JMortensen

Just tried to upload a jpg and got the same error. I believe you about the gifs, but something still seems screwy with uploading photos.

You should put that pic in the FAQ Rob. I don't know how I managed to confuse myself when I wrote the FAQ but I was just spouting it out from memory, and I wouldn't have gotten confused if I had been looking at that picture. Tony, you could put bumpsteer spacers on a Z at stock height and what that will do is raise the roll center. Where to set the roll center is not a clear cut thing. The suspension gets acted on differently by lateral forces depending on the roll center. When the LCA goes past horizontal, then lateral forces try to COMPRESS the outside suspension, basically making body roll worse. If the LCA is totally horizontal then there are no jacking forces on the suspension. If the LCA points down then lateral forces try to raise the outer suspension. If it's really pointing down then lateral forces can tip the car over, a la jacked up Baja Bug. If you add the bumpsteer spacer to a stock Z then as Pete said you'd put the car into another part of the bumpsteer curve, and the curve works out to be pretty gradual in the middle but fairly extreme at the ends of the suspension's travel, so you might not like the results. You can run the car with a roll center that is very low, but you need to run very heavy springs and shocks that can control those springs. For less body roll most agree that you want to run the control arms pointing "slightly down". If you're running softer springs, you'd want it pointing down a bit more. It is a trial and error thing, and you can fix the resultant body roll issues with more spring, more sway bar, or higher roll center. You aren't limited to one or the other.

I think you're right Pete. I'll change the FAQ.

Ah... got it! I was thinking about cutting the pin itself since I had to do that once. Makes sense now.

I'm not following this bit. IME the spindle pin gets stuck in the middle, not on the ends. So you cut through the pin and pull the strut away from the control arm. Then you install the new control arm and... you still have to get the middle of the spindle pin out of the strut housing. I don't see another way to do it. What am I missing?

Might be adaptable the Reaction Research's 940Z kit...

Plug and play. Should be a 10 minute job.

Check the classifieds. I have a pair that are very similar but in dire need of reupholstery if anyone is interested...

Good point Randy. I had a pretty well respected Z guy tell me that the Z had a crush sleeve in it. In fact he was SURE that it was a crush sleeve. As Randy says the shims between the two cup and cone bearings sets the preload. If this guy tried to set it by crushing the spacer between the pilot bearing and the cup and cone bearings it's gonna be frozen up big time. As I said in my previous post, if they were just replacing bearings the pinion shims that came out would probably be correct for the new bearings as well.

That is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time Doc!!!

Oh ****! I didn't even look at the price. I think I paid $5 for mine from the JY.

Lower pressure = more grip. Lower pressure = higher tire temps Lower pressure = more tire rollover Toe out front = better turn in Toe in front = more resistance to following ruts in the road Toe out rear = scary Toe in rear = more stability straight line and trail braking Ideally what you want is not a lot of tire pressure so that the tire can get hot and sticky (without overheating). The problem is that when you don't have enough camber you have to run higher pressure. If you run the pressure too low for the camber then you'll roll the tire onto the sidewall. You really HAVE to have the camber in order to lower the pressure. The sucky thing about Z's is that you can only adjust front toe from the factory. I guess you can shim in a tiny bit of caster, but that's pretty much the extent of it. I agree with John and Keith that you probably need another 2º of neg camber. A couple more degrees caster would definitely help too. Toe out the front, then if it's tail happy toe in the rear. Of course you're looking at some pretty major mods to do any of that...

OK, that explains it. Thanks.

Just messed with it again and I wasn't able to post a regular gif either.

I'm trying to upload an animated gif and it seems to be getting stuck. It all looks normal until you hit upload/submit, then it goes to another page with the Hybrid Z logo and the main screen just stays grey. Am I doing something wrong?

Don't know why this is a Chevy V8 post, but I can tell you that this works. I got mine from a late 80's Civic or Integra can't remember which. Bolts right on, just need to make a little pigtail to go the extra 6 or 8 inches from the Datsun wiring to the Honda motor.

I've seen MANY front drivers run wider front tires for the same reason. Makes sense when you think about it. If you don't have enough traction, put more tire on that end of the car.

Wider front track reduces understeer, so yes, it should help with a heavy front bar. Cary I'm suprised to hear that. I can't think of a single Z autoxer that I know that has narrower track in the front. I suppose if you can get the front to stick well enough with the narrow track in the front than that's what works. I haven't been able to do that. All of the Mustangs, 510s and Zs that I used to autox with were all running a wider front track too.

Look at the Turbo Swap Guide or whatever it's called in the Turbo section to answer your other questions.

Legally no. Illegally yes. The fact is your car is exempt from the 2 year inspection if it's a 240. The law states in CA states that you can swap in a newer motor as long as you keep ALL of the smog crap on it, then register the car as the donor motor vehicle (so it would be registered as a 82 Nissan 280ZX Turbo or whatever). Then you'd actually be legal to swap the motor and everything, but you would be under the rules of the ZX at that point, so heavy mods would then be illegal. There is also a federal smog law that states that all factory emissions equipment must be retained or something to that effect. Even if you're in a state that doesn't do smog checks you're still technically illegal with a modified 240Z or 280ZXT or hybrid.

I'd run the same size tire front and back. Running a big rear tire is great for looks. If you want the car to handle run the same size tire and more track width in the FRONT.

Couple of things to look for. One is the backlash. Did you check that when you had the cover off? Should be somewhere in the .005 to .008 range. The other thing is the pinion seal. If the pinion seal doesn't get seated all the way down the pinion flange can hit it and cause a lot of drag. Had a problem with that one myself. Last thing would be the pinion bearing preload. If the guy who rebuilt it reshimmed the pinion preload he may have screwed it up somehow, like maybe he didn't put enough shims in. Usually if you're doing bearings you don't need to mess with the preload, but some people do. FWIW, I took my first diff to a normal good ol boys American gear shop and they f'ed it up 3 times. There isn't that much to it, and I'm still not sure how they managed to screw it up so bad, but they did. There is NO reason why you should need any sort of lever to turn the pinion. If that's the case, something is WRONG. Take it back and demand the guy fix it right.

I would expect aluminum control arms on the GT. Aluminum arms that didn't crack for sure, but I'd be pissed if I bought that thing and it had steel control arms unless of course they were heims jointed ends on DOM tubing or something like that. Stamped steel is not OK on a modern supercar. What I wouldn't expect is their 1/2 ton pickup to have aluminum control arms too, and it does. When I was truck shopping the two things that got me away from the Ford were the engine (didn't feel as powerful as the GMC despite the higher hp rating) and the bed height. The damn F150 has a bed that's gotta be 5' off the ground. I can only imagine trying to load a motorcycle in the back of that thing... The other universally horrible thing about Ford was the people working at the dealership. F#cking @ssholes every one.

I picked up a couple 1000 lb engine stands today... tired of trying to get underneath the car...

Sounds like the PO didn't know what he was talking about, but yeah, swap in the ZX trans and you'll love it.