Lazeum

I second that, very informative thread about what could (has!) happen to all of us with our old cars/engines. I haven't seen a post it thread summarizing all the good technics to work on our cars we can find on HBZ... A lot of work for sure! A friend of mine broke 3 studs on a 911. He welded nuts to try the technic, it was able to remove 1 out of 3 (without the heat and bang method described above)

Since I used to ship a lot of things overseas in the past and now I'm receiving, I know for sure Fedex and USPS are insanely expensive to ship overseas. USPS is the cheapest (~$20)

I've ordered a set of RB in 15x7 ET4 for my 240. Communication was good, they had some doubts about my order, a sale representative called me to verify they were going to ship the correct rims. Regarding the wheels, I have no complains at all, quality and finish are good. They do not have a lot of stock in house, call them prior to order to make sure they have the correct rims (size but also colors, ET.) if you don't want to wait for weeks before to get anything

Thanks for the reply I've looked for info regarding your setup on the boards. Then you move from 3x 50mm ITB to 6x 48mm ITB ?? I have now triple webers that sound awesome. I don't want to lose the sound of the suction. ITB might be for me then Afriend is doing it on his 260. I'll wait for completion and decide later on.

Working for a company making half shafts (Delphi), I've asked engineers in charge. They told me I should avoid zip tie because plastic get dry overtime + it could expand with speed. I went with universal metal straps you just clamp by friction. By looking at my hafl shafts now, I'm not sure if this is a better solution. I know Murray's and other auto parts store were selling those kind of straps. For production at Delphi, we use clamp with a flat buckle we pinch with special pliers to get tension. Unfortunately over the whole batch of parts the company is using none is at the right size

I like your ITB setup! Can you tell me more about it? Setup, Driving feeling, sound? have you been able to compare it with a previous setup? I might move to ITB one day, I was wondering the solutions available (I am considering ITB's from '99 Suzuki GSXR750 and Megasquirt)

I agree with you regarding braking case as well as the fact regarding A-arm To summarize: Fore/Aft loading ==> Front inner pivot Lateral loading ==> Rear inner pivot Regarding the rear pivot stress, I think this was true until I've understood Rear pivot is not reacting according to Fore/Aft direction. For loading condition, bushing rate (finite for rubber bushing, kind of infinite for monoballs) have very little influence on loading. There is less damping in metal rod end than rubber ones, thus dynamic/very suddent loads might be more important but not that much I would think. this would be especially true in case of pothole for instance. All in all, is H-arm better than A-arm...? I don't know anymore I still believe H-arm would be less stressed than A-arm except if twisting, as Flexicoker, you were explaining, is severe. Anyhow, this discussion makes me think a lot about the suspension. I've learned quite a lot with this thread. time to change stock H-arms??????? Discussion about Roll center and jacking physics have been good recalls since I've forgotten them From this point of view, we should not choose lowering springs, wheels diameter, sway bar the same anymore neither.

In addition to what I just post, if you look at the suspension of the s30, you can clearly see that the rear mounting point of the control arm is not designed to get load torward X direction. The only piece that avoids the suspension to bend in this particular direction is the conrtrol arm itself. The rear support piece are flat, they would bend under load very easily. So X loads are going through the front mounting point. In braking cases, A-arm might still be even worse... The braking case I've described is most probably wrong since I put most of the X load of the rear mounting point which is not true. Now, I'm just destroying by myself the theory in public X load on the rear mounting point should be removed. Another proof is the size of the bushing, front inner bushing is bigger than others. This is how the suspension should have been described at the first place To go further, it would mean with the A-arm, Y load would be much more severe. The bent cross member (the one that is straight on early s30) might get much more stress in this condition. A beaffier part might be also required to avoid failure in this location. I think we need to be realistic afterwards, many heavily modified cars with 300mm wide tires have been on the road, probably some with A-arm suspension design. Failure doesn't appear a lot, the suspension can definitely take some abuse (as long as car are driven a little since failure will be related to fatigue).

I'm following your thread since the beginning; I've tried to come up with nice charts to picture my thoughts about it. First, I've heard bending in toe link arm. How it is possible since a heim joint cannot transfer moments (it is a ball joint)? I'll be more than happy to discuss about it (of course, otherwise I won’t post on the board), if you can destroy my theory, please do so We all need to learn. Based on my knowledge/analysis, A-arm does not seem to be as good as H-arm as far as load distribution. As far as Adjustability, it is another story, A-arm are probably better... Let me try to explain. I think we have to go back to the strut/knuckle assy to start with... There are NO LOADS IN Z direction taken by the arm during normal operation, this is how the strut/knuckle is designed. You could also see the difference between H-arm and A-arm. Load distribution is most probably BETTER on H-arm. You could orient Toe link on A-arm to match performance of the H-arm for 1 case at a time but not all of them. First, description of load/reaction force of the systems. In bold blue are the free degrees of liberty allowed by each joints. I've tried to play as well with some load cases, to analyse the situation deeper... I’ve put some round arrows sometimes to shows stress impact on arms. I think A-arm as always higher stress than H-arm. The more severe case as far as suspension are braking and wheel bump. This is based on my knowledge, it was my job before... First is Braking case, the worst one by far (you brake wayy stronger than you accelerate) Then they is wheel bump that can be very severe, especially on street cars and cornering as well To continue to the current topic about roll center; if the arm axis (both outer joints and both inner joints) are parallel to the ground, there is no reason to get some Z load into the system, stiffness in Z direction is almost useless, you can clearly see it, none of the solution have “volume” in Z direction. Current production car today uses an off centered bolt and washer to play with parameters such as camber and center roll position. It seems to be the easiest way to do. However, I’m not sure if it would be possible on s30 without body modification. I’m waiting for your comments, now

The half Shafts are the same on most of the Datsuns The difference is the companion flanges design that connect te half Shaft to the diff. So If you damaged the U-joint for instance, you could get any half shaft you want as long as you can get the flanges from your car back

Forbidden here on the other side of the ocean. You've got 2 points + 90€ fee if it happens and no way out

I always wear gloves since I own the Z. I've got many of those; each time I'm going to visit a plant somewhere (I'm a mech engineer) I keep the gloves they give me I should throw away anyway. So it is free refill as long as I visit plants I do have a full box of latex gloves for dirty jobs (axle rebuild, diff disassembly for instance) and I have a "heavy duty" pair of gloves when I know "it's gonna hurt if I screw up"

I would love a Ferrari 288 GTO or maybe an old Lambo Miura

I've got it today Thank you sooo much Joe, I really do appreciate, for the help, the timing and the price. Time to get the Z back on the roads!

I haven't installed the R200 so I'm not able to get any conclusion yet. I followed John's comments on his website about handling. Since everything was disassembled, I though I'd better be safe than sorry I do have lowering springs and shocks but no coilovers

=> The lean spot is when I hammer the gas pedal, it is fuel starvation from carbs not able to inject mixture fast enough => The rich spot; you might be right it could be related to resonance. What to do then? Increase the lengh of the intake manifold? change the air horns? change the chokes? We might have to live with it as Mark (and I, now) said.

Thanks guys for your comments locodrftr, I haven't reply back to your post but for sure I will play with bowl height to make sure they are all the same. I've done it once but with my old crappy valves, I know I'm off now. I'm going to review the whole idle adjustment too. There are some improvements to do as well.

I've checked the ads, it is about halfshafts and stub axles to connect them to a R200. I do have those parts available (I even shorten one of the halfshaft to avoid binding on driver's side) I'm looking for the single yoke flange that connects the driveshaft (coming from the trans) to the differential. Here is a BIG picture of the part I'm looking at I live in France but the part should not be more than 1lb, shipping should be "reasonable"

xxjoeyxxeb, you've got a MP Skylane88, I haven't found the ebay ads. Do you have a link? Thanks both for your help, I really do appreciate

Hi, I'm in process of swapping the stock R180 out of my 72 z with a R200. I found out the hard way (since my z is now on jack stands), I'm missing the companion flange that allows me to connect the driveshaft to the R200. I know the ones from 280z works (except 75' 280z), I don't know if s130's flanges work. Let me know if you have one you could sell to me Thanks! Matt

I didn't have luck finding this bolt anywhere but on spare knob I had laying in my spare parts boxes. I would suggest you to go to a Model/Hobby shop with the knob to find the bolt

I'm an ME in the Automotive industry. I lived for 5 years in Michigan, I was managing & designing suspension partsainly for GM in a small company. My schedule was split into 1/3 designing parts (CAD, FEA, Validation), 1/3 at the Customer fighting about specs, 1/3 at plants and to visit/select suppliers. People did not have any passion for cars, it was all about business. So when you are proposing a super nice forged aluminum design that weighted 1.5kg whereas financials were proposing a cast iron 4.5kg piece for half the price, there was no hesitation from management. Kind of frustrating.... Now, I went to another job, only managing project (no more design), I deal with "problems" all the time, I travel a lot. Every problem is different, it makes the job nice, I also meet a lot of nice people all around Europe and the US. Not a lot of people are into cars neither whereas I'm part of one of the biggest automotive supplier on the market I like to manage projects, this is my job. My passion is cars, I work on my Z and meet other car guys during weekends

I went back to business this past weekend Weather was awesome (70°F, sunny, dry) I've seen many nice cars in the forest where I test drive my Z (Ferrari 330 GTC, Lotus 7, MGs, Triumph) Anyway, I was there to tune the Z. ( Colors on curves are chosen - Yellow Curve on 1 picture is the same as other yellow curve) * Timing Adjustment * I first started by adjusting the timing where it should be: I went first at 16btdc at idle and 32 total (previous setup was 10@idle / 28 total). The engine was pinging at 2.5k rpm under heavy load. I had to back up timing to 14btdc and 30 total. Pinging was still barely there. So I've changed the springs inside the dist. to avoid issue at mid rpm with 2 orange ones from the Mallory tuning kit. Pinging is gone! I've the checked AFR to see where I stood; mixture was way richer than before (can weather be responsible as well for such a difference?) so I've changed main jet to 135. * Accelerator Pump Jet * I've changed accelerator pump afterwards (40 to 45). Car has a bog when I hit the throttle, I wanted to eliminate it. It did not change anything as far as feeling inside the car but when you look at the following curves you could see the difference. It affects mixture up to 4k rpm. I do not know how the bleed valves at the bottom of my bowl look like. I've heard some have hole, some don't. Unused gas can go back to the bowl depending on the bleed valve setup. I guess this is the next item to touch if I want to get rid of the bog (if I can, since everybody seems to have this issue anyway with webers and L engine) * Needle Valve * Last item on the list was the needle valve. I've switched 1.75mm ones vs. 2.00mm. First of all, my 1.75mm were not in good shape: - 1 was ok (the one I've checked to control their size) - 1 was very loose (0.5-1mm of radial play for the needle inside the housing) - 1 was destroyed. the needle was damaged. There was no spring action anymore, the ball housing was crushed to make sure the ball was not going away. So it means to me: 1 carb was ok, 1 was probably so-so and the last one was out of tune as far as fuel level. I did not check bowl height, I should but I didn't Difficult then to conclude anything as far as needle valve effect. Anyhow it was a good operation, I've spotted broken parts inside my carb, it should improve tunability in the future. Check out the results. * Next Steps * The mixture get rich at max rpm, I would like to try bigger air corrector (195 or 200 instead of 180) (not smaller as I said earlier) but I would need to order some. Depending on how air jet affect AFR I may have to go down a bit with main jet as well to lean out 3k-4k range. To conclude the rich spot is still there, I could not remove it. I start to believe it is part of the setup, I may have to live with it. A good trial may be to switch choke (venturis) and see how the rich spot behaves. Bigger chokes might also help me targetting 12.5 AFR at max rpm since I've read max rpm AFR would not be affected too much with air jet. Car feels really good today. Throttle response at every rpm above 2500rpm is very good. I can hammer the throttle at 4k, engine reacts immediately. I would call it a good tune but I can do better More to come but I need to order more parts....

10k for a running one in Europe is the price for it (it is expensive, I know) Your best bet (and overall not so expensive) would be to buy a super nice one in the US and bring it back to Europe. You can end up with a nice one for 10k€ total. The French Z car club admin has done some export to bring nice Z back to Europe, you should consider this option. I bough mine when I was living in the US and bring it back - Market value of the car has doubled in Europe vs. in the US.

This is exactly how it works you just have the washer and the O-ring on the way. I did not add 1/4" back since there was the o-ring groove also before. Moreover the tavel limit is coming from the ball cupper (I'm learning ) rather than from the tip of the shaft. One of the outer shaft I've got has a round cup to seal the cylinder instead of a flat round piece of metal that would help to clear the bolt head... (hard to explain, a pic would be better but I don't have one currently)