JMortensen

Some people cut the roof off and reattach to do roll cages. That kind of thing would completely fix your car.

That is not what I remember. Maybe it was Coffey. Or maybe my memory is broken. Wouldn't be the first time...

This is WAY overstating the case. You could say the same thing about Nissan's CLSD, since it has preload springs in it too, but they will definitely spin a tire if you lift it off the ground, I speak from personal experience. That said I agree with the general advice of not jacking up one side and driving the lifted tire. Traction-Loks are fairly weak clutch LSDs that are prone to destroying their little clutch tab protector shim thingies. The Nissan CLSD is way more aggressive by comparison due to its ramp design to load the clutch packs and stronger too, by comparison. Richard, I had seen an engineer whose opinion I really value talk up the Wavetrac maybe 8 or 10 years ago. Tried to find it for you and failed, but from what I remember I think it's not as aggressive as a ramp style CLSD, but significantly better than a Truetrac or other "standard" helical design.

The main issue with the 5/8 bolt is that it is a couple thousandth's smaller than the pin, so it is loose in the spindle bore. If you torque the bolt down so that it doesn't move, I think you're OK to use the bolt with no huge issues. Torquing the bolt shouldn't be a problem with poly bushings in theory, but probably is in practice. The idea with poly is that the sleeve should be tightly held by the bolt, or the nuts on the stock pin. The bushing is intended to rotate around the stationary sleeve. The problem is that the bushings are almost always way wider than the sleeve, so you have to torque the crap out of the bolt in order to hold the pin stationary, and I can tell you from personal experience that this makes the suspension REALLY hard to move. My guess is that most people don't actually tighten this all down correctly, they just tighten it "enough" and if that is the case, then the bolt can actually pivot in the bore (wearing the bolt), and the bushings can also move around the sleeve. Whichever requires less force is more likely to happen. If you're going with a rod end style control arm, this is really not an issue at all. Torque it down tight enough and you're good. The solution with poly is to sand the bushings down to reduce the bushing width, so that you don't have to torque the bolt to 100 ft/lbs to compress the bushing enough to lock the sleeve in place. In addition to cutting the length of the bushing down so that there isn't so much compression on the bushing, another thing to do would be to sand away a lot of the surface area on the outer ends so that the resistance to the bushing spinning is reduced. In combination these two things will still control toe change because the bushing extends into the control arm and you wouldn't be removing that part but it will reduce friction A LOT. After modding the bushings another thing to look at is adding zerk fittings to the outer ends of the LCA so that the bushings can be greased. Easy to do, works great. What doesn't work is zerks on the inner bushings; the bushing saddles aren't tight enough, so rather than going in between the bushing and sleeve, grease added just squishes out the corners of the bushing saddles. If you're installing poly bushings, watch this video first and consider the above mods to improve their function. This video talks about a Miata poly bushing with a better design that has these features incorporated, along with cross hatching that allows lubrication to stay in the friction area between bushing and sleeve, which is far better than what Energy Suspension is making for Zs. Probably not enough market to justify doing this for a Z though...

I'm not worried about getting the pins out. What I really want to do is save my brother in law's tool. I made my own puller with parts I bought from a guy on classiczcars.com 20+ years ago, but IIRC it had standard allthread, a standard lug nut, and a metric lug nut welded to it. I gave it to the BIL, he broke it and replaced with this. This one is much nicer, so I'd like to save it.

Thanks for the kick ass design, Nissan! I'm trying to use my BIL's spindle pin puller, and I actually broke the pin itself in the end of the tool. Last one I had was a standard lug nut welded to a metric lug nut IIRC. This one is my BIL's and looks like it has a sleeve with an insert, and then a timesert in that. Hoping I can disassemble and get the piece out. Tried to drill it and was going to tap and then put a bolt in and weld and pull it out that way, got about 1" into the pin and the drill bit broke. Tried welding a nut onto the end, just twists off.

Had an issue with my ZX 5 speed twice, friend had the same with her Z or ZX 5 speed once, where the 5th/Rev shift rail would move out of position on its own. On mine, this caused the trans to go into 2nd and 5th simultaneously while on track (friend driving) and the rears locked and narrowly missed a brick corner worker's stand. The other two times was on the street. Friend's Z got locked into 2 gears also, think it was 1st and 5th that time. Last time was something like you described. This is 25 or so years ago, can't remember the specifics. The track one was fixed by fairly violently moving the shifter through all the gears. The other times the trans was dropped, the little access plug with the detent spring and balls was opened up and the rail moved with a screwdriver. I can't remember if it's the top or bottom plug for 5th/R. The other thing that occurs to me is that I once had a bad clutch slave and it was leaking pressure. The car would shift into all forward gears, but not reverse because the trans never stopped moving and there is no synchro on R to help it in. Something that hasn't happened to me that I've read about is the shift fork roll pin shearing. When this happens you can move the shaft but the actual fork doesn't move, it just slides on the shaft. Racers used to swap out the later aluminum forks for the earlier steel ones and double pin the forks with solid pins, or use the hollow roll pins and run safety wire in them to double it up. Yours sounds more like the first issue or the sheared roll pin. I'd pull it and pull the detent ball and see if the detent groove for neutral isn't lined up with the hole first, then open the case and check the fork of the detent is in the right spot. If you shift and see the shaft moving but it won't go into gear, then that tells you probably the fork isn't moving or is broken. Should be a fairly easy fix as compared to rebuilding the whole box.

No, on poly the sleeve is captured by the frame, and the bushing rotates around the sleeve. When you set it down, everything rotates and compensates. On rubber it's all bonded together, so at full droop it should be maxed out one way, and if you tighten it with the bushing relaxed, then when you set it down it will be significantly torqued already, then going over bumps twists it further. It will work fine, just a lot of people freak out because "MY SPRINGS ARE BROKEN!!111!11!1!1!"

If they're bound then they're not doing anything, but if they're not then they're softer than the rest of the spring, hence the progressive part. The Tokicos are worse, and it's been an ongoing topic since the 90s. It is as designed though. If it bothers you get a non-progressive spring. Personally not a fan of progressive springs.

If you're not driving in traffic and just going for canyons or to the track, what I have would be OK. The big problem with the multi-disk clutches is that they can overheat pretty easily. Stop and go will kill one, as will slipping it too much with the sintered iron clutch disks.

He already stated the reason; the stock flywheel and pp is 60 lbs. That's a big deal to me too. It's going to make the transmission significantly slower to shift, as well as just slowing the car down on accel, reduce engine braking, etc. I would like to drive one with a light flywheel and see how that is in actual driving. Might be good enough, even though it still sounds stupid heavy Also should have pointed out the hassles with setting up a button clutch. You don't just slap it in. Need a special throwout bearing (more $$$) and have to take measurements from the bell housing and shim the bearing to the right depth, then limit the hydraulics so you don't push the bearing too far as you can pop the slave apart inside the bell housing or damage the pressure plate springs. It's not rocket science, but takes a little doing. I got my slave from QuarterMaster. https://www.quartermasterusa.com/qm/components/hydraulic-release-bearings-components/tri-lite-release-bearings-hydraulic-release-bearings-components I can't remember the reason, but my stock flex plate also wouldn't work with the button clutch, I had to buy an aftermarket one to put it all together (more $$$).

I don't know what a step or strap clutch is, but I have a NASCAR style button clutch in mine. Flex plate for the starter and tiny clutch mating surface with two 7.25 disks. I think the flex plate and clutches came in around 20 lbs. I can tell you it revs and shifts fast. Carb isn't really dealing very well with it, so will probably go FI with it at some point. Needs an instantaneous huge squirt of fuel, but then needs to taper off fast, accelerator pump cams just aren't shaped right. It's really grabby and wouldn't be fun in traffic, but I think it would probably be doable if necessary. They have carbon clutches that are better suited to driving on the street, but they're way more expensive and mine is a trailered race car, so I went this way.

That top hat from T3 won't pivot with the strut as it changes angle, so it will allow for the strut to twist as you're steering, but I fear you're going to really chew through the threads on the coilover sleeves even more than they normally do. The other solution is an adapter between the top hat and the monoball which allows the top hat to follow the angle of the strut, and uses the monoball to twist. Arizonazcar.com has a part that fits the bill, the silver bit in this picture: http://www.arizonazcar.com/coilover.html Last option is the Ground Control setup. They don't have any pictures of the important bit on their site, but there is a steel concave cup part which rides on a needle bearing like the T3 setup, and then an aluminum ball section that rides in the steel cup, and this allows the spring to change angle with the strut. It also turns the camber plate into a wear item, but it's what I have. https://groundcontrolstore.com/collections/s30-camber-plates/products/camber-caster-plate-z-car-pair

I did a quick check, and the stock front rotor is 10.6, so you'd want to get as close to that diameter as possible, since you can run up to the same diameter rotor. The early ZX is 10.5, later ZX is 10.2 according to rockauto.com. If you're going to make your caliper brackets, I'd use an early rotor and a late caliper. Or if possible find a rotor with a less deep hat. Early ZX has really deep one, the rotor is probably 3" back from the axle flange. Also re: drilled rotors. I pushed the piston through that brake pad with drilled rotors. I was at the track and needed to drive home, so I went to the local parts store, bought their shittiest pad, slapped it on and drove home. Changed them before the next race, but never even surfaced the rotors and there were no cracks at all between the holes. I worked on Porsches at that time and we routinely replaced rotors when the cracks were nearing the next cross drilled hole, but mine never cracked at all, front or rear, after lots of abuse. I will say that they make a weird buzzing noise when you get them hot. My explanation is the heated air is being released from the holes as the rotor turns past the brake pads, successively venting each little hole along the way. Not a problem, but it's kinda strange. The bigger issue is that you're taking away material. I guess the idea is that the cross drilling helps to cool the rotor, but more mass means it can absorb more heat, so ??? If you're running stock brakes in front I'd suggest a couple of 3" vents per side. Katman, who prepped a lot of ITS cars, posted about using a soup can with a slot in it to get air to the outside of the rotor, and warned against cooling only the inside. You might be able to search his threads to find. Probably close to 20 years ago now.

Totally agree with this. Also, the early 79-81 ZX rear disc is not an upgrade in stopping power over the drums. It is possible to get enough rear braking with the early ZX and the stock front calipers, but any front upgrade will overwhelm the rears. I had Toyota fronts and the early ZX and couldn't get enough rear braking, eventually put the stock front calipers back on and was able to dial it in, but then I would boil the brake fluid all the time. Got to the point where I no longer got an adrenaline rush when the pedal went to the floor. That's a bad sign LOL. Also got the fronts so hot the brake pad lining just abandoned ship and a punched a hole through the backing plate. Rears had pad material coming off in chunks. To my discredit though, I was trying to run Porterfield's R4S street pad. Not a good idea... I never tried the 82-83 rear brakes so I can't tell you if they're any better. Definitely lighter, those early calipers are HEAVY and the pads are TINY. I would suggest looking at what other EP drivers are doing for brakes. Greg Ira is the 3x national champ. See if he has any recommendations for you. If you could use the ZX rotor and change out the caliper that might help. I don't think the heat capacity is as much of an issue in the rear, but the lack of clamping and pad surface area certainly is.

Did you Americans factor in shipping from Germany?

No comment on those specific products, but I ran heims joints except for stock ball joints on my car for 40K miles, a couple seasons of autox, and a handful of track days and they didn't wear out and I didn't find them too harsh. I took my dad for a ride when he was about 70 and his comment when he got out was how comfy the Recaro seat was. I had 200/250 springs and ran Illuminas on 1 or 2 on the street.

Don't remember a hole there. There are some oval drain holes in the bottom. That's not going to hurt anything, I'd leave it alone, but filling won't hurt anything either.

Why did I think we were talking 280ZX? Sorry about that. Looks like a 280Z, there isn't enough room to move the strut back very far before the spring hits sheet metal, maybe an inch. You could cut the whole strut tower off of the upper frame rail and move it back, but that's a hell of a big job, and you better tie it all together well because it's a highly loaded part of the chassis. It's a lot easier just to run an adjustable TC rod. You can completely solve the LCA binding problem by running monoballs or rod ends on the front LCA. The next issue is that the tire will hit the front fenders or the airdam if you have one. Can trim for clearance. I haven't looked at it for a long time, but I seem to recall people getting into the 8 degrees range on race cars with adjustable TCs, and 5 degrees is easy. Caster made a huge difference on my Z, one of the best mods I did back when I was daily driving and autoxing every month.

If you go to coilovers you can run a much smaller 2.5 ID spring, and then you can move the strut top back within the existing tower. This is not something we can do with the S30, but the S130 has much bigger strut tops, so more room to play. They do it all the time on Mustangs, so it's a known solution. I haven't seen a double adjustable plate for a 280ZX, but anything that has the adjustments and is generic enough should work. Might be able to just use the Mustang parts, just need adapter bushings to fit whatever struts you're running: https://www.maximummotorsports.com/Mustang-Caster-Camber-Plates-1990-1993-P254.aspx Could probably use these 510 plates from DP and cut the hole to the rear to add caster if you prefer: https://www.dpracing.co/datsun-510-front-suspension-1

Going to require a different filler tube though. If the 260 filler tube is available it would probably go in easier, I'm guessing.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1955-1956-1957-CHEVY-GAS-TANK-FILLER-NECK-CHECK-VALVE-KIT-USA-MADE/133336309996?hash=item1f0b76a0ec:g:IxgAAOSwcB1eSbM0&frcectupt=true This ebay listing is from Australia, but says the product is made in USA.

I wonder if you could use a simple flap under the cap, like they do on fuel cells. I haven't seen a one way valve in the filler neck, if that exists that would be another option. I guess the filler hoses are all getting rock hard at this point. 20 years ago I had to remove my original with a hammer and chisel. LOL If you can still get a new one could measure and see if there is a one way valve for a 2.5" or 3" or whatever diameter hose it is.

Richard's offhand mention got my wheels turning too. DCT looks doable for about $5K all in...

That noise was entirely 3rd gear related? Seemed to be happening regardless of gear. I had a similar one on my car, could only hear on decel. Turned out my driveshaft AND CV bolts had loosened. I safety wired the CVs and double nutted the driveshaft and haven't heard it since, but I'm just autocrossing, so not nearly as much chance to hear things like that. Can you add more hood vents? Under hood air looks like a problem for you. 167 mph on Conrod. Very impressive, and agree with Richard, nice job resisting the lift at the kink! In the sim-racing world, it's a toss up for me between Nordschleife and Bathurst for me. My two favorites. Hope to some day get there and drive something, probably a rental Kia around it. Inspiring stuff, thanks for sharing.