cygnusx1

Here is a workaround to minimize fumeage. Open or close both windows by the same amount and run your fresh air fan on 3 or 4. If you only open one window, the fumes are much worse. Keep both windows open by the same amount. It works for me. I also sealed everything including grommets, any pass throughs in the entire car, and the hatch interior panel. With the windows closed I get almost no fumes now.

Yes the "cone" snaps off the outboard end to reveal a spring. I just took my first "REAL" drive in the Z with the new brakes, CV conversion, and differential replacement all done. I drove it pretty hard and it rewarded me with SMOOTH power to the rear wheels. No more faint rumble in the chassis as the power band passed by. I drove it for about 45 minutes on windy, hilly roads with the air temp around 45 degrees. When I came back to the garage I reached under to feel the tulips just checking to see if they were getting hot; a sign of stress. The inner drivers side tulip was as warm as the differential, about 100deg.F or so. The remaining three tulips were cold. I remember that side was squeeking a bit when I turned the drivetrain by hand after I assembled it all. I know I forgot to grease the outer dust lip of the new oil seal on that side of the diff. That friction could be causing the tulip on that side to heat up. I will try to grease it up this weekend and see if the temp comes down. Any other thoughts on this?

I think the Sentra would have given you torque past 5000 rpms! LOL. Just had to say that. Baaast nice to see that you are driving the Z again..or at least tinkering with it. I gave up some low end torque when I switched to the TO4B SuperV Trim. However, the torque hits so hard from 3000-5000+ now. I just don't rev much past 5K because of the stock ECU and the fact that I have my ign timing pushed ahead to get back some of the lost low end. I have to say, that with just switching to the bigger compressor, I lost speed in first, and probably second gears, because of the lag. The gears go by too quick to fully utilize the boost. BUT, 3rd-5th gears more than made up for the lost low end. On the highway, it is a torque monster with the larger compressor. I definitely miss the quick spool of the stock T3 but then as soon as I get into 3rd gear I forget all about it as it seems "nothing is going to stop me now". I think you will need to sacrifice some low end to get some high end...unless you go to a V8 or spend lotsa $$$ on the L28ET.

My old N/A 280Z motor totally stock with 130K miles on it used to run smoother and sound smoother (exhaust) with injector cleaner it it also. i never understood why.

Just want to post an update on the 280ZX CV axle conversion on my 76 280Z. I shortened the sway bar end links so that the distance between the middle bushings is about 1". This gave me a little more clearance on the end of the sway bar as a safety margin. I also noticed that the inner CV was very close to contacting the top of the control arm on the passengers side. I removed the mustache bar top washers ( I have the urethene bushings) raising the rear of the differential about 1/4". This gave me a more comfortable clearance. It runs smooth and quiet under power and under decel....over and out.

Measure the outer and inner race diameters, the width, and determine the type of bearing and call a bearing supply house. You can find one through a machine shop or the yellow pages...or the internet. Bearings are all pretty standardized and are usually available in all sizes from a bearing dealer.

Yup I got the shimmy too. I noticed that the front rotors were not straight after I assembled them to the hub so I disassembled them from the Z hub a few times to make sure the mount surfaces were clean. No Dice. Like Dave said, if they have runout, they need to be cut while on the hubs. I still don't understand why they would be so far out since the rotor casting is machined, the hat is CNC machined, and the Z hub is straight. Oh well, live and learn. As for the Line-Lock, it is jammed and it must be defective. I will request a replacement from Dave tomorrow. By the way asides from the shimmy, the car stops nicely.

Scottie, tell me more. I am using it as a substitute for a short term parking brake on the rear wheels. Note: not an emergency brake. I installed it in the rear pressure supply line between the stock prop. valve and the rear distribution block. I installed it so that the IN port points to the master cylinder and the OUT port points to the rear brakes. It was working as a parking brake all day yesterday fine. Now the button will NOT move down even one bit no matter how hard I push on it. I thought of trying to twist the knob but I didnt have to do that before. It dosen't make a difference when I twist it now. I guess I can take out the lin-lock and see if I can do anything to it.....arrrgh! I am Soooo ready to put the car back on the road. My goal was yesterday. I was about to put the wheels back on it and take ot off the stands and I did one more test of the line-lock and WHAM! snafu! EDIT: Scottie, I understand your deal. For burnouts, you PREVENT pressure from reaching the rear wheels by using the line-lock in reverse on the rear line.

The thing that irks me is that the line-lock as working fine all day and all of a sudden it is jammed open. I suppose it could be defective. I thought it might be residual pressure so I bled the rear brakes. According to Dave at Arizonazcar, who sold me the kit, you don't remove any residual pressure valve. I also left the stock proportioning valve in place as per Dave's instructions.

I just finished installing the AZ car brakes, with a 15/16" ZX master cylinder, and bled everything with Super Blue fluid. I ran a new rear brake line through the center console and mounted the proportioning valve and line-lock in the ashtray. To check for leaks I set the line-lock to lock the rear brakes for about 12 hours. I had no leaks and the rear brakes held. When I step on the brake pedal, the lin-lock releases and pops up as it should. I repeatedly tested the line lock a few times over the course of the night as I worked on other stuff. All of a sudden, I can't push the line-lock knob down anymore! It is locked in the open position which makes it useless. All the calipers still work fine with the brake pedal but I cannot engage the line-lock. I even tried all my weight on the knob but it will not budge! I also re-bled the rears to see if that would help. It didn't. Anyone have a clue? I am baffled.

I took my adapters that were 1.25" thick and machined them down to 1.1" thick. It was easier to put the shafts in place and they turn smoothly with the LCA fully up or fully extended. I will test drive this weekend. The downloads section has the updated print for the CV adapters that I made.

Is there one available off the shelf anywhere? If not I will just go with OEM. Thanks

In order to truly answer this question you need to have more info. "How much power is enough in a Z? " to do what? So far every car I have bought or built has had more power than the previous one...with the exception of my just after college commuter, a 1990 Civic 3-door rated at 60HP. With only 60HP it was still a fun car. It taught me how to maintain speed through corners and how choose lines. If I didn't maintain speed, I could not get it back. Horsepower is addictive and without training it can turn you into a lazy driver. When I took my turbo Z to Limerock road course, I found that I was relying too much on engine and brakes instead of carrying speed through corners. If you want to smoke tires and make lots of show, then there is never enough power. No question, power is addictive. Right now I am happy with the power of the turbo Z at 14psi. I just wanted to be able to have a weekend warrior that I could take out to, grocery stores, dinner, car shows, occasional time trials and still be able to surprise a Mustang, STI, or Corvette from time to time in a friendly traffic light launch contest. I have an impeccable 20 year driving record with one unfortunate ticket for illegaly passing a rusty old cadillac doing 20 in a 40...across a double yellow at night, very safely I might add. I got caught, so I paid. Simple as that. It's not the power, it's what you use the power for and how you use it.

I have two versions of the speedo bung that gets pressed into the trans and held in place with a small screw and steel tab. I have an aluminum one and a steel one. Both of them have the speedo gear held in place with a tiny split-pin. The speedo gear is also eccentric to the body of the bungs. The steel one is on the left the other two are aluminum. (photo linked from http://www.geocities.com/zgarage2001/engine.html) 1)What is the proper procedure for installing these bungs? 2)Should the only part sticking out of the trans be the threads to screw on the speedo cable? Mine is showing about 1/8" of shoulder in addition to the threaded portion so the little metal tab that holds the bung won't sit flat against the shoulder and seems to keep me from fully threading on the speedo cable. BTW the reason I am messing with this is that the original aluminum one was leaking oil past the inner oil seal of the bung and the speedo cable and bottom of the trans were very oily. My steel one seems to have a better seal because it seems newer. I changed the outer o-ring, swapped pinions, and assembled it all but something doesn't seem right with the way it fits. One bung comes from a 76 Z 4-speed and one is from an 83 200SX 5-speed which is the same as the ZX 5-speed housings.

Here is a bit of Roll Center talk from the historic Jim Cook Racing Catalog. http://www.jimcookracing.com/catalog/page16.html

Time=Money, I doubt it would even be a break even.

Drilling holes higher in the long-ears would require a stick with it's "pin hole" raised by the same amount. Alternatively, you would use the stick the comes with the short shift kits. I am not sure if that stick puts the pin hole too high for the long-ears though. I think I will leave mine stock. It's really not too bad at all.

It's was free and I made it work. Read more: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=95106&highlight=ratios

This site is always timely. I was thinking of getting a short shift kit but I just noticed that my trans has the long eared shifter socket. The trans is a five speed out of a 200SX with my 280Z bell housing on it. I don't think that the Z short shift kit "pivot extenders" fit on the long-eared shifter socket...unless I can drill out the ears and move the pivot up without the extenders.

Nice. Now that the shafts are in, how does it drive? Less clunk, smoother power, quieter? I can't wait to get mine off the stands. I saw birds flying North!

The CV shafts are from an 80-83 ZX. I don't think they require disassembly and reconfiguration normally as long as they are not bound up or overly extended. In my case, I had to compress the CV shaft nearly to it's shortest range to get it to fit. Like I said originally, with the control arm fully down, there is a pretty severe angle on the CV joints. When I turn it by hand in that position, it "lumps" as the lobes turn. As soon as I lift the LCA a little bit, the shaft straightens out and it turns smoothly. With the LCA jacked up horizontal, it still turns smoothly. I still think I need to remove about 1/4" from the spacers but that is just a hunch on a rough measurment. The "cone" protrusion on the end of the CV shafts is....?? I don't know. I can't believe my curiosity let me off the hook that easily. Usually I tear things apart because I can. I will look into it tonight...but I assumed it was there for a good reason and that it needs to be there...you know what happens when you assume. If and when I do machine another 1/4" off the adapter, I will probably put 1/8" deep pockets on both sides for centering the mount-up. I will revise the prints and post them. -darn, they just raised my property tax AGAIN!

Yes, I can make them thinner on the lathe by either facing them or putting in counterbores. After all that machining, I am not going to throw in the towel. The only limit to the thickness of the spacer is the "cone" in the center of the CV shafts. The "cone" protrudes about 1" from the CV shaft mount face. There is no way to make the spacer much thinner than 1" or that "cone" will hit the stub axle end. Right now the spacer is 1.25" thick. Not to dis Ross but I would rather save the $$ for a future engine management system. I always try to fabricate what I can to save $$ to buy the items that I can't fabricate...Dollar stretching. We should all know about that; we drive hybridZ's.