Racersky's 92 LS400 Build Thread
#32
Pole Position
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Texas/Pennsylvania
Posts: 236
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My one main problem I was facing and the reason why my car was down for almost 5 months was my brakes. The front pair kept locking up and everyone kept telling me it's because I did this or did that. Yes, my ABS and TRAC is removed but that was the problem with the brake problem. I replaced the brake booster because the pedal was hard as a rock and also decided to replace my master cylinder since I have to remove that anyway. Replacing those made me some what had a little play in my brakes but not like I used to back before the swap completion. The car brakes then started locking it up again and I could not for the life of me figure out as to why it's doing it. I jacked the front end up and tried to spin the wheels by hand and the passenger would not move but the driver side would but with a little force. I then decided to replace both calipers in the front and bled the entire system with the directions from LexLS. The brakes still did not feel as it did before but still better than my previous rounds with the brake booster & master replacement. Drove the car for about a day and loved it every minute up until at the end of the night the brakes locked up again. Someone explained to me that it could be caused by my rubber brake lines collapsing from the inside which is acting as a valve when you press down and as it returns it does not let the pressure come back. This made perfect sense. Ordered my Goodridge Steel braided lines and two weeks later I installed the fronts and bled them to see if it fix it before I continue and do my rears. The brakes still locked up and I could not think of what it can be at this point. I replaced close to everything related to the brakes except the proportioning valve which is like 500 bucks from the dealership. I let the car sat for another week or so until one day when I sat the car and just try to run through everything that's done and how everything that was ran and even look through all my diagrams from brakes lines, abs, and trac systems. Stared at my brake pedal and that just made me wonder why is my brake pedal crooked? Tried playing with it by wiggling it to see if i can straighten it but no play what so ever. I decided to take it off and line it up to the factory LS400 Pedal.....
What do you know!!!! it's the culprit......The pedal may have similar width at the bolting points as the LS400 pedal does but it's actually off just enough when you mount it into the brake pedal assembly bracket that it twist and gets jammed between the gap of where the motion of the pedal would happen. So with this happening the brakes would engaged ever so slightly to point where the pads would just clinch to the rotors. Rears did not lock up because there was not enough pressure engaged all the way down for the proportioning valve to deliver the proper pressure to the rears. In case someone ask why did the brake light did not illuminate is because the brake was not engage all the way to the point where the push switch of the taillights to turn on.
In this picture you can see the pedal was off alignment. The Left pedal I'm holding is a brand new SC300 Pedal and the one now in the brake assembly bracket is the stock LS400.
Reverting back to the stock pedal fixed my brake problem all together. The brake feels just like it did before my car was converted to manual. So just an FYI I did ran into problems but after sweating and also fixing my car when it rained out was all worth it in the end when your able to shift gears in a long body car =D
Sorry for the terrible night videos but I'll try to get some day ones when my schedule starts to open up and I'm free. Keep in mind that in my car I'm running a "350z Transmission aka the poor man's Supra Transmission (V160)." Yes, in the video you will be able to hear exactly how LOUD the transmission really is without the proper sound deaden material that is found on 350z's and G35's. To even increased the the sound even more I did not realize until I read up about it on my350z and G35driver is to NOT run a lightweight flywheel is this would cause the transmission to make chatter noise but will not affect the reliability of the transmission what so ever. Another mistake that was made was the custom transmission mount because at the time didn't realized that the transmission mount on the 350z and G35 have a rubber bushing type of mount so reduce vibration from the transmission, jerking, and noise. Since my mount is a solid mount going across the trans that is bolted directly to the bottom of the chassis The car would give an insane shake when slipping the clutch in first and also reverse. Once your moving there is no problem with anything. Since I haven't figured everything out yet with the rear differential as I'm trying to see if I could run a Supra TT internals in my pumpkin or might find a way to get the differential fabricated on there somehow I know my rpms are out of whack. Also since I can't add Oranges in Apples together (1uz + 350z trans) my speedometer does not work. I've had a friend of mind pace next to me so I can see at what RPM is my speed and I wrote it down. Since I cannot find a fix for it I'm currently experimenting with an HUD (Heads Up Display) which at the moment is off by 3 MPH. You will be able to see me testing it in one of the video clips but i accidentally mounted the hardware upside down but fixed it later on during the video.
Still need to find a perfect mounting area for it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mudda****enninja/8909643908/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mudda****enninja/8909905326/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mudda****enninja/8909921580/
Sorry for the long gigantic post but I hope you enjoy my struggle to slowly building my dream mobile lol
#34
Pole Position
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Texas/Pennsylvania
Posts: 236
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Do it!!!!! I actually tried to fit my friends wheels on my rears to see if they can still clear and I have no problem fitting it. I would have to lower the car slightly more but other than that it was pretty good.
#37
Pole Position
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Texas/Pennsylvania
Posts: 236
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
All three links to my flickr as the forum thinks I have profanity in my flickr username
http://tinyurl.com/ltnw6qn
http://tinyurl.com/kf8j87j
http://tinyurl.com/mejm7cw
http://tinyurl.com/ltnw6qn
http://tinyurl.com/kf8j87j
http://tinyurl.com/mejm7cw