80LS1T Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 Well first of all for the last week I have a had a horrible brake pull to the left under any sort of braking. I thought I had it fixed last night after putting some new rear pads in since they were gone. Drove it to work to day only to find out that the pull was still there. Then today after work I was supposed to go get my nitrous tank filled but when I went to start my car it wouldn't start. I had the same problem after getting it back out after the winter storage. I found that I had water down in my optispark connector and it was corroded. I cleaned that out and it's been running for almost a month. It has stalled on my 3 times but fired back up pretty quick. Well today it would not fire up. I pushed it inside at work and found I had no spark again. I pulled that connector out and found it green again with corrosion(i have not washed my engine bay this year so I guess I didn't get all of the corrosion like I thought the first time!). Well that was enough for me. I decided right there I was getting a new Opti and new subharness for the Opti. This is getting fixed once and for all! Then when I had it up in the air I noticed that my left T/C rod was broke! Now I know why my car pulls so bad when braking! I checked over the rest of the suspension and found both my lower ball joints have some play so those are getting replaced too! Here's the bill from today... *2 lower ball joints..........$80 *Optispark and misc. parts to replace it.....................$275 *T/C rod and bushings........don't know yet need to find someone who has a 280zx parts car who can sell me that rod and I need to ge some rubber bushings(I had urethan ones, I know those are bad! I wont be leaving them in there!). I have the old Opti off and the ball joints on order. My car will probably be down for a week or so. This days going to cost me $500, I can see it now! While I was removing the opti I thought "I should get custom plates that say "MNEYPIT" "...It never ends! Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rturbo 930 Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 Well first of all for the last week I have a had a horrible brake pull to the left under any sort of braking. I thought I had it fixed last night after putting some new rear pads in since they were gone. Drove it to work to day only to find out that the pull was still there. Then today after work I was supposed to go get my nitrous tank filled but when I went to start my car it wouldn't start. I had the same problem after getting it back out after the winter storage. I found that I had water down in my optispark connector and it was corroded. I cleaned that out and it's been running for almost a month. It has stalled on my 3 times but fired back up pretty quick. Well today it would not fire up. I pushed it inside at work and found I had no spark again. I pulled that connector out and found it green again with corrosion(i have not washed my engine bay this year so I guess I didn't get all of the corrosion like I thought the first time!). Well that was enough for me. I decided right there I was getting a new Opti and new subharness for the Opti. This is getting fixed once and for all! Then when I had it up in the air I noticed that my left T/C rod was broke! Now I know why my car pulls so bad when braking! I checked over the rest of the suspension and found both my lower ball joints have some play so those are getting replaced too! Here's the bill from today... *2 lower ball joints..........$80 *Optispark and misc. parts to replace it.....................$275 *T/C rod and bushings........don't know yet need to find someone who has a 280zx parts car who can sell me that rod and I need to ge some rubber bushings(I had urethan ones, I know those are bad! I wont be leaving them in there!). I have the old Opti off and the ball joints on order. My car will probably be down for a week or so. This days going to cost me $500, I can see it now! While I was removing the opti I thought "I should get custom plates that say "MNEYPIT" "...It never ends! Guy Let me know if you can't find a new TC rod. I have an '80 ZX parts car, just a hassle to get parts off it, and the condition may not be too great. It's definitely a Datsun (rust)... basically I would recommend looking elsewhere first lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
80LS1T Posted April 25, 2008 Author Share Posted April 25, 2008 Man I thought the Optisparks came down in price! GM wanted $370 my cost(I work at a dealership so we get a certain percent over other dealerships cost...like 15% or something?). Factory Direct wanted $317 which I still thought was high. I also have to pay 10% over the cost of the parts that I buy from my parts department, so I still had to add another $32 to that! I only wanted an AC Delco new unit so Ebay was out of the question! Sure you can get them for $100 but what are you getting for that.......JUNK! I have been searching online for 2 nights for a good price and Summit has the best price that I found for a NEW AC DELCO unit...$310 + 12 handling. I also bought new harness for the opti because that's how water got into mine! Another $34 from summit which was fine because GM wanted $150! LOL What a joke! $150 for a 2 connector harness that is 12" long! Man I wish I had an LSx right now! LOL Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evan Purple240zt Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 Count your lucky stars you didn't crash your car because of the TC rod. Consider it a good day IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeeboost Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 Sorry you had a rough day, but at least you made me happy today - I got my smoked headlight covers in. Good luck with the opti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
80LS1T Posted April 25, 2008 Author Share Posted April 25, 2008 Count your lucky stars you didn't crash your car because of the TC rod. Consider it a good day IMO. No kidding! I have been driving like this for a week. I was out to lunch with a coworker last week and we took my car. On the way back to work I heard something metalic hit the underside of my car when I was coming up to a stop light. I didn't think much of it since it didn't happen again, just figured it was something in the road. Glad I didn't do any crazy highway driving! Sorry you had a rough day, but at least you made me happy today - I got my smoked headlight covers in. Good luck with the opti Glad you got them. Are they up to your standards? They have been sitting around for 2 years waiting to be installed. Now with the bixenon headlights I don't want to cover them up! LOL I found a member who is going to sell me both T/C rods for $40 shipped! I am going to get it back on the road and see if I can come up with an adjustable T/C set up for my car with my extra right side. I have a few ideas and Tony C has given me some pointers on how to go about making a set. Adjustable T/C rods and adjustable lower control arms for the front would be great. I'll have to see what I can come up with! Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeeboost Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 They look flawless to me - I'm happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bartman Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 I got my new Opti from Summit as well. Sometimes you can get genuine GM Opti's on eBay for about $100 less than Summit, but I didn't want to wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 I've got a spare 280ZX lying around... I actually made it a convertable last week... So you want me to send ya a front TC rod? Left or right? Might take me a while to find it among the weeds, but I know I have them both. Also keep your bolts just in case, though I think I put all the bushings back on them and put the nut on them to keep it all together. EDIT: Nevermind, saw the post about you getting two for $40 shipped. Sounds about right. I could have gone to the picknpull by work and gotten two for you as well. $40 ain't bad though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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