seattlejester's 1971 240Z

[Equizyme]

If you find yourself doubting your work on the diff i'd be more than happy to help. i've built a few diffs and have a whole dealership shop at my disposal. plus i work in Bellevue. so I'm close. aside from that stuff your build is looking great man. i'm about to start getting cranking on my own after a little bit of a hiatus. Maybe ill see you around.

[seattlejester]

Thank you for the offer, that is very generous! I may have to hit you up on that depending on how this goes. Definitely hope to see you around, I plan on actually driving this car quite a bit this year.

 

Spent the last couple weeks putting a little time into the car.

 

The FSM is filled and I mean filled with a vast amount of information regarding backspacing and shims etc, you could really get lost in it if you wanted to. I don't have the shims to measure, and given the large amount of adaption I'm not sure how much will apply. The consensus of the nissan community seems to be to install it the way you pulled it out and you'll be fine. We'll see how that goes.

 

Assembled the rear diff with an ever so slightly thicker shim. Impacted the ring gear bolts all on with blue locktite. Center went in easily enough, put the bearing caps in and torqued that to spec. Cleaned the cover and scraped off the old gasket, added a new gasket and tightened all the cover bolts. 

 

I tried to install the side input shaft and had trouble. A little bit of gear oil helped it to finally slip in. Here I had another worry moment as spinning the input would generate a small click before the side input shaft would turn. Searching online, it seems adding oil will dampen this click and it isn't audible. Beginning to feel like quite a bit of assumption/blind trust is going into this whole deal, a learning experience I suppose.

 

Installed the mustache bar, then tried to install the diff with the RT mount attached. Then I remembered that, that was going to be damn near impossible. 

 

The correct method from what I've done the last two times and this time is to first install the mustache. Then install the ES mount on the diff and loosely place the RT mount on top of the ES mount (start the threads on the bolt). Jack the diff up and engage the mustache bar, then loosely add the nuts to the studs. Then move the jack forward and get the RT mount lined up. Install the RT mount and then pull the ES bushing up to the mount by finally tightening the bolt. If you try to tighten the bolt before you line up the RT mount you are going to have a hell of a time lining up the 4 bolts. 

 

With the diff installed I started on the uprights.

 

I greased up the inside of the outer bearing, slipped on a greased spacer sleeve and set that aside.

 

Then I greased up the inner bearing with the old palm technique to make sure it was coming through both sides. I thought I had saved an old bearing but couldn't find it for the life of me so I found my bearing punch and tapped the inner bearing into the greased up housing. I added a liberal amount of of grease in the housing, quite a bit contrasting information to be found here. Some people say to pack it so full that grease oozes out as you push in the bearing and the stub, others say just a dab on the surfaces will be fine, and others say to just coat all the surfaces. I erred on the side of too much and coated all the surfaces and put a few handfuls smeared in the hub. I put the stub axle through and had a bit of a confusing moment when it didn't seat, I realized I could either press it in or pull it in. Having seen some damaged housings from no doubt someone trying to press it in, I decided to pull it in and made sure to install the grease seal and made sure to add a little bit of grease to the outside (I had read of a story wear the flange sat a little close and ended up melting the seal from the friction). Then I installed the 280zx turbo adapters and installed the washer and the lock nut and impacted it on to about 130lbs. I have both a 250lb torque wrench and the in/lb wrench to check for the drag so that will come after.

 

Ran out of grease so that will continue this weekend, but we are getting to the short list.

 

X Finish other side upright

X Torque nut

X Fill diff with redline fluid

X Tighten drain plug

X Tighten mustache bar/diff nuts

X Install rear hanger

X Weld spider gear to axle

X Install axles

X Install lower control arms

X Antiseize coilovers

X Install uprights with coilovers

X Mate up axles and LCA to uprights

X Install drive shaft

X Install brake hardware

Bleed brakes

X Install sway bar end links

Torque check all bolts

Put on wheels!

Edited April 24, 2016 by seattlejester

[Equizyme]

I always start with reusing all the old shims when i rebuild diffs. it usually gets you in the ballpark. its nice to have all the special tools to measure pinion depth etc. as long as you set your pinion preload right, and the backlash and pattern look good you should be totally fine. the little click you are hearing is most likely the pinion engaging the ring gear after taking up the slack from the backlash, and it will go away once everything is assembled and lubed up. if you do find your self a little on the tight side of your specs don't worry about it. everything will wear in over time and be right in the butter zone. Always err on the side of too much lube! a little too much will always get pushed out of the way. to little will cause damage. You're gonna have to post some more pictures soon.

[seattlejester]

That is very good to know. Measured pre-load although that took quite a bit more torque then I was expecting. We'll have to see how it sounds oil in it, I just got the oil pump to fill it the other day.

 

I'm going to try to take pictures today, last time working with all that wheel bearing grease and diff oil I decided against it, but goodness that is a huge wall of text.

[seattlejester]

So a lot of mixed progress today.

 

Started with getting all the parts ready to install the other stub axle into the housing.

 

The housing of course

The stub axle, note the sealed side of the outer bearing facing towards the outside, also potentially note the bent dust shield....

The new lock nut

The spacer

The flange adapter

With the parts ready the assembly began. Fill the housing with grease

Pack the bearing full of grease using the palm technique

Also pack the inner bearing and place the spacer on, making sure to add lots of grease.

Smack bearing into the inside of the housing. Note you can get this bearing started with your hands if you line it up correctly.

Smack in seal so it sits down against the bearing. Use a liberal amount of grease both inside and outside as the outside will sit against the rotating axle flange.

Place the flange adapter on and impact the nut on.

And no that is not an attempt to be fancy with a soft focus, that is grease on my phone

 

 

Here's where the problem occurs. I notice a tough spot in the rotation. Upon closer inspection I notice the dust shield on the stub axle is bent contacting the lip. I try to pry it out, but the space is so tight there is no way that is going to work. Now I could neglect it and let it auto machine, but I figure it is worth a shot to try and disassemble the thing. I take the lock nut back off and to my surprise a couple smacks with the hammer and out pops the stub axle from the flange. I use a screw driver to pry the dust shield back into place and assemble it all back together, and give it another spin. Nice and smooth. That is when it occurs to me that the other side is not nearly as smooth at all in fact it is really quite stiff. I try to disassemble the other side and I'm hit with a lot of resistance. After smacking it with a rubber mallet I upgrade to a hammer and have much better success. I panicked a little bit when the little trick of flipping the nut backwards to save the stub axle from mushrooming backfires and the nut gets stuck against the flange. Wiping the grease off my gloves luckily gave me the grip to get the nut off. After removal I find the seal was as I suspected riding on the flange. I smacked it down a bit more and put it back together. Very smooth on this side as well.

 

So after that little fiasco, I torqued both of the lock nuts to 200lbs and am giddy with excitement at the prospect of putting the car back together.

 

I filled up the diff and torqued the mustache bar and the drain plug.

 

I figured for the last task of the day I'll get the axle on the driver side in.

 

Note this is the 280zx turbo axle going into a 300zx turbo differential housing with an infiniti J30 VLSD center.

 

I thought I covered my basis as I made sure the 280zx turbo splines were the same, made sure the clearance for the retaining spring was correct, and even took the spring right off the old input shaft from the driver side of the infiniti J30. To my chagrin, the axle is not going in. I even disassembled the axle so that I am hitting the axle itself with no luck. Best to my guess is that the retaining spring is not compressing enough to get started. With the retaining spring removed, a couple good smacks gets the axle seated quite nicely.

 

After about an hour of different method of hitting and pulling the retaining spring out and trying to compress it a little bit came to no results I left defeated for the day.

 

My options are thus.

 

The lazy way:

Take the spring out, put the axle in, deal with it down the road. The axle is spring loaded so it will always be pushed towards the differential. The retaining spring for this center section on the driver side only does the job of keeping the axle from popping out, not to prevent the axle from bottoming into the differential (there is a large expanse towards the center instead of the usual slot you find). The suspension being stiffer then expected along with the non droop nature of coilovers means that the possibility of the axle falling out is pretty small.

 

The futile way:

Try to compress the retaining spring more. I fear this is futile as any amount I can get it to compress I have to stretch it back over the axle shaft so it will be lost. 

 

The futile way # 2:

Put in j30 input axle. This is futile as this would be using the same retaining spring and would be subject to the same problems. However given that it came from this differential there is a possibility it may be more happy to take it in. This would require me to build another custom axle for the driver side. 

 

The creative way:

If I apply enough force something has to give. Best case scenario the axle goes in, worst case scenario I bend the shit out of the spring and have to spend the next day fishing it out.

A ratchet strap wrapped around the differential would provide the extra force I would need. I imagine this is going to be an exercise in frustration as trying to force a shaft with a pivot point in the middle of it into a hole is going to be difficult.

 

Not sure what to do. Of course I want to do the lazy way, requires zero expenditures, meets most of the requirements, but if anyone has any thoughts it would be nice to hear.

[seattlejester]

I went to the autoparts store to try and find another clip, some guides online said to replace with new clips for new installs. Had a real hard time getting them to really look for it. Last ditch effort I figured I would go to the hardware store to buy a spring and cut a ring off and make my own. Didn't have much luck finding one of the right size.

 

So stuck with what I had, I shrunk the one I had on hand. Sadly putting it back on seemed to deform it once again. A couple more attempts and the inevitable happened, it flew out of the vice grip and flew across towards the trash. After cleaning up my trash I figured it was a lost cause, and went to look for the output shaft for the J30 to take to the nissan dealership to see if they could help me, luck would have it the little bugger turned up. I figured since I was already resolved to give up on it I might as well go for the last ditch effort. Ratchet strap acquired and the route the strap would take secured with zip ties, I started to crank it down. A few clunks were heard as I ratcheted it down to the best of my ability. And at max tension I hit it with a hammer. No cigar. Resolved to deal with it later I took my setup apart only to find...the axle wouldn't come out! I grabbed a socket and smacked it a few more times and it started to go in. Smacked it a bit more and boom seated! 

 

So tip to those who are struggling with putting a shaft in. After making sure all your parts fit each other, start the axle in, and use a ratchet strap.

 

Now my newest problem is the powdercoat adding too much thickness on my LCA. I managed to get the sleeve in on one side with heavy persuasion. I think the other sides and arms I am going to sand down the powder to make it a better fit.

 

Question. The bushing that sits inside the poly bushings protrudes more then the threads. With it assembled I can slide the bushing forward and backwards a little bit. Should I shave this sleeve down? Or is it supposed to be there to allow for rotation without the bushings binding?

 

[seattlejester]

Small update, I got 3 out of the 4 bushings installed.

 

The last one is being awfully stubborn and now it is starting to mushroom 80% down the shaft. I sanded off quite a bit of the powder coat, but not enough. I should have used calipers to check. 

 

I'm going to use an impact gun to get it to seat, and then try and massage the mushrooming out of it. The other three went in relatively easily. I should have stopped when this one gave me resistance, but I figured some persuasion would get it in.

 

Ugh, I really hope this is the last of it.

[seattlejester]

Got the last bushing in. Should have sanded it, but after that failed I should have just cranked it down with an impact gun instead of hammering it on. 

 

 

Spacer on hanger installed.

 

 

The resulting alignment. Very pleased that I was told to do that.

 

 

Uprights finally assembled.

 

 

Jumped the gun a bit and installed everything on this side. Need to go find a source for a 12mm headed M8 bolt for the axles. The 13mm head ones they sell at the hardware store has a head too large to get a wrench on. If anyone knows a source let me know please.

 

Getting awfully close!

[1969honda]

Try looking at JIS spec bolts, www.McMaster.com lists them as 12mm head

[seattlejester]

Thanks for that.

 

JIS or Japanese Industrial Standard yielded the correct headed bolts. 

 

Also while searching I recalled that on European cars they tend to use Allen head bolts which have an outstanding grade rating (10.8-12.8). I also recalled that a forum member had problems with the bolt heads hitting the RLCA on his output flange on the differential. On close inspection it looks like I may be near the same place and encounter a similar problem, so I've ordered button head Allen bolts as well just in case it becomes a concern.

 

I just placed an order for a butt load of bolts from belmetric. Very few bolts left to possibly replace now. They have quite a good selection. 

[Villeman]

@Seattlejester : 12.9 M8 Allen head? Like this?

https://eshop.wuerth.de/Gesamtkatalog/ISO-4762-DIN-912-Stahl-12.9-blank/14013511140106.cyid/1401.cgid/en/US/EUR/

[seattlejester]

Yup, I ordered https://www.belmetric.com/8x125-coarse-c-6_339_62_956/bsh8x25-allen-head-bolt-129-p-347.html for the flange to axle adapter. Grade 12.9

 

I ordered https://www.belmetric.com/8mm-c-6_341_378/sb8x30-button-head-p-2231.html for the output shaft to axle. Grade 10.9

[seattlejester]

 

I thread the coilovers about 1/2 way down, still about 2.75 inches left in threads. In theory (assuming a 2 inch drop from droop height), this should actually be pretty close to my desired ride height with plenty of adjustment left to go. I just have to adjust my fronts if this works out.

 

Bolts arrived so I installed all of those. Makes me feel a lot better having grade 10.9 and 12.9 vs the 8.8 bolts. 

 

 

I tacked the spider gear in lieu of the hard stop. 

 

 

Axle reassembled and installed. I'm a bit concerned as the other side didn't have the return spring. Not sure what the reasoning is, but it instead had a paintcant type lid so no room for a spring at all. You can see the outboard sprung tripod joint pushing the inboard unsprung joint in via the difference in the boots.

 

And it turns out the passenger side has a lot more room then the driver side. I'll have to double check that both sides aren't bound up by the axle, but my recollection was I had to thread the control arm out quite a bit for the driver side, where the passenger side almost seemed happy without any adjustment.

 

 

Rotor and brakes installed and brakes bled. 

 

Also wanted to point out and thank Jmortenson for how kick ass the alignment is for the sway bar with the spacing on the sway bar pushed back 1/2 an inch. I chose not to use the adjustable end links as I feel like it could use quite a bit more work. The ST end links went back in without a fuss. I'll have to remake those adjustable ones. Maybe with some box section.

 

 

Pretty sure I narrowed down my main oil dripping problem.

 

The first gasket was a copper one that came installed on the motor, that one started leaking after a while. I switched to the second one which was aluminum and came with my magnetic drain plug, that one was just as bad despite the larger surface area. Looking online people on toyota forums suggested using the teflon one with the toyota FIPG. Threw that one in and at least there are no visible drops forming on the oil pan.

 

Annoyingly there are drops forming on my transmission, especially the bell housing cover. Either a RMS, oil pan gasket, or a transmission front seal leak. That is going to have to be sorted when I find a shop that can do a clutch job. If anyone has recommendations in Washington, I would be happy to hear them. I would like to have them pull the transmission, ship it off to drift motion for rebuild and reinstall it along with a shifter re-locator, new RMS, new flywheel, and a new heavier duty clutch. 

 

Plan is to fill the car back up with oil, then confirm nothing is binding, settle the suspension, and take it in for an alignment.

[Equizyme]

Out of curiosity, why is it that you'd want someone else to pull the trans? manuals are pretty simple and as long as you have a good jack you can probably have it out on the floor in under 2 hours. If you're scared to do it I'd be more than willing to help. I'm planning on doing my 5 speed swap soon so i could use the practice haha.

for the drain plug you might look into getting one with a rubber seal attached to it, so you're not getting new seals every time you change the oil.

[Equizyme]

BTW everything looks awesome! You gotta let me know how you like the BC's. I've been eyeing those for when i finally get some coils.

[seattlejester]

Oh I've done a couple. Not scared, just really inconvenienced. I don't have much time or room to work with, and it would be nice just to have it done.

 

I'm not sure I'll find a shop willing to do the task though. The car would have to sit around waiting for the transmission to come back, which is why I've been looking at craigslist to see if any cheap R154's come up that I can have rebuilt. If that's the case it would just be a matter of a clutch job with just a transmission being swapped. At that point though I might consider just slipping it in myself. 

 

Basically I want the trans pulled, the rear case removed, the extended shifter housing installed, reassembled, shipped off, received, new clutch/flywheel/rms installed. I could do it over a period of a month or two, but I would also have to take apart the trans where I don't even have a table or room for one, crate up the trans, take it to a shipping carrier, be at home to receive the trans, transport it back to my car, then go about installing it. Just inconvenient. We'll see how I feel if I ever get a quote.

[seattlejester]

Thanks, sure thing. I don't imagine they would be life changing, the setup I had before was quite good. 

[seattlejester]

Ok, whoever wants these lower is insane.

 

 

That was with 2.75 height adjustment remaining in the rear. I ended up high centering on my exhaust on a 2 inch lip on the garage.

 

I had to raise it 1/2 an inch just to avoid scraping. This is of course with a very small 23 inch tire, so if someone had a tire closer to stock they could get away with probably lowering it almost an inch or so. 

 

Eyeballed my toe and it still feels real sketchy. Car wants to turn on slightest provocation. Steering wheel feels like it isn't doing much at speed.

 

Way too much camber in the rear as well, I put an angle gauge on it and it was about 3.5*. I think I'll have to take the strut top back out and move the tops to dial in some positive camber.

 

Car is no longer making knocking noises. The steering is real nice going slow, once speed is picked up it gets real light. Only one squeaking noise coming from the transmission tunnel. I'll have to replace the trans mount when I get the chance. Car barely makes skipping noises. 

 

So close to having it up an running. Plan is to take the struts out, max out camber plate to positive camber, adjust toe again. Once that is all set I'll setup my appointment to have it professionally aligned. 

[seattlejester]

Small update, car makes zero skipping noises, skipping was due to loose lugs. Got so excited I got ahead of myself. Don't worry I found the problem immediately.

 

Toe was really far out in the rear, the two perpendicular arms were 1/2 an inch off from each other. Made the car want to rotate on a dime. I used a tape measure rather then my eyeballs and got it much more parallel, car drives straight for the most part.

 

Camber was also really far out, the rear hit about -4* on my level angle gauge. I ended up notching my strut tower dimple to make room for the adjustment knob. With it maxed out towards positive, the car sits with about -1* of camber according to my gauge.

 

I took the car in for an alignment. I figured I got the rear close enough and I could use my lifetime to give me a picture of how far the front is off.

 

To their credit they were completely happy to adjust the car, the tons of modification didn't immediately disqualify me as I had heard some other places like to do. Unfortunately the tech noticed the lack of adjustment available in the front to control the toe. I think this is a case of someone adjusted it poorly at one point and I clocked my steering wheel to compensate. I had planned a more thorough alignment down the road so I bid them farewell. On another note to the tech's credit, he pointed out to me that he scraped my seat bolts putting them up on the rack. They took quite a hit as it looks like it might be bent and some of the threads were flattened. I'm going to have to probably cut these off the next time I want to mess with my seats. To the discredit of the whole situation, before I said anything the manager or what not says "oh it's fine." What the hell? He doesn't get to say how I feel about the damage done to my car that is for me to decide. If I wasn't back there talking over how to adjust the arms with the tech, I probably wouldn't have even been told. That irks me a great deal, and that is why the only thing I go to them is my lifetime alignment. 

 

I tipped the tech for his honesty and went to my garage to eyeball the alignment. I think I got it sitting much happier I clocked the wheel 1/6, unfortunately it looks like the splines are off as it still isn't equal side to side  They are both at least 1.25 turns side to side, but it basically shifts you a little more to one side over the other based on how you clock the steering wheel. For the effort required to redo my hub boss, I can live with not having it perfectly centered in the steering rack. More or less equal threads on each side now. I still need to check that the front arms are the same length and try to even out the camber a bit.

 

Started to also take care of some minor nuisances:

 

Stalling when warm:

The car would stall in neutral with the clutch out once warm. It makes it difficult to stop on a hill when you have to step on the clutch, step on the brake, while giving it a little bit of gas. I suspect I set the idle fairly low when cold and once warm it would dip below a happy point. I brought my laptop to look at the idle and bumped it up to 950 while moderately warm. That should bring it do 800ish when real warm.

 

Hard cut:

Also noted a wicked miss at full throttle. Rolling into it doesn't bring on the problem, but flooring it causes a cut off. Either it is running massively lean because the acceleration enrichment is still off, or the boost cut is kicking in as the wastage can't bleed the pressure fast enough quick enough. I'll have to take a drive with my tablet running and my laptop logging to find out.

 

Driver door:

The window never closed right on my driver door. The shape is right and with the adjustments loose I can get it to close, but once they are tightened it sits cockeyed in the channel leaving a gap at the top. I picked up a couple replacement doors so I figured I would start preparation. I checked the normal spots for rust and found the seam split in the rear up by the window channel and a couple rust holes at the bottom. The driver side door mirror was pulled off and the holes welded shut. There should be a special place in hell for someone who uses self tapping screws and tightens them so much that it pulls up the sheet metal in the middle of a curve. 

Took a lot of grinding and hammering and welding to get that looking somewhat acceptable. I also picked up a new set of guides and dovetails so that should make the door close much nicer, without my door bars that also means I probably don't need to run my door pulls and I can switch back to handles and probably put my door card in with the arm rest.

 

Front chin:

Using zip ties is quite annoying and similarly bolting the front chin on when you have to remove it to jack up the car is also annoying. I want a quick release, but I do not trust those eBay rubber band style ones. I found a design online for one that uses quik latches. It would mean shaving my front chin, but I think two buttons and one or two bolts to take off the front chin will be much safer then zip ties, while still being more convenient then bolts.

[seattlejester]

Got my alignment done.

 

It all started off pretty bad. The night before I decided that the driver side in the front was still too far out, so I pulled some camber by moving the top similar to the rear. It ended up pouring rain that night and the next morning the entry gate had flooded to the point where I believe my floor boards would have been soaked if I tried to drive through it.

 

I had to go through the back gate, but they had decided to do construction and were using thick metal plates at the top of the hill. There was a lot of swearing as I had to basically jump the 3 inch gap from the plate to the road. I felt the plate smack the seat bolts most likely mushrooming them and then I felt it smack my fuel cell cover. I later confirmed this with a nice new dent near the sump. Super glad I made the guard and also glad I didn't weld the opening shut or else it would have cracked somewhere instead of denting. 

 

I had heard good things about Tru-line in bellevue, they had reviews from several racers and autocross drivers which meant they were comfortable with adjustable suspension. I e-mailed the list of items installed per their request and they seemed unfazed. Plus it was only a couple blocks away from my car so it was an easy choice. 

 

I had wanted to talk to the individual doing the alignment to tell them that the Driver side cannot have the track width adjusted via the bottom as it was set for the minimum room allowed for the axle and maximum thread engagement, but the secretary said they would figure it out. That was probably the only unfortunate part of the whole alignment. I rolled in, they were running a bit late, but the thing is they told me, the guy in the shop came into the waiting area, and informed me that they were running late as my car had to go on their low lift as they did not realize how low it would be, he apologized and asked if I would like to come back later to just pick up the car when they had finished. I think that is just good service. I decided to sit through to answer any questions that might arise. The toe was spectacularly wrong. I think 60mm of tow out in the front 30mm per wheel, with a more reasonable 10mm toe in in the back. After all was said in done, they got all the camber under negative two in the back and a close to negative one in the front. The toe and thrust and all that was pretty much dialed in perfect. Their margins are set so tight that you can only expect to get a good alignment. They even take the time to go over everything with you at the end, when I asked about the driver side, the shop guy said he wished he had been told as he did bring it closer to the body. Hopefully my margin I left was large enough that whatever he used wasn't too much to cause binding problems. 

 

Car is really something. It feels almost effortless to drive now probably helped by the LSD instead of the welded diff and the wheels pointing straight. Transmission is still making quite a racket, calmed by pushing down on the shift lever (still hoping for the trans mount to be the culprit). Tablet no longer wants to communicate with megasquirt. Going to have to try and update it or erase the app and reinstall it. 

 

Planning on doing some more cosmetic things to the car. I want to build a bash bar to replace the front bumper and I think I'll paint my Enkei 92 all gold and throw some white lettering on the tire.