Saturday, May 21, 2011

clearance

This will be short, I'm cleaning my barn in expectations of my parents visiting this weekend. Yes, I live in a barn. Also I'm down at least one kk, this is a big place, and the cats seem to be multiplying. I've been trying to decide on spacers for the front of the 240z. The rear is pretty good as it sits, but may need spacers when I warm the tires up. Yes, it's that close. I'll report back once that rubs. No need to fix what isn't broken. Did that just come out of my mouth and/or proverbial written word? 

Depending on how the front coils are rotated, the tire will rub enough to not allow the wheel to turn while I'm pushing it. I found this out last week while trying to clean the garage. I was only able to push the car only 1/2 way out under the upstairs deck before the coils turned and thus was only able to take pics of it almost outside. It happens. Either way, not only is the inner part of the tire sometimes rubbing against the coils, so is the forward/aft at full turning lock when the tire is at full droop. It touches on the forward side while at it's sitting at it's potential ride height, a little less violently, but also barely clears the aft tc bar in this state.




Compared to the rear, there is a little bit more room between the outside tire face and the fender line without spacers, not pictured. I bought some 12 mm washers and put a few on there to test out potential spacer thickness. anything larger than o.43o" or so and I can barely get the lug nuts on to test out turning and fitment on the ground. After converting to metric, a 1o mm spacer should do pretty good. It'll bring out the wheel to just inboard of the fender, it even touches the inside lip a bit but that may be bent out of the way later - by my doing, or the tire's. In this position it looks like the rear and turning radius, amazingly enough, clears the fender.




The forward side still touches at full lock, but barely. When using 15mm spacers, which was difficult to test with just me holding the wheel on and turning it by hand because I couldn't put the lug nuts over the stock length studs, the forward side touched by the difference in runout of the wheel while sitting over the non-calibrated washers I was using as spacers. I could not test fender fitmet on the ground due to not being able to install the lug nuts, but based on what the 1o mm setup looked like I assumed it would stick out too far and hit the outside fender under coil compression, as well as the forward fender under turning. Since it looks the same at 1o mm as the rear, I assumed it would look different enough at 15 mm to be noticeable, but then again I'm picky. On the forward side it is actually touching on a thin flange at the bottom of the wheel well engine frame. It would be very minor to scallop this area if required.







The next selection is hubcentric or not and double lug nuts or not. At 1o mm, or even 15 mm for that matter, the stock studs would stick out from the new wheel mounting face of the spacer even though the nuts that they come with are recessed. Unless they come with smaller studs which you have to switch with your stock ones, negating the awesomeness of not having to remove them in the first place, then you would have to cut them flush. I'd rather not get into either of these options, not to mention the straight through design at that thickness is just better. I'm all for less adapter links. Based on online searches, my front hub od may already fit to my wheel's id, meaning no hubcentric ring or spacer would be required for balancing purposes, not that it would even fit for that matter. I may need rings in the rear but I will verify measurements later. 

Sorry for all the cellphone pics, kk took the camera when she bailed. Note: photos were taken with 1o mm spacer equilivent and full negative camber angle allowed by the adjustment plates.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

battery fail, the georgia loop, and sushi

I know this blog is entitled ziptied z, but I have to have a place to dump my weekend escapades, and if I was any savvier at blogging I might be able to have 2 streams going on the same blog, but that's way too much effort for today. Either way, I think you'll enjoy it, I know I did.


It was supposed to be the storm of the month, a HUGE front was coming through and everyone was told to stay inside. 11am on Saturday and the apocalypse had not shown up yet. Jake texts me of said situation and I immediately pretend like I've been ready to go on a motobike ride for hours. As he had just started washing his only pair of jeans, it took him a minute to come over, but when he did we noticed, after he had to push his bike the length of my block, that his bike battery was completely dead. Luckily batteries plus had us covered from a 45min trip to Woodruff road and back for 59$.











The install went easier than most considering every Honda owner curses life every time he drops a battery in place and then has to somehow hold the power lead nuts down on the rear side without dropping them into the Bermuda triangle between it, the frame, and the tank. This usually consists of 2 people using various needle nose pliers, allen wrenches, or magnetic screwdriver tips. This time, however, in the time it took me to drink my drink, Jake was ready to go. I came through in the clutch with the random piece of Velcro. It's like zipties and duct tape really.








I can't tell you how awesome the north Georgia loop is while riding a motobike. I think it rivals Deals Gap, especially when there is nobody on it because every weather man from here to the Mississippi (which is currently flooding) said not to leave your house. It took a while, and we had to ride through one wave of rain for about 20 mins. In true making it happen fashion, I refused to turn around. I was prepared for the situation, wearing my snowboarding gear which dried out quickly after the deluge. Leather gloves on the other hand seem to bleed for hours afterwards staining your hands their respective color. How are those red gloves now, Jake?

Either way, the ride was amazing and we managed a few loops after the trek across the state. It's been a while since I've been able to dive into a turn with 2 lanes before the apex going in one direction. 129 with it's open roads, and 180 with it's technical amplitude, and 60 like a roller coaster on the side of a cliff. I miss being able to do that each weekend from when I lived in ATL. We followed it up with pizza at Mellow Mushroom in Clemson on the way home. A fine place I might add, but both our phones were stone dead at this point, so see below for sushi and sake pictures from the local Thai spot the following night.

Next weekend anyone?




















Yum.