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Hey Will, did you happen to make the upgrade yet?

I was about to post a similar thread, but I figure with some experts already posting I may as well chime in here. I got the MSA R-134A kit last winter, and I am finally putting it through it's paces in our (normally) blazing hot Texas summers. So far it works great as long as I am not getting direct sunlight shining down, I think all the window space lets so much sunlight in that the AC can barely keep up. One big problem I have come across is condensation, but not inside the evaporator (that seems to drain ok through the drain line). Some of the large diameter hoses and metal fittings running to the evaporator get a lot of water condensation which drips into the front of the passenger footwell on a humid day. It isn't a flood or anything, but it is certainly enough to make me concerned. What kind of insulation should I be looking at for these hoses? Does this mean my evaporator is not being used efficiently, i.e. the coolant leaving the evaporator is colder than it should be, resulting in condensation on the exit lines?

Uhh... "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt." Please spare us the hyperbole next time.

This thread jumped the shark a long time ago. Thanks Mckrack

I've been wondering about these -- how are they secured? I would just be worried about not being able to throw the carpet up to get at the spare tire well.

Is this a joke? I honestly can't tell. Maybe it's the !!!!!!!! coupled with the "HAY GUYS"

The problem with my car is that the carbs are old and worn out so the mixture varies quite a lot depending on temperature. Generally my plugs get a little carbon buildup during startup and idling when the temperature drops a little below nominal. I had a thermostat housing with the core removed in there for a while, and if I got stuck in traffic the spark plugs would never get hot enough again to reach their 'self-cleaning' temp. I got a nissan OEM 180 thermostat, and that fixed things up. You may also want to make sure your sensor is actually reading correctly; a while back my gauge had been reading high all the time and a replacement put things back into the nominal range.

I've had the MSA kit since this last winter, and it's finally starting to get hot again down here in Texas, so I'll have a better idea how well it works by the end of summer. Right now I only need to turn the thermostat a little bit to cool things down just fine. Also, in addition to the kit, I have 2 large electric fans (coming on with the a/c compressor clutch) in front of the condenser to put some more air through when the a/c is running. The local Z mechanic thought this would help out in stop and go traffic; I hope he is right - it gets up to 100F+ here in the summer regularly. One thing I noticed is the fin density in the evaporator box is really high, and I had some problems early on with condensation. I guess with the fins so close together, the condensation didn't effectively drain out all the way and I think I had some funky stuff growing in there. It resulted in a foul smell for the first few minutes of operation every time I fired the blower up. I sprayed some lysol into the evaporator a while back and it seemed to take care of the moldy smell, replacing it with the still not so nice odor of lysol for the next few weeks. Currently, I switch the a/c off and turn the blower on full blast a mile or so before I get home. My reasoning is to try and dry out the evaporator box a little bit before I shut everything off, since the car doesn't have the post-shutdown blower circuit that modern cars have to resolve this issue. I can take some pictures of the install later. I've never driven a Z with the york piston compressor, so I can't comment on the comparative load it puts on the engine. However, it is pretty noticeable when the compressor clutch locks in. Aside from the audible click from the thermostat box on the side of the console, I can feel the engine vibration coming through the shifter and pedal change, and most of the time I notice a drop in power and need to give it more gas to keep the car up to speed. I've never noticed this in the modern cars I've had. I also almost had the A/C stall the engine out on one occasion at a stop sign, but I think that is more a factor of my leaky throttle-shaft carbs being out of whack than the a/c system overloading the engine at idle.

I also use the Klasse two-part system, and I like it. It is more difficult to put on if it is too hot or cold outside though, seems to haze up too fast or take too long to haze up respectively. I rarely put a coat of the klasse high-glaze sealant on, because when letting the all-in-one set-in, I usually get lazy because it looks great already.

nice. The background looks familiar too, I know I've driven through there a thousand times when I lived in DFW

I too would love to see some pics of this being done, a picture is worth a million words to me

I guess I am something of a purist on this, but I love the stock mirrors and I love to see another Z that is unmodified and in great shape.

Arne did you have any trouble getting a 175HR14 sized tire? Last time I was at the local Discount Tire Co. getting some new tires, they told me the size for an exact spare replacement didn't exist anymore. I currently have the original spare as it came from the factory. I've had to use it once or twice in a pinch, but I feel really sketchy relying on 35 year old rubber.

Mine shows similar damage, this is why I never let anyone fool around with my car that is not some sort of Z-expert. They will just throw a jack anywhere they please and bend that sheet metal up without a second thought.

Last week, along with a headlight harness and rebuilt T/S and combo switches, I installed Dave's parking light upgrade harness. I was satisfied with the results, especially knowing how much current I took out of my combo switch. The dash lights appeared to be slightly brighter overall, and so long as I am above idle (and my stock alternator is making more power), they are much brighter. Installation was fairly easy. The most difficult part for me stemmed from the fact that my passenger footwell has a big A/C evaporator there now. The evaporator is almost flush against the firewall (I would estimate a 1/3 - 1/4 of an inch gap). When pushing the power terminal through the rubber grommet for the stock wiring, I had a hard time. The fit was very tight (the grommet was much tighter than I had imagined). With some dielectric grease, I managed to get it through, but I basically had to keep pushing the wire through hoping part of it would come down below the evaporator so I could pull it out. Luckily part of the loop fell down into sight and it was easy from there. Something that was challenging, but expected, was managing to get the steering column cover back on with the additional wiring in place. It took me a bit of wrangling with the stock wiring and the additional harness plugs in order to get the cover back on. Messing with that and dealing with the extra volume occupied by the new stock-style molex connectors was a small price to pay to avoid having to cut my stock wiring up and splice things in. One issue I had with my harness was that the ring terminal for the power supply was slightly too small to fit over the bolt on my battery cable. I went to the hardware store up the street and picked up a slightly bigger ring terminal and some shrink tubing and replaced it in a few minutes with a pair of pliers and a blow-dryer (gotta make do without a heat gun). Your mileage may vary on this, I think I picked up my battery cables from NAPA 4 years ago or so. The provided ring terminal may fit stock style cables. The headlight harness power supply ring terminal was just right for my case though.

Last week I installed Dave's headlight harness (in conjunction with rebuilt T/S and combo switches, and the parking light relay harness, both by Dave). I have to say, all things considered, it was very easy to install. The difficulty I experienced was more a result of my setup than anything else, a stock Z should be no problem. Firstly, some PO had VERY thoroughly wrapped all the connections at the front of the car in electrical tape. It took me a lot of time and scraped knuckles to gain access to the plugs I needed to swap out. The plugs for the kit were of course a direct fit with the originals, and made for a nice clean looking setup. I didn't have to cut or splice any wires together. Secondly, I do not have a front valence - a PO replaced it with a fiberglass airdam at some point. Finding a good ground in my setup was not as simple as the stock case, but luckily I had installed one of the MSA A/C kits last year, and had some good brackets holding the condenser on to attach my ground wires to. I was hesitant to try for one of the stock bolts or screws accessible in the area around the plugs because they all had paint around them, and given that I live in an apartment and go to college full-time, I do not have all the creature comforts of a fully decked out garage (not even a dremel tool) to get at some good bare metal. I believe my headlights are brighter now, but they are still the dinky stock-spec lamps. I will probably be upgrading soon now that I know I wont burn up my stock wiring doing so with these harnesses in place. I managed to install the kit using only a few screwdrivers, a leatherman tool, a handful of zip-ties, and a wrench for disconnecting the battery. The sockets of the harness even came well packed in dielectric grease to make sure the connections are protected when you just put them together.

Just to give a brief review, I have to say I was impressed with the results when I got my T/S and combo switches back from Dave last week. Prior to sending them in, I had numerous issues with the headlight and parking light circuits flaking out. I would be driving down the road and hit a small bump and my parking and dash lights would all drop out until I started to jiggle the switch. (VERY embarrassing when you are on a date, as I experienced!) Additionally, sometimes I would turn my headlights on, go for a drive, park the car and switch the lights off only to find that the headlights would NOT turn off. The problem was within the combo switch, I believe the contact plates were sticking or something. My turn-signal switch seemed fine before I sent it in, but I included it anyway since I figured anything he could do would help make it last longer (and the cost savings on just sending the combo switch wouldn't have made sense since I was already shipping something anyway). Dave actually found some parts involving the high-low beam toggle switch that were pretty baked out (I guess) leaving them really fragile. For both switches, it was apparent that Dave had some good spares of some of the parts for some transplants into my switches and they came back in great shape. The action in both is smooth, and I haven't experienced any more of the flakiness I sent them in for. I should also note that when I sent the switches in, I also bought the headlight harness and parking light harnesses, and have only used the combo switch in conjunction with those since I got the whole package from Dave. Hopefully with the much reduced current through those two circuits, these switches will last me a very long time. I have written other posts in the other threads regarding my experiences with the headlight harness and parking light harness.

I like the music selection between driving scenes

I am interested, my stock clock is dead anyway!

I MacGyver'd one a long time ago when I got a red top, but I don't have a picture handy or anything. I basically used the J bolts from my old battery hold-down and took a piece of scrap barstock aluminum i had around the shop, cut it, drilled holes at the right spacing, and wrapped the whole thing in electrical tape. It looked awful, but it did the job and I was able to move to Austin on time. I should probably come up with a better solution.

I would keep that to yourself since the EPA attaches a pretty hefty fine to that sort of thing

And highly illegal

Down here in Austin it's been ridiculously hot over the past few weeks (for January here). The 10 day forecast says we will have highs in the mid 70s and 80s for the next 10 days still. I haven't had to wear a jacket in several weeks. I think it'll be a horrible spring and summer for insects this year.