jeromio

I keep meaning to put up a "rear brakes" page, but still haven't done it. I have some pics at http://240z.jeromio.com/images I made the brackets from this drawing (originally found on Pete Paraska's site): I under-estimated how much work it would be to fabricate the brackets. That half inch plate is not easy to work with. I used a honkin' plasma torch to cut out the pieces, but the cuts were really crappy. My friend's $8000 torch was no match for that thick plate. So then I spent much time grinding and shaping. Also, not having a good machine-shop style drill press hurt me. The holes need to be perfect and mine were not - had to weld some of them in and try again. Aluminum would have been a much better material to work with, but I don't own a heli-arc or a TiG, so, that was out. I'm poor, but I would definately rather have spent $150 on some brackets rather than gone thru all that hassle.

I'll preface my comments by admitting to be a complete amateur, non-expert-type..... But, If the VG is nonturbo, I wouldn't think it would be that big of hassle as a swap. It'd be easy to dial in the weight distro exactly where you want it. VG definately has better heads - I would imagine it would have a nicer, more usable powerband than a tweaked NA L28 (275hp? ?). Does have a belt vs. a chain - dunno if that's a factor when racing. Is the 24 valve v6 not a consideration? Personally, I wouldn't consider the L28 unless turbo'd.

My 71 has metal buckets..... I had a link to a guy's zcar site (broken link now)- he had a V8 conversion. Anyway, he had done the MSA cover thing and painted over them. But then he could not get the car to pass his state inspection. Apparently they said the lights in the grill were too low or something. So, he had to convert it back. So, with that in mind, I'd go with the fiberglass buckets, fill them in, then mount them. Save your old buckets so you can put them back on if you need to (in case you move or sell the car). Won't look <i>as</i> smooth, but might save you some hassle.

The executive summary: the guy who did it and has the most info regrets his choice of a manual trans over the auto. Not good to hear....

BTW, the links to your site don't work because the host does not allow cross linking documents. Their server picks up that the link is coming from somewhere else (in this case hybridz.org) via CGI. This prevents their host from being "used" to host pictures, for instance, for some bandwidth sucking porn site. Tradeoff is that you can't use it for that purpose either. Most free hosting sites use a bandwidth throttle instead....

I'm the guy with the 240z.jeromio.com website. I tried using a large tubing cutter for the fronts, but bagged it and just used my cutoff saw. The tubing cutter was just too much work - that's some thick tubing. Squareness isn't much of an issue if you score a line verically (orthagonal to the cut) and use that as a guide when cutting out the section and when welding the 2 pieces back together - any deviation from square will not matter, just as long as the 2 cuts are consistent. For a good butt-weld, you just need to bevel both edges. This also helps to counter any "unsquareness" since you can hammer the 2 pieces together a bit. The sharp beveled edges will mash together. This is possible when you stick a piece of exhaust tubing inside the tube. For the fronts I used pipe, but it didn't fit inside perfectly - I found some tubing at a muffler shop that fit inside very snugly. Mine are 240z strut tubes though, which are slightly narrower. The tubing was actually kinda hard to remove. But it made the strut tube perfectly straight. This worked much better than the angle iron clamping technique which I used for the fronts. As to your specific questions: Q1 - I used front 85 rabbit GTI cartridges - the Tokico non-adjustables. I like them, but there was a great deal of discussion here, after I bought these in which it was decided that the rear MR2 struts should be used. But I'm not sure if the year was mentioned. Q2 - I have a 240. No idea what this extension tube is... Q3 - The amount of susp. travel (re)gained when sectioning the struts is directly related to how low you want the car. Clearly you can't gain back factory travel with this mod, even if you only lower the car by the amount of sectioning (unless you also modify the isolators). But you will gain at least the amount you section. If you use the GTI cart, you can section up to 1 7/8 on the front. I know that 280 rear tubes are longer than 240 tubes, so, you may be able to section more than the 1.5 inches that I did and use 240 front carts. Q4 - section the middle. Don't use a splice. As Pete mentioned in another one of these threads (this comes up alot), make sure there aren't any pinholes in the finished weld since you'll lose the heat transfer oil. Can't think of any other tips....

Well, I'm actually in Durham (over by the School of Math & Science). You're welcome to come by and take a ride in my car to get some feeling for what my particular CA pivot mod (and a host of others) has accomplished. Just drop me an email... [ May 01, 2001: Message edited by: jeromio ]

Those old mail jeeps had Posi? Most axle shops will do the re-drill for the bolt pattern pretty inexpensively. Definately lots of different ring and pinions available for those. Lots of fab work to put a 4 link in there though. Curious about Pete's question - was that sarcasm? Tough to tell in text. (D44 is a solid axle, no joints).

This is me, chiming in... My car definately had a bump steer problem. I'm not a racer, and not very knowledgeable about suspension stuff in general, but I know that there is a slow sweeper on my drive home with an unfriendly bump in it. Before, when I hit that bump, I had to be prepared, because the car was gonna change direction on me. I had done some reading of my own and saw 1" and 7/8" as the relocation number. I didn't try and do any measuring on my specific car - didn't seem like any kind of straight forward way of actually measuring the degree of non-parallelism between the steering link and the arm. So, what I did was split the difference between the 2 numbers I'd seen and came up with 15/16". It also seemed logical (and I'd also seen people discuss it on this forum), to move the pivot out at the same time. I moved mine 1/4" out on both sides. I did this to increase the camber on the fronts. But it also made the mod much easier since if the pivot hole was moved straight up, there wouldn't be much room left for the arm. As it was, I had to grind off some of the metal on the inner part of the arm. The results? The bumpy sweeper is no longer a problem. But Caveat Emptor - if you've seen another thread that I started here, I am experiencing some twitchiness at speeds over 100MPH. There were a whole lot of other changes to the car at the same time though, any one of which could be contributing to this sensation.

It's just cruel to discuss this without offering pictures! Please??? BTW, I have a 110v welder - what heat setting did you end up using? What wire diameter - flux core or gas?

Terry Oxandale's Brake page has info on the various hub hat dimensions. I presume you've already seen Mikelly's write up posted on this site as well as zcar.com....

It's been my experience that rebuilt and even new racks don't typically come with outer ends - make sure first. Also, the cheapest outers I found were $35 each. I haven't priced inners. $25 for the boots? Yikes - you can get generic rack boots for $5/pair. Also, I did all this to my car (except the inners) and it still vibrated severely. When I got new wheels, it went away completely. Most likely the front wheels needed balancing.

I think you may have posted this in the wrong forum, but I'm highly interested. Any chance of getting some pics of this work in progress? I would love to remove the drip rails on my car.

Does anyone not have the steering isolator in place? What about just having a solid linkage? My steering wheel vibrated so badly with those old rims that now, with the new ones, it just feels eery. The wheel just sits there. Maybe a solid connection would get me back to what I'm used to . Seriously, I don't have any kind of an isolator in the steering of my truck and that's not harsh or anything. Perhaps I'll try replacing the current rubber unit with some steel spacers to see how it feels.

I think having an airdam would be key. Hate to pay the MSA markup - can't really afford much of anything since I plarnked all that dough on the new wheels/tires. Might be fun to try and make one, but I have visions of creating $50 worth of a big messy, fibery glop pile. So, BLKMGK, this airdam that's in the box, are you saying that yer not gonna use it and therefore you're willing to sell it real extra cheap to a a fellow (impoverished) HybridZer?? My son wants me to put a rear spoiler on there too. Says it would "look really cool and make the sportscar go faster". But then he only just turned 6, so, I don't think he has much experience to back that up. I like the looks of the 280Z units alot more - the ones that also replace the bumper. But then I'd have to deal with relocating the blinkers. At any rate, I would definately be interested in the numbers or preferably websites of any vendors. Thanks.

BTW, on my setup I haven't done anything else to the system beyond switching to stainless/teflon hoses. I have the same Master cylinder (which I presume is a 240 unit?) and the same (stock) proportioning valve. I bought a fancy adjustable proportioning valve, but have not installed it and actually don't plan to at this time. My brakes feel very well balanced. The fronts lock up before the rears. Very little pedal effort, and although I have no data to back it up, I am very happy with the performance.

I've noticed that bump steer - at least the sensation of the car jerking to one side when hitting a pothole or bump, has lessened. It might still be there, but it's an improvement. I've sold the old rims. I don't have a rear bar on there at all right now. The reason I'm saying I need to find a short armed bar is because I need to mount it to the uprights, below the mustache bar. It's my understanding that the stock bar, mounted ahead of the arms, will interfere with the CV halfshafts. Cutting the stock bar's arms shorter would cause it to be way to stiff. I'll be fabbing up some new uprights ala Terry Oxendale's or Darius's cars. I would like to get a thicker front bar - the one I have currently is the puny stock 71 240 unit. When I first re-did my front suspension, and lowered the front end by about an inch (this was with the old 14" rims so the car was much lower overall), I noticed that the top speed went from an indicated 105 or so to almost 115 (this is with the 4sp). I've had the car in it's current form up to 110, with room on the tach to go faster, but it doesn't feel comfortable. I am getting used to the way the car behaves now, but I do think it could be made better. I haven't had a chance to properly measure toe - hopefully this weekend. Besides MSA, can anyone recommend a vendor of airdams for 240Zs?

Odds and ends will kill your budget on any car project. It's too easy to think in terms of the big ticket items, eg. engine for 2K, trans for 1K, radiator and exhaust for another 500 does not equal $3500. Much more like $6k. Car project math is a voodoo art all its own. More like psychology than arithmatic. Applies to time as well - it'll always take way longer....

You'd want to pay less than $1250 for that ZXt, but even at $1k, there's lotsa nice parts in there: front and rear calipers ecu and wiring CV half shafts T5 trans R200 (if you don't have one already) and mounting bits maybe the wheels I tried to find one for under a $1k in my area but failed. Ended up buying parts from the local yard (but not the engine, not yet anywayz). I don't think my wife or my neighbors would've liked the junk car in the driveway for however many months, but it would've been nice to have all the parts in one shot.

I don't have the JTR book, but I did section my struts. This typically goes with a conversion to coilovers. If you search this forum you'll find many long and informative threads on this subject.

I did basically the same thing as Terry did for the front. It didn't cost that much - calipers were $20/pair from the yard + $20 rebuild kit + $5 paint + $15 pads. The rotors I bought new for $40/each, but that's a wear item that you have to replace eventually anyway. My braking perfomance has increased tremendously. When doing the rear susp., I discovered some cracks in one of the drums. Drums are a huge PITA maintenance wise, and the cost of upgrading to discs was a wash. Of course, I didn't pay anything for the bracket I made (did take quite alot more effort to fab than I thought it might though). You do have to factor in removal of the stubs which is also a pain (hopefully a one time pain) which then leads to the cost of bearings and seals = around $150 (yes, surprising). But again, this is sort of something that ought to be done anyway on a 25-30 year old car. In other words, for the rear, if it's working, keep it. But if you want an upgrade, it might be easier to just move up to discs. But as to the front end, caliper only swap, my opinion is that for roughly the same dollars and only marginally more effort, you can get much better performance from the ZX vented rotor swap. Increasing clamping force on a rotor that is unable to shed the heat you're putting into it is not going to do much to improve braking.

These are good comments. I wouldn't expect the steering puck to have that much of an effect. The one I have now seems okay - I could bend it with my hands, but only slightly - the Poly one is of course, much stiffer. (I ordered and installed these front bushes many, many months ago and just never followed thru on returning the incorrect steering isolator). Anyway, I guess I need to take care of that. Strictly by eyeball, the front and rear camber look identical at the current ride-height. I'd love to get like a digital inclinometer to get an accurate reading. I did consider making some jigs out of metal to check toe, etc. I was looking at some pictures and they do seem pretty simple. ------------------ 240Z.jeromio.com

I guess I wasn't clear: The entire suspension is now completely refurbished. I have new poly bushings everywhere. The only piece of rubber that did not get replaced was the steering coupler (they sent me the wrong one). Front and rear, everything is new. Also, I have a 1980 5sp matched to a 4.11 rear. The 5sp has it's same speedo gear in it, so, my figuring was that the change in tire diameter would be offset by the difference in a 3.9 vs the 4.11 (about 5%). I agree that toe could be an issue. This is why I want to order some toe plates. My understanding is that they allow for a much more accurate measurement of toe. Before the new tires, when I spun out in the rain, Drax mentioned that rear toe could be a problem which worries me a great deal. There's no quick fix for that. I do know that the car was hit in the right rear before I got it. You can see the bondo on the inside of the right quarter. I should probably jack the car up and check the hole thing for square..... ------------------ 240Z.jeromio.com

I'm having some problems. My car just doesn't seem very stable - at least, not as stable as it used to be. My baseline is the car with the old 14" rims, front coilovers, new front carts and poly bushes, the old warn out, unmod'ed rear susp. with blown carts and soggy springs. I have done several things, any of which could be contributing to this sensation. I relocated the front control arm pivot points up by 15/16" and out by 1/4". I also sectioned all 4 struts. I have new bushes, carts and coilover springs all around, 150lb up front and 175lb rear. The front still has the stock sway bar, rear still has none. The brakes are all new. With the 17" rims, the car sits up a bit higher than it used to - perhaps an inch. Also, the contact patch is a tad narrower - the old 215/60/14s were fatter on the pavement than the new 235/45/17s. The car has been aligned, and it tracks straight. I have measured the toe front and rear using a tape measure and it seemed good - clearly this is not the best way to measure. I'm considering buying some toe plates. There's not really any kind of a shop out here that I trust, I'd like to have the data and the ability to tweak the settings myself. Anyway, there seems to be something amiss. I used to have no qualms about going over a 100 mph, but now it just seems too twitchy. It takes diligence to keep it straight on the highway going fast because any road irregularties or crosswinds will move it around and the steering is very touchy - more so than I remember before this latest chassis work. Corrections must be very slight. But, If I yank the wheel, there almost seems to be a delay before it reacts, and then the rear wants to step out. It's hard to describe, but it just doesn't seem natural. (It could be that my speedo is reading slow and I'm going faster than I think I am, but it couldn't be that far off) I plan to get a rear sway bar - but this will be a project since I need to mount it behind the CV axles. Have to find a bar with short arms from the salvage yard. I'm also looking for a front airdam and I'm considering lowering the front another inch. Are there any fairly inexpensive alignment tools that anyone can recommend? Did I buy the wrong tires (Dunlop SP5000)? Anything else I should check out? ------------------ 240Z.jeromio.com

It actually wasn't all that bad, but yes, more work than Scottie's solution. Would've been much easier if I had a slower turning drill press (mine's meant for wood, chewed up my hole saw). In my case, the stock mount was toast and there was no way I was going to drop $50-60 on a new one. Apart from my labor, this mount system cost me about $12. Simon's looks way better ( http://www.usq.edu.au/users/degroot/240z/pages/diffmount.htm ). ------------------ 240Z.jeromio.com