300zx's ELX work log

[FE3-323]

PM replied! & in that matter. go for it rock out the kia fe3!

[KAinjection]

Did lots of work today and still have not finished.

Installed the JP rear crossmember/JP TTL/MX3 TTL/Miata sport brake combo in the car today.

Re-greased the trailing arms bushings, had to bend/reroute to steel brake lines that go on the crossmember due to size differences between the OE and JP one. Installed brand new parking brake cables, rebuilt the front calipers and installed with new pads, Installed the jam nuts that got missed before on the JP tubular front arms.

Cant install my rear sway bar yet though since the mounts are too close together by 1/2". A minor oversight on Jims part, perhaps the phone rang while he was working on mine
Either way I have a plan, and that is to grind the weld on the round piece of the bar to move it and allow me to move the mount to accommodate and reweld. Its a Progress 22mm bar if anyone was wondering on that one.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get the brakes bled and the alignment done, then test drive it.


Funny thing now with it installed is you cant see the rear suspension at all. Everything is level with the bottom of the fuel tank so its all hid by the spare tire well, and the TTL's now finally have a level to slightly down angle to them.

[Mazda_Powered]

looking forward to seeing pics and hearing about your first test drive!!!

[FE3-323]

anxious for pictures!!!

i've wanted one of these rear subframes for some time now

[KAinjection]

I still dont have any camera batteries so no pictures yet. I also have not had any chance to push the car hard yet, but I can tell you the rear feels flatter in the corners and the brakes feel strong as well. The rear sits lower now, and will have to be raised back up a little, MX3 control arms push the tire right to the edge of the fender in the rear so my hope of using a 215 tire is gone unless I get a different offset rim. I cant get the camber any more then -1.7-8 in the rear. I am at maximum adjustment unless I buy some camber plates.

I ended up just cutting off the the swaybar tabs seeing as the OE ones dont even have them and it mounted up perfect.

[crazycanadian]

Oh man.. I wish SMF class would allow me to change suspension pick up points.. I really like the look of Jims rear cross member.. I can't wait to see pics...

[KAinjection]

Here are the pictures of the suspension/brake setup from beginning to installed, sorry it took so long to get them, but I have been too busy to even get batteries.

Driving impression is that the car feels much flatter during cornering in the rear, and I can tell there is more grip mainly because even though it has more brake bias in the rear from the Miata brakes, I still have to try to break the rear tires loose in a corner, but this was at 50mph on a 1/2 cloverleaf with a recommended speed of 20mph, and honestly the car could go faster, but I didnt feel the need to try. I had to give the brakes a pretty good jab to make it happen with out any extra steering input. I do feel that extra caution should be used on a slick surface with this setup, and it would be super easy to rotate the car in gravel/dirt.

The droplinks are a little long, and if I had to do it over would have ordered shorter turn buckles. The spacing and angle on them is kinda off since this swaybar was intended for an escort and it seems the MX3 mount is in a different area likely due to the length difference in the TTL. I have to do some more adjusting on the droplink spacing since they are making noise from touching the TTL over bumps. Fenders need to be rolled a little more in the rear as they will touch the tires on hard corners. After everything has settled it seems the rear sits lower then before and the TTL now has a slight up angle to it. I am guessing due to the well lubed poly bushings/rod-end TTL's and wider rear track. Car will have to be raised back up a little to return it it s previous height and make the arms level again.

Detailed Miata brake pictures can be found here:

http://www.wihandyman.com/forum/showthread.php?35400-rear-big-brake-kit&p=751842&viewfull=1#post751842

[FE3-323]

shorter end links & move the bar point to the rear most hole..... that'll make the back end pretty snappy

[Mazda_Powered]

that's sexy lol

[MazdaNoob]

HAHAHA @ homemade lathe lol thats awesome

[KAinjection]

shorter end links & move the bar point to the rear most hole..... that'll make the back end pretty snappy

Yeah it hangs down kinda low with those and that is as short as they will go.

HAHAHA @ homemade lathe lol thats awesome

lol I was wondering if anyone would say something......
It worked pretty good actually for cutting those, not a precision method, it involved a lot of cut a little/check fitment but in the end all the bushings came out great and I didnt have to pay someone to do it. I looked up on the internet what it took to cut polyurethane and I found 2 things: high speed and a sharp cutting tool, so I gave it a shot and it worked.

that's sexy lol

Thanks, too bad you can only see the sway bar unless you get under the car.

[crazycanadian]

Looks really good, but I am curious why you are only running the rear arm from jim?? why are you running a stock arm up front?? I had no problems making up a link to run the same style of rear sway bar as you, and run jims control arms...

[KAinjection]

Looks really good, but I am curious why you are only running the rear arm from jim?? why are you running a stock arm up front?? I had no problems making up a link to run the same style of rear sway bar as you, and run jims control arms...

Simplicity. This way its hassle free to get the same track width on both sides instead of having one on each side to mess with when setting it up. Eliminated the need for me to machine any more bushings since it was surprisingly time consuming to cut the ones for the front arms, and I did not bother to ask Jim about sway bar mount options, just figured I would make new endlinks from some stuff I already had lying around and a couple extra items I needed to purchase.

[Mazda_Powered]

That was my thoughts on it too, simplicity lol. Worse case you can have a front set built up so you're not rushed with figuring out how to secure the sway bar ends.

[crazycanadian]

Simplicity. This way its hassle free to get the same track width on both sides instead of having one on each side to mess with when setting it up. Eliminated the need for me to machine any more bushings since it was surprisingly time consuming to cut the ones for the front arms, and I did not bother to ask Jim about sway bar mount options, just figured I would make new endlinks from some stuff I already had lying around and a couple extra items I needed to purchase.

Thats to bad... Jim had no problems adding the sway bar tabs for both my self and Rob.. They worked out really well for both of us... Using a rear sway bar like the one you have or the mx3 design made the end links really easy to fab up... You should look into it for the future..