Brent94Z

Yep, that's actually how mine was done... the one half was installed first so the rotor could be spun to the correct alignment. When it was aligned correctly and just slid on there then the other half was installed.

I do believe it is installed correctly. I think all that is left now is to rule out the new opti being bad and also bypass the Delteq. Not sure what else to do.

Brent94Z

It actually isn't that "hard" Heck, I could have done this myself! hahaha I just have my mechanic bud help/do this for me because he is so damn quick that it aggravates me knowing it'll take me probably half a day and I'll get frustrated when I know he'll help me (or actually just do it for me) and it takes him only around 1.5 hours and he's goofing off during it. LOL!

turbo_Z

Brent I am pretty sure you dont need the rotor at all with the Delteq system. And it sounds like a busted rotor is why you are here in the first place. Id rip that opti apart again and remove the rotor before it grenades on you... again.

Brent94Z

When I was asking my bud about this I told him that several people replied to my post saying they put theirs on wrong and he was a bit confused about this because he said it can only go on one way. This must be a poor design to make it so "easy" to screw up! I believe him when he says he is certain he got it right but it actually sounds like he "might" have been able to get it off and have it feel like it just slipped on... considering so many people have evidently messed this up. I can't see so many people FORCING this on there so it must actually align at least "pretty good" when it isn't aligned properly

I think I'll install another set of wires on the opti to rule out the Delteq but if that doesn't work, it sounds like I might get "lucky" in that it COULD be misaligned and not necessarily a bad opti (which I probably can't return!).

Thanks!

Brent94Z

Yeah, on my first opti you could take the splined shaft of the opti and move it side to side... it was moving around side to side INSIDE the opti! YIKES!

I have heard of somebody breaking the "ears" off the rotor when using the Delteq but not sure about leaving it out completley. I'm not that familiar with this but I think at least the middle portion of the rotor has to be installed to keep things "together" so to speak, right?

turbo_Z

Not that I could tell. I have an old opti that stopped working on me b/c the metal contact on the rotor fell off!.. didnt do much damage internally which was unfortunate really since I had to buy a whole new opti I was kinda hoping the thing looked like a nade went off inside of it. But anyway as far as I could tell the top half of the opti doesnt need the rotor for stability at all. It sounds like your old opti had the bearing fail!

urbaNHunter44

The design is a poor one. It's so easy to mess up. I thought I had it right 3 times before I finally got it. Looking at the opti, theoretically it only goes on 1 way. But in practice, it can go on any which way it feels like LOL

If he pulls off the opti most likely he'll tell right away if it was misaligned - after misaligning mine the first time the spline in the back was torn up something fierce. I returned it saying it came like that LOL After the next one got misaligned twice it didn't look so hot but managed to work just fine after i reindexed it properly. It's so easy to misalign, I was actually quite amazed LOL

IIRC, HBHRacing over on fbody.com had a very similar problem to yours. I don't remember what his eventual solution was but I'm sure if you search fbody.com you'll find it.

Injuneer

Brent.... you know I've been through more than a few of these in the 8 years that I've been answering questions here. I can think of at least a dozen cases where people swore up and down they did it exactly right, and when they finally relented and checked it, it was wrong. I can tell you it happens, because I've seen it happen (not to me) too many times.

Brent94Z

Yep, I definitely agree after reading this thread. When I talked to him he was pretty "firm" in his belief that he installed it correctly. However, like I mentioned, this was the first 94 he'd done. Also, after seeing how many people have screwed this up I have to believe it is EASY to mess up. With him going into it with the thought/attitude that it "can only go on one way" he might not have paid as much attention to it as he would have knowing how easy it is to screw up. I kinda hope it is screwed up because a) I'll know what's wrong and b) he's such a damn good mechanic that it'll be nice to have something to harass him about for the next 5 years or so.

Thanks very much for the help and suggestions!

rcmtby11

"Shouldn't have done that because car idled erratically and would detonate something fierce under load above 3k rpm."

sounds exactly like my car when the local LT1 "expert" coughbullsh*tcough replaced the cap and rotor on my opti. it ran like **** backfired a lot, detonated under load, couldnt decide where to idle at. basically all that stuff you said. after replacing practically every sensor and module on the car i decided to try a new opti and the sumbich put it in one spline off and the shaft would pop in anywhere. i think you should remove the opti and check your splined shaft to see it the big tooth has been notched from incorrect installation. my .02...........

Brent94Z

During that time though my car ran... doesn't even run now. Would be the icing on the cake if I took that opti off (destroyed it in the process because had to "rob" the spacer ring from it for the new one) and put on the new one and the only thing wrong was it was off by a tooth! But, it did have rust on the opti wheel and rust stuff was in a couple of the wheel slots so I'm thinking THAT was probably what was wrong... or at least that's what I'm going to believe so I don't get more frustrated.

Brent94Z

Hey Guys!

Buddy came over the other day and put another set of wires on the car bypassing the Delteq. Guess what... no start and backfiring.

Finally had a chance today to work on it and my mechanic bud was coming around to the idea that it could be installed wrong based on how it was backfiring and what I was saying. Well, took the entire damn thing off again and guess what... it was 180 off! WOOHOO!!! He just assumed that because it had a blind flange that if it went on it went on correctly. Well, we/he will not make that mistake again We did find out though that in my original opti the drive shaft was DIFFERENT than in the one that was in the car. The original opti drive shaft had a well defined blind spline. It was FLAT no doubt. The one we pulled out of the car could be installed SEVERAL different ways and it was actually DIFFICULT to find the blind spline in that you could still see the spline on top of the raised part. Meaning, the raised part (making up the "blind spline") did NOT come up far enough which meant it would fit just about any damn way it pleased! We tested both pieces and found the OLD one would only go in one way but the newer one with the not so well defined blind spline would go on many different ways. ARRRRGHHH!!!!! Damn crappy engineering!!!!!

At any rate, my mechanic bud pulled all the original wires back off, re-installed the Delteq wires, and changed out the opti in a little over an hour. He came over at 5:30pm and and we had the coolant back in at 7:00pm but we spent quite a bit of time checking out his new limited edition GSXR 1300. He apologized for messing it up the first time but didn't think it "could" be messed up so didn't pay that much attention to it. Anyways, car is running GREAT now that the opti is aligned correctly

Just posting this for people who use the SEARCH button and might stumble across this. Also, many thanks to all those who said it was probably installed wrong because you were correct

Thanks!!!

kingman109

damn thats impressive times to do that- mechanics make great friends

congrats on getting her solved

Brent94Z

Thanks! And, yeah, he's pretty good and definitely puts me to shame. He lined up 2 Z28s one day... mine and a friend's, and took the MAC headers and Borla exhaust off mine, took off the stock manifolds and exhaust off the other car, put my MACs and Borla on the other car and then installed Hooker long tubes and a Mufflex on mine and also fabbed up with 1/8" aluminum the EGR block offs and all that stuff. Did that all in a day Yeah, I could change out the opti myself but it depresses me to know that I'll probably spend the better part of the day doing it when I know he could do it way faster so I just ask him if he'll give me a hand (actually, if he'll just do it. ) I help him with stuff he can't do as well as me and he helps me with stuff I can't do as well as him so it all works out