RebekahsZ

I see two solenoids and something else-purge valve? Where you putting the tank? Looks great! I'm taking notes, and I've been known to be a copy-cat.

Thanks for the advice! A friend came over and we finished up the install and got the axles back together and everything torqued up. We made a new metal brake line for the driver's side rear caliper-the factory replacement I got a few years ago from somewhere like Blackdragon or somewhere had a burr on the flare that trashed the male portion of the flex line. PERHAPS the one we made up and flared will seal better and not tear up the new flex line that is due in on Monday or Tuesday. Be advised: it took some persuading to get the longer studs of the CF axle stubs to line up properly so that the brake rotor can be installed. I bet this is an issue anytime one installs new studs. I almost never have help in my shop and it was super nice to have a second set of hands-we got a lot done. One other thing of note: the Z31 axle companion flanges from Chequered Flag were blued like a gun barrel and not anodized or powder coated. I de-greased them (they came wrapped in oily paper) and primed and painted them (they already had a little surface rust on them. Only scratched the new paint up a little when I installed the axles.

You just need to come out here to Alabama where you can get more passes on a single night. No matter how fast we get, there is always somebody faster...that's the reality. Come race me and the shoe will be on the other foot.

Yeah, I agree. But, the reason why I tore down the hub (the billets were an expensive "while I'm at it project") was because it was leaking grease on the rotor side. I would't have done it until this winter otherwise (there is a nitrous system in my future). The machinist who pressed my outer bearings that time used a red grease on them and it wound up being super runny. And, I packed the tar out of the hub with the same stuff. I wonder if we grease zerked it, would it leak like mine did? So, this time I used high temp (tan-colored) disc brake compatible bearing grease and packed the hub more sparingly. I packed the bearings using the palm of my hand to press them full and remove the old red grease. Then, I only packed the lower recesses of the hub. Hopefully it won't leak this time-even though I get better at this each time, I hate doing these hubs/stubs.

Check the Gen 3/4 forum in the V8 section and the V8 section in general. We just had a discussion about this under the post: 2nd Annual International Invitational... Your speed will come down to traction and RELIABILITY (drivetrain carnage). If your car is broken all the time, your trap speed will be ZERO. Street tires you will run 7s or 8s in the 1/8th right out of the box. Slicks you will run 7s. Spray/turbo/supercharge it and you will get 6s. With tire hop you will break axles. Drag radials MAY be harder on the system tham wrinkle-wall slicks. Spray it without some sort of controls and you will break axles. wfritts911 runs junkyard half-shafts and I think he is on axle #5, but his current set is holding up pretty good. Sunnyz has broken several axles at several different locations along the length of the axle system-he just completed a Ford 8.8 independent rear convesion. Zfan broke an axle stub last year. There are other guys who have broken axles/stubs too. Auto trans seems to be much more forgiving. I haven't broken yet with CV axles, but I think I've just been lucky-we'll see how long the luck holds. I MAY have had some driveshaft cracking, but it may have been just the paint, but I replaced the driveshaft just in case. wfritts911 is slipping clutch to try to be more gentle, but I cooked a flywheel doing that last year, so I'm just dumping clutch at modest rpm (I'll be the first to admit I'm not a very good driver, but I'm getting better). Doing the billet stub axle swap right now for breakage prevention (stub axle failures can be dangerous/axle breakage can be messy with a lot of collateral damage). Solid rear axle solves almost all of these problems, although I know guys who have broken them (outside the z community). Move this question to that forum and you will get more help. Most of the guys in that forum only surf that forum and don't cruise around the other sections much.

Doing the billet stub swap and thought I'd show some comparison pictures of the parts. Other than metalurgy (which I know nothing about) you can really see the difference in the size of the splined portion of the stub axles. Also, the CF stubs are already drilled for both 4 and 5 lug conversions, so they are ready for future upgrades. See photo for show-and-tell.

http://youtu.be/d3I-C1pB8VA See (2) videos-for the life of me I can't find my photos! These are Rota RBR 16X8 +10 offset on all 4 corners. Tires: 225/50/16. My suspension has 2.5" ID coilover spring conversion and camber plates. Fenders are un-rolled and un-cut (I wish I had rolled them prior to paint, but too late now). Tire can be jacked into the fenderwell and does not rub at full squat or bump. I'm gonna try to go to 9" for some autocross wheels/tires since I have not installed longer wheel studs so I can perfect offset by using spacers. For autocross I push the camber all the way in and that creates all kinds of space in the fender. I put my old 15X7s on the other day with the camber pushed in and they were lost in there-they used to be a tight fit with stock suspension. The limiting dimension is the rear fenderwell-the fronts are cavernous. Where there is a will (and a bunch of money) there is a way! IMG_0129.MOV

And the winner is: Domzs!!!! With back-up kudos to rb26dettZ. Stub axle bearing spacers on the floor. I was doing the billet stub axle swap and forgot them. Moral of the story is: Don't try to rush to finish a project when your Mrs. is riding your hard to get to a party that started 15 minutes ago. There's probably a lot more wrong in the picture, but that was the only screw-up. Had to tear it all down and do it over when I got back from the party. And the spacers were right there staring at me on a clean paper towel! Reminds me of the time my dad built a whole engine, put it in the car, then my mom comes out to the garage and says, "what's that part over there on the work bench?" It was the oil pump (and not on a Z-car, but on a VW engine that required totaly disassembly and splitting the case to install the oil pump). I've got it back together correctly now, just waiting on one of the weird brake lines that the Desert Z disc conversion needs (yeah, I screwed that up too). Thanks for playing "Where's Waldo", guys. And I was only kidding, don't call SUNNYZ names - you seen the guns on that guy? BTW: I didn't circle anything and there is no rear sway bar on my car. The missing parts are just missing because you gotta remove them to do the stub axle swap. Good guesses.

The first person to correctly identify what is wrong with this picture gets to call SUNNYZ a big fat, fatty, fatty face! Hint: it's not the double brake caliper. BTW-this is MY car, my garage, my tools and, yes, my error. (I'm just trying to get Josey's goat).

Dude, when you hit the spray, it ain't gonna matter how much I weigh! Plus my ass gets bigger every day, wait till you hit 45 and need purple pills like the rest of us(this is a joke, BTW)! A leaking brake caliper turned into a leaking brake caliper PLUS a leaking special-order brake line today😥. Doing the axle stubs while waiting for that. Just did the slide hammer thing. Wishing I had never done the rear disc swap. No improvement in performance, just one more friggin project. The punk at the parts store kept trying to figure out my problem and I was like :" dude, just order the dang part before I punch your face in"- I'm frustrated and pissed off!!! Looks like I have another race weekend ahead on no sleep.

It's the velocity stacks.

Why?

When ya headed to the track next? I'm gonna starve myself next week and put less gas in the car to try to get under 11 next week. If you spray, our conversations are gonna get really short!

Sleeping 18-hours: I'm still whooped from my two days of "racing" 2weeks ago and it was just autocross and drag. 18 hours in the sack (by myself and sleeping) sounds great.

Stock springs still? More details! Adjustable droop or adjustable dampening?

Wow, your kit is amazing.

Glad to see I'm not the only one with wires hanging out of the done light pocket!

It's the day of the week that's the problem as much as the mileage. But I want to un-thread jack. Lets move off joseys thread. It's my fault.

I'm interested in October before I take the car apart for the winter. Lets meet somewhere with a Christmas tree and timing lights!

Thanks!

I dunno-I think that whole pre-load issue is over stated. Run whatcha brung!

I have never needed a spanner wrench, I just jack the car up to unload the spring then turn the perch by hand. Do you have a bunch of preload? Jealous of those lights.

He probably needs to get some sleep!

Did you pack them with grease before boiling them or after pressing them on?

Took car to dragstrip last weekend and had a great time (headers came in and car ran just as fast as before I had a full exhaust system. Got car home and found I had a left rear brake caliper bleeding. Replaced all the bleeding screws with speed bleeders. Replaced bad caliper this weekend and did the bleeding tonight with help from my begrudging but faithful wife (on the pedal). Went ahead and swapped fluid for Motul 600 high temp fluid (the old stuff was looking dark like iced tea. I freakin' hate bleeding brakes. Failed to tighten speed bleeder on same caliper adequately and made a huge mess, but finally got it done. Gonna bleed again tomorrow. I'm never confident of getting all the air out since the brake booster gives the brakes a rather vague feeling. Went ahead and replaced the brake fluid in the clutch master/slave since it was full of clutch carbon. Put extended studs on front wheels and repacked front wheel bearings. Had drag slicks rotated on the rim due to camber wear and had metal valve stems put on front tires (to get closer to NHRA legal). Installer broke a piece of the old valve stem off inside the tire and I didn't hear it bouncing around in there until I got home and tire shop was closed-tried to get it out myself-no-go. Taking wheel back tomorrow. Met a kid at the tire store who thought a 9-second 1/8-mile is fast. Billet stub axles are scheduled to arrive tomorrow via Fedex. After that is done, I gotta work on lengthening my master cylinder to booster pushrod to regain some pedal travel. Been talking to Matt Isbell about joining him in Atlanta later this summer for a road race instruction day at AMP. Matt says my race tires are probably not "bad" but instead they couldn't stick in autocross due to the lack of prolonged heat. Hoping I don't get Tech'd at Memphis in two weeks. Hoping to weigh car in drag racing trim before that trip too.