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The engine bay has always been crowded, but now it's getting crowded underneath the car also! There is very little that has not been modified or touched on the NX.
Not only does it look unmolested when bolted in place, there is no inherent weakness that would have been caused by slotting the bolt holes or grinding away a significant part of the bracket.The tranny now in place, connected to the Bully Stage 4 clutch and Aasco flywheel. Bolts were torqued into place. Tightening up the dogmount brace to the rad support, I stripped one of the two bolts. Headed back to my house to go through my stockpile of parts and I found just the bolt we needed (Dave had a lot of parts too, but mainly for Hondas). Fortunately, while the bolt was stripped the threaded/welded in place nut was still just fine.
When we pulled the front axles out to replace the transmission, the front wheel bearings literally fell apart and landed on the floor. That meant bearing replacement at the front as well as the back. No press? A bit of effort with an air chisel and we had it off and the new on one. Both sides. Now I will back track a bit, when we initially checked all of the wheel bearings we decided only the rear ones required changing. When we started working on removing the axles, the driver’s side wheel bearing literally fell out into our hands. Thus Dave showed me how to change front wheel bearings on the car, without a press, and in record time.
Front bearing out and waiting for the new bearing. Great shot of the shiny new torque member that I got with my Wilwood big brake kit from Fast Brakes. You can also see the custom lower control arm – which next to the Nismo LSD is one of the most necessary modifications for our vehicles.With the axles in place I sat in the driver’s seat and started to run through the gears. Every one worked – except second. It simply would not go into second gear. Back under the car and saw that the range of motion, which cleared perfectly ‘before’ we had tightened everything up, was now snug against that already customized brace for the shift stabilizer bar. A few hits with an air chisel provided us with a great amount of clearance – and my car returned to being a five speed automobile. The drain plug was reinstalled and Amsoil Severe Gear 250 was installed. In previous transmissions Amsoil’s 75-140 was my choice. After a few email discussions with Mike Kojima, I settled on the heavier weight to provide as much protection to the gears as I could possibly provide. While working with fluids, I also changed the engine oil and upgraded from Amsoil Dominator 15W-50 Racing Oil. For brake fluid Castrol SRF is installed for the first time – this fluid has a wet boiling point of 270 degrees C. That is higher than some fluids dry boiling point and well above most other fluids’ wet boiling point. Coupled with the Wilwood 11.75” two piece rotors and caliper set and Carbotech XP20 brake pads, my stopping power is better than ever.
Wilwood Superlite 4 piston calipers, 11.75″ rotors, Carbotech XP20 brake pads, and Castrol SRF brake fluid. This should provide all of the stopping power that I require.
