beandip

When using the color-tune did you also check the mixture color at the upper R.P.M. level as well, and what did it show? You might see a slightly rich mix at idle but correct at the higher RPM . I am with you about the steering wheel I have had mine off at least 6 times and it still is a little cockied. Or mayb I am the one that is just crooked, thats what they say about Italians there Wopsided. I am a I.B.M. that is Italian by marrage !! Ha Ha I just had another thought , what cylinders did you check with the color tune #2 & #5 ?? Another thought , if , within reason that is , you are running on the rich side you will not burn the valves from a lean mixture. After you drive the car , say on the freeway and the engine is completely warmed. Not stop and go , and idleing. Let the engine cool then pull the plugs and check how they are burning , are they black , brown, oily , what. then compare with the pictures in a manual . this will also tell you if you are running rich or lean. The reason to cool the enging is that the head is aluminium and you can gahl the threads. use ANTI SEIZE on the threads , I use it on all bolts and nuts.

I am in need of some info on installing a sway bar on the rear of my '73 . there appears to be hangers or tabs on the under body shell and that is all . What years are swapable and how difficult is the mod. and installation ? I dont know if this car ever had a swaybar installed from the factory . It is a vary late '73 in the production year. Any information will be helpful , thanks.

There are alot of differences in the different years ,but most of them are small. From '70 to '72 the same engine and 4 speed manual trans ., also a automatic was offered . '73 started the emissions standsrds bigtime , with bad carberation and loss of preformance , and the car was heaver , due mostly to all the emissions hardware. '74 came with a 260 engine that tried to make up for the loss in power in '73 more cu. inches and different ignition and I believe the start of fuel injection. From there on untill '78 all had the 280 block and fuel injection. All through the time there were changes in suspention and transmissions going to 5 speed manual. and different gear ratioes in the rear end , and such . so you see there have been develoupment changes and trim design but the same basic body . I hope that answers a few questions .

when looking down at the top of the carb. and turning the adjustment clockwise you are richening the mixture. If you were to turn the mixture knob counter clockwise all the way to the stop and then clockwise 21/2 turns you would be at the starting point to do the tuning , then stick your finger in to the throat of the back carb and lift the piston , disableing it, and adjust the front carb untill the engine runs roughly . If when you lift the piston the engine dies the front carb is too lean , repete the whole operation on the rear carb and you are vary close , now if you "blip" the throttle , that is floor it and release it quickly and you get a pop out of the carb , this is a lean pop , turn out that is turn the adjustment clockwise 1/4 turn . do this untill no lean pop is experienced and you are good to go. Enjoy Gary

You say that your idle is at 1500 and you have to bend somthing to get it down?? You better watch the video again !! There is no reason to bend anything. Adjusting the valves is important and usually done before doing the carbs, but be aware that you should check the carbs after the valve adjustment. I really recomend that you do the valve adjustment cold . unless you are experienced in doing it . As the engine cools the adjustment will vary , but if you do it all cold it will be consistant. Then check the clearence after you warm the engine if you think it needs it. Be aware a valve set to tight can burn the valve, if loose it will only click. The same with the carbs if set too lean , that can can burn valves , too rich the only the mileage suffers. Just a thought. Just one more thing to concider to warm up an engine completely for doing this stuff it takes the equilivent of driving the car about 4 or 5 miles , not just watching the temp gage go up to normal, The best of luck to you and yours.

Have you seen the ones with the chrome trim around the edge ? I saw a set on a '73 Z and was told that they were origional that came from Datsun and he unrapped them himself. But they really look good. He got them in europe.

I think that all you need is the center linkage , but not positive , my 73 had the round tops on it when I bought it. However there is a guy in hillsboro that had the whole setup intake carbs air cleaner and linkage . I had it sold for him to a guy in Finland , but at the last moment he backed out . He is parting out a '70 . E-mail me if you want to contact him. Gary Portland Or. If I remember right you live in the area .

Guy , if you add the cost of shipping to the cost of the car you can see that if you plan a vacation around the the purcice and drive it home is the best way to go. Now you can most likely drive it for half the cost of trucking but remember the air fare one way. Check on e-bay they handel the registration and transfering all the time . They have cars that are turn key for sale . With todays air travel costs that may not be as much as you think to fly . there is a web site zcar.com and posted there is a account of a father and son who bought on the west coast and drove the car to the east coast . Check that out I think it is in the articles section and the car was a '71 if memory serves me. I live in Portland Oregon and if I can be of any help let me know . If you find a car in this area , I would be happy to take a nonpartal look at it for you . We are in a no salt area and if the cars are garaged the rust isn't that great a problem if they have been maintained. I found my '73 that only need a universal joint and a tune up $500. Now ,it needs about $3000. to make it beautiful . figuring 2k for the paint and 1k for body and interior. so when finished I am looking about 4 grand trotal . And that is looking on the high side for body and paint . Good luck

I Guy , as far as which year of Z is the best you are going to get 100 different openions. I have a '73 and really love it , I suppose if I found a real clean '72 I would go that rout . I really prefer the 240s body and the clean look of early bumpers. I really wouldent buy a 2+2 , thats just a personal prefrence. The early Zs are less complicated and easier to work on if you can do the electronics and injection then look at the 280. Biggest thing is RUST , places to look , in the engine bay look under the area of the battery and behind it , under the rocker pannel of both doors that is the frame on these cars . Look closely for repaire that have been done to the floor from under the car , also open the back hatch and check on either corner where the window dumps water on the sill. Rust repair is expensive the less you have to deal with it the better, also look all over the body and down along the bottom of the fenders for blistering of the paint , that is rust coming through from the back side . Rechroming of bumpers is also costly . A rear bumper new for my 73 runs almost $400. for an example and rechrome can be more. It is better to spend the cash going in on a clean rust free car than doing the catch up rust repairs, because that can run into $1000. and then a good paint job will run $2000. for a good one for a daily driver and more for a show quality job . All the best of luck on your quest .

I had the same thing on my '73 . Have patience and work with it. I found that soaking the center axel fit with WD-40 and taping the back side of the fins. I tap on the the area to the rear of the car then rotate the drum 1/2 turn then repete . I do that a couple of times them rotate 1/4 turn and continue this procedure untill it pops loose . On reassembly coat axel fit with ANTI SEZE , I used a ball pean hammer and just keep taping , I took the most difficult one about 1/2 hr to come loose, with no damage done to the drums fins. Good luck

I have used mistery oil for a long time but finaly found 20w . Fork oil available at motorcycle shop. 20W is recomended by the factory and of all that I have tried it's the best for all around use. Mistery oil allowed the piston to rise too quickly and caused a lean condition that showed as a slight lag, sort of a flat spot when starting from a stop, when in normal trafic conditions. I wouldent use brake fluid because it cannot take the heat and will turn into gum and screw everything up. If in racing , auto trans fluid is ok because you are in the upper rpm ranges all the time anyway , driving on the streets 20w will allow the mixture to richen a split secound longer allowing for smoother starts from lower rpm and improve performance.

Here is a e-mail address of a Z-driver z-runner@twave.net he is known as the 12 sec dude in other areas . He turns the 1/4 in 12sec and he is running SUs maybe he can answer your questions . Best of luck to ya.

the idle adjustment on a SU round top is on the side of each carb. it is what you adjust to ballance the two units . the adjustment "knob" that is under the intake and is about 3/16" thick and has knerled edges , thats the mixture adjustment next to that one is a knob that is like a large thumb tack this one dont mess with it is set at the factory. The mixture knob is the one that you turn up all the way to its stop , then back down about 2 1/2 turns . Then with engine completely warmed up you can set the mixture. That is if you have ballanced the carbs with a uni-syn and have properly tuned the rest of the engine . Spark advance , valve adjust , plugs and so on . If you want me to walk you through setting the mixture just e-mail me it really is simple.

add some water remover to the fuel ,about 2 cans to the 1/4 tank of gas, its the stuff used a lot in boating. this will hellp a lot . that is with a tune up , also set the advance to about 5 or 6 btdc. or even a little more retarded that will also help but will make the engine run hotter. get it to pass then set it back up right . Good luck

The idea of the unisyn is to ballance the draw of air so that they are drawing the same . With the engine warmed completly , turn the idle adjustment out untill it no longer is in contact with the linkage. now the ballance screws need to be adjusted down untill the engine will run at about 1500 rpm . with that accomplished take the uni-syn and with the air cleaner cover removed place the face of the unisyn over intake of the carb and turn the adjustment center of the device untill the little ball in the tube is floating in the area of center , now place the device over the other intake , if the ball floats in the same place in the tube then they are ballanced. If one carb is drawing more ane the ball floats higher then they are out of ballance and you need to either increase ,or turn in the ballance screw, of one carb or decrease , back out the screw, to ballance them. As you get them ballanced the rpm will increase and the engine will run smoother. when ballanced then you need to adjust the mixture . E-mail me if you need help with that.

Are you running the stock flat top SUs ?? if so why? anytime you are trying to tune multicarberated engine you MUST have access to a uni-sen or simular ballancing device . with out ballancing the carbs first you cannot tune and set the mixture. yes leaking vacume lines will grossly effect the fuel mixture, but if you have messed with the mixture with the vac. line problem . you now need to retune the mixture. I dont know about flat tops but with round top SUs at least poping back through the carbs when you fully open the throttle quickly is refurred to as "lean pop" and is caused by the air fuel mixture being set too lean. If you need some help with setting the round top SUs just e-mail me and I'll walk you through it .

Originally the stock Z-car came with steel wheels and hubcaps the mag type wheels are all aftermarket items installed by the dealers, other things are overriders on the bumpers, and the louvers on the side and rear hatches. there were vary few options available on the first three or four years of these cars , one extra was a am and fm radio . Stock was am only. The automatic trans was a option on '71s . One thing I found about z cars, is that things were changed within the model years , as you begin replacing tired parts on the beauty you will find it to your advantage to keep the old one untill you have installed the new part and find that it fits and functions.

I agree about the front spoilers , I dont have one because I really dont like the look , just personal. and I relly dislike the rear ones. I have read several test report done on the early Z-cars that were done when they were new on the market . The publication at present is on loan to a friend , so the numbers may not be exact but vary close . This is for '70 and '71 cars . At 100 mph the down force on the hood is in the area of 80 lbs and on the hatch it is about 113lbs if I remember right. I to have noticed that my car gets light in the loafers and it starts at about 85 . It is raire that I ever drive at that speed I resist installing a front air dam , how ever just the other day I was challanged by a 5.0 mustang on the FWY and the wind was blowing across at about 15 to 20 mph and I difinatly felt it best to knock it off at 85. I think at 63 I have some good sence left . The simple designs are looking better all the time. I will post the exact data when the book is returned. Did you read that escanlion ? Ha ha

Prook, It sounds to me like the problem is dieseling, and not electrical. the key is that it the idle . The engine is stumbeling and running rough and usually also knocking. The advise to switch to hich grade fuel is right on also check that the choke is completely off when when you move the lever to the off position. Another cause is the engine running rich, I know you said that you just had them done but they may have set them a little rich. I am assuming that you are running , round tops . Alot depends on the condition of the engine , one with good compression is more likely to have this happen also one that is driven on short runs and the engine isn't properly warmed up . Carbon builds up and some times it will glow in the combustion chamber and cause pinging , also called pre detination, which is not good. Now that the weather is warming if you can take the car out and drive it for 20 or 30 miles on the hiway speeds that should help greatly . definatly fill the tank with high octain fuel for the next three or four times and then use pluss . If you want instructions on how to set up SU round tops just e-mail me .

Any one in the Portland Or. area that is in need of either Harbor Freight has a great price . two 3 ton jack stands $12.00 for the pair and a 21/4 ton floor jack $39.00 and this is one with large steel wheels and not the little caster type . I just thought I would pass on a good buy.

Rev, welcome I live in Portland Ore and drive a '73 240 . all the best to ya

dga, I see that E has already covered the service question . About a Ptln club, no not as yet although there are 6 of us Z drivers that are going to get togither soon , let me know if you want to be included

Dumi, how about Z-nube insted. I found a good set of early SUs over the weekend . The whole setup , intake, linkage and aircleaner. If you are interested let me know, and I'll get you the E-mail address. If I dident already have a spair set I would have bought them my self. Any one doing a concours project these are the carbs with the drain in the float bowls. Just passing on info. nothing in it for me. I just want to keep these classics on the road. Good luck.

That is vary true about the SUs being simple , and that they work well . A flow meter , uni-sen , is a must to get them ballanced with out one you are just shooting in the dark. If you want detailed info go to ztherpy.com good luck and keep on zzzzzzeeeen you can find the flowmeter at the local speed shop or check a motorcycle shop .

I forgot to mention that you dont need to change the intake that you have now .