sleepyzzz

you have me remembering my second z purchase. i purchased my SS from a guy listing it on auto trader in Paradise, CA. flew to Sacremento where he and his wife picked me up and drove me back to their place. i got little sleep that night and was on my way back to Arkansas the next day with my z. i took I 80 and went thru some of the most beautiful country i had ever seen. spent one night in a motel and made it home in three days, driving by myself. one day, i will take the wife back out there in my 260Z, and make the same return trip so that we can take our time and really enjoy the trip. good luck with your plans and i hope that you enjoy that time with your dad.

Dave, did you receive my switches and money order yet?

not too long ago, a fellow on Ebay listed those and got no bids if i remember right. sorry, i don't remember his name, just that he was from Maryville, Tenn. someone else might know who i am talking about though.

Dave, sure hate to hear about that. will the kid's insurance pay you for all of the work that you had put into the last hood? i would expect no less since it wasn't your fault. goodluck

Dave, sorry i called so early this morning. you were very gracious in that. money order is in the box along with my mailing address, for the switch refurbishing and wiring harness for the headlights. forgot to mention that i had one small issue taking the cover off of the switches. the top one was tight, and i broke off one of the bolt tubes that line up the bolts coming thru from the bottom cover. i think i can super glue it back, but if not, then i will make do with what is left. the post office closed just ten minutes after i got there. :classic:

yesterday morning i went out to crank the z and found the choke stuck open again on the front carb. look at the first picture i posted please, and you will see a hex head bolt holding the main arm that the choke cable is attached to. i took a wrench and checked to see just how tight that was, and backed it off a quarter of a turn and duh, no more sticking choke. i can't believe something that simple stumped me all this time.

one more update on all of this. it turns out the choke was sticking on the front carb. spraying wd 40 on the linkage and working the choke lever back and forth took care of that problem. also, i noticed the new battery getting warm to the touch and emitting acid out the top. i installed a new voltage regulator and checking the ground cable on the battery, found where it had never been tightened properly at the parts store when the battery was replaced. i hope that i am done in the engine bay for now.

thanks everyone for the help and compliments. it isn't very clear in the picture but i didn't like the vent line left open running back to the gas tank. we took a hose from that and routed it around the front of the valve cover and tapped into the carbuator vent hose with a tee. this was kinking the line thus shutting down the first three cylinders. i just rerouted the hose to get the kink out and now the car is fine. no more loading up like it is flooding on take off, or backfiring like before. i maybe am not plumbing this correctly but so far it works great. on a side note. the last three days i have been putting up with a rotten egg smell from under the hood. thought it was fumes from the little filter on the valve cover. turns out that the old battery was about to explode on me. a new one took care of that. the temp gauge now sits about in the middle or slightly past right on the m, i guess we are good there.

as rough as mine is right now,(driver's mirror busted off,bad paint and such) i even got a nice car comment while filling up and a i haven't seen one of those in years. i said thanks, and this one will be 34 next February.

that turned out nice. congrats

i wish i was closer to you. that sounds like a steal if the car is in good shape. good luck with the sale.

i didn't put a tape measure to it, but it looked like an inch or so to me. if you look at the right stud that holds the top filter plate from the end of the threads to the tip of the air horn there is at least an inch. i made a five hour drive going to a sales meeting in my z. the car ran great going down, but i had three plugs foul on the front carb coming back. i had two extra plugs with me and a tool set that i packed just in case. that got me to the next town and a parts store where i purchased four more plugs. the back carb plugs were fine, so i only needed one more. any thoughts or suggestions on what to do so that i don't have that happen again? too rich maybe or???????

after everyone told me that i should go back and add the ram horns under my K&N filters, i whittled these out of an old filter box and installed them today. the car runs so much better, i have to admit. i thought they turned out neat. i also installed my new radiator today, which dropped the operating temps down considerably.

i had recaro seats in my 88 SS and loved them. the seats can be used either side, and i lucked out and found a mint passenger seat out of a wrecked SS, and traded my worn out driver's side for it, along with a little cash. the slide out thigh support was a cool feature on those also.

i am feeling old. two kids in college,one of them engaged. daughter is 22 and bought this car for herself. i did help her pick it out. her first z was a 300zx na 90 model, now owned by her fiancee. oldest son is 19 and still saving his money for his very own first car, driving the sentra with 400,000 miles on it back and forth to college. and i have one more. my 9 year old who loves to cruise with dad in the z.

the car is in the driveway with a few small problems still left to deal with. driving it home last night, when i switched to the high beams, my lights went out completely. also,i have no turn signals, and i am afraid it is the switch, because it wouldn't stay either left or right when you pulled it to make a turn. my tachometor is also out and i read a thread on here which is exactly what mine is doing. key off, and it reads zero, but when you have it on, and running, it pegs the meter. i guess that i will be pulling it out, and disasembling it to replace the resistor. also my speedometor isn't working so i have to deal with that also. at least it is here now, and driveable, and i can get some time on it nights and weekends to tinker with it. first thing i want to fix is the muffler. we cut the old one off because it was dragging and had no rear strap to keep it up. i am thinking magnaflow, but will see what is available. the driver's side mirror is broken off, and i must replace that also. the car handled great on the short ride home. the tokico struts and springs were not that bad, like i had been warned of when i bought them. the new bumpers look great. i also have an original Datsun tag for the front.

yeah yeah, between the seats of my first one,a 79 280ZX. that was the only way to make it work. i was alot younger then, and also alot more flexible. i doubt the wife will let me break this one in like that.

did it smell like antifreeze? i am guessing the heater core or hoses that are attached to it. good luck with the fix. i will be dealing with that myself pretty soon.

thanks Bob, the man in the video is the one who put that engine together,and tuned the carbs. he is really good with the old Datsuns.

not sure what i did on the pics not showing up. i just thought since i was new that i had to wait for the pics to be approved. no air horns under the filters yet Brian. i wanted to see how it ran without them before spending more money. Big Oak, thanks for fixing my pictures and links to the videos. how did you find them and go about posting them for me? did the engine sound ok? i am blatenly looking for compliments guys, or at least a little encouragement.:cheeky:

i have a few pics of my engine with new plugs and plug wires,cap and rotor,and also installed a new oil sending unit. the K & N filters were a have to, as i didn't get all of the parts with my original filter box. i also have two very rough videos with sound to let you hear how nice the engine is after a good friend helped with tuning the carbs. we still have to install driver's side mirror, front and rear bumpers, and fix the rear latch on the back. everything else (paint and body work) will have to wait. but at least i can finally drive it after owning it, for the last two years. the second video is my friend that helped with the car, a very good mechanic that has worked on Datsuns the last thirty years or so. i put him to saying the peanut butter line, trying to get a chuckle.

the paint on your car is great. is that the original color? you have a really nice z.

i have found a set of those turbine wheels off of a z, plan on having bead blasted and painted. i have not decided on the color yet, but leaning towards black or maybe silver since my car is going to be red one day. they do look good, but the spindle cap sticking out on the front wheels doesn't look good imo,is there anything to go over that?

if you read the listing, his z isn't included with the walnuts. he says that he could be talked into selling the storage space also. starting bid of 9.99 and no one bidding. they pay $10 a ton for walnuts up here, and i doubt that he has that much in the car.

with two different guys having new cams and wanting to sell them, i have to ask why did you change your mind about installing them? too much trouble, or what? i looked at adding headers to mine, and was told that if i didn't change the cam, that the headers alone wouldn't do much. still learning here and i had to ask.