Alright, got the new alternator mounted on the weekend, used a modified L series adjuster which unfortunately isn't a threaded locking one, just a slotted bracket but it seems to work okay! Upgraded some of the wiring including the output of the alternator to the battery and a new much, much thicker ground cable.
So I checked the output of the old alternator before I took it off and it was around 14.2V with nothing on, with the new alternator with the high beams, radio and heater on full it's making 14.4V. Only problem is the car doesn't think it's charging even though it clearly is. There is a bulb check relay that lights up most of the lights on the dash which is triggered by the alternator so it knows when the ignition is on but the car isn't running, but the lights are on all the time. I pulled out the relay and the battery light is still on all the time, I've been driving it around since the weekend and it's running fine so I'm not quite sure what the problem is.
My late Z31 5 stud hubs have arrived so I'll have to find some rotors and some new wheels, I'm leaning towards R32 GTR wheels or possibly another type of BBS wheel, nothing too flash or expensive. I'm thinking about buying some R32 GTR calipers to try and fix the squealing from the Z brakes so that would make the R33 calipers spare so they might end up on this.
Ever since I've had the car the temperature gauge has been acting weird, I had a bit of a look the other day and the wire going to it broke off in my hand so I crimped on a new terminal but no change to the gauge reading, had a bit more of a look at the sender and the hex was rounded off and the resin part in the centre was loose and was able to turn.
I looked through the catalogue at Repco and of course there was no DR in there, closest thing was an S12 with an FJ so I got one of those senders but it must be the wrong resistance range as it would barely read above the first bar. I had a bit of a think and I'm pretty sure the gauge clusters are the same between the HRs and DR30s so I had a dig around in the garage and found a brand new Z sensor, kept digging and found the threaded collar that the Z's use to hold the sender in, had a measure up and it had a 16mm thread too, chucked it in and the gauge seems to be reading sweet. As it heats up it sits pretty much half way on the gauge, sitting in traffic it goes a little bit higher - I'm not actually sure that the fans are coming on, I've tested the fans themselves and they do work. Might put a couple of little LEDs running off the fan wiring so I know when the fans come on.
The L series setup looks like this:
