finally! i have brakes!

[khughes]

Well guys,

the car has been up at Stewart Wilkins for the past 3 weeks getting a whole lot of bits added to it.. this is certainly a significant step for the car!

New and improved!:

R34 GTT Front calipers and Discs

New front adj. shock inserts + springs

adjustable strut tops installed (the ones i got from Miles)

DR30 10" booster with 1" Master Cylinder

Commodore rear brakes with falcon disks and banksia handbrake

halfshafts converted to Z31 CV shafts with 280Z stub axles

R200 diff mount redone

RB25DET Gearbox mount redone

Custom Driveshaft (some hybrid thing they made up for me)

1/2 rollcage with harness mounts

there were a LOT of dramas unfortunately, nothing fitted as easily as i had hoped, and it completely blew my budget (over 30% more than i expected, which was a lot anyway!) with 56 hours of work completed.. but i am hugely impressed with their work!

I have a few more little dramas to work out such as:

:surprised driveshaft bolts just a little too short (need to replace them with landcruiser 100 driveshaft bolts)

:surprised handbrake cable may bind on the trailing arm (need to enlarge that hole)

:surprised front brake lines are too long (i got those braided lines from a nissan stagea)

:surprised CV boot may rub on shock body when shock is fully compressed

:surprised i have a whiney R200 sounds like a bearing.. have to serously consider a KAAZ LSD

:surprised still got to get some foam for the rollcage

:surprised really need to re-run the brake lines once the engine is out again

anyway, i will fill you all in on the particulars.. but first the photo's!

http://www.project240k.com/images/thumbnails.php?album=12

enjoy!

I am well and completely broke for the next few months (plus i am moving), so other than little things not much will be done for a while.. i may buy one of those universal wiring looms from the states to replace the harness in the car, but then i have to start seriously saving for it to be painted.. that is another cost i am not looking forward to (i would imagine around $5000 with the bodywork that needs to be done too)

[khughes]

Front brakes:

• existing brake mounts removed and new mounts welded on
  
• discs machined to fit hub and redrilled for 4x113.4PCD
  
• used existing stagea braided lines that i had, but these really need shortened
  
• thankfully clearence was not an issue due to the 16" wheels
  

suspension

• found the front shocks to be dead, replaced with Koni damper adjustables, needed a 60mm tube insert to lift the shock in the housing
  
• C110 adjustable strut tops from japan did not fit the top spring seat, an adaptor had to be made up to take the load of the springs and to get it to fit
  
• existing springs were too short, so i got new springs.. if i need to go higher, then i will need to add tender springs(?) to extend them
  

Front Booster

Clearence issues mainly.. booster was fouling on steering shaft, whole assembly had to be relocated higher meaning the existing mountings had to be cut off and rewelded slightly higher.. it also meant that the pedal box had to be modified and redrilled to suit

Rear Brakes

Stewart Wilins used a hybrid Commodore/falcon kit commonly used for 1600's.. it uses a VT commodore caliper on a falcon disc brake, which has an integrated banksia brake (sort of like a drum brake on the inside of the disc.. very interesting!) as the kit was primarily for the 1600.. modifications had to be made for the 240k.. and the handbrake cable still fouls on the trailing arm.. i need to see how much i can extend the hole by

CV Shafts

I had done a bit of ground work on this, getting Z31 4 bolt shafts and 280Z 31 spline stub axles from Z-spares in melbourne.. unfortunately it turns out that Z-spares sent me 2 of the same sided shafts (one is meant to be shorter), and a 280z stub axle and a 200b stub axle... far from professional..

the Z31/280Z adaptors were made by NZeder on these forums, and i ordered a complete set of Z31 cv boot kits from nissan. The 280Z stub axles had to be turned down to fit the 240K (i have the measurements at work).

the rubber cv boot can foul on the shock absorber when it is fully compressed, hopefully i can find a thinner adjustable shock sometime in the future.

The guy that did my engine, gearbox and diff mount originally did a pretty poor job, everything but the engine mounts needed to be re-engineered.

Roll cage

I got a 1/2 cage installed, mainly for road legal reasons (but i can add the front 1/2 later if needed), it just clears the rear window winders, and just clears the roof lining. now i just need to get some foam covers for it.

that is most of it i think.. well as much as i can remember for now! i havn't had a good look at it all as yet, but i need to pull the engine out soon to fix the water pump and replace the belts.. so i will get better photos later on

Kent

[240kconvertible]

Nice work Kent, very impressive.

It's going to be one hell of a weapon when finished. We'll have to meet at the track one day (when both are finished) and have a looooooong race.

I'm expecting mine to get registered in early feb.

[khughes]

i am still cautious on how the thing will handle.. i am trying to put as much good stuff in there as i can.. but i guess until i can actually feel it in the corners.. i will be worried.. there is always a chance it will be an understeering pig (until i unleash the left foot that is!)

[240kconvertible]

I think you'll be quite surprised as to how she'll handle. You've only made improvements and haven't added a lot of extra weight. You'll be fiddling around with the front end until you have the set your happy with I bet. One thing for certain is that your going to have a lot of fun in it.

How much power you going for? and is it rack and pinion steering?

I've never driven a nice handling one before so I can only imagine what they are really like. Mine never had the suspension replaced from new it went from understeer to oversteer whenever it felt like it. Still I had it in some really silly power slides round corners.

I made the mistake of flat shifting to third in the wet one day:stupid: already doing about 60kms, I remember the arse stepping right out in miliseconds and sliding towards 3 different telegraph poles. I will never flat shift gears in the wet anymore (unless in a big open runway).

The shock of the arse going right out made me let off too much gas which made the situation worse, it was some crap driving on my part.