I'm a fan of Rotiform TMB's but have no plans to obtain any. Modenas are a long admired wheel for me, they are definitely on the cards in the future. Hell of a lot cheaper too. The LEDs were fitted up a while ago when my car was driveable and they didn't illuminate as much as I would have liked. The housings simply aren't conducive to this. It's worth looking into an improved reflective finish in the housings I think.
making friends so I want to talk about awesome people from awesome places with awesome cars. I am friendly with Manabu Harada, owner of this car which I am sure a lot of you have seen. he was helping me search for a Tommy Kaira steering from Kanagawa, Japan. it was a tough search, including just a few wanted ads, Up Garage and Yahoo! Japan. eventually one came up on jolly ol' Yahoo, which I ecstatically linked to Harada-san and Jesse Streeter at about 2 am. when I woke up the next day the steering wheel had sold and I had an inbox from Streeter saying he has to sleep some time. I was pretty gutted. at about mid day I was messaged on Facebook! obviously I was over the moon, not thinking he had purchased it since there was no message from him saying he had done so. which is quite simply the best thing ever. He also won a bid on a brand new VeilSide shifter for my buddy's Soarer, a whopping $23 for a dead stock never used item. very kind! I was sent this photo in the mean time and here it is in my hands! this one is actually off of a Tommy Kaira M13 (Nissan March), but the boss kit spline lined up no problem. I gave it a good clean up I am super happy with it. since these wheels are actually constructed by Personal (Nardi) it was made in Italy with lovely european leather. I want to say THANK YOU to Harada-san and the Z32 community for allowing things like this to happen. the new favourite of my old school parts collection. for the latest on what Harada-san is doing with his zed, check out his blog. -A
Faith in humanity restored. Always good to see the zed community look after eachother. A nice piece leather you have their too btw
plumbing i've just about sorted out my power steering fluid system, including not only hidden reservoir but both feed and return hoses as well. typically a tucked reservoir will still have a large low slung feed hose running parallel to the rail, which is okay for some but not for me. the low pressure fluid return from the rack is also a circuitous and convoluted thing in need of simplification. from the factory it travels down from the res to the driver's rail, across the rad support, up the passenger rail, down to cross the k-frame and connecting to the steering rack back on the passenger side of the car. a full loop around the front end of the car transitioning between soft and hard lines twice ending up only a foot or so from the original source. had to do something about that. I removed both soft lines, the long hard line wrapping around the rad support and cut off nearly all the hard line on top of the crossmember the remaining banjo bolt fitting from the last hard line was removed, cleaned up, fitted up with the new braided return hose and bolted back on pointing down. the system is now just one soft hose running straight out underneath the frame rail then alongside it (in the wheel well) to the front end where the reservoir is located. the oil cooler and wastegate lines will be run in the same fashion. the reservoir is bolted to the driver's headlight bucket with a 3mm aluminium bracket, suitably made a while ago by bRACKET and I. The bulky feed from the reservoir is required to enter bay to supply the pump with fluid. for a much neater look than tracing it low under the intake pipes I plumbed it through the frame rail it enters the bay only where necessary to connect to the pump, via the fitting discussed here. grommets for the holes are on their way to me at the moment/ the power steering system is now as hidden as it can possibly be while still retaining the OEM crank driven pump. the rewire is nearing completion at this point, looking forward to that. side projects keep my sanity going, haha. -A
great work as always anti. my understanding for the mass of pipework was that the line tht runs across the front of the engine bay along the rad x-member is actually the cooling system for the powersteering.....? i may be wrong. hopefully you dont boil the fluid and it splahes out all over the nice clean bay. youd be pissed.... up to you, but maybe you could fit a tiny little power steering oil cooler in there somewhere.
That looks bloody fantastic. Will be very clen. Can i ask why you didnt opt for a electris ps pump though? I would have thought it would have been a lot easier to hide, and less visible lines.
yeah, that hard line is actually a power steering cooler, hydraulic fluid get very hot as its operating under immense pressure not sure what the outcome will be running without one?? possibly shorter pump life, definitely shorter oil life.. check the colour regularly
yeah I've heard the rumour that the hard line is placed as so to cool the fluid... I'll see how I go. if I encounter issues I'll plumb the stock oil cooler into the power steering (very very easy to do neatly) and get an aftermarket oil cooler with thermostat. in regards to the electric pump, believe it or not sometimes I simply like to employ the KISS mentality haha. the stock unit presents no issue to me.
When I do motorkhana's the oil heats up and spills out everywhere. Sometimes it got so hot it went heavy. I run it through the stock oil cooler now and so far so good.
I'd rather just use the factory oil cooler; it's already there, mounted and ready and it gives me a reason to get a decent oil cooler. win win.
it's a toy poodle. plus this looks super nice http://www.conceptzperformance.com/...ar_Type=300&UID=20130727191335122.106.154.232
edgarspec reco'd my coils today. i received a care package from Charles @ Powertrix after finding out many components of my R/T's were flogged out - unfortunately the PO was running them with miles of spring droop, severely limiting his travel. this increased stress on the bump stops and lower bushings dramatically, to the point that they had failed after only 15,000 clicks. while I was there I removed the top spring perch, something I've been planning to do since I received them (procedure explained here) and gave them a general clean up. i applied some nickel anti seize to the cup threads as they had seized on quite well after not too much use. the old vs new bump stops are visible, as are the old style vs new style taller lower cups with ABS loom bracket before I put the fronts back together I tested the travel for my height. many people think that the absolute limit of suspension travel in the front is the tyre hitting the top of the wheel well but it's not - the upright and FUCA will hit the underside of the engine bay before that. with my 235/40/18s on the front, the FUCA strikes the bay 5mm before the tyre hits the top of the fenderwell. what I found out was that the shock at full compression will hit the bump stops just before the FUCA strikes the bay - perfect. unfortunately there'll still be 5mm or so of spring drooping required for my desired height even with the top perches removed, so next I'll be looking into cutting/welding the new front cups. the boxed section below only limits shock stroke and is not required for clearance - with it removed, I a) will have full unrestricted suspension travel at the front b) could go 20mm lower if I like c) have the option to preload my springs. -A
