pete280z

I'm starting to believe that the "full service machine shop" up the street has no idea what they're doing. How tight should my rear axles be? The haynes manual talks about spring balances (no idea what that is) and the FSM gives me wheel bearing preload, but neither one are particularly helpful. So here's what I did to measure how tight these are: I put a lugnut on a stud and turned the axle with a torque wrench. It takes about 4 ft-lb to get the axle to turn at all. That doesn't sound like much, but it seems way too tight to me. Is this normal, or should I pull everything apart and check things out? For background, I dropped off stub axles and struts to have new bearings installed (I provided them). On their first attempt they assembled everything ungreased and trashed the grease seals. I took them the pages from the FSM and explained what I wanted. They installed new Nissan grease seals and greased the ever-living out of the thing. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing is packed full of this weird green-colored grease.

Well it looks like they got it right this time. Looks like they went overboard on the grease situation. There is green grease everywhere! Certainly better than the original execution.

We North Texans just had one of our weather swings. It was mid-70s and clear all day. Right around 6PM the temperatures started dropping. Now it's in the mid-30s at my house and raining. Ugh. Phantom - Got those photos. Well done. Club presidency isn't on my agenda for this year. I'm spending more time in my garage than in planning meetings this month and it's refreshing. I've seen what that club does to presidents that like to reshape things for the better

Here's the people you want to talk to about title history, bonded titles, the works (assuming you're in Tarrant County): http://www.dot.state.tx.us/services/vehicle_titles_and_registration/regional_offices/regional_office.htm?reg=fw Whenever I've called they have been very willing to help. Unfortunately my car also has a criminal aspect to it, so I wound up on the phone with Tarrant County Auto Theft Task Force pretty quickly. From there bad went to worse.

Fortunately I'm 90% sure I've got two B's. The new grease seals were there this morning, and were Nissan parts. Much nicer than the ones I got from AZC. If I don't get a good feeling when they're done today it's all coming apart when it gets back home anyway. A side question: Are there any cars you guys know of that it is appropriate install new wheel bearings dry? Seems odd to me, but I haven't done this too many times.

That all depends. I've got a 1971 in my garage that I've been working on getting a title on for almost 3 years. If the owner just lost the title, you'll need them to get the title (the last registration receipt might be ok too). If not, you'll need a bill of sale to get a bonded title. Be sure to check the VINs to make sure they're all there and match. You can usually call Vehicle Titles and Registration and sweet talk them into checking to see if it has been reported stolen. If the guy selling you the car never really owned it, you can get caught up in a nasty "civil" situation. I'm in that situation, and it's not fun.

You're going to have to share some photos of the new digs. Everything you've described (except for the cold) has me turning green.

The name is Brown's Automotive in Grapevine. Now that I've had a beer, I'm willing to let them make it right. The last thing I want to do is badmouth a whole shop because of one idiot employee. I'm stopping by first thing in the morning to explain exactly what I want done. Do you guys have any shops to recommend for next time?

That thing looks like a Mustang mated with a BMW 5 series, then had the child's head shrunk.

WARNING: full on rant follows So yesterday morning I took my struts and stub axles by a shop that advertised as having a "full service machine shop" to have the wheel bearings replaced. I brought all the bearings and oil seals required. All of my parts had recently been cleaned and painted and all the fasteners had been replaced. Then I left my phone number in case they had any problems or questions. So I pick them up today. The first thing I noticed is that I'm going to be stripping and painting again. Second, the oil seals are totally fubared. Then the dimwit that installed them said that since he didn't know what kind of grease I wanted he installed everything dry and I could grease through the zerk. The bill for this handiwork was $100. When I asked them to make it right I got a little bit of a runaround, but pretty quickly they agreed to correct it. At one point they said "we really prefer to get parts exactly how they came off the car so we know how they go back together." How they thought it was better to guess than to call is a little beyond me. When I offered to photocopy the FSM so they could know exactly what to do they got offended. That press at Northern Tool does not look so expensive any more. Lesson learned.

I wouldn't know. We Texans don't really get snow. What we call "snow" tends to be a thin sheet of ice that covers an entire city for about 12 hours. Nobody attempts to drive unless their truck is outfitted with at least a 6" lift and mud tires. Watching them is great fun!

Check with Porterfield. They list a pad for z cars with the toyota conversion.

Look at this photo: The left is a 240z rear end, the right is a 280z. Notice how the bars are mounted in opposite directions.

Having just screwed this up in the last 20 minutes, I've got recent experience. On a 280z, the bar goes on with the bar is behind the mounts. You can actually see that in the first link. Mounting the bar so that it is ahead of the mounts puts the front 2-3 inches ahead of where it should be.

Welcome and good luck with your swap! From what we've seen there aren't too many Zs still surviving in your area. You'll put yourself well ahead by hanging out here, reading and searching for info on your swap. Seriously, you might want to consider taking out a new name before you build up much of a post count. "Racer X" has been here for a long time and is the resident paint and body expert. Your name is so close that this will get confusing.

Great news all around. Better boobies and the Aggies beat the sips. What next, free gas? hypomastia - had to look that one up

I've never seen a Z valve cover that said "Datsun." They've all said "Nissan." A 1975 would have been fuel injected originally. You're running into something that you're going to find on many Z cars. They're all 30-ish years old and the car is very attractive to modifiers. That's why finding a one-owner 1975 was attractive to me. The owner knew about everything that had been done to the car. Once these cars trade hands a few times you'll find some mysterious "surprises" when you start opening things up.

I thought of one more thing I added to my list "while I was at it." Wheel studs. It's much easier/possible to replace the rears while you've got the stub axles out.

The last time I bought some I got a 4 pack (5 pack?) of Norton 4.5" wheels for $1.99 at Northern Tool. I don't know if that was a sale price, but I should have bought more while I was there. I've been going through these quickly cutting up 1/8" bar.

Sure, Scarabs are relatively scarce. So are factory original 1974 260Z 2+2s. I've never seen the guys over at classiczcars send out a plea to save a 1974 2+2 from the crusher.

I'm in the middle of a very similar project. I've been on hold for a week or so while I build enough confidence to weld on the coilover perches. I'm using EMI Racing camber plates for camber adjustment as the advice I received was that adjustable control arms won't allow the same level of adjustability. If you're going to the trouble of doing all of the suspension bushings, you might as well replace the diff mount while you have it all apart. I went with the stock replacement, but I'm starting to think that I'll eventually wind up with the sway bar end link style (poly) mount from the current thread. Also, you'll need the nuts for the stub axles from Nissan. When I ordered mine I tried to order the ZX (non-staked) nuts, but wound up with the earlier style (staked). Front brake lines? Wheel spacers for the front wheels. I picked up a set from pep boys and ground the center opening slightly to allow them to fit around the hub. The hub bore won't clear the hub without them. I put BFG gForce Sport 225/50/16s on my 16x8 Grids this week. They look good and the price is right. If they fit without issues I'll probably try 245/45s next time around.

I'll jump on board with the Ridgid owners. I've had mine for about 3 years and have no complaints. In those three years it has probably seen only about 100 hours of use, so take my experience for what it's worth.

Great find! It even looks like they let you specify your bolt pattern. A custom 16x9.5 for $320 a wheel sounds like a smokin deal. Just got tires mounted on the Rota Grids last night though, so no new wheels or flares for me for a while.

Very cool. It will be great to see what can be done when all of the talent on this site comes together. I'll keep an eye open to see where/when I can help.