jeromio

In reverse order: The transverse bar is not the mustache bar. It is the lower bar that connects the rear part of the 2 lower arms together and also serves as the bottom part of both pivot points. On 73 and later cars with the diff pushed back to the correct location, this bar has a slight curve to it. The early cars had a straight bar (the diff was about an inch forward, causing the shafts to be angled in slightly towards the diff). The mustache bar that goes with this set up is also different as it has a slight curve to it (although the curve goes forwards - the bar is flipped relative to the early bar, with the bushing circles forward). BUT, if you have an LSD, you cannot use the finned rear cover with any kind of stock transverse bar. Said Ross C: You're a much stronger man than I. My stubs were murder to remove. I took mine out to replace bearings. IMO, you don't absolutely need to use 280 stubs unless you are tryna put ScottieGNZ levels of power thru them. However, 30 year old bearings are another matter, and if you're gonna replace bearings, you may as well upgrade the stubs. Then again, if you truly suffer from "while-yer-atit" syndrome, you could get the 280Z stubs peaned and heat treated before installation . BTW, you need 280Z (75-78) stubs, ZX stubs are different. Also, just as Ross suggested, you should really consider doing the brake upgrade now also. If the stub does break, and you have drums, the whole assembly including the wheel will come right off. Disc brake calipers will capture the disc and prevent catestrophe in this situation. When I did this work to my car, I just took everything completely apart and did the coilovers, cartrudges, strut sectioning, poly bushings, brakes, bearings, painting - everything.

I have a waytek catalog - got it last year when that link was floating around. Lots of great stuffs in there, and I had planned on ordering a bunch of those nice Packard style connectors and other compenentry. Except that the minimum order on most everything was way too high. Had to order like 10 of each thing. I'm using some cheesy non water resistant radio shack connectors. Len, I did have some wiring issues before - the headlight circuit was highly flakey, as was the blinker circuit. The fuse panel had been abused over its 30 years of life also. But yeah, I am a fool for messing with this right now. It's just another example of the "While-I'm-at-it" syndrome that I suffer from.

I'm beginning to think I subconsciously don't want to finish this car. I've been working on wiring the engine. That led me to get a fuse panel from a junkyard (Maxima unit with about 20 fuses and 4 relays). This is now leading me to rewiring the entire freaking car. So, since this is such a hodge, I am looking for some best practices. One diagram I have, shows the ignition switch running to a relay before it goes to the solenoid. This fuse panel has 2 multi pole relays and 2 singles. I am using one single for the fuel pump, I figured I could get away with using one of the multi-pole ones for the blinkers. I guess those 2 multipole relays were for locks or windows or something. Oh yeah, I am also following in Owen's steps with a Maxima blinker/lights/wipers switch set. I already have a relay for the interior fan (although it's not one of these nice integrated ones like in the fuse panel ). For headlights, I am going to need 2 relays, one for high, one for low. So, if I use one relay for the ignition switch that leaves me one short. Or I'll have to add extra relays here and there. Do I have to run separate wires for each headlight? I'm hoping to use heavy guage wire, one for high, one for low and split it off at each light. I'm also running power for the lights from ignition/accessory ON instead of always on - no more dead battery. I'm running new lines for the front lights/blinkers, etc, but keeping the existing stuff for the rear. I've got a list of 6 things that are Ign/acc on and 5 things that are always on. So I'm running a 30amp fused lead form battery to switch, or relay if I go that route, and back to one lead on the fuse panel that has 6 circuits. I'm pigtailing the hot ends of rest of the circuits together and then directly to another 30amp fused wire to the battery. I would've prefered a 50amp, but I could only find fuse holders rated at 30. Anyway, it does seem odd to have all these separate wires and then I'm just bundling them back together. That's a consequence of not knowing what I'm doing. I'm reasonably confident that it won't end up being worse than the crappy original Datsun wiring. I do not want to go back to the salvage yard. I will end up getting something else to tack onto this car that will even further delay me. Here's my list: ignition on (relay?): ------------ head lights blinkers (relay) PCM1 guages accessory: ------------- radio Heater fan A/C clutch defroster always on: ------------- fuel pump brake lamp PCM2 dome light Horn start circuit: ------------- starter (relay?) The other 8 circuits I'll just tie off for now. I'm contemplating a swing out mount arrangement for the fuse panel on the passenger side. There'll be extra wire length to allow it to swing down: Should make future wiring tasks easier. If anyone can offer up any suggestions, comments, opinions (maybe drive to my house and do all this for me?) - very much appreciated. Me not good with wires.

I'm sure Scottie will weigh in on this, but as I recall (and you can search the Drivetrain forum, using his hybridz ID to get all of his posts on the subject), he said it was quite a bit of trouble and I don't think he recommended others following in his footsteps. Going with 280zxt CV halfshafts and RossC's adapters is a pretty cheap and easy way to strengthen the rear. I think Scottie was after some low (numerically) gears and that was a primary consideration for his choice of the C4 rear.

Do a search. Someone posted a link to a website of someone who did the swap several months ago. There's certainly no kit or manual or anything.

I gotta presume he (tomahawkz) was kidding about that. Right? At any rate, there has been some posting about V8->Z32 swappage, so, search away. One member here (katman I think?) is swapping an LS1 into a Z32.

Did you not look on his website? http://mywebpages.comcast.net/pparaska

Got the pan in. Paid $35 - not too bad. Dirty though. Exhaust is done. Ugly, but done. Gonna have to be re-visited at some point because it is gonna get mauled by speed bumps, etc. Too low. Sloppy. Fuel filler is almost done. Just using a rubber radiator hose to connect the Maxima filler to the tank. Vent lines need to be figured out and routed (there are lots with the Camaro tank). Need one more fitting for the vapor return. Need to actually attach the variou fuel related wires - they are run to the back, but not connected as yet. Lots of little niggling things to do. Tryna track down the O2 connectors on the harness for instance. I know they're there somewhere. Still need to put voltage to the PCM. And install the radiator. Gonna fire the engine up first out of superstition. Oh yeah, another simple thing - I don't have a doo hicky to attach the clutch pedal to the master cyl. Mine is metric, the cyl is standard. Gotta fab something for that. Throttle cable I bought is too short. K&N I bought is too wide (and probably too stubby too). Gotta mount the MAF somehow. Bought some fancy drier vent for the air intake. Well, yes clearly it is not fancy for a car - fancy for a drier. Geechy for a car. Probably should try and hunt down something else but this was all I could find this weekend. Soooo close.....

Not tryna be picky, but helpful, search for "LS1", not "LS-1". Also, I agree with Tim, but not on all counts. I think the LT1 would be much easier since you can just use the JTR kit. But, editting - the same company that makes LT1 edit makes an LS1 product. Secondary O2s can be left off (and editted out or there are sims). LT1 might be cheaper than LS1, but the corresponding T56 is actually more - the shop I bought my LS1 T56 from for $1100 sells the LT1 T56 for $1500. Higher demand, lesser supply. But yes, I would recommend going LT1 if you want to actually finish your project within a year

It's a bolt up - except for 2 things: [*] The shifter hole may need to be opened up (forwards) and the console may not fit anymore. I'm not positive on when the switch-over occured - this isn't an issue on some 240Zs. On my 71, it was. You need the shifter for that trans also.[*]Clutch fork/slave cyl. If you have the ZX slave, then use that, otherwise, if you use the 240 slave, you'll likely need to put the 4spd fork in the 5spd. I used my 240 slave and the 4spd fork on mine.[/list:u:47e54d127c]Otherwise, it's just a straight-forward R&R job - should take maybe 8 hours max.

John at http://Speartech.com is the man to contact. I sent my PCM to him and had him to the swappers setup on it - if you look on his page you can see a laundry list of mods he does to the programming. He had it back to me quick fast - I think the whole process from me boxing it up to unboxing it was 5 days. Then you don't need LS1Edit for anything. Unless you just want to mess around and try and optimize stuff.

It's not an uncommon swap. I've seen pictures of several. A guy at my old job had an 85 HiLux with a 4.3 V6 in it. It was jacked up with giant tires. Guy in highschool had a Nissan pickup with an SBC. It was a ratty looking thing with crappy paint and steel rims. Sleeper. Used to bust on the pony cars. Right up until he totalled it.

Shot in the dark: check the elec. connections to the injectors. They can get corroded and degrade the voltage. They then start to degrade until the car just doesn't run anymore. Take one or two off and look for white or green powder. Their hard to clean. Buddy of mine rigged up a mini sand blast chamber to use on the connectors on his Z32tt. You can also just replace them - most parts shops stock the standard Bosch style connector. Again, just one of many possibilities to check....

Hrmmm. How about finding a shop with a REALLY big Bridgeport that you can mount the car to. I don't see how it's possible. I thought you had to remove everything from the block (pistons, etc.) and mount it to a fixture in order to ensure proper alignment and tolerances during the machining process. Unless you're referring to some other process that is similar to decking. But even then, whatever fancy process it is (with a high dollar tool that you mount to the block??) will send material all over the place and into the bores and water and oil passages. Not good.

Yes, insulation guys get a much better price on material usually. And the labor costs are pretty low. If you do it yourself, buy one of those full body Tyvek jump suits (covers your head too) in the paint section of Lowes. Also a face mask and gloves and goggles. Itchy itchy itchy.

I think moving to a short spring ala PeteParaska is a good start. Also, if you are willing to repaint those fenders, a good body man could massage that rear sheet metal to give you an extra 1/2 to 1 inch. Just by rolling the lip you should gain 1/4 to 3/8 inch. An experienced guy can heat and hammer that metal just so, get it to move out but retain the lines and match up on both sides. Find a hot rod shop - lots of those in Cali. My long term goal is to do some subtle mods to the rear fenders. Cut sections, bend out slightly, fill in with little triangles of 18ga sheet and stitch weld, then fill with lead (or bondo). All I want is like another inch of room for 9 inch, 20mm offset rims with 255 tires. Mostly I think this'll be easier (for me) than bonding fiberglass to metal. (It's all just burrito in the sky talk right now since I ain't gots no time or money for the next 2-3 years.... ) [edit, spelling - ahot dor shop???]

What you describe is certainly possible. It's just that it would require huge amounts of fabrication on every aspect of the rear suspension, drivetrain and chassis.

I love the look and lightness of the Panasports. Seems to me that there is a greater selection of affordable hipo tires in 17 inch sizes (though surely Bob, Dan and JohnC will disagree with me ). I am also poor though, so, unfortunately, not really the target audience for this thread. FWIW, my car has 17X8 20mm offset Konig Monsoons that fit perfectly. I do have 2.5 inch springs though. This size in that offset is pretty hard to find and I think it is ideal for a Z car with stock fenders. Many people opt for the popular Honda offset (40mm ?) and use spacers to adapt them to the Z. There is a tremendous selection of wheels for Hondas (obviously). (BTW, I got my wheels and tires from DiscountTireDirect.com which, for some reason was the only place that had any wheels that I could afford in that size in the Z's bolt pattern )

What's ALDL? There's several tools available to check codes. ATAP is very popular and there is another one made by Alex Peper at http://www.obd-2.com/.

That was part of a thread that was started on zcar.com about a year or so ago. I grabbed the image so it wouldn't get lost. The car is in the UK. As I recall, that dam was a one off made for a Supra. Or something like that. Unobtainable at any rate.

Dman, that is a record. Especially for an undocumented swap. Congratulations man. I am jealous.

A whole army of cherrypicker trucks and crew from Georgia came thru my neighborhood today and powered us back up. The weather here was bad Wednesday and Thursday, but it was fine after that - almost warm even. Everything melted. Just didn't have no stinkin power. And everything was cancelled: work, school, etc. (was supposed to have a weekend team exercise at school today). So, I had all this free time, but no power to get any work done. No excuse now - except that I'm exhausted from cleaning up all the tree limbs all over the neighborhood. My house was fine - just 3 big limbs came down. Took out the fence - no big deal.

Oh, transmission crossmember. I get it. I thought this was about the engine crossmember. I agree - I don't actually see how the JTR one can work all that well since it is attached to those weak, thin floors. I fabbed up something similar to Tim's. You never said what kind of car or transmission this is for. The thing Phantom is talking about will only work on a 280Z. On a 240, I don't see how you can avoid removing the humps in the tunnel for the stock mount. But, I had another idea, although not really a novel one. It might be easier to sort of replicate the way Datsun did it: [*] Create some new sheetmetal humps with flat bottoms.[*]Hole(s) on the bottom flat part. Nuts welded on the inner sides.[*]Make up a simple, separate transmission crossmember (with allowance for exhaust).[*]Bolt it all together.[*]Then push it up in place (your transmission will need to be supported in place exactly where it needs to be for proper alignment) and bolt it to the transmission mount.[*]Then weld in the humps to the tunnel.[/list:u:dc1f7d31e5]This is pretty much what I did, except that my cross member is more complicated and the "humps" in my case were really just flat pieces of 14ga steel. The disadvantage I have is that the bolts go into the tunnel and stick out a bit. And installation is a little trickier - lining the thing up in there to get all 4 bolts in and threaded. I think this other way would be easier to fab up too since you can bend out a lip around each hump - bend it more, making the whole package narrower, to get it up in the tunnel better. Bend it back if it needs to go down (fatter), etc. I had to be somewhat more careful and measure stuff in advance which is no fun.Hindsight. Oh well.

Center to center. (Or top of old hole to top of new hole or bottom of new hole to bottom of old hole - you get the idea). The new washer you put in there and tack in place will make up for the fact that there's only a tiny strip of metal between old and new holes. (They also make for a nice smooth surface for the bushing to rub against).

Info on my site, specifically http://240z.jeromio.com/motorswap/t56.html