joeytalent
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ITB Everything.
Posts: 440
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Vancouver and FuelProgress on the 280Z has been a little slow over the last couple of weeks, as I was away with work in Vancouver. Nothing much to say, we got an inch of rain every day but one, when I got out to take some pictures and trek seven miles all over.      All in all, it's a fun city. Had a lot of fun walking around. Onto the car. I changed all the locks over, so now I can actually lock all the doors with the same key. No pictures of that, because... well, it was pretty boring. If you look at the picture below, you can see a lock that I replaced. Or just look at how nice the car is.  The fuel pump was making a horrible noise, so I'd ordered a replacement. Full of excitement, I went over there, got the car up on ramps and starting looking at what was required. Sadly all the rubber fuel lines were hard, and I really didn't want to pull them all off, let them split etc. Begrudgingly I busied myself by changing the fuel filter in the engine, and replaced the fuel hose there as well as one was weeping a little:  I've got some proper sized clamps on my shelf to fit when I'm next there. At the top of this shot below, above the brake cylinders, you might noticed a gap. Well, it turns out that the washer bottle is meant to fill that gap, which would explain why the washer button does nothing.  I had a root through the spares boxes and result! A washer bottle and pump. The nozzles are still on the car, so it looks like I was in business. Unfortunately the piping was so old it had gone completely solid, and when trying to remove it, I snapped one of the nipples off the base of the bottle, so now I'm waiting for a brass replacement to arrive.
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joeytalent
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Posts: 440
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Suspension Part 1I was never that happy with the height of the 280Z, especially the rear end. I'm still waiting for more parts to arrive (bumpers, seat covers, steering wheel etc), so I thought I may as well use the opportunity to swap the suspension. I ordered some replacement shocks and lowering springs that should bring it down about 1". After doing some reading online, it looked like the rears were going to be the most problematic. I had a full day to tackle them, so time to get cracking! Firstly a huge acknowledgement - atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/suspension/rearstruts/index.html is probably the most thorough guide I found online that documents removing the strut / hub unit without having to remove the transverse link spindle pin. I initially started down that path, then really didn't fancy trying to pull a foot long bolt out. So, wheels off:  And done!  Ahhhh, if only it was that simple. I ended up removing a fair amount of stuff; the ARB topmount, handbrake connector, both control arm bush mounts, the half shaft....    Overall the job wasn't too bad. All the bolts were tight, but came off with some persuasion with a breaker bar. Nothing rounded, nothing sheared. It was exactly the opposite of working on my old MX5. And the two struts removed:  The new gas struts and springs arrive on Tuesday, so I'll hopefully get them all fitted this week.
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joeytalent
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ITB Everything.
Posts: 440
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Suspension Part 2Grabbed another hour today, so I thought I'd finish off stripping down the struts. The complete unit, ready for battle:  Attach some of my least favourite tools; the spring compressors. Tighten until you can rotate the top mount easily - that means the springs won't come flying off when you remove the top mount:  Remove the topmounts - very straightforward, just one nut holds them to the top of the strut:  Then the springs can come off, and you get the joy of taking the spring compressors off. Which takes ages when you're using hand tools:   Huzzah! Getting somewhere now. Lets a look what's left - the top of the strut with a big (2" or so) hex nut:  I had to buy a special tool for this:   That came off nice and easy for both shocks, which is great as I thought it was going to be a total pain. Liberate the cartridges:  Oh - something appears to be amiss. The passenger side cartridge seems to be completely devoid of fluid. So probably a good job I'm replacing them!  And done! All ready the new inserts and springs tomorrow.
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joeytalent
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Apr 12, 2017 12:57:15 GMT
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Arsebiscuits. The company sent me the wrong KYB shocks for the rears.
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joeytalent
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Posts: 440
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I'm just in from finishing this off. Every part of me aches.
Suspension Part 3This was across two separate sessions. Everything arrived (although I was sent the wrong rear struts - quickly rectified). So, open a box:  Rear spring comparison:  Front spring comparison  Rebuilding the shocks was very straight forward. Simply slide the new gas cartridge in, fill with oil and tighten up:   And before you know it, you have two nice looking units to put back on the car:  No photos of the reassembly of the fronts or putting everything back on the car - I needed both my hands! And the end result:  Very happy. At some point when I was out buying something from Harbor Freight, I spotted this cool looking 56 Chevy in the car park:  |
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joeytalent
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ITB Everything.
Posts: 440
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Apr 20, 2017 21:36:25 GMT
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I can only like your wheel post once....
The car at harbor freight is a 56 Chevy, we call HF Hazard Fraught due to their early reputation for selling tools that became hammers or pry bars after one use.
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joeytalent
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Posts: 440
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Wheels FittedI love it when things work out. Picked the tyres up Wednesday after work, wheels got delivered in the evening. Dropped them off at a garage Thursday on the way to work, picked them up on the way home, then headed to the 280Z. Firstly, a shot of the car now that it's had time to settle on the springs:  So let's do this! Firstly, wheel off...  See all that crud lying on the ground? That was soil and dirt that was inside the previous shock boot. I didn't want that happening again - something that was left over from fitting the lowering springs and struts was clamping down the dust boots:  Yeah, I used hose clamps. I'd like to get proper CV-boot clamps on them eventually, but this is what I had lying around and it'll do for now. New vs old:  And fitted:   Pretty happy with that. One more thing - I had a Joyfast gear knob in my old MX5. You won't believe how much different a heavy chunk of metal can make to the gearshift feel on a car. Well, Joyfast don't make a M8x1.25 or whatever the thread is of the 280Z, so I grabbed a helicoil set and used that to step down from the M10x1.5 thread on the Joyfast knob.  
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joeytalent
Part of things
ITB Everything.
Posts: 440
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I can only like your wheel post once.... The car at harbor freight is a 56 Chevy, we call HF Hazard Fraught due to their early reputation for selling tools that became hammers or pry bars after one use. Hah - I'd heard about Harbor Freight's dubious tools. The stuff I got seems OK, definitely good enough for my needs right now. And thanks for correcting the car, updated  |
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joeytalent
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ITB Everything.
Posts: 440
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Seats and BumperThe bumpers finally arrived, about 7 weeks after ordering them. The company only sent one set of mounting hardware, but whatever. I'm never using them again. The initial fitment was terrible - one side looked like this:  The other like this, with a nice 2" gap:  On the rear of the front bumper, there's a bracket to mount it with:  There was no way I could physically get my fingers behind that. Frustrated, I left and decided to head back another day, and sent some emails to the supplier. They didn't respond, cementing their place in the "never use again" bin. Today, I figured I'd have another go at the front bumper. It felt pretty flexible. With some cable ties holding it in place and slowly pulling it into position, I was able to get both ends tight against the car:  Much better, although not exactly the flush fit I was hoping for:  During the last couple of weeks, I've also recovered the seats. Take one seat, undo all the bolts:  Strip off the old upholstery and try not to breathe anything in:  Put the new on and secure in place:  Do the base:  Repeat for the other side:  Much better. They're back in the car now, but I don't have a picture of that. The final thing I'm waiting for is a new steering wheel. The hub arrived today, so I decided to tackle removing the old wheel. In my MX5, that took about 3 hours of constant pulling, pushing, levering. In the 280Z, I rattled the bolt off, gave the wheel a tug and...  That's the new NRG hub with a Momo bolt pattern, just waiting for the new wheel. You can also see the new Joyfast knob fitted in this picture, and some of the seats!
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May 10, 2017 19:24:14 GMT
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NICE!
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joeytalent
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Posts: 440
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May 11, 2017 13:20:25 GMT
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IT MOVES! IT STOPS! IT DOESN'T LEAK PETROL! THE STEERING WHEEL IS SO CLOSE TO THE INDICATOR STALK I KEEP INDICATING LEFT!
Last night was very good. Took the car out with my buddy for a drive - did about 20 trouble free miles and filled up the tank. I need a steering hub spacer, but apart from that, everything felt great. The suspension sounds solid, no creaks or clunks. The brakes could do with bleeding again. The steering is heavy, but I'll get used to that. I think when the wheel is spaced out another 1.5", it should be perfect.
I also want to fit a short shifter and actually get the gearknob about 2" lower. Oh, and the horn doesn't work. And it sounds like the radiator needs to be bled.
But it works! New camera arrives tomorrow, so there will be some new pictures on Sunday.
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May 12, 2017 11:34:04 GMT
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Woohoo!
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joeytalent
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ITB Everything.
Posts: 440
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May 14, 2017 21:02:03 GMT
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Looks pretty fine from here!
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joeytalent
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ITB Everything.
Posts: 440
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Jun 19, 2017 13:02:43 GMT
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joeytalent
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ITB Everything.
Posts: 440
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Jun 19, 2017 13:03:22 GMT
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joeytalent
Part of things
ITB Everything.
Posts: 440
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Jun 19, 2017 13:04:01 GMT
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joeytalent
Part of things
ITB Everything.
Posts: 440
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Jun 19, 2017 13:04:49 GMT
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And back to the car for a post  EGR Plate and ManifoldI'd been interested in cleaning up the engine bay for a little while to get rid of some of the multitude of vacuum lines and eliminate some potential sources of air leaks. No before picture, as I was too busy also draining the oil for the second time in a week to try and eliminate some of the valve train noise. Now replaced with a new K&N filter and 5 quarts of Royal Purple 10w30. Engine seems a lot happier now! Anyway, EGR plate fitted - I couldn't shift the bolts for the pipe underneath, but the studs came out easily enough for the EGR valve.  Whilst I was there, I was looking for some of the causes of rattling. Spotted this on the exhaust manifold:  I don't know if this is intentional or not - there's about 10mm gap in the manifold flange and the nut was missing from the stud. It sounds like it's blowing pretty heavily as well, so...      That's a 6-1 manifold with a 2.5" collector, ceramic coated. The welds aren't the prettiest, but it seems fairly good quality. Because I have a 1978 with the round manifold ports, there really is very little choice available. I'm happy with it, so I'm going to arrange the car going into the shop to get a new 2.5" stainless exhaust fabricated  |
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,285
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Jun 19, 2017 17:51:13 GMT
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Nice little off-topic ramble there with some neat shots. New exhaust should sound pretty nice when it's installed, these do have a nice tone to them when they've got a decent system fitted.
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