Captain Obvious

Haha! I've got the camera, but it's one of those new-fangled "cameras for dummies" where it takes care of pretty much everything for you. And one of the things it takes care of is the light sensitivity and shutter speed and all that crap. What this means is that when I try to take pics of the dash, it says to itself "Wow, it's really dark. I need to do whatever I can to make it brighter to compensate." And my dash lights have these big white halos around the outsides of the faces that really isn't there in real life. I probably have to spend some time RTFM and turning off some of the auto settings. I never was a photo bug kind of guy.

I see what you did there.

On the side that won't shut at all... I've seen an issue on car doors where the door won't close because the latch is already latched in the closed position and interferes with the catching portion of the mechanism as the door tries to swing shut. Happens sometimes when you're messing around with things and inadvertently move the latch to the closed position. So, sorry, but I it's my job to ask... Are you sure that the latch mechanism is in the OPEN position while the door is open? Maybe the latch is latched and wont catch?

Chuck, I was thinking the same thing. If it's that rusty in UNusual places, then just imagine how rusty it is in the USUAL places.

I was out last night with my Z for the longest dark drive yet since I did my PWM and LED install, and I love it. I wish I could figure out some way to take pictures that realistically convey how the dash looks now but I don't know enough about photography to accomplish such a feat. For your empty rheostat hole, you could put in a fuel pump prime button.

I saw that listing, and my first though was "Wow that's rusty. Give it another year and it'll melt completely back into the earth from whence it came". What's a parts car worth these days?

Right! Something like that! I've got a vacuum pump already. I could build that. I sure wish they had kept the camera rolling longer so you could see what happened when they pulled that thing out of the frame. Seems silly that they did a video of the process, but stopped without showing the finished product. I'm suspecting that a lot of the problems of working with that material is because of uneven stretching. I think a vacuum forming process would do a better job of applying even pressure where it's needed without the pinching and bunching that you're seeing doing it by hand. I bet the original plastic shell (before the foam) was made with a vacuum forming process. Either that. or it was sprayed into a mold before the foam.

charliekwin, I think it looks just fine. Seam doesn't bother me. If I bought you a plane ticket and had supplies on hand, you could fly to PA to do mine? Beer? All the spray adhesive you can sniff? What is your pleasure? Knock you around a little with a pair of flat tops? And that Tundra... I'm pissed with ya and I don't own one either!

Mixed up pins? That's what I found as well. The polarity changed at the connector. Map light? I'm using one of these in warm white and I really like it. Brighter than stock, great dispersion, and short enough to fit into the original housing without modification:

Ohhhhhhhh. When you said "hot", I thought you meant warm to the touch. "Hot" as in "voltage on both sides" is much easier. So the reason you're seeing some voltage on both sides of the bulbs is probably two things: 1) It's completely expected to have voltage drop across your rheostat, and in fact, that's the way it works. The rheostat divides the total voltage of the system to a smaller amount across the load and the remainder across the rheostat. The PWM does the same thing, but it does it as a "time average" pulse instead of a constant DC level. And the dimmer the bulbs, the more voltage across the rheostat to ground than across the load (the bulbs). And in fact, with the rheostat pulled completely out of the circuit, you'll measure the same voltage (12V) on both sides of the bulbs. 2) You're using a "buzzer" tester and who knows at what voltage that thing decides to buzz. It could be 11.5V, or it could be 1.5V. So, here's what I would do. First, trade out that buzzer tester for a voltmeter that actually gives you numbers, and measure both sides of the bulbs to a known ground. Second, I would take the LEDs that are giving you problems in the tach, and swap them for a known working pair from the speedo and vice-versa. See if you can quickly narrow the problem to an issue with the tach, or an issue with the bulbs.

I broke an EZ-out off in a drilled bolt a couple days ago. Spent about an hour getting that SOB hardened stub out of there so I could continue failing at getting the original bolt out. I feel your pain.

So the wires got hot with the LED installed, but were OK with an incandescent? Which LED were you using? Even though it really shouldn't get hot, it sounds like a polarity issue? One thing to check... You said that the GW went to the tip, and RL to the base, but that's not the whole story. Since the polarity didn't matter in the original configuration with incandescents, the people who slid the contacts into the plastic connector shells didn't pay attention to which went where. So just because the GW goes to the tip of the bulbs at the tach, it may have change polarity at the connector shell. You need to check the wire colors on both sides of the connector. (Or do your checking with a meter to a known ground source like a screw head.)

Haha! Maybe you can teach me a new word tomorrow. On second thought... That might not be the best idea.

Been there. Done that. Was wearing safety glasses and a groin cup, so it grew back.

Were you asking for pics of the tape that we used to re-wrap harnesses, or something more complicated?

Don't get me wrong. I wasn't espousing the advantages of the Bosch EFI. I was just saying that at this time, mine seems to be working just fine and I don't need to go poking that nest. I got higher priority stuff to work on. To each his own.

My pleasure. I were running carbs, I'd run as set of flattops. Detractors aside. I'm running the EFI though and it's working fine so I just have no real reason to change it out. I've always been curious though as to which would be a better performer and better for fuel economy.

Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?

And putting it another way... If the switching point (click) is at the same place when it comes out of the freezer as it was when it went in, then it means all the gas has leaked out. That thing works by balancing spring pressure against gas pressure, and the trick is that the gas pressure is supposed to change with temperature. But if all the gas has leaked out, it won't do that and the switching point won't be affected by temperature anymore.

Sorry. Couple follow-up thoughts/questions... What was it that originally made you think that you had the incorrect carbs on the car? Did the carbs look different before that shop changed the carbs back in 2013? Who was it that told you that you have knock-offs? The current shop?

They put flat tops on two years, not just one. The last year for the 240 (73), and the 74 260. I like the flat tops, but I'm not going to spend a lot of time fighting an upstream current.

Excellent. What you have there is a "non-problem". Not only are those carbs what we refer to as SU's, but (from a distance) they even appear to be the correct variation for the year. If it runs great now, don't even worry about rebuilding. Focus on higher priority stuff! Another crisis averted! I'm Captain Obvious, and I'm a member of this forum.

I've got some parts on the shelf and I'm not far from you over the bridge in PA. I don't have a head, but I do have a valve cover that I would have parted with for $20.

Kira, You probably knew this already, but since it's my job... None of the Z's carbs were actually made by SU (Skinner's Union). They were all made by Hitachi who licensed the design from SU. So if you're seeing the Hitachi logo on your replacement carbs and thinking it's a cheap knock-off, then that's not the case. They may be cheap knock-offs of REAL SU's made by Skinners Union, but that's what all the Z's came with. In reality, none of the Z's had "SU's". They all had Hitachi's the were shaped like SU's. Everyone just calls them SU's because that's what they look like. Thinking this might be an "obvious" issue. And I forgot... So how about some pics of these cheap knockoffs? I've never heard of such a thing?