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Blog Gary in NJ

A blog by Gary in NJ in Member Blogs - Approved

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Entries in this blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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
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