Hey guys. So my friend Daniel and I have been doing work to his 280zx Turbo for the past 6 months, and we finally decided that while the motor is great, there is just too much rust to combat with and too much body work/repair that will need to be done for the car to ever look good. He was searching on eBay and found a guy here locally with a 1971 240z Rolling Chassis (blown motor) for $900 so he bought it and we just finished pulling the motor and transmission so we could implant the 280zx motor into it and possibly the transmission as well (hoping it's not a BW, we can't tell atm).

So as we were pulling the motor, I noticed that the struts and the front crossmember are pretty rusted (could be surface, haven't checked), and I know personally that all the suspension and crossmember parts from the 280zx are in good condition. Since both are 3-lug struts, does anyone know if the crossmembers would bolt up? This car looks like it hasn't run in about 20 years, so everything has a nice amount of rust on it and I would prefer to use parts that I know work since i have both cars at my disposal.

Just wondering if anyone knows. We may try to do it anyway just incase, but just want to know before hand so we don't spend any more wasted time than what is needed.

Also, we end up using the 4-speed tranny until we find an N/A zx Tranny (if it turns out to be a BW) does anyone know if I would be able to put the clutch fork from the zx tranny into the 240z 4-speed so that I could use the good master and slave cylinders that we have from the 280zx...

Any help appreciated...

 

unless its a turbo or had a swap its not a borg warner. so you might as well swap it. as of swaping the suspension, ive hear dof it done, but dont know the process or what needs or doesnt need to be done.

 

it's an 82 Turbo as per my sig., but some sites say that the BW was an option and our is pretty basic so I am hoping for the best...

hoping the suspension will work because I don't want a strut to snap before i get a chance to replace them all...

 

i do believe it was standard 82-82 sorry for not reading the sig. lol. didnt really think of that one.

 

and of course i be the daniel he's talking of! good thinking asking about the suspension Lee, I was so concerned with just getting the engine swapped over i didnt even think to ask of the suspension

 

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=121287

that's all I need say.

 

The only thing you can swap is the drive train. There are some suspension parts and a cross member fs on ebay.

 

oh snap... thread closed, looks like you guys made some friends on hybridz lol

 

i probably have the most closed threads of anyone on that site! for some reason they keep getting closed, even if i dont say anything but what i first post

 

Might want to... ya know... learn from that. Almost every question that can be asked, HAS been asked already & can be found by a simple search. The mods on hybridz have little tolerance for people that can't search. It's not a site for baby feeding... it's a site for research. We're a lil more tolerable here.

That thread got closed because no matter what anyone said, xtreme kept asking "but why? but why? buy why?"

 

I know that's why they closed it. But why even have the forum if they say every question has been answered and the solution is always "search, it's been asked before" unless just to chat and post useless stuff, and then they also close those threads because they're meaningless... I'm just saying... I've also noticed that a lot of the times when you search on their site a lot of the threads you come up with say "search, it's been answered." It's like a big circle! I'm just sayin'... but this isn't a hybridz bashing thread here, i have learned a lot from their site after filtering through useless post.

But in xtreme's defense the only answers were "no, it's not interchangable" but we were wanting to know if it could be done with a small amount of modification since it wont swap and all we got as an answer was "it wont swap" and that does not answer the question!

I guess we're just going to have to see if we can mod it ourselves and see what happens since we can't get direct answers. But at least we're trying to research first!

I love you zdriver guys

 

You search, you get info, you ask an additonal question in the thread that was already started. The next person that comes along searching will find both questions and answers.

Even when you're asked to search you say "but why? but why? but why?"

I did a search on 5-lug swaps and found only S30 info so I posted a new thread specific to the 280ZX. They told me to search and I challenged them on that. My thread remains open.

 

Your right. A lot of the posts are old and the pictures no longeer appear. I came to Zdriver 4 years ago asking for help and advice. There were alot less people here then but they were very helpful and I believe everyone can bring something to add to it. Here is some of what I have done with info from here and crawling around the junk yards.
I took a front sway bar from a 85 zx and rebent it to fit my '70. I had to make some plates to reposition the mounts on the frame and ended up with a 25 mm bar for $5. I used the rear brakes from a 81 zx and made brackets for them as well, $60. I have a set of '82 cv axles and need to mod the flanges $60. I have a set of 5 lug axles from the 85 zx, have to regrind the od of the bearings to fit the s30 housings, $15. The master brake cyclinder from a '82 is larger and will fit, $25. Put on a set of S13 Toyota 4 piston calipers on front, made adaptors for the '84 vented rotors, $85. Put a close ratio 5 speed and 3.9 R200 from a '82 2+2, bolt in, $150. "82 turbo fuel pump, $20. I was looking at the front hubs on a '85zx 5 lug vented rotors, larger brakes. It looked good so I got the whole srut assembly. Well the strut tubes are set farther behind the axles so that would change the geometry to much. $85 failure. I still think the brakes and rotors with the 5 lug hubs might work with different seals cause the use the same bearing. The larger brakes have the same bolt pattern, will have to wait till I can get to it. -- more-
The only way to avoid failure is to do nothing, but that's an even bigger failure.
Tom

 

^^^

now that's a good post...

 

I never said "why?" to the search function... In the time it takes someone to say "search for it" they could have simply told the answer and it would have saved time. I searched the site a ton before I posted, and the answers I got were simply "no," despite me asking if it could be done with modifications. I asked what the differences were and people just said "no" which because monotonous... just need answers, not rabbit trails to crawl through...

 

So when a bunch of "Z know it alls" tell you no... that's when you say... "ok... this stuff doesn't bolt right up, how about I take some measurements and see why and how far off they are." I've found that junk yards are the perfect place to measure things & try to swap parts. I have to agree with what they are saying... it's pretty hard to tell you WHY each possible part won't fit... it's not really their problem to go find parts for you, find out how different they are, and come back to tell you... that is your job.

 

You can try to see if the zx hubs will work, I'm sure the inner seal diameter is different. If the hub goes on and the offset will allow the rotors and brake calipers to bolt up, you can take the dimensions of the seal you need to an autoparts store and they can get you one that will fit right. I have'nt got that far yet. Another option is to have the s30 hub hole pattern redrilled in a mill. Same bolt circle. I posted the x-y dimensions before in answer to someones question. If anyone needs it I can get it for you.

 

well even a "i dont know" would have been better. But again I say let's get back on topic since this wasnt meant as a hybridz bashing thread