SteveJ

The Georgia Z Club had a Gumball Rally today. The grey weather left over from Nicole may have kept some people away, but we had seven Z cars and one Maxima show up to participate. Here are the typical rules for the GZC Gumball Rallies: Navigators are not mandatory, but they are VERY helpful. There will be trivia questions based upon various landmarks on the route. Directions will be confusing...but hopefully correct. A prize will be awarded to the team/person with the most correct answers. The tie breaker will be guessing the correct distance of the route. The club will not necessarily send out search teams for lost participants, but we may notify your next of kin. We have been known to put photos on milk cartons, too. All participants showed up at the destination. The Maxima team won, probably because the driver was smart enough not to be the navigator for her husband and doubled up to have both of her daughters as navigators. (Note: One of the 370Zs parked out of camera shot at the end.)

There are plenty of us around from the US & Canada. I'm not sure if we have any vets among the Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, or Japanese members.

Hey, guys! I found a low cost solution! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LJAGDOQ

Okay, so this showed up in my FB feed today after looking at this thread yesterday... I was also using Google to search for different fuse mounts. I'm really missing the days of thumbing through paper catalogs.

Two things to keep in mind with the HEI: Ground it well. Use a heat sink with conductive paste for longevity. After that, you set the timing and go. You can bypass the ballast resistor with the HEI, theoretically getting a hotter spark. With the points, you have to set the gap and dwell. It's not a big deal as long as you have a good dwell meter, but those are harder to come by any more.

Let me know if you need any help/advice on wiring. I'm not that far from you.

There was some light mist and a lot of clouds this morning, but I took the 240Z to a car show. There were a few other S30s and a Skyline that owners brought out to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather.

Yep, a local friend mentioned that in the GZC group on FB. I tagged John, too.

Stock is a single piston design. You can see that caliper in the FSM or parts manual. It sounds like your car may have had the Toyota calipers installed. http://www.zhome.com/ZCMnL/tech/Calipers/toyotaCalipers.html I'm not sure why they are called 4 piston in the Zhome article.

Finally, after dozens of orders, I struck gold (or yellow) with the magnet.

And I have seen a 240Z that no matter how much the gap and dwell were adjusted, it ran like crap. After the Pertronix was installed, the owner said he couldn't remember the last time the car ran so well. There are two sides to the coin.

Are you selling the ones with the trees growing through them, or are you parting those out? And congratulations on the upcoming retirement. I envision retiring in about 8 years and working more and more on Z cars myself.

What? You don't carry a back up Z with you?

Well, I had a chance to use the bench to work on the car today. I was about to take the 240Z to a car show, but it wouldn't start. I pulled the #1 plug and tried again. There was no spark. I got in the 260Z instead and went to the show. When I got back home, I hooked the voltmeter to the coil. No voltage in start or run. After just a moment to contemplate the test results, I determined that the tachometer must have become unplugged, probably when I was messing with the hazard light switch a week ago. No better time than the present to test the bench in real world conditions. I set it up, put the pad on it and scooted under the steering column. After groping around some behind the dash, I found the unplugged connector and put it back securely. I slid out from under the steering column and stood up with no strain on the back. I then folded up the legs and put the bench away. The car started right up. It's so nice to see a project work out so well.

Okay, it was Caffeine and Chrome time again. The 240Z wouldn't start, so I jumped in the 260Z to meet my friend, Paul, who drove his Black-Gold 280ZX. (I still think he needs to do the 80s 'stashe and 'fro to complete the look.) The Georgia Z Club will be the featured club at the next Caffeine and Chrome, so I used that to coax a couple of people to come out this month to check it out. This month we had 2 240Zs, a 260Z, a 280Z, a 280ZX and a 300ZX (Z1). Next month I'm hoping the missing generations show up.

Back in the day, it wasn't bad to get a reman. As I mentioned before, the one I put in the 240Z was purchased many years ago. I'm not sure what happened between then and now, though I have my guesses. A friend was having issues with his 77 trying alternators and a voltage regulator. I tried to get him to do the upgrade to the Frontier alternator from the start. He spent more his way, though. The good news is that he's been happy with the alternator swap I did.

Or just go cheap with a DPDT switch...Yeah, I know. That's no fun.

Thank you. It wasn't my first effort. I made another bench many years ago, but it had fixed legs and a rectangular shape. It took up too much space, and it couldn't get as close to the door sill. Eventually, it got tossed. I was actually thinking of mounting a hook to the underside of the bench so I could hang it from my shelves to keep it more out of the way.

I did a quick search for the home made tool thread, but I didn't find it. (Of course, I didn't spend too much time looking for it.) I bought some folding table leg brackets from Amazon a while back for this project, and I finally made the time to execute. The video shows the door sill height benchtop I made for when I have to lie on my back to work in the footwell. I used 2x12 for the benchtop with 2x4 legs. I hope you find it useful.

@borini63 Do you still have a good collection of ZX parts?

That is part of what drove me to do the Frontier alternator swap on the 260Z. I had a good ZX alternator that I decided to use in the 240Z when I was waking it up last year. That used up my reserve. I learned I could get a new Frontier alternator from Rockauto, so I went that route.

Download the factory service manual. It has the specs. The FSM is available in the Downloads section of this board. I have a link in my signature.

You need to support the valve. You can do with compressed air or some rope pushed in through the spark plug hole.

Resurrected Classics Hood - https://resurrectedclassics.com/collections/sheet-metal

I'm relaxing at home when I got a call from a number I didn't recognize. Since the caller left a voicemail, I played it. He told me he got my number from a friend. He has a 78 that he drove to the gas station, and it wouldn't "catch". He said another friend worked on the car, but that friend wasn't available. I called him back and found out that the engine would turn but wouldn't fire. Knowing that the friend who worked on the car is a very good Z wrench, I knew I had to run through possible esoteric solutions. "Beat on the ECU." "What?" "Hit the ECU with the side of your fist. Just bang on it a couple of times. Then try to start your car." "Where is it?" "When you're sitting in the car, it's by your left leg on the kick panel." "I see a piece of plastic there." "Yep. Hit it." "Oh my God. It worked." I told him he might need to replace the ECU. It looks like MSA is out of them for right now. When I told the story to another friend, he responded, "Percussive maintenance." What can I say? He's right.