mikey

I hurriedly drew up some CV spacers and sent them off for cutting without wasting time with things like mockups or physics or safety. They came up okaaaaaaay, bit thin in places. I'll use these for now and get some beefier ones cut in the meantime. Ideally on a mill rather than water-jet. Did a skid and nothing fell off

I've had a tiny amount of play in my rear wheel bearings so decided to rebuild my whole rear-end New CVs, bearings, aftermarket stub axles & companion flanges to take a 108mm CV. Old vs new stub axles. They have a larger splined diameter and are beefier at the wheel flange. This now shifts the weakest point in the driveline to my r180 diff, but it should be good enough for my engine. I also replaced all diff seals & o-rings so hopefully it stops leaving little puddles on the floor now. I couldn't get a micrometer inside the hubs to confirm, but I've assumed the play was from the bearing spacers getting overtightened and mushrooming slightly. So I cut some 0.05mm shims and torqued the hubs up and things feel right now. The left hub required two shims. Everything seems to measure up correctly and there's no play anymore. Rad! However. At this point I realised I have a problem. Since my new companion flange accepts a 108mm CV directly, I no longer need to run the CV adapter plate I used to use. This means my axles are now 25mm too short. FML. So I've CAD'd up some 108mm CV spacers to fill the void. Ideally I'd run a different axle which didn't require the spacer, but since I've just bought all new CVs to suit these axle shafts, I'll go with the spacers. Cars aye!

Simples!

Never mind, I used my neighbours press. Thanks guys.

Anyone near Mount Eden able to lend me 5 mins of your press? Don't make me resort to whacking them on

Good ideas guys. After flicking thru that Muff thread, I'm guessing the advice is stick to 3"? If so I could possibly keep my current muffler and just try a two-into-one in the tunnel. If no good upgrade the final muffler. Starting to sound like a plan

Yeah, just been going through their catalogue. They look pretty good. I'm just not sure if I should have a resonator in the tunnel or a muffler. I'm fine if the car is pretty quiet, so am leaning towards a proper muffler. But not if that'll mean it's "drone-y"?

Yeah man, has been yonks! I've not had a garage for a long time so not been able to get into any car stuff for aaaages. Yep, space is definitely the issue. I like the sound of putting a proper muffler in the tunnel, I'll investigate what space I have there. There's not much space to fit a muffler on the opposite side from current as the fuel tank takes that side. So I think I'll be limited to just the two. Will arrange as much pipe as possible after the final muffler. Sounds like 2.5" should be plenty for a stock VQ35, I'm guessing the smaller diameter makes for a less boomy sound? Any suggestions for muffler suppliers in AK?

Hola guys. I'm keen to redo my exhaust to give more ground and tunnel clearance, plus make it a quieter. I know, uncool. The engine is a VQ35DE - Nissan V6, in a 240z. This is a pic of the exhaust when it was made. It's got some cheap XForce headers into two 2.5", into those resonators then goes to 3" and out an offset oval muffler of some sort. I can't find the deets on that; it was from Wolfe Mufflers. Those resonators knock against the tunnel and scrape along the ground. So I'm keen to ditch them, or replace with one I can tuck higher in the tunnel, depending on what effect it'll have on sound. Currently it sounds pretty good and has a good bark, but is just way too loud for cruising about. Also wondering if half the volume issue is caused by having a 3" pipe, seems excessive. Hoping some of you legends can give some pointers?

So, I'm doing a bunch of stuff to this to make it a nicer car to drive around in. It's pretty noisy, fumy, rattly, leaky & clunky. Nothing too major, just redoing some bits and pieces I should've done better first time round. Right now I'm replacing some diff seals and sorting out some exhaust knocks. This is a pic of the exhaust when it was made. It's got some cheap XForce headers into two 2.5", into those resonators then goes to 3" and out an offset oval muffler of some sort. I can't find the details on that, it was from Wolfe Mufflers. Those hotdogs knock against the tunnel which is annoying. But the exhaust is also too loud when not driving fast for me these days. So wondering if some exhaust guru can tell me what a better option is to cut down on noise. Ideally I'd go from 2.5" into 3" after that gearbox mount and then put one big resonator in the tunnel. That way I'd gain a lot more clearance. But if that's not an option and I keep the two resonators I'll probably notch the bottom of the tunnel to get better clearance. Once resonator would save a tonne of work thou. Thoughts?!

No way! Good luck. I took mine for a ride yesterday. Taupo is probably pretty good for a Prima so long as you avoid the hills; they sure are guttless.

It was as simple as glazed shoes I just hit them with a Scotch Brite pad and brake cleaner and now they feel great What a muppet. I figured glazed shoes would cause the opposite of grabbing, which is why it took me so long to work this out

Oh, those pads were replacements put on by Sterling Brake & Clutch about 9 years ago. The original ones are riveted, these are bonded.

So.... dem brakes. They look simple enough, but something ain't right. With a light touch on the brake lever they grab hard and the front springs bottom-out violently. This is all the tech info I have. I suck at drum brakes. I really really do. HALP!! There's no signs of anything weird from what I can see. All I can think of is that maybe the drum grabs the leading edge of the shoe and spreads the shoes so they grab harder?

So. Pulled the Dynastart field windings apart and found they were oil soaked & shorting to ground. Tidied up, replaced all wires & bushes & sorted out the rust. The points look a bit shit, but the contacts are basically new. I fixed up the auto-advance too, so will stick with points for now. I could feel a bit of "backlash" in the flywheel, turned out to be a shagged small end bush. Spare parts are hard to come by, but I had a spare engine so recycled the bush out of it which was still in spec. A bit agricultural, oh well. Bore is okay. Getting the engine in is fricken impossible, it weighs a tonne and she's a toight fit. After a lot of sweat and swearing I found doing it upside-down is more doable. Gear change bowden cables were bunged up, lucky I have a luberer Went for a blat round the block and pumped up the tires. The engine feels good. The front brakes are still terrifying. And I can't find third gear, that's always been a tricky one. Will make new cables, but I actually think the mechanism is from a different bike.