Asher's 280ZX

[DJZ]

Little bit more progress today. One of the brake lines was missing so I got two new ones from Greg, also new tie rod ends and rack ends.

The original tie rod ends have the wrong taper to sit in the S13/C33 knuckles so I got new R32 stuff which is the same as what I'm running in the black car, the rack ends go straight into the S130 power steering racks. It's missing a banjo bolt, thought I had one but it's the wrong thread so I'll try and track down a new one during the week. I've got a slight problem with the banjo bolt on the caliper hitting on the very top of the sway bar link or being very close to it, haven't quite thought of a solution yet, I might chop down the spacer in between the bushes slightly to see if that helps,

Also got some new cap screws and nylocks for the knuckle to strut bolts and mucked around with the intercooler piping a bit, I've chopped the top pipe and rotated the bit that goes into the cooler a bit and the other end looks like it's going to work okay, I might have to shorten the pipe that goes into the turbo outlet slightly, it's been cut on a bend and is pretty yuck.

[DJZ]

This thing is going in for an exhaust tomorrow. I've put a bit of time into in the last couple of days getting it ready, the hand brake works, the foot brakes work (but need another bleed), it moves under it's own power.

I've modified both ends of the universal throttle cable, I drilled out the pedal end and now it goes onto the ball on the stock pedal and I made up a new piece for the throttle body end and soldered it on tonight. It still needs a bit of adjustment as it doesn't have full travel but I'll get that sorted.

He got some tyres for the front wheels and has some spacers coming, they are still going to sit in quite far but there's heaps of room to get them widened in the future, I reckon without the spacers he could go 4" wider.

[DJZ]

Exhaust got done today, it sounds pretty good. They reused the original rear muffler that came on the car but cut it off to a bit less of a ridiculous length and added a centre muffler, it's still pretty loud but I'm pretty sure it's going to need a cat for cert so that might quieten it down a bit more.






Am I doing this right? Is this "stance"?

[DJZ]

Mucked around doing a bunch of small jobs on this thing today, fixed two oil leaks (hopefully). I've been meaning to have a look at the fuel pump setup as I noticed when I was doing the rear end that the hose from the pump to the hard line wasn't EFI rated hose so I got under there today and had a look.

I left Asher to do the pump without my supervision so it's not really his fault it's the way it is. The outlet of the pump has a check valve in it to keep fuel in the lines, this is usually supposed to have a banjo fitting on it but he'd just jammed the hose all the way on so I think all the fuel going to the motor was going through the tiny hole at the end of the fitting.

[DJZ]

Got the new fitting for the inlet of the fuel pump, need to get some more 1/2" fuel line before I can fit it.

Temporarily wired up the temp gauge to make sure it works, Asher has taken the radiator away to get a shroud made for it so I won't be able to test it properly until that comes back.

This is the final problem that I've got with the suspension/brakes, I've chopped down the middle spacer between the bushes and it's better but still hits, if the brakes were bigger so the caliper sat further out I don't think it would be a problem so that might still happen, it's only got standard C33 brakes on it now which are just a single piston caliper and rotors that are about the same size as the factory Z ones.

[Datto_610]

Custom sway bar with ball joint style sway bar link's!

Edit: I do recall seeing in a nolathane catalog a universal sway bar link of that style(basically one threaded rod) with double nuts holding the washers that could work as you could possibly go a bit shorter?

[DJZ]

Custom sway bar with ball joint style sway bar link's!

Edit: I do recall seeing in a nolathane catalog a universal sway bar link of that style(basically one threaded rod) with double nuts holding the washers that could work as you could possibly go a bit shorter?

Yeah, that's one option but I don't know if it would help much, I can't move the point in the control arm where the link bolts to and the links aren't very long at the moment.

[DJZ]

Lips for the rear wheels are done. Still haven't come up with a solution for the sway bar link problem.

[DJZ]

This thing is getting pretty close, mucked around with it a bit more on the weekend and have finally come up with a solution for the brake caliper to sway bar link problem which is changing to 4 piston calipers, we tried one of my R33 calipers on it and even though the caliper is bigger it doesn't stick out as far towards the centre of the car as the single piston caliper does. I have a feeling we would have needed to do this anyway as the C33 brakes that were on it are tiny and were also worn out.

Finished up the fuel lines, I accidentally bought the wrong fitting for the inlet to the fuel pump - I thought the outlet on the tank was 1/2" but it turns out it's only 3/8" so I had to buy another set of fittings and hose but it's all done now and looks much better than the way it was before.

Got an adaptor for the tach from Dan Lodge, haven't had a chance to do anything with it yet though, I need to take it down to work to solder some wires on to it as my soldering iron is a bit too big for stuff like that.

Tidied up the power steering lines, there's two convenient holes in the crossmember so I p clipped one line to that and then used some clips that came off the original breather pipe between the two rack boots to clip the return line to the pressure line.

Still need to change the engine mounts, it's tilted over to one side at the moment which is causing the gearbox to sit on a funny angle. I'll be changing them to the stainless 6mm ones that I've got temporarily until I get some mild steel ones done.

It has an oil leak from the front of the motor somewhere that I haven't managed to pin down - I thought it was coming from the variable cam timing return line as Asher had loosened that off for some reason but I've tightened it up and it's not that - hopefully it's not the sump leaking.

[DJZ]

Redrilled some new R32 GTSt brake rotors as supplied by Greg, Asher bought some calipers off RB parts on Facebook, we removed the stone guards as the rotors were rubbing. One step closer to getting this thing out of my driveway.