JMortensen

I have no idea how to quantify what kind of difference that foam would make. You know, it would be welded around the triangular hole that would have to be cut in addition to the plate. Still seems like a weird way to put a load on that part of the arm. I suspect it would be OK, but I'm still a little wary about it...

Thanks, that's not a bad idea at all. The one thing that concerns me is that the end of the arm wouldn't be gripping the tube end. I had kinda figured on crushing the end of the arm to fit the tube end tightly. There is going to be a lot of lateral load, and if it's just welded to the plate that might not be strong enough. Interesting idea...

I got a little worried when I was looking at these pictures, so I went out and cut the control arm off at the flat sheet. Turns out you lose ALL of the straight part of the leading edge of the control arm. This means that the tube end needs to be set straight into a tube which isn't straight. Looks like I might have to trim the tube end by about 1/2" in order to get it to sit straight in the control arm. Then the issue is getting the control arm bent around the tube end so it can all be welded together. The rear section looks easy enough, but again this front section looks to be a problem. Thinking it might be easier to just keep the straight part at the end instead of cutting it off, the issue then becomes the increased track width. I suppose I could compensate for that with some different offset wheels, but the idea was to get more track width in the front, and hopefully to use the same offset wheels front and back. The front track was already increased by about an inch (total), and then another 20mm was added when I added 280Z front hubs, so this should be pretty comparable to the rear if I kept the straight end on the control arm. I'd just need to buy wheel spacers for the front I suppose. I can't really think of another way to get the control arm to accept the threaded tube end nicely. Maybe I should reconsider reaming the end and sliding the monoball in... Pics of the control arm problem:

Must be my prior experience with widebody 911s with dual tails on the back, but I like the S30 Primadonnas. If it's got the power to back up the bodykit, that's all the better IMO. Looks like you could get some pretty serious downforce out of that sucker...

Weird. Can't seem to fix Cary's link. Just take the imgmax=640 off and it works. Got it: http://lh3.google.com/tube80z/RNJVMYW3ABI/AAAAAAAAARI/5aDEIRhwxAg/DSC03297.JPG?

I am back into this one again. I bought some threaded tube ends from Coleman and I'm thinking of just using these instead of trying to fit a monoball into the end of the control arm. I figure it will be cheaper than buying reams (the threaded tube ends were $4 each) and if nothing else I'll be able to adjust the rear track width. Got the idea from Ron Carter, who has something similar that Design Products racing built for him. I took an old control arm and cut the end off just to be sure it would work. I've got a lot of work in my rear sway bar and it would have sucked to find out that it wouldn't work after I cut the end off. Anyway, it looks like it will work fine, although the hole in the end of the control arm is more like 1 1/8" wide and 1 3/8" tall, so it will have to be closed up tight around the threaded tube end. I started by cutting the least amount of metal off that I could. It appears that I'll need to cut more, probably up to the sheet metal brace, because the rod end extends the length of the control arm. I was hoping to get the control arm length to stock, and then lengthen with the rod ends if I felt it necessary later on. To maximize rear roll center I'm going to mount the threaded tube end as low as possible on the outer end of the control arm. It looks as though there might be some clearance issues with the curve in the control arm on the left side as shown in the pictures. Looks like the tube end might hit the inside of the control arm before it slides all the way in. I'll have to deal with that if it is really a problem. I also figured I'd cut the corners off the control arm and then shape the end of the arm around the round tube end and weld them up. Any suggestions? I'd love to hear them. Here's pics: I'm stuck dead in the water on the inners. I sent some parts to a machinist to help him with fabbing the aluminum bearing retainers, and to make a long story short, I'm probably not getting the parts back, and I'm not getting any retainers either.

You know, you're probably right about finding someone local, I just don't know where to look. I called a bunch of machinists in the phone book at one point when I was doing the poor man's toe adjuster and nobody wanted to help me. I must either come off crazy, or like an idiot, or both!

I had one that I had to cut through with a sawzall. Tried the air hammer first, then the spindle pin puller, then the BFH, then the press. Sucker is still in there. I think your SoCal location makes a big difference too. Mine were SoCal cars and all the pins I've pulled came out fairly easily with the exception of that one, but I don't think people in Michigan have it as easy as you do.

I think if that piece could have been chucked up in a lathe then yes, it could have been turned to exactly the right OD to fit perfectly in the tube. The way I did it you kinda had to tap it in, and then I left a little flare at the end. When I hammered the end of the tie rod into the tube it flared the tube end just a smidge. Then it was welded. Cary's preheating suggestion was for weld strength, not for fitment. I agree with your point though. I just happen to be poor, so I am trying to make the best of it without incurring machining costs.

If you're not using your chop saw all day every day you might consider a cheapy HF unit. I got mine, and I've been through one blade. Still works great, and 1/2 the price of the Home Depot models. I think I got mine for $49.

Thanks Cary, it was all your idea (again).

Pics of the tie rods:

I haven't tried it, but Ross was using that as a selling point. I don't think it's risky at all. Just like you said, you cut the control arm off and then slide each end off, and the end of the pin is just sitting there exposed. Slide the ends of his control arm on, and hook them up to the inner piece and that's it. Should save a lot of hassle with the pins too.

False. Having power steering has no effect on bumpsteer whatsoever. Bumpsteer is created by steering geometry. Could be that by modifying the control arms they eliminated the bumpsteer.

You can have a high compression 2.4 liter. Compression test won't tell you.

Correct. I think by the picture you're missing the rear ones, which are slightly shorter. You could use poly in the rear and these in the front to adjust toe if you wanted, or if you had both the front and the rear you could adjust toe and camber (to a limited degree).

Well I got a wild hair up my butt and just finished them. I didn't preheat, but I did do the plug welding and the weld around the end. They didn't come out straight. They're not horrible, but they're not straight either. It has more to do with the way the stock tie rod is machined than anything else, and it really doesn't matter much anyway, so I'm just not going to worry about that. They look good though, and I didn't have to pay for any machine work, so that was good. Maybe I'll take some pics tomorrow. Pretty soon I'm going to have to throw the front suspension together one last time and see if everything is going to fit and work the way I want. It's nice to think that the front suspension work is almost done, just a couple days more work (maybe 8-10 hours or so at my pace) and some paint and it will be good to go.

Well I took my grinder with a sandpaper flap wheel and I've "turned" the end piece down. Turns out those end pieces aren't really tapped straight, probably because the only part that turns in the stock piece is the inner end, so if the outer end isn't straight it doesn't really matter. So I've pretty much got the end to where I can weld it on. Plan is to do 4 plug welds, 2 far, 2 close at 180 degrees from each other, then weld around the top. I think it will be strong enough. Cary had told me to preheat the pieces, but I can't find my MAP gas torch and I don't think the propane will heat it enough to make much of a difference. Besides, the wall thickness on the tubing is only ~.080 or somewhere thereabouts. I'm going to start grinding the other side down, if anyone wants to stress the importance of preheating, do it now because I probably won't get to welding this stuff until tomorrow I'm thinking... Thanks all.

Nope. Those are rear control arm bushings (could be front side or the rear side, can't really tell), and the part of the control arm that slides through it is about 1" around. You are correct that there is very little deflection possible with those installed. That's the point! No idea what the mystery part is.

Well I'm finally ready to dive back into this, so it's kinda nice that the thread just popped back up all on its own. Got the coleman racing swaged tubes in a few days ago. Got a set of old tie rods to cut up. First thing I did was to cut the threaded ends of the tie rods off. I cut it a little long, so I ended up including a bit of the curve that is on the stock tie rod at the end. I then ground that curved end off. That's where I'm at now. What is immediately apparent is that the end is larger OD than the ID of the tie rod. Cary, what did you do about this? I know you said cut a slot down the side of the tube, but it seems like the thing to do is to grind down the OD of the tie rod so that it slips into the tube. The pic that you showed of Kipperman's car is small, but it looked to me like the tie rod was a lot smaller than the tube and the tube had to be crimped down to fit, so I was pretty surprised when I found the opposite this morning.

Whoa! I would definitely not do this on an assembled engine!!! 1 fast z is right, just use a press-in plug. I did mine after the machining was done, used the technique I described, then washed the block thoroughly and all that.

I think you're right, it is the same starter IIRC. Why would you bother paying more for it from Tilton though? Or do you just have one laying around? You'd also need to make sure that the gear is the same size if you were going to swap.

I don't think you need to drill, just tap. I stuffed some paper towels into the oil galley, then tapped, then vacuumed out most of the loose metal, then pulled the paper towel out. On the front there is the oil hole for the timing chain tensioner that is just inside the front of the block. You might want to pay special attention to make sure that that hole doesn't get clogged.

Thanks for noticing! Been an admin for about a week and a half I think. I supose I could have made a big announcement, but I didn't think it was necessary. We have another new admin too. COZY Z COLE is the newest member of the club.

No, those are made to fit a V8 with a totally different bolt pattern and flywheel. Mario, if your 280Z has a gear reduction starter I think that at some point the stock starter died and somebody replaced it with the gear reduction unit. IIRC all 280ZX's came with the gear reduction units. They're lighter and from what I understand more prone to failure than the normal ones.