my_mad_z

Awesome photo's Gavin! I was watching the 240Z on ebay... glad you got it mate! Gordon, thanks for hosting the event once again, very much appreciated. Was great to catch up with everyone and talk about Z's... was a really good turn out and the weather was perfect. Look forward to the next meet.

Are you all still meeting at Macca's at the corner of Malvern/William rd? Do you mind if I join in?

Count me in please!

Great to hear you're coming back to Aus mate! Let me know when you're in Melbourne next, would be great to catch up. Good luck with finding a place in Sydney. Marc.

Finally got around to getting the flywheel balanced and a shim made up for it; chemo treatments have been taking it out of me lately but on the mend so it's all worth it I guess. I got the shim made up at a local engineering shop, unfortunately couldn't do it on my little lathe. The original L28 flywheel has an 80mm boss and the RB25 is 81.5mm; had the shim made out of high tensile steel and pressed into the flywheel. It bolts up perfectly and runs a dream, no vibration and no resonance. As for the clutch, I wound the boost up to 16psi tonight and the clutch held up a treat, no slipping - plenty of wheel spin though Need a new set of tyres. I was a little reluctant to up the boost to 21psi, no grip with the current tyres so I think I'll wait til I get some new rubber. Very confident that it will hold up. In fifth gear at 60mph, pushed the loud pedal and it just launched..... hit 90mph in no time at all with no slipping...... the previous clutch use to let go when I tried this; thumbs up, the RB25 flywheel and RB25 HD EXEDY clutch works a treat. In terms of cost: RB25DET Flywheel - $100 (2nd hand from a wrecker) Flywheel Balance - $90 (A bit rich if you ask me) Flywheel Surface - $50 RB25DET EXEDY Heavy Duty Clutch - $381 (rrp is over $700!) Hi tensile metal shim for flywheel - $40 Not a bad upgrade for under $700 and it's rated to 472hp (according to EXEDY). Marc.

Put a brand new spigot bush when I started the install, wish it was that!

Took the Z out for a test run, no vibration as such but there seems to be some resonance at 3,500rpm. Anything below or above and there's nothing, engine is smooth??? I gave it a few hard dumps and the clutch is holding up a treat, so I'm happy with the combo. I've stripped it down again, going to take the flywheel to Duggan Balancing to see if the flywheel is out of whack. I bought the RB25 flywheel from a wrecker and only had it surfaced. Also going to take my original flywheel as well to see if I'm better off maching the 225mm lip out of it (to allow for the 240mm RB clutch) and redrilling it to suit the RB25 pressure plate. I'm almost there.... I can see the the light at the end of the tunnel.

That's a nasty injury mate! Glad you recovered. I understand your concern with the flywheel and believe me, as soon as I felt the vibration on the initial install, I stopped the motor and pulled the box out and removed the flywheel. I will take it for an easy run tonight to see if it starts vibrating. If so, then back in the garage until I get the shim.

Fair comments; was only trying to add a bit of humor to the post by saying 'line it up by eye'.... I'm getting a shim made up to go over the crank and make it a snug fit. There's no longer any vibration coming through since I put the dowel in and centered it, but I'm planning to put the shim in either way. Just wanted to get it all together to see if the combination works as it's a fairly straight forward upgrade.

Well I finally got around to putting it all together and so far so good. Got diagnosed with non hodgkins lymphoma earlier at the start of the year so haven't had much time to get out in the garage and tinker with the Z; anyway, finally got around to getting it all together. First thing to mention is the RB25 flywheel is slightly lighter and it's not a snug fit on the crank shaft like the original flywheel. I learnt this the hard way when trying to line it up by eye; after putting it all back together, there was a vibration coming through the drive line - turns out lining a flywheel by eye is not the way to go! Knowing this at the time, my stubbornness got the better of me and I did it anyway. So after pulling it all apart again, I made a dowel for the crank shaft and flywheel. The L28 crank has a 6.0mm hole for a dowel and the RB25 has a 6.3mm hole for a dowel. So I machined a dowel out of high tensile steel and away I went. The dowel still doesn't get the flywheel perfectly aligned but I managed to align it by using an input shaft with a spacer to center the flywheel. From there I tightened the bolts and put it all back together, cautiously using 'by eye' measurement again . I started her up and the vibration has disappeared! The clutch feels a little heavier than my previous clutch but not by much at all; I can't remember what brand it was but it has a yellow pressure plate and was a heavy duty clutch. I used the 35mm bearing carrier that was already in there and it works well; there's isn't much slack/play but it's not holding pressure on the pressure plate fingers. I did shorten the slave cylinder pushrod to compensate for the height 7mm difference of the pressure plate; I'm not sure if there are shorter bearing carriers - I was working with what I had. I'm going to take it out tonight if the weather is good, will let you know if it holds up. My previous clutch would let go under boost, so hopefully it doesn't happen now. Will post an update later tonight if I take it out for a drive. Marc.

Hi all, Just letting you know that I recently finished a CV conversion in my 240Z; I used the Z31 CV's and made my own adapters. I made them out of steel, took me about 10 hours on the lathe to turn them down - took so long as I only have a mini lathe and I think it was treated steel not mild - would take a fraction of the time on a decent size lathe. I have drawn it up to scale in CAD if anyone is interested, I'm happy to share the info and email the CAD file. I've got a long nose R200 LSD ( I think it's from a HR31); the CV's are from a Z31 turbo; I purchased some 16mm flat plate (135mmx135mm) from a local steel shop and machined to size. I should have used round steel bar instead of flat plate but it wouldn't fit in my lathe . I used high tensile studs/nuts to bolt to the 260Z hubs to the adapter; I tapped a thread and then welded the rear side of the stud to make sure they never come out. I used the standard Z31 half shaft bolts/nuts to attach the CV to the adapter. Works a treat. I did the standard mods to the CV's to make them fit (reversing the bearing carrier and machining a couple of mm off the spline). The dust caps need to be removed otherwise it will interfere. Here are some pic's of the adapters.

Just wanted to say thanks to all who helped organise and host the event, had a great time! Was great to meet fellow Z enthusiasts and see some really nice Z's. Look forward to future events! Thanks again, great job. Marc.

Not sure if anyone is interested but I'm in the process of upgraded to the SR20 gearbox and in the process I'm going to upgrade my flywheel and clutch too. So far from what I've found, the RB25 R33 flywheel is a straight bolt on and will work with the L series starter motor; I've purchased a RB25 R33 EXEDY heavy duty clutch; so far it looks like it's going to be a straight swap and all I will need to do is use a bearing carrier that will suit the different height of the R33 setup - the Z pressure plate is 47mm and the R33 is approx 54mm. The clutch is 240mm in diameter and is rated to 472 hp (flywheel) so it should be more than enough. Have the option to go for a heavy duty cushion button that's rated to 550hp but decided to stick with the heavy duty instead. Got the flywheel for $100 ($49.50 to machine it) from a wrecker and the clutch cost me $381. If all goes well, once I increase the boost to 21psi, I'm hoping I'll have about 400-450hp at the flywheel. Currently running 12psi and it breaks traction in 3rd under acceleration...... fun to drive Hopefully the SR box will cope, I don't abuse it so hopefully it will be ok. Currently running a 280zx box and it feels like it's ready to let go so I'm hoping to do the upgrade very soon, just need to get a shortened tail shaft and modify the gearbox mount and it's ready to go in. Will let you know how it goes.

Thanks Alan, I installed a relay as per the instructions listed in this post; not sure if there is a short as my current wiper motor works. Apologies, I said the wrong thing about the voltage drop and current increase - defies ohm's law! I managed to get a few minutes to tinker with it the other night, got something very strange going on. I managed to get it to work by running 12V directly from the battery to terminal 30 on the relay (in parallel with the blue wire to the wiper motor) and the thing worked a treat. Here's where it gets weird; when I switch the key to the off position, it triggers my ECU which primes the fuel pump and also switches on my wide-band gauge..... I think I may have to check where my ECU main power supply is coming from - been a while since I wired it but I think that's needs a revisit! From memory (and google searches to confirm), the relay terminals are: 30 - from battery+ direct 85 - relay coil - 86 - relay coil + 87 - common contact 87a - normally closed contact This was my reasoning behind putting 12V from the battery to terminal 30. Without this 12V connected, the wiper motor struggles to turn over and ends up blowing the fuse. I found a box under the dash that seems to control the intermittent timer that also has a relay in it (factory item); seems to chatter a little but if I get rid of this, I lose the intermittent function. I might have a bit of wire tracing to do here; I'm glad I got the motor to turn over at least - thought I bought a dud but that's not the case so I'm relieved in a sense. Will update once I sort it out. I might try it without the additional relay and see what happens, haven't tried that yet. Thanks again.

Hi guys, Thanks for the replies. The motor wasn't installed, had it held in my hand with nothing attached to it. I also tried holding the wiper motor on a grounding point but it made no difference. It feels like it's not getting enough voltage; I can feel a slight vibration through the wiper motor likes it's trying to turn over and occasionally it will turn and then nothing...... fuse blows. I'll have another look tonight after work, going to look at running a separate 12V supply and ground feed directly from the battery to the relay and hopefully that works. Thanks for the help. Marc.

Hi guys, Thanks for the write up on this, great help! I've just gone through the installation and I'm having a little trouble. I have a brand new civic wiper motor and I've wired it as per the instructions; when I activate the wipers (with the wiper motor held in my hand) the relay clicks and I can feel it trying to turn over...... the motor will momentarily turn over then my fuse blows. I put a 25 amp fuse in place as I had no more 20 amp fuses and the same thing happens. Any ideas??? I have to pack it up now but I'm planning on working out which wires do what and then I'm going to replace the active 12 volt supply from the loom directly to the battery in case it's my wiring that's causing a voltage drop. I went to pick a part to get a civic wiper motor but I couldn't get it to turn over so I found one on ebay that was brand new and only $40. I'm hoping I haven't purchased a dud but I don't think that's the case is it does turn over. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys. Marc.

If I don't break anything between now and then in my Z, I'm in.

Thanks for organizing this Mark/Dimitri and thanks for the parts Dimitri. Was nice to meet some of the members on here.

Is the 6th definite or is it being postponed to the 14th? Has a meeting point been chosen?

Count me in please! Marc.