Captain Obvious

Absolutely! You can't come in here dropping it that you've got a collection from Roadsters to modern NISMOs, and expect to get away without pics. Just isn't right! There are rules you know! That's just cruel! Haha!!

Well that's not good. Can you actually see where it's making contact, or are you hearing something inside the housing where the bearings are?

@pazt2prezent Well now that you're here, don't go away. Stick around. You might like it here! And... Pics or it didn't happen! Let's see some shots of the new addition!

I know it might not be an option for you, but I bought ACDelco part number 45G25036 from Rock Auto. That kit contains everything you need for one side. Two rubber bushings and all the metal pieces. Comes with metal tube, two large washers, two small washers, and a nut. Looks like this: But since you already have all the metal hardware, you would only need one kit. Use one of the rubber bushings on each side. Poly on the front, and rubber on the back. Looks like this: The rubber bushings have a wide side and a narrow side. The narrow side goes towards the frame of the car. It's hard to see the difference once everything is all smashed in place with the nut, but you can see the difference before it's assembled onto the car. The orientation of the bushings should look like this:

Oh, and the obvious fix to your problem is... Drive your Z more often!!

Jeff, I guess it's possible, but I'm wondering if maybe your float levels are a low contributing to the problem. I'm thinking that if it only takes two weeks for the bowls to evaporate that far down, then there wouldn't be so many people with gummed up stinky gas left in the bowls of cars that sat for a year? Also, do you have the stock air cleaner and stock vent tubing in place?

The Tension/Compression rods (what you called doglegs) look great. My only suggestion is that you might consider running a combination of rubber and poly bushings instead of all poly. There have been reports of snapped rods when used with all poly. The belief is that the poly is too stiff and eventually snaps the rods and many people (myself included) run poly bushings on the front side of the bar, but run rubber on the back side.

Thanks, I get it now. That makes a lot of sense. It was never supposed to be seen by the customer. I think the original suggestion included the belief that it was supposed to be shipped like that, but you're saying it was an internal protective fixture only. That's quite plausible.

Haha! Sounds like a great place to store it. Seriously though, I have no idea. Seems like a lot of cost to put those on the ball joint just for shipping protection, but I don't have any other great ideas. Did you buy parts for the T/C rods? Reason I ask is there's a rubber protective bootie that comes with some of the upgrade kits: PS - Is it just me, or does the guy in that encabulator video look like Dickless from Ghostbusters? You know... Professor Jerry Hathaway.

Glad to hear everyone is OK. Has the other shoe dropped yet where the woman who U-turned in front of you us suing you for damages? Any inkling of that sort of crap? And in an obvious thread-jack... I've been thinking I should get a dash-cam. What is everyone using? Anyone have one they recommend?

Yup. That's the Encabulator alright. Then they made it even better by adding a turbo. It's awesome.

Thanks for the details. Learn something every day!

Wow. that would be an OLD encabulator for sure. They've long been replaced with the turbo versions haven't they?

The aluminum housing of the antenna assembly should be electrically grounded to the body. And the extendable antenna (mast) portion must be electrically isolated from the "ground" of the body while being connected to the center prong on the co-ax cable on the interior of the car. It's been so long since I've been inside one of those things that I don't remember the brass finger things, but if they slide along the mast, they're probably there to help insure electrical connection.

Good luck with the project, and here's to hoping it works out great. One thing... Just because they say "no release agent" required, it's not always true. A little bit, even if it's just as insurance won't hurt!

The pistons are supposed to be hard to push up. I agree with the assessment that there is something wrong with the "easy" one. Sounds like the check valve jiggly bits on the stalk are not sealing correctly.

Neat project. I'm no expert on molding parts, but it really looks like a tricky project to me. I got some questions and ideas: Where are you going to put the parting line in the mold to separate it to remove the finished part? Are you planning to pour the mold in two stages and have the part line along the front and back faces of the finished part? If so, I would recommend against that. I think the part line would be much more hidden if it were along the top and bottom thinner edges of the part. A lot less post mold cleanup. But the problem is setting things up so that's where the parting line goes is more difficult. I've seen where people pour the whole thing in one shot and them use a sharp knife to cut the mold open to create the parting line and get the original pattern part out. But if that's what you're planning, I think you're going to have a hard time blindly "aiming" for the narrow edge of the pattern. Or are you just planning to pour up to the top edge of the pattern part and leave the whole top edge open? Some other thoughts... Make sure you use some sort of mold release on the stuff you don't want the silicone to stick to (like the wood and original pattern). I worry that the cross section of the part is going to end up wavy in the finished part. Especially if you don't come up with a way to mechanically support the mold as you use it. The mold is somewhat soft and squishy and it's going to be like pouring juice into a fish. How are you planning to hold the two halves of the mold together as you pour? And as for what material you make the mold out of, I'd go as soft as you think would be usable. It'll make it easier to get the finished parts out of the mold without tearing the mold. Honestly, I've never had great success on my first mold. I usually end up learning a lot on the first one and then making others based on my mistakes learned on the first one. In other words... I'd use something cheap and easy to work with and flexible for the first mold, because if you're like me, it won't be your final version. Then maybe use something stiffer the next time. I mean, I wish you luck and hope so, but that doesn't happen for me. I'm not that good!

Maybe it's just me, but I would be interested in seeing how a pair of good condition, well set-up, clean, straight up stock, not modified pair of SU's would work for you. I wouldn't be surprised to hear they worked great. Maybe a fraction of a turn down further down to account for the small change in displacement. Maybe not even that.

I used the softer (removable) RTV. My wooden knobs and plastic shift maps would not have appreciated hot solder. I'm no vibrations trained ME, but my very small amount of experience in the field has led me to the approach of damping and changing the resonant frequency of the vibrations instead of trying to prevent them with rigid means. Thinking about it like an oscillator... if the driving source is a different frequency than the resonant frequency of the load, you don't get much energy transferred to that load. It just kinda ignores it. That's my theory on the knobs. You can't prevent the vibration. You just have to tune the knob to a frequency very different than the source. Picture me crouched in my laboratory tuning my knobs. Wait... Ok. Don't picture that.

I'm hot. (I'd be hotter if you would turn the wheel so the logo is right side up. )

So you can make a four foot long complicated dashboard, but you can't make a ten inch long simple glove box door? What am I missing?

Haha! Wait... You're saying that all that transmission noise you've been banging your head against was the knob? Really?

Awesome. Glad it was that easy! I battled noisy knobs with the ones I've made. They act like little mechanical amplifiers. I use removable silicone on the inside spaces to damp the vibrations and glue the shift map in place. Admiral Obvious (I love that!)

I know you said it's not the knob, but just to make sure... Take the knob off while it's making the noise and see what happens?

Of course every car is different, but I've found the majority of electrical problems come from two sources: 1) Dirty or loose contacts 2) Previous owners The wires inside the harness should be pretty much trouble free unless they have been overheated in the past and melted through their insulation. If all the terminating contacts in the connectors and devices they connect to are clean and tight, and there are no signs of previous owner mods (hacking, cutting, changing the harness), then my inclination would be to try the original harnesses and see if they work. To do a quick and dirty test for gross problems, you can connect all the harnesses together out of the car and connect to a current limited power source and see what happens. Maybe install a couple key components like the dash and ignition switch. And with all the history of problems with the headlights and turn signals, I would take a good look at the control stalks too.