JMortensen

I thought it was the violent grab on the clutch disk from the bronze or iron pucks that took the thrust bearing out. The pressure plate is attached to the crank via the flywheel, so I don't understand how it would cause more wear if it gripped hard but didn't chatter like a puck disk does. EDIT--just figured it out. You're pushing on the end of the crank when you press the pressure plate. Still, I've known LOTS of guys with heavy pp's on L series, and the only ones that have had thrust bg probs were the ones with the puck clutches. There has to be something about shocking the crank with the clutch that causes damage, especially when they start to chatter. Jon

Bee guy showed up today. 2 or 3 days and I'll be back in the garage! I guess it takes that long for the bees to all come back into the hive and get their medication. FINALLY!

Either will work, but it will be less grabby and easier to drive and won't wear into the pp or the flywheel and still hold the power (to a point) with the strong pp and stock disk. Jon

Happy to help!

http://www.aurorabearing.com/ I think you need a 5/8 high misalignment, and I would definitely go with the Teflon liner. On my GC camber plates the bearing slides into a machined "cup" and then is retained by a inside snap ring. Good luck.

Juan, be CAREFUL!!! The insulator flexes and allows the strut to change its angle when it compresses. Unless you put a monoball in the top to allow the strut angle to change, you're going to end up with a broken suspension. Basically look at a set of camber plates to see what you need to do, because eliminating the rubber and not providing some way for the angle of the strut to change is going to BREAK stuff. Now is the time to develop that cheap badass camber plate for those who don't already have them. Put a set on your car then sell them to hybridz'ers who need them. Or just buy some... Jon

I think you might be surprised what a strong pressure plate with a stock disk is capable of. My all stock setup started slipping REALLY bad when I got the trips, now it holds good even going to 4th at 7000 rpm with ACT and stock disk. No matter though since I guess you've already got your replacement. I thought the Daikin stuff was similar though. Strong pp and stock type disk. Never heard of a cracked pilot, but at least it made removal easier, right? The L series cranks are really strong, if you're really low on cash get new bearings on the mains and recheck the endplay would be my suggestion. Jon

The acceptable limit for crank end play is .012 according to How to Rebuild. Why don't you just roll in some new main bearings? Not the easiest job getting the main caps off, but not impossible, and you know you've already got good rod bearings in there. One thing that will help it keep from getting worse is to run a stock clutch disk. You can run your big pp, but run a stock disk. Much less thrust bearing wear. Jon

Did you swap the big rubber insulators on the top of the coilovers? The 280's are much thicker than the 240's. I guess you didn't section the struts, since you were asking about the spacers the other day. I know the 280 struts are different diameter, possibly longer??? You might NEED to section the struts to run the 280 stuff. I think there were some recent posts on that topic. Here's one: http://hybridz.org/nuke/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=33097 Maybe talk to Tim240z and see what he did. You could run a shorter spring too, but I think to fix it right you'll be back in there again... Jon

At least the goggles will catch his eyeballs when they get blown out of his head!

You might consider swapping the head from the 260 onto the 280 block. That will up the compression and you'll need high octane gas (92), but you'll get a little more out of the swap. Regardless, you'll feel a noticeable difference from the displacement increase. The driveshafts should be the same, so keep one as a spare. Jon

I would imagine the torque would be pretty similar to a pinion nut. Someone came up with that torque a while ago, so you can dig for it or look in a manual if you have one. Never seen the CV style driveshaft. Value of a good condition comp tranny is probably in the $1000 range. Jon

It's time to re-evaluate our involvement. Every day there are news reports about more deaths. Every night on TV are photos of death and destruction. Why are we still there? We occupied this land, which we had to take by force, and it causes us nothing but trouble. Why are we still there? Their government is unstable, and they have no leadership. Why are we still there? Many of their people are uncivilized, or at least don't speak English. Why are we still there? There are more than 1,000 religious sects and almost as many languages and dialects, many of which we don't understand. Why are we still there? We can't even secure the borders. Why are we still there? They are billions of dollars in debt and it will cost billions more to rebuild, which we can't afford. Why are we still there? It is becoming clear. We must abandon California.

Bastaad, I've got a couple questions for you: I have the ACT pressure plate in my Z. I think they only have one pressure plate for the Z in the 225mm and one for the 240mm. Which are you running? My 225 doesn't seem all that stiff at all, but it holds the power down MUCH better than a stock pp. I'm wondering if maybe you didn't clean and grease the shaft where the t/o bearing slides inside the bell housing? If you don't then not only will the clutch feel very stiff, but you'll wear that shaft since there's no lube on it. Always lube your shaft. It's just common sense... Also should mention that you don't want to use white grease or any grease that will coagulate on the shaft, since that will make it really sticky and increase the pedal effort.

Just to give you an idea Bastaad, when I first got on the slicks I traded my very heavy Shelby 15x7 mesh wheels to a friend and took her 6 spoke ZX rims. I warned her repeatedly that the Shelby wheels were heavy, but kept saying she had to have 15's. Put them on her car and she drove home to LA from San Luis Obispo, where I lived. First thing she does when she gets home is calls me up and says "Something doesn't feel right. The car feels slower and the brakes don't work like they used to." I told her to get used to it, because she now had 40 lbs more unsprung weight, maybe a tad more. You CAN feel it. Jon

Sounds like Steven Wright. "I had some powdered water, but I didn't know what to add."

I've had their coilover and "roadrace" camber/caster plate for ~8 years or so. It works fine. The one bitch I have is that the camber plate was too big to get all the way up inside the strut tower and there is NO caster adjustment, because there is no room to move the plate at all. I had to grind a little off the corners of the plate just to get it all the way up in there, so there is NO room to adjust caster on mine. Maybe a later 240 or a 260 or 280 would be different. Other than that they work great, but I haven't been able to see a significant difference in design between the GC coilover stuff and anyone elses. It is a threaded tube with an adjustable perch, and it slides over the strut tube. AFAIK, they are all basically the same. I'd like to know what significant differences there are between makes though, if there are any. Jon

I've always used a cutoff wheel and cut the peened area of the nut. Just run the cutoff wheel right next to the flat part of the axle, very carefully of course. I have no clue as to how you would grind it off without damaging the stub axle. Jon

74 260Z 2+2...

The old master cyl test: Stab the pedal, let it up, then push really slow. If it works when you stab it and goes to the floor with the slow push, then your master is bad. Jon

That doesn't sound good. Hopefully you won't end up with one of these: http://hybridz.org/nuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=lastup&cat=14901&pos=0 Good luck out there. Be sure to pull the wheels and check the pads between sessions. Jon

Sorry to hear about your continuing problems Bastaad. BUT... What about these: Topanga Cyn Rd Mulholland Stunt Rd Decker Cyn Trabuco Cyn Encinal Cyn Latigo Cyn Potrero Cyn Tuna Cyn Man I miss those roads... better get your brakes fixed first. Jon

Doing the same as the others, but for some reason I'm always smoothest racing. For whatever reason its easier to hit the rpms when they're higher in my Z. Your turbo might not rev as fast in neutral or with the clutch pushed in, which means you may have to do everything a little slower than a NA car. Jon

Well, the deal is done! The wife and I figured out payments on the Titan per month. Went back to the GMC dealer to see what we could do with the same payment. Needless to say we did a little better! GMC 1500 4x4 ZR1 Extra cab with the tow package, 5.3L, 3.73's, push button 4wd, OnStar, all the goodies except power seats, the blinkers in the mirrors and leather (which we didn't want anyway) and our payment is about $30 cheaper than the 2wd Nissan! Very happy now, going for a long drive... Jon