Matthew Abate

That’s the plan! Anti seize on the pin. Red thread lock on all nuts and bolts. Everything is just test fit right now. Question in that front: the pin should be very hard to get into the strut, right? After I used those barrel brushes I went to test fit it and found that it’s going to need to be pressed in, which makes me nervous about making sure it’s properly aligned to the little pin that keeps it in place. For some reason I had hoped it would slide in the way it does with the bushings on the LCAs. Oh, and forgot to include this:

Update: This is the junk from one spindle pin tube:

Update: Got a credit for the bolts and a line on some OEM ones. This is what else is going on... Those LCA bushings aren’t going anywhere.

Okay. So. I got my suspension bolt kit from Z Car Source on Tuesday and opened it up immediately. My first issue is that nothing is organized. They just put all the hardware of a given size into baggies. I appreciate that they didn’t throw it ALL into ONE bag, but by comparison, Z Car Depot takes the time to sort hardware kits by where they go on the car and label everything. Now I have to go match my new hardware with my old hardware and my spreadsheet. Which highlights my second issue, which is that it’s a damned good thing I started doing that because this hardware does not match in at least one critical area: the bolt that connects the lower control arm to the crossmenber is longer but has less grip length. This means you end up with threads on the crossmember wall rather than a smooth bolt shank. BAD NEWS. Now I have to go through every single piece and make sure it’s the right size head, the right diameter, and the right length. I mean, I guess I would be anyway, but I’m nervous there are other mistakes. Here’s the LCA pivot bolt. My pops has a friend who sources small quantities of specialty hardware for Raytheon, so we’re going to see if that’s a path to a solution. Might be able to get a bunch if people are interested. I’ll let you know if it pans out.

I know this is an old dead thread but I thought I should add that my July ‘73 240z has the cream primer underneath, not body color, so they must have made this change before the 260z came along.

Been thinking about paint again. Right now these are the cans of spray touch up I have in my amazon cart: Nissan A16 Atomic Orange (close enough to 918) EBB Monarch Orange Pearl NAM Magma Red BMW B44 Valencia Orange Metallic B50 Sakhir Orange Metallic Lamborghini Arancio Borealis Suzuki Candy Max Orange Want to narrow it down to three before I go to the painter with option. Opinions?

Hmm. Okay. One more thing. He recommended that I not stake them until after 100 miles, at which point I should back them off and then retighten them just to the point of rotational resistance, whereas the lock nuts are supposed to be torqued. Opinions?

Question before I start a whole thread on something potentially insignificant: Did I buy the wrong nut for the rear hubs? I bought the OEM rear bearing lock nut that comes up in the Nissan parts search on most dealer sites, but the guy who pressed on my bearings told me that nut needs to be peened like the factory did. I was under the impression that the newer lock nuts didn't need to be peened. Z Car Depot has a Rear Outer Stub Axle Lock Nut that looks the same. I have read that the 280zx nut doesn't need to be peened. Did I get the wrong thing? I'd like to correct this before I put them rear struts back on the car.

New resonator design, too. Wonder if it sounds much different. The sound data claims it’s 4 dB quieter, if I’m reading that right.

First pass came out alright. Another pass should do it. Still some rust in the splines. In other news...

Also, can someone point me to a GOOD thread about what is involved in converting a 240Z to EFI in addition to this one? I have a hazy sense of what is required (280Z gas tank, different wiring harness, megasquirt or similar), but the search function is basically just yielding a bunch of threads of people asking if they should convert to the 280Z fuel injection and being told to use the search function. :/

I just saw a guy on Instagram named Francisco Gutierrez (https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCTvrwMREOb53ARiCs23q5tg) got his Jenvey system in the mail today. I’ll let you know what he says if he isn’t already on here and doesn’t chime in. Edit: Here's his first post on it. So how can we get in touch with Mikuni to convince them there’s enough interest to make them? I feel like they could undercut the competition and become the default solution.

More stuff, this time from Woodmen Nissan:

It’s great, but use a rag. My phone doesn’t recognize my fingerprints now. Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

Before on the left, after on the right:

Five months after starting this suspension refresh by pulling the wheels off I am over the hump! After blasting I put the parts through a rinse. The middle bottle worked the best: not to harsh but still effective. Acetone to neutralize the acid in the rinse. POR-15 Spray booth and POR-15 Top Coat Not sure if I should paint these or not. Opinions? Still waiting for my rear inner bearings and some random hardware. Once that comes I’ll start reassembly. After that I’ll flush and repaint the differential. Then it gets new bearings and seals, even though it’s only three years old. I’m just paranoid about the possibility it had dirt in the bearings from sitting in the junk yard.

Okay, duh. Never bothered to check that. We know the copper washers aren’t the washers in the illustration. I think the measurement of the space between the bearing seats and the measurement of the distance bearing indicate that there is no room for a different washer to fit, let along two of them. We I’m all good now. Ready to reassemble. Thanks guys. Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

Regarding my possibly making a mistake, yes, that could have happened, but here is the sequence of events: First I used a dremmel tool to cut the peened nuts so I could get them off the hubs. They appeared to have never been removed. I took the assembled struts to a shop to have them pressed apart. They came back disassembled but the inner bearings were still inside the hubs and the outer ones were on the spindles. Then I took the spindles to a different shop that could follow directions to have the bearings pressed off. Then I putt everything except the struts in a tub and cleaned the grease off. This is when I noticed I only had one copper washer. Then I pulled the seals out of the hubs. This is when I found another copper washer. So from this I found that I had one washer between the bearing and the seal, and another one stuck onto a distance bearing with grease. From this I assume it was always between the bearings because the first shop didn’t pull it out from under the seal and then put the seal back in. I know this from the dirt that hadn’t been disturbed. —- I used the depth gauge on my micrometer to measure from the outside of the inner bearing (it’s still in the hub and will be pressed out when I take it to the shop to have everything reassembled) to the outside of the outer bearing seat. It is 69.48mm. I still have the new inner bearings coming in the mail so I can’t summarize all of this until I get them. I’ll get more numbers when I have a chance. —- Something else I noticed is the outer bearings go in one way only. The inside race is thinker (21.93mm) and offset from the outer race by about 2 or 3 mm. This extra bit protrudes toward the hub. The orange on in the illustration below: Note this illustration also has the bearing washers. — Here are the numbers I have again: 52.56 - distance bearing 21.93 - outer bearing 86.32 - spindle bearing seats (edge to edge) 11.83 - available space on spindle minus distance bearing and outer bearing 16.64 - inner bearing (rough measurement) 5.01 - leftover space inside of hub minus distance bearing, inner bearing, and outer bearing 52.69 - space between outer bearing seat and inner bearing still inside of hub (this measurement gives me hope!) 16.97 - seat inside of hub for outer bearing 1.01 - copper washer

I have some numbers to report: The distance bearings / spacers came in at 52.56 mm long. There was a small amount of variance as I went around the diameter of up to .02 mm and this was true of both. The washers came in at 1.01 mm. The amount of variance around the diameter was .01 mm and from outside edge to inside edge was also .01 mm. I have to wait for the POR-15 to dry to do the hubs, but the distance from the very outside of the area on the spindle where the outer bearing seats to the very inside of the same for the inside bearing is 86.32mm, although there’s a good chance this is wrong because of the radius at the point where the spindle flares into the wheel hub. I used the edges of the shiny spots where the bearings were as my guides. I need to fish my bearings out later to add it all up. Hopefully they’ll add up to 32.75mm. —- Caveat: nothing but the bearings is available new so this is pretty much academic at this point. I’ll probably just put them together and cross my fingers.

Right but my car confirmed both the diagram and the tsb by having washers in two different places. Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

Okay, so it looks like I can reuse the two I have provided they aren't worn too much, or I can leave them out. And one last thing: I found one between the seal and the bearing, which sounds like the right place. The other one was stuck to the end of the distance bearing with grease, which sounds like the wrong place. Notice they are using two different part numbers (4100 vs 3400). Glad I'm overhauling all this now that I'm finding discrepancies.

Hmmm. Okay. I'll mic the distance bearing and the copper service file washer later (loaned my micrometer to my father in law). However, I did find another copper washer. It was between the seal and the bearing, which is weird, because as far as I can tell these hubs have never been disassembled before now. The nuts were still peened. So one was where kCars mentioned above and one was where the exploded diagram of the hub says it goes between the bearing and the distance bearing. Or am I confusing parts? I'm looking at #14 in the diagram:

You are correct. I mis-typed and have a 3.54, which is what I wanted because it's the stock ratio for the Z

I just got my rear hubs back from the shop and the guy threw out all my old bears "because they were shot." I got the distance bearings, usually referred to as spacers here, back but he only saved one of the four copper shim washers. They are part number 43211-N3400 and go between the bearings and either end of the distance bearing. Any chance someone has a line on these? I need three. Looks like this:

I haven't run it yet, but I got the 2014 3.9. I think it's the newest one that is limited slip (newer STIs have an open diff). So far what I've found is that you need the input flange and rear mounting studs from a Datsun. I got the studs along with a complete rear cover just in case the Subaru cover has clearance issues against the various parts that are in there. For example, the Subaru vent is really tall and might hit. I'll be swapping the covers and input flange right after I repaint the case. It was fairly rusty when I got it. Other than that, you just have to figure out if your going to use Datsun half shafts or CVs. CVs present their own complications, which I covered in my original post.