jmortensen

Measure from the pivot holes on the ears of the trans where the shifter plugs in to the middle of the hole in the trans tunnel. That's how far you want the shifter to come back. Basically you make the shifter come out the middle of the hole.

That's a lot of coin for a stitch welded Z with webers, lexan windows and diamond plate on the floor.

I sprayed Rustoleum from an HVLP gun for the record. I meant to distinguish from the roller paint jobs that you hear so much about these days, but brain farted and didn't take into account that you can get it in a spray can.

I realize that WD-40 was a bit extreme, but when you tow in WA in the fall things are going to get wet. For the record, I did clean the crap out of my car afterwards with carb cleaner and the shell did take the paint just fine. Mine is a race car and not a show car, so I'm probably a bit less picky than some here would be, but I'd say my Rustoleum spray job looks better than the paint job I paid $2500 for about 10 years ago. My paint thread on Hybrid Z: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=128212 A few pictures: I got sidetracked and still need to paint some odds and ends, but I think it looks pretty good.

I gotta disagree with you guys. A loose bottom end and a tight top end makes the best power. Obviously not if the rings are shot, but "loose" works. When I used to work for a Porsche shop we'd hone the cylinders and put new rings and bearings in the bottom end, then do a proper valve job on the top end all the time. Works great. 100K miles isn't that much for an L series engine anyway. Unfortunately for red dog, there's that "lost power above 75 mph" thing...

The A style trans came in the 70 and up to about mid 71. Everything later is the B style, that would include all of the 5 speeds except the T5. Jason would have been replacing a B with a B as well, so no issues there either. You must be referring to some other A and B. This is what I'm referring to: http://www.zhome.com/ZCMnL/tech/69-83TrannyShifterDrawing.jpg

Replacing the side seals is super easy. Replacing the carrier bearings is also relatively easy, you just need a press and a bearing splitter, and to put the shims back on the correct side to keep backlash the same. There is no carrier bearing issue that would cause the halfshaft to turn backwards when the pinion is spun, so if that is your only reason for getting into the carrier bearings, I think that's where you're going wrong.

I had my car stripped to bare metal for about a year in my garage and didn't have anything more than the most minor surface rust which you could barely see, although it really showed up more in pictures. It stayed like that through 2 Seattle winters in an unheated garage, well except for the propane heater I used when I went out there. If you don't want it to rust, you can use a converter like PickleX or I think POR15's Metal Prep is basically the same stuff. It's phosphoric acid, but much more diluted than Ospho or similar products, so you can wipe it on and not have to rinse it off to keep it from eating the metal. I towed my car while it was stripped to bare metal too. When I did that I WD40'd the entire exposed surface. If you do that too you will end up using quite a few cans of brake cleaner getting all the oil off when you go to paint though...

I am pretty sure all of the "b" transmissions (280Z and ZX) have the shifter in the same spot. The turbo has the T5, and I'm not positive on that one but I think it is close enough that it also doesn't require any modification. Only the "A" series has the shifter in a different position.

I am not trying to insult, but I honestly don't think you understand what you're doing inside a diff, based on your other post where you were checking backlash at the pinion and then at the side flange. I would suggest you take your diff to a shop that specializes in rear ends and transmissions and ask them to see if they think there is play in the bearings. I think you have play in the side gears which is absolutely necessary to keep them from burning up and your bearings are fine. I would also suspect that your backlash is absolutely fine. I think you're wasting money, time and effort where you don't need to.

Most common springs are Tokicos and Eibachs which are both progressive on the 240, then there are the MSA and Suspension Techniques springs which are not progressive. There are/were many more manufacturers, but those are probably the most common. 2a) totally normal for aftermarket springs to not have any preload. In fact I bet if you search you'll find a bunch of questions from people installing asking if it is a problem. 2b) I don't think any of the aftermarket springs have enough preload that you couldn't get the strut top on by hand.

The other thing to consider is how far forward the stick will be. If you have to cut the hole for clearance, when you're in 2nd, 3rd, and 5th that shifter is going to be way out there. If you're like me, a normally proportioned 6' tall guy, it will be uncomfortably far forward. If you have gorilla arms that hang down to your knees, it might work OK...

There is no real difference in the slave cylinder itself (except you might have to drill a hole to connect the spring). The difference is in the pin and the throwout fork. I don't think it's quite as simple as that. You might say that since the difference between the two is minor, the manual adjust slave can be used as an automatic. I'd like to hear from someone else to make sure my idea of setting the pin length the same as the automatic is all that is necessary. I can't see a reason why that shouldn't work, but that was just an off the cuff suggestion. I would reiterate that having the manual adjust enables you to set the clutch how you like it. I think this is a big plus and I wouldn't trade my adjustable setup for a non-adjustable unless I had to.

I think what you would want to do is adjust the end to approximately the same length as the non adjustable pin, and completely ignore the normal adjustment routine.

So then basically you're using the manual slave and not adjusting it. I see no problem with that right off the top of my head.

It's a bit tough to find the manually adjustable slave, so what you can do is take the pin out of your manually adjusting slave and put it into an automatically adjusting slave. This is what Mat did, although I guess he had to drill a hole for the spring too. Sorry about that Mat, but I think they only sell the one slave anymore... The bit that you're missing here Cutlass is that the throwout fork for the early cars has a hole in it. If you have the hole in the fork, then you should really use the manually adjusting slave. Reason? Well, the manually adjusting pin has a much larger pivot ball at the end. The automatically adjusting pin which fits the fork with no hole has a much smaller pin. I don't think it would take too many thousand miles before the small pin punched through the hole in the fork, especially with an aftermarket clutch. And just because there has been some previous confusion regarding the adjustable parts, you CAN use the manual adjust fork/slave combo on a later transmission. I have used one with a ZX 5 speed for years, works fine, and adds a little bit more adjustability for those who would like to be able to more accurately adjust how high off the floor the clutch engages.

Some Killer B's in there... cool!!! There was a guy with a shop in the same complex I worked at when I was about 20. He had a bunch of Killer B's from the Delta to the Turbo II, even a RS200 Evo that was all built up. LOVE those cars.

May I have their email address?

I noticed this morning that I had a notification asking me to be friends with Khrystina, which surprised me. To this point I haven't actually posted anything on any of her threads and I've been peeking in on this one and a couple others just to see where this issue was going. Here's my take, and I'm going to try not to be offensive (although I tend to come across pretty bluntly most of the time). The message given continues to be that we shouldn't offend Khrystina, or females in general. I would agree that this is a good thing to strive for, but it should also be a two way street. This is a car forum, and so long as her posts pertain to cars and other socially acceptable topics, I see no problems. I haven't noticed this problem with the other women on the site, although I haven't followed them too closely either. I think the problem here is that Khrystina is flaunting her new found sexuality with the intent of eliciting some sort of response from the males on the site. I don't think the Boobs thread is the same, because the person with the boobs is of age, and what's more they are not posting their picture for us to view. Clearly if they were this would change the dynamic. It's good not to hurt feelings or be rude, but that is a two way street. I feel that what Khrystina is doing is inappropriate (or rude if you prefer). I think she is largely given a pass because she is a girl, and if it were Jimmy the 16 year old boy in a speedo draped over the hood of a Z showing his "package" to the camera, the response would be quite different. As I said, I've largely stayed out of this situation, so I am not aware of whether other people's reactions to her sexual teasing have been more aggressive or otherwise out of line, but she is 16 and in my opinion shouldn't be allowed to post sexually charged images of herself on classiczcars.com, or anywhere else for that matter. I think this is a PARENT'S issue to deal with, and neither Mike nor the rest of us should need to get involved, but unlike in a face to face confrontation we can't grab her by the arm and take her home and tell her mom and dad what she was doing. As a father with a very young daughter, I can tell you that I won't allow this type of behavior from her when she is 16. It's not about accepting Khrystina for who she is, or being tolerant of women, or anything else. She is a CHILD and children need supervision. It is sadly apparent that this is lacking in her life, at least when it comes to the internet. I'll not bother to go in depth on the possibility of pedophiles/rapists/etc who like Z's being members here (or them searching online and stumbling into this forum), but I'm sure that the potential is there. That's not to say that we assume everyone online is a sexual predator, but maybe it is smarter that we don't assume that they aren't.

If I want to polish my rod I'll do it in the privacy of my own home. In other words: I'm not a car show guy.

Maybe you installed them wrong and they weren't on the spring perches correctly or something, but upside down or right side up makes absolutely no difference to a spring.

I did a little checking and it looks like fast ITS guys are in the mid-high 1:30s as you said. Fast GT2 or CP guys are in the low 1:30s, John Coffey's now defunct ROD (Rusty Old Datsun) did a 1:28. I never ran there. I ran at Streets of Willow a few times with the Porsche Owners Club, and I can't recall lap times but I want to say it was 1:16 or 1:18. It's been like 8 or 9 years, so memory is a bit fuzzy. I came in 11th out of 215 cars, so I was happy. You might try Streets, it's a lot tighter, almost like a really wide open autox. If you go up the hill you probably won't break 90, if you go down it you probably won't break 105 or so. I did run Buttonwillow a few times, the only time I was racing for time I ran a 2:11 on CW13 when it was about 105 degrees out, I don't know if you've been out there to compare times. Apparently according to all the car mags my Z was pretty slow back then. It felt fast to me though, and it was my daily driver too! Should be a lot faster when I get done modding it (it's been down for 5 years now, probably another year to go at least before it is done- no stone left unturned).

That don't make no sense. ;-) To what do you attribute difference? Spring rate is determined by the wire size and number of coils, and has nothing to do with which end of the spring is up. The springs act exactly the same, the only difference is the increase in unpsrung weight with the tight coils on the bottom and a slightly higher cg with the tight coils on top. Those things are both very minor differences, and if one was going to have a greater effect, it would be the unsprung weight. Reducing the unsprung weight would make the suspension more reactive to bumps in the road and would allow the shocks to have better control over since there would be a very slightly lighter mass to damp.

So what kind of lap times were you turning? Looks like an FP autox car, but the whale tail should be illegal, right?

Could also be stub axle splines. They wear and can clunk.