mdbrandy

I actually have a 12-ton harbor freight press and have had pretty good luck using it. I pressed the outer bearing off the axle with it, and then, after constructing the appropriate "drift", I pressed the new outer bearings on with it. I have found, however, that it is all to easy to destroy parts with the press instead of fixing them. I believe I have slightly bent the yoke of one of my half-shafts while pressing out the U-joints. Don't know what I'm doing about that yet. I'd be really hesitant to press this bearing in, knowing that it is gouging the hub walls. More likely to destroy things than really get it in.

Don't have any grinding compund specifically, but I'm sure I could come up with something. I'm going to try to freezing thing first. I'll repolish the hub internals, freeze the bearing and try to get it pounded in. If that doesn't work, I'll probably have to take the darned strut back off the car and do something different. Don't quite know what yet...but your "marker paste" thought might be a good diagnosis method if I can't get it in frozen.

OEM Nissan part. Bought from the good ol' local Nissan Dealer (I'm finding that some parts are just as cheap or cheaper through Nissan as through MSA or VB!). I went with Nissan on these since I DO NOT want to do it over again! So hopefully OD tolerance on the bearing isn't the problem. I figure the 27 year old hub is more likely the problem. I have a nice bearing/seal installer set - aluminum cones that can reverse to seat bearings, seals (flat side) or races (cone side). Bought it back in the late '70's when I was working on my first 240Z and been carrying it around ever since! Great tool.

Freezing the bearing had occured to me (late last night), but I'd rather not heat the housing if I can avoid it, since it is all newly clean and painted and all. Burning all the new glossy black paint off would be a tragedy ! Of course, not being able to drive the car because I can't get the bearing back in would even be worse... I shall try the feezing bit with the bearing tonight and see if that does it. If not, then I can always repaint...

So why do I seem to have a knack for asking questions that no one has a ready answer for? Or are the questions just that stupid :stupid:

I'm in the end game of putting the rear back together. Trying to install the rear inner bearings now. Drivers side went in fine. Cocked the bearing once, but second try was easy. Passenger side is another matter. I have tried about 5 times so far. The bearing will go in about 1/8 inch, and then no more. After fighting it a while, I took it out (tapping from the inside removed it with no real problem) and found a ridge on the hub surface that the bearing is an interference fit with. I didn't think it was there originally, but I polished it out with a little fine sandpaper and a scotchbrite. Tried installing the bearing again. No dice. 1/8 inch and no more. And I take it out, and the ridge is back again. I feel the outer edge of the bearing, and it seems just slightly raised around the edge. I don't know if that is normal, or if it was caused by trying to install it in the hub, and having it dig into the hub to create that ridge. Anyone else seen this kind of problem? Solutions? I don't have the precision measuring equipment needed to measure the ID of the hub versus the OD of the bearing. I thought about knocking off the "sharp" corner on the bearing with a little fine sandpaper, but that's a little scary. I guess I have to polish out the ridge in the hub again now, but that'll only work so many times... Oh, and the ridge in the hub isn't uniform around the circumference, so it seems like cocking the bearing might have caused it, but it occurs at a couple places around the circumference, like the inner hub is out of round or something...

I've been on a lot less often lately (too busy at work) so I missed this thread. After doing the front end, I tore into the rear without getting it back on the road between. I intend to take it to a shop to align once everything is back together. Buying the equipment to do a good alignment is not cost effective unless your're a racer or something. You could get tools to set toe at a reasonable price I think, but making sure the other angles are OK requires more equipment from what I can see. I let the pro's do that.

The letter marking (A, B, C) on the outside of the hub needs to match the letter marking on the "distance piece" that goes inside the hub between the inner and outer wheel bearings. There are other threads that have more detail on this: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14450&highlight=distance+piece

I hadn't posted this before because Bambikiller has a similar pic in another thread, but I suppose it can't hurt to have it in two places. This is from a '78 280Z, but it looks pretty much like the one Bambi posted off a 240Z.

My '78 280Z does, of course have an R200, and it is a very late build date - so I have found that some things on the car were early adoptions for the oncoming 280ZX's. I don't have any earlier 280Z stuff to compare to.

They do look just like the drive shaft to diff bolts from my '78 280Z.

Since I started this thread off, I'll chime in here and say that while 26th-Z's drawing is cool, it isn't much good for what I am interested in doing. If I put together a pseudo-2D CFD model, it would have to be of a profile from the side. I don't think we'd be as interested in the flow around the sides of the car, as we are of the flow over and under the car. So if not a full 3D CAD model, then I'd need an elevation view from the side. I'm playing with trying to figure out the raster to vector type conversions of the line drawings that are already available, but I haven't had 100% luck yet.

Ah, yes. Sorry. It's sitting out in the garage on the floor under the 240Z which is up on jack stands. So, do you want a pic first or anything, or shall I just sawzall the runners off and box it up? It came off an E31 head. Should be able to accomplish that sometime this weekend. Just finished scuff sanding my rear suspension pieces in prep for an afternoon's painting work.

Not looking to make any great improvements in the aerodynamics - it's just fun. I'm essentially the software engineering manager for our group, and push a lot of "verification and validation" of our codes. Modeling things where the answers are already known from either analytical solutions or experimental results actually gives us nice cases to "prove that our codes work". An S30 model would be half "fun" and half "hmm, I wonder if we'll get the same results that everyone already seems to know?"

I don't like being relegated to one choice here, because it doesn't make sense for me. I chose "Nissan doesn't own my car". But, for my 240Z, I'm shooting for restoration, so going Nissan original if at all possible. However, for my 280Z, I'll do whatever I want. During my 280Z suspension restoration, I have lots of Nissan parts because I think their quality is often better, but I have Moog ball joints, poly bushings, and tokico shocks and springs. I also have an aftermarket steering wheel and a leather Nismo shift knob. So, what I want is Nissan only in one case (240Z), and anything goes in another (280Z). All depends on your goals.

Well what do ya know? Where'd you get that Chris? Did you draw it? Happen to have an elevation view?

Gridgen won't read any of those formats, but I'm looking for an iges translator anyway. Would be nice to have the ability to do these types of translations...

What format is the file in? Can you save it in iges? I'd be happy to try to read it in and see what I get if so...

I believe that the laser scanner that the CS department uses puts out the 'point cloud' sort of output that EricB mentions. Don't know a lot about it yet. I know my grid software will read in iges format vector files, or surface mesh files, although I'm not sure what format of surface mesh it needs. I suspect that any fully-triangulated surface file could be manipulated into a format that I could read. I don't have access to anything like AutoCAD here right now, as far as I know...

Yup. That sounds like what I'm trying to do! What is GT4? I'm much more an engineer/fluid dynamics/solid mechanics sort of guy than I am graphics. I build meshes to facilitate my engineering analyses, but I usually start from someone elses CAD work except in the simplest cases...

It's amazing what you don't think of. It wasn't a month ago that I was in a meeting here at UIUC with a professor doing surface laser scanning in the CS department. http://graphics.cs.uiuc.edu/~garland/papers.html I'll touch base with him and see what it might take to get my die cast model scanned... That would still leave the raster to vector conversion to do, but it would be a 3D model. In terms of resolution, as a vector description, there isn't a "pixel" resolution per se, so it comes down to what resolution of attributes is desired on the actual model to be calculated in the CFD simulation. For gross flow-field results, small details, and in fact, medium level details aren't needed. For more detailed boundary-layer turbulence studies, details at less that a cm scale can be important for a model as big as a car. We generally start at a gross level and refine as needed. Our models of the space shuttle RSRM boosters (which are 30+ meters) currently have a resolution in the 1 to 5 cm range for the grids, but we haven't moved into turbulence or particle tracking yet. Still trying to get the gross flow-field right. Anyway, good ideas! Mark

Thanks Daniel. This rebuild on my 280Z is kind of a "practice" for what I hope will be an even better rebuild on my 240Z later. Already did a couple things on the 280 that I will remember NOT to do on the 240! :eek: Hopefully the synthetic grease, all new Nissan parts, etc will make this the last time on this car at least for me!

Cool. Now I know what to look for when I put mine back together! Painting starts tonight!

Bummer to hear! Oh well, maybe one of these guys will be industrious, or I'll see what kind of 2D/3D raster to vector sort of thing I can come up with. I was able to get a 2D vector outline (approximately), but I haven't gotten it into a form I can use yet. We'll see. Now it's off to the "real" job!

Depends on whether it is vector or rastor and whether it can output vector files I can do anything with. I'm playing with some raster to vector image conversion stuff like hls30 suggested, but having only mediocre sucess so far getting it into a format I can use. Unfortunately my grid software only accepts limited input formats. Anyway, see what formats it can save in.