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.
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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...
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