt the flat end of a 6 ft long, 1" diameter steel digging bar or simlar (its like a long pry bar. They are pretty common down here in South Texas due to the rocky soil) between the axel and a wheel spacer. Let the other end of the bar rest on the ground so the axel can't turn. Went down to autozone and got a 24" long 3/4 in. breaker bar. If you break it, they will take it back if you have the receipt. Put the breaker bar on the axel nut, use a hydraulic jack (like the one you use to jack up your car) to push up on the handle breaker bar. I guarantee the nut will come loose. John B

I did the other way around. Put spring from my 83 turbo after it was wrecked in my '73. As I recall I also used the front struts from the '83 as well. The car sits up high like a 4X4 now. And that is after I cut a coil off the springs. It could still stand to have a couple of coils cut off. I like the hard ride though. Call me crazy. Gramercyjam