JeffTT

Unless its leaking you can safely leave well alone, the UK model diff was fitted with temp warning sensor and an external pump and cooler fitted above the diff ( you most likely saw it when doing the brake pipes) in the real world they do nothing and of all the diff coolers we have come across they are always dry ( internally) which suggest the temp required to get them to operate is ( too ) high. On the other side of things the cooler pipes are very fragile and often they fracture on their own or when trying to undo them, best way out is to link them out if this happens. Jeff TT

Not the video I was refering to but has the gives the same effect, overheat? ok seems I was misinformed. Thats some odd kind of sale patter? you sure you want to sell? Jeff TT

Jeff TT

Here you go, a little slit in the gaitor reveals it. Jeff TT

Pic 11 Here the shoe has been completely cleaned and swilled down with more brake cleaner. Pic 12 The other shoe cleaned in the same way and again swilled down with brake cleaner. Pic 13 So with the shoes all cleaned up and a small amount of spray grease on the adjuster cog and the top lever pivot the disc can be refitted and the adjuster now reverse adjusted until its stops, then back off a few clicks and check the disc is free to turn ( will be slightly hard due to diff drag) Pic 14 All back in place with new pads and painted calipers, a small file run over the raised Nissan logo make its look nice too. Pic 15 Wheels on and looking good and a now fully working handbrake. A couple of notes, the shoes do not have much material on them when brand new so do not be fooled into thinking yours are worn out, unless your a keen drifter the handbrake only gets used when your already stopped!! the dust and shoe material that traps in the disc is like thousands of little marbles between the shoes and the disc and makes a bad job worse, this dust is nit nice don't breath it and don't get it on your drive / cloths it stains like a devil. The handbrake cable adjuster at the front is best left in its mid adjustment, that way you have access to + and - play adjustment to get the handbrake lever to a comfortable click on point. Hope that helps you guys. Jeff TT

Handbrake adjustment tech. Had the opportunity to take some pics to explain how to correctly set the handbrake and why it often does not work well even when adjusted ok. Ok so first off the particular zed in the pics was having new discs and pads + painted calipers so but I am in the main dealing with the handbrake. There is “cable” adjustment underneath the handbrake via a 10 mm nut, adjusting this will if any adjustment left only take out cable stretch and can be disappointing that although the lever will be well adjusted the handbrake will still not hold well. The real issue is inside the rear discs where the handbrake shoes reside, accessing these is set out below with pics to support, the caliper does need removing as does the pads but have not covered that as concentrating on the handbrake. Pic 1 So here we are the wheel off, pads removed and caliper removed. Pic 2 Here the rubber grommet is highlighted, this needs removing to access and back off the adjuster so the disc can be removed. Pic 3 Line up the hole in the disc so you can see the adjuster cog, may need a torch for that, and insert a flat blade screwdriver and locate the cog, ( see inset picture of the adjuster to cog to help know what your doing) Pic 4 To back off the adjuster the cog needs to be turned down as you look at it, this is achieved by levering the screwdriver up and down though the opening as can be seen in the multi shot pictures slowly turning the cog down, until it stops, the disc may still feel solid but do not worry. Pic 5 Insert a 12 mm headed bolt into the disc inner face thread, this is designed to remove the possible stubborn disc off the hub as when you tighten the bolt is acts through the disc and onto the hub face, a few turns and the disc will loosen and can then be removed. Pic 6 The inside of the disc can now be seen and now so can part of the problem with poor handbrake performance, the working face is glazed and pitted, not good, this will need cleaning as best as possible to remove all glazing and any high ridges, in this case new discs where been fitted. Pic 7 Easy to see the difference here, really new discs are the way to go at this stage but if the budget will not run to them at this time a good clean up and mentioned before will be required. Pic 8 So now we can see the real villains of the case, the brake shoes, this a common sight for us when removing discs. The glazing, the colour and condition all reduce handbrake performance and with new shoes costing around £100 from a Nissan dealer its not funny. Pic 9 Cleaning with brake cleaner is essential to get all of the dust and rubbish out with out it getting airborne, not good for your chest etc!!, brake cleaner is available in rattle cans for around a fiver..good stuff! Pic 10 So here is the simple tool you require, a file, with this you can clean the shoes and revitalise them in to fully working units again, I have shown the difference by cleaning the top half of the shoe. Continued.....

Are you a school teacher....ie finish early:whistling: Cannot remember the last time I was back from work in time to even watch the 6.00 oclock news you lucky devil! Jeff TT

Not sure of the address, guess it may look like this though...

The pump brackets are very tight on the engine, ( the bit the long 14mm bolt goes through) so what your experiencing is very common, so very carefully use a lever under the top metal fluid pipe as close as you can get to where it connects into the pump and lever up and towards the drivers side wing, the pump will move down and over, do not expect it to be easy though. The ps belt will still need to be coaxed off the pulley by turing the crank and using a screwdriver to flip the belt over the pulley edge, spray the belt and pully with WD40 or similar to help things along and save the belt from damege, and refitting the belt will need the same method. Hope that helps Jeff TT

Was working away in the workshop this afternoon and thought seems to of gone dark and then darker then tap, tap, tap on the roof, went outside to see this MONSTER black cloud, the swirling section of it looked like some angry CGI scene from a Hollywood film, moments later we had around 6 minutes of torrential hail that I have not seem the likes of before, you can actually see the hailstones falling in the first picture and on the roof, then the clouds parted and the sun came out ....weird!! a rapid check of all our and customers cars revealed no damage.....phew. Jeff TT

Ok to put you out of your misery, the auto box has 3 direct gears then over drive after this and with the correct load conditions torque lock up engages reducing torque convertor fluid slip, so hence 5 noticable changes. Jeff TT

A few tip for you 1) DISCONNECT THE BATTERY 2) Undo the rad brackets, loosen the 4 x turbo throttle pipes, move the wring loom at the rear of the engine ( allows the engine to drop back when required) 3)To get to the top bellhousing bolts lower the gearbox at the rear ( after undoing the gear selector )and use long extension bars over the top of the box 4) Starter motor and clutch slave can be removed more easily once the box is lowered down slightly. 5) The rear wheels need to be able to turn so the prop bolts can be accessed also mark the prop halves BEFORE seperating. 6) Leave the bottom bolt in the bellhousing till everything else is disconnected this is for safety, a trolley jack under the gear box can help lower it if on your own. 7) The back of the gearbox may leak some oil when the prop is removed so bag it just in case. Good luck and stay safe, the gearbox is HEAVY get help if you can. Jeff TT

My first thought was starter motor fallen off? more common than you would think, the threads in the gearbox are notorious for failing but read your post a bit more about the oil issue too! Jeff

So the answer then is yes, the gearboxes are the same, you were correct Ian. Jeff TT

Jeff TT

Anyone remember the video of this zed when it was a single turbo conversion??? completed just before a Japfest meet, bottom end fell out of it on the way there or way back apparantly due to the turbo return feed having been pushed through a drilled hole in the side of non turbo sump! argh!!! for those not in the loop its Paul of the now defunct South West Zeds fame...still cannot get that video out my head and him saying a bit rattly but be ok for Japfest........famous last words eh? Jeff TT

Hi Matey, if you mean the front spotlights then thats how it is supposed to work, or do you mean the rear fog light switch? Jeff

Your welcome !! Yes has come in for a manual conversion, the auto box had popped anyhow so cannot say how it felt. Most likely needs balancing. Jeff

Had a rare moment today where I was lost for words, a happy and relatively new zed owner turned up in the shop with a gift for us, I looked and initially thought it was a book, then after opening it up I saw it was much more... Reverse back around 6 weeks ago when the very same guy came in looking very down and also looking for some help. Having saved his hard earned cash for an age he secured a twin turbo zed from a dealer, having longed for a zed for years he had eventually got one...finally! Sadly within a few days the zed had a major fault and with a less than compliant dealer his dream was in tatters as he put it. We acted as a go between and liaison, met the dealer and despite an original poor offer the dealer did eventually come up trumps and paid up in full for us to complete the repairs, and fair play the dealer for doing this as its over £1k, no nasty arguments just explained how the zed scene is and the passion owners feel for them. So here we are today and as I said the passion this owner had has returned, it reinforces the view of why zeds continue to gain popularity and why we all love them....I did eventually blurt out some words of gratitude and waved him off.....gulp! Jeff TT

The whole vibration issue caused by the propshaft has been covered many times in varying degrees of depth and no need to go into it fully again, however had the opportunity to take a few pic`s of a unit today that explains a less known or discussed area of the bearing support issue. A short recap to begin, firstly failure of the proshaft bearing is really an inaccurate description as the steel bearing itself is not really the problem but the rubber donut shaped support section that houses the bearing. This rubber section when new is very compliant and allows the propshaft when spinning to find its own nature alignment of the front and back section by centrifugal force, and assuming the propshaft is well balanced with good flange joints no vibration issues will be experienced. However over time the rubber support gets less compliant and hence the props natural alignment can be harder to achieve especially when the rubber is cold like when starting off on a new journey, this also explains why as the rubber is warmed by the exhaust and the action of the rotating prop the compliance increases and the vibration will be much less or even gone all together when in the early stages. So left as is not only will the problem get worse but in some cased it will oddly go away, but often it will then be replaced by a clunk from underneath when taking off, this will be felt worse in a manual zed incidentally. This is the time when it can seem less of a problem, but the reality is shown in the photo's below, the non compliant rubber support has eventually torn and broken away, leaving the prop to align better than previously so less or no vibration. Now given the bearing surround is encased in a metal hoop does mean the unit cannot fail massively and fall from the vehicle in any way, however it does increase load on the front joint where it enters the gearbox and in one case we dealt with a damaged gearbox tail section due to the eventual wear on the front joint transferring to the gearbox. So if you had vibration that seems to of gone away get your zed on a ramp and get the support bearing rubber checked thoroughly as you can see it just may be on the next stage. Jeff TT

The wife has a factory AC Schnitzer converted 330ci cabriolet which is very well balanced car with superb road holding and with the 6 speed manual gearbox ( highly reccomended) has the torque range to push it along very nicely around the twisty country lanes where we live, easily accomodates 4 adults and typical of factory upgrade suspension never feels overly harsh and the tyres some how never come in to contact with the wheel arches!! Jeff TT Yes you can, press the dsc button when you first start up and it is 50% disconnected, press and hold when running for the full 100% disengagement. ( dont tell Lynda though!) Jeff TT

Having two Bmw in our family of cars I attempted to be part of all of the main BMW forums but sadly it seems a very small circle of elite members use these forums as their personal clubs and no new outsiders are allowed to join any serious threads and if you try your ignored, after been a member on the 5 series forum for 6 years I am still concidered an outsider and frankly have given up on them. Only if they dont own a zed as well :D: Jeff

No need to remove the sub frame, just remove the diff unit so much less work and will give you all the access you need. Jeff TT

You beat me to it!!! Jeff TT

:rofl::rofl: :wink: Jeff TT