datsunlover

Um.. centerforce maybe?

he hehe.. When I first got my car running, it WAS like starting an aircraft! Right foot taping gas, right hand turning key, my left hand fidling with the choke lever and alternating between that and the fuel pump switch.. And my girlfriend actualy wore a helmet on day while we were cruising in the Z.. A friend of mine got me to bring it in my car (no place to tie it down on his bike) and on the way over to meet up I was driving..well, agresivly.. so when my girlfriend started getting a little freaked out, I handed here the 'brain bucket' and she put it on! Got quite a few laughs as we pulled in to the parking lot...

I'm a little confused now.. I took the head of my 75, and there's a cam oiler/spray bar in there. Now, I sent the other head I had (suposedly from a 76) to my engine builder first, and he's orderd the new cam from colt cams (in BC) but I'm wondering now.. will I have to use the cam towers from my 75 and run the spray bar? Or.. will the new cam be good to go in the 76 head/towers without the spray bar? Both heads are N42 BTW. Also.. perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought they did away with the spray bar in 75.. ?

I'll throw in my $.02 in favor of the 10 bolt chev. Not that they are indestructable, but they arn't total crap. I put on in my V8 RX7, and it held up great. So it was a wussy 305.. I was very abusive on it! However, I bought this 10 bolt from a guy who builds rx7 V8 coversions...he has a jig to weld them up to bolt right in to the stock RX7 4 link... and he has built dozen's of them (V8 coverted RX7's) with BUILT 350 and 383 stroker motors with autos, 4 and 5 gears. He's never had any problems with rear ends breaking. Ussually, he said the clutch lets go, or the tranny breaks...

Heh.. Sound's about right.. I assume you work during the day right? soooo.. Spend tonite scraping all the tar crap out of the way, and clean up the rust (so you can weld.. trust me, welding to RUST is a PITA!!! )... Tomorrow, buy the welder and spend a little bit of time playing on scrap/small pieces of metal, then fix the floor, and hit it with the POR15.. leaves the rest of the week for laying down dynomat/vinal/insulation/heater and interior. I'd wait till friday night to do the head/intake/carbs, and have a few beers while I was at it.

Well I ended up just using the 240sx front cover. I was going to mill out the Z front cover, but had a hard time holding it secure, and frankely I was sick of playing with the stinking thing. It seams to work, and it's not leaking anymore. I'm just gona throw it in the car and drive it.. if it blows up, I can get another 240sx tranny cheep, and at that point it'll be alot easier to swap it. (all the drilling/milling/ect is done now) The only thing that wories me is that the 240zx cover has an internaly bored 'pocket' for the countershaft bearing in it.. which is now to big, as I'm using the (smaller) Z countershaft bearing.. I'm hoping it doesn't allow the shaft/bearing to 'walk' forwards allowing the first gear to contact the back of the bellhousing..

OMFG!!!! AAHHHGGGGGG I'M MELTING!!!! i'm melting... argh...

Meh.. I just buought a few cans of flat black spray bomb, layed on a few coats and called it done! It works for now.. maybe in a few years when I have a house and the space (like Tim there.. ) to properly do it, I'll strip it down to a shell and do it 'properly'. Looks good though man! Hey Rufus, you gona have that beast driving this summer?

Ahem... welcome to Hybridz.. The question's you are asking have been asked and answered a LOT here. Check out the search function, and look around a bit, I'm sure you'll fine the answers you need. Just out of curiousity.. how do you have a 73' 260? Wouldn't a 73 be a 240?

Even if you put glass on, you'll stil want to try and straigten the body, as it part of the structure.. even if you welded some metal in there (doesn't matter if it looks bad) and then put the glass over it...

Well after I droped it, I compleatly dis-assembled it and checked evrything out.. all seamed well, but I'm sure something got bent/out of shape. As for the milling, if you've used the z bellhousing, you know what the front cover piece looks like inside right? (5 bolts hold it on) There is an oval slot on backside that the shift rods slide into, and for some reason on mine, when the rod slides forward (for 2nd gear) it contacts the bottom of that slot too soon.. I'm about to head out to do some more work on it, maybe I'll figure out what's going on...

Ok, it's not as easy as it may seem... From what I found online (here and elsewhere) and what I saw with the two trannys sitting side by side, it looked farily straight forward. Not quite... In case anyone was curious about this ($100 for a 5 speed that apears to be stronger than the stock Z/zx ones is still a good deal, even if theres a few mods..) here's what I've had to do to swap the 4 speed Z bellhousing on to the KA trany; *note; I am using a 75 280z bellhousing* 1; Put Z countershaft bearing onto KA shaft. PITA to remove, easy to tap on. 2; Drill out 1st-2nd shift rod hole to .630" (5/8 ), chamfer all three holes. I measured the KA rods and the one I have, they are about .010" biger dia. than the Z 4 speed ones. The holes are a little oversize, but I found the rods 'picked up' a bit at the start, hence the chamfering. 3; Mill Z bellhousing on the backside where the first gear on the countershaft interfears. (preses against it and locks the trans up. Very anoying.) I milled aprox .050" deep. 4; Mill out 'pocket' in front/inside cover plate (what the throw out bearing rides on) to allow clearance for 1st-2nd shift rod. It apears the KA rod is bigger in diameter AND length/throw, so there isn't enough room without milling it deeper. Took me a while to figure out why I lost 2nd gear.. Other issues; Remove fill plugs and any swiches (reverse, top gear, nutral) before trying to slide the bellhousing on. They hang up and push on the shifter rods, which jams the trany. Once jamed, it is a HUGE PITA to free up.. yup, take it apart again. Even so, it is still tricky to get the housing on, push it straight on the countershaft bearing, and NOT push the rods.. I had an even harder time with this as I bent the rods a little (I think) when the stupid thing fell off the work bench. It was sitting there fine, I turn my back to it for a split second, and BAM it takes a nose dive off the table. There was some swearing and throwing of tools... But at this point,(finaly!) it is all together and apears that all gears work. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the mount modified, and I'll update this post.

I hate you so bad....

Ok, I bought the KA 5 gear. It apears to be from a 91, body was rotten and the clutch was burnt so bad the friction disk pretty much disintegrated as I removed trans from engine ... but the tranny apears to be decent internaly. (all gears spin, had lots of fluid in it an no leaks) I spent the past 3 hours puling the stock 4 gear, and getting the two tranys cleaned up a bit. From what I'm seeing, the KA 5 speed WILL bolt right on, but will sit on an angle and aside from the fear of insuficiant internal lube at that angle, it would make the trany mount angled as well. So I will go through the change of bellhousings/boring out 1/2" hole and swaping the countershaft bearing. (Tomorrow hopefully, I'll post how it goes..) On to the tranny mount.. It seams the 5 speed is a bit longer (looks like 1.5" or less) but the front (belhousings) pieces are identical in length, meaning the rear section is longer, and coincidentaly the mount is about 1 1/8" further back. So here's what I've decided. After some measuring and figuring, I will use the Z mount (which has a flat piece w/two holes sandwiched between it and the trans) but modify it to sit forward 1/2". Basicaly weld the flat 'washer' plate to the mount half inch forward, and redrill through the mount. Then I will re-drill my motor mounts 1/2" forward or so, and it *should* all line up in the end. I'm aware this will put the fan quite close to the rad, and the oil pan closer to the x-member, but I think it'll clear. Now for the drive shaft.. If my 'shift' forward plan works, this 5 speed will still stick too far back to use the stock Z driveshaft.. by about 3/4" if I've figured this right. So.. I'm going to see if I can cut off the tip of the driveshaft yoke (looks like 1/2" at least before the splines start) and cut down the 'ring' to fit into the KA tailstock. I'm hoping this will be enough, but I have to wait a few weeks at least as my engine is out geting put back together, and I want the engine/trans siting bolted in the car when I figure out the driveshaft. If it needs shortening, so be it..

Or (also not legal, but not really catchable...) buy another car, as rough and cheep as you can find, and swap vin tags into/onto your clean straight 280z.. If need be, cut the section out of the door jam and weld it into your good shell, that way you needn't even touch the rivets... Just a thought... *Datsunlover and/or HybridZ not responsible or liable for legal action taken against individuals forging documents/vin tags*

heh.. you will notice I did NOT use the word 'rice' in my post. And I wasn't trying to put anyone down, or name call. Personaly, I don't think it looks better, but hey, its your car man. If you like it, its cool.. and inerware did hit the nail on the head.. I think I'm just jaded, from seeing too much crap where I live that is just the same as the next 5 cars on the road.. loud stereo, stupid little blue lights evrywhere, fart can mufler, and EVERYTHING has 'clear' tails/markers/ect no mater how much of a pos the car is.

I thought the whole 'clear tails' fad was over.. aparently not. meh..

Need more info man.. is it FI or carbs? Carbs, are the floats/ect set proper? FI, AFM sticking/sensor bad? What dizzy are you runing? If it's a ZX with the black box, that may be the problem; incorectly wired, or just fried (it hapens) ...this may sound stupid, but are the plug wires in the right order?

cute.. yet again though, my girl friend caught that half way through and yelled "HEY!! what the hell are you looking at?!?" I can't win...

Never fails to amaze me how perfetly 'normal' people (thats relative I guess..) gan do such STUPID thigs.. again and again.. I just heard about the latest 'going broke' story about a couple I know. It started about 5 years ago, when my friend got together with this girl.. who was/is notorious for blowing money and getting into debt. (never mind the 5 year old girl she has, but never really wanted..pawns off her kid to anyone who will watch here, ect. Well, now my friend is doing all that.. anyway..) Shortly after getting together, my friend took out an AVCO loan (28% I think.. IMO it's like borrowing $$ from a load shark, just legaly) and gave most of it to HER to help pay off some debts she had. About 6 monts later, she decided to go 'back to school', got a loan, blew most of it, and droped out of the course. So after another year or so, they eventually were working at the same place (Ford dealership; he's a tech apprentice, she worked in parts) but still living paycheque to paycheque. So here we are about 6 months ago... they buy a house, and take another loan out to 'fix it up' a bit. Now (2 months ago) she decides to 'go back to school' again.. something diffrent this time.. para-legal I think.. leaving my friend as the sole money maker. Here's the kicker; They went to IKEA last week, and blew ALL the money she got for school! AGAIN!!!! Now they are crying that they have no money, and are in so much debt, yada yada... man.. It just pisses me off that people do this, over and over again, and then expect sympathy.. I'd love some new furnitire, or heck.. some Z parts even.. but $$'s tight, and if it's a choice between paying my bills or buying 'crap' it's not even a choice for me... Sorry, had to rant..

Well, it's up to $499 now.. I was scroling down and got to the pics, and THAT's when my girl friend looked up. "Matt!! WTF are you looking at now?!?!?!" I had to show her the auction, and read it out to her.

hehehe.. thats still funny the second time around Aux!

I go out to a parking lot here behind a little strip mall and do doughnuts, drifts, ect. Lots of fun after fresh snow, as there is a big wide open flat section, just paved recently. I'd come racing from one end, get up to about 60K and cranks the wheel.. drift, spin out, ect. There used to be a police station right beside this place (It was buldozed and moved across town last year) and one day, while I was spining around back there after mall hours, a cop rolled it. I saw him and stoped right away thinking 'Oh crap.. I'm in trouble now..' The cop drove up to my car and rolled his window down. "How you doing tonite? Havin some fun eh?" I said "yah, well I wanted to see how my truck handels now, I got two new snow tires on the back.." The cop smiled and said " Well, thats good.. Better to do that here than out on the road with other people around you. Hows it going? " I told him it was pretty good.. difrent than last year (when I had crapy tires) but still a 2wd truck, so you know.. The cop smiled and drove away..

Cool man! Thanks for the link.. the pics really helped, and I think I understand how it works now. I'm a 2nd year machinest apprentice, and I can't see anything to dificult about this.. Just have to get all the parts in one place (my 3'x6' work area in front of the car ) and start playing.. I'm going tomorrow to check out the KA 5 gear in a wrecking yard and I'll see what happens..