JMortensen

You shouldn't need a different master with the adjustable slave. In fact you can swap the pin with a non-adjustable slave to make it adjustable. Sounds like it isn't adjusted right, or something else is going wrong. My fear is that if you use a 3/4" master it will either hyper-extend the pressure plate fingers or push the slave cylinder all the way out. Your distributor looks like it might be getting some vacuum advance at higher rpms. If you have the stock 280ZX distributor and take the vacuum advance off or lock it down, then you should get 17 or 18 degrees mechanical, and you can look at the bottom of the plate with the centrifugal weights and it will tell you which one you have. When I was running an L28 with triples that's what I did, and just set the timing for something like 17 or 18 degrees at idle to get mid 30s at all in, which I think happens at about 2500.

There is a Bremerton practice in October, Medford was supposed to be today and tomorrow. I'll have to check the other local schedules and see what's happening.

Huh. I didn't even think about trying Lowe's or HD. Ended up ordering some from a business that does nothing but cargo straps. Should be here next week.

Still too long in the front. The problem is that I bought wrap around axle straps 8 years ago when I bought the trailer. Crisscrossing barely works in the rear, and I've got the tow hooks on the car and the slots I cut in the trailer set up for straight straps, so I think I'd bend the hooks before too long.

Two steps forward one step back. Ramps and wood got the car on the trailer. Tie downs are too long. Guess I'll have to look for REALLY short ones, as they only need to be about 2.5 feet long. I know you can chain one end and strap the other. Have a bucket of 5/16" chain but I'm guessing you want bigger. Would also need hooks for the chain. Any leads on that?

I have a tentative plan: pull the back of the truck up on ramps, this will tilt the trailer quite a bit by itself. Then I'll try a couple 2x12s bolted to the deck. If that doesn't do it, I'll cut the frame rails. I think by the time I get all that done, I should be alright.

So my car is too wide to fit on the trailer by about 1.5". Trying to figure a way out so that I can run before the season is over. If I have to wait, I can buy narrower tires and rims over the winter and then put it on and off the trailer with those, but I just went and looked and have some ideas, looking for feedback please. Thinking about cutting the frame rail and welding it closed, but not too sure it's a good idea. There is about 6" of overhang after where the leaf spring bracket is bolted up. Was thinking I could cut through the box frame and basically take a long skinny triangle out of it so that the tires would clear. That would be about 3' of cutting, so then thought maybe I could screw a 2x12 to the trailer deck so that the tires would come up and clear a smaller cut. That leaves quite a bit more tube above the leaf spring perch. Bottom of the car should clear one 2x12, downside is I'd definitely need at least a board in front of the trailer to get the front end to clear (which I'd probably need anyway with the rains, because with the 24.5" tires the splitter BARELY cleared the trailer with the plastic spacers on the front springs, so I don't think it will clear with the 23" rain tires on there). Also don't need to cut the whole frame rail, so technically I could notch the rail and leave some amount of it the full height, although it would be real thin and have a 90 degree corner at the bottom which seems like it kinda defeats the purpose, and it would also make it so close that I might really need to consider toe setting and whether the car would fit on the trailer.

Well, I drove it a little bit. It's definitely not a street car, that's for sure, but it does seem like it will keep me busy learning it for a while. Very fast, very twitchy. Intended to autox today, but believe it or not, it's about 1.5" too wide to fit on the trailer with the 14" wheels. When I had measured before I measured between the fenders, but when the bed tilts down there is a little frame rail that sticks out, and I can't get the tires past them. Will need another set of wheels and tires just to get it on and off. Thinking about doing 15x10s and putting rains on them. I can get 15x14 rains too, but I think the 10s might are probably a better choice anyway, even if it looks a little stupid on the car, plus I wouldn't need a 3rd set of wheels/tires. Also found that it high centers coming in and out of my shop and I had a (used) Hyperco spring fail on the first drive. Just went soft. I guess next step is get some 15x10s and raise it up enough so that I can drive it in and out of the shop.

Thanks guys. The thought of taking it out on a track makes me feel like I'm going to puke... In a good way. Sort of. LOL

My 12 year build is almost ready to roll...

Jhm's idea worked great, and flat head 5/16 flathead screws were easy to find at the hardware store. Only issue I had was trying to hold the screw from the bottom while tightening the nut on top. Managed to do it with an impact driver (only screwdriver I had with a big enough phillips) and a 3/8" impact gun on top. Did waste one screw trying to hold with a stubby screwdriver from the top. That didn't work at all. Also shaved the washers down as Clark suggested. If I could get away with just one screw on top then I think I'd have the full range of slot adjustment available, but not sure if running it with just one screw is a good idea. Thanks guys!

The Miata is the better car (I own both). The only advantage I can see for putting the z body on Miata chassis is that you would have room for an inline 6. Can already do v8 in the Miata. This thread does give me ideas about a z bodied Exocet.

You going to Medford? Looks like I'll be there Friday probably driving home Saturday. It's an 8 hour tow for me and my wife works Sunday.

There are people who run no chassis stiffening with huge hp. Not the best idea, but you can do it for a while. If you decide to go down that road, search "chassis stiffening" and you'll find a TON of info on how to improve the situation. My favorite example for a street car is Dan McGrath's car (username 74_5.0L_Z -- check his photo album). He basically did a convertible cage inside the Z body, so no A pillar bar or halo to smack your head on, and his car was wrecked in the front so he did a whole new tube front end. You could use the existing front and still make use of a lot of his ideas. His whole damn car is pretty awesome.

Are you similarly limited in the range of motion when you have them "backwards"? jhm had a good idea, countersink the holes and use a flathead machine screw. Going to have a look at that, see if there is enough meat there to do it.

Another alignment question. Since caster is defined by the top of the strut and the ball joint wouldn't it be accurate and easy just to measure the angle of the strut (measured front to back, not at its leaned in angle relative to the chassis)?

No room for new holes. That camber plate takes up the whole space. GC suggested I buy a plate with a longer slot and cut it to fit in the strut tower, but I don't think there is room for a longer slot. Rain is closing in after what has been the hottest, driest summer I can remember since I moved here in 2002.. Looks more and more like Sat is not going to happen. Forecast said rain Sunday, then rain Saturday, now says rain Friday. Next option is in Medford, OR in 2 weeks. Really wanted to do both and get some miles on it. Would hate to tow all the way down there and then have something stupid break and have to tow back.

That's the plan. Looks like it might rain though. Gonna have Mark Haag (zredbaron) out with me if it doesn't. Got new used slicks today too. I really hope it works out.

LCA is as short as I can get it. AZC top isn't compatible with the GC top. I could switch out the whole plate and that might be a solution, but would like to do that as a last resort. Tweak strut tube. I've heard about that forever, don't honestly know how they do it or where. Could you explain? Did make a little progress, I took the lower two bolts out and that allowed me to get to about 1.5 degrees, which I think I'll just call "close enough" for this weekend.

I remember years ago John B was looking at running bias slicks and talking about flipping the GC plates around to get more positive adjustment. Due to the lowering and the control arm length change in my car, I need less neg camber than I can currently get with the plate in the normal way. It tops out at about -3.5 degrees. Flip it and I've got about -1 degree on one side and about -1.5 on the other side. The problem is that I can't move the adjuster because it immediately contacts the bolts that hold the plate in the car. Thinking I can take the top piece off and do a crude notch with my band saw and then use the closer two screw holes, but that seems to be about my only option. Am I missing anything?

Cameron, check out www.nissanroadracing.com. They are really 240SX-centric, but their strut tech makes ours look silly. I've got the P30s, and from what I hear they won't handle spring rates over about 400. Haven't figured out an option yet, but right now I'm considering ASTs or possibly doing a 36mm Bilstein and having it revalved by Fat Cat Motorsports.

FYI, the Mustang had its own mechanical issue and the oil apparently had nothing to do with the crash. That from the guy who has the car now. http://www.corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48979

Screw the tubing notcher. 240hoke turned me onto this, works much better: http://metalgeek.com/static/cope.pcgi

Want to say they switched mid Z31. That's old recollection, but I would say around 86 maybe.

Did you seal the top of the core support to the hood, and close up all the unused holes in the core support? If not, that's another place for air to go around the radiator. Other (better) option is to duct from the front to the core support so that air that goes in the front has to go through the radiator and whatever other areas you direct it to like air filter, fresh air vents, etc.