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I've been working on the car but I'm at a point where I just need to fabricate things and I'm not very good or equipped to do that.
The shifter on the new CD009 6 speed from the 350Z is too far back. Its 6" too long and it'll come up inside the center console right now. There are a couple of solutions off the shelf but they are $450.
Here is a picture I found on the Internet (not mine)
And the shifter linkage rod needs to be shortened as well. This will only give you 5 1/4" shortening however and the shifter is 6" too long. Close enough? I dunno. (also not my pic)
Here's another idea from another internet website:
I've decided to cut and weld the stock shifter bracket like the top picture. I bought a Chicago Electric Mig 170 welder from Harbor Freight for $180 for this. That welder isn't setup to do aluminum however. I don't know much about it and there are various opinions on the internet but it looks like I need a teflon mig torch liner and argon gas to make this welder do it. I also need to weld the brake and clutch pedals so it seemed like a better investment than paying $450 for a shifter bracket.
So I'm just trying to find the teflon torch liner right now but not having much luck.
I ordered some aluminum welding parts. In the mean time, I'll finish welding the steel parts I need.
I cut, grinded and welded the 350Z brake pedal into position. Here is is just tacked in this isn't the permanent weld but feel free to comment anyway.
As you can tell, I used aluminum as a heat shield. It worked pretty good but melted through in a few spots. I'd recommend having at least 4 sheets of it for welding.
After tacking it in, I tested the position out and it seemed to be spot on. I think I can heel-toe downshift with this. The brake pedal stroke and effort shouldn't have changed. Height etc is all the same.
And this is after the final welds are in place, grinded smooth, wire wheeled clean, wiped down with mineral spirits and primed with a rustoleum rattle can. Its a 30 year old can of paint I got from an estate sale by the way. I got the hole box for $5 and it included 5 cans of paint and 1 gallon of the mineral spirits. You can get a good angle grinder for $15 from harbor freight but I'm using an 18v cordless electric Ryobi One Plus (it sucks, batteries die quick).
The final paint is just flat black rattle can. I'm waiting on that to dry.
I probably won't get much done this weekend. My sister's house warming party in Wisconsin is tomorrow and I'm guessing I'll be there overnight. I have to fix the lawn mower as well and there's a ton of other simultaneous projects going on with the house. I'm trying to raise the ceiling in the garage 4' so I can install a lift. I only need to raise the last 4 ceiling joists actually so its only 1/4th of the garage. I haven't had much luck hiring contractors to do it though.
probably a dumb question, but how did you install the steering wheel? I've tried installing another toyota steering wheel from a supra and whenever I install it it's about 20 degrees or so to the left when I start driving. I tried rotating the clock spring the way it says to do and it doesn't end up right.
I used HKB Sports Kit OT-135 to adapt the steering wheel to a standard 6 bolt type. You would just remove the steering wheel, rotate it 20 degrees and reinstall it straight to center it. The steering column isn't keyed or anything as far as I know. The boss kit does engage 3 nubs so I guess for this unit, it does tend to stay centered. I'm not sure if the stock steering wheel is the same but if so, I guess you could only move the wheel in 120 degree increments. Relative to the steering wheel and not steering angle of course.
I cut and welded the shifter linkage a littler shorter yesterday. I should be getting closer to about 5 3/4" shorter than stock. I can still take a little off too. Forgive my pics
I tried refitting the clutch pedal today. I have an idea in my head of how I'm going to mount it. I'm going to just cut a square hole in the firewall and weld a square standoff for the clutch pedal to bolt to flat. That will also bring the pedal further out which it needs for full pedal travel. It also brings the clutch master cylinder further away from the turbochargers and leaves more room in the engine bay.
The clutch pedal might be a bit too far in the middle. I'll have to mock it up and test out how it feels in that position. I can just as easily cut and weld that too to move the pedal position.
As you can tell, I removed the dead pedal. The clutch pedal was touching it as is and I'm not so sure I really want the dead pedal with the clutch pedal as well. I might just trim it to fit once the clutch pedal is finalized. I guess it wouldn't be terrible to get a 350Z dead pedal to match. The stock plastic matches just as easily. If I had my choice, I'd go with marble. I don't know why thats never been done before but it would be awesome. You would want to drive barefoot too. Anyhoo that might be a trip to the stone quarry next year. For now I just want to get it working.
Ok here is where it gets sketchy if you didn't already think this was.
I cut the hole in the firewall for the clutch master cylinder and pedal. The rear turbo is very near the firewall and its coolant line was actually cut by the reciprocating saw. So that line needs replacing. It was probably old anyway is what I tell myself to feel better.
The firewall for some strange reason is actually two pieces of metal sandwiched together with rubber in the middle. That is going to make welding this extremely difficult. If I want my clutch mount to hit both pieces of the firewall, it needs to be welded from the front and back. You can tell just how close the rear turbo is so that's not likely to happen without removing the motor. I could probably hit the bottom but not the top. If I had a super special mig gun, maybe, but I don't. I'll still try and I it might actually turn out better than expected. The up side is that this winter, the motor will come out and the chassis will be seam welded. So anything that isn't perfect now will be fixed later. So more rainbows and unicorns for my little fantasy this is going to work.
Oh also and most obvious, the turbo is super close to the firewall. The master cylinder is 4" long. Thats obviously not going to work unless my clutch mount recesses the master cylinder about 4" into the car. As you can see, the turbo is literally 1" away from the firewall. They couldn't have gotten any closer if they tried. Even if I squeezed the master cylinder in, the first time I change gears the engine will rock and twist it right off.
I've had a surgery to my leg recently and I bought a new home so I haven't made much progress. Here is the new shifter bracket. I cut up the old one and rewelded it about 6" shorter.
The welds aren't perfect but its actually a PITA to weld aluminum so whatevs, as long as it holds. The cost of a pre-fabbed shifter bracket was $450 and I paid about that but I get to keep this welder which will bring me a lifetime of fun and fab.
I got the new slave cylinder and release bearing installed on the CD009 transmission:
The release bearing is actually pressed into a sleeve. I got the old one off by heating it with propane and hitting it with a hammer in a vice. Then I pressed the new one on the sleeve using the vice. I reused the clutch fork, pivot ball and the spring that holds the clutch fork to the release bearing sleeve.
So the transmission is ready to install and has all the rubber boots on the shifter parts.
That shifter bracket looks pretty tall actually. I'm hoping it doesn't actually bump the transmission tunnel when installed. The transmission should angle down slightly though.
And finally, to replace the rear turbo coolant line that was cut open when cutting through the firewall, I had to take the turbo inlet off from the top of the engine. I found this inside the inlet coupler:
That's pretty common apparently. I'll just replace it with a silicone coupler. Everything rubber on this engine is just super baked to a crisp. I can really see why turbo timers were so popular back then.
05-21-17, 07:06 PM
