Captain Obvious

Ok... I'm home!! Completed my combination whirlwind tour of Memphis and Washington DC. Had a fantastic time at Zcon 2015!! There was a healthy contingent of ClassicZ forum members there and the chatter here on the forum leading up to the show allowed us to find each other once we got to the show. There were ten or so of us that hung together during the event and I'm very glad we were able to do that. Prior to this event, very few of us had ever met face to face and because of that, you never really know what to expect when you do meet in person. Well, I have to say that my expectations were exceeded in every way and the ClassicZ people I met were some of the nicest, friendliest folks I've ever met. I want to thank everyone that indulged me and went along with any of my hair brained ideas. Everything from carting my sorry asse to and from events and venues to climbing rickety structures for pictures to getting out of their comfort zones in sketchy neighborhoods. I'm honored to have spent the time with you guys, honored to be part of the glove box signing, and thrilled to have had the opportunity to spend time together with the crew. Blue, Brianpilati, Jfaseries1, Mikew, Patcon, S30Driver, Siteunseen, Stevej, Zup... So to all you guys and gals helped make this a wonderful experience, thanks so much!! Hope I didn't inadvertently leave anyone out!!

In DC. Stop Very little Internet. Stop Unicorn out late partying. Stop Will respond more soon. Stop

Magnetism is not a completely reliable way to determine stainless from non-stainless as many stainless grades are magnetic. So if it's NOT magnetic, it has a good chance it's stainless, but if it's magnetic, you still don't know for sure.

Woot woot. After Jim went to bed and you and Jim were tearing up the roads at midnight, Jim and I were bending Mr. M's ear at the bar. I can only hope he enjoyed the conversation remotely as much as I did.

It was great meeting the crew from ClassicZ and thanks all for putting up with me!! I've got some pics from the event that I'll post when I can, but in my currently hamstrung technological state I can't do it from here. I had a great time hanging out and will be headed out on the hotel shuttle shortly. Congrats to all the trophy winners!

A bunch of us ClassicZ folks got together tonight for some food. I have some pics from the event, but can't upload from here. Tomorrow morning, SteveJ has promised me grits!! Can't wait!!

Yeah, seriously... When you say "everybody's here", does that mean you're in Memphis? That would be awesome! This is my last correspondence before I pack it up in preparation for the trip. Next time I'm looking at a screen again (other than my flip phone), I should be at the Hilton in Memphis myself.

Zed, You're over a month late. We squelched that version of "hookup" at at the very beginning of the thread on page 1.

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.