Next Steps

Once my wilwood parts come in I'll be saving up enough to move forward on the front suspension. Here's what I'm planning:

• 280zx strut housings
• Z31 300zx hubs/rotors
• Wilwood Calipers and pads
• Adjustable front control arms
• Ground Control coilovers and camber plates

After that's done it won't be too long before I swap in the VG30e, but that has it's own set of prerequisites:

• Fuel Cell
• Fuel Pump
  
• Custom Drive Shaft
• Transmission/Wiring harness/ECU
• Radiator and Fan(s)
• Roll Cage

So I guess all in all I'm only about 25-35% "done" with the project. More to come when I get it back on the road and can test and tune the new rear suspension.

It's Alive!

It's finally finally finally alive. I finally ran it around the block. Since my last post I ran the battery relocation kit and re-did all the front brake lines. Don't mind the mis-matched wheels :)

When I pulled back in the brake pedal felt a bit soft, so I started messing with my bias adjuster and that seemed to free up some air bubbles that must have been trapped in the line lock/bias adjuster lines. When I worked my way over to the driver's side rear caliper the Speed Bleeder bleeder value I had installed simply sheared off. Super lame! I have a spare, but I'll need to get a new bleeder set for the caliper since half of the thing is still stuck in there.

Almost there...

So after the last post I picked up a set of Z31 300ZX wheels for very little money. What I didn't realize is that they require a very proprietary Nissan lug nut. My dealer quoted me $22 per nut. After asking around on the bluebird forums, I discovered that there is an alternate nut that works perfectly. The part is 40224-R4670 and is apparently slightly shorter than the 300zx part. They are also available in an open head design (that was previously used on Nissan trucks). That part number is 40224-S2771.

I also discovered why the control arm "pins" (bolts) were my least favorite bolt. Three of them were either slightly worn on the threads or slightly warped, causing the bolt to be stick within the bushing's sleeve. The bolts are still available through Nissan parts as the rear control arm "pins".

Once I figured all that out I bolted up the 300zx wheels before installing the calipers. Looks good! I got the calipers installed and realized that the wheel tapers in and does not fit over the big wilwood calipers. The older design I mentioned in the last post may very well have worked since it's smaller, but this one did not. I ordered two 15mm spacers from this site and the wheels fit very flush, especially with the 215/60/15 300zx tires:
So this basically wraps up the rear suspension rebuild, which consists of the following:

• New diff gasket/fluid
• Poly diff/mustache bar bushings
• Poly crossmember bushigns
• Poly spring isolators/bump stops
  
• Suspension Techniques rear sway bar
• Rear disc brakes with 300zx rotors and wilwood calipers.

Here are a couple more Pictures of how the build came together.

The mustache bar has no internal sleeve and shortened Z car mustache bar bushings

You will absolutely need 15" wheels for this combo.

Last steps are to finish plumbing the front brakes (removing the stock proportioning valve and running new hard lines for the front brakes) and then it should nearly be road worthy. I've also got a set of used Toyo R888 205/50R15 tires on the way for the autocross season. It'll be 13s on the front and 15s on the back for a while...