Dinsy

Cheers for all of the feedback, It definitely looks like a pretty fresh break, everything in there is either nicely painted or freshly exposed metal. I've had a pretty good look and nothing stands out as a prior failure. Yep, part of my thinking behind getting an older car was that issues like this would occasionally surface, as much as I'd prefer it not to happen, I actually don't mind because I find it interesting having a propper look at things that I wouldn't normall take out just for the hell of it. And yes it was some pretty lucky timing, I was about 10 mins away from highway in 5th gear, would have been a pretty nasty surprise for anyone following me if the tailshaft dropped out the back at 110km/h. As for the welding .... it definitely looks welded to me as it is slightly raised over the diameter of the shaft & uni, and there are a couple of very small imperfections in it. When it actually failed I took it straight to a local CV specialist who flat-out said there was nothing he could do as the uni wasn't removable from the tailshaft, I took that at face value as he didn't try to sell my anything else and wasn't busy at all so I doubt he was just passing on the cheaper jobs. That said, it has been painted over so I can't see any slight edge that I'm assuming would be there if it had been pressed in. Also, I don't want this to in any way look like I think Rev. has done a dodgy, as everything in this car has been absolutely fantastic.

Hey guys, I've recently had a bit of an issue with the universal joint between the driveshaft & diff, originally I thought that I'd sheared one of the pins (while it was still in the car, just looking at the amount of movement it had and the damage to the joint), but now that it's out I'm thinking more along the lines of one of the pins pulling out of it's housing. I'm going to get a new driveshaft & uni assembly made (From what I understand it isn't possible to replace just the uni as it is welded to the driveshaft). I've been recommended a local guy who is supposed to do very good work at a pretty good price. Main problem is that I still don't really know what caused it to fail. . . . At the moment I'm thinking that some dust/grit may have gotten into one of the bearings causing that to fail and not give the uni propper free movement, that or too much torque going through the uni for what it was designed (More what I was thinking when I thought that the pin had sheared rather than pulling out of its' housing). I'm wondering whether anyone has had this happen to them, or has an idea what have have caused it? I've attached a couple of pictures that hopefully show it properly.

I've been following this thread for a little while and finally thought that I'd write down what has been rolling around in my head for a while. Firstly, I do not believe that crushing / auctioning a "Repeat Hoon's" car is going to be an effective deterrent in the short or long term. Mainly due to the ease with which it is to find a relatively cheap mid - high powered car (a good uni friend of mine has recently bought a 2001 Commodore SS for $5k in Rockhampton), especially when combined with number of bolt-on modifications that increase power and penis-length while doing nothing to assist vehicle control (said friend already talking about ECU chips and sports exhausts). So for $10k I really can't see it being too difficult for someone to rebuild another 'Pride & Joy' in a short time frame. Yes $10k is a rather large and inconvenient fine ... but for a young male, working full time, no mortgage, no family to support .... I can't imagine it taking too long to save (This is just the stereo-typed hoon I believe the Police / Politicians / Public /Me generally have in mind.) Furthermore, the pride that 'Hoons' are supposed to have in their cars would be vastly different to the pride felt by active members of this site in relation to their cars. With pride being a status thing of 'Look what I can afford' Vs the pride of 'I have invested my own personal time as well as money into this project, have come out with something personal to me, and have developed new skills along the way' The main problem I believe is that with a car being a major personal asset and something that a lot of people spend significant time in / being seen in, most people will look to own the nicest car they feel that they can afford. I particularly noticed this while I was working in the Central QLD mines, where if you didn’t drive a new model HSV / FPV or a Landcruiser / Patrol Ute you were in the minority …. The number of times I felt terrified as I was overtaken by a performance Falcon/Commodore across double lines, around corners like I was standing still really blew my mind. These cars are designed to have phenomenal performance capabilities stock from the factory, yet cost roughly six months of wages so every bastard owns one, and every second believes he has the right to drive it as if he was on a track not a public road. My proposed solution, the introduction of a tiered drivers licence system similar to that already used in relation to trucks, where just because your qualified to tow a trailer, you’re by no means qualified to drive a semi etc. I feel the same way about, although you may have proven you can drive a 4-cylinder Yaris / Barina, that does not mean that you have the skills necessary to safely drive an 8-cylinder or a turbo-6 etc. My thinking is something along the lines of, coming off your P’s you’d receive a Tier 1 license letting you drive low performance vehicles such as Yaris’, Excel’s, Trady-Utes etc…..thus meaning that you could easily commute / run a business / hold a job that requires transport, however you would really need to try damn hard to ‘hoon’ in one (I know that I personally would feel like a dead-set idiot trying to do a burn-out in a Yaris out the front of Uni / Tafe). In order to qualify for the Tier 2 license you would need to meet a series of prerequisites such as holding a current drivers licence for five CONTINUOUS years and having a current defensive driving certificate at the time of application (Those were just the first two possible conditions that came to mind). With the training and experience requirements increasing with the license tier and thus vehicle performance. If you lose your license you start again at Tier 1, for whatever reason you have proven (most likely on multiple occasions) that you are not capable of driving safely, time to learn again. I’m not sure about other people, but for me personally the possibility of losing my ability to drive ‘nice’ cars for a very long time would be a significantly larger deterrent from doing something stupid than either losing my licence for 6 months, or having my current car taken (Imagine having your beautiful completed project sitting in the garage ….. just sitting there teasing you, and needing to get a mate to occasionally drive it for you to keep everything moving since you’re not going to be able to legally drive it for another 5 years, for me that would be a giant kick in the balls). So yeah that’s it …. Sorry about it being a little rambling, I’ve just had a scotch and felt like a bit of a brain dump.

Hunterzed, The engine mounts all seem to be fine, nothing loose or broken. From what I can tell there has been no noticeable loss in power, that said I haven't pushed it very hard through 2nd and 3rd gears as the rattle gets louder and faster with increasing revs, making me feel very nervous (rattle stops if throttle is backed off to maintain speed / revs rather than accelerating), 4th isn't too bad ... and a couple of nights ago (in the name of science and problem solving) I was able to find a nice piece of wide, straight and deserted highway to let it fly in 5th with no noticeable loss in power or rattle.

Zedman, I gave this a go last night while I was under the car taking the photos just to make sure that it really was causing the rattle. While I had to put a little effort into shaking it, it was by no means enough to make me worried that I'd knock the car off the jack and break my ribs. From the second photo, you can see the dark patch on the exhaust where it has been hitting the arch and rubbing off accumulated road scum. Yesterday afternoon I asked one of the guys I work with to take it for a drive and give me his opinion (although not overly familiar with Z's, he is pretty experienced with troubleshooting car issues), and agreed that it was most likely the exhaust rattling somewhere (sounds like hollow steel pipe being with with steel / ball bearing hitting a tin roof, and no noticeable loss of power while rattling). I was initially worried that it might might have been the engine knocking, but as the car hasn't lost any of it's power, and the noise seems to be coming from the center console, I am really hoping that it is just the exhaust.

Hey Guys, For about a week I have had a pretty nasty rattle while accelerating harder than about 20%, after quite a bit of searching and praying that it wasn't anything serious ..... I believe I have found out where it is coming from. As per attached pictures (Yes I know they are terrible quality, but the conditions didn't lend much assistance in that regard) I am hoping to avoid doing a dodgy and just affixing some form of padding between the exhaust and the arch to stop them making contact, however at the moment nothing else is really coming to mind until I can get it on a lift or set of ramps. From what I can see (again not the best conditions to have a good look around), the only points where the exhaust is actually attached to the car is by the exhaust manifold and the two heavy-duty leather straps either side of the muffler. Should there be another attachment near the middle of the exhaust that a bolt may have sheared or have wriggled out from? Any advise or suggestions would be greatly appreciated Cheers Dinsy

Thanks all for the warm welcome. Definitely! It would be great to eventually catch up with some other owners from the area.

Hi all, I thought that I'd finally introduce myself as the new owner of Rev's Zed. My name is Ben, and I'm a 3rd year mechanical engineering student currently living in sunny Yeppoon (Central Queensland). I have had my eye on buying a Zed for about six months now, the majority of which I have spent lurking on these forums reading bits and pieces to try and get an idea of what I actually wanted in a car. Which until Rev's came up I was just looking for something with no rust and in sound mechanical condition that I could slowly work on (and learn more about it along the way) and come out with a car at the end where I could say that "I did this". Not really what I'm getting from Rev's but instead I get the peace of mind that it is the result of a very well done project and that I wont find any nasty surprises under a shiny paint job. After I had realised that it would be really hard to find what I wanted in a 2-seat 260, and that 240's in general seemed to be well out of my price range let alone those close to what I wanted. I actually decided that although they seem to less popular with most people, I really prefer the general body shape of the 2+2's, that and the benefit of the two extra seats to cram small people into. I probably wont be saying too much on here until I have a much better idea of what I'm talking about, but I'll definitely be around lurking and soaking up what people have to say. I'll put up a couple of pictures of the car chilling at its new home once it arrives up here (give it a couple of weeks). I was going to wait until I got the car to introduce myself but as there seems to have been quite a bit of interest surrounding the sale I thought that I'd just say hi.