jeromio

Nope I have this: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=89111

How about the kid in Florida. He and his friend were jumping from one parking garage to another. He fell 80ft - yet somehow managed to not succumb to natural (de)selection. Now his genius father is suing the city and the owners of the garage. Yes, the garage had a fence, but it was not tall enough to prevent his moron son from jumping.

I can check this - I can crank the adjustment over to one side. This should stretch that CV. I did think of CV bottoming. And the outer boot is really squished, but then I remembered it's always been like that. The small hole part of the boot is not clamped to the beveled "rest" part of the shaft for some reason - it's pushed over by about 3/4". Yeah, but I did that work about 4 years ago. (Not dissing on your suggestion, just clearing up the info) That's interesting. I can't think of places where stuff could gather, but I'll check next time I'm under the car. It is kinda hard to see the whole upper part of the control arm. You know what's gonna happen: I'm gonna end up tearing apart the whole rear suspension. There was a slight chance I might make it to SEZ this year - that chance just evaporated completely.....

So I have the poor man's rear toe adjuster, and I was able to get my rear suspension pretty close to aligned. I drove the car around - streets, highway, etc. - and it was noticeably better. Then I took it to an alignment shop. The right contol arm is so hosed (badly bored pin hole) that the guy couldn't get it aligned - the adjuster is maxed out and there's still half degree of toe. So then I drive the car home - neighborhood roads, no speed involved at all - 25mph. Car sat for 2 weeks. Then I decided to drive it to work one day. At 35mph, I notice a funky noise. On the freeway, the noise gets way worse. It's like a rattling noise - maybe a combination of 2 different mechanical noises. It happens both on power and coasting. I pulled over, quick look, noticed a slightly soft tire. Drove to a station and checked and filled all tires. But that didn't help. Drove the car home very gingerly. Some info that may help: I have 280ZX CVs with 240 stubs (new bearings) and home-made seals. Struts are sectioned and w/ GC coilovers. I also have rear discs. While I was making the poorman adjuster, I changed the fluid in the diff (4.11 R200). So I jacked up the car a few weekends ago. I thought perhaps the alignment guy just didn't tighten all the bolts on the adjuster since there are 6 in total. But they were all tight. I checked ebrake cables, brake hoses, brake lines, fuel lines. CV boots are fine, Ujoints in drive shaft are fine. Everything looks fine - no obstructions, nothing unusual. I jacked up one side - noise seems to come from pass. side - by the end of the control arm so I could spin the wheel to verify interference. Nothing, no interference. So, I still have this toe problem and I thougth maybe the extra bind in the bushings due to the extreme adjustment might be a problem. So I stretched the poorman adjuster to something very close to stock length and and cut the rear leg of the pass. side control arm, flanged it, clamped it, welded it back. It's shortened by 5/16", which is as much as I could squeeze it. This effectively put back to zero toe. Then I lined everything back up and tightened it. I can definitely get it aligned perfectly now. BUT I STILL HAVE THIS %$@!* NOISE! I cannot figure this out. I drove it about 1/4 mile at 35mph and it sounds terrible. And of course multiple things changed at once - although I don't really suspect the fluid change, since I did not hear the noise on my initial test drive - I drove it on the highway then too. The noise was only present after I got the car back from the alignment shop. Now, I do still need to get it aligned, and the guy at that shop seemed pretty cool - since he could not align it (due to the rear arm being basically f'd up), he did not charge me. And he was happy to talk about possible solutions with me. So I think I will take it back to that same shop, and try and broach the subject of this noise, and how it only appeared after I got it back from him. But do any of you have any other ideas? Possible things to check? I can't drive my car and it's making me sick.

You can also get pulleys from Autozone - that's where I got mine.

I have an R200 from an 85 200sx turbo (4.11). I had to use the pinion flange from a 75 R200. I'm using 83 turbo zx CV shafts in mine. I'm curious about this gear ratio though. What Nissan in 85 had a 3.54 R200?

I saw those on ebay too. I think the white ones are actually "finished" a bit better. They have a more well defined lip than those on the blue car. Otherwise, IMO, they have the same basic shape.

GTO (Holden) LS1 will have the wrong pan. However, its pan is desirable for other swaps. So you could sell it, buy the F-Body pan and be dollars ahead. However, IMO, $6300 is too high. I got mine for roughly half that with only 10K more miles on it.

Personally, I'm in favor of leaving non-tech sections out of the index if it cuts down on server load, makes things run faster.

1. Year of motor/mods: 1999, stock, Speartech PCM edit, currently running open loop (O2 sensor issues) 2. Tranny: T56 with custom "W" mount. 3. Kit used or explanation of your custom mounts.:custom, "K" braced crossmember sans stock towers. my site 4. Any special accessories or parts needed for the swap, including fuel, wiring, etc.: Camaro tank and stock Camaro fuel system. 5. Date you started on the project, date finished: About 100 years ago. Finished? Err, I can drive it. 6. Other car mods (suspension, brakes, etc.). Many

I wouldn't bother - all but 1 of mine have fallen off. If you do get new ones, I would JB weld them in place.

Wow, this thread was hard to find. Anyway, I finished up getting the alignment as close as I could. I knew it was still off because I have the adjuster cranked all the way (as short as it can go) and I cannot push it to the driver's side any further (without ovaling the holes on the pass side to the point where there's no more metal). So, I took it to the local alignment shop (also got it inspected - first time ever). I told the guy that they wouldn't be able to adjust it and just to check it and charge me whatever a "check" costs. Well, he apparently tried to align it anyway. Of course he failed, and then wouldn't charge me anything. Oh well. So, I have the following specs: left right Camber -1.52 -0.85 Toe -0.51 +0.41 Total toe -0.10 Thrust angle -0.46 So, this is an actual improvement - can you believe that? I have almost no toe. Now, obviously it is still completely deranged and I am very discouraged. I have a diagonal car. I figure I need to move that passenger side over another 3/8 to 1/2 inch. That would then allow the driver side to move over that amount also. That should bring camber a little closer, but it will still be hanky - driver's side will have more. Those camber values really underscore the situation: I'm having to crank the entire bottom end of the suspension over to the driver's side to make up for some really screwed up parts. I am presuming that I am the victim of a messed up strut on the passenger side. So, my plan, such as it is, is to take everything apart again and oval the top holes on the upright(s). I think I will also have to cut the cross brace off of the pass. side upright, grind off 1/4 inch or so, and weld it back (narrowing that whole structure). Then I will put it back in and shove that whole unit over to the driver's side. Then I'll put it all back together and line it up. Now, after all this, assuming I can get the toe and thrust angle sorted, I will still have screwed up camber. If I have to add 1/2 degree of negative camber, is slotting the holes on the strut top going to be sufficient? I don't want to lay out $300 for camber plates. Possibly I could balance it out, slot to the outside on the driver's side and the inside on the passenger side and end up with maybe -1.2 on both sides. On the front I have -2.5 and -2.1, which is a bit much, but I think -1.2 on the back would be fine, no?

Do you have to have a log book (2 years worth) signed by a shop owner in order to get the actual certification?

Bummer....

Whoa - big switch. PHPBB to VBulletin, eh? So far so good.

Back on topic: I pondered the crooked-ness. I measured the spindle pins and I show about 1/4" of toe out. So, I guess I have bad strut machining. A new strut will be dollars plus much extra work. Good chance that the "new" strut will be just as bad too. So I re-removed the rear link-up (short-hand for the whole rear uprights plus adjustable transverse link), ground out the upright arches. I also ground down the inner part of the crossbar and the edges of the threaded tube of the turnbuckle to allow for as much crank as possible - painted, re-installed. I thought I had allowed for the amount I needed - about 3/8 inch of adjustment plus an extra 1/4 of movement to the driver's side to correct for slant. But apparently not. I had it close before it bound up, but the thing was too tight. The driver's side bolts wouldn't tighten - slightly crooked from being tweaked past the ovals. The transverse rode up on the new arch of the transverse and skewed the holes. So, it's all gotta come apart once again. I've got it down to about 1/2 degree toe-in, which is probably fine, and 1/2 degree of slant. I just need to be able to lock it down. It's only the lower edge of the arch of the upright that interferes. Trial and error - it's a way of life.

Terry is using a custom mustache bar that that replaces the stock mustache bar (rear diff mount) and the uprights that support the transverse link. I am using all stock parts. The stock uprights have been modified with a plate joining them together. The new, adjustable transverse link bolts to this now single part. So, are you talking about reproducing Terry's aluminum mustache bar slash upright? Or just the adjustable crossbar? When you say website, are you talking about my website, or Terry's? I guess I am a little confused by your confusion - I put up a whole lot of pictures....

Yeah, the more I ponder this the more I think I should remove both arms and make sure they are true. Right now I have almost an inch difference in the front and rear pivot distances. That can't be right - they should be parallel, yes? I should be able to fix the problem by cutting and welding the arm back together. The trick would be creating an accurate jig. This is turning into a hugely labor intensive project....

I'm not too worried about the discrepency in the diagonal. It's an inch across the whole diagonal and using 42" long sticks. What I think it means is that some large percentage of my toe in is coming from the passenger side wheel exclusively. It sort of looks like you can see the toe difference in the tire to wheel arch relationship - but I have no other cars to compare it to. I don't really notice a difference in tire to fender clearance betw. each side. Did you happen to measure the distance between rear pivots of your setup when you were done adjusting? I'm wondering if maybe one of my rear struts or arms is just completely hosed.

I installed it yesterday and today decided to try and play around with alignment. I think I have learned that my car is severely bent. I knew it had been in an accident in the right rear when I bought it. I don't know if it's that, or if it's just really bad from the factory. What I did was clamp two pieces of 42" long maple boards that I had to the rear wheels. Top of the boards (2.5" wide) right under the center caps of my wheels. I turned each wheel so that I could run the tape measure without hitting exhaust, etc. - matched the angles with my angle finder. Got under the car and measured the lengths between the front and rear of the sticks. I cranked my adjuster IN as far as it would go and still wound up with 63 1/8 in front and 64 in back. Severe Toe In: 1.2 degrees by my calc. And that means that I used to have REALLY severe toe in. Measuring the centerpoints of my rear swing arm axes yields 14 1/16". I cannot adjust it further because the arches of the uprights are hitting the arches of the bushing carriers on both sides. Measuring the diagonals shows an inch difference - longer from front left to right rear. So the rear wheels are steering left. Now I have to take the thing off the car again and grid away at those arches. Sucky thing is that the outer ovalled hole is really close to the edge of the arch. Also, my turnbuckle has like 3 threads left of adjustment. I'm not sure if that's enough. This is really worrisome. I kow that my measurements are not that exact, but we're talking differences of a whole inch, over a degree. The next thing I need to find out is which side is more screwed up - My guess is that the driver's side is fairly straight and most of that left-turn is coming from the passenger side. This sucks.

That looks sharp. Are the panels aluminum? Nice bends - do you have rollers or did you just form it in place? Attached with screws, rivets? I'm curious about what the guage pod will look like. It looks very modern - like a dash/console from a Mini Cooper or a new Volvo.

The Turbo is almost as large as the motor. Lining up with the stock trans mount is very amusing. However, what do you do about that oil pan? It looks like it will be dragging the ground.

Spaces in file and directory names is a terrible thing inflected upon the world by Bill Gates. Here's what the link has to be: http://www.marcsgarage.net/zr8ed/tnt%20by%20mib%20low%20res.mov Lesson here is learn to avoid using spaces.

Doh! In the process of deciding what I was going to do, I hacked up the old R180 crossbar. It's in 3 pieces. I don't have a proper area to perform the alignment myself - garage floor is gravel and my driveway is not very flat or smooth. So, I'll be paying $$$ for a 4 wheel alignment. I need to hunt around and find someone good in this area though. Anyway, the turnbuckle will hopefully make it more user friendly for someone else to use. I also like the turn buckle for keeping the piece connected and as a sort of last resort safety mechanism. I think I spent about $25 on the turnbuckle pieces. The rest is just nuts, bolts, washers, some metal scraps. Maybe $30 total. My slotted holes did not turn out as nicely as I would've hoped. I lost my fancy burr bit and there's no place local to buy replacements that's open nights/weeknds. I used my plasma torch, but the cuts didn't come out super smooth. I need to clean them up with a new ($$$) carbide burr bit. I know I'll find the stupid thing as soon as I buy a replacement.

Great skill, wasted. My 7 yr old daughter would not be fooled by that car. I agree with Terry - too bad this guy didn't get the opportunity to create an original design. I'm sure this was the customer's idea. The thing I'm most impressed with is the symmetry: it's one thing to carve a nice shape and lay glass over it. It's another thing to create an exact mirror image of that shape.