wha...the transmission, nahh that's nothin...it's only those two bolts at the top that are a bitch...i think my method was short extension, swivel, short extension, swivel, longer extension, swivel, then one more extension...i pulled it by myself the first time (had a lift at home so i was kinda cheating) but i didn't have anything but a floorjack and a 4" x 4" to balance it on....pulling it back of course getting stuck on the splines and then said fuck this...lowered the lift so it was just even with my head, got under it and yanked it out holding it on one shoulder.
Mine had variable timing...strictly experimental and only on the '90 model. The two $2.10 springs on the front of the top camshafts took a shit on me...both the same week. $2.10 each and it took me like 8 hours to replace them and put it all together, grrrr.
Then the timing belt...my god...there is a reason why Z1 and the dealer charge just about the same amount to do an engine swap as it is to replace a timing belt...it took me 8 hours just to get to the point to where i could take off the timing belt...that's doesn't count putting the new one on and then putting it back together.
Lets not even talk about the time i pulled the engine and disassembled it to shave the head and do a little internal work....just as i got all the stuff back from the machine shop my parents sold the property AND THE SHOP...ok, that's sucked, they bought a new house and it didn't have a shop...NO SHOP! and my entire 300zx was in pieces in big wooden crates. GRRR. Luckily my dad immediately started building a new shop at the house but it was 3 or 4 months before it was finished because they were working on the house too...i moved away out and got my own place when they sold the property and lived an hour away so it was difficult to even go visit the car...it was just under a year before i could go pull everything out of the crates and lay it all out on 4' x 8' sheets of plywood on sawhorses and just stand there with my mouth open looking like wtf have i done...it took several weekends to get it together....then that that dreaded 8 hours once again peaks its ugly head up...it took 8 hours to rewire everything under the hood. my god..i like electrical work but doing that straight without even a piss will make you go nuts.
ok, i'm done venting....I mean, i love z32's to death...i still get chill bumps everytime i see a twin turbo z commercial...especially the flashback one showing the BRE datsuns and the nissan/datsun garage, etc. but even the barbie and GI Joe one does it too but screw working on them. That's why i respect Russell (Z1 motorsports) and his shop so much. Now if i worked on one every single day then i imagine it would be nothing...but everything about mine was completely differant than anything i'd ever done before....everything about it. ok, i'm really done now
