fufu

Looks like I've got a dud handbrake cable. I believe the handbrake cable was stretched when it was forced to fit into the maxima calipers. Now with the 280zx calipers there is just too much slack. As such I'll most likely need a replacement. It barely holds on a slope. Holds fine. But then with a little push the car rolls down the slope. This is with the adjustment all the way to the end. There is a company only 30 minutes drive who can replicate these handbrake cables at a small cost of $140. I'll most likely get one replicated but with maybe a 2cm shortening to make up for the slack. A smartarse option my brother told me to do was to pull the handbrake adjustment rod out and extend the tread to allow for further adjustments. Which in theory should work but it is a 30 yro cable and would be better suited being replaced.

Hi guys, Just thought I'd ad my input. If your going to purchase the adaptor plates for the S1 280zx rear disk conversion. Please bring along your caliper and check if the holes line up. My S1 280zx calipers had about 0.5mm off on both bolts in comparison to the bracket. Apparently there is a slight difference in bolt configurations for varying S1 280zx calipers.

Good news~! My suspicions were correct. The banjo bolt was not shortened enough. Therefore sealing the inner fluid hole as well as not allowing proper sealing from the copper washers around the banjo bolt. This in turn created huge pressure where the bolt was which didn't get past through to the brake hose. Ended up replacing both banjo bolts with new ones and shortening them. Works perfectly now. The handbrake cable was actually my stupidity. We were sliding the clip onto the big groove rather then the original groove. So we swapped the clip over to the original groove and now the handbrake works. Got my first chance to drive this car on the open roads today. It has given me motivation to continue finishing her off. I've scheduled an alarm fitter to come around and install an alarm and central locking kit tomorrow. I've also removed the seats to get them reupholstered. An issue I've found recently is... the right indicator no longer works. Hazard switch does activate the right indicator. So I'm guessing it's the indicator switch stalk. May have to look into getting it refurbished. Does anyone have any contacts for this? P.S. I also found my outter tie rod ends not tightened. Seriously... someone is trying to kill me. Here are some photos after it had a nice wash and wax.

First off, I'd like to thank all of you for your contributions to the current brake issue. I just had a ponder as to why the rears would fail. Turns out I had the steel rear lines changed to braided lines. In order to fit those braided lines the connecting fluid bolt had to be shortened. I dont think it was shortened enough therefore sealing the inner fluid hole..... sort of like this (original setup would look like this) ==>>===== (connecting fluid bolt and steel line) (inner caliper fluid hole) ==>|==== (connecting fluid bolt and braided line). Thus resulting in the rears having no pressure and ultimately not bleeding properly and therefore not being able to utilise the hand brake. I'll test my theory today and get back to you all. Once again thank you very much for all your contributions.

I did a search on bleeding brakes for a 240z and i found that it was recommended to bleed the 240z with the car on. Handbrake does compress, however very minor. I have to pull the handbrake all the way up and past the last click to even remotely get any form of emergency braking. The master cylinder is new and prior to swapping it out to the 280zx calipers i did have the 96 maxima calipers in there and that worked quite well, until the maxima calipers started leaking that is. Difference in bleeding front and rear is quite night and day however. Front when bled, the pedal would fall straight to the floor. However bleeding the rear... would move very minor and at a slow pace in comparison to the front. I rarely hit the floor when bleeding the rear? could this be related? fluid does come out however. No bubbles what so ever. When the car is off, it feels like the brake is working fine. The moment the car is switched on... the pedal drops half way. My thoughts (amateur mechanics thoughts): If i had to give my thoughts on it, I would say that the rear caliper pistons don't seem to be keeping their positions. Rear calipers being a winding piston type, isn't it meant to somewhat keep its position as opposed to the fronts which are floating and should move freely back and forth? The rears are acting like front floating pistons at this point. If I could somehow correct this issue, most likely the handbrake would be fixed as well.

Hi guys, having a bit of trouble with the brakes and require your expertise. I've just completed the S1 280zx rear disk converison. After bleeding the system it doesn't seem to be getting any pressure in the rear. How bad? the handbrake is tightened to max thread and it still doesn't engage. Some background info... calipers were rebuilt 2 days ago. Bleeding order... master cylinder, rear left, rear right, front left front right. Done this atleast 3 times. Even banged the master cylinder with a mallet in the hopes that air bubbles would be dislodged. Bled with the engine on ofcourse. No bubbles whatsoever from all bleeidng points. I've tightened the brake lines and bleeders. Also tightened the vaccuum lines. Vaccuum lines seem to work as when i remove the hose after the one way valve there is a "WHOOSH" sound. So it seems to be holding pressure from the vaccuum lines. Front calipers locks up when brake is engaged. Just can't seem to get the rears activated. Your guidance will be most appreciated.

ah~ i guess my journal is doing its purpose. The whole reason i document my project is to inspire others to work on their projects. I'm looking at otomoto suspension. Currently the car stance is sitting quite nicely after the springs have settled from getting down from the hoist. But this poses other issues such as my r200 and my rear swaybar sitting in the study room. So I'd most likely just collect parts for a big upgrade in the future. I'll have to draw up a plan soon, for upgrades, as I've got quite a few parts stored in the study room and more parts comming.

Only if the car is ready. I feel ashamed how long the car has taken to appear without it. LOL

Update: Car is finally done at my friends panel beater. A few things got in the way such as a few motorbikes which had to take priority as it is leading up to riding weather. Issue 1: If you've been following closely I had a slight rubbing issue with the rim/tire combo that i was running. This has now been sorted. It was as simple as tightening the tension control rod. Good thing this was spotted now rather than 20 kms down the road when the strut takes off whilst driving. Very annoyed that this was found. It basically meant durring the time the car was at a place close to Geelong, when it had its front rack reconditioned. It wasn't fitted back properly. DANGEROUS!!!! Upon tightening of the tension control rod the whole strut can be seen being pulled back about an inch. Which totally cleared the turning circle with the new rim/tire combo. Issue 2: I had the doors taken apart and rust proofed on the inside as this step was missing from the first panel beater. At the same time i had the doors aligned and window mechanisms aligned to work properly or open and close properly. Issue 3: Various parts installed, new front bumper bar, 280zx rear calipers as the maxima's were leaking. Issue 4: Had the bottom quarter of the car repainted as i noticed certain uneveness to the paint. Some sections i could see primer. We ended up also masking the angles and stone guarding the bottom properly. Another issue linked to issue 1, where the restorer failed to do a proper job. Which comes to the phrase "I'll treat the car like as if it was mine" which was quoted to me. Yea right... your car must have been sh*&house if this was the quality you did on my car. Whats next? Plan is to get the seats reupholstered. Followed closely by a roadworthy and registration. Hopefully before the year is out.

Are you talking about Bab's Hako? He installed an Australian Tech Edge Wideband o2 sensor kit with no readout. The kit costed $256~ http://wbo2.com/2j/default.htm His install and build thread is located on another forum though. However even though it is a HakoL28, the install should be the same for the 240Z.

maxima rear disc brake conversion (repair a seal) black fender mirrors (repair the rod) 2 x 240z master cylinders (1 pretty much brand new) 1 x slightly dented front bar a few cracked interior panels. Not a complete set. Just bits and pieces.

what your after is called a UVP = unregistered vehicle permit. can get any timeframe from 1 week through to 1 month. Fu

Just giving you a heads up since your getting 17x9.5 Be very careful with your tire profiles. I've currently got 16x8.5 with 225/50 at the fronts and need to get scrubbing on the front spoiler rectified.

I'll take the tow hooks if the sale for the above people fall through. I'm located in melbourne so can pick up with cash. I has 240Z.

May i suggest you try photobucket.com as a place to dump all your photos. From there you can copy and paste an [img ] link, which photobucket automatically produces, and dump that link into your posts. Very quick and easy. Photobucket also does the resizing when uploading the images. So preset those and your good to go.

2 years ago... wow and theres been so many posts created about this product and no one really responded about the actual product. Can I ask, did you get the updated version with the mounting points? As i know the early version, didn't have mounting points. From what the dates of the other posts... it seems that the mounting post would have been added some time last year.

My apologies 30th of July 2010.

HI ALL!!! I hope your all doing well and your other halfs (zeds) are also doing just as well. A little update on my project. Due to tax returns i've gotten the panel beater to fix up a few things with my car which will take a bit while longer. This includes repairing a few scratches that the zed has taken from its movement. All the servicing is now complete apart from the brakes. I decided it was the time to replace the whole rear disc conversion and go with 280zx parts as they are more readily available here in Australia. So I've been sourcing bits here and there and hopefully it should be braking properly this week. Now to a goody that arrived. I received this on Friday 30th July 2010. Okay... this front bar is the is the one being sold on ebay by the rotary/mazda guy. I thought due to the huge assumption of this product and no one physically buying a proper version that I may as well be the guinea pig and try it out. Now the product looks top stuff. However I'll let you guys know early next week about the fitting and how it matches up with the car and how it compares with the old one, though my original one is a little dented and bent. Reasons for purchasing this... well I know the price for straightening and rechroming would have set me back a little bit more then this. Not to mention that the quality of work on straightening and rechroming is dependant on the business you go to and usually they will play the "you get your moneys worth" card. So I thought I'd risk it and get this product. The front bar is the revised edition with mounting points welded to the bar. A bit disappointed it didn't come with nuts as well to replace the old ones. Other disatisfying points... one of the number plate bars isn't quite straight but nothing a slight bending won't fix. But other then that its perfectly straight and the chrome has no dips (sign of the bar being straight). Not quite sure if I'm liking the pure chrome look or if i should add those plastic strips. I'll most likely go to clark rubber and see what i can find and double-sided tape it to get a similar effect. No point dremeling this nice chrome. That's all for now. Not expecting the car back for another 2 to 3 weeks. In the mean time I'll be looking to endeavour into suspension mods, to spend the rest of this tax return. Suspension mods as I'm not to overly happy about it's current stance. Looks like a 4WD zed... way to tall. P.S. if anyone needs more photos of the front bar, just send me a PM.

website doesn't look to appealing at first. But if you dig into it, there is a lot of information you can get out of it. I pretty much relied on it for my 2 week holiday last year. http://www.japan-guide.com/ Another thing is... transportation. You may want to check out Japan Rail pass (JR). This needs to organised beforehand here in Australia, where you can get the vouchers from the Japanese embassy. From there you can trade it in Japan for a JR Pass. This will save you a lot if your planning on traveling around via the Shinkansen network. To travel between north and south of japan your looking at about $180AUD. So the JR pass covers it being unlimited use. However bear in mind... for 2 weeks we had to pay $700 for this pass. Basically costing more than our flight. But what the JR pass covers is basically the JR network. Standard JR trains and JR shinkansens. You will need to pay extra for subway network as it is owned by another company. If you require maps of the Japan network let me know and I can scan them in and email them to you. It is quite easy to decipher. The Japanese Rail network is fairly easy to understand as well.

I'm with KatoKid, E46 M3 or the new one. But if it was the E46... I'd try to find an unmolested one without the rear-subframe issue and then make it bulletproof. If you guys haven't seen it... it's an interested read. Basically there is an engineering flaw in the rear suspension mount points on the E46. Literally cracks the frame and dislodges itself. All E46 models suffer through this. Even more so the E46 M3 as the chassis has been stiffened. BMW aren't doing a recall and says its natural wear and tear. Biggest BS considering its a major design flaw. But still, the look and sound of an E46 M3... yea... worth the trouble.

Hi guys, if anyone has details of parts please post here or pm me. I'd like to get this thread growing. On a side note. Outer tie rod ends, seems to be no longer available. I've tried several places. Most of these manufacturers have discontinued production within the last 12 months. I'll check Autopro tomorrow, over the phone they said they could get them for $33/each.

I did a bit of research on this particular caliper. It shares the same rebuild kit from maxima 85-92. Since Australia got the maxima in the 1990's. I think I'll try and source that for now. Thanks Dimitri for the contact. Will definately give them a try.

The flares were installed first. The wheel arches were cut afterwards. It would be better to do it in this order as you can estimate where you wish to cut. We used Austin Hokes guide as reference to cutting. It will allow me to have some play with suspension and stance afterwards. Right now it looks more like a 4x4 with it's current stance. The rims are 16x8.5 running 225/50/16 and 16x9.5 running 245/45/16.

How about another update? So today I had quite a busy morning. Running around organising parts to get delivered to my friend Ben who is currently working on the car. After organising all the items I set out to get the tyres installed and after that, did a bit of shopping for some fluids for the fairlady. Upon arriving at Ben's workshop, he gave me the news... yes the flares were done, as expected, and it was time to get to work on the other bits. He had already started on the engine oil flush and needed the other parts to continue his work throughout the week. Now onto the wheels... Tyres all fitted and wheels balanced. Before installation. After installation. and I thought this last image was a very... common sight of a zed... ... being stuck on a hoist and all. My opinion of the the setup so far, is I love the rims. The rear stance needs to be addressed. On to some bad news. It looks like my rear left caliper is leaking. As these are the 85 maxima which weren't available in Australia. I'm going to have to go around to a few old school brake joints and see if they can replace the seal with a similar one. Other option is to change to 280zx rear caliper set... which will cost a bit. Not sure what path I'll take. Going to get quotes this week. *sigh*

Yes, I was planning on tracking the car when the time comes. I know a friend who bought tyres back in 07 which he hasn't used and they seem a lot more dry then these tyres. The tyres on the zed at the moment are about 5 years old and have no grip at all. They are very dry, hard and pretty much skids everywhere, even on tarmac. Though i wouldn't trust the belts inside as they've probably been warped now since the car wasn't put on jacks. Also driving them would probably lead to the warped belts collapsing and pretty much giving a blowout. I've seen a few people glad wrap their tyres if they don't use them. Mainly because of indoor storage and the use of air-conditioning or dehumidifying the environment could affect them. There is quite a range of tyres out there but because this is a fun car. I thought I'd just go all out and regret it later on.