Six_Shooter's money pit and time vampire... v.240Z

[caffeine]

Nice!

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Well, I FINALLY got this transmission and new clutch in the car. SOOOO much better than the old trans. It's actually smooth again. Though I think some of the things I found loose might have contributed to the vibrations I was getting.

The clutch is almost a switch, it's VERY grabby and takes a bit to get used to, but seems to work well.

More trans work.

I have painted the spacer shim. The observant of you will have already noticed that there is no starter hole. I will add this when I actually swap the clutch in, so that I can get it pretty exact. I don't have a spare starter kicking around to use on a spare block for this right now.


I then put the trans back together tonight... FINALLY. I've been wanting to get to this for over a week now, but with school and exams I just couldn't find the time. It's finally ready to install.

On the bench still separated...


Sliding the bellhousing onto the trans:




Reconnected... still needed to add the front cover in this picture and a couple small parts to the exterior, but otherwise complete.


Now just to find the time to actually get it into the car...

Spacer.. the final frontier... or how I moved the world

I had originally wanted to use 14 gauge, since this was JUST under 2mm thick. All I could find locally without waiting for it was 12 gauge, so I went with the 12, a little more space won't hurt anything here.

Pattern laid out:


Test fitting on spare empty block:






test fitting on spare full block:


Hmm, only 2mm between the flywheel and the spacer plate, looks like I need to open it up some.


I cut out the entire diameter of the flywheel, actually a little larger, and then made a lower filler plate to act as a dust shield.


All welded up, I welded the entire seams to hopefully keep any dirt and moisture out from between the plates.

Time for an update.

I have finished modifying the bellhousing.

I found when I went to test fit on a spare block that still had a crank installed and could attach a flywheel to that I needed to clearance the bellhousing opening a bit. I was hoping I could get away without doing so.

A bit of grinding and it's all good.


test fitting on a spare block:


More test fitting:


Uh oh... That's a bit close between the clutch disc spline and the Throwout bearing support, which I was thinking might be an issue due to measuring after the welding was finished showed that I was about 2mm shorter than I would have liked.


So to build a spacer... which is also the dust cover, in a very similar fashion to what Nissan did originally.

[Purple pit]

Nice work. Man the car looks good in that first photo. Mine looks good in the shade or the dark too.

The RWD 60 degree V6 starter pocket and the truck FS5R30A starter pockets almost exactly line up. However I am using the FWD 60 degree V6 starter location, which is on the other side of the engine.

Sure go for it. I prefer the FS5R30A over the T5 any day, actually I prefer the 71B over the T5 as well, and had originally wanted to use that trans since it was already in my car, but the flywheel I needed for depth reasons ended up not fitting inside the 71B's bellhousing, so I had to move up my plans for the 5R30A install, at the time.

You can get away with the use of an adpter plate, that's how my engine and trans are currently mated, but I would spend more time getting it right than I did, and add some dowel pins to the adapter plate. I'm just using the bolts to locate the trans. I was never entirely happy with how the adpater plate I made turned out and had wanted to build a new bellhousing from the start, but I just couldn't figure out a nice way to get everything mated and lined up. My original idea is very different from what I'm doing here and will re-visit that idea after I'm done this one and get it in the car.

[Xnke]

Looks good. Did the RWD starter pocket and the 5R30A starter pocket actually line up that nicely or did you do some trimming for a filler plate later?

I have a 5R30A front case for an RB25 sitting here, it's slightly smaller in diameter than the VG30 case, so it may be easier to make fit with the 700R4 case that is in my shop floor. What do you think?

Some pictures of the clutches

First up is an indication that something isn't centered properly. The wear mark of the clutch disc shows that it's weariing a pattern wider than the actual disc diameter. It's about 1/8" larger in diameter than the clutch disc itself.



The ACT clutch


6 puck goodness


Yellow, because yellow makes it go faster

Introducing the very first 660 FS5R30A bellhousing


I added some filler dowel on the inside to help strengthen the weld between the two parts.


I then added a gusset to the top to help strengthen the top of the bellhousing


I had to create a new starter pocket





Looking into the bellhousing, the outer flange and the inner flange have never been seen together like this before.



I have a bit more done on this, just no pictures. I had to cut a slice along the new flange because it pulled when I added a couple gussets along the side, but with the alignment pin and the block I was able to get it real close to being in the exact right spot.

Just some verification test fitting to do before I reassemble the trans, but it should all be good to go.

Clutching the gears

Well, my clutch is slipping and has been a while now, basically since a couple days after going to the track last, which was July I think, and it's getting worse. I decided on an ACT 6 puck clutch to replace the aging and ailing Centerforce.

The CF was a 225mm clutch was was a common Nissan diameter that was used for many years, and was the size of clutch for the 240Z, non 2+2 260Z and 280Z and non turbo 280ZXs. It was even used on some FWD cars up into the 90s. Nissan liked to keep things that worked for a long time. Well there was a larger clutch at 240mm that was used on 2+2 260Z, turbo 280ZX and most vehicles in the mid '80's+. I decided that since I wanted to make some rude power with the LX9, that I would go to the 240mm clutch, even though it meant outsourcing the flywheel modification to get it right. The 225mm clutch pressure was ALMOST the same exact size and the GM RWD 660 used.

Anyway. I didn't want to just throw the ACT in, for fear of possibly damaging it, since I believe my adapter plate isn't exactly centered. I believe this because my pilot bushing wears larger by about 4mm very quickly. There's also the possibility that this is entire due to the clutch pressure plate not being perfectly centered on the flywheel as well, but I didn't want to take any chances and decided that I would go with my original idea way back when and build a custom bellhousing. Well, what I've done so far is modified the bellhousing using a bellhousing from the Nissan FS5R30A and a bellhousing from a T5. I cut them apart and welded them together to create the only FS5R30A that will bolt directly to a Gm 60 degreeV6.

First I drained the transmission:


Heres the SUPER clean internals, there was no cleaning on my part before taking this picture.


But I needed a way to align everything to get this idea to work

So I had this very large and heavy pin made:


Which one end fits into the input bearing hole of the transmission bellhousing.


The long bit fits into the main bearing journals of a block


I cut the flanges off the transmissions


Both flanges side by side


The start of setup:


Slipped together and aligned


Initially welded


Some filler pieces

I'm gonna add some pictures...

First just a few from a road trip I took this summer, this was at my destination picking up a part. It was a beautiful farm, so I had to get a few pictures.

Encore Encore!

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Soon enough. The new trans is almost complete, hoping by the end of the week.

[Purple pit]

LOL thought it was me. Just read the line on the "what's new" and went "oh crap I didn't fully read something again!". Ah, most us with 60's have been reading about or have 4T60's for years so it's a mental default. Or you are just getting old.

The good thing is the 4L80E doesn't suffer from the same short first gear problems that the 4L60E does. There are different ratio sets available, but what he has works well, and changing them doesn't appear that it would help him any.

--==EDIT==--

I just corrected my previous post, I see that for some reason I posed it was a 60E, not an 80E... It is indeed backed by an 80E.