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Gents, I wanted to get on here and let you all know briefly why I’ve been gone and that I’m back. I’ll keep it brief and if you want to more details send me a message. About 8-9 months ago I had a medical incident that was a wake up call for me. It ended up with my in the ER with a doctor standing over me with cardiac paddles telling me they’re going to have to smock me. My job is 100% contingent on my health. Shortly after I notified the company I was placed on medical hold, and have been in this status until recently. This medical event was a watershed moment for me and I spent some time reflecting on my lifestyle and then came up with a game plan. I determined it was time to “Reset my life”. I had to reevaluate all my actions that impact me and make changes. This medical event opened up a host of other boxes with the FAA drilling down into every medical aspect of me. I had many doctors visits, saw specialists and found I had some blood work items out of normal ranges too. I had to do a couple sleep studies and so on. It was painful! It didn’t help I ran into incompetent people along the way which made me realize how broken our medial system is. I can dive into that later but because of incompetence and financial incentives by secondary medical providers who were calling themselves “experts” I was going to have to do treatment I didn’t need or want, So I had to become my own advocate and spent countless hours researching and educating myself. I read several book by “real” experts and had great advice from friends who are physicians. I became a pseudo expert is some medical areas and with the actions I implemented I turned everything around, I’d go see my doctor and we’d discuss items that he really knew nothing about. I was shocked at how our medical system works and how it is incentivized. So what did I do to reset my life. I changed everything; my Diet, Exercise, Nutrition , Sleep, and Stress; it all had to be changed. Because I didn’t have time to figure out exactly what I needed to do I used the “cast a wide net approach”. Do it all and hopefully i fix these issues. This ultimately worked, it wasn’t easy. I had to be disciplined and methodical and I was. In this time, I’ve lost 24 pounds, ( I wasn’t really heavy to begin with), I exercise for 60-90 mins 5 days a week (running 15-20 miles a week), taking multiple vitamins and supplements, track my sleep and O2 saturation every night, and removed all stressful activities I can. I stopped drinking alcohol, removed all sugar from my diet, The second order effects are many. First I feel better than I did 10 years ago, I’m never tired, I have more mental clarity, I dropped my LDL cholesterol 70 pts without medication, blood work is now normal, I sleep great. I stopped working on my car during this time for the most part. I did a little here and there but it hasn’t had anything really done to it. I do drive it now and then. I had to refocus my life and that meant 100% commitment to the things I determined were more important after evaluating everything. The tenants were: Family, Faith, Friendships, Spiritual and Mental Heath and overall personal Wellness. Everything else was placed on hold. The bottoms line is this long post is I’m back, I’m better, I’m going back to work in 2 weeks. This event was a blessing in disguise. That’s my story!

Ferg you're one a few I know that can't use my best excuse for my life choices, "I'm not flying an airplane". I'm glad you're on a new path, life is long and we need your help. The library is huge.

I have done that exact thing, I was still in the garage when I started it up and it was like an oil bomb went off. There was not a square inch of surface that wasn't dripping with oil, no car show for me that day. @inline6, don't feel bad, your diff will be okay, the quality of the cast iron they used is excellent.

Finally to the finish line. Just waiting on some plastic rivets to finish the interior. I took it for an extended drive today. Really runs nice. The transmission shifts fantastic. The guy I took it to did an awesome job. I need to aim the headlights and a few other minor things, but I am calling it done (for now).

You didn't ask.

I took a break from the car to do some self care and get my mind in order by getting my tools in order. I bought myself a few packs of Toolbox Widget organizers, and so far they are doing the job. The box doesn’t hold quite as much now, but I also don’t have wrenches and sockets sliding around all over the place and piled up on top of each other. Putting a layer of anti-slip foam on the bottom first really helps it feel slick. Not sure how I’m going to keep the dust out, though. … So you may remember that I was having a hard time adapting the 240z coolant routing to having Mikuni triples because that eliminates the carburetor warming channel that connects the bypass tube to the thermostat housing. I had experimented with just running a stainless steel tube in place of that system, but it fouled the manifold and front carburetor. After much back and forth with various thermostat housings I found that the early ZX housing is the one I wanted. It has many extra ports, but these can be plugged with various fittings. The hardest one to find is the 1/4” BSPT, but McMastercarr had them. Next I tried a few different Nissan fittings that are 1/4” BSPT male to a 3/8” hose barb. I found the 105° angled one to work best for clearing the distributor. Then I found a 280zx bypass tube, which more or less mounts right up, but because it is meant for the fuel injection system I had to remove approx. 9” from the side that wraps around the thermostat and put a new bead at the point where I cut it. It also needed some spacers to change the geometry and allow it to clear the temperature sensor and point the tube at the 3/8” fitting mentioned above. After that I needed a ZX water inlet with the 3/8” tube coming off the threaded adapter that connects to everything already discussed. That has a 5/8” tube pointing back to the heater hoses, so I had to replace all of my 3/4” hose. It also meant going full ZX with all of the fittings and getting rid of the 240z y-pipe. I had to find a coolant regulator/check valve, which is nearly a unicorn part. I know seller with some that are NOS in the box, and normally I wouldn’t go with used parts on a fresh engine build, but I’m not paying $175 plus shipping for something I can get for $30 in good used condition and is essentially just a 3/8” tee with a check valve. The coolant system is now closed. After much trial and error and purchasing too much hose, I have the whole system plumbed and clamped. I only used one of the OEM 240z hoses, and I cut it down significantly. They wouldn’t have worked at all with the Vintage Air system I have, so I put a pair of their bulkhead barb to threaded fittings coupled to their 90° barb fittings. I bought a pair of Continental hoses with a bunch of turns from Summit Racing, which allowed me to keep everything under the dash pretty snug. I was worried I would need to make a bracket for the heater control valve, but it’s floating pretty far from everything so it should touch anything even with a huge amount of vibration. So now I just need to check all my fasteners and get a radiator overflow tank. Next is decide whether to move on to the fuel system or put the AC lines in.

Tip, so you dont make the same mistake I made. Double and triple check your wipers to make sure they are working correctly before putting on the blades. I hooked up the wiper arm to the motor in the wrong position and it caused them to work almost backwards. Make sure motor is in "park" then hook the arm to the motor. It can go on two different ways. Mine looks like this and works properly now!

I took the 260Z for a drive today. When I stopped for gas, I could smell coolant, though I couldn't find a smoking gun. When I got home, I looked closer, and it appears I may not have tightened some hose clamps when I replaced the water pump. I'm letting the car cool down enough so I can work on the lower clamp on the lower radiator hose.

Those 3 drips were fully cured but on an inside curve like that I should have stopped and gone out and bought a curved nib file, the flat one that I have was not the right tool for the job, completely my fault. Same with the burn through, that front area didn't get a thick enough coating of clear, luckily everything was still close at hand so it was easy to correct the problem with a respray. I'm glad the screw up happened on a small part that was easy to remove, if it had been on the roof it would have been a whole other ball game.

I have a friend who had that a few months ago. Middle of the night, lives alone, had to call 911. Scared her. Same scenario as yours but they didn't have to shock her. They waited it out. She had been on a cocktail of pharmas beforehand. Eventually they reduced the dosage of one of them and say she's okay now. But thay can't really say what caused it. They did all of the heart rate monitoring and everything and found nothing. I thnk it was the pharmas. p.s. I just coined the word "pharmas" because I'm lazy. Maybe it's already out there...

Zcon 2024 Sept, Tamp, Fl So reasonably close for zcon https://zcon.org/conventions/2024/

Steve, I’ve recently met a local farmer who’s daughter is on the swim team with my son. He raises Waygu grass feed beef here locally and he sells me beautiful steaks for $15 a pound. Also grows organic tomatoes and peppers that are amazing. He sell most of his stuff to Whole Foods in Raleigh.

I worked on the differential again today. I was surprised that upon taking the carrier out for about the 15th time, it "fell into" a different spot, I was able to remove it from the case with "more than enough" clearance where I had ground the case on the left side. I feel like an idiot - I didn't have to grind as much of the case as I did. Anyway, I'm not going to think about it anymore. I'm not going to be abusing this car, so hopefully I won't have a problem with the case where I ground it. If I do have a problem later, at least I will have the experience behind me of how to assemble one of these properly. I put another .015" of shims onto the pinion gear, added to the original .126" shim and the .015" of shims I had already. With .030" of additional shims, I assembled everything again. I put the side flange shims into their original positions. I measured back lash at just under .009". Disappointing. It will need to come back apart and more shimming experimentation performed. ☹️ I went ahead with checking the wipe pattern. This time, I made the brush strokes perpendicular to the gear teeth, so it would be easier to see where the gears contact each other. Drive side and coast side, respectively: Drive side: Coast side: I learned today that when meshing the gears together to check the wipe pattern in the paint, there needs to be a light load of resistance. In other words, when turning the pinion gear to drive the ring gear in the direction to move the car forward, dragging on the gear with one hand loads the ring gear teeth against the pinion gear teeth to show the pattern better. If you don't load the ring gear, the gears "float" a bit more and leave a less visible impression in the paint. Same is true for rotating backwards. Apply some drag with one hand to load the ring gear against the pinion to make the pattern more visible on the coast side. I think I see what has happened here since last time. This time, the contact area on the coast side has moved more toward the heel end (outer edge) of the ring gear. And, it looks to me like the contact area on the drive side has moved a touch more toward the toe end of the gear. If the pinion is either too "short" (needs to be moved toward the ring gear) or too "tall" (needs to be moved away from the ring gear), the wipe pattern will not be in the same area of the ring gear teeth on both the drive side and the coast side. If the pinion is too "short", the contact area will be more on the heel of the drive side, and more on the toe of the coast side. If the pinion is too "tall", the contact area will be more on the toe of the drive side, and more on the heel of the coast side. So... I think I have too much pinion shim now. Looking again at the pics from last time (.015" additional shim, and all three side flange retainers on the right side, which resulted in a backlash of .005"): I think the contact area is more centered on the coast side (first two of the three pics above). And I think the contact area is a touch more toward the center of the drive side as well. I think what I will do from here is go back to the previous set up. Regarding the contact area appearing lower toward the base of the tooth, I think that putting a load on the ring gear may help to show more clearly that the contact is actually more centered than it looks in those pics from last time. The second pic above gives me hope. We'll see. Also important to note is that there is some additional flexibility with the pinion shims. Right now, I have a .3 mm on the left and a .4 mm and .5 mm on the right. They are sold in the following mm sizes: .2, .25, .3, .4 .5. As long as the combination I use adds up to 1.2, I will keep the pre-load where it needs to be. So, these are equivalent options, but move the ring gear toward the pinion differing amounts: .2 and .5 + .5 .25 and .25 + .2 + .5 The learning continues.

How many times have we all felt like an idiot when working on our cars? 😀 Did I ever mentioned how when I first purchased my Z I immediately changed the oil but didn't notice that the gasket from the old filter stuck to the engine so I had two gaskets. I drove around the block and wondered why there was a trail of oil leading out of my drive. Luckily a PO had installed an oversize oil pan so there was still some left.

My diet is more like this these days.

I got everything sanded down to 1200 today, on the very last piece, one of the sugar scoops I burned through the colour to reveal the primer. I had also broken through the paint with the nib file on some runs, so there was no other choice than sand the clear with 400 and paint/clear it again. Sanded clear coat is the perfect substrate for paint so with in an hour I had it painted and 3 coats of clear on it. Turned out so well I think I can start with 1500.

@Av8ferg I'm glad you've gotten good results!! I need to do the same. My wife and I have been working on eating better. We've been trying to avoid processed foods. No more than 5 ingredients and no ingredients we can't pronoune or aren't natural. I have about 5 beers in the fridge. When I finish those I dont expect we'll buy any more. I have been looking at cutting out all added or refined sugars. That will be a challenge for me because its in everything!! Im glad you got through your 1st class physical. Cody visited a part 141 school on Florida this week... I also totally agree with your experience with our medical system. I want a good "mechanic ". A doctor who looks at the machine and goes it shouldn't be doing that. Let's figure out why and correct it. Not here take this pill. It will fix the symptom. That's like your mechanic telling you to turn up the stereo because your car's making a noise!

A few more pictures. My lap belts dont have the clip for the shoulder belt and were on the car when I got it. They appear factory and have the factory seatbelt light plugs. I cant remember if the shoulder belts were on the car when I got it or if I had them as parts. Same with the luggage straps. One is longer than the other one. I had them in storage so who knows where they are from. Did early models without the storage bins have longer luggage straps?? I need to research belts and straps.

Yep, I made that mistake before, and then I learned of the warning being posted in various places.

Awesomeness!! I live 30 minutes away!!

I understood that he painted the whole car...

For a minute there, I thought you'd sanded and repainted the entire car! 😲 The scoop looks great now. What do you think the problem was with the nib file? Was the clear coat still not fully cured, or did the file just get too much bite because of the large of width of paint that it was trying to cut through?

Ummmm... well, I found out today that I didn't need to grind that much. Yeah, I didn't realize until today that I ground more off than I needed to. As I was taking the carrier out today, it "fell into" a different location, and I was able to "make the turn" as you say. I feel like an idiot now. Hopefully, I haven't ground too much as to weaken the case and cause an issue. The key is to butt the ring gear up against the right vertical wall of the back of the case, and then rotate the carrier as you push it in.

I couldn't find it on the 72 wiring diagram, so I'm going to assume it was done the same was as is shown in the 73 wiring diagram. The 12VDC+ goes to the passenger seat switch and to the driver seat belt switch. If there is a passenger (or heavy object) in the seat, the 12VDC+ goes to the passenger seat belt switch. If the belt is not latched, the 12VDC+ will go to the neutral switch. Whenever the transmission is in neutral, the 12VDC+ will go to the seat belt warning lamp.

Most processed food seems has sugar or corn syrup in them. Companies do it because it tastes better and they get more sales. We consumers get what we ask for. Company are culpable though as quarterly sales trump ethical practices. This behavior is becoming an epidemic in our country. Profit before People. You have to read the label on all your foods. Our food industry is making us sick and big Pharma is waiting in the wings to make you a customer for life on one or more of their expensive medications. I do intermittent fasting. Don’t eat until about 11 am everyday and exercise in my fasted state. I cut most processed foods and avoid sugar at all costs. Our foods are nutrient deficient. We American’s are “overfed” but under “nourished”. Supplementation brought me back to feeling energized and healthy again. I cut most carbs not all and doubled my protein intake.

I stepped on a talking scale, and it said, "One at at time!"

I would go with an MSA style box if sound matters to you at all. The factory location is pretty poor.