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Since the track car is not likely to be available by October, I'll just sign up for the car show/onsite parking. With the number of things done to mine and a foamcore list to prop at the front, if I get everything done it should show pretty well. Also, I don't necessarily need to spring for the cheap seats anymore, and what I learned with the old NOPI circuit is that being part of the show is a really cool inclusive event, regardless of how competitive your car is. Led to some freebies from various sponsors just for pal-ing around with them, including product betas.
Now trying to figure out if its realistic to try to tune my car there right before or right after - that Monday after is a holiday. Since I'd be staying with friends, I could send kiddo and spouse (and my buddy's wife) to the aquarium in ATL or something like that.
Been toying with fixing my stereo volume ****. The electronics are a rotary encoder, much like innards of an old ball mouse. I pulled a faceplate from a 2012 car, but it wasn't Nav, so to my immense disappointment the direct swap didn't work. ***** worked, lights and indicators worked, not a single button though, including the nav/display control panel above. So I desoldered the volume encoder from the salvage board and replaced the encoder on mine with that one. The volume encoders are different than the other three; not sure if they are interchangeable, but both boards had volume encoders that were brass and the rest aluminum. Tonight we finished family reading time early so I broke out the soldering kit and had at it. Those suckers are NOT easy to pull, and once I got it out I had a ****ens of a time clearing the wire holes, even with a solder sucker and paperclip.
Top showing the encoder.
Bottom - the oem soldering was a mess.
Solder braid wicking the old stuff out.
Replaced, with the old one to the side. I had to cut the contacts and pull wire-by-wire to clear the holes.
The old board. Anyone need one for spares?
Quick function test in the car shows it all works - this and the display control panel (which runs through the audio/hvac panel) as well.
<CSB> So Friday night, wife out of town on girls weekend, me single-dadding it, taking kiddo to dinner/work-kid-meet-n-greet (IE coworkers with kids that also haven't had anyone to play with for the past year+) and... clutch pedal to the floor. Thankfully I was on a local street not the highway, and was able to push it into a gas station parking lot. Also thankful that we were about 1/2 mile from the venue so we could hoof it the rest of the way. No appreciable hills in Charleston that aren't bridges with stop signs at the bottom, so I couldn't push start it and limp home.
Get the car back at the house after intervening adventures, inspection time. Hoping against hope that debris hit the bleeder screw or hose burst or something... nope. Master was empty so I filled and tried to bleed - still no engagement. Looks like the CSC is dead, dead, dead. Maybe the master too.
SO.
I had prewarned the wife that this would eventually happen, so she'd set aside some repair funds. Makes sense to her and me to do everything while the trans is out, so new clutch, PP, bearing, hose, both hydraulics; I see no point in not getting the ZSpeed HD CSC. I also have been told that although the Nissan dealer should be able to lathe the flywheel, they likely won't, and $1300 part... which means new flywheel time and wife agrees.
To answer the impending questions - I don't have the time or equipment to do this - at almost 50 I'm not bench-pressing a transmission in my (sloped) driveway with the car up just barely enough on jackstands. I've done that shizzle before with RX7s which had lighter transmissions, and it just isn't happening. So I'm trying to get over my control/quality control issues and farm it out. I've contacted a referral at the Nissan dealer, and I'll call two other recommended shops Monday. No Z or even sports-car focused shops down here that aren't german-focused... and I'm calling the one who worked on our Mini to beg LOL since he's painfully honest and trustworthy. Infiniti dealer is right out - a very good friend worked there for a time and quit because of their quality issues. Too many shortcuts taken, no loctite, no torqueing, etc. Fine maybe when it's a farm truck, but not a performance car.
Since I'm looking at a shop, no CMAK. No one down here will touch that level of custom for reasonable price - when I showed someone the instructions before I was quoted $2500 minimum. No thanks...hence the HD CSC.
SO. Flywheel choices - I was thinking of the ACT Streetlight or the Z1 Lightweight. Both around 17 pounds, both well-reputed. But, I've been told the ZSP HD CSC doesn't work with the Z1 flywheel because of deck height. I had great luck with ACTs on my RX7s, even using their Prolite 11-pounder on a turbo 7 without huge driveability issues.
Clutch - I only need / want a stage 1-ish clutch. Something that can handle maybe a little more slip than stock but I'm not making stupid power here, and if I ever crest 400 it will be a miracle (and a good day). So Z1 street, ZSP quiet, or South Bend stage 2 (they don't have a stage 1, or it's OEM equivalent, or something).
In looking for the ACT flywheel I see that ZSP sells them. Reach out through the website and Joe (owner? tech?) responds - on a weekend. That's very cool. Pushes the ZSP flywheel, which is 20 pounds, and states that it is US-made, vs the other two...
I have no idea where Z1 gets theirs made, asia-stan somewhere I'm sure; not a huge issue since their QC seems to be on point. ACT I thought was made in Japan (at least, that's what my last rotary ACT says on the box). I'm not too worried about that, it's a good line, but the CAR is made in Japan of globally sourced parts.
I've got a technical request in to Z1 too.
HDCSC isn't in stock for another 2 weeks, which sucks but right now most of my job is remote/virtual so if I've gotta have the car down, now is the time to do it.
Thoughts/experience? While the engineer in me says that the 17 pounder is probably the best bang-for-buck, guaranteed part compatibility between the HDCSC and everything else is more important really. I'm not sure how much of a difference 3 pounds will make, it really depends on where the weight is at. Although, looking at the pictures, looks like the ZSP has more weight around the periphery than Z1 or ACT.
Yeah, that one. Joe says that he will have more in about a week.
availability is an issue so the jwt is an option, if anyone has those in stock and not drop ship.
Thankfully most of my work is virtual right now and I can borrow a company car if not. The complications are premade plans with inlaws and kid schedule.
Bummer man, at least you were prepared for the eventual failure. Looks like that clutch will be coming in handy sooner than you originally anticipated?
Some of the package deals save enough money that I'll just get it and resell the hose - a $35 part in a $1200 transaction is just noise. But, yeah - that was apparently serendipity.
<CSB> So Friday night, wife out of town on girls weekend, me single-dadding it, taking kiddo to dinner/work-kid-meet-n-greet (IE coworkers with kids that also haven't had anyone to play with for the past year+) and... clutch pedal to the floor. Thankfully I was on a local street not the highway, and was able to push it into a gas station parking lot. Also thankful that we were about 1/2 mile from the venue so we could hoof it the rest of the way. No appreciable hills in Charleston that aren't bridges with stop signs at the bottom, so I couldn't push start it and limp home.
Get the car back at the house after intervening adventures, inspection time. Hoping against hope that debris hit the bleeder screw or hose burst or something... nope. Master was empty so I filled and tried to bleed - still no engagement. Looks like the CSC is dead, dead, dead. Maybe the master too.
SO.
I had prewarned the wife that this would eventually happen, so she'd set aside some repair funds. Makes sense to her and me to do everything while the trans is out, so new clutch, PP, bearing, hose, both hydraulics; I see no point in not getting the ZSpeed HD CSC. I also have been told that although the Nissan dealer should be able to lathe the flywheel, they likely won't, and $1300 part... which means new flywheel time and wife agrees.
To answer the impending questions - I don't have the time or equipment to do this - at almost 50 I'm not bench-pressing a transmission in my (sloped) driveway with the car up just barely enough on jackstands. I've done that shizzle before with RX7s which had lighter transmissions, and it just isn't happening. So I'm trying to get over my control/quality control issues and farm it out. I've contacted a referral at the Nissan dealer, and I'll call two other recommended shops Monday. No Z or even sports-car focused shops down here that aren't german-focused... and I'm calling the one who worked on our Mini to beg LOL since he's painfully honest and trustworthy. Infiniti dealer is right out - a very good friend worked there for a time and quit because of their quality issues. Too many shortcuts taken, no loctite, no torqueing, etc. Fine maybe when it's a farm truck, but not a performance car.
Since I'm looking at a shop, no CMAK. No one down here will touch that level of custom for reasonable price - when I showed someone the instructions before I was quoted $2500 minimum. No thanks...hence the HD CSC.
SO. Flywheel choices - I was thinking of the ACT Streetlight or the Z1 Lightweight. Both around 17 pounds, both well-reputed. But, I've been told the ZSP HD CSC doesn't work with the Z1 flywheel because of deck height. I had great luck with ACTs on my RX7s, even using their Prolite 11-pounder on a turbo 7 without huge driveability issues.
Clutch - I only need / want a stage 1-ish clutch. Something that can handle maybe a little more slip than stock but I'm not making stupid power here, and if I ever crest 400 it will be a miracle (and a good day). So Z1 street, ZSP quiet, or South Bend stage 2 (they don't have a stage 1, or it's OEM equivalent, or something).
In looking for the ACT flywheel I see that ZSP sells them. Reach out through the website and Joe (owner? tech?) responds - on a weekend. That's very cool. Pushes the ZSP flywheel, which is 20 pounds, and states that it is US-made, vs the other two...
I have no idea where Z1 gets theirs made, asia-stan somewhere I'm sure; not a huge issue since their QC seems to be on point. ACT I thought was made in Japan (at least, that's what my last rotary ACT says on the box). I'm not too worried about that, it's a good line, but the CAR is made in Japan of globally sourced parts.
I've got a technical request in to Z1 too.
HDCSC isn't in stock for another 2 weeks, which sucks but right now most of my job is remote/virtual so if I've gotta have the car down, now is the time to do it.
Thoughts/experience? While the engineer in me says that the 17 pounder is probably the best bang-for-buck, guaranteed part compatibility between the HDCSC and everything else is more important really. I'm not sure how much of a difference 3 pounds will make, it really depends on where the weight is at. Although, looking at the pictures, looks like the ZSP has more weight around the periphery than Z1 or ACT.
And... discuss.
- You pushed the car? You could just put it into 2nd gear and start it up and be on your way
- Machine shop should be able to resurface the flywheel for you, I was told $250 for mine but it was not necessary at 45k miles
- It's 5 labor hours to do the slave. The CMAK is simple and should be done within that time frame. My shop told me they may charge me an extra 1/2-1hr of labor if there are issues. I didn't do the clutch in mine but at that point it would have been no extra cost labor wise.
- I had a slave failure in my GTO and those cars are famous for their slave issues. After selling the car and speaking with the owner 2 years later the slave failed again. I don't want to go through the trouble again so I opted for the CMAK.
- You don't need a 'Nissan' specialty shop to do the work. There aren't any special tools needed or anything out of the ordinary. I had a local Porsche / German shop do my work.
- I stayed with the stock clutch because of my mileage. I recommend doing thorough research so you don't get stuck with something you don't like.
- I recommend waiting to install the RJM after everything is broken in. Doing the RJM at the same time as the clutch/slave will just add another variable to the equation in case you are have issues. Remember, the RJM may need adjustment.
- Order new trans fluid, clutch fluid, do the diff if you need to. Other items that come to mind are trans mount, short shifter, possibly even y-pipe/exhaust.
Take your time and do your research. Buy once cry once.
I pushed it all of 50 feet - didn't want to risk also killing the starter motor. Charleston is stop-and-go at the best of times, and moreso after normal work hours. Just wouldn't get me anywhere, and I had safer alternatives so I took 'em.
Re: the flywheel - it may not need it, surely. But as you said - buy once, cry once.
I've showed the CMAK instructions to the two shops we've used before that aren't Mazda and they were 'not just no, but hell no'. Liability issues I'm guessing. To that end, the marque-specific shops down here will tell you that they don't work on anything BUT those marques. I can take my CX5, for example, to Joe or Bubba's garage, or the Mazda Dealer. (Bubba is alright.) When I owned my own firm I sued a lot of the local independent shops for faulty and/or negligent work practices - they tend to not have ASE licensed techs and take shortcuts while billing at book rate. I know all shops do this to some extent, but there's a difference between "if I don't pull that off, I'll just wiggle my hand past it and use a tiny ratchet" and "torque settings are for wussies, and if it breaks again they'll just bring it to me to fix again". Like the Mazda service manager telling me that he was going to void our CX5 warranty for not using Mazda branded light bulbs and replacing them ourselves. (hint: Mazda does not makes light bulbs). Or the Pep Boys dropping our Mini off the lift and then stating that it wasn't their fault since the Mini was so short.
Were I in Durham NC still, or maybe Columbia SC, I'd have different choices. But the Charleston automotive landscape is NOT why people live here.
I *am* in the thorough research stage, so that is covered. I'm certainly not looking for an unsprung hub puck clutch disk and repurposed truck pressure plate.
I did new trans and diff fluid 2 years ago with Redline. I'll have trans fluid on hand for this too. Diff mounts changed to whilteline at that time. Trans mount - if needed I'll use stock again. Short shifter was tried and disliked; and the exhaust is FI cats to tailpipe. I don't think there's much down there that needs to be done other than the trans work.
04-20-2021, 10:44 AM
I had great luck with ACTs on my RX7s, even using their Prolite 11-pounder on a turbo 7 without huge driveability issues.
