JMortensen

If memory serves, and sometimes it does, the only difference in the forks are whether or not they are drilled at the end for a slave return spring. Other than that I don't remember any other differences. Jon

BayArea, Check the fork and make sure it didn't split where the pivot is. I've seen it happen a bunch of times with aftermarket heavier clutches. Never seen one bend, but I suppose that is possible too. Sorry Moby about hijacking your post. I think you can check by pulling the rubber seal around the fork off and shining a flashlight into the bell housing. Jon

Pyro, I think I follow what you're saying, and it sounds interesting, but do you have any pics??? Jon

Mas280, have you seen Terry's (BlueOvalZ) setup??? I know someone who broke a bar just like you did. I don't think it had anything to do with the nuts being loose. It broke about halfway from the back of the diff to the bushing IIRC. He had a NA 2.8 with SU's, but he also had big tires and LSD and liked to do burnouts. Jon

If you buy a ZX distributor, it will usually have a module already on it. I know a couple of people running earlier 75-78 EI dizzys with Chrysler module, and that works too. I'm sure you could hook up the ZX dizzy with a Chrysler module, but why bother when the Nissan one works fine? If the stock module goes bad then consider switching to something else, because the Nissan unit is $$$ to buy new from Nissan. I've gotten 3 or 4 from JY's and never had a bad one so that is an alternative too. I got 30 mpg on a long road trip with SU's and MSD on a 2.8 with cam and exhaust. Also I've found that it will completely hide rich idle conditions, if you check by reading the plugs. I think they're worth the $$$, FWIW. I think Bastaad basically has it right on MSD. I originally bought my 6AL for the rev limiter, but learned to love its functionality. Jon

EXACTLY!!!

The failures that I've heard about were like gramercyjam's. Jon

Slotted mags is the commmon name for those wheels. They are a dime a dozen. If you put them up on ebay, polish the crap out of them with Mothers, then take the tires off. I wouldn't pay more than $50 for the set and the tires will make shipping difficult and expensive. They were a dealer option to get away from stock steel wheels and every Z I've bought has had them on it, with the exception of the ZX's. Very common wheels. There are a few sizes and offsets, so knowing that would be a plus. I've only seen a few 14x7's, and they rubbed in back because the offset was wrong, but they would be worth more than the 14x6's. Sorry to be negative, but I think they aren't worth much at all. If you could find a local buyer and get some money for the tires too that would be nice, but I think shipping with the tires is going to be so expensive that it wouldn't be worth it for most Ebayers, especially when they are so common. Jon

I used the cable from the clevis all the way to the Y part. It has some mounts which attach to the underbody of the 240SX, and I just bolted them to the underside of the Z where it was convenient. It took very little modding to get it in there. I'm sure if you get a cable from the JY, you'll see how easy it is. I don't have any pics, unfortunately. The clevises hooked right up to the calipers, and I seem to remember using a longer than stock bolt to connect the Y section to the front bellcrank, and just unbolted the rear bell crank. I think I paid $10 from the JY for the cable. I did this all about 6 years ago, so if you get stuck let me know and I can jack the car up and help jog my memory. I remember being surprised at how easy it was. Jon

My understanding is that it is more expensive to put someone to death than to keep them alive for the rest of their life. That's the moronic part of the whole deal. They get so many appeals that it is actually more expensive to kill them. Personally, I think DNA evidence should be required for death penalty cases, then they should get a set number of appeals. 2 or 3 maybe. One of the few things that I LOVE about Dubya was his position on appeals for clemency when he was governor. He used to basically say the same thing every time, rough paraphrase: "The person was convicted by a jury of 12 of their peers who sat through the whole trial. Who am I to overturn that verdict after just reading this paperwork?" I agree with him on that 100%. I have a hard time understanding why governors are allowed to give clemency. Maybe it's a state constitution or a checks and balances thing. Anyway, we could inject or gas or electrocute them, no big difference there, as they all go to the same place. It sure would be nice if they would clean up the system to make it more efficient, though. I've said this before, but IMO the ultimate justification for the death penalty IMO is not as a deterrent or as a punishment, but it is that the rate of recitivism in dead criminals is exactly 0%. Jon

duplicate. sorry

Here's another tidbit for you Tim, if you decide to run the ebrake. I used a mid 80's 240SX ebrake cable which made hooking up the ebrake really easy with the early 280ZX calipers. I removed the rear bell crank and hooked the cable up directly to the front bell crank right off the handle. Very easy modifications and works great. Jon

Somehow I expect that Nissans method for welding was superior to some guy in his garage with a mig welder. Nissan probably uses a friction weld like the ones used on axle flanges. The spacer is kinda suspect too. I heard this whole thing second hand, but supposedly the guy had just went to the local steel supply place and got some 1/2" bar stock, cut it to the right length, turned it to make it round, and welded it on. That would be a hell of a lot of welding for a fillet weld, in 2 spots right next to each other. Sectioning a strut is far less dangerous IMO. Even if the strut housing were to break at the weld, and I have a hard time imagining how that would happen, the wheel and brakes would not fall off!!! If anything there would be some clunking going over bumps that would very quickly alert someone to the problem. Maybe I am overly cautious, but I won't weld a spindle on myself. Jon

Take a close look at the last three paragraphs... http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20031201/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_death_penalty_3 WTF?!?! Either kill him or don't, but don't complain about the procedure to get to a vein being unhealthy. That don't make no sense. Jon

Try a slide hammer on the bolt. If you hit the bolt with the sledge you run the risk of mushrooming it and then it won't come out. Jon

I'd use the impact, just be careful. I just brought up that example because you can screw it up. Any attempt to hold the strut by the shaft is more dangerous than the impact gun, IMO. It seems to me that you would be much more likely to scratch the shaft, which will tear the seal and ruin the shock. Jon

Uh, are you talking about removing the front spindle from the strut? If so, then no is the answer. If you are talking about removing the rear strut from the control arm, then use the spindle pin puller mentioned. I have actually heard of a guy with a 510 who wanted Toyota P/U (2wd not 4wd) front brakes, so he cut off the spindle, welded in a 1/2" spacer, and welded on the Toyota spindle. That is the scariest mod I've ever heard of. He was driving on it for years, though. Jon

CAREFUL if you don't know the impact gun. A friend of mine pulled the top of one Illumina right off with an impact gun. I always put the nuts on with an impact too, but you need to have some familiarity with the gun you are using. If you've got the Illuminas, remove the adjusters from the top of the strut before you put the nuts on or take them off. Jon

Aux, don't EVER have a garage sale. Between the early birds and the chiselers, you'll just be angry at the end of the day... Jon

My $.02, The early ZX calipers are bulletproof, but they are heavy and have small pads. The later ZX calipers are problematic, the ebrake mechanism tends to fail. This is not just my opinion, but also the opinion of a Nissan master tech and another mechanic I know who has owned probably 20 Z's and ZX's. Personally, I don't think that the 240SX caliper was significantly different from the late ZX, so I would assume that similar problems will be reported with them as well, although I haven't heard complaints yet... Jon

I do like Discus said. I've corner weighted my Z and I know how far from the perch the adjusters need to be to balance the car at race height. At race height it becomes hard to drive around town, so I go to the track swap tires, adjust ride height, and adjust camber, then turn up the Illuminas, then run. It's about 1/2 hour worth of work, so I just get there a little early (or try to). As far as progressive spring goes, I think the best argument against them is that you are GUARANTEED body roll, until the suspension goes through the soft spring. Once you hit the harder spring rate, then your "real" rate begins. If you are racing and you are in a long bumpy turn the suspension will be into BOTH spring rates as the body of the car bounces up and down, and it can make your handling really quirky. Not too long ago we were talking about this and someone had mentioned a kit with progressives in the front and linear rate springs in the rear. This seems like the ultimate bad spring idea for a race car. Jon

That should work fine Jack, unless the carriers are machined a couple thou off, in which case you might have to reset the backlash. You are right about the ring and pinion being a set also. The curvature on the teeth is such that a 3.70 pinion won't mesh with a 4.11 ring. The main thing I think you'll have an issue with is that the R200 LSD from the Z31 has 12mm ring gear bolts, and so you have to find a later R200 with 4:11's, or possibly use a spacer sleeve in the ring gear bolt hole if you get an earlier R200. Jon

Now that I look a little closer, I think the ebay Z might have had flares more like this: http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/mikeg/racing240.html Jon

It's not so much the smoking, it is the highly explosive hydrogen gas that worries me. Static electricity would pose a risk if the concentration of hydrogen got high enough. Plus it is noxious. I don't know how it could charge and not release hydrogen. Maybe it can??? Again, I don't know if it would be a risk or not, but I'd rather have the battery in a sealed compartment in any case. Same with the fuel cell. Jon

There was a V8 Z sold on ebay maybe 6 months ago or a little more, red, and it looked very similar to the pics you've got there. Particularly the flares look the same. I don't think it had a spoiler on the back, IIRC. That Z looked pretty good IMO, had a full cage, fuel cell, V8 may have been supercharged. I didn't save any pics, maybe someone has them stored somewhere. Jon