Dave WM

been a while, got interested in this again after seeing some "stencil tape" so I have it on the way, hopefully will allow a better application of the conductive paint.

or hubcaps if your prefer. Tip, take your wheel covers off and paint on your phone number. I was out driving yesterday, and when I got o my destination I was missing one of my wheel covers. I retraced by trip but it was like 30 miles and hard to search while driving. went back the next day with the boss and she found 4 hubcaps, all the wrong ones. they were leaning up on trees etc.. a guess that is the procedure when you find one. Anyway I had the idea too late to use this time, but will be doing it in the future (phone number on inside). I am keeping an eye open in ebay for a good condition one, there are some listed now but they are not as good as the spare I have (its got a few dents on it but I would prefer something better). I tried posting here on the classifieds but cant seem to make that work (a want ad). its the early design used on the 240-280 up to 1975 the one with the scallops in it.

I reused the mast, I used the antenna rope listed in the link. https://www.amazon.com/AntennaMastsRus-Power-Antenna-Smooth-Cable/dp/B07NYV6M1P

all done, works great, I hope this it the last time I have to fuss with this. The old .15 weed wacker stuff was more flexible than this .12 stuff. Goes up and down much faster also. too bad it is so expensive. seems like a bit of a rip off, but it is works I will be ok with it.

got the plastic rope in today, looks much better than the weed whacker stuff, much harder and stiffer. Will get to it this weekend.

did you try measuring the taper? better than trying to eyeball it.

at this point if I was looking for a new car I think I would have to look at a miata, small, rwd, manual, much closer IMHO to what the S30 was, and looks way better than later model 350/370z

mine comes on, I fill up 14 gallons. IIRC the fuel tank is 17, but I would think 16 useable so a solid 2 gallons, or about 40 miles of round town driving.

where are you located, you may have a member near by that can look over the car and help you decide on best course of action. there are replacement rails available, finding a donor would not be a good idea, as you would prob just find another rusted rail.

helps a lot thanks!!

found this so from tip of antenna (last section) to end of plastic rope is 45".. I will check and see when I do this , I presume you would want maybe 1 full turn wrapped around the reel when fully extended. IIRC you have to set the clutch up so it slips just as soon as it maxes out so you don't end up folding over the rope by going too far, That is what he fail was on my early attempts. It would fold and then once folded it was a weak spot that kept happening.

I am having some issues with my weed wacker monofilament replacement rope, it must be binding up during retraction as it will jam up on about the last 8" or so. If I pull on it you can feel slack taken up and then is works, but not very handy. IIRC I ended up trying some pretty thick monofilament (.15 iirc) after having fails with thinner stuff. I just found on amazon some 12.5 smooth antenna rope for sale. its for power antennas so I hope it works better than weed wacker stuff (too flexible I think). Pricey at 40$ for 5 feet but that's ok if I don't have to go thru this again. I searched this thread hoping to find the correct length of the factory original but could not find it. If anyone has that handy please let me know. The antenna rope is due her in about 10 days, I will report on it when I get it.

a few other thought, you may want to look to pull the oil fill cap off while running, idle up to see how much oil is being slung around the camshaft if you have concerns about something plugged up. If you have a spray bar its prob a good idea to check it for flow, I removed mine, spray clean with brakecleen, reinstalled with new gaskets, verified oil flow by removing valve cover and cranking the engine ign off, after several seconds at crank speed you should see oil dribbling out of all the hole in the spray bar at about the same rate. I suppose if you have a internal lubed cam shaft the same test could be done, just to confirm all is well. I suppose if all was not well you would see it in cam lobe wear.

something odd with high coolant temps and high oil pressure, generally speaking those have an inverse relationship. (cold engine high oil pressure, hot engine low oil pressure for the same RPM) Middle gauge reading on oil at idle on startup is pretty normal but not once the engine warms up. also what is the idle rpm, 800 to 1000 has a notable effect on oil pressure. typical oil pressure at idle with fully warmed up engine would be more like 15-20 psi (gauge indication about 1/8-1/4). The oil pressure gauge is not well known to be accurate, so any pressure is prob ok. you can get large changes in oil pressure just by changing the sending unit and or cleaning and tightening the connection to it.

use the same capacitance, higher voltage rating is ok. FYI I always check new parts before installing, so use the cap test function on your DVM to make sure before you install it. Capacitance is what matters for the circuit to perform, the voltage rating is so you don't damage the cap. also pay attention to polarity, most electrolytics are poloarized. most modern caps will be smaller than the original, so get one that has the same uf and close enough in size to fit the board. It will no doubt be higher voltage than the orig if its even close to the same size.

yea I would think there has to be a few electronic stores in socal, used to be a mecca for such things out there.

I use mouser mostly when I was buying bulk for TV / Stereo repair. buy good caps nichicon 105c since its likely your clock will see heat.

electrolytic caps are the most likely caps to fail as they are chemical in nature and can dry out. ESR meters are good to test them, I have used an audio tone as a quick and dirty test where you put the cap in series with a tone into a small speaker. Not a good idea if you have IC's but for a simple circuit like this it would be fine. You tuber (Shango 066) has been doing this for years as a quick way to test large value caps.

yes that is the one #17. It was not loose but it was tight either I would say snug (clearly loose from what it should be). I am pretty sure I would have torqued to spec when I last worked on it. Interesting on that pic I have the bolt installed the opposite way, the head of the bolt is forward with the nut on the back side. hmm, fsm show a detail pic with it mounted the way I have it. Also I note it has you temp mounting then tight to spec AFTER car link is loaded (car sitting on ground). I bet I missed that last part. I cant seem to insert that part of the FSM... Ideally a drive on lift that keeps the suspension loaded would make it a lot easier to get a torque wrench in there and do that. Ramps are ok but does not give a lot of room to put 80-100ft lbs on it.

if it helps any, I just checked my working spare, it pulls about 10-12mA current on my Simpson 260. I will try it on a dvm later since I know most folks don't use analog meters, I don't know if it will be different but will check anyway. The idea being perhaps if there is a weak drive component then maybe you current would be lower that it should be. Would be nice to check the current before and after a recap/re transistor to see the diff if any. On my spare IIRC I only replaced the caps. ok same on my DVM 10mA (still like my Simpson better)

Fixed! so bottom line is if you have worked on the front suspension make sure you torque to spec. I am not sure but the nuts may have nylon locking, perhaps one use only. I will check again to see if anything loosens up. to recap the situation, the noise would present when I would back up, turn one direction, then reverse steer while going forward after backing up. a noticeable "pop" or "clunk" would be heard in the front of the car with a slight release feel in the steering wheel. I presume I was shifting the control arm bushing ever so slightly. It has the original control arm bush (front control arm). I have new OE bushings on hand, but since I did not install them I presume I had the arm off and check them and decided not to replace. It will be interesting to see if I notice any change in the normal driving, there was nothing odd going on other than the clunk that I can recall.

my guess is its just a lack of kick from the coil, in some positions just less of a load. My guess is a weak coupling cap or transistor.

300psi is so if something goes bad wrong it will shut off, you want some head room as its only to prevent damage in case of major problems. The primary cycling is done by the thermostat.

roger will do, thanks!