blueovalz

Thanks again. Great car by the way.

Forgive my ingnorance. VB???? Can you give me a site URL or a phone number and breifly describe any problems you had with replacing the boots? My joints appear to be in excellent shape. I just need some good boots. This appears to be a great way out of spending any more money than I have too. Thanks ahead.

It is often misunderstood in that total piston areas between floater and non-floater calipers is like comparing apples to oranges (unless you only use one side of the non-floaters). Example: Just suppose that the ZX floating calipers had a piston that was the exact same diameter as the OEM Z (non-floating) calipers. These two designs impart the same pressure onto the sides of the rotor. The volume of fluid (single stroke of the brake pedal) used to decrease the distance between the two pistons (rotor width) on the Z caliper is the same volume of fluid used to decrease the distance between the floating piston and opposite side frame on the ZX caliper. Let us suppose that you were to weld one side of the Z caliper (piston in place so it could not move) so that only one of it's two pistons operates freely. Then the free piston would double it's movement with the same amount of fluid use (single stroke of the brake pedal) than it did before, but with the opposite side piston welded in place, it cannot move, and therefore, the decreased distance between the two is back to the original amount for the single stroke of the brake pedal when both pistons were free. But because this caliper is a non-floater, only one side of the rotor is affected. OK, now let this caliper float so that when the free piston hits the rotor face, the piston movement now is transfered to pulling the rest of the frame (welded piston) or caliper into the other side of the rotor. This is the concept of the floating caliper. To compare piston area of floater to non-floater, you must only use ONE side of the non-floating piston area measurements when comparing it to a floating caliper piston area.

I just KNOW he's helping out with the Garage?

Well, I finally understand some of the horror stories I've heard of folks buying "rebuilt" halfshafts for the ZX turbo . I finally ordered some, they arrived, and both were identical. I took them back (with the old cores for comparison) to the place where I purchased them and then find out that the left and right side use the same part number . After showing the sales person the old axles, they could no longer argue the point with me (that the left and right side are indeed different), and refunded my money . Upon further investigation I find that this is (so far) true in every instance in which I find the RARE circumstance that somebody actually offers this part for sale . SO, I finally found a company in Florida, that will replace my torn boots ($25/boot) or do a rebuild ($100/axle) if I send him my current half-shafts. I've been lucky so far and not found any JY CV jointed half-shafts that had any play in them, so I may get lucky and just need boots only. Anyway, just wanted to share this with anybody wanting to get their CV jointed conversion "renewed" . The place is called St. Augustine FWD. 1-800-544-0838. I've not sent my axles to him yet, so this story is still unfolding.

Could you not instead cut the SX (or ZX) subframe down (remove a central section and then reweld the two halves back together) so that the control arms could remain OEM length (easily replaced)? The reason I ask this is I considered this at one time (I own both a Z and an SX). The subframe on the SX is a few inches wider than the Z subframe as far as using the OEM SX attachment points. But with a narrowed subframe, it may work out better. Obviously a "hybrid" method of attaching the subframe to the Z will be required, but the subframe modification would seem to be a more prudent way to go then modifying the arms. This way everything will remain geometrically "factory". Obviously, the axles will still have to be shortened.

I checked into these at one time. My goal was to increase the total piston area on the front calipers (I was using the front 280ZX calipers with the 300ZX rotors at this time) for improved clamping force. I found that the two pistons on these calipers had a smaller total piston area than the single piston on the ZX calipers. As nice as they were, I felt that it would have be a down-grade for what I wanted. The biasing (F/R) was at the minimum limit on my car at the time, and I could not afford to lose any more clamping force on the front, so this would have hurt me. Being the ZX piston is slightly larger than the Z piston, this caliper may be a good mod for those wishing to improve the front brakes cheaply.

I get "Page not Available" . If it's one of the old Daytona Coupes, then you're right. Photography does not do that car justice. I was in awe when I saw one in person for the first time.

What did the Integra hit. Did he simply lose control after passing the limo, or did he hit something?

Damn internet!!! Who the hell caught my last session with Monica? Is nothing private anymore?!!!

That's a unique situation you've got there. I've seen good and bad come from identical cases. The good was tremendous bonding between the father and son, and the bad,......well, that can go unsaid. I bet your wife had a lot to contribute to that converstation.

Wasn't this car sold on Ebay (or at least an attempt made to auction it) last summer? I think it went for something above 12k?

The ZX suspension is of a different configuration than the Z. About the only thing that will be of swap value will be the R200 differential (by itself), and the brakes. The ZX used a semi-trailing arm design, which differs from the Z's type of control arm design. The later model 280ZX brakes will be easier to adapt because of the smaller offset on the rotor and the less bulky caliper. The first couple of years of the ZX had a large bulky caliper frame with rotors that used a large amount of offset. The halfshafts may (MAY) be useable in that I believe they are the same part as the Z half shafts. The turbo ZX (CV jointed) halfshafts will also be useable with some attendant modifications.

Try multiplying the spring rate (lbs in the lbs/in") by .0179. This is a simplification of converting lbs to Kg (2.2lbs/Kg) and converting 1 inch to 25.4mm, then dividing the two (.4545/25.4). It will seem like a very odd number, but it should work. 375lb/in should convert to 6.71 kg/mm.

First off, a thorough cleaning of the bore is required. Any amount of dust, rust, and dirt is going to make things difficult. WD-40 with a ScotchBrite pad will do wonders for cleaning up the bore. Once you've scrubbed it out sufficiently (determined by how clean the pad is with each cleaning session) clean it out well with a clean cloth, and then another shot of lubricant (WD-40 once again is my favorite). I also found out that when I forced the previous pin out with a drift pin and a hammer (before I bought the fantastic tool one of our members offers), that I had scored the bore, and this was jamming the pin too. A 3/8" and 1/2" round file carefully used will clear up this problem too. Lastly, I screwed a nut onto the very end of the pin and carefully tapped it back into the bore (screwing the nut down almost flush with the end of the threads prevented the threads from getting all mucked up from the hammer). Important, if you have to beat too hard to get it in, the end of the pin may "mushroom" slightly, causing it to really bind up when you near the end of your endeavor. Be sure to index the pin so that the slot for the lock pin is in the correct position. If you see it drifting, then a slight torque on the main pin whilst tapping it in will get it aligned again.

Drill out the rivets with a drill just big enough to do the job. I've not done this in many years, and don't recall the size of bit I used (~ 1/8" maybe).

I'm not going to claim one type of shaft is stronger than the other. I know that I broke three U-joints (OEM, one poor, and one very good aftermarket) before I finally started using the ZX turbo CV jointed shafts. I've not had a single failure since then. For the Z with the R200, there are only 2 practical shafts: OEM U-jointed ones, and the swappable (with some minor work and parts) 280ZX Turbo shafts.

Excellent info. Thanks for the pass-on.

I hate nit-picking, but water proof and water resistant are two different animals. If the metal was completely sealed well, then I guess "foaming in" will not cause the retention of water to be a concern. I did foam in my fiberglass quarters, but it was a second attempt in which I learned that it must be sealed water tight, it will shrink slightly with age, and that expanded foam must be carefully applied. A minute amount of pressure per square inch (from expansion), applied over a broad area, will produce enough pressure to distort even the most sturdy of structures.

Well Pete, you've always been at the top of my list too

I'm not an EE but I'll try an answer here until they do reply. A 5A rectifier sounds a bit small (60watt) but I've not ever metered the current drawn by various devices on a car other than lighting. I've built such recifiers for garage use, but without spending a lot of time and money on creating a smooth (fairly smooth anyway) wave rectifier, you can get away with a typical Radio Shack transformer, and bridge retifier. But I've found out that many garage sales have battery charges that go for cheap money, and this was the way I eventually went. I did not get the same satisfaction that one gets when building his own, but is sure was less time consuming and I ended up paying less than it would have cost for the components to build one.

Lastly (I did not see this mentioned) is the shims. When I swapped gears in my R200, I found the shims from Nissan to be VERY expensive considering what they were. Do you have a source of cheaper shims?

Hey Hey! We do have young impressionable youth that monitor this site!

I've rebuilt the Z racks before, and I'm assuming here that they are similar to the ZX in this respect. The ends of the rack have bronze bushing that become elongated and worn with time. Once you start tightening the rack adjustment under the rack (which pushes the rack up to the pinion gear), then the rack will get progressively tighter as the rack nears it's left and right lock. The only good way to fix this is purchase the bronze bushings (left and right side) and repair the rack. From what you've described earlier, the rest of the rack looks good.