Leaderboard

Kardashian Wide Body Kit

Bridgestone Turanzas are available at the Tire Rack, but not in any 14" sizes and not in any 195/70 sizes either. Tire Rack does carry a 175HR14 88H tire, the Vredestein Sprint Classic, but in my quest for authenticity, I wanted a Japanese tire for a Japanese car. Coker tire also has the Vredesteins, plus Michelien XAS tires, for 14' rims, but again, still German tires on a Japanese car... Tire Rack does have lots of choices in 195/70 14 sizes and larger.

Nice car club meeting last night! Good to see all the cars out between these last 30 days of rain...

Thanks to all of you...your insight (and encouragement) help keep my project moving. The machine shop cut the pin, applied heat, and applied 90 tons of pressure. For $75 I had him remove the lock pin, spindle pin, and strut cap. considering he probably had three hours into it, I guess it wasn’t too bad. I’ll do the other side soon. thanks again.

Most of us have some sort of horror story with spindle pins being the center of attention. Mine was the passenger side. The drivers side came out so easily I could re-use it again if needed. I thought, "what are all these guys talking about". 2-1/2 days later I knew all too well. My advice based on my humble experience: If it looks rusted and seized just saw through it. Saw between the strut and both lower control arm pivots so you can get to the seized section in the strut. Be careful not to cut into the strut or control arm. Heat the strut until it has a dull glow, but don't point the torch at the end of the spindle pin. You do NOT want to heat the spindle pin. The idea is to heat the strut so it will expand and release some of its grip on the spindle. Then you can press it out. If you heat the spindle pin ends too much they will become soft. The end will mushroom from the pressure you put on it and it will expand and seize in the strut making it more difficult to push through. When removing the outer two sections of the spindle pin from the control arm. Heat the control arm only. That will transfer through the control arm to the rubber insulator and it will soften release. Hold the threaded end of the spindle pin with pliers or vice grips and keep trying to turn it. Eventually it will let go and you can pull it out with the rubber. The outer tube from the bush can then be removed. That is the easiest way I found to remove these rubbers in general. A lot of people try to burn them out, creating a lot of toxic fumes and smoke. Good luck.

Weird, I looked on that page but didn't notice it. It's just hanging out there in space with no reference to it at all. Like a giant typo.

Yes, that is my understanding. The heads I have seen done are stripped clean of all the valve train and dressed on both sides. you end up with two flat perfectly true and parallel sides. Otherwise you add distortion to the cam. Also I haven't ever seen a milling machine that could mount a head with the valve train installed or a situation where you would want all the milling chips strewn throughout the valve train. I might be mistaken on this but this is how I believe it is done.

Nope. They all looked like arse. The only one that stood out from the rest was an exhaust valve from a different cylinder. That one looked like bent arse. Of course, there's no telling if my PO swapped the pistons around. Based on the fact that the "45" piston is in the bore marked "4", I don't think so, but at this point, who knows!!

I'm happy for him if that helps. ?

They are evidently available in the US at the Tire Rack. I don't know if the specific size is available though

?

and Bondo.

I found the numbers on the block. Here's where the "34" pistons live. I got five of these: And I got one of these. This is where the "45" piston lives: I haven't measured the bores to try to figure out a correlation between the actual numbers and the measurements. It's another of those, "because then I would know" issues. The "STD" piston lives in one of the number three marked cylinders. I have no doubt it's aftermarket installed by my PO, but I don't know why. No idea what happened that necessitated replacement of one piston. But I do know that the block wasn't bored.

Welcome to the spindle pin club. These people who build spindle pin pullers and think that's the answer... Now you know the truth.

For completeness. Japan Distributors Listed in Fiche:

In Europe / the UK we have these available ... http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Bridgestone/Turanza-T005.htm Just put 195 70 14 on mine and WOW!!!! The grip is utterly stunning in the wet and in the dry I ran out of courage and wheel arch clearance before the grip did. Very good feel too without being a nuisance. Highly recommended if available where you are. I was in two minds when considering the types of cars they typically go on but on a Z they are utterly superb.

Well the Z is vintage.......

Found it: 1972 year:

The payment was a wire transfer to my bank, I signed the ownership over to him with a bill of sale and couriered it to him over night. There was one hitch though, back in 1970 the MTO recorded the VIN wrong by adding an extra letter, no one had noticed the mistake until the transport company started processing the paper work. So I had to hire a certified appraiser to come out and look at the VIN on the car and the ownership papers (Title for our US friends) and sign a paper saying yes the VIN was recorded incorrectly. MTO then issued me new ownership papers with the correct VIN. Classic cars go back and forth over the border all the time, just have all your paper work in order.

The mark of a true Craftsman is one who cares about quality more than time and money. Are your expectations too high? Not at all. I suspect that the PO or his mechanic had never done quality work and didn't understand the concept of Craftsmanship and pride in a job well done.