seattlejester's 1971 240Z

[seattlejester]

Maybe later in the summer before the younger ones go back to school, planning on a bit of surgery on the car and would like to finish prior to meeting up

 

Good news!

Seems like the stalling issue is associated with warming up. Once warmed up the car idles fine both in gear and out of gear. Either the car is drowning itself out from the ASE or the WUE. Will have to play with the map a little bit.

 

Found a main rattle was the taillight plastic panel in the back, all the rivets had fallen out (I used a pack was included with the car, seems they were too small), so it was just buzzing at speed. The trans tunnel rattle I am almost positive is the old trans rubber bushing mount. I have a replacement. Just have to get the car up in the air at some point.

 

So a problem with the heat I found out was that my extended shifter hole was just pulling up all the heat from the turbo and the exhaust right up into the cabin. On the freeway it felt like a tunnel of heat of just blowing from the shifter hole.

 

Boog helped me out with some insulation and we sealed the hole. 

And this was the temperature on Saturday.

And this was the temperature in the car (keep in mind this is post fix, just imagine how hot it was prior to the insulation, so definitely some work to be done!)

Lower right gauge is cabin temp in celsius 44.1 converted to fahrenheit is 111! 20* in about 20 minutes of driving. 

 

I tried some solution a friend recommended to try and loosen up the spindle pins to no avail, even tried welding some nots onto the end to hit it with an impact, but given its flushness the bead was difficult to make. So I threw them in a bath of evapo-rust in hopes of clearing it up some and hitting it with a pneumatic hammer. Any tips would be appreciated. I tried pressing it with my harbor freight 12 ton press, but it didn't even budge. 

[Jay Gadsby]

I had a stuck spindle pin not long ago. I ended up drilling a large hole in the end of it to slip in a punch and beat her out with a 5 lbs sledge. Probably won't work for you since even the press didn't work. Why has no one made a female spindle kit with two bolts into the ends? Would allow for a beefier thread, maybe even slide hammer happy. Probably cheaper to notch some bar stock, drill and tap and a couple hardened bolts than replacing with 90 dollar pin kits.

[seattlejester]

I'm definitely switching to a bolt and some rod ends after I get them out. Some camber adjustment would be nice and the ability to take out just the strut would be fantastic.

[Pac_Man]

When I get the cash to do an overhaul of my suspension, this is pretty much the sole reason why I want to get T3 rear control arms.

[seattlejester]

Ugh,

 

Spindle pins won't come out. Had them sit in evaporust to help loosen them up a bit/get rid of rust. Took it to a friends house, hooked up his compressor to my air hammer and went to town, no luck. He had some steel bar so I welded that to the pin and it just broke off several times.

 

Kind of getting to the end of my game here.

 

Where can I get these pressed out? Like what shop has access to presses? I have a few places I can call I don't recall many presses though. Not many machine shops in my area either, some precision fabricating shops, but no real big heavy duty shops. I have a muffler shop I visit I think I'll call to see if they know anyone, there are some performance car shops/garages that might know of a place.

 

Input appreciated, local input would be fantastic.

 

On other news, bearings ordered, seals are NLA from amazon, so I'll hit up the auto parts store for those. Ordering tubing and such hopefully this week. Coilovers will be ordered as well.

[Pac_Man]

Asking around definitely can't hurt. I get flywheels resurfaced at Jay's Machine Shop in Everett and I needed my transmission mount modified. Talked to a guy there and he pointed me to some old hot rod guy who works out of his garage in the middle of the forest of northwest Marysville.

 

Unfortunately I can't really make any recommendations myself. Only thing I can think of trying is to call Z Sport in Everett, ask for Chuck or Mike if he's not available- both have been working there for a long time and know Z cars pretty well. If they don't think they could do it for you then they could probably recommend what has worked in the past.

[Jay Gadsby]

Are you trying to save the original pin? If I remember, you are wanting to do bolts and custom lca's. What I did was drill into end of the pin, big enough to put in either a large punch or another bolt and break out the 5 lbs sledge. It took some work, but she came out. Helped to hit from both ends to free it up.

[88dangerdan]

I have this set

That I started prepping for powder coat. If you would like to go this route maybe we could work something out. I did a quick guesstimate and it would cost about $30 to ship them.

 

Just offering an option.

Daniel

[Eon]

I JUST finished going through this tiny slice of hell, after 2 days of soaking, air hammering, drilling, heating and cooling i had no luck NOTHING at all. what ended up working was a 20 ton HF press, a couple 1/2" grade 8 bolts and a mapp torch.

Edited July 28, 2015 by Eon

[seattlejester]

I'll give Z sport a ring if nothing local pans out. I have boog asking a race shop in monroe if they could handle it and I have a couple more local leads to chase down.

 

I am not saving the original pin, the PO cut off the threaded portions so they could not be saved and as mentioned I will be going with a bolt so no need to save. That is a point, right now I don't have much purchase, if I drilled into it a bit I might get a bit better purchase to retry the air hammer or just use a big ass sledge to get the thing to start moving.

 

Dan, PM'd

 

Hmm I used my HF 12 ton press to no avail. Depending on the quotes I get/other random justification to upgrade, I may look into purchasing the 20 ton. 

 

Thanks guys, nice to know I'm not alone!

[88dangerdan]

PM Replied

[seattlejester]

Thanks to 88dangerdan I was able to bypass the hurdle. 

 

So I ordered up all the material and parts for my rear adjustable LCA and hub rebuild. Just need to order the coilover, the correct length bolt, and the locking nut and I should have all the pieces.

 

Working on figuring out the exact specs for the coilovers. From the information I am gathering I think it will be the BC coilover extreme low kit with 3 bolt bolt in camber plates with 5k springs. I don't expect to be real low, but seems like the standard kit maxes out near my current level of ride height and I would like the option to go a tad lower.

 

So I picked up the jig supplies along with all the tubing.

 

Used tape to get somewhat square cuts (using a death wheel instead of a chop saw)

 

With the pieces cut out I made a negative of the jig. The hard part was replicating the spindle. I just shaved down a square tube until it was approximately the same size as the strut and welded two captive washers. 

 

Once that was confirmed, I popped out the control arm for my negative.

 

A forum member kindly sent me his cut off control arm ends so I didn't want to cut mine up just yet, so I flipped the control arm backwards to get me started with measurements. I welded up a couple of the tube adapters and threaded in the rod end with the locknut for the base measurements.

 

Once the control arm takes shape I'll have to build a more complex jig around it to help locate the A arm and the sway bar mount. Once the final jig is complete I'll reinforce it and paint it and then it will be onto the other side.

[seattlejester]

Been a bit slow. Cut the A arm tubes to length, just need to notch them, fit them and start welding. 

 

Ordered more parts to finish this soon.

 

15335 Fastenal part number for 11 inch 5/8 bolt grade 8 zinc coated

Hardened steel washers

Nylock nuts

 

Also ordered the spindle lock nut from courtesy nissan

 

Still have to order coilovers and find a freaking 300zx non turbo differential. I think the crazy prices on the LSD versions have made people delusional on the non-turbo ones. I really don't want to spend 2-300 on a non turbo differential. Hopefully I can find one soon or a 300zx ends up in a junkyard.

[seattlejester]

I just threw a new tune on it and messed with the acceleration enrichment so it should be running much better at least in the full throttle category. It was set to a really high throttle threshold so when I switched from MAP to TPS accel enrichment, the threshold made it inject fuel after the acceleration event so it would run lean then rich up really quick. I revved it a bit and it seems much smoother, will have to go for a drive soon.

 

Good news, found a 300zx at a local parts shop of all places. Apparently they had the unit for the past 20 years on the shelf.

 

Decided that I should work on that a bit as it was blocking my car.

 

Took off the cover and popped out the center section

 

Impacted the bolts off and used some brass rod to take the ring gear off

 

Ring gear removed

 

Open diff on the left from the 300zx, VLSD diff on the right from Infiniti J30

 

The bolts are of the same size and such. Just have to separate the VLSD and take a look at the shims and shim them up a tad for a little more lock. The reason for going through all this trouble is that the ring gear is quite different, not just in the number of teeth but in thickness even though they are both R200's (although the 300zx is long nose, the J30 is short nose). 

 

Only piece left for this that will be challenging is the longer input shaft, that is going to require some cutting and welding, possibly some cad too if I want new flanges or I suppose I can just steal from a stock input flange.

 

In the works of getting a replacement door as well as a some axles and input flanges, going to rebuild the axles and make the appropriate adapter so that this will truly be a bolt in operation. Planning on ordering my coilovers either next week or in early September. 

Edited August 23, 2015 by seattlejester

[seattlejester]

Replacement door acquired from Jmortenson on the forums. Met and a little chat, and realized who it was when he was describing his crazy wheel sizes. 

 

Still waiting on the input flange, input stubs, and half shafts. I have all the pieces on my car, but would rather have everything painted/rebuilt and ready to go in.

 

Really regret throwing away the R200 from a couple years ago, and not pulling the parts from the other 280z I pulled the struts from in the junkyard a couple weeks ago. Seems like when you have it it's junk and when you want it it's gold.

[seattlejester]

BC coilovers have arrived. Hope to get them welded onto my spindles and hub this weekend and maybe get a coat of pain on those. 

 

Figured I would test out my new go pro with a quick spin around the block. Road was damp from an early drizzle and the BFG rivals and the welded diff made it pretty slick. 

 

 

Speaking of the welded diff, my shim came in as well so I can reassemble that and plop it back into the housing. Still need to figure out my axle situation. 

 

First control arm is also welded up. Going to try and finish all my parts and just have a big install. That should give me a chance to also locktite all my bolts and get rid of a lot of the rear end rattles.

[98blackbell]

Looks awesome. Lots of fun there.

[seattlejester]

Engine is great, just need to work on the rattles and such to make it more enjoyable to drive.

[seattlejester]

So my thoughts, concerns, questions, on the J30 VLSD swap so far. Some are going to be pretty specific, but I want it out there. I still need to take out the C-clips install the center into the pumpkin and really take some measurements, but my condensed thought process so far.

 

Quick overview, the idea came from a post on here. Unfortunately not much more information exists. This keeps the car with a long nose R200, so the appeal is no new mounts or drive shafts have to be made.

 

http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/42612-talkin-the-talk-q45-r230-r200-z30-so-on-so-on/page-3?do=findComment&comment=832456

 

I found a 300zx turbo differential from an early Z31: 130$

Took the input shafts and the center from a 93 J30: 100$

Got the long nose R200 from a friend: Free

Thicker shim: 20$ 

 

Total for parts: 250$

 

You can see from the financial perspective why this might seem like a great idea.

 

The VLSD comes from a J30 which was only ever sold as an automatic over here. Usually the ones in the junkyard seem to have trouble in the engine bay area the rear end seems to be unscathed in the ones I have seen.

 

Z31 differentials used to be quite cheap especially the non VLSD ones, I think misinformation has been driving their prices up quite a bit.

 

Both cars I have seen in the junk yard multiple times. Pulling the differential from the J30 required a sawzall for the rusted exhasut and the drive shaft. The nut and bolts holding the axles were easy enough to pull apart. I didn't want to take a whole differential so it required opening the diff and prying out the center. I would advise taking the whole diff, I got dinged a good deal for just wanting the parts, I got charged for axles for the input shafts. Rather then just a differential.

 

Input shaft short side (driver I think): I have verified that they are the same spline as the short nose. Going off the post linked above, it says you can just insert the stub axle from the long nose R200 and call it a day. Looking at the measurements there seems to be two possible problems. The Long nose shaft is longer then the short nose by a couple mm (has more material internally past the c-clip groove towards the center), and the sealing surface is deeper on the short nose.

 

So compared to where the C-clip groove is, the long nose input would sit further in then the short nose input while potentially bottoming out a bit sooner. The inboard length I'm sure can be ground down a bit if it interferes, but the sealing flange length may be problematic, is the difference caused by the different physical size in the differentials short nose being a bit wider? I suspect so. I think this can still be readily solved. At most I imagine a little grinding of the input, I think the outside will clear.

 

Inputshaft long side (passenger side I think): Now comes the dilemma hoping maybe someone knows more info. 

 

Four main options here. 

 

1. Run the 6 bolt input, hope that it doesn't bottom out before it engages C-clip groove. Use a 6 bolt J30 CV to adapt it to custom axle

 

2. Run the 6 bolt input, adapt it it to another pattern 4 bolt or 6 bolt equally spaced (Porsche 930 CV) use custom axle.

 

3. Cut the whole shaft off of the 6 bolt input, and find a machine shop to weld back to however much of the 4 bolt input is needed to fit nicely into the differential (pretty much as indicated in the post).

 

4. Cut just the longer portion of the 6 bolt input, and find a machine shop to weld the longer potion onto just the tip of the 4 bolt input.

 

Option 1 and 2 would push me towards a CV axle much sooner.

Option 2 may make a very silly looking axle given the first CV would be 4  or 5 inches or so from the differential depending on the adapter.

Option 3 and 4 would allow me to stay with half shafts.

Option 3 would require a lathe and I'm guessing a hole saw, hole saw to cut the 4 bolt flange and a lathe to turn the flange off of the 6 bolt and fit and weld.

Option 4 would require a service that welds shafts, I'm not sure something like that exists. 

 

Hoping to get some more measurements and narrow down some options. I'd like to stay half shafts and then just go CV by using 4 bolt to CV adapters at a later point in time just so I don't have to drop another 500-900 on axles to get the VLSD in. 

 

 

 

As for the rest of the car, BC coilovers arrived, the rear strut housings have been cut and are ready to be welded. All the new bearings and studs are in for the rear stub axle, just have to clean and install it. The grease seal for the stub axle looks a bit strange though, it is a steel plate with a rubber ring on the outside. Looks nothing like the stock piece. 

 

Still have to cut the front strut housings to size and clean them, still have to get some slag off the control arms and finish grinding the remnants of the old arms as well as clean it for powder coat. 

 

Picked up some killer valve covers for the 7mgte, unfortunately it interferes with the factory hood latch so that has to go. I bought some quick latches I may try, I don't want to try and install an aerocatch as that was surprisingly a fairly arduous ordeal and I imagine with the multiple skins on the hood won't be easy either.

 

Going to the parts store to pick up new u-joints to rebuild a set of half shafts. Any recommendations?

[seattlejester]

So will know more today, but a set of 280zxt turbo adapters came up for sale so I may pick those up and try to stay nissan throughout the rear end and save on headaches.

 

Found some information that the J30 input shafts will fit into a long nose 300zx differential without any modification needed. 

 

Ordering a bunch of test parts so pretty excited about the whole deal. May have a full rear end swap to just throw up there and be able to pull my other setup out completely.

 

Thinking I will pick up the Techno toy tuning tension rods for sure, not sure if I'll grab the FLCA's quite yet.