Dan260Z

G'day, after a set of lowered springs for my 260z 2+2, specifically part numbers KDFL-04 and KDRS-09... (note 240z low's are different) I also have a set of new, stock height springs for sale if someone were raising their ride back to stock or replacing sagging originals... http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/130900127076?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_591wt_1405 And i'd be willing to swap these directly for a decent set of low's...

Thanks Scoota - appreciate the help so far. I'll keep that in mind if i can't find the right factory brackets to go on the strut towers of the 2+2. If there was an orignal factory set up for inertia reels on the rear of a later 2+2 then I figure I'm best off just trying to buy those brackets and retrofit them rather than modify 2 seater brackets...

Cool. Not overly fussed about the pickup as I'm sure i could get one somewhere, and if not i could fab up something myself. Let me know if/when you've waited long enough for the other interested parties to reply and if they don't get back to you I'll buy it Just confirming it is the type of sump i'd need for fitting an RB25DET into my zed? ie. rear bowl, etc

Nice - you willing to sell them (PM me with a price if so..)? What sort of condition are we talking? And do you have any pics of where they mount up at the bottom? Anyone out there got a pic of the rear set up for a 2+2?

RB25DET for starters... From what i've experienced talking to different engineers, they all seem to focus on different stuff... one wouldn't let me use wilwood calipers due to no dust seals, other's didn't mind - just as an example. This guy seems to be happy with me modifying plenty for more performance, but wants to see an increased level of safety to compensate. I'm cool with that. For the sake of just bolting up some better seat belts I don't really mind, compared to going with an engineer that might be more an*l about other aspects of the build. TBH I would be at least changing the fronts to inertia reels regardless - the static belts used to drive me insane back when the car was on the road - forever flopping down into the rear footwell and requiring me to be a contortionist to reach back for them, etc. Anyway moving on from justifying WHY I want to fit them... I really just need advice on HOW to fit them please!

Currently got static, lap/sash both front and rear. The engineer wants me to convert them all to inertia reel lap/sash (ie. retractable like newer cars).

Might be a waste of time, but it's the VASS engineers request. I don't mind doing it though as I have young kids who'll use those seats, and the engineer has been pretty reasonable about many other aspects of the build.

Still got the sump? I'm interested as I'll eventually need one somewhere down the track for the RB conversion... PM me a price... cheers

I've heard some later 2+2's had inertia reels bolted to brackets on the strut tower - not sure if this bracket is welded on or bolted, but if it's removable, I'd love to buy a pair! Not sure if i need the reel's/belts themselves, but I might be willing to buy a pair (or all 4) if they're in good condition / right price. cheers, Daniel

Hey, nah it's a 4 seater/2+2, 1974 - definitely only has static seat belts front and rear (lap/sash in both cases).

Has anyone done this sucessfully? Pic greatly appreciated if you have! Not sure how I'll get the reel into the tight corner at the lower mounting point (which is between the rear wheel arch and the seat)? Did a quick search but didn't turn up much - please feel free to prove me wrong!

Still got the shell? I'm after a right-rear quarter (not fussed about rust - I just need the section at the top around the light panel to be in good nick). I'm happy to come remove it myself.

Hi, I'm in need of the rear-most section of the right-rear quarter, as in the bit shown in the attached pic. Not fussed about rust in the lower parts, even bad rust, as the main part I need is the section near the rear lights surround (mine is accident damaged with torn metal, etc) Happy to come and remove it myself also, if you're in Melbourne and I can have access to power. Don't have a price in mind, feel free to suggest something reasonable Cheers, Daniel

Hi, Are you willing to cut metal sections from the shell? I'm in need of the rear-most section of the right-rear quarter, as in the bit shown in the attached pic. Not fussed about rust in the lower parts, even bad rust, as the main part I need is the section near the rear lights surround (mine is accident damaged with torn metal, etc) Happy to come and remove it myself also if I can have access to power.

Mate, I feel your pain! Got some very young ones at home myself so I'm usually lucky if I get 3-5hrs work in on it every other weekend. I think I spend more time on the net planning it or dreaming about it than I do working on it. Interesting...how do the radial mount ones go onto the zed? I understand radial mount calipers, but do you run a special bracket to adapt the stock mounts to radial? Is it something I can buy off the shelf somewhere or did you have to make it? I'd previously only found these in Wilwood's dust-booted range: http://www.wilwood.com/Calipers/CaliperList.aspx?appl=&subname=&dustboot=Yes&numofpist=&mtspec=5.25" Lug Mount&pistarea= I'm still considering making my bracket up to use these instead of the volvo jobs, but I can't see my road Zed benefitting all that much from a kg or so less unsprung weight compared to the volvo job, and the wilwoods will cost more initially ($350+ vs $60 for a pair of volvo's), pads will be harder to get and probably more expensive, etc. That said, it remains an option. I'd certain consider a wilwood if i found one that had 90mm mounts and dust boots as it'd save me making a bracket! Yeah dust boots are a requirement in OZ. Engineer did mention he'd prefer to see them. I'll do some googling on the Rover calipers when i get a moment too, thanks for the tip. 90% sure these are the volvo calipers I have, the part number on the caliper "320029" rings a bell... http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/details/QQVolvoQQ240QQA1_CardoneQQBrake_CaliperQQ19901991QQA119429.html

NZeder - you mentioned you thought the volvo calipers were 90mm spacing - perhaps this means there were some made with that spacing as opposed to the 76mm ones I have sitting round - where did you find that info? If I can avoid making a bracket it'll be awesome - although I'd still need to check centering over the rotor, etc of course. Not too fussed about the twin circuit set up - I'll just run a splitter at the caliper. Else another idea I've seen done is to drill a hole between the bores behind the pistons, and block off one of the holes.

Yeah mounting the volvo items will be an issue - the ones I have are 76mm bolt spacing. Plan is to make up a steel bracket to adapt it, but it depends on what the engineer says. It comes down mainly to piston area. The Stock zed 2-pistons yeild a total of 3.535 sq-inch. The hilux 43mm 4-pot yield a total of 4.48 sq-inch - a massive increase which results in a master-to-caliper piston area ratio of around 17% which is closer to a non-power assisted ratio (very rough rule of thumb which doesn't acount for pedal ratios, etc I know). The Volvo 240 caliper has 38mm pistons and thus yields a total of about 3.5 sq-inch. so all other things being the same, it should result in similar clamping force for a given amount of pedal pressure to the stock brakes, albeit with a bigger pad area and more even pressure application across the pad. Not sure how the MM 240sx rear set up compares since I don't know a lot about drums and thus can't relate them through my dodgy maths :-P but I figure if I reduce the front bias by using the volvo calipers over the hilux ones, then worst case I'll end up with too much rear with the 240sx set up - which I can dial out with a prop valve (the engineer was ok with fitting one providing it couldn't be accessed from the driver's seat). Apparently the S13 and S14 calipers were 35 and 38mm respectively - which also allows some options for obtaining less/more rear bias later down the track if I find I have excessive rear bias outside the scope of what a bias adjuster can tune out. Found the thread btw where people were talking about the bias issue: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/103856-need-help-with-240z-brake-bias-with-4-piston-toyota-and-240sx-brakes/

Thanks for all the assistance guys. Thought I'd add an update of where I was at since last posts... Ended up writing up a plan for the whole car - covering Brakes, body, suspension, wheels, tyres, engine change, trans - you name it - and detailing what I planned to do for each. With each proposed mod, I checked out the rules in VSB14 http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/vehicle_regulation/bulletin/vsb_ncop.aspx And made sure whatever I was planning fell within these rules. I also tried to reference the rules from time to time within my plan to provide justification to the engineer. Sent it to a few engineers to get their impressions and see who appeared to be the most reasonable (inc Paul Bottomley as suggested). Only ever got a reply from one guy - www.bonneville.com.au. He was impressed with the plan - basically said everything was ok, pointed out a few areas where he might've needed more detail or a small change, but otherwise was happy to let me go ahead after an initial inspection, with the instruction to simply call him when it was all done (and run any deviations from the plan past him along the way), for a final inspection, brake and noise test. A few points I remember that might be of use to soemone looking to mod their zed legally (with engineers approval): Brakes: Rear - Happy with the MM brackets, S13 or S14 calipers. Front - concerned about master cylinder sizing with the hilux S12W's (I proposed to use a 15/16" 280zx master in my plan). A little investigation found that the hilux used a 1" master - but worse still - many folks on one of the forums I found (don't ask which, too long ago now) complained of excessive front bias with that setup! I ran a few calcs and found that the excessive front bias comes from the large increase in piston area when using the hilux calipers. So now I plan to run Volvo 240 4-pot calipers over the 300zx rotors, using a custom steel bracket (yet to be run past the eng) as they have roughly the same total piston area to the stock zed 2-pot and are design for a 20-22mm disc (and were in production for 20 years so lots of pad options and spares). This will be combined with a bias adjuster in case I get too much rear bias. Engine: all good in this dept, since the plan is to run a bog-stock RB25DET with all the factory electronics, sensors, etc. His main rules were "nothing to vent to atmosphere, and no gadgets please". And to check clearance to bodywork, etc. Wheels/rims: Found that according to VSB14, 245 is the widest tyre allowed, based on 1.3 x 195 (stock width). Wider if I can prove zeds came out from factory with wider tyres - good luck finding the paperwork. But I'm more than happy with 245's. Rim width is then based on the tyres size - I recently bought some XXR 531's in 16x8, +0 offset. I'll need to check the track width with them fitted to ensure I don't exceed +1 inch over 53"rear and 53.3" front. Should be easy as mine seems to measure well below 53" with the stock 5.5" mags. Seemed to be happy with other mods - flares, custom light panel for the rear (using ADR approved lights), King "low" springs, urethane bushes, aftermarket track rod (providing it used a rubber bush - no heim joints, etc), removal of the rear bumper, aftermarket seats with custom mounts (providing he likes the mount design, and the seats are ADR). Wanted to see the seat belts replaced with inertia reel types (front at least, pref rear too). Also concerned with tailshaft mods - I suggested fitting a safety loop which seemed to ease his mind a lot. Anyone else thinking of going the engineering route feel free to ask questions - I'm not qualified in any way to state what's ok and not ok - but I'm happy to let you know what I did and how the engineer took it.

Hi, A bit of searching turned up mostly speculation about the standard wheel's offset... I'm hearing everything from 0mm, +4mm, and +12mm. Measuring my factory 5.5" mags, I get +25mm, and about the same from the stock 4.5" steel spare, which is counter to everything else I've heard. It is possible I'm not measuring it correctly of course (distance from the hub face the inner bead, then subtract wheel width/2?) The reason I need to know is, in order to maintain track within +1" for engineering purposes, I need to know the original offset in order to calculate how much a set of +0mm offset XXR522's will add to the track (before shelling out the cash preferably!). Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Guess I'll cross the sump bridge when I get to it - figured out how you're going to get yours to pass? If I encounter problems I'm capable of modifying the sump, done a bit of sheet-metal welding so far on the body - although I prefer to avoid it obviously. Got a few more questions if you don't mind me busting your chops a bit more... What did you use for a tailshaft? LSD? Throttle cable? Fuel system (Skyline pump? lines? filter?)? I've done a fair bit of searching for these but either the threads don't exist, or they're buried deep within other conversations, or the threads have gone off track.. etc. We really need more sticky tutorials on these items (hmmm maybe I should volunteer to write these once I've done the work on my car! ;-) )

Good stuff dat240z... shame about the sump though - which engine mount did you use? hmmm... I wonder if I'm going to encounter this problem fitting an RB25 with teh castlemaine rod shop mount kit (with a jap RB20 sump)... So did he mention anything about the wheels? No issues with the width? or did you have to prove to him that zeds came out with wheel's close to that size, etc? Did you have to show calcs proving the diameter was within limits relative to the factory items, etc? Sounds like you guys have a second inspection you have to pass (dickson?). In Vic I believe it's just a case of getting the eng cert, roadworthy cert (easy, more maintentance focussed), fronting up to vic roads with those bits of paper in hand, they check the numbers on the car (VIN, etc) match the paperwork, and that's it. Guess it doesn't really matter if the engineer is more lienient - it's his risk once he puts a signature against it. Hmmm... I'm going to have to measure up my factory wheels (4.5" steel spare and 5.5" nissan mags) to see what the offset was - I'm hoping to run a +0 offset, 8" wide wheel to fill out some flares I'm making. If the standard track was based on a +13 offset I might be in trouble...

How'd you go with the engineers? Hope it went well! Do they measure track from the centre of the wheels or outside? ie. would wider wheels still give an identical track providing the offset were the same? sco_aus, willwoods come in both dust sealed and unsealed versions, however the unsealed versions are more common as racers don't like dust seals due to them burning at high temps (so I'm told). But yeah, why the rules makers care about service life or rubbish like that I don't know.

Dat240z - Sounds like I'll have to keep an eye on your progress as you're a few steps ahead of me, and thus I'm sure i could learn a few things! Let me know some details of your brake set up and what your engineer says if you dont mind. Also - what sort of wheels are you planning? what has your engineer said about them? Six_shooter - yeah I agree it's nuts here in Australia - I often watch shows like "street customs" or "american hot rod" and think about how difficult it'd be to do wild chassis mods, etc like that here unless the company employed a full-time VASS engineer! I think showing an engineer common mods, forum threads, etc would help to reinforce my case, but only just. It may just help to get something that he's "almost" happy with, over the line. Depends on the engineer too, they all have different interpretations. Thank you heaps for the Z31 hub idea - if that's the case then I might start researching a 5-stud z31 hub swap! If the factory wheels were as wide as 7", I'll be able to fit the 8" wheels I want legally. What sort of brakes are you running? Got a build thread or some pics of the set up?

Cheers for the heads up on datsport 1600dave, I'll check em out. I recently bought a set of volvo 240 4-pot calipers with some 290mm red-drilled 5-stud rotors (mystery source) off ebay which was advertised as bolt on (they weren't, 76mm caliper mountsing vs 90mm on the zed, hello..) - anyway they had rings on both sides of the disc similar to what you describe. Prob with drilling a 5-stud rotor is that you'll never find one with a 103 PCD. So even if you use one of the exisiting holes, you'll have to elongate it down towards the centre. So far it's looking like non-turbo Z31 300zx 2+2 discs are the go (4 mounting holes, originally designed to be mounted behind the hub like the 260z, only you need a spacer to centre it betsween the pads of most 4-pot calipers, like this http://www.pape.ws/allan_and_rosanne/Z-Car_Stuff/Brakes/240Z%20Brake%20Upgrade.htm ) combined with the '89-95 Toyota 4x4 Pickup caliper. Will confirm once I actually run this idea past an engineer. I see what you're saying nat0... they're not really "engineering" anything - they're simply relying on someone else's engineering work (usually car OEM's). It's easier for them to say stick with unmodified factory components that give them the warm and fuzzy feeling, than to crunch some numbers and expose themselves to risk by being the first to try something new. That said, as an engineer myself (electronics) - I know that part of the process includes a lot of testing before a part can be qualified. So I guess a VASS engineer could either get you to build multiple copies of a given set up and make you run all sorts of tests on them - or he could just say "use stuff that's already been through that process" But yeah, I agree - the world is just full of people trying to hand-ball liability these days. I spose I am too by getting the mods engineered if you think about it! My plan is to put together a plan for the car, then interview a few engineers over the coming weeks before choosing one. If anyone in Vic can recommend one, let me know! I'll keep you posted. Dat2kman - I'm still extremely interested in finding out more about those 10" wheel options, as it's no-doubt going to be a big point of contention with the engineers, and I've already started making up some custome flares in the hope of running some XXR 522's in 16x8.25" with +0mm offset (My car came with damage on the LH guard, so i figure the easierst fix is to cut it out and fit flares - only flares look silly sitting 2" in!) I'd be happy to donate to the site if you'd be able to scan or photocopy some of the relevant pages concerning just the wheel options...

Wow - Sounds like exactly what I'm gonna need to make my life a whole lot easier! The obvious qn now is - how do i go about getting my hands on a copy? or, at least, on a copy of the relevant sections (eg. brakes and wheels)? I'd be happy to spend the time scanning - but it looks like it'd be one hell of a drive for me to come up and borrow the papers from you to do it! :-P Can you offer any advice as to where I might be able to obtain my own set? Happy to pay for them.