1973 Rebuild

[Matthew Abate]

4 minutes ago, grannyknot said:

How about the stick on weights, they are quite flat.

That’s what I’m using. The thinnest ones I’ve found are 3mm plus the foam tap they stick on with.

[Matthew Abate]

I was sitting and contemplating my parking brake situation, and it occurred to me that it may be possible to change the ends of the cables to connect to the maxima calipers properly.

The Maxima had cylindrical ball ends on the cables rather than the clevises the 240z has, similar to these:

When I have a chance I’ll measure and see what would fit. I’m looking around now to see if there are kits to replace these, but I could probably make them out of steel rod. It’s just a question of making them stay on. Maybe welding them would work if I can’t find a reliable clamping mechanism that can be done at home.

I also found a couple of places that make parking brake cables, so I am looking into that as well.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Matthew Abate

[Matthew Abate]

Okay, new tactic: anyone know where I could get a fresh set of these that haven’t been swayed yet?

 

 

Im looking into having a set made by a machinist, but buying them from the people that make the zcardepot parking brake would be better.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Matthew Abate

[Matthew Abate]

I just couldn’t live with the gimpy hack that I had to use to get the 240z parking brake cable to connect to my rear Maxima calipers, so I cobbled together my own assembly. This probably could have been done without totally destroying the parking brake cable I bought from Z Car Depot, but I didn’t know that at the time. Here’s a step by step of how I put this together. Someone could probably evolve this and get to a better solution that doesn’t cost as much, doesn’t produce as much waste, and is easier, but this works. If you are using 200 SX calipers I am guessing the process would be largely the same.

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Supplies needed:
2 x 1984 Nissan Maxima parking brake cable assemblies
1 x 1973 Datsun 240z parking brake cable assembly if you are going to try to get the fittinngs to fit, otherwise you’ll need some 5/8th inch 6061 aluminum rod (or stainless steel if you have a fantastic lathe) + all necessary measurements for the fittings that mount to the bracket on the body of the car
1 x length of 1/8th inch stainless steel cable (I went with 10 feet so I had more than enough to make mistakes)
2 x 1/8th inch cable swage ends
2 x 5/8th inch insulated Adel / cable clamps
2 x Sheet metal screws
JB Weld or similar metal epoxy

Tools:
A swage crimper with swappable hexagonal jaws
A measuring tape
A micrometer
A razor knife
Glue
Cable cutters
A rotary saw
A drill + bits
Various screwdrivers, pliers, etc.

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Sequence:

Step 0. Either remove your 240Z housing fittings and open them up to be crimped onto the Maxima housing or take measurements from these to have a machinist make you at least 2 sets of fittings. If you repurpose the fittings from the 240Z housing, you may find that heating them with a torch and using punches will work. Mine were ferous but I could not get them soft enough to open without tearing, so I took the machinist route.

Step 1. Measure how far the cables for each cable assembly extend beyond the ends of the housings. Disassemble both housings completely. Remove extraneous housing brackets and sheaths from the Maxima housing, taking care to minimize the damage to each piece. Save all parts.

Step 2. Find a suitable location for an Adel clamp to mount on either side of the 240Z body. Find a good route around the underside of the car that clears all of your running gear and suspension and allows for gradual curves, preventing kinks and binding. I opted for putting the Adel clamps on the inboard sides of the Bad Dog frame rail extensions I put on the car before the paint was done, as well as using the spring suspenders that the original 240Z housing uses. Take note of where the housing will need to be cut to mount to the under side of the transmission hump in the cable bracket and mark with blue tape or similar.

Note: The Maxima housing is slightly larger in diameter than the aftermarket 240Z housing I got from Z Car Depot. Those pieces won’t just slide on, and getting a set that hasn’t been crimped yet was a fruitless endeavor, because the manufacturer didn’t feel like selling them to me. You may be able to go the other way and make the piece that fits into the Maxima caliper and fits onto the 240Z housing, but I found the 240Z housing to be too short to route well without binding and opted for trimming the Maxima housings.

Step 3. As stated in Step 0, either reuse or replicate the housing ends of the 240Z cable housing. I destroyed two of mine (there are four on these housings) by trying to open up the crimped ends, which may be possible with the right tools, but I don’t have those so I abandoned this path and opted for having a local machinist replicate the ones I didn’t murder. He made me four of them (2 for failures) out of 6061 aluminum rod in exchange for a 750ml bottle of Uncle Nearest 1856 Premium Aged Whiskey. Stainless steel would be better, but these parts don’t have a ton of force on them in any direction so he and I agreed that aluminum will be just fine.

Step 4. Use a rotary cutting wheel to cut the Maxima housings to the length determined during Step 2. For me this came to about 37 inches from the end of the metal part that mounts to the caliper to the cut point. The housings are sprung steel with a rubbery black plastic coating. A hack saw and file might work fine but will take a while and give you a nasty edge because of the coiled design of the tube. I know this because I tried it.

Step 5. Relocate the ribbed sheath with the smaller diameter to cover the area where the other sheath was glued to the housing. This is where my finished housing will go through the Adel clamp, and I found this ribbed piece to be a good size to fill the Adel clamp without it squeezing the housing too tightly or leaving it sloppy.

Step 6 (optional). Fix rubber pieces in place to aid assembly. I opted to use some flexible glue that gets along with the rubber bits to fix them in place. I wanted to reduce the opportunities for moisture to get into the cable (and this is a nice feature upgrade from the aftermarket 240Z cable I got from Z Car Depot), as well as keep things from sliding around as I test fit everything.

Step 7. Reinsert the white nylon tube into the Maxima housing. Trim to be flush with the cut end of the housing. I trimmed both ends to clean it up since it was a bit worn on each end.

 

Step 8. TEST FIT EVERYTHING NOW!

Step 9. POINT OF NO RETURN - Assemble the housing pieces and crimp the 240Z housing pieces onto the Maxima cable housing. Be careful to not over crimp the 240Z piece and crush the Maxima piece.

CRIMP SLOWLY! The inside of the 240Z piece is going to shrink and may need to be opened up to allow the cable to pass through if it’s squeeze too far. Check tolerances and test fit often. I rushed the first set so all my careful choosing of the best bits was for nothing as my two best ripped and ended up in the trash. Also, don’t crimp too close to the collar. That caused the tears in the first round.

Note: A few observations from the machinist about the replica pieces…

A. The hole that the cable goes through was hard to get the right size on his 1943 lathe because of his selection of ASE drill bits not being in small enough increments. We opted to ensure enough space for the cable by going a little too big, which allowed the white nylon tube inside the housing to escape as the cable slid back and forth. After the second try I found the crimping shrank the opening enough to keep the white nylon in the housing while allowing the cable to move freely.

B. It’s tough to get the channel for the spring clip precise on an old-school lathe. CNC probably could get it closer, but we opted for too tight and filing if necessary. Because these are aluminum and the spring clips are steel, a little persuasion with a brass hammer did the job.

C. The reason we made 4 and not 2 is so we could test all tolerances and choose the combination of fine tuning challenges. Since these are all hand made there were differences, so I used hand tools on the fittings and the bracket to make them fit.

Step 10. Test fit again.

Step 11. Put the rubber boots onto the ends of the Maxima housing.

Step 12. Crimp a swage onto the end of the steel cable. Put a cylindrical bead from the Maxima on the cable, followed by one of the Maxima housings with a 240z end. Put the couple for the hand brake on, then the other Maxima housing with 240z end (flipped the opposite direction), another bead and a swage end.

DO NOT CRIMP THE SECOND SWAGE END YET!

BONUS PICTURE OF DOG INTERRUPTING PROCESS.

Step 13. Test fit the entire assembly. Make sure the screw that connects the U-bracket to the handbrake lever is fully extended to ensure the maximum available adjustment length, but lease a few threads peaking past the nut for a smidgin of safety.

Note: I replaced the OEM screw with a 70mm stainless M6 1.0 pitch hex socket cap head bolt. It fits into the assembly well. The old one was bent and this one has threads down the entire length, giving me much more room to adjust it. Any cable will stretch over time so you want something like this to maximize adjustability.

Step 14. Position the bead and swage end you didn’t crimp inside the caliper lever, pull the cable taught, and mark the position of the swage end on the cable with a piece of blue tape.

Step 15. Remove the assembly on the side that you just marked from the caliper and crimp the swage end where it should be. Cut the excess cable off.

Note: I put a bit of JB Weld over the frayed end of the cable where I cut it, bonding it to the crimped swage end on each side of the car. This will keep moisture out and gives me just a little more insurance that it will stay on, because Garage Build.

Step 16. Reassemble, tighten the bolt that joins the cable to the hand brake, and test the system.

Edit: The slack you see above between the swage end and the bead disappeared once I tightened up the bolt in the u-bracket.

Edit: I think I might end up putting zip ties or something on the boots that cover the black Maxima housing. The glue I used isn’t holding. I might also have used a nylon coated cable if I was doing the entire thing over again. The reason I didn’t is that I didn’t trust the swage end to stay on with that nylon creating a failure point. If it disintegrates you end up with a loose crimp, and since this was done with hand tools I just didn’t feel confident about that.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[Matthew Abate]

Well, I thought I’d be smart ad clean up my steering shaft with a wire wheel, but I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing and I hit the rubber seals on my perfectly good universal joint and ripped them off. Now I have a problem.

I know you can get a u-joint from a Land Rover that fits in these staked shafts from later 240zs, but it’s the restaking that is the issue. I can’t find a machine shop willing to do anything with a staked u-joint, including removing them.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[Matthew Abate]

Started cleaning up that steering shaft.

The first bit was easy, but I didn’t cut enough of the staking off the last cap and I ended up punching through it.

It took 11 times as long to do the last one as it took for the first three.

I wanted to be very careful to not ruin anything, so it was a very delicate process of tapping various punches with the brass hammer.

In the end I got it apart. Now I just have to wait for the new u-joint.

Next step is that wire wheel again, followed by paint. This was black originally, but I’m thinking of going with silver for the respray

Edited January 28, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[siteunseen]

How's your engine build? I remember reading about the very meticulous guy's comments and wondered if he finished it up for you. I think he buillt aerial motors? 

Can't wait to see the finished car. I've been keeping up.

[Matthew Abate]

45 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

How's your engine build? I remember reading about the very meticulous guy's comments and wondered if he finished it up for you. I think he buillt aerial motors? 

Can't wait to see the finished car. I've been keeping up.

Yeah, my dad is doing it for me. He’s close. We ran into some issues with the machinist we went to and our head all needing different problems solved, but we are on track to be done real soon. Soon enough that I need to get the transmission sorted for when the engine shows up.

[Matthew Abate]

Speaking of the transmission, I took some photos of my 1980 720 5-speed:

And the case markings:

The #1 indicates the following gear ratios should be in this case:

1    3.592
2    2.246
3    1.415
4    1.000
5    0.813

Same as the stock 4-speed plus an overdrive. Should offset my 3.9 LSD rear end for cruising.

Edited January 30, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[Matthew Abate]

And some photos highlighting the differences between the cases for the 5-speed (shiny) and my (possibly not) original 4-speed (filthy with red tie down straps):

Edited January 29, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[siteunseen]

Nice transmission cart! I may ask for the dimensions one day. I've got a few standing up that I'd prefer being able to move more easily.

Thank you. Cliff

Edited January 29, 2022 by siteunseen

[Matthew Abate]

Okay, back to steering…

All my original parts are clean and ready for paint. The Land Rover universal joint arrived last night, and new hardware is on its way.

The next step is to mic the LR u-joint and make sure it’s a match. Then I’ll paint the shaft parts and get them ready to go back together.

The u-joint is from FEBEST, which I have never heard of. Hopefully it’s not garbage. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ At least this isn’t going to spin a whole lot…

Getting the old u-joint out was fun. Since I blew through the top of one of the caps I spent 4 hours and a million different tools to delicately get the remainder out. I dressed the inside of the yokes and got it pretty enough for reassembly. They’re a little bit ugly but not where it matters. I still need to mic them, but I am reasonably certain that I did not open up the holes and ruin the friction fitting.

Edited January 29, 2022 by Matthew Abate