tube80z

Lifting a front wheel isn't caused by the ARB. It's from being too soft in the rear or too soft all round. Personally I would look at a C6 vette for the ABS computer and tone rings. They are a generation newer than all the 240SX stuff. Teves sells a motorsport unit but it's going to run 5K or so. Bosch also has a motorsport ABS but it's probably closer to 20K installed. Cary

I like the air hammer for stub axles. For spindle pins a puller has worked better for me and I don't have to destroy the pin.

Lower the rear. Your RC is too high if I understand the control arm angle. You want to lower the end that needs traction unless you're hitting the ground and upsetting the cornering balance. For the really bad bumps add packers and tune the bumpstops. If you have a lot of lock on try and winding the wheel sooner or less caster to reduce cross weight change. For a fun afternoon put the car on scales, if you have them, and raise and lower each end and turn the wheels and watch the weights change. Change caster and see the difference. On our cars we often use a lot of caster to help low speed turn in. This can cause catch and release on corner exit as you unwind the wheel. Spacers to change the track that add more scrub will make this worse. Maybe a cool winter project would be a simple subframe in the rear and new arms that allow you to raise and lower the pickup points. I have some pics if you're interested. Cary

I may not be following all this but if you don't have enough rear droop travel you don't want to soften the rear. You need to stiffen it up. If you lower the spring rate in the rear you'll get more suspension travel used up from weight transfer. A lot of the hillclimbers in the NW used to soften the rear of the car so they would put down the power better. I have convinced a number of them to use much stiffer rates and it works. When you start using aero you also need to run stiffer and change your driving style to accomodate. To keep the splitter down and working harder to match the rear wing you can trail brake to the middle of the corner. Then onto the gas but you need a stiff rear end to keep the car from squatting too much and upsetting the extra grip you are getting from aero. If you watch classes with wings and splitters you'll see often see this. I think you'll find that the diff will be kept loaded this way too. Cary

Thanks, learn something new everyday. I dug out my old nissan comp catalogs and didn't see it listed. But clearly they are now available.

I'm pretty sure you can't get a 4:44 in a R160. I seem to recall only the 4:38 was available that was close. Or 4:62. I had a 4:44 but it was in an R190.

Wow, that's awesome. Thanks for sharing!

Take a look at a long shanked lug nut. That's what's used on a number of the plates now.

Thanks Gary, that's awesome. Now saving pennies

Not sure if it would help but there's also Evan's coolant. That might help if you need a higher delta in temp across the radiator. Cary

I heard 4500 is the new 2500

Thanks Gary. One more question. What happens if you release the wheel in a corner? Does it straighten out like manual steering or does it slowly move back like damped hydraulic steering? Cary

You really want a mount over the top as the diff tries to move up under acceleration. You could still do something similar but it would be better if one piece that connected to those tubes by dropping down. It probably could be fairly simple with poly bushes around the tube. You need to be careful that you don't make one end or the other solid when mounting the diff. Cary

Good to hear. I drove a Honda with EPAS and it sucked. The steering was numb to me. At low turning rates you could feel pulsing. Did you upgrade your steering joints to deal with the extra torque? That would be one concern using older parts with this. And my final question what amp range did you go for? Cary

Actually more distance is probably not that helpful. It allows more acceleration before impact. If you look at most new cars the interior has become cramped so that you don't have as much room to move before you touch the plastic. The key is to have something that spreads the load over a wider area. I have been looking closely at this for my new street car and haven't decided if I want to use structural foam in the roof rails or use tube that seats into the flat panel. I have already figured out you can run tubing inside the wheel well from the rocker up to the back of the fender top to complete the lower leg. Not really SCCA compliant but for a street car probably good enough. There are also a lot of clues to be taken from modern cars like the 3 series BMWs for how to reinforce the front end. And like Dan's cage you can do a cross bar the mimics what modern cars run under the dash. Cary

The pictures in the ebay ad show wilwood dynalite calipers. The front are 4 piston and the rear look like 2 piston. The AZcar photos shows wilwood superlite. It's a larger stronger caliper that has a larger pad. Make sure you're comparing apples to apples when you decide to buy. You can download the wilwood catalog to see the calipers these kits use and what options are available. Cary

I'm interested in the steering feel and how it operates when you let go of the wheel. In the ones I have driven they feel numb. I'm looking for the same feel as manual but with some assist and no damping when you release the wheel. Would love to hear thoughts on this. Cary

15x10s should easily clear with that on the front. I think mine are 3 or 3.5 on the backspacing. They have the bell but it does clear the AZ brakes but barely. Some wheels needed a small spacer and those may have been the 3.5s. It was a few years ago and memory isn't always the best.

A friend has had two of the AZ big brake kits and they fit under the 15x10 diamonds up front and the 15x14 diamonds on the rear. These are the 12.5 inch kits I believe. They had Superlite front calipers and dynalites in the rear. If you're looking at 6 piston calipers or 13.25 or bigger rotors I'm not sure. For Diamond wheels they often have an inner lip that will interfere if you try and run too much backspace. Luckily when this wide you often miss it. I have one of the 15x10s here if you want me to try and measure it or send pics.

Glad to see no one was hurt. I'm curious what cause the failure other than old age. I crack check mine each year when I'm running. So far I haven't found anything. My car generated 1.6 to 1.8 lateral Gs and I pound the FIA curbs. I don't torque my lugs as much but that's probably more to do with the brand. This probably isn't the problem either but how hot do your hubs get? I wonder if the spacer expansion could have worked against the hub. Like I said I'm totally guessing and this is just throwing another thing out there.

I've had a few 510s. I had one with a rack and a VG30DE conversion in it so I know what you're looking at. On mine I used the 240 rack and crossmember and made custom rear TC pickups. If you go here http://datsuns.com/projects/510-TwinTurbo/fvs_N.html this car was built the same as mine. If I were to do this again I would build a k-member to use as the rear attachments. On the car I would use epoxy and rivets to hold the bracket, which could be removed. The S30 crossmember mods needed for bumpsteer are in the stickies. They contain a lot of good info that will help you with this project. I have to admit that way back then I was very into 510s and was so looking forward to my new V6 car. Dave from Datsuns.com gave me a ride in his and it was fast. Then I got a ride in Charlie Barmissa's 302 powered V8 Z and I never worked on the 510 again. It still sits in my garage. I have a friend with a 510 very much like yours he calls Beefy. It sounds nice. Good luck with the project! Cary

Going along with what John mentioned there's a lot that can be done for free. Years ago for showroom stock and similar race classes a lot of tricks were employed to make the cars faster. Often crash damaged parts would be used. These are parts that were strategically bent to attain a specific alignment. You can bend the front steering knuckle to bump steer the car. You can bend struts to get negative camber. You can use a porta power to push areas of the car around. A little here and a little there adds up. You can decide of this is cheating/not ethical but it's all part of pushing the rules boundaries. And along those lines you can lookup betafoam from DOW.

I'm not sure what you are asking really. This is going on a 510 or a 240? for a 5 inch travel suspension you can get away with a 15 inch lower arm and a 7 inch upper if you're looking to make a double a-arm setup. If you're looking to fab up a replacement 240Z cross member or something for a 510 I'd look at making something similar to the Mustang K-members. Set your ride height and mount the arms level and if you want some anti-dive make the lower rear pickup adjustable. Stock S30 Z suspension is designed with bumpsteer. You either need to bend the knuckles or shim them down at the outer tie rod connection. Many people raise the inner to match the rack so if you build from scratch take a look at aligning the inner pivots. Hope that helps, Cary

I've been over this a lot with some friends who race the rolling craps Z. Not sure where you did lexan but if it's for the rear hatch go back to glass. I would not bother with poly and use new rubber bushings. There are plenty of tricks you can use to make them stiffer. For camber adjuster slot the strut towers. Why are you using bilsteins? You should learn the fine art of arguing about replacement parts and how you can modify those. I would also think about spending $10 on a couple of heims in strategic spots. Become a wood worker. Plywood is the cheapest material to work with and you can make a really nice wood airdam. The rear spoiler can be the rubber cover that fits in the rear bumper on a later 260 or 280. For a 240 I guess you'll make a nice plywood one. Laughing at the plywood I can send you some links of a guy that makes wood parts for his F1000 and DSRs. He used to race airplanes and boats. Springs and collars are $80 for the car and a gift for what you can do with them. Use a replacement insert or learn how to make the stock wet struts work. That's what people did in the old days. You have to get creative and push boundaries. We're not cheating or bending rules but we're taking everything as black and white down the center. If you want shocks and don't want to fight lose the header. Power is going to be less help than a better working suspension with higher rates. I would then do a lot of aero based on plywood. Vent the hood, open up the fenders by cutting and folding them (stock part still), splitter, and side splitters. You could make a wood wing but I'm not sure what they would say about that.

Do you not have enough budget to get springs? I have a friend who has a Z chump car and it has 2.5 springs. You get a budget hit for your build but they can be used. It was cheaper than what they charge for sway bars. Another option would be to do the old muffler clamp adjustable collar mod. A lot of 510s used to have that. You can use that to adjust corner weights or use it to help with balancing the car. Another oddball option would be to use really soft bump rubbers to augment the spring rate. Then use packers to adjust engagement. Nascar tech comes to chump car. My personal feeling is that there's a ton of aero that could be done to help make the car faster as well as get better mileage. That helps you get to the driver time limit on a tank and helps to keep the lap times up. Cary