z_pyro

i've heard phosphoric acid can get rid of surface rust. where could i get some, what's the average price, and how easy is it to use? i have a tiny bit of surface rust in my spare tire well, under my battery tray, on my roof and a bubble above the gas cap.

i checked my battery after charging it 2day, and i saw a 10 milliamp drain. BUT NOTHING WAS ON!!! it seems i have a short to ground somewhere. has anyone else had this problem with early z's or other 30+ yr old cars? how would i track this problem down? once i have the car street legal ($330 registration, $130/month insurance), i won't hafta worry about it, as the small current drain can be replaced by the alternator. but i'd like to get to the bottom of this, for peace of mind.

well, i'm 16, and i have pretty much no driving record. what is 15/30 or 15/50?

on my 71 240, the previous owner put in a L28, and a Mallory Promaster coil. how should I hook up the wires to make the tach work? this is how i have it hooked up now;the car runs, but the tach doesn't work: ------I n...-.I====B==to distributor== .......I .coil.I .......I p..+.I====BW==to wiring harness== .......I ------I 1=Covered BW to harness 2=GW to harness I---1--------2---I I......................I I......................I I...Resistor......I i used a multimeter to check for continuity, and found that the covered black and white wire goes to the tach, and the uncovered one goes to the ignition switch. however, if i connect the wires like the wiring diagram says (switching the two BW wires), i get no spark @ the coil. what's going on here??

i've heard some people speaking of inspection for insurance. if you're insuring only the other driver (legal mininmum...it's still $130 a month!!), you don't need this inspection, right?

my battery is dead!! the only things that were on were the dome light and the glove box light (overnight). how long would it take for the battery to go down to 5 volts using just those lights? could there be some kind of voltage drain that I don't know of? also, which is better: trickle charging the battery, or using a charger to put 12V into it and starting the car that way then let the alternator charge the battery?

I HAVE CHECKED THE FUSE!!! you can bet a million dollars on it, it isn't the fuse! where would i check the wires? i can only barely reach the connectors in the back, and i don't know where they go from there.

i've already bought the car for $140. that's for the parts ($40 for cap/rotor for Mallory Unilite Distributor, and after the module on that burned out, $100 for a reconditioned points distributor.). the car was donated to my auto shop teacher. it was just sitting in this guy's driveway, and he gave it to his friend (shop teacher). the shop teacher was going to get the car running, then sell it to a kid who needed a car (me!). it had a Mallory Unilite Distributor, but the cap + rotor were missing. we got those, and got the car running. since we were using an old battery, we had to put a charger on it to get it started. doing this made a voltage spike, which burned out the module on the distributor. so we ordered a points distributor, put it in and got the car running. we then drove it home (uninsured, unregistered). it's sitting in my driveway now. the only rust on it is some surface rust on a couple of small places on the exterior, and some surface rust where the spare tire goes. there are no front floor carpets, but the rear deck carpet is in damn good condition for 30 yrs old. the previous owner put in a L28 w/ N24 head, converted to dual downdraft Weber carbs, added Mallory fuel pump, Promaster coil and the infamous Unilit Distributor. there was an alarm on it at one time, but it was disconnected and i dont know what the hell he hooked it up to (it was installed in the very back of the rear deck, under the hatch latch, and the wires were run under the center console to all of the wires under the dash). the heater/AC was taken out as well. it has no radio. the deck glass has probably been replaced, as it has the horizontal defroster lines instead of the vertical lines that came on the series 1 71's (and there was a lot of broken auto glass on the deck). the "spare" has been worn to the point that the tread is coming off, it's almost completely bare and the sharp steel is poking out (ow!!). the turn signals, one brake light and one headlight don't work (i' getting a new turn signal switch). the dash isn't too horrible, just some pretty small cracks, and the previous owner tried to put a radar detector on the dash and used some kind of really thick glue that won't come off, and it's a real eyesore. the fuel gague, speedo and tach dont work, nor do the lights that light up the gagues. i can't get ahold of the previous owner right now, but i'll try, just to see what the hell else he did to the car!! i think that's pretty much it!

it really isn't all that bad. it sounds worse than it looks. i would also think that there would be more rust and other kinds of wear on the car if it were a 150k car....

as long as I've had the car, it hasn't worked (I got the car last week). I've done nothing to change it. Like I said, I have checked the fuses. not just visually, with a multimeter, i checked for both continuity and resistance.

if an L26 stock will bump up the ponies, would an L28 w/ dual downdraft Webers do it even more?

and YES, i HAVE checked the fuses!

my 71 240z only has one brake light working. the bulbs have been checked, they're both good. the driver side light doesn't work at all. the passenger side does, except when the turn signal switch is turned to the right, then the light goes out. (the turn signals don't work either). i'm getting a new turn signal switch, will that fix the problem? or is the problem in the wiring?

well, i checked the fuses, both visually AND with a multimeter, they're both good. i also checked the wire going from the headlight to the fuse box, that's good as well.

k, on my 71 240Z, only one headlight works (left). the other doesn't. so i went to where the bad light connects to the plug that goes into the wiring harness and disconnected it, then removed the whole light from the bucket. i then went to the other headlight, and disconnected it. I plugged the other light in its place, and it didn't work. so i figured the light was bad. but i was bored last night, and connected a 9 volt battery to the connector on the light, and it lit up (although pretty dim). is this just the flasher filament working? also, i noticed the light had some broken glass in it, and there was a chip on the INSIDE of the lens. am i mistaken, or do i need a new headlight(s)? P.S. the lights have little emblems on the lenses, look like C's, or maybe D's. are these the stock lights, or just something else?

what kind of condition would they be in? i know the seats are kinda torn up, the brake pedal's rubber cover is coming apart, the steering wheel kinda looks grungy.... other than that, the car is in pretty good condition

since the Z odo only has 5 digits, how would you tell that a car had 52,000 or 152,000 miles on it??

k, update about the brake lights turns out the brake switch was missing a lead now, the right side brake light works, but the left doesn't. where does the harness for the rear brakes go? where should i check for power (i have one of those pointy screwdrivers with the light)?

my 71 240Z has no tail/brake lights or turn signals. i know the lights themselves aren't to blame, cuz when i turn the hazard lights on, the turn signals and the brake lights work. the reverse lights work as well. could the problem be @ the combination switch? the turn signals don't work when I use that.

i'm pretty sure it isn't the lights themselves, when i use the turn signal switch, they don't come on at all; when I use the hazard light switch, they do. the car runs, just not if I switch the wires; if i do so, there is no spark @ the coil. the carbs aren't exactly backfiring. the car runs on for a second or two, then there is what sounds like two pieces of kinda smooth metal rubbing mixed with some kind of escaping air, and some smoke floats out of the carbs.

k, i have a 71 240Z, 280z engine. the only lights that work are: reverse lights headlights hazard lights glovebox light dome light my turn signals, tailights/brake lights, etc. don't work. I've double cheked the fuses in the box, they're all good. what could be wrong? also, my fuel gauge, tach, and speedo don't work (the clock doesn't work either, but whose 30 yr old Z clock does?!?). i've checked the wiring according to the haynes wiring diagram. If I switch the two black wires (from speedo and fro ign. sw.), either the car runs w/no tach, or there's no spark @ the coil. there's a spring-lookin thing coming from my speedo going to the underside of my dash.(...just had a thought....maybe trip odo?) that's just sitting there. what's it for? when i turn the car off after runnning for a bit, it runs on for a couple of seconds, then kinda "coughs" out of the carbs (dual downdraft Webers, btw). this is because of the timing being off, right? while running (idling), there is an odd sound coming from the engine, sounds kinda like escaping pressure + metal rubbing together. i've heard it may be the fan clutch. any suggestions? I just got the car, it'll cost $300+ to register it, plus another $200-$300 to get it insured (why do other teens have to be so damn stupid?!?). The lights issue seems to be the most important one, seeing as driving w/o them is illegal. Please help!! _pyro