gwri8

So many jokes……. so little time

A few years ago, one of the neighborhood teenagers came around my corner at midnight too fast and took out my neighbors mailbox.. He also wound up on the guy wires with the cable IN the wheel well in front of the rear axle hung up pretty good. It took the power company working till 6am to get that car off finally by cutting the guy wires. His parents were not happy.

Smexy! Is there much cushion in the seat?

I have always underestimated the strength of those cables. They're tough!

What? Green isn't normal? …... and that's probably Mark's normal coffee cup.

From Autozone: NGK copper plugs 2.19 ea X 6 = 13.00 Dist cap 15.00 Rotor 5.29 Plug wires: Duralast-23.00 NGK-50.00 The dist cap and plug wires can be much cheaper at Rockauto.com

I'm still in the full tune-up camp. It's the only way to figure out if anything else is a problem. Hoses definitely need replacement, especially the red one.

It kinda reminds me of a Ford Maverick (shudder). Gawd, I hated the looks of that car.

Yep, good stuff from Dave. He has an alternate kit for the 77-78. It's not plug/play but all I needed to do, per instructions, was cut one wire and run power from the battery. Very simple.

Just installed Dave Irwins' parking light upgrade on my 77'.

That's something most everybody here can relate to, me included. I'm not opposed to fender flares, just not on my car though. I put too much effort into parts searches and lean towards the purist side. Your Z, your whim. Welcome!

Sorry, I've never considered doing that, so therefore I have no opinion. I know you're going with a different fuel rail, but I am curious as to why you would want to reconfigure the charcoal canister?

Wait, if you have light in your tunnel that means there is a hole. Sounds like more welding needed to me…….JK. Can't wait till you get your paint on!

Yep, +1 on the caution. Let them soak like suggested. I also heated my studs (just the stud, not the head) with a propane torch and used vise grips with some tapping with a hammer. Go slow and they will come.

Welcome! Siteunseen's link to atlantic z is worth a Z's weight in gold. Be sure to get the EFI bible while you are there. It also has many more aspects covered as well. Thanks again Blue! Just seeing those disconnects looks like you're in for some work. Good Luck and keep us posted.

I've been thinking on this Jai. How long has it been since you've had a full tune-up? Like Distributer cap, rotor, spark plugs, spark plug wires, timing, Air filter and fuel filter? If I remember correctly, I changed the spark plugs well over a year ago. Before that SteveJ, Tony and I replaced the vac lines, temp sensor and dist cap, not the rotor, added a G3 filter and kind of flushed out your fuel tank. I know we did not do the spark plug wires. Have any of those been replaced since then? Regular maintenance can sometimes be a cure all for problems like this. I think before we can potentially diagnose an ecu or fuel problem a good tune-up would probably be in order. All of the stuff I mentioned can be bought at your local Parts store. They might have to order a couple of things from another store but those parts should be available.

Unless there is a paper history on the car and it's mileage, IMO It would be a safe bet to put a 1 or a 2 in front of the current odometer #. You're talking about a 42 year old car. It would have to be in pristine condition to have less than 100K on it. Not to worry though, the L engine is legendary for endurance so don't let the mileage get in the way. It's more about the rust.

You guys…...

First off, I'm not an electrical guy. I'm sure they will chime in shortly. But I do know that the electrical connections in these cars tend to oxidize or corrode after 30 or forty years. I would recommend cleaning all your connections with something like deoxit and maybe some kind of abrasive like a wire brush or sandpaper. Be sure to disconnect the neg cable on your battery first.

Now there's the way to start a new year! Congrats!

+ 1 on what grannyknot said about the seams. It looks like yours has a repaint already. A lot of what you will have to do depends on how well that paint job was prepped. If you are going to repaint it in the future, the sooner you address the rust spots, the better, like that one at the bottom the hatch glass. You want to prevent holes. That will lead you to having primer spots until you have it properly painted. If you don't mind that look then I would start on those spots now and prime them when ready. For under the hood, I stripped mine to bare metal with Aircraft stripper and used a razor blade scraper. Powerful stuff. Definitely use a mask and rubber gloves. Then, I sanded some and sprayed rattle can primer. I wound up stripping the whole car that way. Other folks have done it with media blasting. Either way, once you start, you're committed. There is no going back.

Yup, by chance if I happen to drive by a strip club with my wife in the car I get a 20 min lecture. This one is a no go for me.

And I thought I was kinda nice to that young whippersnapper! Moonshine around here could be used as an octane booster, right Cliff?

you know it's true! Or at the very least a broken arm trying to hang on to something back there!

Yes, 19mm I believe. Just make sure the trans is in neutral.