J30t TT swap, drive shaft

[95-J30tt]

is the drive shaft linkage the same for both the J30 transmission and the 300zxtt manual transmission. pictures, part numbers, help is much appreciated

[elwesso]

with a little bit of luck youd be able to swap the front half o the MT driveshaft to the sencond half of the J30 driveshaft. I have no way of confirming this will work because the parts book doesnt list them seperately.

[infinitidreams20]

You should get a custom one peicedrive shaft made you can get them done for really cheep now like elwesso said just have the MT put on the front and the J30 on the back

Z1 motorsports sells lite weight ones all they ask for is for your ends of the drive shaft so they can weld them on. Granted this is a 300zx site but you should tell them what your up to. with some messurments and money they might hook you up.

[elwesso]

the only problem is that the Z is probably gonna be shorter... Youre gonna have to get a custom one made anyway....

[infinitidreams20]

Man i hope you give us a good write up on this job im looking forward to hearing, seeing, drooling and staring at it. When its done lol

[elwesso]

Man i hope you give us a good write up on this job im looking forward to hearing, seeing, drooling and staring at it. When its done lol

[infinitidreams20]

the only problem is that the Z is probably gonna be shorter... Youre gonna have to get a custom one made anyway....

the 2+2 maybe but yea your probably right was useing it more as a "oh i see what you mean" thing

[infinitidreams20]

please ignore the 2+2 comment i just slapped my self over that lol

[95-J30tt]

i have decided to go with the auto transmission swap, it is much easier, and i wont have to invest an arm and a leg on it, and surprizingly, the auto is faster than the manual in the 1/4 mile runs i confirmed with the wearhouse that i got the items from (osaka jdm motors) that the drive shaft will bolt in without problems on the automatic, but will need a different one for the manual. i also got the BOV (yes one, huge one), and a center mounter intercooler from them.... i'm very excited about the swap, the engine and all other parts are sitting there waiting for me, but i really wont be able to work on it before the first weekend of november. for now, i'm dedicating next weekend for the timing belt job, cleaning, and locating places for piping, BOV, and intercooler setup...i have contacted mazen (car domain pictures of the j30tt manual), and he has been great in helping me decide on what i should get, he says that he regrets putting a manual in there, and after understanding why, i totally agree with him.i'll keep you updated on the progress, i'll post more pics of the swap items once i load them on the PC....

[elwesso]

why do you have qualms with the manual trans? JW

[95-J30tt]

this is a conversation with mazen a couple of days ago,

did you have to weld the clutch master cylinder and slave into place, how did you approach this problem, and what did you do with relocating the break peddal to accomidate space for the clutch peddal? The manual transmission conversion was the most difficult, I would not do it again given the opportunity. The E-Brake pedal was removed for good, I had a custom hand brake installed in the passenger footwell against the transmission tunnel. The Clutch Master Cylinder was mounted in place of the cruise control that originally is mounted to the fire wall under the hood on the driver's side. Custom drilling of holes to mount them and cutting of the firewall was required

that is alot of money to invest for a manual, which i'm very surprized about it being slower than the automatic tt....

here is some other comments i got from him:

You should try to sell your 5 Speed Manual transmission, and stick with the Auto that is in the car now. It will bolt directly to the VG30DETT, and you will gain mid-range and top end performance by have a Automatic Turbo rather than a 5 Speed. If had to do it all over again I would never do the manual swap, it lead to so much grief later. The linkage would break, the re-locating and fabrication of the hand-brake was such a costly nightmare. Take my advise and stick with the stock transmission, turbo motors are more effiecent with an Automatic transmission this is a proven fact. A 300ZX Twin Turbo with an Automatic is actually faster than the 5 Speed through the quarter mile.

after reading all of this, i wasnt as interested in investing the money on the manual transmission, so i just went with the auto instead (RE4R03A)

By the way, i confirmed with osaka motors, that the drive shaft will work with the TT transmission

[greenwar]

Oh dang, I was really looking forward to seeing a 5 speed J30. But a TT motor would be awesome anyway.

[elwesso]

that also doesnt mean the car wouldnt be fun to drive...

a J30 or 300ZX was enver intended to be a 1/4 mile car....

[95-J30tt]

i totally agree with you elwesso, and i really wanted the manual transmission too, but it would involve a lot of costy custom work, and if it stops at that i would have gone for it, but the maintanance issues is really what got to me, the J is very relaible, and i'm trying to minimize any future side issues that may rize due to the swap......(Project Q-ship) is what i called it , and i'm going to try to make it look as stock as possible.....

[elwesso]

I think the manual is a good thing to think about, but you dont want to keep the car down forever and then have to go back and fix things.... Seems like a nightmare, and i bet if the guy had done it seperately he would have recommended the 5 speed...

Keeping your car running for as long as possible is gonna be the key to keep moving foreward... If your car is always down and the end of the tunnel is not always in sight, youre gonna lose motivation...

For the record, youre doing it how i would.... Get the twin turbo working right in the car, and then once everything is squared away you can make yourself a shift it yourself J30tt.... I prefer making 2-3-4 small projects than one major project with a bunch of problems along the way...

Go out there and bang that stock trans to death and then put your manual in there, and lay down the big power...

[DominickJ30]

Manual conversion with cars that NEVER came with manual are a real pain in the ***.

Good thought on staying with the Automatic.