JMortensen

Spotfitz, The LSD shouldn't make it harder to turn the driveshaft at all. It only does its thing when you go around a turn. When you twist the driveshaft with the car on jack stands, the only gears turning in the diff would be ring and pinion. Check to see if you have a brake hanging up. BTW - it should be difficult to spin the wheels in opposite directions with a clutch style LSD. Jon Mortensen

As far as I know, the Phantom, Power Brute, and others are all Nissan LSD's imported from Japan. In fact, I believe ALL Nissan LSD's are Nissan units, except for the Quaiffe. This info comes from the ordering dept of Randy's Ring and Pinion, who are the largest LSD and locker distributor in the country. I would love to find out that I am wrong here... but I believe that I speak the truth. Unfortunately, Randy's did almost nothing with Nissan. They only carried Auburn Gear, and didn't have any in stock when I left. Those were also supposed to be Nissan units. FWIW, the Nissan unit is pretty darn good. Very similar to Dana's PowerLok with ramping cross pins, which is a lot more durable and agressive than Auburn's cone set up, or Dana Trackloc, or Ford Traction-Lock, or even Eaton. Jon Mortensen

I've got no idea why you had the suction problem, but I don't think it was actually a suction problem. Having pulled many of these struts out of the tubes, I can tell you that the suction involved is not that severe. Possibly the strut corroded and was stuck to the side of the tube, bent strut housing, I don't know. As Mat said, the oil in the strut tube is there to transfer heat from the strut to the strut housing. If you have no oil your struts are going to get very hot and not be able to dissipate that heat. You should put some oil in there. I always use ATF, but I don't think it really matters what type of oil. I usually put enough in so that the oil level sits about 3" from the top of the tube. From personal experience I can tell you that I swapped a blown Tokico Illumina about a year ago and the paint on the strut itself (or is that powdercoating) was bubbled up quite a bit from the heat. There was a section of the chrome shaft which was heat checked and blue in color, like case hardening. They get HOT! :flamedevil: With the heat thing in mind, I've got to wonder if you would be able to seal the bottom of the strut housing with silicone and have it hold. I think you may have to weld the hole back up or thread it for a plug. Jon Mortensen

I'd like to see a braking system with aluminum hats and 4 piston calipers that would fit inside 15's. Road racing 15" rims and slicks are very common, 16's and 17's are not yet as common, so they are much more expensive. I may be wrong here, but it seems like the only common brake upgrade with 15's is Toy calipers and 280ZX rears or Ross's rear setup. If I am wrong please let me know. I don't like the Toy calipers because of their huge weight penalty (although I do have them on my car right now), and the rear doesn't seem to have enough braking power. At least my 280ZX setup doesn't and someone else was just complaining about another type too. Jon Mortensen

You're right. .That's why we "ganged up" on the guys at the auto-x. Many of us had told them to put the seat up, turn off the freakin radio, etc. But it was only when a big group went over and as a group told them they were being idiots. Likewise when a kid with a Z and no money comes on the list here and says he wants to go fast and he saw this wing in the fast and furious, we can all tell him he's a dumb@$$ and maybe it will have the same effect... Forgot to mention in the previous post... the BEST thing I've seen on a rice car, and I've seen it a couple of times now, is the huge wing cavitating so that when you drive up next to the guy on the freeway it actually looks BLURRY! Now I check trunklids in the parking lots. If you see a lid that looks like it had a luggage rack torn off by a bear, that your ricer car post wing. Great stuff. Try to put 300 lbs of downforce on a Camry trunk lid and see what happens Jon Mortensen

I guess I have a more macroscopic viewpoint on this one. It seems like the goal of this thread is to figure out how to not hurt anyone's feelings. When I was a dumb@$$ kid, the only thing that made me figure out that I was a dumb@$$ kid was people telling me I was a dumb@$$ kid. Ricers are, generally speaking, dumb@$$ kids. Not all of them. Just the vast majority. Young and dumb and full of... cumbersome fiberglass body kits. Most of us are in America right? Here people should be able to say whatever they want, and use the strength of their argument to back up what they say. If they don't have the argument, or if it is flawed, people SHOULD tell them. People are entitled to opinions, not entitled to an opinion that is correct. I have certainly had my share of ideas and opinions that turned out to be wrong. I would like to officially thank everyone who has ever shown me that I was incorrect in anything I might have said or thought or done. You made me a more knowledgeable person, and for that I am grateful. The strength is in being able to admit when you're wrong and learning why, not preventing people from telling you that you're wrong because it is hurtful to find out that you aren't always correct. IMHO the guy who spends his minimum wages on decals and fart tips should be told that he is being a jack@$$. Most of these guys want to go fast, but they have no clue what they are doing, so they just follow the crowd. There was an autocross about 5 years ago where about 10 of us experienced autocrossers ganged up on a crowd of ricers and actually got through to them. They were so happy when they lost 3 seconds by raising the seat enough to see over the steering wheel, and learning that adjusting air pressure in the tires makes a difference in how cars handle. That sort of thing is what should be perpetuated. I certainly appreciated it when someone showed me. My $.02, Jon Mortensen

BEAUTIFUL!!! Someday... Jon Mortensen

Arizona Z car has one that looks like the Dial-A-Cam. http://www.arizonazcar.com Jon Mortensen

http:// http://www.rx-7.net/video/ferrari_blows.mpg

I think $400 is high, but I haven't bought a manifold lately either. My gripe with the Mikuni Manifold is the short runners. The air/fuel has to negotiate 2 sharp turns to get to the head. As I recall, #1 and #6 are really bad. They also have to use a very long velocity stack to make the effective runner length longer so there is some bottom end. I was given a Cannon manifold for my 44's, and bought my Mikunis with linkage and manifold. I traded the Mikuni Manifold to a friend who cut it up for use on a 510, and adapted the Cannon for use with the Mikuni linkage. I then had some 3/4" velocity stacks made. Everyone I've called, Rebello, Malvern, etc. that I've told about the setup has told me that I did the right thing. I did it just out of a gut feeling that it would work better, but it seems to have been backed up by those in the know. The Cannon Manifold was VERY POORLY CAST! I had a lot of work to do to port match it to the head. 4 of the holes were no where near round when I got it, and the PO had just slapped it on and ran it, no previous porting. The Mikuni LINKAGE seems much better to me. All of the Weber setups I've seen that were on used carbs had the rod ends frozen and were really rusted and junky looking. Mikuni uses a chrome rod with teflon (???) bushings and ball/socket joints on the carb linkage, which I prefer. I don't know how easy the TWM manifolds are for adapting linkage, but you may want to check them out as well. They are a longer length, and the 510 manifolds I've seen have been SWEET. Jon Mortensen

10-14 seconds just isn't enough seat time Mine is an auto-x and track day car, was my daily driver until I moved to WA and upped the compression. Jon Mortensen

Get a spray bottle filled with water and turn your garage lights off. Start the car and spray the wires. You'll know if you've got a crossfire problem. Did this on a 944 with a starting problem once and found it very easily. Jon Mortensen

I wish I knew about those control arms before I had a set made. Having them made cost me more than his would have, and I have to disconnect mine before I can adjust them since they are only threaded on the end. Depending on what you want to do, you may need both the camber plates and the control arms. I think I maxed out the camber plates at about 2.5 degrees neg, so I needed the control arms to get to 3 degrees. You need a lot of thread to safely go that far with the control arms, it is entirely possible that his have enough. They also really reduce suspension bind in the front especially if you get the TC rod kit as well (another part I had made for too much $$$). Not sure, but I think the ZFRS ones still use poly bushings in back. His site mentions GMachine, maybe he's using the delrin/aluminum bushings. It looks like a lot of fabrication to get a rod end or monoball setup into the back. All of this stuff is loud on the road, BTW. Jon Mortensen

Should be an 8 inch. Jon Mortensen

Toyota uses a crush sleeve in the 8 inch, V6, and T100/Tacoma diffs. A lot of guys replace with the solid spacer. Maybe yours was one of them. Regardless, like you said, looks like you got away with it. Jon Mortensen

Oh, and I should apologize to seeker for the bad info Jon Mortensen

That is excellent news! I had a diff built ~6 years ago, and I specifically remember the bastards charged me for a crush sleeve. Later I learned more about diffs and built quite a few, but no Nissan diffs, while working for Randy's. Hence my comments on crush sleeves. If that is the case, forget the crush sleeve stuff and go for it! Very happy to know I was misinformed! Jon Mortensen

Pull old seals with a screwdriver or a seal puller. Put a very thin layer of silicone on the outside of the new seals. Put a little grease on the inside of the seal, tap them in with a hammer and socket. Easy job. Jon Mortensen

You also asked what the best way to remove them is. Lots of people use a slide hammer, I think this is the hard way. The easy way is with an air hammer. If you don't have access to air tools I think this is a job for a mechanic, because you'll need to cut the peened area on the nuts off with a cutoff wheel and its gonna be way harder to get the new nuts back on tight enough. The nuts on the inside are peened (hammered against the flat section of the axle so they can't back off), so you need to cut away the peened area with a cut off wheel. Some mechanics peen only one side, some peen both. Make sure you cut it all off before turning the nut or you will waste the threads on the stub axle. Once this is done take your air hammer with the pointy bit, and stick that bit right in the dimple in the center of the axle shaft. The air hammer doesn't beat the crap out of the bearings like I think the slide hammer does. It will actually just vibrate the shaft a lot (wow that could be taken the wrong way) . Then you just put some pressure behind it and the stub shafts will slide right out. Make sure you have a friend standing on the other side to catch them. Have fun... Jon Mortensen

YEP... Jon Mortensen

My understanding of the rotary installation problems is that the eccentric (would be the crank in a piston motor) sits so high in relation to the transmission tunnel. Heightwise it would be equivalent to the flywheel bolting onto the back of the camshaft in a V8 from what I understand. The tunnel has to be cut out and fabricated to allow clearance for the high position needed for the transmission. Also raises cg. I would assume that this causes driveshaft alignment probs also, requiring alteration of the diff angle or repositioning the diff to fix. Mazda trannies are not the most sturdy, according to a guy I worked with who is on a GT2 RX7 crew. He says they have lots of synchro issues, which is a bummer because the lure of the rotary is super high rpms, and the synchros can't handle that. I don't know of a fix for the weak trannies, I think he said they just rebuild them a lot. If you get serious a call to Tri-Point or someone like that may be in order. I used to work near Tri-Point about 10 years ago and they were always putting rotaries in something weird, Bugeye Sprites, MG's, Lotus's, etc. If memory serves I think I saw a Datsun 1600 roadster in there once. Also the exhaust is REALLY HOT. I wonder if you might be able to insulate or jet hot the whole system. I certainly wouldn't want rotary exhaust routed in the same place I've got my L6 exhaust run! Jon Mortensen

I believe that is Zbarn. http://www.zbarn.com My understanding is that Tweeks sold their Z business to Zbarn, but I'm not absolutely sure on that. Jon Mortensen

I used to do it on an alignment rack. I've seen my ITSS Firebird racing ex boss lift his car on the hoist, set it down on 4 upside down 50 gal drums to give himself a place to work. If you don't have a flat space it makes things pretty tough. I suppose you could make blocks that are level and pull the car onto the blocks. I don't know exactly what kind of ROI you would be getting at that point... Jon Mortensen

Hey 260DET, I've had the same problem with my admittedly inferior Z Quip late 280ZX setup on my 240. I was running the stock rotor with 4x4 calipers in front, and ended up taking the prop valve completely out, and still could not lock the rears in water! I suggest you install the prop valve in the front system. As for me, I'm saving for some bigger brakes front and back. Still looking at options, but I'd like to keep in a 15 inch rim, so I think that means 12 inch rotor max. Just wanted to share my experience... Jon Mortensen

Here's the response I got from the zhome mailing list to my "Does header wrap cause overheating" question: "When I crewed for a Z car that was racing SCCA nationals in the 1970's in the NE, we started to wrap the headers and immediately experienced blown head gaskets. Consulting with the header manufacture, they indicated that wrapping headers does what the product is designed to do, reduce heat in the engine bay. However, as an unwanted byproduct, the the wrap also backs heat up into the head. Too much heat and the head warps blowing the head gasket. To correct, remove the header wrapper. If you need to keep heat from the carbs, build a heat shield between the headers and the carbs." Thought this might be of interest for anyone else considering a bad purchase... Jon Mortensen