Walter Moore

By "Big 3" you mean Toyota, GM, and who is the third? I somehow doubt that Nissan would make the list unless you included Renault in the total. I read an article the other day where the author essentially said that had the Tesla been produced by GM, or Toyota for that matter, it would have been viewed as a feeble, rushed to market failure. But since it is produced by a small, financially strapped company it is given a wide latitude and regarded as "innovative" in spite of its obvious flaws. As for future "classics", there are just too many great cars available right now for me to even guess. I suspect that nearly all of them will be viewed as classics, like the 60's and 70's muscle cars are now, after the silly 30MPG CAFE rules take effect and kill off the remainder of the former big 3.

Actually, offensive messages long predate the Internet. Back 25 years ago, before the World Wide Web, when the Internet was a restricted network that connected college campuses, and a 1200 BPS modem was considered a mind boggling luxury, all the local BBS sites were filled with obnoxious people engaging in "flame wars". Personally, even back then I had better things to do with my time than make people angry, but there are still people like that. (Even around here...) As for the ladies on this site, I personally TRY to never say anything to them that I wouldn't say to one of my teenage daughters. But if I start to say things like "You aren't actually planning to walk outside dressed like THAT are you?" or "So what is it that you find so attractive about high school drop-out losers who don't know what size pants they need?" well, just smack me or something.:classic:

I always wondered if people were confusing "back pressure" in a 4 cycle engine (which is bad) with the standing wave formed in a properly tuned exhaust on a 2 cycle engine (which is essential) Not many people today have a lot of experience with 2 stroke engines, but back when I was in high school and college several of my friends had 2 cycle motorcycles. When those things hit the RPM where the standing wave forms (what they called "on the pipe") the horse power output went WAY up. I had a friend who dropped his Kawasaki 550 three cylinder bike repeatedly because he would forget about that and absent minded-ly accelerate gently down the road, only to have the thing fly out from under him when he hit the magic speed. fortunately for everyone involved he sold the thing before it killed him. If the exhaust on a 2 stroke isn't literally tuned to produce that standing wave, the performance really suffers. (The legend is that Yamaha originally only made musical instruments, but got into motorcycles because they were involved with tuning the exhaust pipes on other manufacturer's products.)

I have been driving my 240Z a lot more the past couple of weeks than I did when I first got the thing running, and it is difficult adjusting to the stares. My wife rode with me to Walmart this afternoon and kept commenting on all the people who were stopping and watching us roll by. I don't know if it is that the car is so unusual, or the obnoxious paint color. To be honest, I picked that color in part because I wanted people to see it when I was driving. The LAST thing that I want after spending 5 years rebuilding it is for someone to smash into me because they didn't notice that I was in the way. (My mother's 79 Honda Civic was hit three or four times in its short one year life because the mud brown paint color, and its small size made it invisible to the locals.) On the other hand, it appears that a large percentage of the local population does not recognize the car at all.

Beautiful car. That is a very nice restoration.

Heh, To quote Garfield (the cat) "I resemble that remark!" No offense intended. (Or taken I hope.)

Yes, there are both original and aftermarket. You can find a lot of information like this using the search function. Since you are new, here is one quick link: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/SBC1C03F/30-8261 The same part is available, I am sure, from other sources if you have the Nissan part number which you can get from the parts CD sold on this site. On the other hand, I bought an aftermarket support strut at Advance Auto for around 1/10 the price of a "factory" part. It just depends on what you want. If you want or need to keep the car "original" then the more expensive part is what you want. It will not keep the hatch open any better however...

Actually, I have had several older GM products where the exhaust fell off just after the converter, and in most cases I was able to just drive them that way for years. The older converters did a pretty good job of silencing the exhaust noise without a muffler. Some newer converters however will be objectionably loud without a muffler. (The car companies must have made them less restrictive over the years...) But in my opinion you still need enough pipe to get the exhaust behind the passenger compartment, which on a Z means out the back.

I'll buy that. The listed max load capacity of my 71 is 420 lbs. (Which almost makes it a one person car... ) Rule of thumb is that a "series 2" (Forgive me those who know better) weighs about 2400 lbs. (curb weight) So 2400 + 420 is 2840, which is 383 less than the GVWR shown. The hint is that the placard shows a higher REAR wheel weight, which isn't true without passengers and cargo.

The SawZAll approach mentioned in another thread somewhere around here... worked for me. Cut the pin in the gap on either side of the strut. Then you can remove the strut from the car as if the pin was removed. The pin fragments will come out of the lower control arms easily, but you will have to take the strut to a machine shop to have the remainder of the pin pressed out of the strut housing. The shop I used said they had a hard time getting it out with a 30 ton press. By the way, you may want to check the rest of your rear suspension anyway. I tried to hammer out the pin on the left rear side of my Z. I was pounding forward as I recall, and now years later when I took it in for an alignment, they tell me that everything is good, except that the left rear wheel has over 0.5 degrees of toe angle. I assume that the pounding must have bent something. I wonder if I could just "adjust" it again with my sledge hammer.... No, I think I will leave well enough alone for now. I don't drive the car that often, and I never race it. At worst it will likely just wear the tires out quicker.

I strongly recommend buying the SU video from www.ztherapy.com it tells you just about everything you would ever want to know about adjusting your carbs. Also, search the forums. Are you sure the problem is in the carbs? Check the point gap, or dwell if you have a meter, and make sure the timing isn't doing something strange around 3K. There could be many things that would cause this sort of thing, including the fuel pump, so you have a lot of ground to cover.

It certainly guarantees that you are not spinning the rotor with it mounted to an uncontrolled surface. With rotors that are removable from the hub (like on a Z car) there is a risk that someone will clamp it to a lathe with either the center or square-up surface locating on a part of the rotor that isn't tightly controlled. That will cause the finished cut to be out of square to the calipers when it is mounted back on the car. Personally, I never turn brake rotors. If they are within the specified minimum thickness I just replace the pads. I know that in doing that the car will shake and shimmy under some braking loads for the first 3 to 5 thousand miles, but it always goes away eventually. I am just cheap, and have found that rotors that are not turned every time will last MANY thousands of miles longer than rotors that are "trued up" every time. If in the business of repairing brakes, then I would probably want to turn the rotors every time, because it would reduce my warranty costs. (And increase my long term part business.)

I actually saw something similar to that on a bumper sticker at an SCCA race in the early 80's "Why do the English drink warm beer? Because they have Lucas refrigerators." It was on a Triumph, a Spitfire if I remember correctly. My only experience with British cars was a friend's Austin. On that car at least the insult seemed appropriate. But considering the number of American cars that I have seen catch fire from defective wiring, the bumper sticker may have been over-reaching slightly.

Yes, you have to disconnect the vacuum advance.

They look like 3 screw units, which I suppose could be called "later". Count the number of screws that hold the domed part to the body. The early cars had 4 screws, the later had 3. For pictures check the "spotters guide" here: http://www.ztherapy.com/