My Datsun Spirit L28 Build.

[d240zx2]

Color is good. But have you awakened the baby with them yet?

[Matias]

Doldrums. Sailors use to hate them. THe long wait between wind and the much desired forward movement that keeps a project rolling. Well my friends, I find myself in the automotive doldrums. Caught in between two projects, I just do not have the parts to go forward.

On the interior, I want to get my OEM shifter in for the type B tranny. I fit the MSA short shifter in and the quality is so poor I do not like it. It adds VAST amounts of forward and rearward slop to the action of a perfectly designed factory shifter. I notched out my console to make the much taller MSA shifter fit, and while I could bolt the console up, the shifter still hit it when I put it in 1st and 3rd. Now this is not so much the consoles fault as it is the shifter lever. The MSA short shift kit moves the shifter fulcrum up almost an inch over the OEM one. It is a very crude design and I should not have been tricked by the S shaped handle. But lesson learned. For Type A to Type B tranny swaps, the MSA short shifter is not a solution. So I wait in the doldrums to finish the interior

On the engine/transmission front. I wait. Duldrums. The entire passenger side of the engine is done, completely. I have not even started the drivers side. Two things are holding me up. First, I need to get my collector pipe back from the muffler shop that is welding my O2 Bung on. I cannot even try to fit the exhaust up without that piece, since it fits to both the header AND the exhaust pipe. Since I cannot fit the exhaust, I cannot fit the intake as you fine fellows know. I am not going to mount the water intake with the thermostat until the intake and the exhaust are on so they do not get in the way. So the passenger side is on hold....So I wait.

I took the liberty to refine the fit on the studs of the CANNON manifold the webers fit on. You see, the kit they provide for you comes with nice new studs, but they do not tell you to NOT screw them in all the way. IF you do that, when you go to mount the lower locking nuts OVER the springs you do not have enough thread sticking out to start the nut! It can be a cause for much foul language. So I started to back all the studs on the bottom out about 1/8". Easy enough. Then I come to a perplexing discovery. Upon trying to reattach the throttle bar where all the throttle arms attach to and actuate all the webers, I notice the CANNON manifold is not properly aligned. Let me explain. The CANNON manifold has three holes drilled and tapped where three rod ends screw into it. These rod ends hold the throttle linkage bar. When I screw in my rod ends into my manifold, I notice that one is distinctly not lined up with the others. This is cause for my slow throttle return at times. I noticed my pedal always had more effort than it should have, and at times the weaker return spring did not quite get it back to idle as it should when you let off the gas pedal. This misalignment was causing some mild binding. I need to find a way to fix this. More pics to come.

First of all I have to thank you for a nice and informative read all the way from the start!

At this stage of you build it is kind of watching my own project through a mirror or something like that, even though we have different cars...but our engines are kind of the same. I haven't pulled my engine since it has been done recently according to the previous owner. I guess I'll find out the hard way in future if the internals are as good as they should. The engine ifself is supposed to be built by an engine builder but it has been mounted in the car "half arse, and fast".

Main thing was clearance between the brake master cylinder and triple webers, that was solved by the stupidest linkage system the world has ever seen welded to the inner fender an firewall. Lots of planning and parts ordering followed by custom machining by a good friend with a machine shop as well as making new holes and welding old ones shut to make the new brake system work. Hoping it will work as intended in the end. I decided to skip the power brakes and go for the shortest double Wilwood cylinder setup I could find coupled with the modified original brake pedel (now sporting a balance bar etc). Lots of parts waiting to be mounted but I can't proceed until I get my new header installed and that can't be done until I finally get my new exhaust system delivered from Japan. The exhaust system won't fit my header so I need to start by hanging the exhaust to be able to set up the needed header modification. After header is installed I can mount my freshly rebuilt triple webers then I can get to the brake system..... Oh, and removing the old rusted out header revealed that the new headers flange is the correct thickness in relation to my intake, which was not the case with the old header flange. Therefore the previous owner has grinded down the intake manifold flanges to be able to mount it properly. Felt kind of backwards to bring my newly rebuilt triples already mounted to the intake to my machine shop friend and have him weld on new material on the flanges and grind them smooth at the correct thickness....:stupid:

Regarding the throttle linkage I had kind of the same problem. I have no idea who made my intake but I guess yours have the same basic problem; the rod ends should work kind of like bearings and they can't be adjusted/aligned in relation to each other. My friend and I solved the problem by building our own linkage from scratch out of stainless steel. The solution is to throw the existing rod ends in the bin and get normal universal uni-balls instead that can also pivot thanks to the balls. We also made the center on adjustable so that fine tuning it results in a perfectly straight rod with no binding. It can also be removed in minutes and is held in place by the center uniball and a small lock washer in front of the front uni-ball. This probably sound incredibly difficult, I meant to attach a picture of it but it seems I haven't taken one single picture of it yet and now it's in pieces....

Can't wait to see you finish you project (and get my exhaust...)

Matias

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Matias, thanks for the kind words, all my threads end up like this, very wordy and full of pictures! I am interested in this Uniball you speak of. I will do some digging around on McMasterCarr.

[Matias]

Matias, thanks for the kind words, all my threads end up like this, very wordy and full of pictures! I am interested in this Uniball you speak of. I will do some digging around on McMasterCarr.

Look for something like this:

Then they don't have to be perfectly aligned since they move "sideways" if you know what I mean. You could have the whole linkage assembled on an angle and still get no binding...

EDIT: Your "review" of the MSA short-shift kit got me a little worried, since I havent mounted mine yet, just modified it a bit regarding looks:

Hope it works out ok.....

Edited July 19, 2012 by Matias

[Zedyone_kenobi]

That is interesting. I will have to look into a set of those if for no other reason than to see that type of ball joint

Tonight after the family goes to sleep, I think I may try to get the header and intake manifold on. I first thought I would wait until I got the collector flange back form JET HOT, but now that I think about it, I can always take the rear exhaust off the hangers and have it modified to fit. I would really not want to modify or bend the header trying to force a fit, so I will get that in place and fit perfectly first, and then make the rest of the system conform to it. Well that is the plan anyway.

OH horns are staying in the way they are. I will rock the red unless it looks too much like a reject from Hot Import Nights when I get the grill and hood on.

FYI, I have also removed the front bumper vertical uprights near the lights. I wanted to see what a bare straight bar on my car looks like. I am not sure just yet if I will leave them on or off. I will have to make that decision prior to finally installing the bumper, because you cannot remove them once the bumper is on the car. At least I have not found a way. Anyway, that is something I have been up to while waiting, but tonight I plan to make some SERIOUS headway into getting that header and intake on.

Pics to follow.

[tlorber]

Those joints are called "heim joints" , in case you need to locate them.

I just finished welding up the holes in my bumper, after removing the overriders and the rubber strips. Much cleaner look, but now it's off to the chrome plater.

[cygnusx1]

I cheap-ed out and just painted my stock horns red. Why?? Because it was the nearest rattle can, since I just sprayed the swaybars. ;-) With the front plate, you can hardly even see the horns anymore anyhow. Leave them red.

http://dcer.smugmug.com/Other/Future-Z/IMG3119/876558995_Mwo8d-XL.jpg

[johnny haywire]

I kind of like the front without the bumper guards, though I wish I had some for the rear. I just finished the initial test fit of the '72 bumpers on my '78 and I really like the look, though the car sits a bit higher now after pulling the bumper shocks out (to be cleared up once the strut inserts go in and another inch of rim is added, I'm sure).

I couldn't use the fronts anyway because they block the turn signal lenses, but here's a shot for the heck of it:

Since my car is a bit of a rat, I decided to forgo the $200 worth of rubber strips and just throw $10 worth of carriage bolts in the holes instead. When she eventually gets a repaint, the rear pan will be gone over and the bumpers rechromed, etc. Anyway, sorry for hijacking the thread! Keep up the excellent posts, can't wait to hear your Z run!!

[johnny haywire]

I cheap-ed out and just painted my stock horns red. Why?? Because it was the nearest rattle can, since I just sprayed the swaybars. ;-) With the front plate, you can hardly even see the horns anymore anyhow. Leave them red.

http://dcer.smugmug.com/Other/Future-Z/IMG3119/876558995_Mwo8d-XL.jpg

Nice!

[Matias]

That is interesting. I will have to look into a set of those if for no other reason than to see that type of ball joint

Tonight after the family goes to sleep, I think I may try to get the header and intake manifold on. I first thought I would wait until I got the collector flange back form JET HOT, but now that I think about it, I can always take the rear exhaust off the hangers and have it modified to fit. I would really not want to modify or bend the header trying to force a fit, so I will get that in place and fit perfectly first, and then make the rest of the system conform to it. Well that is the plan anyway.

OH horns are staying in the way they are. I will rock the red unless it looks too much like a reject from Hot Import Nights when I get the grill and hood on.

FYI, I have also removed the front bumper vertical uprights near the lights. I wanted to see what a bare straight bar on my car looks like. I am not sure just yet if I will leave them on or off. I will have to make that decision prior to finally installing the bumper, because you cannot remove them once the bumper is on the car. At least I have not found a way. Anyway, that is something I have been up to while waiting, but tonight I plan to make some SERIOUS headway into getting that header and intake on.

Pics to follow.

Decided to fit my shifter tonight, since it started bugging me that it might be a bad solution...it went on quite easily although I had my doubts about the construction. Only issue was that I had to dig out my inch-sockets and wrenches... Wonder if my poor old Nissan feels violated now that it has strange foreign non-metric internals...

First impression is that I like the feel, it really shortens the throw a lot as my old shifter was longer as well...might need some getting used to as it is very tight, changing from second to third in hectic situations initially might result in second to first instead...? However it is in good relation with the geometry of my throttle pedal, the first centimeter of its travel has most of what you ordinarely use... One need to have thin driving shoes or just drive barefoot for the ultimate experience...

I also took a bad photo of my throttle linkage to continue yesterdays discussion.

As you can see it is locked in place with two c-clips on each side of the left rod end or heim joint as someone suggested. It could do without the center one but flexes a little more. My friend insisted on adding it and it sure made a difference, the rod wont budge at all when everything is installed even if you pull hard on it. The middle joint attaches to an "elbow" we made that connnects to two of the intake manifold bolts that also doubles as the mounting point for the throttle cable. With the the detachable third joint you can dial in the perfect rod alignment with its two nuts after everything else is mounted.

Edited July 20, 2012 by Matias

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Today some serious progress got made. I was able to get the manifold and intake installed and torqued up in what seemed like a instant in time. I recall the first time I ever removed my intake and it was nothing short of arm wrenching. Not sure, but if I had to guess, experience and technique must account for more than people give it credit for.

I torqued every nut to 10 ft.lbs or as close as I could get with my deflection style torque wrench. I also got my water neck installed and new thermostat. I went with a 180 deg thermostat. I previously ran a 160, but I think i should be fine. If nothing else, I will get to see who much delta there is in my temp ducer.

After I got that done, I hated to go inside as garage time is hard to come by at times. So I kept pressing, and got the carb springs and lock nuts on. But they are not tightened. I still need to get the heat shield on. But first wanted to put some insulation on it. I have meant to do that since I received the heat shield. More on that later.

Here is how the beast looked when she was in the process of the installation

And here is how she looks now:

As you can see the parts to install bench is getting very barren. What a joyful sight. The absence of things to do.

As for the heat shield, I found this adhesive reflective tape in the hot rod section of my local parts store. I decided to coat the bottom of the heat shield with it.

Tomorrow, I want to try to get the carbs torqued and the fuel system hooked up. But I am surprising my wife tomorrow by taking her to the Houston Symphony so I may just put that off until Sunday. Have to keep the ones you love happy, or else one day she may realize that she can do MUCH better than me!

Edited July 21, 2012 by Zedyone_kenobi

[grantf]

Sweet.