getZ

My transmission and diff are not perfectly parallel, there is a difference of about 2 degrees. That is the angle most posts are talking about, what they are saying is don't go beyond 3 degrees of difference, it does not have to be perfect. I've had my setup for a couple years now, but it has never seen freeway duty although I've had it up past 100mph with no problems. My concern with the bigger tires is when they hook diff will try to point the diff up creating a larger angle. I'll deal with that when I get there. As for drive shaft angles, I have no idea what my drive shaft angle is and I'm not sure you can do that much to really change it. If it was as critical as all that I'm sure you would see a lot more complaints about it.

I'm not sure which write up you are talking about, because there are a lot of discussions about this. The most critical angle or rather difference in angles is the transmission to the diff. To big a differance and you start to get driveline vibrations. I targeted less than 3 degrees difference between trans and diff. My transmission points 3 degrees down and my diff points 5 degrees up. For me it became an issue of ground clearance with the transmission rather that a perfect match in angles. I have no problems under hard acceleration. We shall see if that still holds true with the bigger sticky drag radials, but I can always change the diff angle if needed. Don't forget this also applies in the horizontal plane or side to side angle as well. As far as the driveshaft having an angle, the only argument I remember on this was to keep the bearings lubricated. With no angle the universal joints don't move around, thus preventing the grease from moving around. How accurate that bit information is I can neither confirm or deny, but I don't think you have much choice on that part. It is what it is unless you want to cut out the whole transmission tunnel to make it perfect.

I have a set of those cheap ones. I like the idea of the built in jack, but I don't take my camaro off very often. In fact it's been on those things for two years now. There's over a couple hundred dollars you're going to pay for about 20 minutes of time savings. They impressive for braggings rights though.

That looks pretty nice, but I only need $400 dollar bender. It's the dies that are expensive. Neat DIY project though. Plans for a mandrel bender would be awesome, but when new ones cost $50,000. I don't think you are going to build one for $1000. Then again, the only thing I would really like a mandral bender for is an exhaust.

It's not as straight forward as it may seem. It partly depends on what size tire you are running, coilovers and an inner fender lip rolled. It' really tough to nail an exact measurement down without putting the tire on and just trying it. I bought a whole stack of quarter inch spacers to play with to check how I liked the fit, you could make your own just to try a tire fitment. My guess is its going to be around 1.5" to get the tire on the outside edge (assuming 225 tires) If you have coilovers you can go smaller, but different people have different ideas of what they define as a fit.

They will self center, but it my experience with just about anything mechanical, the less you make it work, the longer it will last and the better it will work. I'm very meticulous (or anal) about details. Like BuZy said earlier, probably not really necessary unless you are racing seriously.

I didn't think the run out being slightly out of what manufacturers specs would be that big a deal. It was more an excercise of just doing it and going over the whole process, after seeing a few compaints about to much deflection.

When I get the shims I'll post some pictures. I'm pretty sure of my measurements. I can take the hat assembly off and measure them on a granite stone, but I'm pretty confident it is not the hat assembly. I don't think the tolerances on those old hubs were very good. After all, they are 70's technology. I agree it should not be a 1:1 change because of where I am measuring (on the very outside of the rotor) versus where I am shimming (on the hat to the hub), but I didn't make this up. I actualy measured it.

I was checking the deflection of my new AZC brake setup and it is a shade out. Driver side was about .2mm and the passenger was just inside the Datsun spec of .15mm at .12mm. I know people have just had the rotors turned, but isn't it easier to shim the hub distance to the hat or would this cause any problems? It seems safe enough since the shim distance is really small. Even if it were at 1mm it seems safe enough if you added two .5mm shims to the middle positions. This is what I did: Say there are four bolts attaching the hat to the hub. Zero the dial indicator at the 12 o'clock position at the outside edge of the rotor. Spin the rotor around and see how much travel the indicator sees. In my case the 6 o'clock position was the furthest in and 12 o'clock was the furthest out. I added a .1mm feeler guage to the 6 o'clock position and my deflection dropped from .2mm to .08mm, I figured a a slightly bigger shim would have taken the deflection down even futher. If you are really meticulous I suppose you can even add .05 (half of the 6 o'clock position) to the 3 and 9 o'clock position. Anybody try this before? I was going to use shim washers (if I can find them) instead of cut up feeler guages just to hold them in there better.

I don't know if this is the same trans or not, but one of the new corvettes is supposed to be available with a paddle shifted six speed auto.

The difference is how far back the center hub sets the rotor back into the car. There is about a 5mm difference in backspacing. I don't think it's obvious at casual glance without measuring it.

I think you are searching for milesZ, who has a 5.3 truck engine in a z.

You have to figure out what your objective is. If it is to stay withing budget then of course it can be done. Most people like myself or more interested in building or improving the performance of the car. Are those non-vented rotors going to brake well enough for you? Will that open diff get enough traction for you? Will those 14" slotted mags hold the performance tires you want? The list becomes almost endless and so we do what we can, save up some more cash and spend it on the z car again. Somebody around here has a signature. "If I had all the money I spent on cars, I'd spend it on cars"....and speed costs money.

Something else to keep in mind is the heat generated by tucking the exhaust up tight. I have exhaust wrap around where the tranmission is and it makes a big difference in keeping the heat away from the trans. The floor also has an extra layer of heat/sound insulation. I may opt to go for some aluminum heat shielding instead of wrap later. Every time I spill oil on the wrap it take a long time to burn it off and you can't just wipe it off.

That was interesting to see. I heard in the development of the current hemi they were having problems with flame travel across a domed piston until they went with the dual plug arrangment, the video shows a flat top so you can't see the disturbance, but I always wondered how they figured out how the flame travels.

I used to have big ground clearance, but my car sat to high. Now that I'm putting in coilovers I can readjust the height, but it also depends on how tight you want to tuck the exhaust in the tunnel, which for me included a home made transmission crossmember and notching the rear control arm bracket. I don't know how the transmission tunnel is on a 74, but on my 72 it required some hammering on the tunnel to make room. If I were to do it again I would have cut the corners of the transmission tunnel out and welded flat sheet stock to them. It's not the prettiest, but my setup includes dual cats into morroso spiral flows into magnaflows out back.

I personaly had problems getting my z31 axles to fit with MMS axle/companion flange set up and I've seen a couple of other threads with similar problems. The 300zxt cv's were about a half inch to long. This my opinion on installing the z31 cv's: If you have to force the strut tower back into place while attached to the spindle pin, you have to much pressure on the differential. Not everybody who installed this combination had problems and I still don't quite understand where the problem lies. Are the differential/lsd widths, CV lengths, bearing spacers or model type creating a mismatch? I don't have the answer.

Not sure I completely understand what you wrote, but if the alternator casing has voltage, which it should not, it sounds like the alternator is hooked up wrong.

78zlt1 - I was measuring with the end caps on. I wish I bothered to look at this last night or I would have measured the way Nissan has them speced out. I put it all back togther last night and I realized the only way to check if you are going to have pressure from the cv on the pumkin is to simply wiggle the cv in and out. You can't check for any real movement because the shafts click into the pumpkin and the only play you feel is the snap ring on the spline going into the pumpkin. In any case both ends now fit with "wiggle." It did not take much to create the gap I was looking for. A quarter inch of clearance at the axle translates into almost two inches at the strut tower. Just for the archives, this is my setup: 280z control arms, mms axles and companion flanges, 88 300zxt cv on driver side with bearing cage flipped, 88 300zxt cv (rock auto) on passeger side with bearing cage flipped, no end caps on the cv (gains you an 1/8 inch of clearance) and 1/8 inch of the threaded end of the axle grinded off. There are still a 2-3 threads left on the axle, so it shouldn't be an issue. One more thing, I also have 240z spacers between the rear wheel bearings. Fill the axle end up with grease and put the whole thing back together. I was going to put a little gasket sealer around the axle to the cv connection, but I forgot.

If this is not going to be a daily driver and you get collector insurance, you are completely exempt from testing. I do the registration on line and don't even have to go to DMV anymore.

Baer brakes makes a decent set of wheel spacers, but in SAE sizes, 1" or 3/4". I got a set of 3/4" from ebay for about 65 bucks and a set of 1" directly from Baer for 72 bucks. My preference is to pick it up directly from Baer even though it's a few more bucks. You get some eye candy there.

Jon - that's not a bad idea to keep in mind. At this point now I have a plan C. I did get the driver side in tonight and I think it's going to work. I moved the swing arm up through its range and was always able to move the axle away from wheel side at least a mm at every point, but oddly enough the amount I can pull it away from the wheel never changes either, no matter how high or low the swing arm is. The weird part is my Rock Auto CV which measured out on the short side does not work. It's too long. I guess I need to remeasure the shaft length and not include the splined end. Then again, I can probably do what I did on the driver side. Take the end cap off and grind down the stub axle an 1/8 of an inch. The dremel tool works great. It never put enough heat into the axle to where I couldn't touch it. Of course it took a half hour to grind down an 1/8, but it didn't bother me.

I like the smaller diameter just because it gives a little more exhaust clearance. I have an autmatic with a flexplate but it the same idea.

Sorry, I made a mistake. The new driver side shaft I got from Rock Auto is wrong. It is a short shaft with a long spline, which will work for the long side (passenger). It did measure in at 19.25 fully compressed. BTW I ordered the left side CV. I did finish grinding an 1/8 inch off the axle to give a tiny bit more room for the cv joint. I will assemble everything tomorrow and see how it fits together through the entire travel of the control arm.

I don't know what to make of this at all. I just got a replacement short side CV from Rock auto and it came in at 19.25 inches. That's a full half inch shorter than my ebay ones. It should work fine with no mods. At least that takes care of the driver side. It has the correct spline length so I don't know what this means The only thing I can make if it is there are some big variations in either manufacturing (OEM) and/or incorrect remanufacturing. I think I'll order the passenger side just to see what I get. Maybe I'll get another one that is a half inch shorter.