Captain Obvious

Steve, That's a great offer and would be happy to take you up on that even if there is a shuttle! Only possible complication is that back on the bottom of page 2, I offered to help Jim Arnett load his car onto his trailer after the show so he had time to get to the people's choice show and still make it back for the banquet. Jim was up in the air at that time if he was going to go to the Saturday show or not, but if he does want to take his Z to the show, I might have to bug out a little early to help out with the loading. Play it by ear I guess?

I just took a fresh look at the event schedule: http://zccazconvention.com/conventions/2015/?page_id=12 But there is no mention about a shuttle from the hotel to the people's choice show in Millington on Saturday. Can one of you kind folks who is already at the event please clear that up with one of the organizers? Without a shuttle, people there without a car (like me) will have to skip the Saturday show or figure out some alternate transportation.

That's a bummer. Only suggestions I can offer are to make sure all the mating surfaces are very clean and rust free and use some silicone lube. Rust on the faces of the involved surfaces not only takes up room that you need, but it also won't slide as easy as a clean cast iron surface. Unlike the stock rubber bushings, the poly bushings need to slide against the faces of the strut casting. The sliding surfaces need to be clean and lubed. Do you think the poly parts were made properly or is the shoulder too thick?

Here's my overview map:

Great pics. I'll be there soon. Don't use up all the fun before I get there!

Reverse engineer what's inside the cans using some sort of sniffer? Not a chance. In the past, I have on a few occasions, ground down through component encapsulation to expose the silicon inside and do a little reverse engineering and failure analysis. On something extremely simple (like a FET) you can make out what's what. But on something more complicated than that, you really need a roadmap. The reverse engineering I did on stuff more complicated than that included design documentation from an ASIC house that had designed a chip for the company I was working for. And even with that documentation in hand, I couldn't get too far from the pins before I got lost in the topography. With 1970's technology, the chips should be less complex than today's higher density CMOS stuff, but I'm with Fastwoman... Beyond my pay grade. Maybe someone who designs silicon all day could reverse engineer under a microscope, but that's not me. I believe that with scopes and meters in hand and enough reverse engineering at the board level, I think it might be conceivable to determine what the cans DO (black box) and infer what's inside. I'd be happy to take a shot at that if someone wants to send me the schematic for the ECU.

Me three. Is there anything someone (like me) can do from a distance to help?

Haha!! Yeah, that film is one of my all time favorites as well, and I agree with you about Escape from LA. I wouldn't be surprised if someone actually made a version of that car after seeing the movie. A little scared, but not surprised.

Yeah, I'm just tossing out ideas. Not necessarily GOOD ideas... I can't really come up with anything definitive that would cause overadjusting of the rear brake. So what happens if the cylinder doesn't slide properly on the backing plate or if it's not centered properly between the two when you put the drum on? I know the whole thing is supposed to center properly the first time you hit the brakes, but what if... What if it doesn't? Is it possible that the piston extends and pushes the one shoe out too far against the drum. And is it also possible that the shoe itself pushes against the parking brake lever causing the ratchet arm to give the wheel a notch or two? Hit your brakes fifty times and you've got fifty teeth? I don't like that floating cylinder design and I'm just glad that my 77 doesn't have that style. I had enough of the early style with my 74. Maybe just keep an eye on it and hopefully it just won't happen again?

Neo Classic? How about chandeliers and a disco ball?

Haha!! I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

There are just so many places where things can shift over time. Combined with the open loop nature of the whole system? It's inevitable that it will go out of spec. I mean, c'mon!! It's forty years!! Springs to caps to silicon to solenoid valves to RTD's? Connectors all over the place? Who knows... Maybe the ECU is unchanged, but the dropping resistors changed over time? Inevitable I tell ya! I recently tweaked my AFM one tooth leaner. I don't have a wide-band, but my nose and my eyes were clearly telling me that I was running rich. I moved my AFM one tooth and it got a lot better. I'm actually surprised how dramatic of an effect I got with just one tooth. Fastwoman, Love the Magic Eye tubes. Haven't seen one of those in quite some time!

Mike, Too bad you can't make it. I'm sure there would have been some sort of honorary get together for you. As for the pics, I'm planning to take some, but I don't think I'll be technologically savvy enough to get them uploaded until after I get home from the show.

Haha! Great thinking!

How loud is one of those Bouncing Betty's? Can you work in the garage while it's on without going insane?

You know... I was gonna ask. It's my job after all! I should have asked. I should have asked. Glad you got the initial issue worked out, and I hope it stays worked out. I'm really unsure though how such a thing could have happened in the first place. The adjuster mechanism is pretty simple and it should be impossible for it to over tighten. I've never tried, so I don't know if it's even possible, but what are the chances that you got parts mixed up from one side to the other and the brakes are auto-adjusting when they shouldn't be? You've got the older floating cylinder design, right?

Yeah, I can go pretty far with the beauty is in the eye of the beholder philosophy, but sheesh... I would go one step further and suggest that they even crush the cars they were based on simply to assure that no more than those original 60 are ever ever ever built.

And now that you've googled it, can you guess what the answer was?

All those Z's and you can't find one to drive?

That's certainly a great option for some shade. Since I'm already over budget for the event, I'll ask SWMBO if I can free up some additional funds for that.

There are no electrolytic caps in any of the ECU's I've ever seen open. They are already film. While I wouldn't be surprised to find that the values have drifted some over the past 40 years, I don't think the caps are a big problem.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. You're going to have your car in the show(s), right?

Unfortunately I don't know how much voodoo is built into the AFM, Captain.

Excellent. I was just recently at a car show where it rained all day. And I mean ALL day. It's a lot more enjoyable when it's sunny... I do think though, that by the end of the day on Saturday on the tarmac at the airport, I'm going to be craving some shade. I'm thinking I might bring an umbrella to Saturday just to provide some mobile shade if necessary.

Well I think either of them look fine. However, that won't stop me from poking fun at your goofy looking wrong color engine at ZCON anyway.