Zedyone_kenobi

before: after: pardon the blurry shots, did not properly focus. American Shelby 500's 14 x 6 if anybody wants them, make me an offer. I have some spots I need to touch up on some of these parts, namely the half shafts, but I can do that after I get all the nicks on them during installation. My new tranny mount shipped out today, so I should be in business soon.

Well, I did not have to return it, they just said they would send me another. But apparently since I am new to the game, I am not aware of the history everybody else has had. I usually have bad experiences when trying to phone in a complaint. I was surprised that they were so ready to ship me another. I cannot be jaded yet for I have ordered from them dozens of times, and this is my first hiccup. But your words are heard and understood.

Hey there 280ZSS, I wish you luck in your project. One thing, the R200 is the differential you have. I have an R180, and DAtsun 510's I think had R160's. I have not done the research some of these other VERY experienced Z guys have, but I would imagine your best bet for rebuild parts is going to be mail order shops. You can order the seals, bearings, etc from them. As for gears or shafts though, I am at a loss. Good luck!

I fear Arne is correct on having to pull the driveshaft. I was under my car trying to replace the transmission mount and looked up and saw that the yoke coming out of the tranny is very much in the way. But seeings how I need to get my driveshaft U-Joints redone, I may as well pull it and be done with it. Judging form the condition of the fluid in my rear end, the tranny oil is probably in bad need of changing as well. But I am happy to say that I am done with the 'WHILE I AM HERE I MAY AS WELL's'

I recently ordered a new transmission mount from BD. It arrived on time but I did not get around to installing it until this weekend. Well the bolts did not line up... Not expecting much, I called the customer service line at BD. I talked with a gentlemen, Keith I think, and he listened to my problem intently. He even recorded the measurements I gave him. He said he would call me back in about 48 hours. Well it was more like 20 hours and he had another spare mount in his hand and he took measurements on it. Seems I may have got a lemon, and without asking they said they would ship out a new one to me. I have never received customer service like that in all my life from a mail order company. And I have ordered A LOT for all my past and current vehicles. Just wanted to give Black Dragon a shout out, as good customer service should be rewarded. THat is all.

Update: I have cleaned and painted the mustache bar, diff, halfshafts, crossmembers, and bolts. So things are going well. I did find time to get the urethane steering coupler installed, which meant I was able to get the steering rack bushings done as well. I installed my ITG air cleaners, and modified my Black Dragon air horns to fit them properly. So the front of the car is darn near complete except for some vacuum hose reconfiguring I need to do. I am on hold as the transmission mount I received does not fit my car. Its a little off, see my thread on this elsewhere, but long story short, Black Dragon is going to ship me back a new one immediately. I am very happy for their customer service. They handled the problem VERY fast. So I will post pictures up soon. All the parts are cleaned and ready to install. I will say that my rear diff was critically low on fluid when I drained it. I don't see how it lasted at all. Seems that you just need to check everything when you buy a used car.

Arne, thanks very much, you are spot on with my car. 71 model, straight shaft shifter. Good to know I have a monkey motion linkage in there! HaHA It actually makes sense why its called that. I certainly appreciate your time in researching this for me. Have a great day!

I was cleaning up the Z interior the other day and decided I was going to try to refresh my stock gear shift knob. But as I tried to unscrew it, the whole shift lever turned, and seemingly never came out. I am not familiar with what the bottom end of the shift lever looks like without the boot, but I know whatever is under there is original and has had 37 years of light use. (69000 miles). how does the base of the shifter connect to the tranny, and is there a fix for the shift lever spinning, as I would rather it be firm and fixed in place.

update: I received my half shafts from the shop and apparently the ujoints were in pretty bad shape...the guy told me that they looked to be starting to score the inner races they were so bad. Funny is I did not feel any slop at all but he showed me how there was some. Guess it never hurts to get an expert on it. So half shaft ujoints are all new! Had to build a shed this weekend, so I was not able to do any Z work. Bummer. I did get my mustache bar clean and found my old brazing torch. So those stock bushings are living on borrowed time.

I guess I should not mention my elevator! haha

When I bought my car, it came with an extra set of 4 bolt round top SU's bolted to an E46 manifold. I need the room in my garage for new tools, so this needs to go. Is there anybody who needs a set of round tops. The PO told me they were in working condition when they were removed, but I have NEVER verified this. They do appear to need to be cleaned. I can take pictures of them if anybody wants to see it. I would take any reasonable offer, hopefully I can help somebody out.

Its in my other clunk thread!.. Sorry Frank...the cliff notes version is this. I was crawling around under my car and thought to check out the transmission mount. Well I can push up on the tranny an easy 1/4" and the mount stays on the cross member. Its obviously shot. I think that this is where the sound was coming from all along, and it makes sense, as the sound did seem like it came from the center of the car more than the rear! Parts are ordered. I will get a picture of the current mount when I take it off next weekend.

Well put gents. I have something to think about. As my bushings in the mustache bar currently look brand new, I may not replace them. They are not cracks and are even still a bit soft and rubbery. THe PO said all the rubber was replaced. I have found that to be only 80% true, so I have to check everything. I will decide what to do later. I think I found my clunk and I am pretty sure it had nothing to do with the mustache bar.

UPDATE: Possible smoking gun. I took my half shafts to a driveshaft shop in town. Seems three of my ujoints had a little slop, so I went ahead and replaced all 4. Apparently there is a technique to feeling the Ujoint out. So that will be done next week. But the real story is when I climbed under my car to clean some parts. When I looked at the transmission mount I found out that I can pick up on the tail of the tranny an easy 1/4 inch while the mount stays motionless. I think this may be the culprit I have been searching for. If its this easy for me to push on the transmission and do this, I would wager that torque from the engine can do much more. It also explains why it sounded like my clunk was coming more from the middle of the car than the back. I will order these parts today along with some steering rack bushings, why rack bushings? I don't see any way to remove the steering coupler without moving the rack forward to gain some room to slide it off. I was going to do an easy steering coupler swapout with the urethane bushing I bought, or so I thought!!! But the job will take more than the 45 minutes I thought it would. now we are moving the whole rack forward. Nothing is every black and white! Are we having fun yet! I know I am! This is why I wanted a project car. Also, when its said and done, I will be able throw my ITG's on there once I find a way to get all the stock vacuum plumbing figured out. Seems even the smallest job grows on this car, but I think I have at last found what I was looking for. The tranny bushing seems easy as pie, so when I get all that done, I will post some pics of the painted parts and the install. Oh, what the heck. EUREKA!!! Just felt like screaming that.

Well I have decided that since I already ordred my poly mustache bar bushings, I may as well install them. I know I need to leave my stock housings in the bar ends, but I need to know exactly how to remove the rubber from inside the housing. My clever use of the search button has produced a trick that people are burning the bushing out of the collar. Also described as heating it up and then forcing the rubber out. Can somebody elaborate on this before I take my torch and just melt the darn thing out!

Looking forward to those days Frank. Hope to get her put back together by end of October. Nice driving weather in October

I have ordered two ITG air filters for my stock SU's on my basically stock L24. I am not looking for HP of any kind from this, but I am wondering if I will need to adjust the carbs any. I ordered air horns to put inside the ITG's so it will be as close to stock as I could make it. I still have the stock air box with a new filter, just in case, but I wanted to try this out for a while. I am asking this as my car starts, drives and idles perfectly right now. Wondering if I am opening a can of worms. I would imagine that the SU's can handle it as they self meter for the most part.

My question is what is the use for the car? Are you planning on racing it. I see your soon to have a stroked 3.2 in your signature. If the car is just going to be on the street, then why the need for 245's. That is a huge amount of rubber on the road. Going too wide on a car can sometimes lead to ill handling effects in steering feel. I guess it depends on what you are looking for. I find that sticking with a tire that will fit perfectly and then buying the stickiest tire possible often leads to better results. As light as Z's are, the tires are not worked as hard and I think you can get away with 225's quite nicely. I have 205's on mine, and they look 'the business' in my personal opinion.

just my tools, my Z and my shelves... fridge to come later.

I was strongly considering ordering new inboard rear control arm bushings. I mean I am practically there already with the front diff mount off the car, the rears are just 4 small bolts. I think I will do this. Heres the reason why. As mentioned, my rear diff feels exaclty like the diff I ordered. Now there is no guaranty that the one I ordered is any good either, but the chances of them both being bad in exactly the same way, (or rather what I perceived as bad) is extremely slim. So since I found no smoking gun, I am left scratching my head what to look for next. I will take a look at the inboard rear control arm bushings. Pics to follow.

Thats good advice, but I would need to start looking for a R200 then right? I am not sure I really need a LSD with my stock L24. Sticky tires and throttle modulation will work fine for now, but if I can find a good posi unit to put in it, I most certainly would not thumb my nose at it. At the moment, I would not even know where to look.

Just an update... Today after I spent hours mending a fence to serviceable conditions, I decided to take a stab at more clunk diagnosing. I pulled the yoke out of the old diff and put it in the new one with the bolt just finger tight. I could still move it up radially just as much as I could with the old diff, which leads me to believe that my old diff may be okay, still hard to measure clearances just eyeballing it. I did find a local diff guy that would rebuild it for 250 plus parts. May be worth doing, we will see. It may be perfectly fine. I removed my mustache bar and wanted to look at the bushings inside those. Well it unbolted rather easily, not lose mind you, just not stuck bolts. When I looked at the rubber inside it, it looked fine. No cracks, it was still supple actually. So far the investigation has been just mechanics eyeball for now, but heres the score. half shaft u-joints feel tight as can be... no detectable slop found Front Diff mount appears to be in good shape, with the rubber not showing any cracks or damage or give Mustache bar bushings look to be rather new, not really in need of replacement I may need to turn my attention to the transmission if I cannot find anything of substance. The back end is not giving me any smoking guns.

Update. After evacuating from IKE, we are just getting things back together. I had some roof damage, my fence is in tatters, my bbq pit was beat up. All the trees in my yard were blown completely over. But it could have been worse. I had no water damage, other than a tiny leak that made some of the drywall on my ceiling start to crack, but it could have been much worse. We are lucky. We have power now, and running water. We still have to boil it before each use, but we made it back. The Z project is going to have to be put on hold for a week or so, until I can mend the roof and fence. Family is well though. My youngest did manage to catch diarrhea in Louisiana, so he is not happy. But work will finish soon enough.

Sorry to hear about your accident, but cars can be repaired people cannot. If you are interested in something other than Mitsu wheels, give me a PM, I think I can help you out. Just letting you know that your Z friends are here for you.

must resist that temptation! Must stay on target. I have a POR-15 starter kit I have yet to open.. It may be enough to do the diff, mustache bars, and half shafts...But I do not know for sure. Only problem is the kit is silver, not grey. So I may have to use something else. Not sure how it would look in silver.