pparaska

A punch or chisel can be used to move the peened over section outward radially so it doesn't contact the axle. I've heard of using a die grinder to grind that area of the nut off, but there are bearings and grease in the area, so I wouldn't suggest that unless you are going to get new parts and/or clean all the grease out and regrease the inner bearing. And Mike, if it were me, I'd find a machine shop with a rotory table, tell them to use one of the old lug studs as a starting point, and put 4 more holes in for a 5x4.5 bolt circle. Of course, some good ARP studs would go in as well. Maybe have the outer bearings pulled off, have the axles shot peened, and magnaflux inspected, especially near the splined area and the friction weld at the flange/shaft juncture. Then have new outer bearings pressed on. With all the torque you're pouring through those puppies, why not?! I think the stubs are you're weakest link if you've got CVs and a good R200 and driveshaft in the car. JMO, ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages [This message has been edited by pparaska (edited February 08, 2001).]

For using the C4 parts, you're going to have to look into the throw of the C4 brake pushrod where it goes to the brake booster, to get a good answer. You need to compare it to the Datsun brake pedal throw at the brake booster. You need to move the same amount of fluid with the PEDAL throw of each pedal, so you need the ratios of the lengths from the pedal pivot to the booster actuator rod and the pedal pivot to the pedal pad for each pedal. Then look at how much fluid the C4 Master Cylinder moves for a given amount of C4 pedal throw. Then take the same amount of pedal throw for the Z pedal, and using the ratio for the datsun pedal find out how far the brake booster actuation rod will move. Take the fluid displacement that the C4 MC pushed by the same pedal movement and divide it by the Z brake booster actuation rod throw you just found and that's the cross sectional area of the MC needed. Multiply by 4, divide by Pi (3.14) and take the square root. That's the diameter of the MC you need. Round up to the next fractional inch or available size and that's the MC diameter you need. Make sure that you have enough brake booster actuator rod throw to move the same amount of total fluid that would be moved in the C4 with the pedal on the floor. You don't want to come up short! The Carroll Smith and Puhn books are good at this stuff, as well as others. Clutch: I'm using the Mcleod Hydraulic TO bearing as well and the Girling 3/4" MC. The AP Racing ones also have the right bolt spacing. I think it's pretty standard, so I guess the Tilton spacing is the same. I'm using a 1LE Camaro diaphram pressure plate. The pedal is just a tad stiffer than the average car, but not bad. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

quote: Originally posted by johnc: I don't think any kind of "low" door bar or a tube in the rocker box will significantly help chassis stiffness. The 240Z chassis flexes like a door hinge in two places: 1. Where the front firewall meets the floor pan/trans tunnel. Cracks at the front of the transmission tunnel and where the TC rods are attached to the frame are stress indicators. 2. At the rear bulkhead/floor pan. Cracks at the rear of the driveshaft tunnel and at the C pillar body seams are stress indicators. A 4 point welded in roll bar will significantly reduce number 2, especially if you make if a 6 point welded in bar by attaching it to the roof right at the hatch hinges (illegal in ALL sanctioned racing classes). A 6 point welded in roll cage helps with number 1 but to really make the cage work you need an 8 point cage with a knee bar, door bars, firewall reinforcement behind the hood latch striker, longitudinal bars connecting the knee bar to the firewall reinforcements, and addition braces going from the firewall reinforcement to the front strut towers. As stated earlier, low mount door bars and rocker box inserts do very little to help with side impact. So, if they don't add to chassis stiffness or safety, all they are really adding to your car is weight. Sorry for the bad news... For number 1, I added a 2x3 frame rail from the T/C bracket on new, thicker engine frame rails with lots of gusseting between the engine and floor rail. See my site under "Structural Mods" for pics, etc. I also skip seam welded the tunnel/firewall sheet metal joint and reinforced the firewall where the frame rail comes through. As far as a low bar as I discussed not adding stiffness, I am very surprised to hear this. It makes sense to my mechanical engineer's mind that it would add stiffness and John Washington of Velo Rosa fame uses this technique when chopping the roof of Z's. He also adds a tube along the inner rocker panel to tie to it. John, have you seen this kinked bar added and seen that there was no stiffness gained? It just seems that the long shallow triangle that the forward part of the kinked tube, the short tube from the kink to the rear inner rocker, and the rocker box would add stiffness to the center of the car. BTW, John Washington's kinked bar goes all the way back to the top of the rear strut tower and glances off the inner fender well on it's way down to the kink. Not saying you're wrong, I'm just surprised to hear you say it wouldn't significantly add stiffness. Respectfully, Pete

I;ve seen people put a kink in the door bar so that it dips down near the hip from shoulder height at the rool hoop. From the kink forward it is at a shallow angle to the front of the rocker box on the inside. You could tie it to the top of a reinforced area of the rocker box up front to keep room for your feet. At the kink, a tube is welded to the bottom of the door bar down to the rear of the rocker box in a reinforced section. This helps stiffen the car (not as much as a straight door bar, but maybe on par with a swing out door bar) but is easier to get over when getting in and out of the car. It adds little to nothing as far as side impact protection. I'm still considering this. I'm the same way - I don't want a door bar as this is a street car. I'd put a full cage in first that went around the door opening. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

Mike, I hope I didn't come across as slamming you - I wasn't. I was just giveing some food for thought on how all this stuff interacts when you are stuffing big tires and wheels under there. Those wheels are sweet and the price, even at $149 each is not bad at all. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

(administator mode off - personal opinions only follow ) I would have not hit the accelerator that last time IF I had seen the oncoming traffic. But I agree, the Z is VERY easy to control in a rear tire slide. The car was under control as soon as he lifted off the gas and his sticky tires didn't have torque pouring through them - the car hooked and went straight down the lane again immediately. (administrator mode on) I in no way condone these practices on public highways. (But don't be surprised if you ever see me doing something like that if I had the torque! ) That thing has got to be an awesome thing to drive - and requires alot of restraint, I'm sure! I'd be putting the biggest, stickiest tires I could find on that thing! See you in Kingston! I want a ride (I think!) I'll wear a "Depends" and put plastic down on the seat! ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

Sorry, I was away on work/travel and then a (shortened) vacation. The 380 ohm adjusts the "range" of the meter. The 2 ohm adjusts the "offset of the meter, mostly affecting the Full reading. I tried it with one of the senders I had out of the tank and it was good with these values. I need to get my tank full to mak the final resistor selection, since I can't find the notes I made for the full and empty outputs of the new sender in the tank. The problem with a variable resistor is that they wander a bit, especially the cheaper carbon based ones. A wire wound potentiometer would be better. I tend to just keep trying different resistors and combinations of parallel and series resistors to the the effective resistance that works best. I also have a resistance "decade box" that I can adjust from 1 ohm to 10Megohm with rotary switches for each decade - makes it real easy! You still have to find a resistor or parallel/series set of resistors that will actually give the resistance you need. They have a tolerance and for this type of small resistance, it can really add up and screw you.

How about a rust treatment gun/wand setup and use either the wax/oil stuff or POR-15? Eastwood Company sells the gun/wand thing fairly cheap and it has different tips for spraying ahead, behind and to the side of the tip. For the front rails, drill a hole in the transverse lower "tube" that's directly in front of the rail end. You need to drill another hole in the back side of that transverse "tube" Now you're inside the frame rail and can use the wand. For the floor board rail, drill a hole in the floor every 6" and use the sideways shooting wand tip. Use a good sealer to put plugs in all the holes.

quote: Originally posted by 76 280Z speeder: well i drilled all the local bearing shops and no luck. called the machine shop and he wants $6.65 a bushing. well got to thinking we have a machine shop on base here and asked a friend for a favor and now i can get the bushings cnc made for free. are these bushings just made out of steel? what type of metal did he use on his? later, chris Chris, no idea. Give Paul an email at: HansenHouse@xtra.co.nz Ross, did you want to say something? [This message has been edited by pparaska (edited February 07, 2001).] [This message has been edited by pparaska (edited February 07, 2001).]

Mike, Ouch. Sorry to hear things didn't work out with the 12" coils. My wheels are 17x9 with 149mm backspace (that's just 1/100" away from your 5-7/8 backspacing). With a 1/2" thick hat on my AZ Z car brakes, I had to use an 8" coil with the stock 240Z isolator and top spring perch, with the coilover tube at the top of the 1.5" sectioned rear strut tube. And it still hits the coilover tube enough to need an 1/8" spacer. Granted, with camber plates and a short top spring perch a long coil would fit. That's why I mocked up the coilover tube height using a piece of exhaust tubing over the strut tube to hold the coilover tube up - I wanted to be sure I had a way to move it once everything was together and weighted down. As it turns out, I can't use the lower 1.5" of the coilover adjustment as the lower perch/nut and the spring interfere with the tire and wheel down that low anyway. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

Welcome Cole, I have a 327 as well. Ask away, 99% of all posts get answers, and most of them very thoughtful ones. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

First, if you don't know of me, I'm one picky son-of-a-gun. That said, if I were to buy a low buck crate motor, I'd pull it apart myself and check clearances, etc. The cost of a gasket set and even torque-to-yield fasteners (if needed) is a small price for piece of mind. That's assuming you have the tools an know-how to measure things and know what's good and bad. Yeah, you'd void the warranty, but how good is a warranty anyway on such a cheap motor. In other words, on a motor like that, I'd consider it a collection of parts and no more. I'd tear it down, check it out, fix the things that I didn't like, and unless it was real bad, just eat the loss and losing the warranty. It comes down to I don't trust cheap rebuilds, as I've seen them go bad quickly. A used motor with low miles out of a junk yard would be a better bet, in my opinion. At least it's proven itself to have run that long. I guess I'd really rather go to a machine shop/performance machine shop and buy an engine that they have but the owner can't pay the bill on. That happens alot and you can get a great deal. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

Chuck, long time no hear! Glad to see you're back in action with the Z.

Any coilover for the size strut tube you have is fine. There are a bunch of people who sell this stuff. Check out scca (Mike) as he sells this stuff. He posts here alot. The issue is that to get clearance for that wheel and tire you need to use a 8 inch coil. Those are available most places that sell the coilover kits.

It really depends on what your Datsun sender reads at Full and Empty. I have three, and they all read a bit differently. Taking the average of the resistance values for Empty for the senders I get about 88 ohms. The average value for full is about 8 ohms. The stock Ford sender (according to Autometer) is 73 ohms Empty, and 8-12 ohms full. So to use the stock Datsun sender and have the gage for the Ford fuel level to read Full when the Datsun sender is at full, and the gage to read Empty when the Datsun sender is at empty, you need to add some resistors to the circuit. Here's the circuit that will make the gage read full and empty with the Datsun sender: You need to hook a 2 ohm resistor to the fuel sender output at the tank, then hook the sender wire that went to the stock gage to the Ford type gage sensor terminal (I used the Autometer Pro-Comp, PN 5416). Then hook a 380 ohm resistor to the sensor terminal and the other side of the resistor to ground. These two resistors will change the sensitivity and offset of the Ford gage to match the Full and Empty signal from the Datsun sender. No telling if it will be correct between empty and full! The Ford movement appears to be more non-linear than the Datsun gage, so it may read 1/4 tank when you have 1/2 tank. You might need to experiment with different values of resistors to get it to work right at E and F. If somebody wants the equations to solve for the resistors, let me know. Hope that helps, ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

Paul Hansen from NZ got back to the IZCC list with the following info. $2 a pop is not cheap, but this hobby isn't either. A better solution is to see if this part is available local to you. Anybody checked with "reputable bearing suppliers" for this? I don't need them, just passing this along. quote: (Message to the IZCC mail list: Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 07:59:19 -0600 From: Paul Hansen Subject: 240SX Diff fit to 240Z To all, Re the fitting of the 240SX (200SX) viscous diff to the 240Z. I promised everyone that I would find out the details for the bushes that fit between the 10mm crown wheel bolts and the 12mm carrier. The bushes are made by "Glacier" in the UK. They are called thin wall D.U. Bearings (bushes) The part no. is... MB1010DU. The dimensions are... 10mm I/D, 12mmO/D and 10mm length. They should be available from any reputable bearing outlet. I have used them in my set up for over 10 years with no problems. The cost from me is... $US2.00 per bearing (you need 10 per assembly) plus airmail charges to the USA or where ever (which would be minimal). If anyone needs them they can contact me direct. Regards Paul NZ

My Wheel and Tire info is at: But to get that tire (255/45/17) under the stock fender you need short coilovers and the correct backspacing. Note that I have 149mm backspacing, but I'm using rotor hats that are 1/2" thick, not the thinner stock drum.

Call me a wimp or too damn picky, but if I were to drill stubs for 5 lugs, I'd be down to the nearest reputable general machine shop that had a rotary table. Have them put in APR studs, and press off the outer bearing, shot peen and magnaflux them at the same time (I did have the last three done) and put on a new bearing. Some things I just don't trust to my trusty drill motor and eagle eye. Sorry to be such a malcontent. Pete

The stock SBC oil pan is about 7.5" from the block rail to the bottom of the sump. WIth the JTR mounts, that places the bottom of the pan about 1" below the crossmember! That's why I'm looking for a SHALLOWER pan. The Canton 15-240 is 7" deep, holds 6 quarts and is set up for road racing. Pricey though. I'm not sure which way I'll go. The Corvette pan (78 and later - watch the dipstick placement though) is supposedly a good pan/pickup/windage-tray to use for road course stuff. Another thing to add is a baffle that goes across the back of the pan. These go between the pump and rear main cap, where those two pieces bolt together. You can get them from Milodon, Moroso, others, for less than $10. Pretty easy to make your own as well. Anyway, this helps keep the oil from climbing the back of the pan and up into the back of the block on hard acceleration. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

Andrew - I knew you'd chime in some day with some schematics - I LOVE IT! I've been stuck on a few circuits I've been developing for things on the Z in the past and now I know where to ask Ross, that's sage advice from that other list. The issue of view angle is important to me as well. It seems this might not be worth it to me in the long run, seeing the trade offs and money involved. Ain't NO WAY I'd put a ricey clear lense on my Z - just my opinion/taste.

Thanks for all the responses! I was away on business and just got back to check things out here. I still don't know which way I'll go, but it will definitely be leather or leatherette and not rubber, foam, hottie pant material, etc. . Yes, I will throw money in this direction. Not too many parts of the car you actually have your hands on more than the tiller! And since your hands are sensitive things, a really nice wheel makes sense to me. Remember, this is the snowball car we're talking about - it's snowballed into a probably-done-too-nice thing, and less of a budget driver.

I'm looking to put a nice steering wheel in place of the gimpy (Thanks, Morgan, good word) tiller. I'm looking for something that's leather with probably aluminum spokes. The stock Z is 4.5" from the rim surface to the mounting surface. The Momo adapter is about that long, I'm told. So I'd need a flat wheel, not a dished one. Sparco and Momo seem to be in the same price range. The guys at OG Racing like the Sparco stuff (they admit they are one of the largest Sparco dealers in the country, hence their slant) and say it's lighter in general than the Momo wheels. Weight is not a huge deal to me (this ain't no go kart), but feel, quality, appearance, durability and utility are. I know there's the Grant stuff, but it seems sub-par in quality and appearance, although cheaper in alot of instances (lots of choices). The ones they have in the lower ranges aren't attractive to me. Any other brands I'm missing? Any preferences? ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

If that's a decent running engine, it'll be alot of fun in your ZX! $500 ain't bad for a running engine making 260-280 hp!

When you say all the bushings, did you replace the steering rack mounting bushings with the tighter/stiffer aftermarket ones. Did you replace the mushy rubber steering shaft coupler (near the firewall) with a Urethane or Nylon one? These two really add to the steering response and take away some of the wander. The other thing is to make sure the T/C rod bushings are good. Urethane here helps, if you don't have it. And lastly, make sure it's not toed out in the front or rear. Hope that helps, ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

I haven't used one, but I've heard they don't turn on until the RPMs come up from idle. Anyway, I actually went away from the 1-wire idea to put an idiot light for the alternator in the dash area. I wanted to know if I threw a belt or toasted the alternator. It's only one more wire, and you just run from +12V to the light bulb, then to the field connection on a regular internal regulator type alternator. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages