Captain Obvious

I've got a lifetime supply of this stuff and would be happy to send you some if you don't want to buy a tub yourself: Pulled that pic from this thread where we were talking about valve lapping: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/50909-72-240z-rebuild/?page=8#comment-475857

I'm not a ZX guy, but according to the wiring diagram that Zed Head put in post #2, then you should have +12 volts on one side of every injector plug. At all times. Running or not. Key in ignition or not. At all times. If the battery is hooked up, you should have +12 on one side of each injector. Try this... Ground the negative lead of your Fluke on the engine block. Put the Fluke on a 20V DC voltage scale, and probe the connections inside the injector plugs with the positive lead. You should find battery voltage on one of the two connections inside each injector plug. If you don't, then you should test the fusible link that Zed Head mentioned in post #2.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of that water based multi-grit stuff. My description would be that it's for people who are in a hurry and are willing to sacrifice some surface finish quality for speed of getting the job done. Since the only kind of that work I do is for myself, I'd rather use a much finer compound even though it takes longer. Takes longer, but the finish is better. However, that said... Someone in the business could easily convince me that it doesn't matter anymore after that valve has opened and closed a thousand times though.

Hopefully there'll be a next time!

Well I didn't make it to Miami to Vizcaya, but my days were quite full! Here's a summary what I did do: Hiked around a little at the Yamato Scrub Nature Area Z Rides and was treated to a wonderful lunch. Twice!! Checked out the Boca Old Town Hall History Museum Drove till I couldn't drive no more and ate lunch sitting at the edge of the Everglades Hiked around a little at the Daggerwing Nature Center Packed an impromptu food cooler and had a picnic style dinner on the beach at Red Reef Park with SWMBO. Was supposed to be a surprise, but she figured it out. Checked out the oldest two remaining structures in Boca (one is now a kids museum, and the other is still a private residence) Checked out the original Boca F.E.C. Railway Depot now turned museum Drove past Camino Gardens which used to be a African wild animal park Did a lap through Mizner Park Drove through Pearl City and Lincoln Court Checked out the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center Lots of great food, and one not so great. Hit the following Brew Pubs. There were plenty more I wanted to check out, but I only got to three of them. Barrel of Monks 26 Degrees (In Pompano) Copperpoint (In Boynton) Here's a couple pics. If anyone wants more detail or pics of any of these exploits, let me know!

Welcome aboard! Too bad you didn't pop up a week ago as I just recently got back from Boca. I was just there touring around for a couple days seeing the sights. Speaking of which... I should document my exploits on my Boca thread.

I've found the crispness of that line (or even the complete the lack of it) often to be a quick and dirty way to detect significant wheel arch work in the past. Wish I had known that when I bought my first Z.

Wow... I bet. That doesn't sound like any fun at all. Here's to hoping you mend quickly!!

Right. I knew that. I was thinking "get it working" and not "concourse restoration". I should've considered the source....

Woot. I like getting the weird stuff on the first try! The horn is supposed to sound when the wire up through the steering wheel gets connected to ground (through the metal of the column itself). Problem is your wire is getting connected to ground when it's not supposed to be connected. It's only supposed to make connection when you press the horn pad. Is your steering wheel stock and your horn pad normal with all the stock parts (like the spring) installed? Have you ever had the steering wheel off and maybe mangled the slip ring connection?

Those switches look relatively generic. Maybe there's a new switch you could use instead? Paint the visible parts of the switch like the toggle white to mimic the original plastic? (Or whatever color they used to be before they were bleached over time )

Only thing I can think of is the horn relay clicking because of a grounding fault in something related to the wiper pickup on the back of the steering wheel. So...... Does your horn work normally, or has it been disconnected because it kept going off when the PO turned the steering wheel?

I went through something similar a couple years ago and I cut finger grip slots in the base material before the recovering. Even after the final wrap, you could still feel the dents. The point is... Have you considered putting finger grip dents in the base ring? Is there even enough material to consider doing that?

I've got the same wide ratio as well. The first four gears are identical to the four speeds, and even though fifth isn't a huge change from fourth, it's still way better than not having fifth at all.

Looks like my place. One misstep and you turn an ankle!

OK, I'll see what I can do. Give me a couple days to find someone else to move the wheel while I man the camera. As an alternative... Have you got any public domain video editing software that I can use to clip the unnecessary parts of a longer video off? I could brace the camera into position like you did and do the rest of it alone, but I'd need to clip that out of the video (again, like you did). I clearly don't do much of this kind of thing. I can already tell you from just casually viewing the system from topside while moving the steering wheel... I don't have anything near the amount of motion you do.

I've got poly bushings, so I'm not sure if it would add any useful data, but I can try to take a video off mine if that would help at all. LMK and I'll see if I can figure out how to use my camera for that.

Not that you're familiar with Two Hearted or anything...

Haha!! It's in his desk drawer with all mine as well! Good luck with the problem hunt. On that front, when the issue arises, do you think you're running rich or lean? Rich could be from percolating the fuel in the bowls and forcing additional fuel past the needle, and lean could be from boiling the fuel in the rail and pushing vapor pockets into float bowls expecting liquid. Any guesses as to which direction you are going? How do the plugs look?

You could also blast your carbs with the liquid from the upside down can of Perri-Air and see if that helps.

Zed, On a five speed OD trans, what's the difference between a "top gear switch" and an "OD gear switch"?

Yeah, that Vizcaya place looks pretty cool. I'd love to see that. If I get that far south, I'll try to check it out. II've never been to Miami, so I was thinking I could take this opportunity to at least drive through so I can say I've been there. This is the last time I'll have reliable internet access for a while! See you on the other side!

Dave, I'd love to drive up and see you again, but three hours is a little too far. I think I'm going to have to amuse myself a little further south this time. So I've got a couple Z related events and meetings on the docket so far. Anyone else in the area want to show off their car, or tell me to my face that I'm a menace to the Z community?

Wow. Not good. Don't know what's going on there, but I can tell you that mine (with poly bushings) doesn't do that. I assume you already saw this, but here's my experiences with the steering rack. Bunch of bushing info towards the beginning of the thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/48621-steering-rack-disassembly-and-refurb/

Nice work. I recently went through a bunch of discussion with @Mike W about this exact topic of rack rebuilding, and one of the topics was the spacer to be used to take up the gaps created by the thinner bearings. One suggestion was to use a hardened spacer. The pinion is hard, the bearing races are hard, and I think the spacer(s) used between them should be hardened as well. Especially if you are using the way you did by spacing the inner race. And that brings me to a second suggestion... If it were me, I would do the spacing on the outer race instead of the inner race. My thinking is that there is a much greater load area and you can spread the forces across the whole spacer instead of just the end profile of the pinion teeth. Might not matter, but I would use the outer race. My thinking would be... Drop in a spacer of appropriate OD FIRST before you pressed the lower bearing back into place, and then place a second spacer similar on top of the upper bearing right before you screwed the retaining cap back onto the housing. Or, as an alternative, you could put both spacers on one end or the other, but if you wanted to keep the pinion gear in the same location on the rack, you need to put spacers on each side. I don't think I would go back in to change anything, but just some academic stuff to think about?