(01-18-03) FINALLY! I thought I was finished but the motto of the day is "You get what you pay for." My $50 transmission decided to start popping out of gear so I guess I have to get it rebuilt. It did last for a few months after it started so at least there's that. Now's the time to do it because I'm getting ready to pull the engine for a good cleaning and renovation of the engine compartment. BTW, the 2+2 flywheel and turbo clutch have worked great! No more slippage. The only problem was a bad slave cylinder but that was only $15 at Advance Auto.
I also upgraded the front brakes to 4 piston calipers from the stock 2 piston. I chose the '84 Toyota 4x4 calipers as they work with the stock brake rotors. You can choose to go with the '90 Toyota 4x4 calipers if you want to upgrade the rotors to 4-lug 300ZX types. The difference is amazing. When you hit the brakes you stop NOW!
I also have decided to go with a set of 40mm wheel spacers that have a 4x100mm bolt pattern. This makes the choice of wheels I can use almost limitless. I have 15" wheels now and plan on buying a set of autocross tires in the future that I will mount on some cheap VW or Honda wheels. I also believe some Ford patterns are the same.
Probably the biggest thing I've done the the Z's suspension is something I said I wasn't going to do: I LOWERED it by about 2 inches. I bought a set of MSA springs that they said would fit all Z's '70 - '78. They were wrong. The front end sat up about an inch higher than the rear. After several calls they sowre they were the correct ones so I finally broke down and cut 2 coils off each front spring. It now sits level and I must admit it looks really great. These springs are a lot stiffer than the originals though and are not for everybody. My next big suspension project will probably be some better sway bars but the stock ones are adequate for now. |
