Wheelman13

Ok, rack boots, tie rods, and such addressed. Brakes flushed. Swaybar installed....though i'm going to have to drill/re-tap/helicoil one of the swaybar bracket bolt holes. It was stripped when I got to it. That said...... Obligatory "sitting on the ground" picture: UN-fortunately, and somewhat as I expected, it's also sitting directly on the bump stops, lol. So, I'll probably go ahead and section them. Too bad, since I just sold a set of MR2 shocks I did drive it around the neighborhood after a garage, tape-on-the-floor + plum bob front end alignment and it steers and stops MUCH better than before, although i think the brake booster is struggling a bit if I'm honest.

Right now, I'm down to needing steering rack boots (in the mail from TheZStore), installing my new outer tie rods, flushing the brakes, and a quick alignment away from it being driveable again......well along with addressing any rubbing issues with the new wheels/tires. After that, on to bumpers, grille, air dam, and a little interior work.

Last, but not least, I also picked some wheels. After much deliberation, I splashed for some 17x8 RB-Rs in +4 offset. I expect to need to roll the rear fenders a bit, but I'm ok with that. The body is hardly immaculate at this point and I'd rather get this bit done before it becomes so and I feel bad doing it. Dunno why "kids" these days like to put things on the lip for reference, but I figured I'd get with the times:

Also, I finished (entirely I think) with the suspension and brakes. For the suspension, I opted for the Cosmis Racing pseudo-coilover and some standard-issue KYB inserts. I do have bump stops installed, although I get the feeling I'm going to end up sectioning the struts once it's on the ground and drive-able. However, I am going to *try* it as-is, just to see. I figure the way I have it, the only thing I have to hurt are my kidneys. Here they are along with my complete S12W brake swap up front: Dust shields, and after being trimmed, sand blasted, and painted. Steering linkage after the same, and LCAs with fresh poly bushings as well: ...aaand the Wilwood 1" Master Cylinder:

Semi-annual update (lol): Wiper linkage that came off the car: Wiper linkage that went back on the car: I have wipers now. (Yay!)

FYI, I haven't been sitting on my thumbs waiting for an answers. I just had new male fittings installed on one end of the MC-->Valve Body lines so they work with the Wilwood female fittings. Problem solved, cost $Free.99.

As I'm doing this upgrade to accomodate my S12W Front / 200SX rear (disc) setup, I've hit a snag/question. I'm to the point of swapping the the cylinder plugs that the brake lines attach to. I pulled the plugs out of the old MC, but when i went to swap them into the new MC, I see the new one already has the cones. On the old one they appear to be built-in....or stuck together. So: Part 46038-B5012 referenced earlier Do I have one piece here, or two pieces (a plug and a cone) that are stuck together.

Yeah, Coilovers seem to solve a lot of problems. Unfortunately I can't justify the minimum $800 additional buy-in vs a set of springs. This isn't going to be a racecar, so I'll see how far I can get rolling/trimming fender lips if it's necessary. I'm a big Dunlop fan. The Z1 Star Spec is by far my favorite street tire of the several I've tracked. I see they make the ZII in a 225/45-16 as well, and I suspect the lower aspect may help with the fender squeeze.

Much appreciated. good looking indeed. Do you know if those are 15 or 16" on that particular car. I would assume 16, but it's sometimes tricky to tell with a black wheel.

I've been torn between a Wat'-looking Enkei/Rota/XXR 517 "banana" wheel with a lip, and the more modern concave wheel like the Advans I have on my other car (e.g. XXR 527/530/535). After WAY too much time digging through the wheel show thread I found plenty of folks running the 527, and one person who bought and test-fit the 530, but no pictures of them actually on a car on the ground. Does anyone have pictures of XXR 530s, (or whichever HRE/WEDs design those are copied from) installed on an S30? I'm suspecting it'll look pretty good, but if I can confirm that before pulling the trigger, I'd like to. thanks!

Thanks for clearing that up.

I haven't gotten anywhere searching this forum or any of the other "normal" Z forums, but is there a different in rear track width (i.e. at the hub) between the 240,260, and 280? (possibly different diff/half-shafts?) With the prevalence of folks running 16x8 +0 wheels on just lowering springs (what I'll likely end up with), I've seen some that appear to "poke" more than others. Some 280s, in particular seem to look like they'd have a bit of poke on the rear with the same sizes/offsets and the same width/aspect tire that appears to fit neatly under a rolled-fender on a 240 Is there any actual reason for this, or is it more a variance in ride height/tire choice that's likely throwing me off? I could just be going cross-eyed from spending way too much time in the various wheel-show threads...

In other local news, I found someone willing to part me out some wiper linkage so I can get that trivial (but very necessary in the southeast) item put to bed. I also picked up some S12W calipers from the local pull-a-part over the weekend. So, I went looking for wiper pivots and came back with large brake calipers. These things are huge. part of me wants to test fit them on the other car just to see..... Now I'll just need some 300ZX rotors and a spacer to finish the swap. The only thing that would keep me from going that route is if I managed to find a way to piece together a front mount rotor setup. I think I've found some OE rotors from Honda and Toyota that would probably fit over the hub, and onto the lugs, the question then would remain about a caliper that would have the proper offset from the hub. For the record, having to pull the hub to replace a brake rotor is possibly the dumbest "feature" I've ever seen on a car. The wear item with the shortest life should come first in the order of dis-assembly. I love the Z, but yeah....I don't want to have to dick around with a slide hammer every time this happens at the track: Moving on, I'm also starting to more seriously look for some wheels. The plan (for now) is to lower the car on some ST springs. ST because the Eibachs and Tanabes are progressive (F-that), and apparently Tokico's are hard to get ahold of these days(?). Those will get coupled with a fat-ish front swaybar, maybe adjustable if I can find one, but I'm not overly attached to that. Wheel-wise. I think I've talked myself into 16s. I don't want 15s for aesthetic reasons, and don't really want to spend the money on 17" tires (wheels are 1 time and hold some residual, tires add up). I'm a bit torn here between pseudo-retro and modern. The safe money would be on one of the Wat' -looking knock-offs: Rota RB/RB-R or XXR 713 (since there is a budget here). That said, I love the shape of the Advans on my other car, and something like an XXR 530 or 535 would deliver in that department. Those last two would also make the wheel visually larger on the car since the spokes come all the way to the lip. I'm not sure how the 535 would look with the 5-spoke design, but I'm pretty sure the 530 would look awesome. Tire-wise, it looks like the typical solution is 225/50/16 with some potential for rubbing the outer fender lip with a 0 offset if the car is lowered. That said, the tire I want also comes in a 225/45/16 which might help with clearance a bit. I wish I could talk some Honda guy with a civic hella-flushed on XXRs into letting me test fit a wheel to see.

Thanks much, glad I could help kill some time. I need to get back out to a track, but the NSX has been having some electrical gremlins. Typical Honda FI main relay issue and I think an open wire to a blinker of all things . I've nearly got them sorted again, but my time's been getting stretched thin.

Thanks! Those brackets came off of an 1983 200SX along with the calipers. They have the same offset as the "correct" Maxima brackets, but the center bore and bolt pattern is different. I had the bore enlarged and two of the 3 bolt holes are in re-drilled locations. Then I cut a corner off so I could slip them on without pulling the hub. In hindsight, for the trouble, I'd probably just buy the aftermarket brackets from a vendor. I just happened to know a machinist with some extra time on his hands. I'm used to a little lifter noise, and this seems a little loud. Not scary-loud, but louder than I'd expect. I'm probably jaded with quiet-running cars, but I'll at least check the clearances cold to see if anything seems particularly off before I go horsing around with it much.

'Car made it around the neighborhood without incident and just a little squeak and pop from the new bushings settling in. Because it's decided to rain all summer here, i figured I would tackle the wipers next so the car would be more usable. The motor is fine, but the linkage was frozen. More specifically, the pivots were seized in their bushings. I was able to twist, wiggle, and eventually able to use a large gear puller to remove one of the pivots, clean, lube, and reassemble. The other one was just starting to break free and then exploded. So, for reference: Pivots = cheap pot aluminum. On a related note, the part numbers for the Pivots are 28870E4600 (drivers side), and 28880E4100 (passenger side). It still needs a valve adjustment. I think once I get that taken care of it may be time for a little fun shopping for some springs and wheels so I can discard my '80's-spec black center mesh 14"s, and get this thing at least sitting the way I'd like it. Right now I'm somewhere between the ubiquitous Rota (Wat' knock-off), and the stupid-cheap, but decent-looking XXRs. This probably won't see a track any time very soon, so I'm not too worried about exploding wheels. That said, I do want to fit real tires on it so it will be fun to autocross....Some bigger swaybars may also happen...at least in the front.

As i was replacing what I thought was a leaky hose, I discovered the water outlet elbow was actually missing 3/4 of it's length (car is new to me, so I'm not asking questions). If I'm reading correctly, i can just unscrew that elbow at the back of the block and install a plug there, and then remove the long hose running along the block to/from the other end of the heater core, and plug that line at the thermostat cover? ('75 L28)

It's far from the shortest route available, but it worked for me. I had a little bit of a time separating the old brake hoses from the hardlines (they will forevermore need to be undone and re-done with large channel locks), but with that done, I was able to flush the lines with clean fluid, then attach the lines from the "new" calipers and bleed them. They bled out fine with only a little rust flake coming out, and then seem to actuate normally. 'still going to be gentle on the initial test drive, but I also still need to reinstall the starter and get the tags renewed that I'll be reusing from my MR2 that I recently sold. However, that's really about it before it'll be drivable again pending the next phase of shenanigans.

I've also been busy with the other car. I chalked up a TT win on my second visit to CMP in February, and then made some progress lowering my personal best at Road Atlanta (even though it wasn't enough for a podium with a deep field of really fast cars/drivers). At Road Atlanta: Some video of my quick lap on the weekend: Currently, she's developed a taste for left-rear wheel bearings, so I'm in the midst of digging for the root cause there, but hope to have the car back up and in rude health soon.

Huzzah, marginal progress update below: Here is the rear suspension that came out: here's what went back in (same stuff for now, only much cleaner after being sandblasted and repainted): Also, I'm all but done with my rear disc swap. The route I went was a little fiddly, but I might have $50 in it if that. My swap consists of essentially the entire rear brake assembly from a ~1983 200SX that I yoinked from pull-a-part, cleaned, and re-sealed. The brackets are offset like the usual "maxima brackets" but unlike those, these needed some modification (holes redrilled and center bore expanded). I also chopped a side off in order to fit them without needing to pull the hub. Easier to buy a bracket from a vendor or find the proper '84 maxima item, but I was working with what I had and wasn't in a hurry. At this point I just need to purge the lines, hook up the hoses and bleed the calipers. I also foresee the need for a little bracket modification in order to get the e-brake to work, but that'll come in time.

That fits too well and has too many deliberate-looking style lines to be the usual re-purposed garage-door rubber. I too am curious how that piece came about because it looks really good.

Hey Bryand2, what size tires are you running?

I linked to a couple in post #7 above.

Clearly that 9/22 deadline didn't happen. Instead, I completed the process to get my TT license and finished 2nd in my class at my first event with NASA-SE with the NSX. In the process, I think I found the limit for how fast one can take the kink at CMP: The other spindle pin was....."a bitch" would be understatement. I'd say, on a sliding scale, it was at least 5 or maybe even 6 raging bitches....but it's been sorted now. I'm in the process of media blasting the remaining suspension pieces and replacing the bushings/bumpstops etc. in the rear-end at the moment. I've also figured out the clutch thing. Apparently it's fairly common-place for the rod/bracket assembly connecting the MC to the pedal to not be long enough on the common parts-house MC kits. Not having an original to scavenge for parts, I bent up some aluminum bar-stock to make an extended/adjustable bracket assembly to screw onto the top of the actuator rod. This has, I hope, given me the necessary slave cylinder travel to fully-release the clutch. Hopefully my next update won't come after a 3.5 month gap.....

In for hopefully 1) a resolution to this type of problem and 2) a measurement for the stock pushrod length (Ideally from the MC flange to the clevis pin-hole). I've been beating my head against a wall trying to get more than 1/4" of travel out of my slave cylinder for weeks now (intermittently). I can guarantee there is no air in the system, both the MC & SC are new (from Rockauto incidentally).