Captain Obvious

Not just your shop. Mine's like that too. And so is Granny's! And I had a vise just like yours. Loved it, and I ruined it. Broke it pressing ball joints into my Fiero control arms. Cracked the jaws right off the center tube. That's why I have a hydraulic press now. I've also got a replacement vise similar to the original one, and it's just OK. Sloppier than my first one.

Smells like a Z to me.

Haha!! From the Zcon thread:

Nice work. Makes you wonder how you managed to live all those years without a lathe, right?

I haven't personally confirmed, but my understanding was that the 77-78 sender unit could be removed through the access hole in the rear hatch. I don't know about other years, but I believe 77 on you don't have to drop the tank (or even drain it) to do that kind of work. Thanks bud, and you too!! Yes, it got way colder way quicker than it's supposed to be here. In fact, we got a bunch of snow middle of last week, and it ended my Z driving season with very little warning. I thought I was going to get a couple more weeks, but they salted the roads. I guess there's still a possibility that if we get a couple non-freezing rainy days it could clean off the roads enough to at least take it out and get some gas so I can circulate some stabilizer. As it sits now, it was a big surprise... Tank is pretty much empty and there's no stabilizer in it. We were supposed to get just a dusting of snow followed by an inch of rain that would have washed away any salt they put down. But that's not what happened. Instead, we got four inches of snow and very little rain at the end of the storm. Roads are covered with salt and I got kinda stuck behind the eight ball.

Av8ferg, Your 77 uses a different style lock. Looks like this: After you have removed the hinge screws underneath, there should (might? probably?) be enough of a gap to get in there with a hand or a screwdriver and pull the latch tab down and get the door off the dash. Use a long hooked pick maybe? You want to pull the latching hook downwards to unlatch it. And yes... Even with the lock in the latched position, the hook will still pull down. It's spring loaded, but it pulls down easy. You won't be able to get the lock off the door, but you can send me the whole door with the lock still on it and I'll open it for ya.

All depends on what you mean "handle". The only thing that can go wrong is (since you will be operating in a lower "average" length of cartridge extension) you run an increased risk of bottoming out the strut cartridge . However, if you install lowering springs that are stiffer than stock, you can compensate for the reduced amount of travel. Not sure I said that right.... I'm not a suspension guy. Haha!

These are not the helmets you're looking for.

Yeah, I'm not surprised the first couple seconds are unreliable. After that though, it sounds like it tracks the mixture very nicely. That's cool. I wish I had something like that installed. But back to the point I was trying to make originally... People talk about the mixture oscillating quickly between rich and lean. I propose that the only reason that's occurring is the control system is MAKING that occur. And that's because that's the only way they can measure the mixture. They are using a narrow band sensor and shooting for "an average" mixture at stoichiometric. If you stick an O2 sensor in the Z's exhaust stream and hold the engine condition steady, then you will measure a steady voltage out of the sensor. It won't be flipping around. It will probably be pegged rich, or pegged lean, but it'll be steady.

I'm no expert on O2 sensors, but I don't believe the output will be jumping around unless the mixture is jumping around. When used in the control loop in a car, the only reason the O2 sensor output swings back and forth from rich to lean is because the controller is adjusting the mixture and making the output swing from rich to lean. If you hang that 3914 based meter on your car and you're running lean, it'll always show lean. It won't be flipping around.

Good luck and here's to hoping it's not serious.

Just to be completely clear... There was no "racing" on the street. We were road testing the carburetor rebuild quality. And maybe you'll have a Z ready to drive?

Picking that lock should be a breeze for a locksmith. I'm no locksmith but I'm confident I could do it if you want to pay shipping. Probably cheaper to find a local locksmith though!

That is correct. The gauge should read F if the sender wires are shorted together. Just make sure you're shorting the correct two wires together. Don't do something like accidently short your fuel pump wires together. Make sure you have the fuel gauge wires.

Here's one thread that contains discussion about the spring in the wiper linkage: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/58474-wiper-arm-linkage-assembly-parts/

Haha!!! Don't poke the bear!

Cool. Must be the road! I had a memorable I-85 experience while on the way to the show at Road Atlanta as well. Goes like this: I was riding shotgun with @Zup in his flat-top powered 73 and we were following behind @S30Driver (who was our navigator) in his red 280. Out on I-85 while we had the opportunity, Zup decided to put the pedal to the metal and show me what the boat anchors could do. He pulls out into the left lane and punches it. We pass S30driver and are gaining speed rapidly... Zup is counting off the speed tics as I'm watching the "slow" traffic in the right lane quickly fall behind. ninety-five. one hundred. hundred and five. hundred and ten. At that point, he lets up on the pedal. The car had more to give, but he just wanted to guarantee "over a hundred" and figured that an extra ten would account for any errors in measurement. Anyway, so we're slowing down and are about a half mile in front of our navigator... As our exit for the track peels off to the right!! So after we slowed down, we tucked back into the right lane and let our navigator catch up and pass us. "Re-calculating!"

Well before you go and start looking into other more complicated possibilities, I would double check the results with another compression test gauge. Get your hands on one that you have confidence in. For all you know, it's a test equipment issue. Maybe that lent unit has been dropped one to many times. And as for the test procedure, everything looks good except for at the very end... What do you mean "3-4 seconds for each cylinder"? Are you actually watching the gauge while you crank the engine, or are you just blindly cranking the engine for three or four seconds and assuming the cylinders have topped out in compression pressure by then? Reason I ask, is that in my experience, it takes three to seven compression cycles on the cylinder to top out at peak pressure. If you're just counting to "four one-thousand" and letting off the key, you may only be at half the peak "achievable" pressure. Here's to hoping your having a test procedure or equipment issue and not really having a problem with the engine itself.

Haha!! The link would be much less tenuous if you included "Montana". Or "Zircon-encrusted tweezers"

It's an epidemic.

Just him and the Pygmy Pony?

Yeah, there are plenty of ways to skin this cat. One of the reasons I did what I did was that it's self contained all within the gauge. Running a new wire or two to sensors in the engine would be simpler from the electronics standpoint, but more complicated from the wiring standpoint. In any event, I'm very happy with mine, mostly because it's done. And Jim... You, of course, are completely correct. Looking at the gauges frequently enough is the bottom line "proper" solution. But I learned from experience that even though I thought I DID that, in fact, I did not. I've grown confident and complacent.

Haha! Yeah, I put that in. Here's a thread about the mechanical part of the project. Pretty straight-forward: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/59361-temp-gauge-warning-idiot-lamp/ The real magic (and difficult part of the project) was the electronics behind the scenes to unobtrusively sense the signals and light the LED. It all sounded so simple at the beginning... Couple of comparators, some resistors... You're done, right? Well, to make a long story short... After scoffing at a friend's suggestion that I should just put a microcontroller in there and do everything in the digital realm, I ended up doing just that. After much comparison of different designs, I was able to Muntz a microcontroller based version down to about half the number of components required to do it all analog. Counter-intuitive, but true. So, in the end... the only computer controlled electronics in the car is that warning lamp, and I've got more processing horsepower in that little gauge than the first desktop PC computers. It cost about five bucks worth of parts and took me pretty much all of last winter. So it cost $thousands in labor. Another typical case of processors working differently in a sterile bench-top environment as opposed to the real world installation. It's done. It works. And I'm glad it's over.

I have one in my 77. Tied into both the temp and oil pressure:

Yeah, you're right. There's the possibility I was looking at the starting issue with somewhat rose colored glasses. I've not used a flat top car in the dead of Pennsylvania weather. The Z's were always fair weather cars. So, I'll temper my statement above to point out that I've had great experience with starting the flat tops from Spring through Fall. Cold fall, but fall none-the-less. And I'm sure the winters are way colder in Fitchburg, Wisconsin than they are here. Thanks for keeping me honest!