RebekahsZ

JustaFantaZ - please post pics of your mods and describe model of car (240,260,280z).

I am currently keeping my tires air-ed up to 30psi to allow tire slippage to protect my drivetrain as I still have the STi R180. That way I can have the fun of nailing the go pedal and the weak link is the contact patch between rubber and the road instead of my drivetrain.

I love the mixture of high tech and low tech! Is that a billet hood prop? Seriously, amazing car.

So can you just cast your part right over the clay? I need a composite materials class. That is so cool.

Post a video and a sound clip. I've got my line lock hooked up and I owe the forum a smokey burnout.

I always thought that a "legal" roll cage had to be built with mandrel bends..is that not true? I might be closer to a roll cage than I imagined....

1991-ish Viper GTS coupe "banzai blue" with AC Cobra/Ford Mustang "wimbleton white" stripes. PPG products, last painted in 1993. Carbon hood will get painted body color with stripes eventually. Do white floors inside and out and engine bay to reflect heat and make it easier to spot leaks and see what you are doing when you are under the car or under the dash. Mine are black and I'm blind trying to finish up projects as the sun is setting. That is how I'll do my next chassis. Don't do red seats (do as I say, not as I do) because they fade to pink very fast.

Dude, like how old are you? You are like the Energizer Bunny. I'll be coming home to Little Rock at least once this summer and we will have to get together with our cars.

How is the tub? Especially around the rear hatch, floor pans, frame rails, fender arches? Rear hatch and doors?

Got shift light working. Brand is "Raptor." I chose it because it is small, has a really simple LSx wiring plan and install plan and easy to adjust. Chose green color because green means GO! Mounts with one screw. Wires to the brown/orange tach output wire from the PCM; I mated it directly to the back of the JCI-modified stock 240z tach. Then I sent a 12V wire and ground to my fuse new inside fuse block with 5A fuse. No problems with the tach - it seems to match what the shift light is saying. With low diff gearing and close-ratio T56, I'm gonna be one slap shiftin' fool. There is so little rpm drop between gears that the shift light comes right back on right after the previous gear change and it is time to shift again. My buddy made a pretty good youtube video of car running - closes thing to being there. Shift light wasn't initially working because I had dip-switches set up incorrectly. Re-read instructions and it was fixed in a minute. Instructions were well written, I'm just a little stupid. IMG_0247.MOV

You are a freakin' animal! Please, please post a sound file or video of car rappin' up some rpm with those headers? Is there any danger of burning a valve with such short stacks?

Tach, shift light and line lock wired. Little red indicator light lets me know line lock is engaged; green thing between speedo and tach is shift light. Next is speedo. Anybody know, off hand, what thread pitch the tach retaining nuts are? I seem to have lost mine...I can trial and error if nobody knows. Still gotta figure out where those 4 bulbs in the back of the tach go....Does a 240z have a check engine light? - I'm wondering if I should wire the "malfunction" wire from the PCM - where did (or didn't) you guys wire that with the stock gauges? I may add pictures tomorrow, but other than the shift light and my "inside accessory fuse block" there is not much to show.

Is that "hook" on street tires? If other than that listed in your credits, what tires are they? Axles?

Are you putting a cage in your car? If I had access to someone with the equipment and skills, I would. Now that my car is all shiney, I don't want to make any changes. I wish I'd put a cage in it way back when. Especially now that it is so freakin' fast. You are gonna love your LS hybrid.

The brake failure thing is pure nonsense, ignore that warning. Use the search function on this forum looking for Rota RBR + 280zx. There is a guy on this forum with a silver lowered 280zx with wheels in the ball park of what you are asking for. He's got pictures and everything. I think they are 16X8 with the +4mm offset. He wrote in detail about his experience and has lots of pictures. I'm pretty sure you can run a lot bigger/wider wheels and tires on a ZX than you can with a 1st generation Z-car. Don't sweat the details of your speedo being off - just keep pace with traffic and you won't get a ticket.

This is my favorite thread on the forum!

Go for it. I ran kybs with my coilovers for years and they were great.

Wow. Looks great. Is that the turbo motor you been talkin about? I think about all the help you've been ever time I fire up my car. I have a harness modifier I am happy with if you ever need one again. I hope to have lots of similar pics and vids as soon as my diff and exhaust are done. Way to go.

While you have it apart think about how you would make some droop limiter straps. You are a good welder so this should be no problem for you. The 4x4 sites on line sell strap material so you can get various lengths pre-made. You just need to make a little plate that sandwiches between the stock insulator and the top of the tower. Put a tab on it that drops down with a hole in it that you could bolt the top of the strap to. Bolt the bottom of the strap to the swaybar link bolt. Wait to order strap until you can measure for proper length after your build is done. Purpose of droop strap is that without it your spring, adjustable seats, top seat and spacers, and sometimes the bearings drop down and get a little disorganized. Your little keyway in the adjustable seat may get out of index. May not wind up being an issue,just be careful as you lower a coilover equipped car off jacks. Sometimes you have to jack car back up, straighten the spring up with your hand then let it down again.

Grease 'em like johnc says. I have had them rust in place and that turns an easy project into a really difficult one. I have been using a little oil since that experience and I always overfill and make a big mess. Grease makes good sense. That's what I am doing next time.

You need to decide how low you want to go. If you lower w springs only,you will lose a corresponding amount of travel. If you lose a lot of travel the car will beat itself to death. A stock z car auto crosses reasonably well with no mods so you could also do nothing and just drive it. I love my coilovers because they make it so easy to make changes. I can raise or lower it in a half hour and be right back on the road. I am currently 5" high at the rocker panels with lots of suspension travel.

Let's all cool down and stop the swearing. Johnc has been a big help to me-I asked him the very same question about a year ago and he walked me thru it or I would still be fighting my coilovers. He is my go-to when it comes to this stuff but he likes to be brief, kind of like my profs in med school. Sometimes when I am getting bent out of shape on my project I use the pm function to a specific mentor to keep my frustration. I think of the advice I get from my mentors as pearls, but I am also amazed by the intensity and commitment of the younger guys. Let's take a little break then get back to wrenching'.

You need some sleep sunny. Take a couple days off project then come back to it. I went thru this too. Use an air impact wrench and grab the shaft with your hand but with a rag so you don't lose any meat. The nut doesn't have to be that tight. Just snug. I just bought some steel to try to make a wrench thin enough to fit the flats on my tokikos next te I tear down but it seems be doing fine just impact wrench tight. All you need washer wise is for the top seat to rotate on the bearing when the stock insulated is on. Mock it up and if the seat rotates you are good. In the back it doesn't need to rotate but it needs to rest firmly on the big rubber washer that takes the place of the steering bearing that you have up front. The washers are needed because you are using stock mounts-ground controls instructions don't seem to make sense because they assume you will use camber plates. I had custom top seats machined but they really aren't any better than what you have there. Take a break and call me if still fighting with it 256-366-4685 central standard time.

If you are going to be cutting sheet metal for your flares I would go ahead and move the wheel opening forward an inch or inch and a half. It can get close with wide tires even with stock caster.

Did Shaun tell you what rotor his kit uses? I will need to know someday. If you can figure out the back spacing think about trying to use a front caliper as your drift caliper. Then you won't have to have room for the unused e brake brackets on the second caliper.