JMortensen

No the incident we're talking about was trying to upshift to 4th hitting 2nd instead. In my case, the instructor told my brother to downshift to second when he should have held 3rd. Jon

Driving schools are covered by almost every insurance company, even if they are on a track. I've seen lots of people shoot for 4th and hit 2nd. Happened to a friend of mine in her 240. She exploded the clutch, and the water pressure got so high inside the head that it actually popped about a dime size hole in the side of the head. Coolant was peeing everywhere. The possibility of missing 4th and hitting reverse is the reason for the reverse lockout feature in the ZX 5 speed. Not necessarily "ignorant". Just a mistake. John Coffey and jt1 even noted that the 3 series is known for this, so the gates must be very close together and hard to feel. Jon

How do you feel about that John??? I've got 3 friends who are driving instructors at autox schools. I think that MOST instructors that have been in my car were excellent drivers, and they have the type of experience that the typical person going to the driving school doesn't. They don't just know the line, they know why the line is where it is. A good one will be able to explain that to a student. I haven't been to a driving school yet where I didn't learn anything from an instructor. Letting one drive my car is a different story. They are not familiar with your vehicle usually, so they would be more likely to make a mistake like the one that occurred. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to have a Z car racer like John Coffey drive my car around a track with me in the passenger seat. I'm sure that would be an enlightening experience!!! Jon

http://www.arizonazcar.com You should search this forum. You'll find lots of good info. Jon

I took my brother-in-law to a driving school with my Z. He was coming into turn 1 at Buttonwillow and the instructor told him "Go for 2nd". He had been downshifting to 3rd. He said "REALLY?" and the instructor said "Go for 2nd!!!" so he did, and promptly hit about 10K rpm and spun off the track. My bro-in-law figured the instructor knew what he was doing, and took his "expert" advice. No harm done to the engine, but if it was damaged I would have been the one paying whatever part of the bill my insurance wouldn't cover. I know that, and I knew it when they got in my car and took off. A trip to the racetrack is a dangerous thing, and the person who submits their car and themselves to that has no one to blame IMO. I don't even think I would file an insurance claim. It's not fair to people who have to pay higher premiums because we want to go fast on a track. Jon

If you get an electric fan and hot wire it on a temp switch it will come on even if the key is out. Mine comes on after I've shut the car off pretty often. I've got a 240SX lower hose with the temp switch in it, and it will run for a while before the coolant temp in the hose cools off. Works for me. I don't think it's really all that big a deal, though. Every car heat soaks when the engine stops. You may want to take temps with something other than a stock temp gauge (guessing that you're still using the stock gauge). I found that my temps were WAY different and much lower than what the stock gauge showed when I switched to an Autometer with a temp probe in the thermostat housing. Jon

Sure, email it to me. Thanks. Jon

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