gramercyjam

Since choking it made it run better, I would look for a vacuum leak. --John

I don't have my rule book with me at work, but I'll give it a shot. I used to run in BSP until earlier this year: I believe the rules specifically disallow aluminum bump-steer spacers. i think steel is OK. I don't run bump-steer spacers myself. Any clutch and I believe any flywheel is allowed. Technically not legal. But I think that is because your R200. Changing the diff case and gears is not allowed in BSP. Your car should have an R180. just fix/replace the rusty parts Don't upgrade them. I think this applies to all classes. I don't remember seeing any BSP 240's with cages but most FP cars have them and I see bars going through the firewall all the time so this confuses me too. I have chosen to blow this area off for the mean time as the whole cage things looks way to heavy for my tastes anyway. I think this is crystal clear in the rule book. You must leave the stock bumpers and pretty much any other stock body part on in an unmodified condition except for flares to accomodate big tires. --John '73 FP 240Z

Back to original problem. If your harmonic balancer has indeed spun the pulley, you should get a replacement. The pulley is ready to fly off and the best case scenario is it will only take out your timing cover and radiator when it does. If you can get a better one from a junk yard, it should be cheap. --John

If this is primarily an autox car, a little toe out is preferred. 0 up to 1/8 inch out instead of in. This helps make the car turn-in quicker but on a street car, this makes it dartier and harder to drive because the wheels won't want to return to straight ahead on their own. You can experiment with more or less toe in/toe out and use your own judgement as to how you like it set. There are several different methods for making toe adjustments using just some jack stands, string and a tape measure. Do some searches on this or other boards and you should find the details. On camber, again, if this is an autox car, you will no doubt want to lower the car significantly. Just lowering the car will add tons of camber. You might want to wait until after you have lowered the car to work on camber as you may want to reduce excessive negative camber after lowering. On my car, I added camber plates to just the rear in order to reduce the extreme negative camber that resulted from lowering. The fronts were OK without camber plates. If you want to increase negative camber right now, before lowering and without the expense of camber plates, you can move the strut-top mounting holes inward and/or use camber bushings on the lower control arms. --John '73 FP 240Z

Adirondack Mtns. Lots of snow and very cold in the winter. Good skiing too. This car probably makes more sense than you know. I used to live up there. --John

I just cut the good spare tire well out of my '73 in order to mount a fuel cell there. If you find you need it, you can have it. Make it soon though, 'cause I've been thinking about making a parts washer tank out of it. --John '73 240Z #73 FP In San Antonio

240Z strut housing will work just fine for the GC coilover stuff. However, the GC shocks (Advance Design brtand) will not fit into the 240Z strut housings because the OD of the shock is larger than the ID of the strut housing. The larger ID 280Z strut housings must be obtained OR the 240Z strut housings must be bored out to use the Advance Design shocks by GC. John

FWIW, I started suspension work 1 year ago on my '73 Autox car. After each mod, the car was tested at several events. Believe me, I have learned a lot in the process and taken it from mild to wild with steps in between. Stage 1 - Stock 240Z springs, stock frt/rear sways, urethane bushings all around, tokico blues. 14" Falken Tires. Result - Generally terrible handling. Almost uncontrollable oversteer. Stage 2 - Cut 280Z stock springs. A little more stable, but still generally terrible. Stage 3 - Coilovers with 10" Eibach ERS springs. 250# frt/275 # rear. Lowered several inches in the front. Sectioned struts. Tokico Illuminas. Custom built top strut mounts. New 14" Falken Azenis. Result: Much better, can see future potential, but oversteer is still a major inhibitor. Cannot lower the rear as much as I would like because of ground clearance of the exhaust. Stage 4 - Replaced Falken Azenis with 15" Hoosier and swapped stock diff for R180 4.11 LSD. Shorten headers and fabbed new exhaust so car could be lowered another inch without dragging it on the ground. Result: Now we are getting some where. Car is much more predictable, still some oversteer, but it is much more controllable and not really a problem. Stage 5 - Replaced springs with 7" Eibach ERS springs. 300#Frt/300#rear. Changed to 1" front & 3/4" rear sway bars. 16X10 Hoosier slicks. The car is so low that rockers panels are now maybe 2" off the ground. There is an extreme amount of rear camber - too much for these fat Hoosier. Result: Yea Baby! This is the way it should be. I can't hardly break it loose in the corners. A little understeer midway through sweepers, but that should be able to be tuned out. Stage 6 - Camber plates and Strut tower bars. Result: Not tested yet. Expecting less tire wear and additional grip from improved geometry. Stage 7 - I should probably lay off the suspension mods for a while, learn to drive and start doing something about increasing power! Enjoy the ride! --John

My '73 (Mfg date 1-73) had rear sway bar mounts, but no rear sway bar. --John