280ZX At Last

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

Hello Tim, Thank you for your welcome. It's the exchange valve body for the 3-speed auto I very much want, how do I get one organised? Steve

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