What it cost me to own a $500 car part 22

"StudyStudyStudy" (jesterjin)
09/02/2015 at 18:30 • Filed to: None

So the second thing to get done? Get a tune and get the car to sing at full throttle, the car had a hiccup where it would cut out under full throttle and then resume, no problem with rolling into the throttle, but a sharp stab would bog. I decided to get my tuner involved and was supposed to send him a log when the car stopped shifting. I ended up lining up the car with the garage, forcing it in gear, hoping for the best and had to climb out the passenger door.

After a night of searching on the internet I found that the R154 was prone to having bubbles trapped in the slave due to the 180 bend. Next day I came back and adjusted the clutch so the engagement point was a tad bit higher up and reverse flushed the system (unbolting slave and pumping the rod with the cap off). Seems that the car shifts a bit easier now.

Disregarding the rest of the list, with my last triumph I thought the car seemed to run great, and I headed over to a forum members house to help him out with his car.

It is remarkable how different yet similar the cars are. Both inline 6, both lowered, both turbo charged, both using 8 spoke wheels, both using fender mirrors, yet his has full interior, lowered just about an inch more with fresh paint, remarkable really.

On the drive over I hit the freeway and it felt like a heater was blowing through the hole where my shifter sat. I also noticed a lot of heat and subsequently oil smell/potentially fumes were coming up through the trans tunnel. We worked on his car getting megasquirt installed and talking happily with his engine, and encountered some problems with fuel pressure and the old leaving the ratchet on the crank pulley and turning the car on, but managed to button it up.

I offered him a ride in my car and re-remembered the wicked miss on WOT and the copious fumes. So in exchange for getting his car up and running somewhat he helped me seal up the transmission hole with some heat insulation and good old duct tape. The drive back was essentially fume free.

While parking my car I think I found the rattle in the transmission area. It seems like it is coming from the trans mount being worn out, I bought it with the transmission, so that makes sense as a first place to stop before panicking about flywheel bolts and such. Planning on having a toyota shop drop the transmission install a new clutch/pressure plate/bearings etc, inspect trans, new trans mount, install shifter extension, etc. However I would like to have the rear end and suspension all taken care of so I don’t have to pass it off with a ton of instructions.

On that front I paid a visit to the junkyard in search of parts. I had read online about a swap involving the center pumpkin from an Infiniti J30, using the larger bolt holed crown gear from a Nissan Z31 300zx, and the right side input shaft and front flange from my current differential and grafting on an appropriate flange for the driver side. Average price less then 300$ for a bolt in viscous LSD which compared to 500$ for an OBX unit or 1200$ for a qualfie or 1600$ for an OS giken seemed like a real deal. Combined with the fact that it would lower my rear end ratio from 4.11 to 3.55 it would really bring down my highway cruising rpm.

Still have a dilemma with sorting out the input shafts on the differential. The J30 donor has one long side as all VLSD do, but with a much longer and bigger output pattern. Wondering if I should cut the flange off and weld on the appropriate pattern, cut the axle and weld onto a 280z input shaft, or cut a CV axle and adapt it to the u-joint. Still split on that decision.

On my second day at the junkyard (had to leave and come back with a sawzall to cut the drive shaft) I walked around and spied a familiar shape. I walked up and found a 280z. The weak point on the 240z is the rear end, starting with the half-shaft, then stub axle, rounded out last by the differential. Since I have an upgraded diff, my next weak point after the half shaft is the stub axles. The 240z has 25 spline and the 280z got slightly larger 27 splines. While for most early z cars the stub axle does not break, but when abused and under several times the factory horsepower they become a point of concern. Given my old set had to live with a welded differential and the fact I did not service them when I rebuilt the suspension. I was happy to buy the uprights to get the beefier stubs.

This also meant that I could build up my spare set of struts in preparation for coilovers. With the popular style of coilovers available nowadays the benefit is that they have anti-droop so jacking up the car the suspension doesn’t droop which means that flexible brake lines aren’t pulled and jacking the car up doesn’t require seating springs or extra tall jacks.

I also ordered all the steel to make adjustable control arms in the A arm style with adjustable toe bar.

Started off with a jig using the stock control arm and building around it.