Captain Obvious

Good deal. Here's to hoping that we're both gonna be around for a good long time!

Park illegally and use the tow truck to pull the front end up........

You mean the part about being still single and half nuts?

Excellent. Glad you got hooked up with the billet bar. Of course, the design isn't as good as mine, but it's not like I'm actively seeking out opportunities to make more! So what was the contact info that work for the billet source?

Haha! No kidding! Registered over four years ago and today you put up your first post! Welcome aboard!

Nite_Grind, Got your PM. Sorry I was out of town. Did you have any luck getting in touch with that guy on HybridZ at that new phone number? Hopefully he hooked you up, but if not, I sent you a PM back with some info.

Cool video. Looks like your fuel pressure regulator is responding properly to the changes in manifold vacuum. I don't remember the pressure specs off the top of my head... Is 30 psi at idle a suitable value?

Good. If you assumed they were one piece and you didn't pry them apart then they're probably back where they came from and you should be OK. The old ones are probably a little deformed from the pressure over time, but I wouldn't go tearing the whole back end apart again just to change them. Now that you know what you're looking for, you can take a better look at them if you're ever in there again for some other reason.

Not what you're looking for though. That brake warning relay does the opposite of what you want. It's energized when the ignition is "ON" and the engine is NOT running. However, if you were to change the brake warning relay over to a DPDT style, you could get what you want... Use one pole as originally designed for the brake warning lamp and use the other pole to control your power. NC side connected to the switched ignition relay voltage and the common of that pole would be a signal that you could use to do whatever you wanted. Essentially use the NC pole to switch the power from the ignition relay. When the engine starts and the alternator reaches regulation, the relay would de-energize. The brake warning pole would open circuit and your "Hot when the engine is running" pole would close. Just make sure you use a relay that has a similar coil spec as the original one as far as resistance and pull in is concerned and you should be good.

From the description, I unfortunately believe they are supposed to go the same place the upper bearings go in the front. You don't need bearings in the rear, so they use fixed hard plastic spacers instead. If they're about the same diameter and thickness as a front upper bearing then that's what they are. Did you put yours together without any spacers at all between the upper spring perch and the top mount. If so, you're going to have to pull them back apart.

Well I'm not sure I did a good job of explaining why it might not be as simple as you describe above... Any time the key is on "ON" or "START", the "L" terminal of the internally regulated alternator will always have "some" voltage present on it. Even if the alternator isn't spinning. This is because that "L" terminal is connected to the battery through the CHARGE lamp. At the "L" terminal you've got a voltage divider between the resistance of the CHARGE lamp filament and the resistance of the alternator's rotor coil. Accordingly, the "non-spinning" voltage on the "L" terminal is determined by those two resistance values. Any relay coil that you would hang off the "L" terminal to ground would be in parallel with the rotor coil, and I have no idea what the resistance of that rotor coil is. You're going to have to be careful that whatever you connect there has a pull in voltage high enough that it isn't drawn in by that "non-spinning" voltage. In other words, you're going to have to be careful that whatever you connect there has a resistance high enough such that the portion of the current that flows through relay coil isn't enough to energize the relay coil until the alternator has spun up through bootstrap. And in addition, you're going to ask the rotor coil to share it's bootstrap current and I'm not sure it's going to like that. And if that's not enough, that "L" terminal supplies power to the internal voltage regulator and I'm not sure if there would be any unwanted interactions with voltage regulation due to the additional current draw on that control line. The drawings show it as connected just like any other output from the alternator, but I have no idea how robustly it is built and what it's source resistance is. Since it's really NOT just another alternator output, they probably built it smaller and cheaper than the main output circuit and it might not like the current draw of a relay coil. Not saying any of this wouldn't work... Just saying there are lots of things that would need research and testing. :bulb:

Yes, but I'm not sure it would work for what you want to use it for. The blue "L" wire off the internally regulated alternators does exactly what you want (goes hot after the alternator spins up through bootstrap), but I'm not sure how heavy of a load you can hang there before you start messing with the regulation. And if you hang too light of a load there, you'll get a voltage reading whether the engine is running or not because you'll pull current through the charge lamp. Interesting question... I'll give this a little more thought and see if I got an inclusive answer.

I'm guessing that since you're wondering where you can purchase the part in the middle, that's not a picture of your car, right? I'm still not sure what part you're looking for, and here's why... The parts in that pic are not connected properly. The part in the middle is supposed to be connected to the part in the lower right and between the two of them, they comprise the "throttle opener system" that reduces emissions under very high manifold conditions. You see the unused hose nipple in the lower right? That's supposed to be connected to the part in the center. I don't know where the black tube leading off the right side of the picture is going, but it's not where it's supposed to be going. None of the parts in that pic are supposed to have anything to do with air conditioning at all. But all that aside.... What you're looking for is the device that increases the idle speed a little when you turn the A/C on, right?

I think you might be mixing up terminology a little on this and I'm not sure what it is you're looking for. There are two devices that open the throttle on a 240Z: One they call the throttle opener, and it's part of the emissions control system designed to pull the throttle open a little when the manifold vacuum gets very high like coasting down a big hill. This device has absolutely nothing to do with the air conditioning. The other is what they call the FICD (Fast Idle Control Device) that pulls the throttle open a little when the A/C compressor is running to compensate for the additional load that compressor puts on the engine when it's engaged. Of those two, I suspect you're looking for the FICD? Can you take a pic of what you're looking for?

You might be able to unscrew the zerk fitting from your old tie rod end. I'd still pursue getting a new one that was supposed to be in the box, but reusing our old one might get you out of a jam temporarily.

I used to be able to get away with stuff like that. Now I get "the look". :ogre:

Well you have to plug that hole with something so you don't get road grit and water up in that hole messing with your grease. But if you really wanted to, after your done adding whatever grease you want, you could remove the zerk again and plug the hole with a regular bolt. But it does have to be plugged with something. And... What the heck? Is it time for everyone in Canada to replace their tie rod ends? :laugh:

To expand a little on the above... The fuel injection system does not act independently of the ignition system, and yes, it depends on an electrical trigger signal from the ignition system. However that electrical trigger does not come directly from the distributor, but in fact comes from the output side of the stock ignition module which (just like points would do) pulls one side of the coil primary to ground through an open collector transistor. The fuel injector controller squirts fuel on every third ignition pulse that it sees. So... Unless you're dramatically changing the dwell so much that it confuses the fuel injection controller, or doing something like multiple spark discharges that might be counted duplicate by the injection controller, then it probably wouldn't matter. I'm worried that I'm not explaining myself well here... Does any of that make sense? :bulb:

I found that the two ends were different sizes... The tank end is very close to 3/8, but the fuel pump inlet is larger than that. Maybe even 5/8 or so? I bought some 7/16 fuel line and some 3/8 and I made a couple adapters to change sizes, but in the end, I changed my mind and didn't do it that way. Just as was suggested earlier, I found some 3/8 hose that was large enough to stretch over the fuel pump inlet even though it's not the "right" size. Interestingly though, when I started messing with mine, my PO had done the same thing, but HIS 3/8 tubing was obviously overtaxed by the process and had started to lose integrity because it was stretched beyond it's limits. Point is... Not all 3/8 fuel tubing is the same and you may have to shop around a little to find a manufacturer that works on both ends of this application.

Yummy!! That's a great pic!

It is not meant to be no-maintenance. There should have been a zerk fitting in a little baggie in the box with the tie-rod end. The zerk fitting they supply has a taper start thread that cuts it's own threads as you twist it into the hole. I found they go in easier if you use a shallow socket on a nut-driver and apply some force to push the fitting towards the hole as you twist it. I had the same questions as you about adding additional grease, and I decided that I would add some. I put in a little bit until I just barely saw the boot move. Maybe two pumps per side? Maybe just one?

Awesome. Glad it's coming back together! I'm surprised you got a spray bar. Aren't you running an internally oiled cam?

Sounds like fuel starvation. Are you running the original 260 carbs (often referred to as "Flat Tops" because of the shape)? Because if so, as Mark mentioned, they include a sight glass in the sides of the carb bodies that you can use to verify that the carbs are getting fuel.

black gold man, funny you posted that pic. I was watching a show last night called "Brew Dogs" and they were in vegas trying to brew the most expensive beer ever (with local help from Tenaya Creek Brewery). The show wasn't good enough to keep me coming back to watch other episodes, but there were some fun spots. Anyway, that place with the bronze butts was on that show as well. Also mentioned in that show was Joseph James Brewing Company in Henderson which sounds nice. hr369 , Thanks for the info on the yards. And I'll keep your advice about getting the parts home in mind!

Thanks again all. Keep the suggestions coming!