Yo-Yo

Thanks George! Actually my cheeks are sore from smiling all day. Literally hahaha

Passed Blueslip. Got Rego Busy Day. Picked up my new wheels & front air dam from Ben at Otomoto. This will give you an idea of the cosmetic styling I'm going for. Spotted this today Took out the old girl on her maiden voyage. Running like clockwork.

Got the booster tonight so fitted it back in. I can conclusively say for sure that a 280zx booster is too powerful for stock 240/260z 2 piston front & rear drums. With the 280zx booster the rears would want to lock up even with moderate pedal pressure. Now that the stock reconditioned booster is back in it's braking perfectly. I'll take it for another inspection first thing on sat morning. fingers crossed!

You Won't be disappointed. I had a Fuji Leglais R on my previous car & it was perfect, no drone at all & a tough note on Wide Open Throttle.

Hmmm good to know, I suppose that means I could put more money into the engine/diff/suspension if the standard brakes are ok This is only ever going to be a road car...just have to get it on the road first haha!

Yeah I bought the 280zx booster & 15/16 MC as I plan on doing bigger brake & rear disc conversion. This is because I want to do an engine swap & want the extra braking power. It was just co-incidence that the stock booster wasn't working since I got the car imported so I tried the 280zx booster I took my stock booster to Penrith Brake & clutch, should be able to pick it up tomorrow & put it back in after work. If this fixes the brake problem then we know for sure that the 280zx booster is too big for stock drums & 2 piston fronts.

Hi Andy. didn't pass unfortunately but the inspector indicated he might sign off on it if I can fix the brakes soon probably by this weekend. If not I'll just have to fork out for another inspection. I'm getting the stock booster reconditioned & whacking it back in, I'll use the 280zx booster again when I get the bigger fronts & rear discs. Hopefully that does the trick!

Thanks for the info & generous offer mate, It's good to know there's a local shop that's familiar with early zeds. I'm only 20 minute drive away from Penrith Will just see how my last inspection goes tomorrow. It's my last chance for rego before I would need to pay for another inspection. So far I have flushed the whole brake system & made sure no air was left Replaced front pads & had a local shop machine my discs adjusted rear shoes as best as possible adjusted the booster rod so the pedal wasn't too soft or too touchy. The brakes feel a LOT better. Less twitchy and more progressive but I still feel that the 280zx booster is overpowered for the stock brakes even with the 7/8 MC which is why I've been having issues balancing it all out. Unfortunately my stock booster wasn't working since I got the car from Japan so I don't really have a point of reference either. Plan of attack if I fail to pass rego inspection tomorrow is to get my stock booster reconditioned & have a brake shop iron out the kinks for me If only I could take time off work & uni this whole process would go a lot quicker

you only have to answer the questions for the first few posts you make if you're stumped go to google & type in the exact same question and you should find the answer pretty easily

Yup, my next door neighbour had a 240z in that colour, He parked in on the street in front of his house & I'd walk past it everyday on the way home from school. Basically the reason I fell in love with Zeds & cars in general. Unlucky for me he sold it 2 years before I was in a position to buy my first car otherwise I would have been in an s30 series car a lot sooner hahaha

Thanks Everyone, got my rear drums sorted out. I pressed on the brakes with the engine running so it had full power to the brakes while the drum cover was off, I won't be doing that stupid mistake again! Haha disassembled the shoes, the piston got stuck at an awkward angle so had to jiggle it a bit to get it free, luckily no damage so just popped it back in & greased up the the other adjustment wheels, the piston came out with so much force that the "wheel cylinder lever" came out of place, no damage which is good but I will still need to adjust the handbrake lever as i still need to pull it up to almost 90 degrees to get the brakes to engage properly. For the record I have kept the stock 7/8 MC on with the 280zx booster until I get a disc conversion & 4 pot fronts. I adjusted the shoe settings as suggested by Tim aka oldmates260z. I think the adjustment was the culprit, now that I have adjusted the rear drums properly I no longer have touchy brakes that want to lock in the rear. Huzzah! I ordered a set of front pads & will get a mechanic to machine the front discs, they might as well put the new pads in for me & a full fluid flush while it's there. Just wanted to thank everyone here for their input and advice, it's really helped me out and I've learnt a bit more about these awesome machines in the process

Got my rear drums sorted out thanks to the helpful blokes in my other thread. This site is awesome

Welcome mate! Good luck with your plans and the first road trip, hope it goes as smoothly as possible for you

fronts don't lock, I only hear the back tyres screech & at high speed it has a tendency to fish tail. That being said the front pads could be glazed over or the discs might be slightly warped (although I didn't feel any wheel shudder on braking) or both so I'll definitely look at the fronts as soon as I clean up my mess on the drums. after reading the fsm the "metal bar" on the drum I was referring to is actually called the "wheel cylinder lever" I'm confident the handbrake not working is due to the piston pushed out too far, causing the lever to remain stuck. hopefully this fixes two problems in one.

Thanks Mick! I have copy of the FSM on my laptop so I'll definitely have a read, the picture posted up by oldmates260z in my other thread pretty much clarified it for me but I'll definitely look at the handbrake section as well. It was just my impatience & general "she'll be right"attitude that got me into the bind I was in. My next order of business once this is sorted will be to get the front discs machined & replace the pads anyway because who knows when the last owner changed them (if ever )

very helpful information, makes sense now it's explained to me, never had to work on drums before I used the 280zx booster but kept the stock 7/8 MC for the time being. I'm confident now all I have to do is push the piston back in & bleed out any air, I'm more concerned about what I did to the handbrake, the metal rod on the underside of the piston that engages the teeth doesn't want to budge at all. The passenger side handbrake gear is working properly though. Thanks again everyone! Edit: Another noob question, So just to clarify I can push the piston back in either by rotating the gear or levering it back in with a screwdriver levered against the shoe/brake pad lining?. Just don't want to make things any worse for myself than I already have

This is gonna be epic. My dream car garage includes a kenmeri gtr replica, I like to keep my dreams 'semi'-realistic hahaha Can't wait to see more updates

Cheers mate, I checked the brake lines & drums, they're all dry so might be adjustment, I'll give that a go tomorrow. I'm also having a few other brake issues if you don't mind checking out my other thread guys http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,14625.msg155165.html#msg155165 Muchas Gracias!

Hi Everyone, like the goose I am I stuffed up my rear drums somehow Seeking some assistance with my braking issues as follows: I have stock brakes so rear drums & 2 piston fronts. 1) The stock brake booster that came with my car wasn't working, so I bought a larger booster & 15/16 master cylinder from a 280zx. I installed the new booster but have kept the 7/8 MC for now so I don't have to bleed brakes etc. at this stage. The booster is working fine but now my brakes lock up very easily, after adjusting with the pushrod at different lengths all it did was change the pedal stiffness. Even loosening the pedal very loose the brakes still lock up at the end of the pedal travel. I've come to the conclusion that the booster is a bit too powerful for the stock brakes? If so that means I will either need to source an exact replacement for my stock booster or get that one repaired/reconditioned. I'll keep the 280zx booster for when I do larger brake conversion. - Is there anything else I have missed when checking why the brakes lock up easily? - Is there anywhere in sydney/west suburbs that can recondition brake boosters or would it be cheaper to source a replacement for eg. online ebay/zstore etc. 2) I took off my rear drum covers to have a look at the condition of the brakes, the pads still have plenty of meat on them but now I've stuffed up my brakes somehow, I feel so silly. I had my handbrake off the whole time, I pumped the brakes with the covers off to have a look if I could see anything wrong, I think pressing the brakes with the drum covers off is a bad thing? On the Driver side drum, the little metal bar that engages the teeth for the handbrake is now stuck in place & my handbrake has no resistance at all, I can pull it all the way up to a 90 degree angle. :-\ I've tried pushing the bar back in place but it won't budge, the cable connector seems fine I disconnected the cable from the bracket & had a bit of a play with it. I'm stumped on how to fix it. 3) I took the drum cover off the passenger side drum, no issues with the handbrake, the teeth are engaging properly with the small metal bar. The issue is I can't get the cover back on over the pads I was able to pull it off without too much force, just a bit of wiggling back & forth but now it won't fit back on, the pads are getting in the way. The handbrake lever is off as well when I try to put it back on. Is there a particular trick to getting the covers back on? Sorry for the long post, any info is much appreciated as always I can't believe I stuffed up my brakes so badly hahaha, all I can do is laugh, call it a day, relax for the rest of the night & tackle it tomorrow Cheers!

Don't be too Jealous mate, you just might get rego before me the way I'm going hahaha Took it for inspection & he said the brakes were locking up way too easily, he let me go to get it sorted but told me to be very careful driving home, quite rightly. Got it home safe & tried playing around with the brake booster push rod but all it did was change the pedal stiffness, The rears still want to lock up at the end of the pedal travel. I tried taking the rear drum covers off to have a look & now I've stuffed up the handbrake somehow, it won't engage anymore. & I can't put the drum cover back on my left side for some reason I'm gonna post a thread in the braking section to ask for help how to sort out my braking woes, I feel like such a moron! Just have to call it a day & try again tomorrow!

Thanks guys, just have to go to the inspection on saturday morning. If the inspector still isn't happy with it I've still go until next weekend to play around with the booster as I've got 14 days from the first inspection to pass the follow up inspection, after that I'll need to pay again for another inspection when it's ready.

Got the replacement booster, definitely a difference but luckily it all cleared in the engine bay & it mounted right-side up Probably the hardest bit was putting back the bolts on the firewall, very awkward but all in all only took half an hour at most. The brakes are good now & no more rough Idle which is awesome. The booster is a bit too powerful for the stock brakes as they come on very strong at the end of the pedal travel, hopefully it's not an issue for the blue-slip inspection. At least the booster is working & it will pass the brake test no problem That's the last thing needed to be addressed, hopefully it'll be rego'd by this saturday If so I'm Cruising all weekend hahaha

welcome mate what are the plans for it? Are you gonna slap on all the gear? ie; lift kits, winches, dual battery setups etc?

Awesome info mate. Cheers!

It's nothing out of the ordinary, even for today. The part maker for the booster is bendix so nissan/datsun would have a had a supply contract with them at the time, probably a lot more cost effective than producing in house etc. I've owned imports since I was a teenager & the Japanese always mix English in their cars eg. the dials & buttons for aircon & radio have always been in English. More modern cars like my V36 with factory touchscreen display was mixed with English & Japanese. As for the reason why... I have no idea