80LS1T

Nice! Is it down in Oshkosh still? How's the car coming along? Yeah it does suck.......winter is just around the corner!

I looked up the cost for the GTR engine and tranny/diff/transfer case assmebley the other day just for kicks at work........ Retail for the engine $37,700! Retail for the tranny/diff/t-case $18,000! My cost for both of them was about $30,000! Soooooo who wants me to order them one? LOL Guy

Looks amazing! Nice job man! Did you use the Corbeau seat brackets or make your own? I am using their brackets and they sit too high. Im 6'1" and I have to slouch a little to not stick out through the t-tops! LOL Guy

What kind of suspension and tires are you running in the rear to get your 60' down to 1.6-1.7? Nice runs!

I bought everything from www.speedwaymotors.com . I used 3/4" tubing and a 3/4" smooth bore double u-joint. The support bearings are just the regular heim joints with a 3/4" hole in the. Guy

What I ment by "unless everything is just right it will bind" is that if you don't have the support bearings and u-joints set up right to begin with it will bind. The top support bearing nuts are welded to the plate so the nuts can't turn and the lower support bearing nuts are loctited(red stuff). Worst case senario is that the lower support bearing nuts come a little loose and I will feel that slop in the steering. Guys do this stuff in race cars all the time. Its not uncome to do what I did in circle track cars. Guy

Yeah I am still thinking about it but I'm pretty confident in my set up. No binding what so ever. Feels good to have a car that steers normal again! I'm sure it will be fine but I am probably going to worry about it for a while! LOL Guy

1980 Datsun 280ZX Guy Grenfell Appleton, WI Hope its not too late!

Well of course I forgot my camera when I went to work yesterday to finish up but I did take some pics of it installed in the car today. Let me just say that this was a little on the difficult side because if you don't have the u-joints just right they bind up. I have a total of 4 u-jionts and 2 support bearings in my system. This is all mounted to a plate that is bolted to the same location that my old gear box was bolted to, so there are 4 bolts that hold the plate to the frame rail. The steering feels great now and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out! Guy

I have everything all mounted and welded up. I am going to install the "contraption" tomorrow at work and do an alignment. It worked good when I took it out the car the last time so it should still work good now that its reinforced and painted. I'll take some snap shots of it tomorrow and post them when I get home! Guy

Couldn't have said it any better myself! I too got into the V8 swap because of your car. I used the LT1 because that's what yours was running....I just couldn't afford the supercharger at the time! LOL GOD I can't wait to see this thing laying down some seriously large patches of rubber! Guy

Nice run! At first I thought it was some back road until I saw the tree! LOL Guy

Good god guys read your posts before you post it! Scottie is the only one who's post I didn't have to re-read 3 times to understand it. I'm sure your excited to start your swap but you will get more help if we can read your posts clearly.

Parts are on order....1 double u-joint and 2 support bearings. I just have to make some mounts for the bearings. Pics to follow if all goes well! Guy

Thats the same thing I did with those rock guard covers. Sorry I couldn't find any of the pics I took while making them but it looks like you did the same thing I did basically. Guy

Ok I think I know what I am going to do. I am going to purchase a double u-joint, 2 support bearings and some tubing to modify my steering shaft set up. It should work but we will see. I am going to have to make some brackets for the support bearings and modify my original shaft/u-joint set up but it should work...... WE WILL SEE!.....

Well recently my steering gear box took a dump so I decieded to get rid of it completely. I bought all the stuff necesary to swap in a power rack and pinion from an 83 280zx. So today I went to work to put it all in thinking it should clear everything fine........wrong! The steering shaft from the column to the rack and pinion hits my custom header. So now I have to either come up with some sort of crazy steering shaft set up or buy the JTR header and rework part of my exhaust. So what can I do with the steering shaft set up? Can i put some sort of extra u-joint in there to go around the header? I would rather not buy the header just for the fact that I may be selling the engine/tranny combo this winter to go with another set up. Of course I could always sell the headers to some else doing the V8 swap. I would like to have the steering shaft as close to the frame rail as possible so that it's out of the way for any further engine choices... Guy

Well I'm just going off experience. Nissan's TTY bolts only have to be replaced if they have been streched or deformed. We have specs on how thick it should be. When I worked at Dodge we almost never replaced the TTY bolts for Neon's. I'm sure some manufactures just have you replace them everytime. I know have broken new head bolts before while torque to yeilding them. Guy