Mikes Z car

I am curious, are the stem seals just a rubber part so they just pull off once the spring is compressed? If they are metal do they just unscrew to get them out?

Shortly after I changed out the rings on my 1st 240Z the cam started making a horrible screeching sound. With the valve cover off I saw the cam lobe closest to the firewall had no oil on it and looked dry. Couldn't see the problem so I re bent the spray bar a little (might have taken it off and stuck pins in the orrifces) and never had further trouble with it. Never could tell what caused it to stop oiling on that one lobe.

A thought I have had is that the bass response could be improved if there could be a flexible seal of some kind that would seal the speaker (acoustically if I can use that term) to the plastic trim piece. I don't know if ordinary closed cell glued to the speaker side of the rear plastic panel around the holes would work. I am going from memory on how my first 240Z sounded with its stock speaker, I haven't used the stock radio speaker yet in my current car as someone put in an aftermarket radio. Anyone here study speaker enclosures?

You are right, it is DXF. I have imported DXF into Sketchup Pro, haven't tried the others. My modeling skills are very limited. I can't do 3D anywhere near as well as you can. I do enjoy very much making 3D drawings if I can use them to illustrate something, to me that isn't work it is fun. 3D can really communicate a lot of information quickly I think. I have wondered if there is a way to make a better factory service manual by making a 3D drawing of the early Z that includes electrical and other systems that can be captured from certain angles (or zoomed in) as ordinary JPG pictures but that is way beyond anything I can do.

INST3D, Thanks for your drawing and posting the link with the pictures. I want to make a 3D drawing of the rear frame members to show where holes are for anti corrosion spraying and those pictures help a lot, though I still don't know if I can make the drawing. So many curves and angles in the frame for that part of the car. Is there a possibility when you get done you could export your drawing into DFX I think it is called so it could be loaded into sketchup? Thanks, Mike

Here are a few views of the spring hole. It is rather close to the spring to see a lot of it though. It might be easier to see if someone has a picture from the inside of the car with the cross hatched vinyl removed.

Not sure I am the guy to take the picture but for clarification, would you prefer a picture that is end on to the center of the brake drum? Would it be better to have the car weight on the brake drum so the angle of the suspension in the picture looks like it does when the car is on the road? I am glad to see someone working on a 3D model.

This is what my 240Z looks like in that area- MFR date Jan 1970.

That is amazing.

Rob, I did the same thing you did when I found a 240Z in the local junkyard, I grabbed some things I don't need just to preserve them. Mike

Many thanks to Jeff G 78 and postings by others for help with this. I noticed the instructions on the standard tank seal can called for thoroughly stirring the tank seal which I thought I had done but when I poured the seal in the tank there were a few lumps. If you look closely at the flat surface on the right (tank baffle) in the completed picture below you can see a couple of small lumps likely from lack of stirring. I used a pint and a half which is a half pint more than what POR says you need so it should be fine. I spilled some tank sealer on the outside of the tank and thereby discovered how durable the POR standard tank sealer is when I started wire wheeling the exterior of the tank in preparation for painting. Mike Original dirty tank: After acid cleaning with hydrochloric acid (per the bottle, this is a substitute for muriatic acid commonly used for this): After marine clean and metal ready: Completed (pink color from camera light): More details of my experience: Gas tank seal process.txt

I remember someone saying they blocked the air vents in the cowl and still got air into the car okay, hopefully they might see this thread. With the fan on air should be drawn from around the cowl in other areas as there isn't an airtight seal between the cowl and the car body.

I have wondered about the idea of making a very small 1/2" tall fiberglass dam hidden under the windshield side of the cowl to divert water to the sides instead of letting it run into the wiper motor area in addition to putting a water catcher tray right under the cowl air induction holes. Not sure the idea makes sense but it is an idea anyway. Mike

Mike, Is there a contact point for the person you spoke with? Mike

Sounds like it should be cleared for takeoff

It is mushier than I would like. I don't have the machining skills to make the replacement part so I was trying to see if there was another way to tighten up the existing brass part.

This is a WAG (wild arse guess) but I wonder if the spring might have hopped out of its retainer at one end?

Great pictures too. Does anyone know if it might be possible to solder the original brass looking part to the pot metal pivot (or whatever that metal is called) the handle is mounted in?

I want him to give my early Z battery back, looks like he is making off with it.

Wonderful looking car, same color as my first Z.

Where did you last see the hairy guy? I want to make a controversial video of him.

I took each fuseholder out and soldered both ends of the rivets and the connections each wire made to the fuseholder assemblies. I also did the headlight relay upgrade to make the headlight switch last forever. I also soldered the two heavy white wires to their connectors (alternator and battery wires I believe) that are plugged together above the passenger's right knee area (USA models) and then plastered them inside with dielectric grease. The clear vinyl covers of those two connectors showed signs of overheating (black) giving me a clue they needed attention. I sure can see the wisdom of other routes such as fuse box replacement. I used to have a (69?) Triumph GT6 Mk3, the headlight switch kept falling out of the dash. Can't remember if there were other issues but I was amazed anyone would build a car with such lousy switches. Did Lucas have no sense of quality? Mike This is a drawing I made of what I saw when I took the fuseholder assemblies out:

I took pictures of the inside of my gas tank as I am nearly done cleaning it prior to sealing it with the POR15 sealer. This picture was taken after running 2 gallons of hydrochloric acid through it (muriatic acid substitute according to the label) in four 1/2 gallon applications over two days and a quart of marine clean the third day. Thanks Jeff G 78 for your assistance with this. My tank wasn't bad to start with as no particles or chunks came out, just rusty water. Doesn't, er, everybody do this for entertainment?

On my car when I had the horn button off I could ground the metal plate that was behind the horn button with a wire and I could hear the click from the relay in the passenger foot well easily. One metal plate gets pushed into the other to ground the horn relay, I don't know if they all work like that.