mdbrandy

Thanks! Very nice.

The Nissan counter man here in Champaign can't find that part number in their system. Interestingly, the 43262-21000 original style axle nut appears to be available and is only $4.00 each. I also found that the spindle pin and lock bolt are actually cheaper through Nissan than through Victoria British! Go figure...

I think you posted this in another thread as well (which I found), and I'm taking this number to Nissan today. I'll let you know if they can still get them! Thanks.

Glad that the nuts are still available. Hopefully 6 months hasn't changed that! My gun definately isn't "honking big", so I may end up doing some sort of 4 foot breaker bar or something. We shall see...

That's the second reference to the 280ZX nuts that I've seen. Maybe they're more available than the original ones...I shall check this week. I thought about the hole in the backing plate method. It'd have to be a pretty big hole to get the stud head through. I guess I'd rather not do that if I don't have to. I'll investigate getting the axle apart first. I might as well do the bearings while I have the entire rear end off the car anyway... Thanks.

Interesting. I have been using an impact wrench, but it is a fairly cheap one that I think is only rated to about 250 ft-lb. There is some red goop on the nut and shaft that does look like thread lock of some sort. I can't get back to it until later in the week, so I'll investigate whether I can get new nuts before I do anything. Everything else on the rear end is apart right now (even the spindle pins!), so the bearings are about the last thing to take apart before cleanup and reassembly. Thanks.

Nope. Don't think so. Step 5 in reassembly is "Caulk wheel bearing locknuts securely after tightening".

Ok, I've been reading all the threads on disassembling the rear stub axle/bearings since I'm about ready to do that on my 280Z (dropped out the entire rear suspension yesterday, and am going to do all the bushings, shocks, springs, etc. at once). First question: the axle nut. Several posts have indicated to dremel off the peening before removing the nut. That makes sense. However, the 1978 280Z factory manual has a big bold warning: I'm assuming the that manual's term "caulking" is the same as peening the nut, since the manual instructs to caulk the nut after reinstallation. Do you think this is a typo and they really meant "do not FORGET TO release it"? Why wouldn't you want to? Second question: one reason I'm getting into this is because I need to install longer wheel studs on the rear, and it looks to me like there is no way to do that without pulling the axle out of the hub anyway. Anyone know if there is anyway to install longer wheel studs without pulling the axle? Thanks.

It's in the Propeller Shaft and Differential section (PD), page PD-25, which is the second page of service data and specifications. It follows all the torque specs. FYI, it also lists for the R180, 1.0 liters, or 2 1/8 U.S. pints, so supposedly you would only need a bit over a quart to fill an R180. I don't know what 70-78 manual you have (I have 3 or 4 different aftermarket manuals like that), but I'm getting this data straight out of the Nissan factory manual for the '78.

The factory manual for my 1978 280Z lists 1.3 liters (2 3/4 U.S. pints) as the oil capacity of the R200. At 2 U.S. pints per U.S. quart, that would be just under 1.5 quarts. Hope that helps.

The problem is the dual shaft design that older cars need if you don't want to modify the opening. Crutchfield only shows one cassette/receiver that will fit my '78 280Z: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-7gZse4tW6bE/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=200&I=140MARB102 and of course, you might not consider that "modern" . In my car, the PO put a nice new CD/receiver in the glove box and left the original radio in place. Kind of kills off the glove box space, and it is inconvenient. If I wanted to cut up my console, I could probably mod the opening to fit something new, but I just bought the new console a year ago....

http://www.paragonperformance.com/Fitting%20photos2.html Kind of a 90 degree swivel fitting.

Great site! My front end is done, but I still have the rear to do...

I did have to modify the backing plate to fit. Easily done with a pneumatic cutoff tool, especially since they were off the car and I was getting ready to paint them. And my 15" wheels have no problem clearing. Don't know the offset, but they need a 1/4" spacer so the tires don't rub on the springs.

Looks like quite a savings for those of you that are paying attention (meaning: not me :stupid: ). MSA knows that they won't get cores back, so the $35 per side core is probably factored into their price, which still leaves over $100 more from MSA. Oh well. It was convenient!

Don't know, but the ones I got came loaded (pads and hardware), and with the 2 stainless steel lines. Probably still more expensive than sourceing the parts separately, but I paid for the convenience of getting it all at once. Didn't price the pieces separately.

I did think that was what you were saying. Thanks. I had just looked over MSA's site, and their 4-corner brake line pic looks different than what you and I have on the fronts now. I was (unclearly) trying to make the point that they seem to sell different stuff depending on how you get it. Thanks for the info!

That's good to know. The 4-line "kit" they show on the web is different that what comes with their caliper upgrade. The kit on the web has female connectors on both ends so it will go from the bracket on the frame to the bracket on the strut. Glad to hear you've installed the one going directly from the frame bracket to the caliper. I'm looking forward to that nice firm pedal . Thanks.

Yes, they told me to just route the line directly to the caliper from the hard connection at the frame. I'm just trying to make sure that no one has had any bad experiences in doing this, since it is not the geometry that Datsun designed. But then, I'm changing things anyway... Also, I have recently had quite a bit of trouble getting wrong parts from MSA, and I'm not 100% sure that I trust their technical help. This all seems reasonable, but with brakes, I'd rather ask the group for their opinion than do something known to be stupid :dead: .

What is "cosmoline"?

I am currently installing the 4-piston front brakes from MSA. They came with Stainless Steel flex lines. However, those lines are not the original geometry - they have a female fitting with a 17mm hex that works fine at the body hard-line connection, but the other end is a male banjo fitting. MSA instructs to just connect that male fitting directly to the caliper. This bypasses the original geometry where the flex line would lead to the strut bracket, and then a hard-line to the caliper. It LOOKS like it should work - there is plenty of line, and rotating the steering lock to lock, it seems as though there will be no rubbing (as long as I route the line appropriately). So, have others installed SS lines this way? Are there any known or potential problems with going straight from the body bracket to the caliper? There are several threads discussing the MSA upgrade and the SS lines, but I could not find this question addressed... Thanks.

I have also heard that you shouldn't mix the two, and in fact, you are taking a chance just mixing different brands of oils or greases. That's one reason I wanted to get rid of the factory stuff. Plus, I have no idea how old it is, or what the storage conditions have been. One of the assemblies I bought off ebay, and one from Chloe. I'm just trying to make sure that there isn't some "That's special grease! Don't remove it!" sort of thing I don't know. After finding out that I don't even know that 240Z and 280Z brake disks are incompatible, I don't trust what I know and what I don't about things I haven't done before! I've done outer tie rods several times, but never inners... I've read all the threads on synthetics, so since the entire front end is new, I figured the extra couple bucks for the synthetic is money well spent. I finally got my problems worked out with MSA on the brake rotors, and if I can get the rack all put back together tomorrow, the front end should be finished this weekend. Unfortunately, I also have to do the shocks, springs, and brakes on the rears, but I'm not going to paint the rear this season, so that should be another weekend, and I'll be back on the road!

I have brand new Nissan inner/outer tie rod assemblies that are going on my 280Z; probably tomorrow if I get the rack back together tonight. The inner ends appear to come packed in a yellow grease. It is obviously a bit old, since it tends to be a bit chunky if you disturb it (see the 2nd pic attached). I am using a synthetic grease throughout the front end in this rebuild, and my thought is to clean all of this out and replace it with the synthetic I am using. Anyone know of any reason that would be a bad idea?

I will definately do that. They are starting to cost me some real $, and now time. I would have had the whole front end back together this weekend, but not now. :disappoin And as another whine, I just went and looked - I actually decided to buy these rotors on the basis of one of their sale flyer booklets - and under the cross-drilled rotors, they list just 70-83 front with one price. So when I called them, I had no way to know that that just meant that there were different part numbers with the same price. I'll still remember in the future to verify the part numbers that they actually think they are sending. I'd better go check the sway bars I bought too - I've never held them up against the originals to make sure they're right...

Which goes to show that I should not trust them to send me the right stuff without doing my own research. I didn't actually look at the website or their (very old) catalog. I called them. I told them my application and the thing I wanted without reference to any part numbers. So they should have sent me the appropriate part for my application. But they didn't. And a couple weeks ago, I had to return a set of outer wheel bearings that were the wrong part number. Similarly, I ordered inner and outer wheel bearings for my application - not by part number. They sent the correct inners, but wrong outers. They made it right, but it cost me $6 to send the bearings back. Sending these rotors back will cost somewhat more than that...