70 Cam Guy

Interesting perspective, I never would have thought that. I like the mutant vehicles description, it's perfect There's supposed to be a old school car show on Treasure Island on July 18th. I would take my 240 but I'll be driving back from vacation that day (from Portland). http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5112

Good luck with the purchase! Also check under the battery for rust, that is another common spot (at least on the 240's) but thankfully the previous owner of my car installed a plastic tray years ago If your Craigslist is anything like up here, there always seems to be a steady flow of Z parts. It's not a huge amount but there's a handful of fresh posts everyday if you're looking for used parts

Lots of art cars roaming around Oakland and Emeryville, especially around the Crucible! Do they do Burning Man?

Is the signal getting from the starter relay to your starter? You are certain the 'new' battery is good? It is not uncommon for batteries to sit on the shelf for a long time and lose their charge Your starter should have the positive and ground cables from the battery as well as another for the solenoid signal. All of the connections, I am assuming as everything is new, are clean? You can bench test your starter or test it on the car by jumping 12 volts to the solenoid signal. Please be careful doing this, make sure the car is not in gear, it's probably a good idea to disconnect the coil wire to be safe as well. I have a bump start tool that makes this easy

What I did to chase down my vacuum leaks was by spraying carb cleaner around the carburetor mounting surfaces, vacuum lines, fittings, along the manifold gaskets, and very importantly, the throttle shaft on the carbs. The throttle shafts on my first set of carbs leaked and it meant I could not balance the carbs and the idle would not settle below, say, 1200 rpm. The bushings are common wear points and wear out of round (oval) creating air leaks. The idle would only come down with the throttle adjusting screw backed out fully on the front carb, using the rear carb to control idle. Basically this means they are grossly unbalanced at idle and the mixture is haywire because you've really shut down the front carb by closing the throttle screw. You will need to verify you have no vacuum leaks before attempting the synchronize/balance procedure. The rpms will bog if the carb clean finds a vacuum leak. Some people say it raises but mine bogged and I could have stalled the engine had I kept it on the leak. Either way, you will likely hear a change in engine rpm. Looking at the amount of turns you have on the mixture screws, that sounds like the float height could be off. You really need to make sure you don't have vacuum leaks before fiddling with the float height. Factory manual can be found here: http://xenons30.com/reference.html Also, the instructional DVD from http://www.ztherapy.com/ is supposed to be very good. Bruce Palmer, proprietor of ZTherapy, is a regular contributor to this board, and will likely have advice for you if he sees this thread. Aside from what I've said, read through the threads in this section, there is a wealth of information here. It's really how I become familiar with the carbs. The FSM helps to understand the carburetors as well.

Sounds to me like a "no crank" condition, and not a "crank-no start" right? I agree with Zs-Ondabrain, check your starter wiring (battery cables), and for good ground contact. Is the signal wire to the starter connected? Ignition switch and starter relay should also be checked for function. The battery is good right?

Clean 3rd gen! I used to own a '70 Camaro, my screen name goes way back. It is very different from the Camaro but it is a fun car in its own way. It's light, handles well even in stock form, has great lines, and the stock L24 sounds great. Coming from domestic muscle cars, side draft carbs will likely be pretty foreign but they are not that bad. If your dad was into old school BMW's then you may have experience with side drafts. There's a little process to synchronize them but it's all manageable, especially if you've swapped the LS1 into your 3rd gen. Parts availability is still pretty good but not as abundant as the classic American cars. The Z cars are pretty universally liked from my experience so far. I enjoy hearing the muscle car guys tell stories about their first experiences with the 240Z. One of my friends seems to always have a new story about his buddy's old 'scarab z'

That happens to everyone so don't feel too bad. "While I'm at it" will be the death of all of us Your engine build looks really clean!

Another local owner! Congrats on your find, it looks really clean!

I am assuming you meant to say electric pump? My car has only the mechanical pump on the engine. I heard an interesting trick today from my friend's dad. He said they used to put the old wooden clothes pins on the fuel lines to absorb heat, and wrap the lines in tin foil. He acknowledged that there are better insulators now but I thought the clothe pins idea was interesting to say the least.

I was thinking Summit Racing was cheaper but they seem to be in line with suspension.com pricing. The Prothane kits are $142 and I have heard they are good products. That's my mistake I'm not sure who I'll go with yet but your link seems to have a better knowledge base behind it for our cars. I get the impression from reading their page that they are better equipped to answer my application specific questions and help me get the parts I need.

I finally grabbed my calipers and measured the sway bars. Looks like they're 19mm front and rear. I am definitely ready to make this thing a handler. I just have more ideas than money I've heard the Mulholland sway bars were painted yellow? Can anyone confirm that? That suspension website is top notch! Their prices aren't great but they seem like they'll be able to provide the best customer service. Thanks! (it's nice to get some links back since my desktop computer took a **** last week) I think I jinxed myself because I think I had my first taste of vapor lock. I was less than a mile from home and the car just died on me. I was able to get it started again but the fuel pressure gauge didn't even register. I had to tow it the rest of the way home. It started up tonight and ran fine again with normal pressure. ....I think I realize now why every Z car I have seen so far has the insulation on the hard lines mounted to the head. I think I might drain the tank too and make sure there's nothing ugly in there too. It's definitely a project but it sure was nice this week!

Thanks! I actually have Illumina's and Eibach 2.5" springs, courtesy of JMortenson and a fair price. The next step is the Prothane bushing set so I can replace some things when I do the tear down My friend gave me some yellow sway bars fr and rr to use but I don't think they are 25mm. I haven't measured them yet so I could easily be mistaken. He also gave me some sectioned front struts he had already so I only need to clean them up and weld on the collars.

Even though I've had my 240Z for a couple months now, this is the first week I've really had to drive it around. I drove it to work a couple days and went to my first Datsun meet tonight at Dublin Nissan. I haven't had a chance to install the headers and exhaust yet so I am putting up with a rusty muffler and ticking midpipe. All that aside I love the sound of the engine and it seems to get better every time I drive it. The power has a sneaky way of coming on, almost like a small turbo engine. It has decent torque down low but the power really comes on above 3K. I've definitely driven faster cars but this has a major fun factor. I still want to do triple Webers for that old school cool factor, and the sound of Webers is awesome. I've also really been inspired by Arne's recent exhaust thread to try and recreate the Clifford exhaust when funds permit as that is the header I bought (somewhat unwittingly if I'm honest) The handling was unexpected. This car has sat since 1992 in a garage and has 51K miles. The stock suspension does very well when you get used to the soft struts. It leans a fair amount cruising through a turn, but throttle on, and it starts to shoot through. It has a touch of oversteer but nothing side ways. Overall, a very pleasant surprise and lots of fun. It needs that spook for the freeway, I couldn't believe the difference the air dam made for my 70 Camaro. It's more than just looks people! One thing that I started joking about was the Buick squat when you nail the gas (or like an Oakland scraper if you know what that is ). As I've been told, that's completely normal for these Z cars. I have all the parts to convert to coilovers without cutting my stock struts so I'm very much looking forward to trying out some solid springs and struts. I think with this, it's not so much a single thing that has made me fall for this car but a number of the intangibles that I don't always communicate as eloquently. I don't miss the fancy stock stereo that my 07 Civic coupe has and it's odd, that I almost feel compelled to listen to classic rock instead of the metal I normally have on All in all, I'm very happy with the car and hope you all enjoy yours

The 30 amp fuse was blown? Look at that circuit for the short and wrong connections... What system does that fuse protect?

I bought the Synchrometer from MSA for this purpose. It is made in Germany, and is a very high quality tool for ~$40 My friend has an old STE synchrometer and it says made in West Germany... it goes a ways back I felt comfortable investing in it because I knew eventually I would need it again and when I move to triple Webers I'll definitely need it Some of the old school guys will actually use a small vacuum line or fuel line to listen in the carb throat. When you match the 'hiss' sound, you might be surprised how close they get. I had a Porsche tech friend tell me about how a Ferrari guy set up the carbs using this technique. Of course, if someone is close by, you won't need to do anything I suggested

I figured that is what you were implying. L6 vs a sbc is apples and cucumbers, completely different setups. I'm enjoying learning a new engine and new world in the Z's. I also love the universal respect people have for these cars. The import guys like them, and the muscle car guys like them and all have stories about 'when they came out'.

Thanks, I'm mostly familiar with the muscle car exhausts. A few years back H-pipes and X-pipes came in style because they were supposedly good for a few horsepower (scavenging benefits?). My old Camaro had true duals, no h-pipe or x-pipe and I was perfectly happy with it

Fuses blow when the circuit is shorted to ground. This is essentially not much different than shorting terminals on the battery so the current goes through the roof and fries the link. The fuse panel in a car works the same as a breaker does in your home. When the appliance, or say your welder or air compressor tries to pull too much power through the circuit, the breaker pops. In this case you have a replaceable fuse. A short circuit in your fuse panel may cause the link to blow but not necessarily the fuse box itself One trick that some techs do when chasing down ignition off draws (battery drains) is they will pull fuses one at a time until the draw goes away. They have effectively isolated the circuit to inspect using the method. You could theoretically do this in an opposite manner to see which circuit is popping the link (ie remove fuses keeping track of location and replace until the link starts to sizzle). The problem is I don't know how expensive your link is. That is not an ideal method, perhaps a last resort. If you have an inexpensive volt-ohm meter (multimeter) check continuity on the wires in your ignition circuit. It sounds like the link fries when you key on so it's probably not going to work checking voltage except on constant hot wires. Basically if you find 2 wires that have continuity when they should not, you know where to start looking for bad insulation or wrong connections. Analog and digital multimeters are inexpensive at Radio Shack and Fry's.

From another thread I believe I have a Clifford header. It came with a fabbed up Y-pipe that I was going to use to mate to the exhaust I got from the same person. I bet a good muffler shop reproduce the original design without much difficulty. A nice future project perhaps. I really wonder how it sounds and if it wouldn't benefit from a nice crossover/x-pipe

Having my motorcycle license since 2001 I am very familiar with driving defensively. It keeps you aware and you sometimes learn the hard way when you become complacent. I am glad you made it through physically unscathed. Close calls are good reminders to appreciate what we have and to be mindful of the daily routine. btw, clean car!

Mine auto forwards to this link: http://www2.zhome.com:81/ Great resource

Cool, thanks for the input! A popular upgrade that I did on my truck brakes was to buy the dual diaphragm brake booster from, I believe, the V6 4Runner, and T100 trucks. Some of the pickups had them too I think but I can't remember, it's been a while since I did the swap I, too, have the Earl's SS lines with the stock brakes. I completely flushed the old fluid when I installed my new brake master and wheel cylinder, and the pedal is very firm. I am actually very happy with the brakes at this point. I have all the parts, and spare struts now to do my coilovers and I can't wait to see what it'll do with some fresh springs and struts

After being stubborn and testing everything I could test on the car, I finally threw up my arms and pulled the alternator back off. Pep Boys tested it on their machine and it failed every single test. So to give some closure to this thread, even an apparently unused, off the shelf, Bosch reman can be no good from the get-go. I had an auto-electric shop rebuild the original alternator and they hooked me up with a new voltage regulator. Well what do you know! It charges and it's running fantastic. I drove it to work today and I was smiling the whole way. Runs like a top and handles great

I've wondered about this too because even the Toyota truck guys go to a Land Cruiser master when they swap the 4cylinder calipers for the larger V6 calipers