Alignment and Shakedown

With the car being where I wanted it assembly wise, it was time to swing over Jeff the Alignment Guy for his unique brand of cheery disposition and precision race alignments.

At 10 AM I was the first customer for the day, and rolled right up onto the ramps as I arrived. The first task of the morning was to check all the ride height's I'd set and make sure they were close enough to be within reason. I'd do this at home, but I don't trust the concrete slab in my garage as anywhere close to level.

Next up was the front camber. Shockingly, this needed to be dialed BACK. The listed adjustment range on the Megan arms was 1.0 to -2.5. I thought I'd get 3 out of it after the car was lowered, which would be enough, but I was pleasantly surprised. I'd set them at maximum negative when I installed them.. and when we put the alignment gear on, they read -4.9 degrees. Holy crap? Why are people futzing with the Kinetix arms that are $20 less a set, but have to be modified to gain this kind of camber, when these straight bolt in and work exactly as I want? And I don't even have to unbolt the upright to adjust them... Not saying their easy to adjust though.

[caption id="attachment_136" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Jeff, elbow deep in some 350z[/caption]

Next up came pointing the rear end the right way. This was all kinds of wacky. this car likes to toe in as it loads up the rear end, so with the car being lower than stock there's more than a bit of toe in to dial out. In the end, we had to add a little more camber than I'd like, and a little more toe in. That may hurt the power on rotation more than I'd like. After reviewing some of the rules and discussing any sort of interpretation with a few very rules literate people (members of various advisory committees).. all the common options for fixing the toe problems on the back of a 350z (replacement arms, aftermarket toe bolts and notching the subframe)are all not legal. The only method I've been able to think up is some offset bushings for the rear lower control arms. I haven't found anyone producing these yet, or even anyone mentioning them in any forums.. which leaves me slightly concerned for some of my competitors.

With the alignment done, the final task of balancing out the front endlinks and attaching the front sway bar was completed and the car was done.At that point it's early afternoon, on the Friday of memorial day weekend. to say there was some traffic around would be an understatement. So effective fun was pretty well halted, but did get a run at a decent on ramp on my way home, and ho-ho does it feel good.

so. much. grip.

After a bite for lunch, I had to decide how I'd spend my Friday evening. Two options came to mind.. a throw back to the old days, and head on over to university avenue in St. Paul to watch the ricers try show off how big their balls are in mom's Volvo, or down to DCTC to hang out at RS Motors' sort of pseudo PDX event. I opted for the latter, figuring if it got boring, I could still get to St. Paul with time to spare.

Immediately upon arrival, Sean Carroll came up to me parking noted I had the Z in good shape, and asked if I would like to instruct for the night. A little hesitant due to the higher speeds and novice drivers, I had a chat with Ron Solomon and Brandon Ranvek about the standards, minimums, and the driver promotion system. Feeling a bit more confident, I agreed. As an added bonus they said I could take the Z out later as a thanks for instructing. Well, twist my arm why don't ya.

Instructing was pretty fun, and it didn't hurt an old buddy threw me the keys to his GTR for a few hot laps. That certainly reset my perspective on speed. It's like driving a sledge hammer.. with some finesse.Finally, it was the last heat of the night, the defined "Volunteer" group. Another buddy Jacob hopped in the car, and we tore out onto the course. I kept thinking to myself "you're going to take it slow.. you just put it back together." yeah.. that's me lying to myself again. Hammer down on this bitch, and lets see what she can do.

I got around a couple tight corners, thinking how well it gripped, before I got to the point of revelation.. the slalom. after about 3 cones in at some good pace I uttered gently.. "HOLY SHIT CAN THIS THING CHANGE DIRECTION!". I'm not a poet, never said I was. Jacob seemed surprised, but agreed. It's ability to dance is astounding, and this is riding around on terrible stance shocks with no diff.

All this joy was repeatedly dashed by the fact I kept catching up to other cars on course.. but probably for the best. It gave me some cool down time while I'd pull off  and wait to go back out, or slow way down and let the car in front of me get some distance.At the end of the night, I'd probably done 5-6 laps in the z, and had a riot doing it. It was a great shakedown at speed, and gave me an excellent test to find out a general idea of how fast the car can be.

In the end, after all the money and time invested so far, I really feel like I made the right call in starting this build.. and that's what matters

The First Drive

It's been awhile, but I've been looking forward to this moment since I saw that the 350z was made legal in STU, and that I could have 285 wide tires.

I finally get to drive the car with the big tires.

With the major overhaul, the unknown alignment specs, and the fact that it's now dark out, I opted to make it a fairly short drive, ramping up as I felt comfortable.

I fired it up, and the exhaust was noticeably quieter. Looks like that missing clamp was adding to the drone in the cockpit.

The next challenge is getting out of the driveway. My driveway has a fairly aggressive rake to it, so getting in and out with a lowered car can take some finesse. I took the same angle out that I took going in and cleared it fine.

I'm now in the street under my own power, and driving around. Nothing has fallen off, had a signifigant bang, or tried to change direction when I didn't want it to.

I kept it to residential neghborhoods for a few miles, making sure the brakes worked, and that the almost random alignment doesn't try to step out anytime I get on the gas. I decided it was ok to step it up to the faster frontage roads.

It was here I found out how bad the alignment actually was. At this point, the car has so much toe in, loading up an outside wheel makes it actually want to oversteer the opposite direction. Not good, but it feels manageable for the remainder of the test drive. I step it up to a few laps of some on and off ramps on 394 and the frontage road. Everything outside the alignment is looking good and even with that, I can feel the tires have insane levels of grip. This is going to be so much fun once I get it straightened out.

With an adequate test drive completed, it's time to head back to the garage and decompress, and get some sleep.

[caption id="attachment_131" align="aligncenter" width="300"] a quick night shot on the way home..[/caption]

The next day I had taken off to go to Lincoln for the Spring Nats Pro-Solo, but opted to skip in favor of finishing my car. But I still had the vacation booked, and was going to use it.

I put the car back up on the stands to check for any sort of loosening or movement in the rear end, and found none. Next up was to dial out some of that insane toe in. I eyeballed it (poorly), and put it back down.

The toe-in looks much better, and I decide I may as well put some miles on it today. I had to go to Nissan and pick up the remaining bolts that I had ordered, might as well take the car.

It feels much better toe wise, and handles really well. It's daytime, so there's traffic in the way everywhere, but I still managed to enjoy a few on ramps.

Bolts aquired, I ran a few errands, and helped my Dad out shopping for a new car. At this point, I'm confident it's back together and pending tomorrow's alignment, ready to go.

[caption id="attachment_132" align="aligncenter" width="300"] After dialing some toe out, I went putzing around a bit.[/caption]

Wrapping Up Round One

Now that the car is on the ground.. it's time to... roll it back into the garage and finish.

it was fun while it lasted, sitting out side over night where I could look at it longingly from my bedroom window. /sigh

I rolled it back into the garage, and put it back on the jack stands to wrap up some of the final tasks of getting it properly running.

First up was getting the exhaust back on. This Borla system is a rather large pain in the ass, and some of the clamps were in really bad shape. I picked up a few generic ones from the auto parts store to replace a few, and i'm glad I bought extras. I had to address the missing clamp under the passenger seat, and another was cracked. When I took the impact to it, it actually snapped in half. Oh well, it's off and getting replaced anyway. After a lot of finagling, I got the muffler and pipes back in place, but one of the bolts for an exhaust hanger snapped off in the new subframe. Hooray. There's more than enough support without it, but the exhaust moves under load and hits the subframe with the hanger. Damn it. I tried to shove half a rubber exhaust hanger between the frame and the hanger on the tube, which worked for about 10 minutes. Damn. Fuck it. I'll fix it later, a little banging never hurt anyone.

With the exhaust back in place, I can tear into the ride height. I took a few inches out here and there, and evened up the sides. I jacked each wheel up to see where it would land under more or less full compression, and settled that I was happy where it would probably land. It would have to get on the ground again before I knew exactly where it would sit.

Lastly, I had to top off the diff. When I had the subframe off the car, I inverted it, and forgot there was a blowoff tube on top, so a measurable quantity leaked out on to my garage floor. I wrote it off, and figured I'd just top it off. So I reached under with my wrench, broke the fill plug loose, and began to turn.. to be met with an out pour of fluid. what the hell? the car's level, and all you have to do is fill it to the fill plug. Jesus tap dancing Christ, how did you fuck up this hard previous idiot? So the diff is overfull, and the fluid pouring out is basically black and smells of burnt horse's asshole. If I'm making a mess, I might as well make a bigger mess and change the diff fluid completely. I had to swing back to the autoparts store to pick up another bottle of "synthetic" gear oil. I'll care about the quality when I get something that's better than an open diff in the pumpkin.

That's it.. right? I keep running through things in my head. I'm not done. I'm forgetting something, right? There's got to be something left... I can't be done.

Holy shit. I am done.

I put the car back on the ground, and the ride heights appear to be about where I want them. I torque the wheels, and step back..

It's time to do something I haven't done in weeks... It's time to drive it.

Playing With the Front End

Our brave hero continues his labors, and moves on to the front end of the car.

The first step was to free up the brake rotors, and remove them. If 've got to replace them anyway, I might as well get them out of the way while I work on the control arms and shocks.

Next up, I pulled the upper control arms, and replaced them with the Megan Racing units I mentioned in an earlier post. This I was hoping that the removal of these would give me enough room to get the shocks out, but alas, it was not to be. I'd have to detach the lower arm that attaches to the shock to get it out. When I installed them, i set them to maximum negative camber. That should ensure the wheels don't hit the fenders when i put the car down on them, and it'll tell me just how much camber I can actually get.

When I removed the top bolts for the struts on the driver's side, I found that one of the holes has been notched quite aggressively. At least an inch long. Awesome. I don't know why anything surprises me on this car any more. One day, I'll have some metal added back to that, but the gigantic washer appears to be holding fine, and there's two more bolts holding it in place that are just fine.

Getting the lower arm to swing away was a bit tricky, as the bolts were of course stuck. some clever use of my floor jack on one side, and some aggressive kicking on the other freed them both up.. only to find the pocket where the control arm attaches on the passenger side is actually bent. Probably dragged it on a curb. It appears the mount point is fine, and in the right place, but the ears on it are bent back a little. With some aggressive pounding, i got the arm out, but it'll put up a fight every time I need to do that. Once I can get it on a lift, I may have to go at it with a dead blow and try to straighten that ear out a little.

With the shocks free, I can start disassembling them. First thing was to free the springs so they don't lunge at my face like so many house cats before them. Here's where it gets a bit interesting on the front. When i measured the springs on the car, i measured them at a little below 6.5", assumed they had loaded about a half inch of pre-load and ordered 7" 1200 lb/in springs.  Once I broke them free, and started turning the preload adjuster.. it kept turning.. and turning.. and turning.

When i finally freed the spring, it was over 8" long. The previous owner (who from now on will now be referred to as "previous idiot") had dialed in over 1.5" of preload on the front springs. WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT? Droop travel? fuck that noise. Let's just ride at full extension ALL THE TIME. /Sigh. The 7 inch springs will work fine, and a quick hit with the impact gun gets the tops off. I didn't measure the front travel like I did for the rears because honestly, I can't take much more in the bad news department today. But side to side they appear to be closer than the back ones.

Like the rears, I set the initial height to be as high as it will go to make sure it won't damage anything. To figure this out, I had to spin the lower mount off so I can measure just how far the threading goes and how much I'll have to feed back onto the shocks. It's spinning these things off I make another discovery about just how cheap Stance shocks are.

The lower mounts are the same for either side, but they need to orient opposite directions for the brake lines, ABS wires, etc.. are you ready for the cheap flag? THEY DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO CHANGE WHICH SIDE THE STICKERS ARE ON. Passenger side? branding sticker is visible. Driver's side? it has to face inwards. period.

Anyway, the threads are 2" into the lower mount, so i thread them back on to that engagement point, and hand tighten the spring perches so that they're just tight enough to keep the spring in place. BECAUSE DROOP TRAVEL, MOTHER FUCKER. Not that there will be much of that with 1200 lb/in springs and no tenders, but it's nice to not completely eliminate the possibility of it.

After reinstalling the struts, I took the liberty of hucking the plastic engine cover in the corner. Doesn't serve a purpose besides making things look pretty, weighing more, and getting in the way of any emergency services in grid.

with the struts back on, I installed the fresh front rotors to rid myself of that under braking vibration I was getting, as well as the Hawk HPS pads. I opted for something milder than the HP+ I used on the WRX, as the rotors on the HR 350z are gigantic and I felt something with that much initial bite would be hard to modulate.

Finally, I installed the Hotchkis front swaybar, but left it disconnected. I'd need to sort out my ride heights before I installed and zeroed out the preload on the adjustable sway bar end links i purchased.At this point, I still need to reinstall the exhaust, but Karl has been getting punchy about getting his garage space back. It's time for the moment of truth. It's time to put the wheels on and put it on the ground.I basically replicated Brian Peters' wheel setup, so i was quite confident it would fit, but there's always that moment where it's tension as you put the spacers and wheels on.Wheels mounted, i put the car down on the ground. No major catastrophes so far, time to back it out of the garage to re-orient it.

[caption id="attachment_121" align="aligncenter" width="300"] It's back on the ground![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_122" align="aligncenter" width="300"] But Christ is it riding high..[/caption]

It was loud as hell without it's muffler , but it moves around under it's own power.

With that, I spent the rest of the night tidying up the garage enough to get Karl his parking space back, and enjoying a good night's rest.

The Subframe Saga

Where we last left our brave, handsome hero he was facing down the unpleasant end of a damaged subframe. Having ordered it's replacement, along with some nice stiff bushings from the good guys over at Whiteline, he awaited the day the battle would begin.

I return today declaring victory over that bitch, but not without it's casualties.

The subframe showed up a few days after ordered. I'm really starting to appreciate having a junkyard with a few Zs in it within a couple hours drive. Little far to drive, but stuff shows up quickly. The bushings showed up the next day, and I took both down to Jeff the Alignment Guy and tasked him with making two into one in exchange for money. He accepted the task.

[caption id="attachment_106" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The new subframe... as it was shipped. Just slapped a label on it.[/caption]

I took a time out from worrying about the Z for that weekend, and headed over to our local autocross events MOWOG 1 and 2 all weekend. I missed my car, but it's amazing how trying to hustle a Camaro SS and a Birkn through a sea of cones can take your mind off of things for awhile. Big thanks to Eli and Steve for the co-drives on short notice!

By Monday afternoon, the subframe was back from the Jeff, and it was time to start the battle.

The first step was removing the exhaust. This Borla "True Dual" system is HEAVY. it's gotta go, and hopefully sooner than later. I'm hoping I can find a good deal on a lightweight single exit exhaust and a Y-Pipe to cut that out. But I'm getting off track. Thanks to this "True Dual" bullshit, it's got more connections that a hooker in Vegas, and they're all slip fit with rusty clamps. Hooray.
Come to think of it, that also sounds like a problem a Vegas hooker would have.

After a few hours with my trusty cordless impact and a sacrificial screwdriver, I managed to break the clamps free but all the slip fit joints still refused to move. Hooray! why couldn't it just be flanges.. with bolts. I can break bolts, and things still come apart. but, After some aggressive use of my big 'ol dead blow hammer, things started to come apart.

Next up was the drive shaft. That had to be broken loose, and there's not a lot of room to get that done. but a couple wrenches, and some hate, and I managed free those up. A few good raps with the trusty dead blow and the flange came.. HOLY SHIT. Few.. Thank you subframe brace and exhaust, or I'd probably have a slightly less pretty face. More manly though. "Hey, how'd you get that scar?" "Took a drive shaft to the face." {Swoon} (That's how it works, right ladies? Right?)

Next I've gotta pull the calipers off.. not a big deal if I hadn't just replaced the pads. /sigh. Get to do that whole thing over again. Oh well. They came off easily, but the caliper brackets put up a damn good fight. At this point I'm realizing how nice I had it on the Subaru all those years. with it's big, open rally wheel wells, it was cake to get big tools and bars in to deal with this crap. No such room exists on the Z.

Regardless, after some more hate, the caliper bolts are freed. Next was the rotors, as I need to free the e-brake cables. Yet another service i've just done, undone. As I adjust the e-brake tensioners all the way in to allow the shoes to clear the hat, I start to question my sanity a bit. Hooray.

Now with the rotors off, I can get the pin out to free the cables. A Pin? who the hell uses a pin. a stupid ass drop through the hole every time pin. BOLTS PEOPLE. BOLTS DON'T MOVE. Wound up having to completely disassemble the e-brake system to get the damn cables free, only to pull it out and go "ohh... that's how you do it." If I was the hulk, this car would be a tiny ball of metal, and every bird in the neighborhood that wakes me up on a Saturday morning would be dead.

Next up is the "W" frame, and it runs from some rear bolt points to the middle of the car to reinforce the chassis. Should be easy enough to get off, a few 14mm bolts and.. wow. Previous owner had this car LOW. It's been dragged across something enough times that the bolt heads of the front two bolts are nearly ground flat. I managed to get them off by tapping a larger socket on and hitting them with the impact, but those won't be going back on the car like that.  It's the same story for the outer bolts for the "Kidney Braces" I'll get some replacements from Nissan.

At this point, I can drop the subframe. With the continued assistance of my trusty roommate Karl, we lowered the subframe out on to the floor and moved it clear of the car. Halfway! right? RIGHT?!? At that point, it was time to declare a battle won, and enjoy some well earned sleep.

[caption id="attachment_107" align="aligncenter" width="225"] The beast has been freed![/caption]

The next day at work, I got some of the best news. Karl feeling ambitious, Generous, and possibly bored went ahead and broke loose almost every bolt on the rear subframe.

When I started again, I unbolted the control arms from the subframe as well as the diff, and lifted the subframe off the whole assembly. Then I dropped the replacement subframe back into place and reversed the procedure, but only finger tight. The whole time I'm applying liberal amounts of anti-seize compound. I know I'm going to be back through most of this stuff, in the future, might as well make it easier on myself when the time comes.

Now it was time to finagle the subframe back in place. A task surely easier when the bushings in it aren't made of a very stiff polymer. But it'll be all worth it in the end. Plenty of back and forth the the floor jack, some shuffling, and some good whacks with the dead blow and things are lined back up and bolted into place. I spent the next few hours loosely reassembling everything making sure I didn't have a pile of bolts left over before tightening everything up.

[caption id="attachment_110" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Hooray! It's In! (Picture was taken after a few more steps..)[/caption]

It was here I realized what had caused the damage in the first place. The hole that the lower arm goes through is sloted, as confirmed in the other picture. but when I disassembled it, there was no concentric washer. without that to stabilize the bolt and keep it from moving, it was able to move back and forth in it's hole as much as it wanted, and did, until it became a big hole. I had to head up to Nissan and, shockingly, order the concentrics. I'd have thought being they're part of the alignment adjustment, and this is Minnesota where every aspect of a car used to align it will immediately rust solid upon crossing the state line, that they might have had a few on hand.

By this point, a few weeks back when I started this mess, I opted to change a few things as well. I lined up the parts needed to adapt standard 2.5" springs into the the stock spring bucket arms from BC Racing. Not the highest quality of shocks, but these adjusters should prove serviceable. I also lined up some springs from Hyperco. 7" 1200lb/in for the front, and 6" 850lb/in for the rear.. As I don't have shocks that don't suck yet, I'm forced to mount these heavy duty bastards to the Stance shocks that came with the car. The rears had to be disassembled to remove the springs and perches to convert them to basically be just a shock and that's when I made a lovely discovery...

[caption id="attachment_109" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Almost 5 inches of shock travel isn't bad..[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_108" align="aligncenter" width="225"] ... Hey, Wait a minute.[/caption]

That's pictures of the rear shocks, at full droop, next to a tape measure. Notice any difference? One side has an entire inch less travel than the the other. Now, I'll be the first to admit I don't have anywhere near a full history of this car, and one could easily be damaged.. but conversely, I could easily see this being a manufacturing defect that would go unnoticed until you actually tore them apart like this, something very few people who actually use these shocks would do. Unfortunately I don't have the budget to throw at good struts right now, so I'll have to make do with these turds. on the plus side, being that their overall length is adjustable, I was able to dial them to be even on each side at least as far as drop goes. as long as the shorter one doesn't bottom out though, it should be OK.

after that depressing fact, I installed the the factory lower arms along with the replacement offset bolts and concetric washers, and dialed them in to toe in. Doing this was a bit tricky as I'd never worked with a spring bucket control arm before, and I had to jack it up and fight it back and forth as it pre-loaded my tender springs and 850Lb/In main springs. This probably would have been easier if I hadn't set the height adjusters to full height before installing them. I have an old habit with coil-over installations that I set everything as high as it will go, as I want to make sure that when I put it down the first time I don't damage anything.. and that I can get my floor jack out from under it.

[caption id="attachment_111" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Shocks, springs, and control arms all installed.[/caption]

Next up was re-assembling the brake system, and finally getting to install those pads again for the second time. The e-brake was a fun pain the ass. With all the parts of it being pre-loaded, disassembly meant things went everywhere. And reassembly meant everything fought back. At least I think I know how to do it right next time, if there is a next time.

Who am I kidding, there will be a next time. Fuck you, E-brakes.

Lastly, I jacked up each hub and torqued each bolt to spec. The rear end has been assembled. /fistpump

Now to move on to the front half of the car...