JMortensen

Compress the shafts all the way, and then measure them again.

The box provides a better load path to a 22 gauge sheet metal floor, but I still think it's an engineering afterthought once the cage is tied into the rocker. It's not hard to add the boxes, so just add them to avoid the hassle later on.

I attached my main hoop as John described. I later added boxes underneath the tubes. I think the boxes are mostly useless in practical terms, but I heard enough people claim that the cage was unsafe that I figured I had better do it just in case I got a tech inspector who felt the same way. Pics in this thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=102715 By the way your title is horrible. We want to know what the thread is about BEFORE opening it so that searching is easier. Your title is "Have any of you ever?" Ever what? Had sex with a badger? Tasted guano? Smelled mothballs? I'm changing it for you.

There are good reasons to lower a Z more than 2.5-3 inches (see my sig). There are negative effects to doing so with stockish suspension, but it can be done in a beneficial way if the time and effort is utilized to do it right. I think that with the emergence of larger and larger diameter wheels your percentage of problems with shaft length is likely to be more than 1% looking into the future, and this will be a good item for you to have in your product line. Big wheel guys have to lower the car further in order to get the look that they're after, and I don't see that trend changing any time soon. Having the diff located forward should increase the axle length and help alleviate this issue, but usually when people install an R200 they use the 280Z mustache bar which moves the diff back. If I were doing a custom axle I'd probably go shorter than just 10mm less than stock, because the CV has probably closer to 2" of travel in it. Ideally it would be in the middle of its travel at ride height (assuming that leaves enough space at full droop and full compression). I think the thing to do is measure the distance from the diff to the companion flange at droop, ride height, and compression on a couple different cars and try to figure out if there is a "universal" size that works.

The screens have the same problem as the socks; they're too close to the airhorn. Supposed to not flow so hot from what I've read. No filter is obviously best, but then you're exposing your engine to whatever gets sucked in there. I had a friend who ran his L16 with no air horns for a while and he had the only L series I've ever seen with a really bad ring ridge when he rebuilt it a year or so later.

How did you test for bind? Did you move the suspension by hand or did you use a jack? You can feel a lot more moving it by hand. My impression is that shortening the end of the CV where it plugs into the diff or the end of the shaft that connects the two CVs won't do any good. You need the splined areas where the CVs connect to the shaft to be closer together. The CV has a telescoping function built in, but it's running out of room. The solution is to shorten the shaft (not the end, the distance between the splined areas) so that the CV can do it's job properly.

Not sure what you mean by "caps" but if you're talking about the sock type filters I'd say stick with the K&N's. Several years ago I saw a test and the socks were the worst flowing filter of all of them. Best in my opinion is the ITG. Largest element and doesn't have a cap on the end like the K&N so air can enter from any angle.

Some newer camcorders have a 30fps mode, which supposedly cuts in half to the 15fps that you'll see on the web more cleanly than either 32 or 24. At least that's what I've been reading lately.

F'in A Alex...

What size tubing are you using for the cage. I'd go with that size.

I think the whale tail looks more like a dolphin tail on that car. By looks I'd go with the original. Might be fun to put it in the wind tunnel and see which actually works best and provides better balance front to rear.

Cutting springs is not stupid. There is nothing wrong with it so long as the cut is done in such a way that it doesn't heat up a large portion of the spring. A cutoff wheel does fine. As to the relative "danger" of the Z strut and the "necessity" of using a spring compressor, if someone had the spring rate, the free height and the installed height they could figure out exactly how much tension is on them. I don't think it's much. Enough to warrant caution, but not anything like some other cars I've worked on (Porsche comes to mind) which had a really high amount of preload on the springs.

Yeah, that's definitely the plan on this house. The other was a rental and was the first time I'd ever had a septic. I didn't know any better, and apparently neither did the tenants who were there before I showed up.

Man I hate septic systems, and my current house is on septic too... The tell-tale sign that they are full in my experience is when you hear the toilet bubbling. The sucker just drains itself and then makes a pretty distinct "bloop, bloop, bloop" noise. One house I lived in had that noise as about a 10 second warning system, after which poo and whatever else was down there would spray out of the shower drain since it was the lowest drain in the house. Essentially the system was burping itself. That was freakin nasty. In that particular case the house had too many people living in it and hadn't been pumped in 10 years. Anyway at least you were persistent and got all your tools working and problems fixed.

If these guys are correct, then I'd suggest that the stock springs are so soft that you should be able to manhandle them into place, maybe use a screwdriver or prybar for leverage if you need to. If that doesn't work than you can do it the old fashioned way and use a spring compressor. You can use the thread with hooks type like Harbor Freight sells with the springs still on the car. Grease the threads before you use it! http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=3980

Describe what you're doing again. I'm not understanding, and I'm guessing I'm not alone.

The LSD type has nothing to do with the problem being discussed here. If he went with an R180 and a Quaife that would be a solution, but then he wouldn't be using CV joints, unless he got something made for a 180. I think mayolives or mark or one of those NC guys had a line on a shop that would make the center shaft for the CV's shorter. That's the quickest easiest way out of this predicament.

The lip is called a splitter. Search splitter here and on the internet at large and you'll find tons of info. The quick and easy answer is that they make downforce, but there is quite a bit to them, first and foremost is that they have to be attached in a way that they can handle the pressure put on them. I'm a bit curious to see if there is any other mounting of this particular one, or if it is just going to attach to the front end of the urethane air dam. I think that will not hold up as it is shown.

There have been people who have found that the CV shaft was too long, and this resulted in the CV breaking. I think this is the first I've heard of it causing problems with the pinion gear. What you're saying about the shaft pushing on the side of the diff might be true, but I'd expect the carrier bearings to be able to handle a whole lot of load and I'm a bit surprised that you found that it cause the pinion's destruction. Maybe your carrier bearing (or maybe even the diff case) was weak for some reason and it allowed the ring gear to move in relation to the pinion? Pure speculation... One solution would be making a shorter CV shaft for the driver's side, I think mayolives and some others have done this. Extending the control arm length would also work. This has been talked about but I'm not sure if it has been done specifically for this purpose yet. EDIT--If you're using the RT diff mount you might also be able to move the diff to the passenger's side a bit by redrilling the holes in the mustache bar and the diff mount.

I think Mike has a point that one bad tech can go from shop to shop ruining their reputations and I've seen that happen before. But when you say "hold the tech responsible" that is a pretty loosely defined statement. If you mean that Circuit City should hold the tech responsible, I agree wholeheartedly. He should be fired if he can't do the job. But I'm not sure that the customer or the law should hold the tech responsible. I agree with Doc here. Having the customer try and hold the tech responsible is not only bad for the tech (and in other cases it may just be an isolated issue that causes a tech serious monetary hardship), but it's also bad for the consumer. If I were the customer and I had 12K damage to my vehicle, I'd want to go after Circuit City, not some half-wit mechanic. Not to mention if you really had mechanics getting sued all the time you'd probably have a hard time finding mechanics. I think it's analogous to what doctors go through with malpractice cases, but the mechanics don't make anywhere near the same money. Working a job that pays $50K/year if you're really fast, getting paid more for finishing jobs faster, and then on top of that potentially having personal liability for any mistakes made doesn't seem like a good career choice to me.

Port-a-powr would probably take care of this if you had access to one and it's not too far off. Other alternatives are modify the holes or make new plates that go on the strut towers.

You know who else follows this credo: Peter-peter-peter-peter Quincy-quincy-quincy-quincy Taggart-taggart-taggart-taggart

I haven't seen a mag lug nut with a 5/8" shank with a 14mm thread. If you could find one it would work but I don't think they exist. EDIT--Actually you still need to space the shaft down so that the thick part of the shaft can articulate, so you'd still need the spacer on the bottom.

So I received my parts from Ground Control along with these two diagrams related to the strut installation. The first is a diagram of what needs to be relieved to fit the allow for the articulation of the strut. In looking at this, I think it's going to be an hour or so worth of work with a die grinder for the set of 4. Not a big deal, and it's not cosmetic either so it doesn't need to be neat. The other sheet deals with the nut that holds the strut at the top. Bilstein apparently uses a couple nuts which are too large and the hex part of the nut hits the camber plate before it contacts the monoball. My Bilsteins came with 22mm nuts, so I guess I'll be grinding on them as well.