DJZ's 280ZX

[broke]

Finally saw this in the metal today, those wheels do look excellent! And yeah, do a skid!

[DJZ]

Been working through a couple of little bits and pieces now that it's legal.

First one has been that it developed really, really squealy brakes all of a sudden a couple of weeks ago. I took everything apart, cleaned it and put it back together 3 times and it was still doing it. I noticed that the pads were quite tight to get in and out so it looks like with R32 GTR rotors and R33 GTS-25t calipers if you use new pads with rubber backing they are too tight and are constantly up against the rotor. So last night I ripped the rubber backings off, sprayed the pads with CRC anti squeal stuff and sanded the pads down a little bit, and today no more squealy brakes!

Only problem is this has affected the master cylinder adjustment, it seemed pretty good when I put everything together originally but it must have been because the pads were right up against the rotor to start with. Now the brake pedal was pretty much just off the stopper before anything happened. I've adjusted the master cylinder push rod tonight, test drive tomorrow and hopefully it'll be fixed.

Managed to get the final couple of interior bits that my car has been missing ever since I got it and some unbroken a pillar trim that I'll put in at some stage as they require removal of the glove box and instrument cluster which needs to come out as there is a blown bulb in for the fuel gauge.

Other than that the car seems to be going all good, pretty hard on the ass driving around with worn out seats and the roads the way they are. I've still got some FD RX7 seats but I don't think there is much of a hope of them fitting. Still looking at getting a clutch maybe end of next week.

[DJZ]

It's been ages since I've updated this, I've pretty much just been driving it around and putting up with squealy brakes and knocking in the rear end under acceleration mostly in 1st gear.

The brake rotors are getting skimmed at the moment, should have them back tomorrow - I've got new pads to go in with them and hopefully that'll fix the front brakes!

The knocking in the rear from what I can tell has been from the outside of the companion flanges/axle flanges hitting on the body as per this picture:




I did a bit of research and it appeared that the 3x2 flanges were smaller on the OD than the 4x1 flanges, it turned out to only be about 5mm but I thought that might be enough, so I got some off NZeder complete with axles ex Jap R31.




Now if I'd had a good look at everything first I would have realised that the R31 axles are a little bit longer than the Z31 axles, now the Z31 axles were already a tight fit so it looks like the R31 axles probably aren't going to fit. I ran out of time to have a really good look but from a quick measure they are 20 - 30mm longer on both sides, by the time I realised I'd already got to this point - it's not tight tight as my torque wrench doesn't go high enough, I'll have to borrow one from work.





I suppose I could just knock the crap out of the lip part where it looks like it's been hitting, I'll have another look tomorrow.

[classicdat]

"Bugger" Can you swap the Z31 inner CVs and axles onto the R31 Outer CVs? Hopefully giving you the same length as the Z31 with the R31 flange. Just a thought. How many spline sizes did Mr Nissan use? Does anyone have a list of what was used on what axles?

[DJZ]

Yeah I have thought about it, haven't had a good chance to look. The R31 CV's are a tripod type where the Z31 CV's have 6 ball bearings so circlips etc etc might be different. I'll have another look later on, now that I've managed to disassemble 2 cars to the point of being completely undriveable!

[85_Z31]

you can always flip the cages on the CV at each end to remove a little bit of length. It might give you just enough.

[DJZ]

I did look at doing that but from what I can see the "cage" for the tripod joints is actually the outer casing so there isn't anything to turn around. I've got one of the 6 ball joints apart at the moment, so I'll flip that around and put them back in if I have to.

[DJZ]

Sweet so I flipped one cage on one original axle and put that back in, the R31 stuff just isn't going to work. Looks like my only option at the moment is to put stiffer springs in the back.

Got my freshly machined rotors and brand new pads, first application of the brakes and the squeal is still there. I pulled the back apart for a look last night and there was a pretty big lip on the pads where they don't actually sit on the face of the rotor (long story), so I filed that off all the pads as I was in a hurry and didn't have new ones and the squeal is still there! I'm almost at the point of paying someone to fix it because I'm stumped.

Also mate bought this:

[torqued]

so I filed that off all the pads as I was in a hurry and didn't have new ones and "the squeal is still there!" I'm almost at the point of paying someone to fix it because I'm stumped.

Over heated pads/old ones will do this
Do the pads have the backing plates on them?

[classicdat]

We used to apply a high temp silicon type product to dampen the pad to the calliper to eliminate the noise, much like backing plates would but more positive. Seemed to work.