JMortensen

That looks pretty easy Terry. Wish I had asked first before cutting. I think I have to rule out the eccentric spacers to fix, because apparently you can't buy rod ends with a 5/8" shank and a 3/4" hole. So I have another idea courtesy of Cary, which might work. The idea is to cut the control arm right through the rectangular tube, bolt it into the car to align the rod ends, then weld the tube back together. I think this might be a good option because it would be fairly easy to do and I don't think the end of the control arm is particularly stout. If that works out, my next concern is that if I continue with the inner monoballs, how can I make sure that the inner pivots are parralel to the outers, other than by grinding the frame, tacking the monoball holders, and pushing the suspension through its travel? In my mind I'm thinking that it is the holders that must be parallel to the outers, otherwise the strut will travel fore or aft when the suspension is compressed.

How far do you want to go with this? Only you know the answer, and going with a setup like katman describes leaves A LOT of room for improvement. It might be a FUN dual purpose car, but if you're wanting to get serious I'd forget about poly bushings and reasonable springs, and most definitely the stereo. If you just want to putz around and have a good time, then go for it. My biggest mistake was underbuilding my car the first time around, so now I have redone every piece in the suspension at least once, some things are on their 3rd or 4th go around. Figure out what you want to do and then do it all the way. If you want streetable build it really streetable. If you want it race ready build a full on race car. Compromise cars might do everything decently, but they won't do anything exceptionally in my experience.

OK, bad news... I finally got all my little parts together, bolts, spacers, etc and went out to the garage. I figured the thing to do first is to verify that I welded everything on straight, since I didn't weld the outer tube and tube ends with a jig. One control arm moves through its range of motion very easily. The other does not. So I F'ed up the control arm. Possible solutions: 1. Cut the tube off of the control arm, buy more threaded tube ends, weld them in properly. Sounds like a pain in the ass to me, and I honestly do not know how to make a jig to make sure that they're all squared up when it is done. 2. Use G Machine bushings and ditch the monoball inner idea. I haven't tried this yet, but I'm betting that I can slap in my old G Machine bushings and if I rotated them around the right way the angle of the strut would be fixed and that would alleviate the bind. I REALLY wanted to use the monoball inners. 3. Use oversize rod ends like Terry did and then make offset spacers to fix the misalignment. Again, big PITA, not sure how to get the spacers machined offset like that. 4. Set the monoball holders in such a way that they adjust out the bind, just like I would do with the G Machine bushings. I'm a little frustrated, a little pissed off, and I'm about to just say F it and use the GMachine stuff instead. Due to a number of factors I haven't been able to do much in the last few months, now I'm starting to feel the time crunch with my move starting to loom on the horizon. Probably moving in April or May... Anyone have any good ideas?

Actually this question isn't dealt with in that FAQ. There is some confusion as to the spline count on the later VLSDs. The early ones from the 88 SS are 30 spline, and it looks as though the later ones returned to the 29 spline like the open diff and Z31T LSD. But the VLSD takes a longer spline to engage all the way into the side gears (don't do this and the LSD doesn't function). The LSD will bolt right in and I am positive that you can either use the 10mm bolts on the 12mm holes in the carrier, or make shims for the ring gear bolts from some 12mm OD 10mm ID tubing. That takes care of that part. The issue is what CV shafts would you have to use, and is there an adapter that would fit. That part I'm not too sure about. If you do the swap, PLEASE give us all the details here since this newer VLSD vs older VLSD thing is still kind of a mystery...

If memory serves the original price was a lot higher.

http://www.gordon-glasgow.org/lsd4.asp That's the correct procedure. Without taking it out of the car I think you'd need to at least drive it around between each test to get oil on the clutches. John is right, what you've got should be fine and the more aggressive ramps should make it act like a more tightly shimmed cheesy one even without the high breakaway torque.

See pics at bottom of page 1: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=107153

The fact that you say that it's a rough ride leads me to believe it's not just at the top. You need to check ALL of the suspension. I'm not convinced that the top part isn't the result of something else that went wrong underneath. We've had several people with high hp cars where the big 24mm bolt in front and back of the control arm loosens itself and falls out, then the control arm bushings start to come out of the diff crossmember. I bet something similar is going on with you. If the top strut mount failed it wouldn't prevent the suspension from compressing normally and the ride wouldn't be any rougher, although it might be noisier...

There are some, like me, who would say clutch by far. This is an argument that we have gone through many times. Here is one of them: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=93879

No first hand experience, but I would suggest you compare the cost of doing the stroker to the amount of boost increase that you might get if you put that same money into a bigger intercooler, turbo, of aftermarket FI. Unless you're already pushing 25-30 lbs of boost, I'd reckon that you'll get more hp to the wheels by upgrading outside the motor... EDIT--I guess at some point you'll need forged pistons, well before you need the crank. The pistons are going to be necessary for sure for higher boost levels. At that point you need to weigh the cost of the crank and rods and KA pistons to the just plain old forged pistons and see what the difference is. If you're already resizing rods and all that and you have to do ALL of the machine work, it might not be too much more $$$ to add in the stroker crank. If you found a crank and rods for $300 it would probably be worth it. If you were talking about buying a stroker kit for $2000, then I still think that $2000 would make more power outside the engine.

Hmm... don't know what's up with that. Here's another link to the thread in the Turbo section: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=115904

I think we are pretty damn sure that the open 240SX diff has the same 29 spline count as the 300ZXT CV shafts or the 280ZXT, or the regular old side stub axles that the halfshafts bolt to from a 280Z or ZX. I'm still not convinced one way or the other on the VLSD differences between the 300ZX SS model and the 240SX, so I'd just stay away from the VLSD replacement and you should be fine I think.

Usually seems to be broken or loose connectors that are at issue. I agree that if everything is in good shape, then it is fairly reliable. My contention is that it's usually not in very good shape. And when it's in fantastic shape, it's still not very good at making power or tunability, etc.

The Jeep was designed with a tall, square top so the bars are much farther away at the corners of the roof. Plus a Jeep doesn't have door bars, and the main hoop is far enough back that it would be hard to hit, judging from your picture there.

Yes, especially when you're not going turbo, getting power out of the L is like squeezing blood from a stone in my opinion. It's a LOT of money for not much hp. When you're talking normally aspirated, a V8 will be MUCH easier to hit high hp goals in with less cost. Many crate motors with a 4 barrel carb will push 350+ hp. To do that in an L you need a (bigger than stock) turbo, intercooler, aftermarket fuel injeciton, bigger injectors, etc etc etc. If you want to find out exactly what it takes, read this thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=115887

When I built my last motor (L28, triples, cam, etc, ~240whp) I put about 500 miles on it, changed the oil, then drove it from San Luis Obispo to Thunderhill about 350 miles, did some open track racing, then drove home. It was 114 degrees in Willows. Engine did fine. Brakes... that's another story... No offense, but it sounds like your friends aren't very good mechanics. The L is super easy to keep on the road. If there is any liability there its the craptastic stock fuel injection. Get rid of that and replace with either aftermarket injection or carbs and the engine should run forever with just normal maintenance.

I like the guy doing the Buster Keaton impression and nearly getting blown over by the exhaust...

Don't think this is possible unless you attach the main hoop really far forward, at which point it will probably interfere with the seat. Diagonal in the main hoop is easier, lighter, and probably stronger. That's going to be one deep U for the harness bar. I'd go with a straight bar across the strut towers, then just do supports from the hoop to the bar or the tower right next to the bar instead. The angle here is going to be pretty weird, not sure if this is a good idea with the main hoop as laid back as you're trying to get it. The ends of the main hoop would be past the back of the seat, so you'd only be stretching this bar out another 18" or so farther than that. This stuff all sounds fine. I think your main problem is that the wheel wells are TOTALLY in the way for what you want to do, and that screws the rest of the whole idea up. It also appears that if you did this the main hoop might not be high enough to protect you from a rollover. As John pointed out earlier, the rule for convertibles is that you ahve to be able to draw a line from the hoop to the dash bar and have that line higher than your head. If you draw that line and your head is in the way, then you're basically relying on the roof of the car for your rollover protection, and the cage won't get involved until it's too late. If you were to lay the hoop back so that it was behind the dome light bar, you'd have to kick the bottom part of the hoop really far forward like this: Here's a quick sketch of what this would look like all together: It just doesn't look right to me, and I think that making the main hoop stand more upright would give you a bunch of better options for the rest of it. Here's a blank version of the chassis drawing if you want to try and sketch things out a bit.

So I guess that still leaves us wanting a spline count on the later VLSD and the SS VLSD, but it would appear that there is a difference.

From another thread Here's another interesting one from this thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=91401 So it looks as though the SS might have had the larger shaft with the higher spline count, and the later VLSDs did not.

This might help too: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=106974&page=2

Don't know, don't want to test it out either! If you're going to have door bars, race seat and belts is in my opinion mandatory.