zKars

Dinner and a show? Well, maybe for some people, but if you're really a car guy, then do this! RACING SCHOOL, Exotics racing school is the ultimate driving experience at Las Vegas Speedway with Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche. or at least this! http://www.shelbyamerican.com And if you must do the show thing, go see The Beatles "Love" cirque show at the Mirage. It's almost done it's 10 year run. Been three times.....

So suspend car from rafters upside down, then inset bolts into manifold upward and tighten? So no-one's heard of the peanut butter trick? Thick enough to hold the bits together while you insert them, then it melts off when you run the engine and you get the joyous odor of hot peanut butter cookies while it melts off. Oh ya, and "A little dab will do ya'!"

These guys have nice CAD plated SEMS metric bolts. Search for "SEMS M5" or "SEMS M6" to see what they have. M5 - 0.8 x 30mm Phillips Hex Head SEMS Screw, Class 8.8 Is the lock and flat washer a show stopper?

Very nice! Restoring the rest of it will be a great experience. One place that I remember that has the spherical ball joint tie rod ends is here. https://technotoytuning.com/nissan/240z/outer-tie-rods-datsun-240z-260z-and-280z

Assuming you have one of those new fangled holley carb things on there, you can find ignition switched +12 at the voltage regulator on the BW wire. Might be an ignition hot pin on the wiper pin? You can use the coil + if you use it to trigger a separate relay that takes main power from the battery I suppose. Can't think of anything else that ignition +12 under the hood. Even the inspection light wire is on all the time.

What did I tell ya?

Ryant67, yes, it normal. Throttle blades snap shot, no air flow = no fuel, = high AFR. The back fire is something else, ie residual fuel in the system getting ignited by elevated temps in the exhaust. Definite sign of being too rich most of the time. I used to get that engine braking down a hill. Sounds all racy and stuff, like I have a bad arse motor. Even got little flames some times. People point and stare, and I'm sure they are thinkin' "that guy is cool with that fast car"... That is what they were thinking wasn't it? Right? Don't worry about spend too much on jets. I'll relieve you of your burden and re-line your pockets when you're done jetting.

While we're at it, thought I'd share another Mikuni tuning observation. When the tuning was "slightly too lean" like 15-16 idle, 15ish putsing around town and on cruise, 15-16 at WOT, the car never sounded so smooth, quiet, never idled better, it was a dream for my old kinda nasty cammed stroker. This was with 57.5 pilots, and 150 mains. Trouble was, it wasn't just the noise and harnessness that was gone, so was the power. The WOT power was slightly hesitant and bucky, just like what you're told when its too lean. No strong pull, obvious faltering. Around town felt "ok" bit it lacked the punch it had before. But the smoothness and quieter exhaust note were intoxicating in some way. I guess I could use this baseline for days when we're cruising on long trips and there are no "fun" parts where you want power, just smoothness and fuel economy. Hardly convenient, and no dang good at all when do get a "look" from some hi-brow in a $50 bazzillion dollar hot rod ... or an actual curve appears on the road ahead. Dang carbs, why can't I hide some injectors in there somewhere.... So I'm back to 62.5 pilots and 160 mains (see edit above) with carefully tweaked idle screws to get the leanest idle I can stand. Its brasher again, noiser, rougher, but it runs like the perverbial violated primate.... WOT is a total hoot. Stomp it anytime from 2K and it just pulls. AFR''s are 12-13ish at WOT. Another observation after careful inspection. The first transition hole is JUST covered by the blades when fully closed, at least on my carbs. Virtually ANY amount of opening exposes that first hole almost immediately. Pretty tough (dare I say impossible?) to get that supposed ideal position where NO transition holes are exposed, just running on ilde screw port fuel, but the blades open enough so that it can idle. Now my blades are hardly pristine and un-touched, my old Q types have seen many miles. They're clean, but the blades don't close all very evenly. A strong light shone from front to back with them in your hand shows a variable amount of light sneaking around tortured blades from barrel to barrel. Still this idea that "no transition holes until you actually USE the gas pedal" is pretty darn hard to attain. This explains the option to plug up that first transition hole that I've read about. I don't have a throttle-on stumble, the accel pump takes care of that, but if the pilots are too lean, it starts to show up, as you have to open the screw too far and you steal all the idle fuel before it gets to come out the transition holes. What a crazy balancing act.... Maybe if I have a air bypass valve to the vacuum log to adjust idle. hmmm, more hoses, valves and tubes... It lets more air in, but its dry, so have to increase the pilots..... here we go again!

Well we know its been painted then with likely rust repair. There were no OEM black S30's other than 78 black pearl's, were there? But dang it's near free at $5K. Bet we hear its been sold by 5:00pm East

Well getting the same jets in all of them is a good first step. Can't imagine trying to get that thing in balance the way it is. Time to call Todd.... I have 62.5 pilots, 160 main and 200 airs 34mm chokes and idle screws at 1.5ish in my 44's on a 3.1 stroker EDIT : Sorry, the original statement above said. 150 main was actually 160. 150 was an earlier iteration.

John, wise and experienced thoughts indeed. No surprise that we are overthinking this. Buy the best grease you can find, pack your bearings properly, throw some in the housing if you feel like it, and forget it about for 10 years. Yet I can almost guarantee you that at least three of "us" will now go and mock up an experiment with a rear axle housing and freshly packed bearings, where a propane torch and an electric motor are involved. They will measure 3D grease displacement at varying temperatures and centrifigal force values, and will plot the results in an excel spreadsheet. Only they will find that no matter what they do, the grease just stays in the bearings.... like its designed to do....

Granny, you bring up a couple of interesting areas for a further discussion! In the article I found, he mentioned a few words about how wheel bearing grease works. It has two parts, a carrier, the heavy thick stuff, and the actual oil that is extracted from the thick stuff that fills and lubricates the bearings.The balancing act is having enough volume of "grease" (both parts) to keep the lube action going for it lifetime. Eventually the grease breaks down and goes hard and waxy. I've seen in lots of old bearings. Hopefully this happens at the end of the service life (150000-200000 miles) All the stock bearings I've seen only have one integral seal on the outside of the inner bearing, all of the other three bearing faces are open to the housing guts. This implies you need grease everywhere in the housing to keep these supplied. I'm a bit worried about grease life with having bearings that are sealed on all four sides that have a much reduced volume to use. It also makes me think someone before you replaced those bearings. This all assumes that the total grease in the bearings and in the axle housing warms up and thins out enough so that there isa net flow of grease throughout the space over time. Otherwise what is the point of having (some) grease in the axle cavity front or rear if only the grease in the bearings themselves is doing anything? It hard to find information on "axle grease flow dynamics"....

Cool. Now get back out there and leave your "mark" some more. tire marks only, ok? Unlike the rest of us that stuck at our desks on a sunny day...

This a very good idea and method of execution is very clean. Well done. Nothing beats a modern ignitor to replace 40 year old crap. It is little surprise that your car runs better than it did before. I feel compelled however to lend some advice. The generic cheap GM HEI ignition module is not the best component for this purpose. There is/was a lengthy (older) thread on hybridz about ignition instability at higher RPM's with some of the more bargain basement varieties of thes items. At the time, there weren't a lot of options, though MSD and others had "high performance" versions of the basic HEI module that performed better. jegs or summitracing.com probably sell several varieties. I'll try to find the hybridz thread and you can decide if its helpful. Good news is that there are more modern and well tested components. DIY autotune has one of the better ones, the BIP373 is the one that comes to mind. DIYPNP BIP373 Ignition Module and Heatsink Kit DIYAutoTune.com This thing can replace the HEI module, or the E12-80/92 module on a ZX dizzy or any reluctor based distributor and will fire any basic 12v coil. And its smaller. And at $9.80, I buy three to carrytwo as spares, JIC....

Here is a pretty good description of how and why wheel bearings fail and the contributing factors. toyotaoffroad.com/Articles/Projects/Bearing_Failure/Bearing_Failure.htm There are several points that are relavent to our discussion. Breakdown due to age and heat, contamination, and too much grease are listed issues. It would be nice to be able to re-grease the rears occasionally and that would no doubt extend their life, but the design and labor required makes it unlikely that anyone would actually take the time to do it. Note that the advice in the above link refers to front type conical bearings with a separate race and bearing, not sealed rear ball bearings when they talk about periodic maintenance. Edit: the 71 FSM lubrication Chart has a "change wheel bearing grease" every 30,000 mi..." I'm pretty sure they just mean front... Still, a very short interval. And "Change", not, Clean, Check adjust or supply.

Ztherapy has new ones sourced and coming. There was a thread a couple of months about it. No need to try other sources. Bruce, any news?

Great information about the 15 lb'er. Thanks. One note to all as well, the Fidanza 143281 has a 240mm friction surface but is drilled for both the 9 bolt 240 clutch plates AND the 6 bolt 225mm units. Point is, you are not forced to use a heavier 240 clutch plate to negate some of the weight savings, if all you're running is a nice stockish 2.4L.

Details are indeed necessary. In general it sounds as if you are running very lean. This can be caused by many things however, such as too low fuel pressure, incorrect jetting, plugged fuel lines/filter or carb passages, or intake air leaks at the mating surfaces to the carbs or head. Old gas is not likely the cause, its not THAT old. Start by telling us your running fuel pressure (stock mechanical or electric pump?) and your main, pilot and air corrector jet sizes and recent history. Also any other details of how its all installed. Are these new to you? Did it run fine for a while now its bad?

First, don't go back to that shop. They were just not interested in helping you. You have three options. 1 Find a real shop with a bearing puller and person who knows how to use it. 2. Go buy a long bearing puller and do it yourself. You need a bearing splitter, and a puller with long bolts. Princess Auto Bearing Separator/Puller Set | Princess Auto is what I'm talkiing about with you going to buy a 3 foot piece of 3/8 threaded rod to extend the length between the splitter and puller. 3. Try freezing the whole thing, then heating just the inner bearing race and see if it will come apart with just a little prying. Remember that while you have it this far apart, you are MUCH better off putting new bearings in there than trying to cheap out and just re-pack the old ones. You will also have the issue of having to re-press on the new or old bearing, unless you again freeze the shaft and heat the bearing, then just gently tap it down in place with a pipe that fits over the shaft and contacts the inner race only. (don't pound on the outer race, it will destroy the bearings). Do you have the torque wrench to put that back together properly to 200-250 ft-lbs? And a new nut? You can refer to http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/rearwheelbearings/index.html for additional help

It is actually a 73 model. The VIN, lit pull knob hazard switch, intermittent wipers indicate that pretty clearly. Would need to see the build date on the drivers door tag to confirm. There have been lots of legitimate year "adjustments", just check that ALL VIN's match. Dash, door tag, what's stamped in the firewall above the brake booster, and if there, on the engine bay tag. Would need to see receipts to see how they spent $12K on the engine, and to see who did the work. The asking $$ is not crazy, but likely somewhat high. Depends heavily on the actual underlying rust condition and quality of the current body work and paint, and overall quality of what has been done.

This is with an Z31 Turbo R200 w/finned cover. I will check the inventory and see how many poly bushings I have. I can slice and dice a couple and make them available. I also have way too many old nub-less or nub-poor stoppers to use as well.

I have a report on my m-bar stock bushing replacement. I found that the old stock bushing rubbers were in sad shape. Not just soft, but cracked and crazed like mad. Passenger side was considerably worse. I replaced them with stock ones, but did something similiar to what I alluded to above with my poly muffin top idea. First, let me mention that the preceived softness of the rubber in the old and new bushings aren't that different. I tested this by putting the M-bar in the vise, then putting a large screwdriver through the metal tube in the eye of the bushing and pull/push to get deflection. The cracks and nasty-ness of the old bushings became very apparent. After replacement I did the same thing, and while it was somewhat stiffer, not that much really. I also tested the vertical deflection, which is where the changes were very much more apparent. With the old bushings, when I would jack up the rear end with a floor jack under the diff, the diff would rise a good inch before the car started to move. Between the main bushing deflection, and the soft and not-so-much-there-anymore nubs on the stopper washers that weren't hardly doing anything to prevent vertical movement, the M-bar was free to move up and down WAY too much. When I squish the new stopper nubs with my thumb, they aren't all that much stiffer then a bunch of old used examples I have so I decided to try to do something to improve vertical constraint. Hopefully without increasing noise transmission. I have several sets of poly M-bar bushings laying around, after doing several poly bushing jobs and convincing most folks to stay with stock bushings to keep the diff whine in check. I decided to use only the upper larger OD section of a pair to replace the stock stopper/nub washers. This required that you have to do two things. Remove the muffin top of the bushing and increase the ID of the hole in the bushing to 1" to fit over the center metal tube on the eye bushing. I used a thin cut off wheel (1/16") in my 4 1/2" grinder to remove the top of the bushing (worked schlick, clamped the lower part in the vise and slice away) and then a big 1" twist drill to drill out the center. (its about 3/4" to start with). I was surprised how well that worked.Gives off a neat spider web of melting poly strings as you do it too! I used an old upper stopper (the hole is bigger on the upper stopper) above this poly muffin top, but removed the nubs, all but a thin layer of rubber that I left bonded to the metal washer. THen the muffin top, then the M-bar. The thickness of the poly muffin top closely matches the stock nubs and fills the space nicely with slight compression. I did not repeat the poly muffin on the bottom of the eye, thought I'd try just the top first. So the metal parts of the stack up are exactly like stock, so it tightens up like normal, only difference is the replacement of the nubs on the upper stopper with a donut (muffin, croissant, whatever) of poly. Will mention I have the R/T mount in front with the poly snubber above like GrannyKnot. Ok, enough yakking. Put it all back together, and went for a drive. There were several immediate improvements. 1. Clunks are gone. Diff no longer contacts the LSD finned cover diff brace. 2. Diff whine/noise is actually reduced if anything. Introduction of 'some' poly back there did not increase noise transmission. 3. The drive line is 'tighter'. I used to have quite a bit of slope and chatter back there which I attributed to diff and C/V play, but its all gone. Apparently keeping the diff in place and the U-joints/CV's angles controlled makes for a smoother drive line experience. Imagine that.. Totally shocking news, eh? Now I realize the diff wants to twist, so there is likely reason to have poly both above and below the M-Bar to really constrain it. Given what happened with noise transmission change (ie none) I don't think putting in a lower muffin would be an issue. And its so darn easy to do below the M-bar. I'll complete that and let you know the outcome. Temper this with my comment above re: upper stoppers being NLA from Nissan Canada and Japan, maybe this is a way around this growing problem. Can the lower stoppers be far from extinction as well? At least you can drill out a lower stopper to make it work as an upper (only difference is the through hole, larger on top to fit the M-bar pin OD changes).

You bet. The resistor wire in the sender is 10 to 90 ohm, Full to Empty. So 0 ohms (wires connected directly together) is just "really full" (or 'Fuel' as you put it ) . No harm. I've been soldering real wires to those nail heads and not putting up with that silly nail head connector thingy for years. One note, once soldered, remember to support the wires really well so that the solder connection is not allowed to flex or experience vibration from wires moving. It will fail shortly if you don't. Solder is good for electrical properties, not its structural strength or vibration resistance.

Remove the old crumbled center and spot weld in a nice little bearing with the right ID. Or just swap to a cable system. Much better.