cygnusx1

Good idea, I can borrow an air hammer tomorrow.

I have the slide hammer hanging off one of the axles right now and I have spent at least an hour hammering and hammering. The stub axle has not budged one bit. Yes, I took off the stub axle nut. I checked about seven times! Is there a trick to doing this? I have had the stubs out before about 10 years ago when I replaced the wheel bearings but now they are not moving.

It may not be that difficult to find longer tie rods that would work or to make a 1" thread-on extension for the ends of the rack inside the inner tie rod ends....effectively extending the tie rods reach. What about using heim joint tie rods?

Aargh! Those stub axles are a PITA to pull out! Stub must be short for Stubborn. I am using the pads that Dave at AZ recommended for street use. I definately want a good initial bite. 99% of my driving is street. I plan on running 1 or 2 time trials per year. If the pads overheat on the track, I'll switch to track pads for the day .

I got lucky, I was in Italy on vacation and was walking past a tire shop. They had a nice 13" Momo steering wheel in the window of the store. I walked in to see if they had more. They didn't even sell steering wheels! It was just there for display, covered with dust. I offered them 100,000 Lira for it which was about $90 at the time and they dusted it off and gave it to me. I like the size of it. Perfect. I made my own adapter...not easy, with the splines and the electrical slide ring for the horn.

Not my car but looks pretty nice. http://used-cars.autos.yahoo.com/usedcars/detail/index.html?cid=automobiles-178765584&dst=545.97&rsr=#image

You could even not drill holes in the bar and use a collar clamp for infinite ajustability. Just slide it along the bar and clamp it where you want it.

I temporarily mounted the CV shafts and the swaybar end has about 1/4" of clearance to the largest part of the CV boot with the control arm fully down. I jacked up the control arm to the nornal compressed position and the clearance went to about 1". It looks like the ST rear swaybar on this car will clear the CV boot fine--I only tested the drivers side so far. I hope things don't change when both control arms are up.

I am going to cut a hole in the floorpan and use Flintstone Brakes...lol. Nah the kit came with a line-lock for the rear. I am going to mount the Proportioning valve and the Line-Lock somewhere around the center console. I would like to get them mounted behind the center console armrest so they are accessible but somewhat out of the way. I have even thought about using the stock hand brake lever to actuate the line-lock for that stock look. I rarely park the Z anywhere anyhow. When I do, I'll use the line lock or just leave it in reverse. As for emergency brake......I guess not.

I finally got around to wrenching on the Z. Projects this winter include, new brakes all around, larger master cylinder, proportioning valve, replace my damaged differential, and convert to CV shafts while retaining the rear swaybar. Here is a photo of the car on stands and the front brakes done.

The last time I saw a Volvo-Penta I was in a boat. Nice challenge! Good luck.

Stock manifold and wastegate T3/TO4B Super V trim @14psi, stock '83 fuel system with FMU. '83 L28ET Injun.

yeah these are the exact things I was concerned with...damaging the paint, paint fade differences under the vinyl, staining...I don't have any experience with this but the last thing I want is to damge the paint job. Hmmm, "static cling appliques"!...any more info. I am always up for something easy to remove with little or no repercussions later.

Welcome to HybridZ! I've had my 1976Z for 15 years. The last 1.5 years have been with the turbo swap. Night and day. Do it. 2nd gear will pull like your 1st gear does now....and so on. Imagine 3rd gear pulling like second does in the N/A. I ran with 10psi for a while, then I intercooled it, replaced the worn turbo with a bigger T04B ($400 rebuilt), and now run 14psi boost with a higher fuel pressure to compensate. It will outrun MANY performance cars. You will be amazed. If your turbo motor doesn't feel fast right now, it will when it is in your Z and running right.

I always loved Z's or almost any car with dual rally stripes running over the length of the car. I have always toyed with the idea of adding them to my silver 280Z. I would probably have a vinyl shop add two stripes from the tip of the hood to the end of the tailgate. Would I be compromising the beautiful base/clear paintjob I have underneath if I was to add the stripes? Is there a right way and a wrong way to go about adding stripes. Obviously, I don't want them painted on because my paint is about 5 years old and is in excellent shape. I am also looking for opinions on color and stripe styles. I like the cobra and viper style dual stripe layout the best.

What car do you have? Did they give you pre '74 springs for a post '74 car? I believe Tokico specs different springs for cars after '74-1/2. I would imagine they stiffened the rates on the later springs as the cars got heavier. Lewis, I used zip ties on top but on the bottom since I had better access, I used twisted wire to tie the spring ends to the perches.

In a progressive rate spring, the entire section of progression coils should not be fully compressed at rest. What would be the point? Maybe they are not the correct springs for your car. not a hijack but a quick question: I have Tokico springs (linear) from about 12 years ago. They are black. Are they rated for # by color? I know the best thing to do to find their rates is to measure the force of compression on a scale but I was wondering if Tokico had a color/# reference. Mine were rated as 1" lowering springs when I bought them.

bumble zee, maybe you can incorporate my wiring diagram into your webpage. Of course, I used an 83 harness, and my diagram needs cleaning up but since you have done three swaps you might be able to make sense of it. http://hvmp.com/dc/TurboZ-WiringDiagram-DRAFT-1.jpg

bumble zee, maybe you can incorporate my wiring diagram into your webpage. Of course, I used an 83 harness, and my diagram needs cleaning up but since you have done three swaps you might be able to make sense of it. http://hvmp.com/dc/TurboZ-WiringDiagram-DRAFT-1.jpg

I am not a big fan of chrome/polished wheels but they really look great on your car. Perfect match to the era, the bumpers, and mirrors. That is one clean sleeper Z. Very Nice! They remind me a little bit of the classic Cragar muscle car wheels.

Random Thoughts. Ignoring squat and dive, the whole point is to keep the car flat in a turn so to keep the contact patch as flat as possible to the pavement and to keep tire loads as evenly distributed as possible. This can be done by swaybar, springs, and even tire pressures. Negative camber is a proactive measure that assures that the loaded tires roll with the body and become as flat as possible in a turn. I understand that running no rear sway bar will give you better corner exit traction because both rear tires will be loaded more evenly without the rear bar pulling up on the inside rear control arm. But if you run a large front bar and no rear bar the car will push in an off-power, lateral load situation or during corner entry. It is the RATIO of front bar to rear bar that gives you a desired behavior. On the other hand, roll resistance can be controlled by stiffer spring rates rather than a swaybar. In this case the ratio of front to rear spring stiffness dictates the cars lateral handling behavior. Some seem to favor springs and others seem to favor swaybar. I dont have much track experience but I really like the way my Z stays flat in the turns. I have no means to put in negative camber right now so the alternative is to keep the car as flat as possible. I run pretty stiff springs from Tokico and run pretty heavy swaybars front and rear. The car handles very well and pushes a tiny bit on corner entry which is the "safe" thing to do on the street. Yeah it rides a bit rough but most people who ride in it seem to feel it is acceptable for the street. I would imagine that if I just eliminate my rear swaybar to install the CV shafts, the handling would get really strange unless I change other parameters to compensate. Onwards...

Courtesy has the Energy Suspension rear control arm bushings on sale for $40. http://www.courtesyparts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=7-3104G

Well, I peeked under the 280Z today and I can see how the sway bar will hit the CV boots when I convert to them. However, it looks like I can stay with the Suspension Tech (stock 280Z) sway bar I have by just putting in some very short endlinks. I hope thats all I need to do.

Well, I put the parts back on the motor today after doing a once-over on all the hose clamps and bolts on the entire engine. I just checked them all as preventative maintenance. Good thing I did. I found one exhaust manifold bolt loose, a leaking heater hose clamp, all the injector hose clamps were very loose, the radiator clamps were also loose. That happens when you use new hoses. Anyhow....to the point. I fired it up and let it warm up for about 10 minutes, rev'd it up and shut it down. I then started it up again about 1/2 hour later. Both times it smoked and smelled ALOT LESS than it used to. It seems to run much cleaner and also seemed to idle super smooth. So far so good with the viton seals. Onto jackstands tomorrow for the MAJOR brake and drivetrain overhaul! I will report again once I put some miles on the valve seals.