AggieBlake's '05 ZHP school bus + track car - Maintenance and Mod Log

[johnrando]

Nice werk.

[ZHPizza]

Wait, so the foot works? There was a large gap there.

[AggieBlake]

For those who are interested, here's why I haven't posted lately on the ZHP... I've been working hard on the track whip. It's an '01 Miata LS (LSD and sport brakes). Hard dog roll bar, race seats and harnesses, XIDA fully adjustable coilovers, FM adjustable sways and 949 end links, Hawk brake pads and SS lines, RB intake and muffler, FM mid pipe, CSF fully ducted radiator, MSPNP engine control (about to be installed) with Innovate wideband, riding on 949 6UL's and RE71r's. I'm preparing it for forced induction later this spring or early summer, and aiming to break below 2 minutes at Texas World Speedway. She's fast, light, and fun. And as she's not my daily, I'm much more comfortable pushing her hard than the ZHP. The ZHP is just a little too precious to me :-)

[AggieBlake]

Wait, so the foot works? There was a large gap there.

Ha! Yes. Surgery went well and 6 weeks of physical therapy got me back on my feet (pun intended). I'm heal-toeing with the best of them again.

[johnrando]

Su-wheet!

[slater]

welcome back man!! good to see the blessings coming down on ya. (the praises must have been going UP! )

[AggieBlake]

welcome back man!! good to see the blessings coming down on ya. (the praises must have been going UP! )

Yes, I am very blessed and grateful for it. At the same time, this is proof of the advantage of buying older cars and doing the maintenance yourself. I sold a nearly new Accord and used the money to buy both the ZHP and Miata. I can't believe I ever bothered with a new Accord :-) What a waste.

[derbo]

Nice man! Good to see you are doing well.

[BMWCurves]

Any updates?

[AggieBlake]

Finally time to update. Honestly, there's been very little to do on the ZHP. It just runs and runs! I've changed the oil a couple times, and done an Inspection II on my own. But it's had very few needs. So finally, out of boredom and desire to wrench, I decided to rebuild the shifter linkage and replace the drive guibo since both showed signs of slop.

Replace the Shifter Linkages
The shifter was getting a bit lose for my taste. I considered upgrading to a short shifter, but I've really never felt like the stock unit was too long. Note, I do have the BMW performance knob, which I love. It makes everything feel a bit smaller. So I ordered all the rebuild parts from Turner and got to work. The hardest part of this job by far is that you have to remove a ton of stuff to get easy access to the linkages: exhaust, exhaust shields, driveshaft. It took longer than I expected because I ran in to some stuck fasteners that required extra PB Blaster soaking time. With everything off, it was just a matter of replacing bushings. Here's the old vs. the new on the bench.

I was able to leave the shifter in place and simply pop the ball out. That made interior disassembly unnecessary. The hardest bushing to replace was this piece. You have to press it onto the transmission shift selector hard enough to insert a pin while compressing the foam inside it. Not easy.

With it all done and tested, I can definitely say it was worth it! I love a tight shifter! The difference is noticeable, and that's even without any of the stock bushings being broken or overly worn. They were in decent shape for 112k miles. But tolerances can't help grow over time. In total these parts cost me around $50 and were definitely worth it!

Replace driveshaft guibo
Since I was already dropping the driveshaft to replace the shifter linkages, it made sense to replace this guibo. The car has suffered from a slight "knock" in the driveline when shifting gears ever since I bought it at 97k miles. I had already changed out engine, transmission, and diff bushings, so it made sense to try this. Surprisingly, though, when I removed the old guibo, it appeared in good condition. There were no visible cracks or deformation. I went ahead and installed the new guibo, assuming the knock would still be there since the old one wasn't in bad shape. But I was wrong! Once back out on the road, the difference was immediately noticeable. The knock was gone and power delivery was much smoother. I went back and looked closer at the old guibo. Sure enough, when you try hard to twist it, numerous very small cracks show up in the rubber. They're not failure-level cracks. But obviously they make a difference in performance. So the lesson is: even if that rubber bushing looks good, it's worth replacing after 100k miles! Rubber is rubber. No matter how good it looks, it still gets brittle with age and heat cycles.