RebekahsZ

The only way I can see to "preload" a coilover conversion is to run super short strut inserts (which would basically just limit droop), anyway, but that would be pretty hard to adjust without playing with spacers in the bottom of the tube?? I looked back at the pictures of the AZC and the McKinney, now I see how they adjust both the spring perch and they have an external perch for the (shock) insert. Pretty neat. Does that system fall apart when you jack the car off the ground? What keeps the shock in the tube (what little tube is left)? I've never seen any of these in person, but they are pretty cool.

Go autocross with the local club. Try to drive whole course in second gear. Adjust gear ratio as needed to be able to avoid shifting during your race without blowing motor. That is the gear you need. If you go to 4:10 or lower you will hate it for a daily driver and find that you need to shift more during autocross. Been there and done that. 3.70 can be a nice compromise.

Try jumping the battery off somebody.

What does this "preload" actually do for you? In my experience the weight of the car itself provides an adequate static load on the spring. Although each company has a different marketing "spin" to try to be more competitive in sales, they are all pretty much the same. If you wanna get low, ask ComicArtist for advice. But dont confuse the two subjects. If you want to go around corners fast as johnc for advice. In a z car, camber plates and spring rates offer way more bang for the buck than either sway bars or adjustable LCAs. In fact, adjustable LCAs really just add a lot of extra adjustments that you have to keep up with, specifically track and toe, which have a fairly negligible effect over stock. Every time you screw with the rear LCAs you will have to get an alignment-not true with camber plates in the rear-just push in and race, push back out and go commute. Go to an SCCA-IT race, and see what the fast guys are running.

What do you mean by dual perch? You will enjoy having the camber in front but after a few races you'll want them in the back too. ( Oversteer can be fun and scary). I have DP plates on all four corners. No additional noise and no fumes. So easy to install and use there is no argument against them unless you think the difference between 3 and say 3.2 degrees of camber is significant (which at my level I don't).

Wish you were my next door neighbor. We'd have this fixed or at least figured out in an hour or two.

Is this happening when the car is rolling or totally still? Reverse is probably not synchromeshed so car must be totally still. I've had some cars that would grind going into reverse unless I selected another gear first. I don't know if that lines something up or what but if I went into say fourth gear then went into reverse it went in without grinding. Try something like that. To adjust the slave, you just adjust the threaded rod that goes between the slave and the clutch fork. Usually you want to lengthen it.

Yeah, I was gonna try to tease you and say: "SUNNY-why dont you shut up and go break some s hit!" But, I was afraid I might catch you at a tender moment and hurt your feelings. Nothing like friends to twist a knife in your chest. I'm gonna commit to my Z-car being a compromise by design and limit horsepower to allow some reliability. If I don't get tired of cars breaking my heart, I hope to build a retro-styled A-model on duece rails that has a 9-inch and a big LS-motor that I beat the crap out of as a dedicated drag car with NO handling potential. It will be barely streetable, whereas my Z has super street manners. BTW, I bet your skateboard handling is caused by your spherical bearings at the camber plate level. On that drive to Birmingham this weekend, I was marveling at how smooth (but firm) the ride on my Z is with the same spring rates that you have. I'd have to ride in it to be sure; I went thru all my major suspension mods about 10 years ago and that was a trying time trying to get it all sorted. The only suspension mod I have left is droop limiters, which I plan to get done sometime between Dec and Feb this winter.

Dont get discouraged, SUNNY, chin up! Jim, looks good. The fuel shutoff was a good idea.

Maybe he has Carrera coil-over springs?

SUNNY-You silly man! The air in my system (this time) got there when I changed the master cylinder (which was the defective part that gave me such a bad time). Prior to that I had all the air out. The problems all along were: 1) defective master cylinder, and 2) warped flywheel, not air in the system. *$%@# I TOLD YOU SO *&^$!

I've been working with a mighty vac and learning along the way. I bled my master the regular way, but just couldn't get all the air out of it until I did the mighty vac trick. However, I couldn't really pull any fluid out of the remote bleeder unless somebody actuated the clutch pedal, too. I don't know whether the mighty vac was pulling the speed bleeder closed or what?? But, once I got the air out of the master, bleeding was a breeze in the old traditional way. And, until I have an antigravity machine to make the spent fluid levitate into a container, I'm gonna have to use some sort of hose that is pointed down to direct the spent fluid into a catch bottle. Once the air is out of a trap, like a caliper or master cylinder, the air bubbles seems to flow up or down carried by the fluid either way, whether the hose is at the highest point or not. Will, how do you get the mighty vac on the stock bleeder? Did you cut a hole in the floorpan/trans tunnel?

That looks really good. Consider going ahead and putting a fitting in the differential vent with a line over to a puke bottle. My R200 pukes a little oil out the vent constantly and I have to clean the diff up regularly to keep from having an oily mess. If you are like me, you hate to clean constantly. I plan to do the same this winter when I install a different ratio diff-wish I'd done it the first time "while I was at it."

The remaining air was in the master cylinder. Once I sucked that out the top with a might vac, the rest of the system bled really easy with my setup. Proofs in the puddin: I'm driving again!

I thought I posted this but the post didn't go. Check in with 1QUICKZ; he has an 8-second (1/4-mile) IRS 280z with a 12-bolt Corvette diff and his own custom adapters. He's best buds with jnjracing, the guy who only puts front wheels on his z so he can park it easier in the pits.

I guess the correct term I was looking for was "sprung hub." From the picture in the link you sent me, your clutch has a sprung hub. Just continuing to learn and trying to correlate with how different cars perform. Thanks.

After driving car around town for a week (clutch break-in), I hit the road for some shake-down/reliability testing. Picked up Rebekah from college and brought her home then drove her back; 3 hours each way. Little did I know that the return trip would be in 3 hours of constant, driving rain. 6 hours in a tin can with no mufflers, skinny front-runners and wide rears, no interior, no sound proofing, no heater or defrosters, no wipers. It was awesome. And on the 8th day God created Rain-Ex. Ready to start challenging the clutch with some power/rpm. IMG_0746.MOV

Freakin' amazing how you make complicated problems into simple solutions. I don't know if it will make a difference, but I'm gonna try to make my line-lock deactivate at the top of the pedal stroke when the clutch has been let out, instead of at the bottom. It may just kill the motor (bog), but it will be my attempt to not hit the drivetrain all at once. I'm gonna turn the line-lock off at the bottom where your switch is so that there is less chance that I can come off the 2-step with the line-lock still on. I think one of the early real challenges for my clutch was when I did a big smokey burnout for friends on dry pavement-I had unknowingly left my parking brake on-clutch wreeked for the rest of the day.

Does your 2-step deactivate at the top of the clutch pedal travel, or when you first come off the floor? Does your line-lock release have the same release switch, or is it independently controlled? From the video it looks like you had a line-lock working back when you were running those 7.11s, or was that left foot braking on the burn-out?

Great! Thank you. I saw this as well. I'm all about ls1tech since you first put me onto them. I have some shims on order from another company, but I like the Tick product that you show better. I'm actually gonna make my own if I can-gotta go to Walmart and get a compass for drawing the circles. Gonna use some 1/8" aluminum plate I have laying around and be done with it. I'm gonna try to do 2 half circles so that I can install this thru my inspection hole without pulling the whole tranny out again. May not be possible, but I'm gonna try. I saved my old slave for mock-up. There is a limit to how much I can shim because of the recess in the slave is needed to keep the thowout bearing aligned concentric with the shaft. I hope to shiim it such that the slave is at a minimum volume in the relaxed position so that I run less risk of overextending (the factory didn't give us much margin). Got 6 hours of mixed driving done this weekend and I'm calling the clutch adequately broken in. Ripped a 1-2-3 run in a school parking lot and the shifting was smooth as silk. Gotta go to a football game this weekend, but I'm hoping to post a new timeslip the weekend after that. SUNNY, is the Monster stage 3 clutch disc that you are running a spring plate or a solid, inflexible plate? Mine is a spring plate with organic on the pressure plate side and ceramic on the flywheel side. It has had smooth engagement from the outset. I'm already used to the stiffness of the 1" master cylinder - not an issue.

Yeah, I've already got a list of winter projects. When you get a chance please show and tell more about your launch control systems. I was thinking about a cam this winter but your trouble makes me shy away from making more power. I may focus on handling and make next summer an autocross year. I've got a few more trips to the strip this year before I call my "summer of the z" over. Love your videos. Wfritts, take another look at that photo and you'll see what's up. Just yesterday I saw a whole q45 package in our classifieds for 400 bucks. That's what coltgt45 was running into the 6s. Some of his was t56 before going to t350.

Not sure. Speedo not hooked up. I really think I'm gonna want to shim the slave still. That will take me a full weekend cause ill have to pull tranny back out. Big job for such as I.

You know how we are all bustin knuckles to have the widest wheels and tires we can? My street tires have been 226/50/16s on rota rbrs. Usually with a fresh alignment and krisp front end parts my car loves to follow every crack and seam in the pavement. Just for the hell of it, I picked up some used drag rims 15x3.5 front and 15x7 back and mounted 155/80/15 front and 235/60/15 on back to keep my drag race look during the week (hey,I'm in Alabama, you know). What was the result? I drove it all this week and just did 3 hours on the highway. Now I didn't go fast around corners or tailgate anybody to challenge my braking, but this setup tracked out great. Hands off the wheel, relaxed driving. Loving it. Was even great to drive on the highway in the rain. I'll keep my wides so I can boogie corners but there are a million ways to fly!

I could never get my carbs to stay synche'd with those insulators. Finally found some made of bakelite and they solved the problem. Looks great-traitor!😜

Any new status?