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Blog Mikes Z car

Glove Box latch fix and prevent door warp solution part 1 of 2

Glove box latch fix and door warp prevention (see part 2 of 2 of this blog post for bending the latch tang on the upper half of the door latch on the body of the car to make the latch click solidly every time) I wanted to make the glove box latch work right and to stop the door warp by weakening the overly strong light switch spring. Note that ZULAYTR posted in a thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/interior-s30/19881-glove-box-door-light-switch.html as to how to straighten out you
Mikes Z car
Blog Gary in NJ

Winter Maintenance

Yes, it's mid-July but I'm already thinking about winter maintenance. Why? Because it sounds much better then "I don't want to do that now, so I'll put it off to later". The list continues to grow and then shrink. For example, I had on my list to build new speaker boxes with new speakers because I had a speaker that I knew wouldn't last too much longer. But my son changed my plans when he cranked up the volume on 30+ year-old speakers. Some of my items were just too annoying (and simple) to wait
Gary in NJ
Blog Gary in NJ

The Waive

As I was driving through town (a town of 2,000 - so it's a small town) this afternoon, heading towards some of my favorite twisty roads, I saw a blue 370Z coming the opposite direction. Being a motorcyclist, I figured I'd gave him "the waive". To my amazement, he understood why he got the waive and gave me a thumbs-up and a waive back. It was nearly 90 degrees out, so I was even amazed that his windows were open. That someone driving a modern spam-can understood the connection between his blu
Gary in NJ
Blog Gary in NJ

Where ever you go, that's a car show

My ten year-old and I took a ride this evening after dinner. Our first stop was for fuel. While filling the car I got a few "nice car" and "what year?" comments. Colin likes the attention, so he'll yell back "thanks" and "it's a '72 240". We drove the perfect country roads for a bit; me enjoying the beautiful sound of a straight-6 and he enjoying Pokemon on his Gameboy. I just love driving at partial throttle and then lightly giving the car throttle; returning to part throttle and then lifting
Gary in NJ
Blog Gary in NJ

GeersZ

I got my personalized plates today - GEERSZ. Like all vanity plates, there is a special meaning to this license plate. One could look at this plate and pronounce it "Jersry" - and I hope everyone gets it, and pronounces it correctly. But the true meaning goes back almost 30 years. John, my college roommate went by the nickname of Geers (pronounced jeers). The license plate on his Z was GEERS1. Since Geers honored me by letting me take ownership of this car, I thought it would be a fitting homage
Gary in NJ
Blog Gary in NJ

Awesomeness

I thought I'd look at the antenna to determine why it wasn't working. I went to remove the rivets holding the plastic panel that covers the antenna only to discover there was only 2 of 15 rivets on the drivers side panel and 5 of 10 on the pax side. So I went to Ace Hardware and got #10 trim fasteners, drywall anchors and o-rings. Squeaks are gone. BTW, I discovered I can manually raise and lower the antenna. Two problems resolved. While driving the car to a lacrosse game today I thought to myse
Gary in NJ
Blog Gary in NJ

Music to my ears

I washed, waxed & detailed the car today. Not that it needed it, I just wanted to. You never really know a car until you've spend time touching every detail. I also installed a much needed arm rest from MSA. I also installed an Alpine CDE-103BT stereo. I wired the ashtray in the center console for iPod/iPhone connectivity (might as well get some use out of it) and put a Bluetooth mic in the visor. There were some center console fitment issues that I corrected too. After a few weeks of closin
Gary in NJ
Blog Gary in NJ

So far so good

I cleaned the engine of several years of flung oil from the past oil leak and detailed the engine bay. I reinstalled the alternator and retimed the engine using my newly painted timing marks. While I was at it I changed engine oil and oil filter. I ran the engine for 15 minutes to see if the oil leak returned. So far so good.
Gary in NJ
Blog Gary in NJ

The Easy Button

I was preparing to remove the harmonic balancer to replace the front oil seal. Although the engine was wet with oil, I took a look at the area around the HB and noticed it was dirty, but dry. I then rag-checked the area behind the HB and confirmed it was dry - not leaking. I cleaned the engine and ran it for 10 minutes. I noticed the engine was wet in the vicinity of the oil pump and alternator bracket. The pooling seemed to be most significant under/near where the alternator mount bolts to the
Gary in NJ
Blog Gary in NJ

Results

Set points (dwell @37 degrees), set timing (@5 degrees BTC), final-adjustment and balance of carbs, set low idle, set fast balance at 3000 rpm, installed a stock air box & filter, repaired vacuum leak on the balance tube and put all vacuum hoses back to correct position on air box. The flow-guide valve vacuum hose was missing as was the breather hose. Fuel filter was replaced. The engine tune-up is complete. Engine runs perfectly throughout entire rpm range. Drives well. When the harmonic ba
Gary in NJ
Blog Gary in NJ

This is getting fun

I began a full tune-up including adjustment of valve lash. Installed new spark plugs, points (lubed cam), condenser, cap, rotor and ignition wires. I also installed a drivers window crank clip. The intake valves were too tight, the exhaust valves were on spec or close. Three intake valves were at .003, one at .004 and one at .005. Three exhaust valves were on spec at .010 and the others were at .009. I suspect the rough running engine was a result of low rpm valve float on the three cylinders wi
Gary in NJ
Blog Gary in NJ

Not Ready to Jump In and Go

I disassembled, cleaned, inspected, rebuilt and performed the initial adjustment and balance of the SU Carbs. Greased/lubed door pins and all chassis pivot points. Checked dwell (28 degrees) - not even close. The floor mat is interfering with throttle movement. Upon disassembly of the carbs I discovered very dirty float bowls. The lower surface of both carbs had a coating of varnish and a lot of sand-like material. The floats were set too high; all the way at the top of the cover (should be 14mm
Gary in NJ
Blog Gary in NJ

Now THIS is a Z

The car was delivered to my home on April 24th, 2010. 17 miles are shown on the odometer however the actual mileage is unknown (to me). Common sense says 300,017, but condition says less. The body of this car is damn-near perfect with no surface rust. There are some slight "waves" in pax door. Both doors are hard to close. The interior could use some attention. There is loose fitting trim and the plastic in the hatch area is not playing well together. Need to repair choke lever, driver window cr
Gary in NJ
Blog Gary in NJ

A New Beginning

The year was 1981. I was a freshman in college and my roommate John purchased a semi-ratty 1973 240Z. It was a nice car but I never gave the car much thought. Soon after purchasing this car my roommate allowed our third roommate to borrow the Z. Said third roommate had an accident with the Z. It was probably the best thing that ever happened to that car. Over the course of a few months John’s father (who owned his own auto repair business) repaired and restored the car. What John got back chan
Gary in NJ
Blog TheNateums

My '71 240z!

This is my 240z. She is an 1971 so she doesn't need smog, so I removed all the emissions equipment day 1. Sadly this car is also kind of shared too, haha, my dad and I did all the work, him teaching me along the way. He put a lot into this car too so I consider it just as much his as it is mine. As Purchased: I got it for $1000, primer yellow, running, but barely, not drivable. Completely stock as far as I can recall. Needed a lot of cleaning up but was not necessary to do a hard core, tear i
TheNateums
Blog stevef1972z

New Rad is IN!

Put in the new three core radiator I picked up from ebay. Nice fit, nice part, and I drove the car hard an never saw the temp gauge move past center, this is totally different for my car! New hoses and new thermostat, and had already replaced water pump last fall. It is nice not to have to watch the gauge as much as the road!
stevef1972z
Blog zorroo24

1977 280z fuel injector upgrade

I just inherited a 77 280Z non turbo 2X2. The car currently runs but needs some work done. After driving it around over the weekend, I noticed that the fuel injectors are old and leaking a little fuel, which at that point I parked it in the garage. I am planning on replacing the fuel pump and fuel injectors, but would rather upgrade these with some higher performance parts to get more power. Does anyone have any recommendations on what kind of injectors and fuel pump to buy to get more power tha
zorroo24
Blog miker

240z hard to start

Having trouble starting my 1972 240z, just got it about 6 months ago and it had set for 8 years. Everything is original motor, transmission, differential, etc. Engine runs a little rough once it is warmed up. Drained the gas and refilled tank and included new fuel filter. New plugs, plug wires and air filter. The SU carburators round top could use some cleaning I guess, but not too experienced to do this myself. I have to turn the key to get the fuel pump working before I try to start it.
miker
  • miker
Blog stevef1972z

2010 Parts and Plan

I have the new Champion three core alu. Rad to go into the car, along with the hoses. I think the old rad was done in fro 170,000 miles, flsushing worked for a while but began to heat up again. I used my Christmas money to get the rad and a brand new set of Z rotors for the front. They had been for sale here, but I got them on Ebay for half the price. I have new pads coming into the store today and will pick them up this evening. Now I need some decent weather. Need to take down the Christm
stevef1972z
Blog miker

trans/diff problem

Transmission or differential problem on a 1972 240z with 160000 miles on it, car has sat for 8 years, bought it 4 months ago, got it running, doing about 40 miles per hour and grinding noise starting coming from the rear passenger side differential area. Noise only when I try to excellerate but all the gears seem to work and shift ok. Before I start to get into it, just wanted to get an idea what to look for or what the problem could be. Have not added or changed any fluids in trans or differ
miker
  • miker
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Blog ConchZ

Making progress on all fronts

Well, I got the little rust issues fixed to my satisfaction. I also got the headliner problem solved. The headliner I bought had an issue where it separated from the foam that was attached to it, literally falling on my head. The foam was sorta greasy feeling, so I didn't want to re-use it. I searched all over the darn island for some foam. A fabric shop(one of two we have) directed me to a Nicaraguan guy who does upholstery work. I ended up paying the guy $180 to put up new foam and a new
ConchZ
  • ConchZ
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