jmortensen

Here let's bring it back on point. I called ES and asked and they said plain old moly grease wouldn't hurt poly bushings at all. So then I drilled the ends of the control arms and installed Zerk fittings, so that the outers could be greased regularly. I drilled the inners too, but this mod does not work for the inners so don't bother. I think it would work for the front LCA bushings as well, and sway bar bushings - the center one where the bushing installs on the frame. I got a package of Zerks from [gasp] Harbor Freight, because they were the cheapest. Here's a related thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=114051 BTW I said I didn't tap the holes in that thread, but later I remembered, yes I did. Got all that done then I went and hacked up my control arms to put rod ends and monoballs in there instead. Never even drove it with the poly... :-/

Sorry, but this is the kind of moral quandry I just can't see. To some I suppose that would mean that I have no morals. So be it. I do like Starbucks coffee and I also support big corporations, especially when they produce a product or offer a service that I like to use. I own my own small business, and I try to give my customers the best deal too. Sometimes that isn't possible and they might purchase from somewhere else, and yet I don't feel that they've victimized me, or done wrong by me. I like to save money, yet Modern Motorsports, AZC, Ground Control, MSA, Black Dragon, etc; they've all taken my money when they had the best deal for me. And yes, so have Summit Racing, Stock Car Products, and Pit Stop USA. When the Z specific shops don't have the best deal, that doesn't mean I should pay more. It means I shop elsewhere and they lose the sale. If they realize they're losing the sale too often, then they might decide to stop selling a particular item, or they might buy it in larger quantity to try and get a better cost from their supplier. Or they might go out of business. It's called capitalism. Get used to it.

Summit Racing has the ES kit for a Z cheaper than anyone else I've found. It's not in their catalog but if you call them they'll sell it to you.

Most of my friends had 510s, but one had a Z. I was remarking in my ignorant 16 year old way that the L6 wouldn't be a very high revving engine due to the long crankshaft, then that friend took me for a ride. That was the end of that misconception and the start of my search for a Z...

Check out post #33: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=110065&page=2

The Mustache bar bushings don't really move at all. I'd expect a control arm bushing to squeak, but not a mustache bar bushing, especially if the bolts were tight enough. Could it be a swaybar bushing or something else?

Yes it will. I have one and it came with the same pinion flange as a 280Z so it didn't need to have the flange swapped like the later (86 and later as I recall) R200s.

You would also have to notch or eyebrow the block, because the L28 valves will hit the cylinder walls. So it's not just a bolt on. Much better option would be to get a whole L28 engine and put that in your 240.

www.carfiche.com

I don't have a picture for you, but there are some autoxers in Oregon who do a really cool relocation of the battery. They cut out the fender well and put the shelf area for the battery right at the frame rail level, then patch the fenderwell back up. The stock battery location is pretty good and offsets the driver's weight a bit too, but it's too high. Moving it down to the frame level is really a great idea. Sorry no pics though...

Damn. Too bad. Are you SURE? You could put that red Z together and sell it to finance this one. As a side benefit those rear flares are so big they would probably make a convenient outdoor changing table for Amelie...

Formula/Toyota Atlantic 15" slicks would fit perfectly with 350 rears, 250 fronts. Run a 14" wheel in back and a 10" in front. Just needs a new air dam and someone who understands the carbs to get it running. Will is right though, it would be really hard to find a streetable set of tires for it, unless you put some Viper sized 18" wheels on it, and that would bring about it's own set of problems. If someone really wanted, the flares could be narrowed too. Those IMSA flares are pretty ridiculously huge for a street car. I bet it'd be a real head turner with a halfway decent paint job.

I'd buy it if I had the money.

Sounds like you were unbalanced with the rear bar on Tom. If you're loose, in general making the rear bar softer or taking it off is the right course of action. It's a little different with a bone stock Z that you put a 1 1/8" front bar on, because the bar is so stiff and rear springs are so soft that the front and rear will act really differently. This is a lot different than having stiff springs already then adding the sway bar. I can't recall the exact number off the top of my head, but I want to say that the 1 1/8" bar is 40% stiffer than a 1" bar. It's a LOT stiffer is the point. FWIW, my Z was an understeering nightmare when I ran 250/250 springs and camber plates, so I swapped down to 200 in/lb springs in front and that made it a little better. Then a strut tower bar, and it was a lot better. Then I added a bunch of caster and that made it a lot better still. Then I lengthened the front control arms, better yet. In my eyes the car was still suffering from understeer when I parked it. But that's only me talking, and some people who drove it would probably describe it as scary loose.

Here's that Hybrid Z thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=110246 I like the placement for the return as the front pinion bearing (the ball bearing just inside the pinon seal) is the one that tends to fail on the R200's anyway, but I do think it's serious overkill for a track day car.

Sounds like the 1 1/8" Suspension Techniques bar to me. It will make a difference in how the car handles, but it will also tear the frame rail up over a period of some years. You can reinforce the frame to stop that from happening (www.baddogparts.com sells some reinforcing plates), and the car would probably handle better with a PAIR of swaybars. Making the front stiff and leaving the rear loose will make for a weird handling car.

I have to agree that seeing something really cool on the front page, then clicking and finding out that the picture hasn't been approved is really annoying. Did you guys previously have issues with pictures that were posted? The policy of approving pictures seems a little overly cautious at best. Why not just let the pictures be posted then delete whatever few offensive ones are uploaded and ban the idiots that misuse the gallery?

I'd sooner go for a 280ZX distributor than a Unilite. You'll probably have to rebuild the 280ZX distributor, but that's easy enough to do: http://www.jrdemers.com/280ZX/distributor/distributor.html

You have to pull the diff to take the cover off.

It might go away if it was the halfshaft, but it wouldn't if it was the diff IME.

That sounds just like a halfshaft U-joint.

I third the U-joint suggestion. If you're just driving along, it's very unlikely that the diff is going to break. What usually happens in a diff is that the spider gears go. This manifests itself when you turn, usually sounds like a crunching noise when turning. A less common problem would be shearing a tooth or teeth off of the ring and pinion. The pinion is a smaller diameter, so you can usually identify which one is busted by figuring out how long it takes for the noise to happen. If it's every 5 feet its the pinion, every 20 feet its the ring. For the whole thing to just grenade is pretty much unheard of. I've seen a few who have managed it over at hybridz.org, usually the crosspin shaft backs out of the carrier and it all goes to hell from there, but very rarely does this happen. The halfshafts however go bad fairly frequently and it wouldn't be at all surprising if that happened to you. Best way to check is to pull them OUT. After 10+ years of Z ownership, I still can't test a halfshaft U-joint on the car. Pull it out, grab the middle of the halfshaft and the flange on the end and twist back and forth. If you feel play, it's needing replacement. The problem with testing on the car is that everything is at weird angles and it's a lot harder to twist since you're fighting the resistance in the diff and the brakes and wheels on the other end. Here are some pages about diff noises that might help: http://www.ringpinion.com/content/technicalhelp/default.asp?pid=109 http://www.ringpinion.com/content/technicalhelp/default.asp?pid=110

No doubt we are splitting hairs, plus the E12-80 has the crappy vacuum advance mech which is almost guaranteed broken. I don't know about the 280Z vacuum advance, but I haven't heard complaints. One other hair to be split is the mech advance curve. IIRC the 280Z has a curve similar to the 240, so that would be another gnat's arse of an advantage to the ZX if someone were inclined towards racing.

I don't think wiring a E12-80 distributor into a 75-78 would be that hard. I think you'd just pull the distributor and install the new one, get rid of the old module, then wire the E12-80 just the same way you do in a 240. Easy. There might be issues with the tach, but I thought they got rid of the funky tach wiring with the 280 as well, so that also wouldn't be an issue. That's what I seem to remember anyway. The 280Z distributor has one sensor and a trigger wheel. From my limited experience I think this is fairly similar to the Pertronix setup for the 240 distributor. I think the ZX system is better in that the stator sits all the way around the reluctor. I had a friend once at an autox who had his 510 die out of the blue after a run. Turned out the sensor had vibrated loose and had hit the reluctor and knocked the gap between the two way out of spec. On the ZX distributor the vacuum advance fails and this can cause the stator and reluctor to hit each other as well, but if the vacuum advance is in good condition or if it is completely disabled and immobilized then the gap remains consistent and the possibility of failure is lessened. So basically if you have a good condition Z and good condition ZX distributor I believe the ZX to be the more reliable design.