datsunlover

I'm not a pro welder, but I learned on my car as I went, and it's something you just jave to practice. I used a Lincoln 110 volt (flux core wire) to put my entire 280z back together Floor boards, quarters, hatch/panels, rear floor, door bottoms, rad sadle and front unibody/frame. Oh yah, and my frame conectors (.125" wall 2.5 square tube) but those were a bit of work.. I hate welding above my head/upside down.. Tacking is the way to go, but you can get short beads if you're carefull. I'd lay about .5" (or less) and let it cool, skip .5" and go again. You can go back after and fill in the spaces, and get a very solid weld. If you're getting a lot of blow through, just do little tacks and lay them over eachother to slowly work in one direction.

I plan on doing the toy 4x4 caliper/300zx rotor, and I can't see why people make such a big deal about the 'extra weight' it add's.. we're not talking 75+ pounds of stereo equipment which a LOT of people will toss into the trunk/hatch without hesitation.. (that extra weight also ends up ABOVE the center of gravity and adds NOTHING to the performance of the car..) IMHO, a few extra pounds of mass hanging off the strut, is offset by the much improved braking ability of the set-up compared to stock. My stock 280z braking system has new pads, lines, been bled numerous times, it is in proper working order, and it works.. but FADE is a big problem (well, my driving style may be partialy to blame.. ) and frankely, I am a little frightened whenever I look at those sad tiny little solid disks..

I dono man.. if the JB weld seeps into the crack, leaks a bit inside, and hardens, it'll probly create a bit of a restriction in there.. and posibly (from my thnking) break off and toast the turbo.. imagine a hardened piece of JB weld the size of a ball bearing flying around in there..

I'll throw in the "get a set of SU carbs" here.. I had a 'screwy FI system' too and while the megasquirt seams to be a good system, I looked at the $$$ aspect.. I got my car running with $150. 240z Su's, manifold and zx distributor. Simple to tune, and they look cool..

I to am without air tools, but it's no problem with normal hand tools. You are talking about the bolt in the middle that is inside the top 'hat' of the strut housing right? Using a ratchet with a deep socket and extension, I loosened it with the struts still bolted in the car (those 3 studs sticking out of the top of the 'hat' ) and then removed the assembly. Then use a spring compresor on the coil, and the nut will spin off easily with a ratchet.

Well, I went for a little road trip today to check out an 81 280zx. See, I've got an N42 head being built, and was looking at rebuilding my bottom end, then buying a 5 gear. BUT: then I see this add for a ZX.. hmm.. Anyway, it starts first try, 5 gear and clutch feels good, and IIRC, it will have the flat top pistons..(81+ right?) heh heh.. The guy wants around $700 for it. I do the math.. Good short block and 5 gear (only has 160k in it) PLUS spare rear end, dizzy, rad, rear disks, the list goes on. I figure it'll cost me at LEAST $700, (but most likely more) to get all that stuff seperatly and re-build my motor, ect. I'd just drop the fresh head w/cam on top and go basicaly.. IMO, this is a good deal.. Problem #1; I'm in school, and work after that.. where do I find the time? Ok.. weekend I guess, but more importantly... Problem #2; where the heck do I put the thing?!? I live in a basement appt (girlfriends parents house) and have my two trucks in the top driveway, and the Z in the garage. (I pay them for use of the garage space, and I've been trying to sell off the 2wd truck, but evryone around here wants to get it for next to nothing.. grrrrrr... ) The kicker is that this car is basicaly identical to the car I HAD back in the summer, and had to get rid of it.. suddenly. I ended up GIVING AWAY this exact drivtrain that I now want. Here is an oportunity to get one (albeit at a slight increace in cost.. meh) but I just don't know if I can swing it.. man....

IIRC, that screw is in there really tight too.. (some sort of thread lock from the factory) I don't think that it was intended to be used to adjust periodicaly, but it was more for final tuning after assembly at the factory. I tried adjusting one of my 280zx's and didn't have any luck with it..

well actually, that was the other option I was thinking of! My friend want's $75 for the two traps he has.. but really, I'd only use one right now.. I have to get the full exhast system built in the spring, as I still have the stock one on there with a 'cherry bomb' in the tunnel. (Also a Crappy tire cheepo hehe) I'm currently re-building the motor, and with the head work/cam I'm getting, I will aparently make power up to 6500, posibly more so I don't want to choke it with a restrictive exhast... Supper traps look cool, but I've always thought they were a bit loud (not a problem with ME, but with the police..) and I was forever scraping the one I had on my zx..

What he said.. My opinion, get your 2.4 motor tuned the best you can. Good plugs, new air/fuel filters, oil change, ect. If the head is off, just make sure the valves/cam are decent (not worn out/burnt) and i'd get it surfaced a bit (don't know if you were going to do that..) just to make sure it's good and flat. You'd probly pick up a bit of compresion (IE; power) just by taking .020-.030" off it, and while it's set up already, a few more thou isn't a big expence. Maybe a small investment in a zx electronic distributor, and then advance the timing a bit.. The SU carbs are easy enough to tune, and even if they are shot, you can always pick up another set fairly cheep. The carbs (if you need to buy a set) and the dizzy would also be easy to sell off once you swap to a turbo motor later on.

dude.. did you even look around here at all?

I've scared almost evryone I know with my driving over the years.. Not scary to me, but some people just can't handle being sideways, drifting slightly through corners, or WOT acceleration. Most of my male friends are ready for anything now, and don't freak out too much. Actually, a few of them ASK me to drive like a nut sometimes.. While most of the women I know.. well, they hang on for dear life, keep saying 'AHhhh!!! Slow down!! holy $hi...' ect I have the same problem with speed.. it's that old saying "too much power is almost enough!

Do you run a fuel cell or a stock tank? (Looks like the pipes come out under the tank there...) My goal is about 225 horse, (it's mainly a street car) so maybe noise levlels will be lower than your car..

Do you know where the ECU is? And if so, does it have the 'code check' lights on it? I'm not sure what that uses for sensors.. mass air? Could be a torn/ripped rubber boot or hose between the sensor and throttle body, or perhaps the map sensor has died? (I would guess it has one..) I'm not sure what the vacuum switches do.. are all the hoses ok?

Heh. you aint kidding! grumble grumble... Frigin government taxing my paycheck, I pay TAX on anything I buy (with money left over on the paycheck after taxes) and THEN I have to do 'income tax' at the end of the year.. I may get by this year (might get a few hundred back) as I was in school, and only making $9/h.. but now I make $12, and will make more after I finish school.. the more you make, the more thay take! As for hell, I'm not there yet.. but I can see it coming soon.. the next few weeks are gona get rough... I just had a thought tonite though (as I stood in front of the lathe at WORK..) When this 8 weeks is up, I'll have LOTS of time for 'my stuff' after work hours!

Well I'm having a better day today.. still quite tired, but I guess that won't go away for a while.. I'm actually suprised with myself, as I have stuck with "this" for over 2 years now, and still have the urge to continue.. After this schooling, it'll be another year working, then another 2 months traning, some more working (to get the required hours in) then the trade exam, and THEN (assuming I get my papers) I'll have to work for 3-4 years just to be worth anything. I'll make more as time pases though, so it's not all bad.. It does kinda burn me a bit that the local factory workers make on average $5-$10 more than me for doing..well.. not much! I don't think I could do that though.. brainless monkey work for the next 25 years and end up old and cranky. Oh and as for the 'guys who know it all' well.. heh.. it bugs me a little, but I've delt with people like that a LOT and it's actually kind of funny when you get the chance to shut them up... One of them was bitching earlier this week about a particular lathe being "a piece of crap" and guess what machine I had to use yesterday? Hmm.. worked great for me! I made sure to tell another classmate about 'how good this thing works' while the knowitall was within earshot.. And went on to explain why the other guy most likely had problems.. (had the RPM WAY to high for parting off) He gave me a dirty look and I smiled. it was all I could do no to laugh out loud..

I'd say check the dizzy and make sure the shafts isn't bent, or the silly plate on ball bearings inside hasn't fallen apart.. If it seams ok, it sounds like the timing chain is REALLY slopy, and maybe it jumped..

Yah, that was the one I found in a search. The 'traps I can get from my buddy are (Im guessing) about 12" long, 2.5" inlet. dont know how many baffles he has..

ALL of my 280zx cars had this problem, and two of them did it in 3rd as well. It seams to be a comon 'wear' thing with the Z 5 gears. Most 5.0 stangs ended up the same way, ussualy in less time too as ppl tend to uh... thrash them a bit more. I'd say it's your tranny.

Need to rant a bit.. Just stressed out.. See, I'm currently in school (2nd year Machinest Apprentice course) which is 6.5 hours a day, monday to friday and at 4:30, I go home, change clothes and go to work.. ussualy for about 4 hours. Ok, cool.. make $$$ to live while learing the 'mostly theory' stuff of my trade. BUT; I'm starting to get.. cranky. A lot of the stuf in school is new to me, or I don't have much experiance with it, and the math stuff is gona get very tricky. There are also the 'two dickhead guys' every class has/needs.. You know, the know it all, I'm faster then you, you're an idiot guys. There's a bit of the stress.. Part of the problem here is that in the school, things are 'laid back' and there's nobody breathing down your neck to finish your work quickly. Then I go to work.. heh.. and ALL last week and the past two days, I've been at a factory setting up conveyor and shoot/slide systems that my shop has designed/built. The factory is TOTALY disorganised, and the head guy(s) have NO idea WTF is going on. IE; They have an idea of what they THINK is the way something should be, but it's not.. or it wont work like that.. ect. Example; I have to set a slide up and drill/tap holes in the frame of it so I can determine where the end will .. end up. THEN, I have to take it down, and install brackets on the end that join it to the next slide. I also have to cut some of them, and the factory's band saw is junk... as is the jig saw.. The factory guy sees this and figures "well that take a lot of time.. you should just do all of that at once and then put it up." Problem is, evrything will get out of line and not match up if I do it this way. On top of THAT whole issue, the head guy is CONSTANTLY walking over, hovering around, and pointing out stupid crap. (guy) "Oh.. this isn't the same lenghth here as the other one.." (Me) "Yah.. it's adjustable. I'll move it into position after I've drilled these holes and bolted it to the machine" (guy)"wellll... I dono.. lets see if it changes anything..." (me) " It wont. It can't. The bar moves/slides in a horzontal plane..parallel to the floor.. hight will stay the same no mater how far out it sticks.." (guy) "Well lets move it then and see.." (me) 0k I'm loosing my mind... and my boss is going nuts, cause we have enough work for the next month.. to be done in the next two weeks, and I'M IN SCHOOL!!! Aside from the CNC guy ($30/hour I think) I'm the only other employee that can run all the machines without constant supervision/help, and also weld. The one guy has only been there 6 months, and the other guy is the bosses 18 year old son.. he stands around doing nothing a lot.. I'm wondering if it's worth it.. (for $12/hour btw) I havn't touched the Z in a month.. I realy wanted to get the motor out so I can rebuild it, but I hardly have time to SLEAP anymore! I'm gona need a vacation after this two months is up.. Whew... ok, I'm done.

How big of a line are you running? I've used teflon tape a LOT on small fittings, and it works great... I get a few leaks sometimes, but can ussually fix it by tightening the fitting a bit. For biger stuf though, I ussualy use 'pipe dope' of some sort. Just make a mess/blob of it, and make sure to get some in all the threads. (a little brush is ussualy attached to the lid of the can) It's a bit messy, but I've never had a leak that way.

I thought the same thing, but I believe it's mostly an optical ilusion.. The rear end of the 1st gen Z body curves in (starting halfway into the rear wheel well I would say.) and the body gets narrower to the back.. and actually, the wheels arn't centered in the wells either.. they apear to actually be forward a bit, adding to the 'look' of toe in. As for the handling, what size tires are you running, and how fast are you driving when this happens? My Z gets a little squirly at speeds over 80mph.. darts all over the place, ect. A few of my problems (aside from the dead suspension, and meat head behind the wheel.. ) are the ginormous whale tail I put on the rear, combined with having no rear sway bar, and a loose front end with tiny 195/60/14" tires up there.. Z's seam to gather a lot of air under them, and being light to start with in the rear end, they can be.. touchy on the highway.

Heh.. I'm loving the Volvo wagon.. Funny thing is, although your Z LOOKS awsome compared to the 'black box' beside it, the Vovlo probly has better arodynamics.. go figure.. I like the pic with the shopping cart..

In my expirience, that is exactly what happens. Most mechanical devices, automotive/industrial parts, and so on, that have a rating for load, stress, torque, weight, ect, are rated so you can use them almost forever at that rating and not have a failure. Yes it will take more than its rated for, but there is no guarentee it will last as long..

I'd imagine an adaptor plate would mate it to the L28 easily enough.. the ford T5 uses a cable clutch, and from what I've seen the camaro has a normal slave but a weird mounting for the clutch master cyl (it's on a 45* angle to the master) and I think the rest would be 'figure it out by trial and error' Dono if it's been done here yet.. did you try the search?

I'll second that one.. I've even heard of guys pushing 600 horse through those 5 gears.. There was a guy here a few years back with one (snotty little rich kid.. grr..) mildly mod'd and he thrashed the thing evrywhere.. Burned the tires out evry chance, power shifting, very abusive. (I think he eventually blew the motor up), but the tranny held up...