75 280 Rear Suspension Work & Disc Brake Conversion (MilkFab)

[Patcon]

On 7/6/2023 at 8:25 PM, HusseinHolland said:

Did the mustache bar bushings and the inner control arm bushings. If I can't extract the outer c/arm bushings in-situ tomorrow, I'll have to drop the arms entirely. I'll get the trans jack if that happens, I'll need it anyway for the V8/4l60E drivetrain. Forward bushings are longer than the rears.

For mustache bar, the original bushing sleeves need to be kept, so I holesawed the rubber out & wire brushed the sleeve of residual rubber

rear bushing sleeves came off with just a little soaking

old remnants

Those crenallated washers still have value to some people

[HusseinHolland]

3 hours ago, Zed Head said:

It's a good time to grease the u-joints on your half shafts.  There are small slotted plugs in the Zerk fitting holes.

There are plugs to be removed so that grease fittings can be inserted?

 

18 minutes ago, Patcon said:

Those crenallated washers still have value to some people

I was going to hold on to the pair that are not hammered. I figured the brake parts may also be worth something to someone, so I'll clean everything. 

[Patcon]

I would keep all 4. They have different ID's. Im hopeful at some point, someone will start making these using the original washers as a core

@nix240z

[Racer X]

11 hours ago, HusseinHolland said:

There are plugs to be removed so that grease fittings can be inserted?

Yes, on originally installed u-joints. The assembly is too small to have clearance for the zerk fittings, so after assembly and lubrication, the zerk is removed and a plug inserted. During routine service, remove the plug, install a zerk, grease the joint, remove the zerk and replace the plug.

[HusseinHolland]

Took the rear struts & hubs apart after doing the Fuel pump setup. Removed the drum brake back plates that are no longer needed.

cut down the nub of the spindle, to make sure the Z31 CV cap doesn't hit

removed the (too short) wheel studs & cleaned the outer flanges

Still not happy with not having a hub seat for the wheels

I may weld on a sleeve (cut from a Volvo), that will allow me to use a hub centric ring (65.1 - 73.1) to set the Konig wheels. Have to have the nubs turned down in that case, to get a good seat for welding

Edited July 9, 2023 by HusseinHolland

[Zed Head]

14 hours ago, HusseinHolland said:

Z31 CV

Haven't read the details but if you're planning a CX axle conversion you'll want to take good measurements if you're using aftermarket CV axles.  Apparently they often have longer compressed lengths than the factory CV axles.  People have had problems.  

Don't forget to use the axle shaft as the center for machining when you convert to hub-centric.  Since Nissan used lug-centric they would have no reason to set a tight tolerance on the rough cut of the "hub".  

[HusseinHolland]

11 hours ago, Zed Head said:

Haven't read the details but if you're planning a CX axle conversion you'll want to take good measurements if you're using aftermarket CV axles.  Apparently they often have longer compressed lengths than the factory CV axles.  People have had problems.  

Don't forget to use the axle shaft as the center for machining when you convert to hub-centric.  Since Nissan used lug-centric they would have no reason to set a tight tolerance on the rough cut of the "hub".  

I bought the Z31 ('87 300ZX T) axles (NI8435, NI8442) that go with the Silvermine flanges - Trackmotive  brand off RockAuto.

What I don't like is that the existing flange doesn't sit in all the way, so there is about 8mm lost in terms of overall depth for the new axle, which as we know is longer than stock. The other factor is the one you mention, that Nissan didn't bother making the flange concentric with the hub/axle, so that has to be addressed. 

The way the plates are supplied, they are supposed to be welded in to the recess provided, but since the stock flange isn't hub-centric a jig of some kind is required to center the weld flange to the hub. 

What I'm thinking of doing is removing the inner flange & having the hub shaft turned with a 4mm shoulder for the new CV flange to seat on, so I can get the flange surface back to stock depth. That should prevent the CV from bottoming out & binding, I hope.

stock flange

6mm thick

new flange is 12mm

Old flange only sits 4mm into recess

other side recess for CV cup is 4mm

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by HusseinHolland

[Captain Obvious]

I've never messed around with converting to the CV axles, so I'm all kinds of confused. With that in mind...

You cut length off the end of the stub axle. And now (with just the washer and nut) on the threaded portion of the stub, the end of the axle is below the surface of the nut? How does it look with everything assembled in-situ? The reason I ask is that when installed "as used" the nut will not thread on as far as you have in your pics and you will have even less thread engagement. I'm not really worried that you'll have enough threads, but I am a little concerned that there won't be any place to put your anti-vibration peen.

In other words... When you put everything together, it's the bearings and spacer tube (distance piece) that establish where that nut will get tight. Not where the washer bottoms out on the splines like you have in your photo. The nut will become tight before it's as far on as you have it in your pics.

Another question is how do the new CV adapter flanges attach to the original rectangular flanges? I've never messed with them, so I have no idea. Do you drill holes for bolts, or do you weld them on or what?

And lastly. it should be a relatively simple matter of machining the original wheel mounting flange to accommodate some sort of hub-centric ring. I haven't done it, but seems like you could turn down the original center hub to a smaller diameter and fit a special made centering ring over it. Press it on with no welding required?

What is the diameter of the original hub ring, and what diameter are you trying to achieve?

[Zed Head]

19 hours ago, HusseinHolland said:

Silvermine

Not sure if you mentioned the Silvermine package in one of your threads (it's hard to to follow along when you start a new thread for each sub-project), but if it's one with adjustable control arms you could also widen the track to get clearance for the axles.  That's what some people do.  

And, since I'm here, might as well say that the u-joint halfshafts are actually pretty strong,  Lots of guys run them with high HP Chevy small blocks.  The CV axle swap was a neat idea when people were using Nissan CV axles but I'm not so sure that aftermarket Trakmotive axles are better than Nissan u-joint halfshafts.  Not trying to be a buzzkill, just pointing out the aftermarket problem.  That is also something to keep in mind if you run the u-joint shafts for a while.  New aftermarket u-joints are probably not better than used Nissan u-joints.

Anyway, looks like fun.  

[Yarb]

I have a kit I had professionally welded together from Silvermine with the same cv axles. Pm me if you would like my input on these. Been down that road.

[Zed Head]

Can't you just post the details here?  We want to know too...

[Yarb]

Don’t want to place a valuable supplier on notice when it could have been something I missed. I did try everything to keep them from binding.