blueovalz

John makes a good point here. All wheels are different, and to make sure your wheels will fit, you need to measure the difference between the back side of the "spokes" and the plane of the mounting surface. If this is measurement is larger (by at least a couple of millimeters) than the amount that the caliper is extending past the hub, then you will be fine. My wheels only have a 6mm difference (just another different measurement).

I've never used an aftermarket grommet around the windshield, so I cannot address that question. I would go ahead and make a temporary seal repair with what ever sealant you use, provided you make sure it is easily removed whenever you are ready to permanently replace your windshield. When you finally get around to replacing the glass, I suggest you purchase the new gasket (I like the Nissan part even though it is expensive) because the old gasket will be so rigid, it's almost a sure bet that the old and the new windshield will get broken trying to remove/install the glass. The new gasket will be soft enough that cracking the windshield is much less likely (even for the tenderfoot) than trying to use the old, hard gasket.

As you well understand now, It amazes me how blessed we can be. Just the other day my wife and I were commenting on how our current life style in no way resembles what our humble expectations were only 5 years ago, but the blessings never end. Its great to here this good news. In a world that gives me pause when I here about other's, and their problems finding, or keeping GOOD employment, its nice to hear a good story for once.

The only stubs I've ever run were the 240 stubs. Yes, the powerplant is not a high torque monster, but I am running 315 tires (oh yes, I did race with these stubs using 12.5" soft compound Goodyear slicks for years), and have had no reservations with leaving black stripes on the road perodically. The stubs never broke (knock on wood) and I still have the same ones that came in the car from Datsun. Correct me if I am wrong here, but is the splines the only area where the 280 stub axle is bigger? It uses the same bearings, and are necked down around the bearing jourals, so were exactly is the additional material other than the immediate area of the splines?

AW had an interesting short on the "Brock Coupe" (remake of the Datona) being imported into the US. They were originally held up by customs and only recently allowed "in" as a result of Carrol Shelby deciding to litigate this later in time. As much time as Pete spent on these cars, I was a bit disappointed to hear Carrol considering litigation against Pete. I'm obviously not in his (Carrol's) shoes, but come on, you've had fun, and have just about sued anybody who makes a replica, so enjoy retirement and ease up. Yes, this is easy for me to say being I'm not trying to protect a trademark, but I hope when I reach his age (and medical condition) that I savour the great things I was fortunate to be involved in and rest peacefully in retirement.

Your photo shows both bushings on one side of the frame. Place one bushing on each side of the frame so that the frame is sandwiched between the bushings (nut, washer, bushing, FRAME, bushing, washer).

FWIW, the 200SX that the R180 was in was a 4 cylinder, 1986 model. It appeared to have the same exact shafts as the 6 cylinder R200, and the 280ZX turbo shafts (even had the suspension similar to the ZX as well)

Its part of the FE family of Ford big block engines. In a nutshell, they are quite a bit heavier than the other engines of that time period. The more commonly known motors were the 390 and 427. They are wide and heavy, and IMHO, would be a good bit of trouble to use in a Z chassis considering the other options available.

I can only answer for the Z series, but I believe they are fabricated the same way for the ZX. Spindle...strut, they in essence all the same on the front. But more acurately, the spindle is welded to the strut tube along the bottom of the spindle's cast (forged?) portion. The practical answer is to find another strut in a salvage yard and replace the whole strut, and put your insert into it. Just curious, did the bearing races spin on the spindle. I had this happen one time when the bearings locked up, but I was successfull in cutting the inner race off the spindle, and carefully filing the few rough spots that were on the spindle, and putting new bearings on the spindle. Yes, I only drove the car 100 yards after the bearings turned to pea-gravel, but the spindle was still viable.

I recently changed the spring rates around for a stiffer rear spring verses front (now it has 265 R and 225 F), and once the sway bars were sorted out, I found the turn-in was much improved, yet oversteer was more predictable. So far, I've found no area in the handling characteristics that were hurt by this move, and a lot of tiny, but noticable improvements that made the car much more enjoyable at the limits of traction than before. This is not to say the car had the ideal set-up before going with the stiffer rear, but I'm finding this set-up easier to sort out than when it was the other way.

I guess as a last resort you could remove the vacuum line from the booster to add some effort to your brake system.

The whole Ford rack is longer, but mainly at the long threaded studs at each end where the rod ends screw onto. These studs usually have about 4" of threads, which is enough to lop some of it off and make them just the right length.

One other thing to address your problem is the alignment of your current shafts. Squat, and especially squat coming out of a turn, on a lowered car is hard on the U-jointed design. Have you considered raising the differential (sense it would seem to be out of the question to raise the ride height) up into the chassis to help straighten out the shafts? I did this on one of my cars (over 1.6", and it helped the longevity of the joints. I carefully hammered a concave portion into the Unibody crossmember that rides over the differential, put a shorter vent tube in the cover, and then raised the differential. Spacers were required for the front mount, and I created a "Z bracket" that bolted to the mustache bar and then allowed the differential to be bolted to the bracket (I was afraid to weld on the mustache bar, assuming it was spring steel, and I did not want to ruin the tempering).

I just came from a JY today that had two 200SXs (not 240SX) side by side. Under the cars, they both had CV jointed shafts that looked indentical in all aspects to the 280ZX turbo shafts. The difference between the two was one had an R180, and the other had an R200. Obviously, if a bolt is required to hold the axles in place with your LSD, then I wonder if these pop-in stubs would work in your LSD carrier (I'm not an expert here with the R180 ). The R180 did have the bolt-on bearing flanges and was obviously smaller than the R200 on the car next to it.

Coil-overs can be applied to an un-sectioned strut as well. Sectioning is for the most part done to change the length of the strut so that it matches a shorter insert, thus allowing the car to ride lower without hitting the bump stops. The sectioning can be done below or above the perch (or threaded tube support). I run 8" springs on the front (I used to run 10", but the spring perch was set at the bottom of the threaded tube), and even then, the wheel rim is even with the perch. Now on a car, with a higher ride height, and 14" wheels and short tires, then you may get the perch higher than the tire, but I'm not sure the "appearance" would be acceptable. One thing to remember when dealing with highly offset wheels is that the probability of the tire rubbing the T-C rod is increased in tight turns. I'd not do any work on the strut casing until I'd have the coil-over set ready to put on.

. It sounds to me like there is really not much going wrong in your life. You are focused on the future, maturing, and facing nominal problems. Step back and now list all the good things going on in your life and you'll see a lot longer list. Keep you eyes open, because things you experience at this age will stick with you forever, so make the most of it (which it sounds like that's what you're doing).

I have no idea who the manufacturer is. I believe it is an original Gleason Torsen carrier used by an old racing team as a spare that was never used. It may be an old NISMO part, but I have no idea. Those dang japanese cars, with the driver's side on the right, is probably why the short stub goes on the right side Anyway, today I grabbed one of my spare sets of CV jointed shafts and put new boots on them, and swapped the stubs so that the short stub is on the long axle (passenger side). FWIW, the actual axle length (no CV joints on the axles) is 14.725 on the passenger side, and 14.125 on the driver's side (as driven by the USA drivers). Everything else is equal and identical between both sides (with the exception of this subject of the stub lengths, which is internal and does not effect the length of the shaft once installed). I had an opportunity to see where potential weaknesses in these shafts are when I tore them down. It was quite interesting in how the inboard and outboard joints are designed very differently in the thrust surfaces used against the "tripod" bearings. NOW I'm ready for this thing to go into the car (hopefully tomorrow).

Additionally, the booster valving may be applying a small vacuum signal to the diaphram (brakes) due to the pushrod being set too far into the booster.

Please let me know what you find out. So much for bolting in my new diff and rebuilt shafts!

Thank goodness I have another set of new boots that will allow me to swap the stubs. Who would have thought the two would be reversed. Like I said though, with the U-jointed shafts, it wouldn't make any difference. I guess I'll be re-doing the shafts this week instead of installing the diff.

I'd appreciate if everybody would read the recent post titled "input shaft sides?" I found that my Torsen carrier has the long and short differential stubs reversed from a factory carrier. This of course, makes no difference if one uses the U-jointed shafts being they are the same length, but with the CV jointed shafts, this would cause a binding on one side, and I'm curious if this could be why my CV jointed shafts in my factory single-track carrier have plenty of play (end-to-end) on both sides, while other members seem to have had problems with their shafts binding when installed. I would like to know if this is something that others have run into. It threw me way off base in my plans for installing this unit this week, and only found out when I was attempting to answer this other post I assumed that all carriers used the short stub in the driver's side, but this carrier uses the long stub on the driver's side. All numbers on the case match all numbers on the stock cases, so.......it must be the carrier.

Well, I'm confused now. I'm assuming from this quote that when installed this way, the shafts are the correct length, but that the stubs are not correctly snapped into place. and then if you swap sides, then the stubs snap in correctly, but that the shaft lengths are off. Based on this assumption, it would sound as though the stubs are on the wrong shafts. Anyway, I opened two boxes of spare sets of CV axles that have been untouched and have the factory boots on them (very poor boots I might add). These shafts are identical to what I stated earlier. The shorter axle is mated to the shorter stub, and the longer axle is mated to the longer stub. The difference in axles is about 1/2" and the stubs is about 5/16" for a total difference between the drivers side and the passenger side halfshafts of about 3/4", with the shorter one going into the passenger side of the differential. Now the great mystery begins: ON MY CAR: The driver's side shaft, installed in the car (sitting on it's wheels at a normal ride height), is 15.5" from the diff case to the wheel side of the companion flange's flange, and the passenger side shaft is 16" from the diff case to the wheel side of the companion flange's flange. Measuring the axles themselves, I find that the drivers side is 1/2" shorter than the passenger side (by measuring the distance between the boots along the axle), which makes perfect sense. So now I ask myself, how is it that both of my spare shafts are different than the ones on the car. Another part to this puzzle: In the factory manual, a detailed mechanical drawing of the differential shows that the shorter differential stub is on the driver's (ring gear) side, and the long stub is on the passenger side, which is completely different than the differential I have sitting on my workbench. I consider the drawings in this book to be extremely accurate, so this throws me off a bit as well. Hang in there, I found the answer and you ain't gonna believe this! I finally decided to uncrate my two spare R200 differentials tonight and find out what the hell is going on. Surprise, surprise! The long stub on my workbench differential which fits on its driver side only, only fits on the passenger side of my spare differential. The case numbers on both are identical, and the only difference is my bench diff has a Torsen carrier in it instead of the factory carrier. This now brings up all kinds of questions being I was planning on putting this locking diff in my car this week So now I ask myself, is the Torsen assembled correctly? Was it designed for the U-jointed shafts which were the same length on both sides (with the exception of the stub lengths). Now must I cut off my brand new boots to swap the stubs with the axles? To finally answer your question, the factory diff has the short stub on the driver's side, along with the short axle. All the previous info I gave you was referenced to this hermaphrodite differential I have on my workbench.

Let me add to the above post (I assumed you were asking about U-jointed shafts). On the CV jointed shafts, the longer shaft (noticed fully compressed) will get the longer diff stub. I have both shafts off the car, and compressed (and also fully relaxed) the longer shaft has the longer stub on it). Here is a poor picture of the two side by side. The bottom shaft is slightly longer than the top shaft, and the bottom stub itself is again slightly longer than the upper stub itself. The two do not offset each other.

It won't matter which stub went on which shaft. The important thing is that the longer differential stub goes into the drivers side, and the shorter stub goes into the differential on the passenger side (R200 pop-in stubs).

I would say that "short fuse" does not do justice to the task before the moderators. With the large number of posts averaged per day on this site, the need to follow protocol is more important now than ever before. The culture of Hybridz is one of unity, technical expertise, and above all, self-moderation, tempered with respect, and consideration of other member’s views and comments. The small amount of time it takes to evaluate one's own posts prior to posting (keeping in mind the correct forum, as well as acceptable content and grammar) goes a long way toward presenting Hybridz as a mature, intellectual, and high quality site. It has been a struggle for the moderators on this site to maintain this culture in a consistent and tactful manner, but I feel that they have been quite successful considering the growing pains and changes we have gone through over the years. As members of this forum, we individually should be drawn together to see that this site continue to be the best it can be, precluding minimal intervention by the moderators.