cygnusx1

Well, I got the 240Z rack in place in the 280Z today. I need to button up the engine mounts, sway bar, and do an alignment before I test it out. I must say that the 240Z rack seems quite a bit less beefy than the 280Z one. To pull out the rack you need to drop the front of the sway bar, loosen the engine mount bolts and raise the engine about 1". Then disconnect the steering shaft, and the outer tie rods. I chose to disconnect at the steering coupler. The whole assembly works its way out the front.

...Assuming the rear circuit and brakes is working properly. Adding rear pressure to compensate for bad rear brakes would not be good...

The "optimum" bias point shifts around with grip conditions. Those vary with temperature, humidity, and tire temps and other factors. That is the very reason prop valves for racing are adjustable. On the street you don't need to be balanced to 10/10'ths of braking potential at all times. You just need to make sure that the rear wheels don't lock up before the front ones do, in panic stop situations. And you need to make sure that you CAN lock up the rear wheels, after the front ones do. You can test that carefully in a safe place. You want to be sure that in all possible conditions you could meet on the street, the rears don't lock up first. You will end up dialing in a lot more front bias than you would optimally have on a track (where the conditions for that track session don't vary so much so you can dial-in for that session). To my surprise, rain, will allow you to push the bias well to the back wheels, because the car does not un-weight the rear end so much due to limited tire bite. Test your car in a variety of dry conditions to make sure the rear end isn't locking up first, and that you can actually lock all four if you have to. Then decide if you need an adjustable prop valve. They are fun to play with but remember, you can't dial in MORE rear brake, you can only dial OUT pressure. Most pro racers use a balance bar mechanical system which is more precise than the hydraulic prop valves.

Albrecht Goertz would be proud!

It says "Ira" on the rear quarter window. Greg Ira possibly? Greg wins a lot.

According to the 72 and 75 manuals, the rack ratios are: 1972 240Z - 17.8:1 1975 280Z- 15.8:1 Rack total stroke are both the same.

OK The 76 280Z rack travels roughly 1.5" per turn of the input shaft. There are 3 full turns lock to lock on the 280Z. There you have it. Pretty significant difference that can easily be felt. The 240Z is much closer to what a modern car with power steering has. The 280Z just feels "off the mark" after coming from a modern car, or a 240Z. I shall proceed with the 240Z rack swap into the 280Z. Rough Measurements: 240Z (1972) - 1.81" of travel per 360 deg of steering. 280Z (1976) - 1.5" of travel per 360 deg of steering

Both cars are in tip top shape with excellent poly bushings on the rack. I run a rubber steering coupler on BOTH cars. It's just my preference. I am still cleaning up my garage so I can get the 280Z up on the stands. I did clean up the spare 240Z rack that I intend to install in the 280Z. The 240Z rack I have on my garage floor travels roughly 1.81" for every turn of the input. I'll have the 280Z rack info later on.

Thanks, it looks like I'll get the 280Z on stands in the AM tomorrow and get a count. The answer will also answer my question about my 240Z possibly having shorty knuckles too. Jon, did you measure a 240Z aluminum, or 280Z iron rack? Ineed to know which car not to crawl under

The 280Z steering feel is hard and slow and somewhat damped, where the 240 is light and quick. The steering ratios and efforts of my 280Z and 240Z feel totally different. I wonder if the PO had installed shorties on the 240. Hmm, tomorrow if the new snow melts, I'll get a closer look with some measuring tools. I'll check the arms, and the rack ratios. Something strange if both racks are the same. I thought they put in a "slower" rack in the 280Z to offset the steering effort gain due to the added weight of the car. I read all the Ackerman arguments already and I am not too worried about it, since 99% of my driving is on back roads (not on a race track competitively). I run right around zero front toe on both cars.

Thanks for the heads up! The cause for my inquiry is that my 240Z has really light and razor sharp steering feel at anything above 5-10 mph. Whereas, my 280Z steering feels heavy "muddy" all the time or until about 45-50 mph. So I am concerned that if I go to the 240Z rack, I will get the quicker ratio but increase the effort and "muddy'ness" over what my 280Z already has. Both cars have nearly equivalent suspension, wheel, tire, toe, setups. I could be barking up the wrong tree too. Maybe my 280Z rack has reached the end of it's life and is just "draggy". Or maybe the cars are just that different from each other. I recently greased it all up to try to get rid of the muddy feeling but it didn't change. With the front up in the air, the rack moves smoothly.

I know this is not a huge technical challenge but I really like the faster steering ratio of my 240Z. My 280Z feels more like a jet powered chuck-wagon when I come from the 240Z. I am always late entering a corner with the 280Z because of the "slow" in turn in, as compared to the 240Z. The 240Z has significant less steering wheel turn, for the same amount of steer. I have a spare 240Z rack laying around and I am thinking about swapping the sluggish 280Z rack out for the 240Z one. Has anyone done it, and what was your end result like? Is it wiser to just pick up some quick steering arms for the 280Z instead?

A pair of tighty whiteys, smeared with chocolate and mud, at the top of the open luggage might keep your baggage contents safe. Or if you don't care, go for the authentic version.

You guys need to wear these t-shirts when you travel. I feel strongly about the lack of common sense, and excess of self entitlement. http://www.cafepress.com/singlelensreflex/7728826 http://www.cafepress.com/singlelensreflex/7728809

Well, I figure with grease you need a pretty snug fitting drift. With bread, almost anything works.

Yes, and I suppose in this economy bread and water are pretty cheap tools

I can't wait to read the comments. http://qik.com/video/38484159

Ouch...they all need more practice...or time. It was pretty painful to watch. Creative, but painful.

Congrats. Helping them, and watching them, grow up is the most amazing experience. The first few months are killer, but it gets much easier, or should I say, challenging in new and different ways. We are up to our fourth year now with our son (Jan 8th), and it feels like four weeks when looking back.

I already sold some of these. lol

1/2 of my house is on stone wall over a shallow dirt crawl, from 1926. The main floor beam is a pine tree trunk. The small 1990 extension is over the 7' basement of poured concrete with footings below frostline (the flood zone). The 1000sq-ft extension I did, 8 years ago is partially post and beam on concrete pads where it ties in to the original house, and poured footings with parged 16" block on the new footprint. The new crawl space is covered with rat slab over Visqueen which is a rough basic form of concrete over plastic sheets simply to hide the dirt and act as a vapor barrier. I ran weeping tile around the whole house but that won't help when the water table rises. I may try the UGL now that the flood cleaned up my basement for me.

...

You put the UGL in ugly with the pink! Yeah I thought about keeping the water for the lawn in the summer time...I just kind of wanted my basement back. I will look into the AGL. How does it do as a garage floor paint? I could kill two birds if it would work in both areas?

As far as I can tell the water flows in through the floor, or the joint between the wall and the floor. It never sweats, drips, or gets damp. It just floods all of a sudden when the water table rises. Our drinking water well is only 50 feet deep, where the usual depth around here is for a well pump is 200-500 feet. I am close some sort of underground water shelf even though I am on a hill. There must be some kind of bedrock formation underneath that pools ground water. I don't think I am going to try to seal it. It's more of a utility area so I will only store thing that can get wet and survive below the 2' line. I will keep a pump with a float switch active so that it won't surprise me next time. When we had a power failure for hurricane Floyd, I had four garden hoses siphoning water out of the basement, down to street level. Fortunately, street level is about a foot lower than the basement floor. Now I have a 6500W generator for that. I would dig a trench to the street and bury a drain line, but I would need to tear up the driveway. Honestly, it doesn't bother us too much since it's just utility space. An indoor lap pool has crossed my mind though!