New World Datsuns...

Brakes work, driveshaft is in, diff is filled. E brake mechanism needs to be figured out, but that can be later. Need to make a driveshaft hoop still, but it's basically ready to go! I was going to test drive it tomorrow, but I think for safety's sake I'm going to wait until next weekend so I can go through it and test it at low speeds around the neighborhood first.

To the garage! And some inspiration:

Going to get this drive shaft hoop on next. I'm actually going to check for the torque specs on the control arms. They have lock nuts and I'm almost thinking they probably need to be torqued at rest so basically loosen them all get suspension set then torque them but I'll double check all that after I get the drive shaft hoop done.

As usual the aftermarket assumes you have a big Nova or something with lots of room near the drive shaft. :-) So I'm having to cut this down and I can't use bolts because otherwise it won't fit inside the drive shaft tunnel.

Missing my garage kitty today. RIP Stormy! Weasel is filling in. I think he's realizing there's no more kitty.



Anyway, as usual I took a $27 part and completely changed it and overdid it. You could put a bomb in that hoop and it wouldn't blow apart! I kept trying to make it work so I didn't have to take the drive shaft out and finally I stopped being a wuss and just undid the four bolts, it's not like it's that hard LOL. You know how when you get in your mind you don't want to do something and then you realize after you fiddled around with it that it's just easier? So as soon as the paint dries what should be fairly quick because I painted it right after welding which probably isn't recommended but oh well, it'll go in the car the drive shaft will go in I'll have lunch and then start getting her off the jack stands!

Yep, tighten with wheels on ground. Glad I double checked.

Wheels torqued, suspension torqued. drive shaft hoop is very tight on clearance on the top stuff but probably still have a quarter inch before it'll hit so I should be good.
Rear diff doesn't hit subframe or floor pan. not that I probably needed to but I did engineer that extra quarter inch lower axle position when putting the new mounts on. Cleaning area around car. Almost there.

On the ground and running!

As promised! Would have been better with a line lock, but oh well.

So I took the car to work today. There is definitely more vibration, particularly in third and fourth gear while accelerating. The car handles fine. I did adjust the upper arms to get the axle flange parallel to the transmission output. The driveshaft has about 2-3 degrees, should be adequate.

I think the extra vibration is from the heim joint on the upper arms. I think there was a reason the original arms were rubber and very large. I think what I'm going to try and do is make a completely new adjustable upper arm that will use a poly bushing on both ends.

As it was, I allegedly still buried the speedo at 125 even though the wind was stupid bad tonight. I'll get it sorted. I think the speedo is off a bit too. Going to have to fiddle with available speedo gears. It reads a bit high now. Not sure how high, think it's only 5 or 10 mph off. Although, it should only be 5% off. Though I'm wondering if it's non-linear with the speedo gear being incorrect.....hmmm. Higher maths required. Maybe it isn't that far off, but it certainly seems high, especially on the street. I can't remember what Flatcat said I was doing at 105 when we went for the drive. My thinking was the resulting correction in gear ratio was going to make the speedo perfect.

Also found the nuts on those upper arms were loose. And they were tight. I put blue loctite on them tonight and reefed them down. I want to make a tie rod adjusting sleeve so you don't have to take the arms loose to adjust length, but we'll see how much effort I decide to put into them.

Describe the vibration

Does it change if you bolt this back on?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/233666317323

Oh snap! I love you Driven!! I'm going to find out! Also, according to the gear ratios, my speedo isn't that inaccurate. Max theoretical speed at 7000 rpm in 5th gear is 162. I'm going to be happy if I have enough power to reach 140. I hit 120 this morning.

Confirmed, speedo is only off by 5 mph. The car is quicker than I thought. And I just reach 60 mph at 7k in 2nd gear. Oh baby it's fun! I fixed the vibration. Turned up the cassette. I asked the wife what the first cassette she bought was and she called me old and told me they had CDs then!

So help me I still love Weird Al! My first cassette was Polka Party.

https://spicerparts.com/calculators/tra ... calculator

This is the calculator I'm using. Tire size is 24.21, gear ratio is 4.10

Following R32 gear ratios:

1st 3.321
2nd 1.902
3rd 1.308
4th 1
5th .759

That means at 7000 rpm in 4th, I'm at 123 mph actual speed. To hit 140 (my target goal and 10 mph more than the speed rating of my current tires) I need to hit about 6100 rpm in 5th gear. Oh it'll happen. And now, some more Weird Al. I'm in a funky mood tonight.

Took a beauty shot yesterday. I need a better camera phone.

My BMW wagon with its gear setup hits 65mph in 2nd at 6500rpm. Before the 3.0 swap it was rated at a 6.7 0-60, the 3.0s 6.2. I wouldnt be surprised If its doing a flat 6.0 now with its gear ratio and motor.

Fastest I went was a tad over 130, and that was when it had a 2.5 in it.

I don't think mine is quite 6 seconds, but probably 6-7 somewhere in there. Haven't timed it. All I know is it gets up and goes, so I'm happy. I ran it on the lift tonight. Bearings sound good in the diff. Everything seems good, but there is definitely vibration. I'm almost thinking the solid trans mount may be an issue with the new diff. It had more vibration when I put that in with the old axle, but it wasn't terrible. Perhaps it's still the heim joints on the uppers or a combination of that, and it's a completely different axle. I'll dig into it, but for right now I'm just happy the car runs.

I got my big donut vibration dampner for the diff yesterday. I'm not sure if it's going to fit in the stock location, but I'll check sometime here. If that solves a good portion of the vibration I'll be pretty happy.