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Shift kits for auto Zeds


RB30X

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Need to get this question off this chest cos it's been simmering for days. :P  Maybe the right people to ask so here goes.

 

I'm not looking for a lot more performance cos really any 3 speed auto that I can throw down into 2nd at 100km/h is already fabulous.  My auto is very clunky in the upshift and the car lurches so I also want a more comfortable daily bus.  Can any of those spring valves be tweaked with the kit or is the answer in that something is wrong with the pressure modifier?

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Is your trans standard?

 

Does you trans hold gears to a higher rpm than you wish before shifting, even under minimal load?

 

Are you wearing a helmet when you change down to 2nd in an auto at 100km/hr???? ;D

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Is your trans standard?

 

Does you trans hold gears to a higher rpm than you wish before shifting, even under minimal load?

 

Are you wearing a helmet when you change down to 2nd in an auto at 100km/hr???? ;D

 

Thanks for the reply.  It's the original 3 speed.  Not sure that it holds higher than I want, cos it's always been consistent (but with fuel consumption in mind all gears are holding to higher RPM than I wish they were. :P).  2 things bother me about the auto.  First is the upshift at low speed.  Driving at lower speeds/ in traffic is not comfortable with the clunky auto box.

 

Second concern is the down shift when hard accelerating isn't predictable.  If I'm on about 80 km/h and mash the pedal it will either drop a gear (ie. car lurches) or just hold 3rd.  Doesn't sound like a big deal but it is when you don't expect it to down shift, or the acceleration was just momentary.

 

So a shift kit could fix the first problem by smoothing gear changes but might possibly worsen the second problem?

 

Anyway, I've loved the auto.  I'm keen on a shift kit if it can fix some of those flaws.

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Your auto has two kick down triggers. An electronic one and a vacuum one. I would say your vacuum modulator is failing providing the inconsistent kick downs.  The electronic one runs off throttle position so it will always kick down when fully planted if it's working. Try replacing your vac mod. Why your auto is shifting so hard as standard is beyond me. Has it been serviced lately? 

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That would make sense.  Car was dumped in a creek so the transmission among most other things was overhauled around '03ish and my mechanic of 6+ years does the major services regularly and whenever something urgent pops up.  I'll call around and get some quotes but transmission guys are expensive so I might be better off tracking down another box to test with.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...
  • 1 month later...

pm coming soon rb30x

 

i also have an MQ (160) patrol, turns out some of these (pretty rare) also came with the 3N71B transmission. I have a wiki on the MQ patrol, i have hosted the factory service manuals on it and there is a whole section (64 pages) on the auto trans if anyone is interested. its chapter AT (10) on this page: http://nerok.info/general/service_manuals

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  • 2 months later...

G'day Tim,

 

I am a new 280ZX owner, of only ~2 months now.  I'm new to the Japanese thing too, I've (nearly) always stayed with the German, but I am becoming more and more impressed with the way the Japanese build their stuff, by the day.

 

Anyway, I bought this particular 280ZX because it was 'there' at the right price at the right time, etc.  However, if I'd had a viable choice, I wouldn't have picked one with the 3-speed auto!  Clearly, that was made with the US market in mind.  But now I read - with excitement - and noting I have just joined this forum minutes ago, about your the shift kit 'thingy'.  I may be getting ahead of myself because I got so excited about it I haven't yet read the 3 pages of stuff that follow your first post, so the answer may already be in those pages - in which case just tell me to go read - but I would really, really(!!) love to get one of those modified valve bodies!!

 

What is the current situation?  Is it still possible, and if so, how/when, etc??? 

 

Oh!  One more thing on another topic; as I said, I've literally joined only minutes ago, so I haven't negotiated this forum yet, but you may be able to point me in the right direction 'off the top of your head'.  My 280ZX being a 1979 (2+2 non-turbo) the wheel PCD is 4x114.3, to be able to use the wheels I want I have to convert to 5x114.3.  Do you know if I can just swap hubs from a Z31, for instance, or would I have to swap the 'legs' and associated bits complete?

 

Very best regards,

 

Steve

0404 027 950

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Welcome steve. The shift kits are still available as are exchange valve bodies. As for the upgrade to 5 stud hubs I can't help but someone else here might, otherwise check out hybridz.com which is another useful zed site.

Cheers

 

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Thank you Tim,

 

My email address is:    stevehlavenka@yahoo.co.uk

 

It'll take me a few weeks to get to putting it in, so a couple of weeks or so is not at all a problem. 

 

I'm still getting to know the car, it's one of those that was left to sit around in a garage for a year, so perhaps not surprisingly it had a few strange issues with how it ran when I got it... hesitations and coughs and I had to 'push it' as if against its will to get performance out of it.  It didn't help when the guy who owned it cleaned the engine bay before I bought it with that caustic truck wash and a high pressure gurney!  That took some effort, to get rid of that crap from connectors and other places!! 

 

But by now, every day I drive it, it gets noticeably better, no more hiccups and an ever increasing eagerness to perform, so it's becoming the sweetest machine, more than I initially dared hope for in fact.  For the first couple of weeks I was quite ready to sell it and get rid of it, but now it's becoming a true favourite to the  point that if there's a day I don't drive it, I miss it and am waiting to drive it the next day.

 

The auto box works, as far as I can tell, at least as good as it should, but it really, really needs some extra 'energy' about it, I think it makes the L28E seem sluggish in ways that it isn't, at all.  If the L28E had 3-times the torque it would be a much more tolerable 'box to have, and obviously it will never perform like a 5-speed auto (and I may transplant one of those eventually), but in the meantime -- which may be quite a while --  I want to brighten up as many of those lazy American-esque cruiser characteristics as practicable.

 

Best regards, and thanks again,

 

Steve

 

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  • 2 years later...

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