Dave WM

when replacing the rear main did you note any leakage at the side seals? you can see it with the flywheel out of the way. looks like this

a search turned up that some "assembly" lubes may gum up (to thick additives for such a tiny area are not good) for the very small amount of lube that is in the valve stem/valve guide contact. Only a tiny bit of motor oil is needed for normal lubrication. consensus was regular motor oil is fine for assembly lube of the valve stem/valve guide.

took Dat Boi (my nickname for my 75 z) to Smiths Station AL for a family visit, 400 miles each way, avg 75-85 depending on interstate traffic. slower up hiway 280. Avg 25 MPG, found a ethanol free GATEs filling station at mile 439 in Florida on I 75 for those interested in where to get gas. No problems at all until the return trip. It was hot and I was running the AC, Stopped at the Gainesville rest stop and noticed carpet on driver side was damp, pulled it up and found it soaked from the tunnel on down. A quick taste test (yum) showed no signs of antifreeze so I figured must have been the condensate. I was not in a good position to work on it, so turned off the AC and drove the 70 or so miles with out it. Looked thru my stash and found the coupler needed (EVAP box to drain pipe) to replace the broken one. got all the carpet and jute out and thoroughly dried the driver, lifted up the carpet on the tunnel and ran a fan all night on it to help air it out. took a ride with AC on, drove for about 20 miles and when home I could see the water dripping out of the drain pipe, YAY, and the tunnel and floor board was completely dry. Hopefully that is the end of the leak problems, I am looking forward to more long trips. These shake down trips seem just the ticket to find little problems.

I remember all kinds of hideous modification to C3 corvettes back in the 70's perfect example "corvette summer" movie. Also station wagon vettes, pickup truck vettes.. really horrid stuff. Guess the FB bodies were just too tempting.

Gotsta get a new video.

Just got back from a long trip, 25 mph mostly 80-85 in 5th 80 is 3k with the OD 4k in 4th 70 is about 2.6K vs 3.5K. Its a bit tall with a 3.54. Can not really engage it until at least 70 to avoid lugging it, so with the 3.54 its strictly a hiway gear and a flat one at that. The car I pulled in it from (81zx IIRC) had a blue speedo gear which I think is a 3.7 rear end. If you are not into long highway speeds I think the 4 speed is prob the way to go, plenty of torque with a stock engine to make use of the gears. Watch in 10 years everybody is jonesing for a OE 4 speed.

pics not working for me.

got a HF sand blaster and some 70 grit alum oxide to work on the steering wheel spokes. You can see the new insulter as well, with it and the after market horn button you can hit the biggest pot holes and not worry about the button popping off, it hold on REAL tight.

its a switch type you have in there, used with idiot lights.

so how well does it charge? at idle turn on all the lights and fan on high brakes on, get a voltage reading (with a volt meter at the battery). Just curious as I have read this cures the brown out of the stock or is it just to get rid of the ext regulator. With my stock setup the fully loaded will result in a slight discharge at idle (about 12v at the battery when typical battery voltage with everything off is about 12.8). As soon as I get over about 1.2 k rpm all its ok (no more discharge, about 13.5-14v at the battery).

so is it the distributer or the module? seems like a pretty simple device, the reluctor and a coil. I hope its not for drama (will it start etc...). just show the restoration or build or what ever its called. I really like the old wheeler dealers when a lot of actual repair work was shown, seems like showing how to restore a vintage Z would be a great. I always get a bad feeling when all I see is a lot of grinding sparks and welding arc with no close up of what is actually going on.

got the new horn button in today, did not realize there was an "aftermarket" vs OE, looks very nice, but no foam more like a hard plastic interior, NO WAY the inner ring part will break on this. So if you are ok with it not being exactly OE I suspect it will not suffer from the same defect the OE has about cracking. I got this off ebay, later found on MSA and noticed there is a huge diff in the price of the OE and after market, like twice as much. I was a little worried that the new one I was getting may suffer the same fate esp if its NOS, but that is not the case with the aftermarket copy.

ditto, front end looked very odd, and too much curves I don't get it. I think the work done on this site is loads better. oh well Z's are getting some love, maybe a good thing esp if it improves the after market production of parts. Of course I am partial to original look, maybe the hybrid z guys can say if they think it was well done.

just dashes on the JDM legends? I don't think they did it in house.

the plastic part the horn button snaps on to. Got a new one one the way The button stays on ok now but I am sure its comprimised. I Dat boi out for a drive and over some speed bumps, it did fine, but it will bother me to no end knowing there is a problem.

already popped for a brand new button, hope the OE plastic is still good. Prob no as good as those he is selling though. I just wanted to see how well I could refurb this horn button. I did not realize there was a procedure for the install (twist into place). Hopefully the new insulator from MSA is a bit more durable.

update, installing the horn pad resulted in breaking the insulator. up side is you can still buy them so at least I will have a new one for it. I don't know if the reinforcement is causing it to be too tight, perhaps the zip tie is the way to go after all. The design of the insulator seems to rely on 3 wires around the perimeter that I presume snap into place on a thin track inside the hub. Perhaps too much downward force is required to displace the wire, resulting it the break.

I cut about 1/4" wide strip of some very thin copper sheet, used about 3/4" piece to form a collar then looped it around and adjusted to make the correct diameter hoop. reverse bend after inserting thru the collar, and soldered it up. I did have to dig out a very small section of the foam maybe 1/16" about 3/8 long to allow the collar to fit nicely.

here is a short video describing how the shift insert should look and how the 5th should go in and out of gear.

could be, maybe the metal strap would be less prone to stretching, will report back. Of course the zip tie would be fine if the button is not removed, could be a one shot kind of deal, then use a new one if need be. I will report back on my efforts with a metal strap, hope siteunseen can find out about the CV boot clamp. I suppose there is a sweet spot, too tight and you risk damage to the plastic horn button mount assy when installing, too little and it pops off.

it had some kind of glue on it, was afraid to try and break loose and risk breaking the pin.

Its looking sharp, hope to get on the rest of the wheel soon. heading out to HF to get the little hand held sand blaster, for such a small job I think it will do nicely.

BIC platinum silver. on the cracked part, JSM advised using a zip tie, I have been looking at alternative that do not require digging out any of the foam to make room. One is CV joint boot strap, the kind that has you slip the band in a flat collar and then bend it back 180 degree to lock in. VERY low profile, I think it would fit perfect with no damage to the foam at all. I may try fabricating something. I was going to use some thin sheet brass or copper for the strap, then a piece of brass or copper tubing, flattened, for the sleeve I have stuff like this laying around from my RC hobby supplies. I think adding the reinforcement strap is prob a good idea even if there is no cracked parts, just as a strain relief. I have a new horn button coming that I will compare too and add the strain relief as insurance against future cracking.

my attempt at refurbished horn button. It had several raised bumps like inverted pits in the black area, and the chromed lettering and border were in not so good shape.