Mikes Z car

Here are a couple of pictures of the rail width at the side of the hatch. Note that the part of the rail towards the side of the car is chamfered, the side towards the interior of the hatch opening is much more straight. Hope this is an area you asked about in the PM you sent me. I don't have a way of putting pictures in a PM because I don't use a picture hosting service. Same area zoomed out:

I wonder if it would be practical to put a heavy duty transistor in place that would use the contacts as input to the transistor to take the electric load off of the contacts with the output of the transistor in series with the bimetallic metal that drives the needle? Pure speculation on my part as I don't really understand how the bimetallic strip makes the needle turn! Hmmm I wonder if this could be used to extend the life of the clock with the same idea of taking the load off of the contacts.

Saw a blue 77 280Z advertised on craiglist (link below) that has been parked for 12 years. Below is the craiglist link. I bought the louvres off of it so the ones in the picture are not there any more. http://boise.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=nissan+300&srchType=A&minAsk=&maxAsk=

EScanlon, Thanks for the explanation. Mike

You have come a long way on this drawing.

I would be eternally grateful if someone who knows how to read those switch diagrams would write a tech article on how to read them. End of hijack.

Once I used microsoft paint as it prints out many sheets for a large drawing but it doesn't tell you where they go and figuring that out can take quite a while. It also leaves a white border so I have to cut some of that off making sure I leave some on for taping together. It would be a chore for 22 pages though I have used it for 5 pages and that has worked well.

Not sure this is helpful but after you upload you have to click on insert inline. The picture has to be no larger than something like 1200X ? pixels. Sorry but I don't know where to look to find the max size of various files. If uploading doesn't work the file is either too big or isn't one of the file formats supported. Files that I know work: .JPG .GIF (inlcuding animated .GIFs) .SWF Don't remember others, there are around 12 or so total file types supported going from memory from the last time I saw the list. After you upload the file and insert inline you should see something in the edit box that looks like [ ATTACH=CONFIG]55911[/ATTACH] You can cut and paste that string in the edit box like any text to move the picture around just be sure to leave the whole thing intact on one line.

I had one of those battery draining alarms on the Z I used to have, it went off if it sensed a voltage change from the dome light coming on when a door was opened. It had a timer so you had to turn the ignition on within 30 seconds or whatever the timer was set for after you got in the car otherwise it would go off. I set it off myself a few times taking too long to get the ignition on but it did prevent one theft. It never false alarmed.

I actually thought I had a bad valve due to intake/exhaust misfiring and it turned out the problem was my carbs were set too lean.

That is a good explanation, I will try that.

The carbs on the 240Z I used to have may have been out of adjustment since I didn't know how to adjust them. 3 in one might have worked fine if I had had the mixtures set right.

duffman, That is what it does, I don't get much resistance at first but after the damper goes a little ways in to the carb the resistance is there. When I had a 71 240Z back in the late 70s I didn't have the support of this web site and I used 3 in one oil for the dampers. I had to pull the choke every time to pull away from a stop to avoid a stall due to running lean because of damper oil that was too light weight. Over 30 years later I finally found out why.

The damper stalks drop relatively quickly into the top of the carb though the pistons resist being pulled up once the dampers are in place. Thanks on the drawing. I am a big fan of drawings.

I THINK I figured out what was really happening with my carb piston being too easy to push up, I am a little slow to connect the dots sometimes. The formerly leaky valve has some melting on the cap, it looks like a PO dropped it on the exhaust when the exhaust was hot. The melting caused a part of the plastic cap to dribble down below the flat face on the bottom of the stalk cap that is supposed to mate with the flat corresponding face on the very top of the carb and apparently is supposed to make a somewhat air tight seal. This protrusion prevented the stalk cap from screwing down completely to make an airtight seal with the top of the carb. I had noticed the protrusion but not its effect before but only broke off the protrusion this weekend as an afterthought not realizing that fixed the problem. I tried an experiment tonight and unscrewed the carb damper a few turns and sure enough the piston is easy to push up if there is no airtight seal. Sorry I ran everyone around and then found out about the melted cap! At least some good info came out of this troubleshooting I think. Mike Here is an improved drawing. It shows the 3 chamfered areas. They are slightly exaggerated to make them easier to see.

Bruce, Is there any info on the 3000hr barrier coat you mentioned? Was it tested with a salt spray or anything like that? Mike

If he gets $580 for that I will sell the one off of my car and drive with vise grips

I am really curious about what responses you might get to your question. I have used rust bullet (similar to POR 15) and then undercoated over it. I have also experimented with spraying transtar 4423 anti corrosion spray into crevices and then undercoating over that area with the idea that the transtar flows more freely and will flow into cracks better.

Captain Obvious, If the valve sticks open again I will take Blue's advice and replace it. I did have some backfiring through the carb as they were running lean until this last weekend but it didn't happen a lot. Your noticing the missing chamfer on the bump stop washer is a good observation! I realized that chamfer was missing shortly after I posted the drawing. Bruce, Cleaining the pistons and domes seems a great idea, thanks. My front carb piston had been sticking but I freed it by moving the dome as I tightened the screws. Probably need to verify I didn't bend the needle and look at repositioning the nozzle as you suggest. Thanks to everyone for the great information! Mike

Blue, Thanks. I took the leaky valve apart, wiped it off and put it back together like the other one was and now it works okay for some reason. Maybe some dirt got stuck in it. I will recheck it at a later time to make sure it is still working. Attached is a drawing of the valve as I was seeing the one I have.

Wow, Thank you Blue and Captain Obvious! Great info. I do have a micrometer, I will compare the diameters of the two dampers. I will also check how perpendicular the stalks are to the knob. I didn't look at them closely because I figured I didn't know what I was looking for. I am curious Captain Obvious, did you notice any performance issue with the stalk that was bent? The more difficult to push up piston will definitely dent my finger as I push it up. First time I tried it I thought it was stuck.

That may well be a good way of looking at it. I just didn't want it to confuse me by causing some other operating anomaly that later on would leave me scratching my head. My parents went to New Zealand a few times many years back. They really liked your country.

This seems rather off the wall to me but the two dampers on the SUs on my car are rather different in their resistance as I stick my finger in each carb and pull up on the piston. I had emptied the old oil from both carbs with my finger over the end of a drinking straw and then I put 30 wt in both dampers on the carbs (couldn't find 20 wt here). I was setting up the mixtures in the carbs VIA a 2003 beandip post and while getting good results (accidentally laid some rubber for the first time with this car today) I noticed that the one piston was much easier to pull up than the other. I swapped the dampers between the two carbs and the problem followed the dampers indicating the dampers are different. There is plenty of oil in both carb dampers as indicated by a smooth pull of the piston all the way to the top position. They seem to drop at the same speed. Is there a way to know which damper is right or in this case would it be better just to get two new ones? If they are different I would think the slower damper would cause that carb to be richer leading to an imbalance. Anyone seen this problem before? Thanks for any ideas. Mike

I don't know if this is a valid idea but I look at the green movement as a bad thing as currently being done but maybe it raises awareness of the environment to assist us in accepting something that will actually be worthwhile later on? What I am hoping for is to retrofit my 240Z with anti gravity and maybe with electric drive some day because I want to keep the car a long time. Anything that increases MPG I tend to like.

The PO of my car had it painted and it looks like they didn't use primer below the doors and below the rear bumper. The paint is stuck on good everywhere but those two locations. I didn't know that sort of thing ever happened to anyone else.