CWhip

This car is posted on CL for 500 bucks

Yes he's kidding! You'll need a lot more parts than just the x member. It took me over a year to source the parts to do the swap.

Sorry, it's your car do what you want. Spend your money on whatever you want. Yes, I live in the PNW and that's what we do up here.

If you want fast, do a KA swap.

Sometimes the speedo cable isn't screwed in all the way and it will leak. 19mm wrench and snug it up.

The gauges aren't that hard to get working. The stock alt wiring can be used on the KA alt so that's super easy pretty much plug and play. The temp gauge, all you do is find the temp wire in the KA harness and connect it to the stock one. The speedo on the other hand is the PITA!! I did a search on here and got a few answers. This is one reason why the old classifieds were way better than the new system http://community.ratsun.net/topic/10901-280zx-speed-sensor/ So I set out looking for the speedo gear drive out of a zx or 720 pu with the correct offset. Came across this website so I ordered one from http://www.datsunstore.com/ Not 2 days later I found a 84 720 4x4 in a jy and pulled the unit out of it just to have both. Well the teeth on the drive gear for both the z and 720 are smaller than the KA unit, so they don't mesh inside the tranny and don't work. What I ended up doing was demolishing the stock KA electric unit to pull the gear drive out of it. Slotted a key way in it for the speedo cable and used the gear housing out of the 720. Works great! And I've checked my speed via gps and it's tits!

I put 15" Z rims on mine, lowered it a little and they still rub sometimes. Sorry, I'm on my phone and can't post pics.

Thanks :thumbup:

So what springs and inserts did you end up using? And did you use a bigger master? Got any pics of the upper part? I'm trying to do my research for this swap so any info is appreciated!

What am I supposed to be looking at?

UPDATE. I finally got a sway bar. Got it out of a 80 A10 with a NAPZ motor. It ended up being about 1" longer than the stock 210 one and cleared the KA pan. Man, what a difference! The body roll has been driving me crazy! When I would really dive into a sharp corner the fender lip would cut into my tires. I was doing research on coilovers with some heavy springs just because I had just about given up on a sway bar. All is good!

What was the quote? I've got a A15/5 speed, rad, hoses, weber... I just pulled to do my KA swap. Maybe we could work something out.

Rockauto still has them available. Under ignition, Distributor vacuum advance.

I've got one if Karnutz doesn't.

Is the linkage in Bananahamuck's pic what you need?

They're 195 50x15 and I was mistaken, not at full lock.

I wish we had those bumpers over here! Good lookin car! I'm running 15" Swazi's and my tires are 7" wide and come real close to the fenders at full lock.

You can still buy new brake parts from Rockauto.com. That's what I did.

^^^^^^Ted is a "special" kind of guy huh?! :thumbup:

Just shoot me a pm if you're interested and we can work it out. I haven't advertised it yet. Just hoping a fellow Ratsun could pick it up and put it to use. What kind of trans do you have?

Sucks about the door! If you were closer you could pick up the whole A15 I have sitting in my garage for cheap!

I looked all over at mounts like those. Solid mounts and what not. I was looking at bolt thru mounts like these http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Universal-Bolt-Through-Engine-Mount-Cushion-Kit,1199.html and was even considering getting some of this and making my own http://www.ebay.com/itm/URETHANE-POLYURETHANE-ROD-2-OD-X-20-LONG-80A-BLACK-/250823230305?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a663ac361 I figured if they could handle a V8, a little torquey 4 banger shouldn't be a problem.

The mounts are what I toiled over the most. At some point I'm sure they'll give but this is my DD and I'm not beating on it that hard (just occasionally). I tried to find some that were a little shorter to drop the motor down a little bit more but didn't find anything I really liked. I figured I'd give the 210's a shot because I haven't seen them used before and just wanted to know how well they'd hold up.

Good call! I just haven't done enough research on consoles.

No real camber issues but the steering is definitely heavier. I'm still on the hunt for a sway bar out of a 81-83 200sx and eventually will upgrade the brakes. Not to mention heavier springs. The KA brought the front end down a bit more. I probably won't get an alignment until those upgrades are complete. But it goes down the road pretty straight.