Miles

The threads inside the left front strut housing on my 72 240Z are messed up. Is there any way I can clean up the threads where the gland nut screws into the strut housing? It took a lot of effort to get the gland nut off and the new one won't start into the threads. I suspect the nut was cross threaded into the housing. Thanks Miles

The used stub axle I installed turned out to have a slightly bent hub from when my son slid his V8 240Z into a curb. Visually, you couldent tell it was bent, but on the car under load it caused the brake drum to wobble enough that it rubbed on the baking plate dust guard. It also caused the drum to drag on the shoes at one specific spot. I got tired of searching junk yards for another used, and potentially weak, stub axle so I called my Nissan dealer and bought a new stub axle with a set of inner/outer bearings and a grease seal. The stub axle ran about $250.00. The dealer installed the parts for $190.00 which I thought was very reasonable since I would have had to hunt up the tools and have a machine shop remove and press on the outer bearing. Total shop time was about 2.5 hours. Next month I plan on replacing the right side stub axle with all new parts. Victoria British also sells the stub axle for about $275.00. Miles

My Z started making noises like a U joint flange had come loose so I inspected each joint and found that the left flange that connects to the left stub axle was just flopping around. Removal of the flange revealed that the staked nut had sheared off right where the threads meet the splines. I had a spare stub axle so I drove out the broken axle and installed the spare. The original broken axle had a larger diameter threaded section then the replacement and it used the staked nut. The replacement used a nylock nut. The replacement also had a copper bushing and the original axle didn't. I installed the copper bushing with the replacement stub axle. When I test drove the car I could hear scraping noise coming from the left rear and I assumed that the drum was rubbing on the backing plate. Inspection showed that the drum was rubbing in two places so I bent the backing plate away from the drum and thought the noise would be gone. The scraping noise is still there, but not as bad. The scraping noise gets worse when making a right hand turn. I didn't replace the bearings since I knew the history of both stub axles and never had a problem. What could be causing rubbing noise - backing plate, bearings, nut not torqued tight enough? Thanks Miles

I used my stock rotors. With my 15 inch rims I have no clearence problems. Also, on my banjo fittings I had both washers in place, but they still leaked. I just went back to the regular SS lines and bridge tubes I had before the conversion. Miles

I have two 72 240zs. One is stock and the other has a 350 sbc in it. I replaced all brake components in both cars and the brakes always sucked. No matter how much I maintained the stock brakes thay were always weak and faded easily. They just seem to be under designed for ther car. A month ago I replaced the stock front calipers with the basic Toyota 4 piston calipers (Napa $80.00) and installed a new 79 280 zx MC (MSA $100.00) in my stock 240z. You will need to adjust the booster push rod out a bit. I adjusted mine to where it just touched bottom as the MC mated up to the booster. BTW I bought two boosters from Autozone and there was no reaction disk in either one of them which relieved my paranoia about loosing the disk when I had to grab the push rod and adjust it. The push rod adjustment can be done with the lines hooked up to the MC. Just unbolt the MC from the booster and push the MC out and away from the booster. It took about 3 or 4 tries of adjusting the push rod, bolting the MC back onto the booster and driving the car until I got it just right. Just don't adjust the rod too far out. The four spot calipers made a major difference in brake performance. No more brake fade and the car hauls down fast. The most time consuming part of the upgrade was bending the bridge tubes (new ones) to fit the Toyota calipers. I practiced bending the old bridge tubes before I bent the new ones. Last weekend I replaced the springs (Arizona Z) and shocks (KYB) and decided to use the MSA SS brake hoses they sell for their Toyota brake upgrade in place of my bent bridge tubes thinking it would be easier to reinstall the lines. However, the MSA bajo fittings leak no matter how tight you make them. This is due to the fact that the Toyota caliper was not machined for banjo fittings. This was an oversite on my part, but MSA should advise people to file or machine the banjo fitting mating surface on the caliper before installing the SS banjo lines. I put my old bridge tubes back on and the brakes are fine. Paint the new calipers before installing them or they will rust and look like crap if you have rims with open areas. With the the new shocks, springs and the four spot calipers the car rides and handles well. For a daily driver the Toyota conversion is an improvement over the stock brakes based on driving my V8 240z and my stock 240z for the last three years. For the V8 Z I would go with the vented rotors. Miles

My seats are falling apart and need to be completely rebuilt. I hadn't thought about Fierro seats. Anyone have pictures of Fiero seats in a 240Z? Miles

What is the latest model year Miata seats that will fit into a 240Z? Going through the archives I have found references to 91, 92 and 93 Miata seats that that are alomost a bolt-in. Thanks Miles

Didn't JTR also indicate that they tried the iron drums and had problems locking up the rear wheels and that a proportioning valve is required? ".... we must caution you that the installing cast iron drums will affect brake balance, and rear wheel locking will cause an unstable vehicle condition. A brake balance valve must be installed in the car to properly adjust the brake balance." Miles

Jay I have had several people tell me that you don't need to go to the larger bore 280ZX MC. Do a search here and at HybridZ and you will see that some people get away with keeping the stock MC and others who complain that, with the stock MC, the pedal would go the floor after installing the Toyota calipers. I recall some posts where people were pulling their hair out trying to make the stock MC work. This was often compounded by other problems such as a faulty booster, a missing reaction disk, leaks or improper bench bleeding of the MC. It makes sense to me that if you increase the fluid volume requirement by installing the Toyata calipers then the MC must push more fluid hence the need for larger 280ZX MC. The 280ZX MC works good with my stock calipers for now and should work with my Toyota calipers when I install them. Plus the ZX MC is cheaper then the stock MC. So my advice is if you have the old stock booster, replace it and replace the stock MC with a new 280ZX MC at the same time so you will have no doubt about these components. Miles

Mark I have researched the Hella 70476 and 70477 part numbers and can't find what the difference is. Autozone sells the Hella 7 " lamp as 70477 for $48.99 each and Kragen sells a Hella 7" lamp as 70476 for $59.99 each. As far as bulbs go the Narva XB3 and the H4 Xenon appear to offer bright white light. Thanks Miles

Which is the correct Hella headlight part number for a 240Z: 70476 or 70477? Also, which 65w/55w bulb gives the brightest white light? Thanks Miles

You wrote: "my brake light indicator on the speedometer works when i press on the brakes" There is a connection block just under the master cylinder. The master cylinder has front and rear brake circuit hard pipes connected to that connection block. There are hard pipes that leave the connection block and go to the front and rear brakes. Notice that on top of the connection block there are two wires. Those wires connect to a switch inside of the connection block and in turn they are connected to that red brake light in your speedo. The purpose of the switch and the red light is to warn the driver that there is a problem concerning a loss or unequal pressure condition inside of that connector block. For example if there is a loss of hydraulic pressure in the front or rear brake circuits due to a leak or a faulty master cylinder the connector below the master cylinder will sense the unequal pressure and trip the switch that in turn turns the red brake light on. The connector block assembly under the MC is actually called a "brake switch" in the manual. Not to be confused with the other brake switch that turns the brake lights on. You may need to replace the master cylinder and/or other leaking components. Bottom line is you should not drive the car until you know why that red light is coming on when you step on the brakes....not a good thing. If the car has not been cared for and the master cylinder is full of black goo, I would, as a minimum, replace the max vac and master cylinder and check your rotors, calipers and wheel cylinders and replace those too if they look bad. Use all new parts not rebuilts and good quality pads and shoes. On both of my Zs I use KVR pads in front and Nissan shoes in the rear. Have fun

I just confrimed with the dealers that the front springs in the kit are progressive. Progressive = springs are wound such that they are softer initially, but become more firm as they compress. Spring rates will be advertised like 65# / 140# indicating that the spring rate starts at 65 #/in. and then becomes stiffer at 140 #/in. as the spring compresses. They are supposed to give a soft ride until you need stiffer support for aggressive driving. A linear spring starts off at, for example, 140#/in and stays there throughout its' travel. 140#/in means that the spring will compress 1 inch for every 140# loaded onto it. On my V8 240Z used 180#/in front and 200#/in rear. For my stock Z I plan on installing a less stiff spring rate like 140 front and 165 rear. Miles

While searching the web for a good price on Tokico Performance struts for my 240Z I came across two dealers that sell Tokico suspension kits. Each kit includes a set of Tokico Performance struts and a set of Tokico springs. I emailed each dealer and asked them to comfirm the type of struts included and the spring rates. If they are the same springs that MSA sells then they should be 140#/in. front and 160#/in. rear. Here are the dealers and the prices for the kits: Direct Source Outlet located in San Diego, CA. 1-800-877-1911 HPK251 kit with non-adjustable struts: $380.97 ILK252 kit with adjustable Illumina struts: $591.97 Link: http://www.ajusa.com/cgi-bin/tokico/products?ajr_skey=f46b4ed5b716e6cc2ffdabbc02b1cff0 Spliting Imagez located in Irwindale, Ca. 1-866-358-8799 HPK251 kit with non-adjustable struts: $363.38 ILK252 kit with adjustable Illumina struts: $541.78 Link: http://www.splittingimagez.com/contact.htm Has anyone bought this kit or done business with these dealers? Miles

Are there any shops near Sacramento that know how to work on Z suspensions? Miles

Geoff Thanks for the strut replacement procedure. Looks safe. Thanks Miles

I changed out the springs and shocks on my son's 240Z 2 years ago by removing the entire strut assembly and then using a spring compressor changed out the springs and shocks. It took about 4 hours. I recall reading on this website that there is a way to remove the bolt on the top of the shock and then jack the car up which allows the spring to expand and then, without removing the whole strut from the car, push the strut down and pull it out of the wheel well far enough to then remove the spring and shock out of the strut assembly. A freind told me that he changed the shocks on his Z with this procedure and it only took about 20 minutes per corner: 1. Remove the three nuts that hold the insulator and the center nut from each shock while the car is on the ground. 2. Jack up car and remove the wheel, e-brake cable, brake hose and axle flange. 3. Tilt the strut assembly out of the wheel well, remove the and replace the shock and spring. Seems like this procedure would stress the brake lines and it would be better to remove all of the lines and then put a jack under the strut assembly and then remove just the center nut on the insulator followed by slowly lowering the jack. This would relieve the compressed spring and then allow pulling the strut away from the car so the spring and shock could be removed. Thanks Miles

Anyone here have any experience with the Eagle 028 wheel? I am also looking at Centerline Autodrag, Star, ET and Telstar model wheels, but they evidently have to be custom made as I can find no shop that sells them with the correct bolt pattern, offset etc for my 72 240Z. The Eagle 028 comes off the shelf 15 x 7, 4 x 4.5 bolt circle and 4 in. back spacing which should fit with no problems. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks Miles

My son is thinking of selling his 240Z V8 project. See car at: http://www.netsnapshot.com/pcw/b?KEY=0&ACCOUNT=4581 Miles snafu23@prodigy.net

I used the stock 72 240Z booster (Cardone rebuilt). I had to adjust the MC push rod to where it just came in contact with the bottom of the MC piston socket. By the way I inspected the Cardone booster new out of the box and there was no reaction disk to worry about falling out when I adjusted the push rod. The brakes feel solid. Miles

I installed a 79 280ZX 15/16 MC in my stock 72 240Z this morning and the brakes are firm. It was a direct swap as the hard pipe connections to the MC were all in the stock position. Pedal feel is good and the brakes come right on. Miles

280zgod Did replacing the stock PV in your Z improve brake performance? Thanks Miles

There is a lot of mis-information here. The proportioning valve (PV) is connected to the rear brake circuit only and its' purpose is to limit pressure to the rear brakes so the front brakes lock up just before the rears. If the rears lock first the locked wheel acts just like a rudder and spins the car around. Walt has a good picture of the stock PV valve above. In the 72 240Z the proportioning valve is located just behind the passenger side tool box. The line from the rear circuit of the MC attaches to one side marked "MC" and there is an outlet rear wheels. It can not be repaired. As I recall there is another connecter (splitter) block back there too, which may be what VB is refering to. Although I always assumed VB was most likely refering to the PV valve. I replaced my stock PV with an adjustable Wilwood PV mounted inside of the passenger side toolbox so I can adjust it from the inside. First I removed the stock PV valve. I used some off road SS flex hose and a few thread adaptors to connect the adjustable PV to the two rear lines exactly where they used to connect to the stock PV. You could also use hard lines to plumb the PV. The reason I installed the adjustable PV is because my 240Z has a 350 SBC that put just enough weight forward that my rear wheels would slide during hard braking. The PV fixed the problem. Note: Be careful and do not hook a PV up to the front brake circuit if you are going to mount the PV near the MC. Also, if you mount the PV near the MC be sure to gut out the stock PV by removing the large bolt on the bottom. Once the bottom bolt is removed the guts will fall out. Put the bolt back in and now the stock PV is just a connector block. You don't want 2 PV valves. Miles

Lance Thanks for the info about the booster. The reason I was thinking of going to the ZX booster in my 72 240z was because I have read many posts here and at other sites that people have trouble getting the ZX MC to work with the stock 72 booster. Typically it seems to be a problem with the length of the push rod that goes from the booster into the MC piston cup. So I am debating if I should replace my leaking stock MC with another stock unit or install the ZX MC now so it will be ready for the Toyta calipers. Thanks Miles

Carl Does the stock 240Z booster work ok with the ZX MC? I'd rather not drill more holes in my firewall. Miles