2012 znationals, almost

Someone was interested in hood pictures from the 28o.

Didn't sell. Anyone else?

After much research, I bought a rear sway bar from beta motorsports. Great bar, easy ordering, quick shipping. Click on their anit-roll bars for the s3o. This is the only rear bar that I could find for the 24o that mounts rearward. The rest mount forward and require special mounts similar to the 26o/28o installations. I didn't order my entire rear suspension not to use the swaybar mounts that are built in only to drill holes in my floor pan and adapt a style from the later z's. I'm also not using the drop mounts or bushings that came in the mail with the bar, beta wouldn't split up the kit, z tax apparently. Extra parts for sale.

I take full responsibility for the bad pictures of the installation. I ordered appropriately sized bushing and bracket mounts for the bar to bolt to the techno toy tunig drop mounts and cross bar for several reasons. I wanted to keep the kit of parts that came with the bar together, other than the bar all I utilized were the drop links. The drop mounts and bushings with brackets can be sold as a set, in theory. Also I liked the "standard" black poly bushing with gold colored slotted bracket over the red and chrome that came with the kit. These can be had inexpensively on summit next day, grease-able or non, but when would anyone grease through the port. If you are under there just disassemble it, grease it properly, and reassemble. You probably want to rebuild it often enough anyways, keep everything clean inside and out. Of course I've never used the grease-able ones, so they may be better than sliced bread. Pipe up if you have a comment.

Back on topic, once the rear bar installation was complete, with obvious lack of photo's, I moved onto the break booster, fully making up for the insufficent documentary evidence.

To explain this a bit more, my brakes were barely functioning. I blead the entire system several times, even bench bleeding the master cylinder on and off the car. Nothing helped. The brake pedal had little to no feeling halfway through it's range of motion, until all of a sudden it was ON, but not 1oo%. It wasn't enough to lock the wheels, but once it hit the ON level, pushing further was very difficult while not providing anymore braking power, read as impossible without extreme mechanical advantage not available while driving.

The brake booster that was on the car was the one it came with. The previous owner had upgraded the brakes and master, but the booster looked oem. After doing some research, the general consensus was all over the place. Some said a 24o booster should be fine, others said you would need a 28o booster, and others said 28o boosters didn't fit on a 24o.

Define didn't fit.

As a side note, my work computer decided not to turn on again during all of this.

Not happy.

Venting complete, I went home and right back to work.

The pin that connects the booster and the brake pedal was a different size, surprisingly but luckily, bigger on the 24o version. I opened up the hole on the 28o fork without having to painfully drill the matchy hole on the pedal, or go hunt for a small shaft, large head pin that would adapt the two, or be asked to find the original 28o pin.

I disassembled the flanges from the booster and sanded down the flaking flat black paint that had been added years ago by yours truely.

Moving to the car itself, the bolt pattern did not exactly match between the two boosters. The height in the installed position of the studs was correct, but a bit more width was needed. After measuring and test fitting several times, I opened up the bolt pattern on center, which would just fit the booster in position, barely clearing the clutch master cylinder on one side, and the throttle linkage on the other. The holes were drilled, but because of the required diameter, overlapped with the oem holes and became slots.

I used a dremel to clean up the edges of the newly formed slots, cleaning and clear coating the area. As a side note, the slots JUST fit on the inside of the cabin next to one of the support frames of the steering/pedal box. Any closer and the nut would not have been able to be tightened over the stud when installed. Keep this clearance in mind when positioning the booster.

I then clear coated the newly sanded booster. As with the fuel tank, sectioned suspension columns, engine and transmission mounts, and camber plates, I think she looks perfect. I was even able to clean and leave most of the oem sticker hiding below the black paint. From here I simply installed the booster, which takes some effort with such close fits between everything else near it, bolted it down, and connected the pedal. To end yet another troubleshooting session, the brake system now works extremely well. Maybe it was a combination of a brake system capacity too large for its booster and a booster that was past its useful prime.

At this point it was late, but there was a reason why I was staying up to finish the job.

2012 Znationals was the next day and the group was already riding down.

I was getting text updates of location and general morale. After paying 3oo$ or so on entrance fee's for the show, dyno, and after events, as well as booking a hotel for 2 nights, I was going. Or should I rephrase that and say, something major would have to prevent my attendence the next day.

Awkward silence.

Again, entirely not enough pictures, but it was very late and there was a deadline. In a rare poor move, I went ahead and installed the front suspension parts, including control arms and tc rods by techno toy tuning. I took it for a test drive and aside from not being aligned, it wasn't too bad. Note my unenthusiastic undertone.

After the seemingly uneventful test drive, I packed the tools, including jack, and went to meet the caravan.

It should be said at this point that I did not know this group, never met them before. Someone on some z board had arranged a caravan from somewhere up north, and they were coming through Greenville. Sounded like a good idea at the time. The car didn't have to many miles, and it's always fun to travel as a group, and usually safer if everyone's watching out.

I've never had a premonition, but about an hour outside of Greenville I thought very specifically of one of the bolts/nuts on the newly installed front suspension and if it was tight. Even after the test drive and current time on the highway, although possibly a bit quicker than planned trying to keep up with everyone, this thought wasn't very comforting. I didn't remember tightening it. It must be torqued down, otherwise it would be very bad. I've gone how many miles?

The bolt and nut in question was that which anchored the tc rod to the car. Without this, the wheel would not be held axially as compared to the length of the car, and be free to move forward and aft in the wheel well with nothing but the control arm. There was also a very beefy swaybar, which held it in this direction of motion, helping the equally stout control arm stabilize the wheel as I tried to slow down from highway speeds without hurting anyone.

The caravan kept going and left me.

After the nut let loose, I could hear the tc rod under the car, still bolted on one side to the control arm. Amazingly, I was able to pull over to the right lane quickly, and made it to a fast food shop right off an exit that we happened to just be approaching. Because of the design of the tc rod, I think the main bolt may have stayed engaged with the car for a little while, preventing the wheel from going back in the wheel well. The bolt is captured in place by the nearby spherical joint and was possibly long enough to stay in the chassis hole until the wheel moved too far forward during one of the last turns into the fast food joint.

I should say at this point that this is in NO WAY a reflection on techno toy tuning. If anything, it's amazing how well the parts held up and kept the wheel under control as I slowed down and pulled over, listening to the ungodly vibration through the car and new feel of the steering wheel. I hadn't slept in 2 days and must have forgotten to torque it down.

To the credit of the caravan, they called me about 3o minutes later wondering where I was and why my car had shattered the windshield of a 350z following close behind. They still kept going. I couldn't believe it. Hopefully these pictures stress how much in the middle of nowhere I was potentially stranded, at least my phone was charged. I could go on and on about this but I don't want to waste my breath in frustration and venting. What is the point of going to a show together in a caravan if you aren't going to help out your fellow z. I'm glad she had such good aim.

I called home with an update, and started working. I pulled out the tools and removed and inspected the affected tc rod. The suspension looked great and you wouldn't even be able to tell what had happened by looking at any part of it. Did I mention how sturdy the techno toy tuning parts are? The rear nut and shouldered washer of the tc rod were missing, but the bolt, and front washer were still there, as well as the rest of the assembly. If you don't know, the suspension is extremely stiff. Once the rod is bolted to the control arm, it would take a lot of effort for it to come anywhere near the ground unless the control arm itself rotated counter clockwise outside looking in, in which case you would have other very serious problems.

I bagged the tc rod and started walking. About 3 miles down the road I found what looked like an abandoned junk yard, snuck on, and poked around a bit. There were all-american carcasses and I was unable to find a similar sized nut and/or bolt combination that would be easy to comendeer. Next door, maybe even part of said junk yard, was yet another empty car shop. I called the number on the door and someone answered. It sounded like I woke him up. Either way I explained my situation and he suggested I walk to the AutoZone, about 5 miles away.

It was a very nice day out, a bit hot if anything, but it could be worse. After making it to the AutoZone, which looked more like their regional distribution center, I was informed that they did not have an approprite nut and/or bolt combination.

I found this hard to believe and spend the next hour searching myself. They literally only had the small japaneese or american bolt kits that everyone buys. I had two to three of those in my kitty litter tool boxes in the back of the car already.

Finally one of the tech's had an idea. As there was no hardware store near by which was open, trust me, we called, he remembered that there was a Fastenall within walking distance, less than a mile actually, back up the road from where I came. It was off the beaten path and not visible from the road, and not such a common store that you would immediately search for them in google when stuck on the side of the road with a fastener issue.

I was able to get what I thought were appropriately sized nuts for my bolts. By the time I walked to this store, I was getting a bit tired and overheated and was glad when the tech offered to drive me back to my car when his shift ended in 3o mins as it was on his way to Atlanta, his weekend destination. Lovely.

I made the error, not sure how many we're up to today, in assuming the bolts were metric and the reason they didn't easily thread over the studs was because the last few threads on the bolts were obviously knackered and simply needed some torque. I say assuming this way because I don't actually remember this part of the conversation. I had just walked 9 miles or so in 1oo* heat. Of course Fastenall didn't have any hand tools to check by applying said torque, and I had left mine in the car. I didn't think twice about it as the sizes below and above and the thread options, all of which Fastenall had, obviously didn't fit. I also picked up some non-shouldered standard washers and some expensive locktite.

After my half hour break from walking, the tech dropped me off in the fast food parking lot and left. I quickly realized that the nuts were indeed not the right size. The bolts must have been standard, and this was the first time this even crossed my mind, but it was now so glaringly obvious with the use of Grade 8 hardware on the aforementioned super beefy suspension parts. I was able to torque the nut down on the cross bolt outside of the car, cross threading it, but securing the bearing to the frame which anchors the tc rod. I then tried to do the same under the car to the anchor bolt, but it simply spun under the force required to cut new threads in the strong bolt. I could not get a wrench around its head to hold the other side in place because of the framing, and nothing wanted to jam it against the force I was applying to the nut. There was no way of securing this without another trip to the only store in the area, which had since closed, not that I had the energy or inclination to walk back if it hadn't.

At least the washers were the right size, but as it would turn out the shoulder is very important in holding the joint stable during operation, which I'll get into in a later entry.

At this point kk was out of class and on her way to what had been my exit for the last several hours. She went over to the house and grabbed the oem tc rods and bolts before starting out. Before it got dark she arrived and I quickly swapped out the rod with the stock unit, caravaning home without incident.

I debated driving down the following morning for the remainder and main part of the show, but was completely turned off by the events of the day before and wanted to leave it alone. The following week I got a text from someone asking about returning the walkie talkie they had lent me. Finally kk returned it, mailing it back to it's owner, but not before I got a picture of the damage my rather large tc rod nut did to the z behind me.