Garage Babes

Here are some pics of my girls helping out in the garage...

New CV for Me

One of the issues I noticed after getting our Pulsar on the lift for the first time was that the passenger side CV axle needed to be replaced.  The boots were split wide open and there was CV grease coating much of the underbody.

Since I had no idea how long the axle had been open to the elements I decided to replace the axle.  I could not find a remanufactured unit, but I did happen to find a brand-new unit on Autozone.com for the same price as a remanufactured!  The new axle arrived just a few days after ordering.

Replacing the axle was surprisingly easier than I had anticipated.  After separating the steering knuckle from the strut and removing the axle nut with an impact wrench, I was able to work the spline shaft out of the hub assembly.  

I drained the transmission fluid first, then it was simply a matter of removing the carrier bearing bolts (see in the top photo above) and pulling the axle out from the transmission.  

I cleaned and greased the output shaft seal.  I had a new seal, but due to the room with which I had to work I decided it would be safer to leave the existing seal in place since there were no signs of leakage.  It's easy enough to pull the axle if the seal begins to leak.  Installation was as simple as reverse of assembly, although I did borrow some extra hands to ensure I could focus on re-inserting the axle into the transmission without damaging the seal.

In order to tighten the axle nut, I reinstalled the wheel and lowered the car; this allowed me to apply the 150 ft-lbs of torque without worrying about the car moving or falling off the jack stands.  I was able to do this due to the opening in the center of the aftermarket wheels on the car.  I have yet to test drive the car since this work has been completed, although I don't currently anticipate any issues.

Fade into Black

The wheels that are on the Pulsar (not factory) are a nice bronze color, but they don't match the rest of the car.  Amy asked if the color could be changed, and my first thought is that they might look good in black.  Since paint is such a commitment and we're not really certain that black is the way to go, why not experiment with Plasti Dip?

After removing the wheels and cleaning them thoroughly, I stuck a series of old business cards between the tire and the rim; this would eliminate any work of peeling the coating off the tires.

I then applied 5 or 6 very light coats of black Plasti Dip, allowing about 30 minutes between coats.

The wheels turned out great!  I've only treated one pair of wheels since I know I have to get new tires and the coating will likely need touching up after the tire mounting process.  This did give us an idea of how the car will look with the new color on the wheels.

I don't yet know how well the Plasti Dip coating will hold up to the rigors of the road, but I've read that the original (as compared to Rustoleum or other brands) holds up much better.  Time will tell!

Nice Rack

The steering rack in the Pulsar had seen better days by the time we purchased the car.  The boots were split and the rack itself was leaking fluid from the input shaft.

I searched for a replacement, which was considerably more difficult given the fact that our Pulsar is an SE which used a different steering rack than the more common XE.  I finally located a rebuilt unit through RockAuto.com and had the last unit available shipped to the house.

I had done some reading and thought that I might be able to loosen the unit and slide it through the opening in the driver's side wheel well.  This may work for the XE unit, but I sure couldn't get the rack through this opening.  At this realization I began removing anything that seemed to be in the way of dropping the rack straight down, including the exhaust midpipe, front sway bar, transmission cable, and rear engine mount brackets.  At this point I was able to remove the rack mounts, move the rack as far as I could to the driver's side, then drop the passenger side down and remove the unit.  There was much finagling, pausing, pondering, adjusting, and bleeding during this phase.

The rebuilt unit was mostly identical to the factory unit, although I did notice that the body of the rebuilt unit was slightly smaller.  This forced me to wrap the inside of one of the rack mounting bushings with a piece of rubber to ensure the mount was tight.

Now that I had figured out how to remove the old unit, the new one went in without much issue.

After the new rack was mounted, replaced all rubber hose on the low pressure lines as I suspected they had been leaking.  I also installed an in-line filter between the rack and the power steering cooler to ensure that the new rack was protected from any contaminants that might have gotten into the system.  I mounted the filter just behind the radiator on the passenger side box frame.

 

With the front of the car still on jack stands, I started the car and turned the wheels from side to side a few times to bleed the air from the system.  Another one of the big tasks that I wanted to complete to make the car road worthy is now behind me!

Steering into New Struts

The front struts on the Pulsar have now been replaced.  The front was no more difficult than the rear and the job was just as straightforward.  I ended up using the original strut bearings instead of the units that were supplied with the mounting kits; the original units just felt sturdier than the plastic bearings found in the kit.

Hatching a small plan

It's been a while since the 280z has seen some attention.  The deteriorated hatch stoppers had been an unsightly annoyance ever since I had purchased the car.  

I finally picked up some replacements, which are apparently still available from Nissan.

You can see that the old stoppers had severely deteriorated when comparing them side-by-side.

I used some new stainless bolts to fasten the new stoppers to the hatch frame.  Now I can smile as that eyesore has been addressed.