cj71z

I bought a colortune and tried to tune my carbs today. It seems that no matter what I tried the mixture always stayed rich(yellow). I read in a previous post that the SM needles are too rich throughout the RPM range. I got it running the best I could by listening to the idle, but it still smells rich and kinda smokey. Is this common for people with SM's? If they're bad because of their profile is there anything I can do to try to correct this problem? I also noticed that after cruising down a hill when I accelerate to go up the other side it puffs smoke out the tail pipe. It seems to be greylike, could this be caused by the needles? It seems more like a valve stem seal symptom to me, but what do you guys think? Chris

Update: I finally got to work on my car today. First I stopped by Z-parts and saw Eric for a 3 core radiator and a shroud, got a good deal on a used one. I bought new plugs and brought my new parts for my distributor. Changed out the radiator, installed plugs, changed breaker plate, and raised the float level. She fired right up after a good warm-up confirmed no leaks in radiator, then readjusted timing and carbs. Went out for a test run and you know what problem seems to have disappeared . Ran her hard in third, shifted to fourth and everything was great. Drove her for 2 hrs around town and on the highway and problem never appeared. Finally have confidence to drive her again. Thanks to everyone for the help. Chris

Hey guys was wondering if anyone knew where to find mag lug nuts for AR Libres. Everywhere I go they have short or long shank, but it seems like these wheels need something like a medium shank which I can't find anywhere. Thanks Chris

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it was illegal for gas stations to raise the cost of their gasoline that's in the ground allready. I think they can only adjust the cost based on what that delivery costs them. It seems fishy when you see gas prices changing in the middle of the day. Usually they get their deliveries late at night.

I'm getting irritated too. I passed a station in Concord, Ca yesterday and it was 2.79 reg. Not an hour later I passed and it was up to 2.84. This is getting out of control. The reason nothings being done is because Bushs' buddies in the oil business are raking in the cash. Everyone should start E-mailing the President and ask him for answers. Zman I get P!$$ed too when the news stations have a short clip, but no answers. They should just say "Hey everyone look how your getting ripped off, what are you gonna do about it!!!" I'll stop now :mad:

After my new lowered suspension I have a toe-in problem. Stand infront of your car a decent distance away with your steering wheel straight and take note of the wheel position either pointing in or out. Did you mark where your old tie-rods were threaded to before removal? My tires are new and I notice that with too much toe-in the inside edge of the tire tread is clean(no road dirt). I'm assuming it would be the opposite with too much toe-out.

Have you rebuilt your carbs? If you haven't then I would do so. Removing 30 plus years of gunk, new gaskets, needles, nozzles etc. will do wonders. Make sure you get your float levels correct as it'll make adjustments easier. I felt I had a vaporizing issue because of wandering mixtures on my carbs. I bypassed the hot water to the intakes and it seems like it's gone. Your problem seems similar to mine, keep me posted with your findings as well. Chris

I'm not sure if I've figured it out yet. I thought it was a fuel problem, but now I'm thinking it's an electrical problem. I hooked up my timing light on #1 and took note of the spark timing. The spark seemed strong, but seemed like there was interference. I moved the other wires and the timing was more pronounced. I need new wires. Then I attached it to my coil wire and took note. The light is consistent, but intermittently misses at idle. I increased the RPMs and took note also. At about 1500 and above or so the light seems to get noticably dimmer with inconsistent bright spots. Now I'm thinking coil or possibly alternator. I got in the car and repeated the same test. I noticed my amp meter reading steady a little above middle at idle. When I increase the RPMs to around 1500 the meter jumps up and holds steady, at 2500 the needle jumped up and down a couple times, and at 3000 the needle seemed steady, but inconsistently up and down a bit. I let it return to idle and the amp meter began to jump around in the middle as it was missfiring. I'm thinking it's the alternator, not sure how old it is, but it has to be at least 10 yrs old. The coil is new and my distributor is in decent shape. 2 stator/reluctor points seem to be close, but do not touch. Any ideas on my findings fellow Zed Heads? Chris

I'm planning on relocating my battery behind the pass. seat while I tackle the rust under mine. I think it's best to remove the battery tower by drilling out the spot welds. You can then sandblast,grind,wirewheel the metal to see how bad it is. If it's bad I would cut and weld in new metal. You can then clean up the tower, reweld back to the car and paint with por 15. They sell those felt mats for under the batteries to prevent acid from leaking onto the car body. I think I'm just gonna leave mine behind the seat as permanent prevention

I grew up in the car I have now. My parents were the original owners, they sold it and she was left in a field for 5 years :mad: . I saw it and it made me sick that someone would leave a classic Z like that so I bought her back. I've become so attached that I even dream about driving her . So many memories and so much time and money into bringing her back to life that I think I'll keep her forever. Chris

Thanks for all the great advice, I installed my new fuel pump and noticed a couple other problems. I noticed that my distributor was installed backwards and that my breaker plate was stuck in the advanced position due to the last ball bearing wedged between it. I took apart my distributor, cleaned it up remounted it correctly put back the cap and she fired right up. I'm thinking about bypassing vacuum advance till I can find one. Are breaker plates for zx distributors still available anywhere? Anyway I had to order a new thermostat housing cover since mine cracked in half overnight, another 15$. So far I haven't noticed any fuel problems, my new guage reads around 3-5psi at idle and around 4 when I rev her up. Hopefully this weekend I'll get her on the road and test her out to see if the problems been solved. Chris

Finally figured out how to post pics. I got some to start, been lazy about taking them while I'm working on her. I'll get some more later. I gotta show you guys my polished libras, they're sweet, took at least 4 hrs each. I'll get those on this weekend Chris

I'm fairly new here and to the Z scene. I have a 1971 240z which my parents were the original owners of. It was sold to my friends aunt and then bought back by me. It's been sitting for a good 10 yrs now and I've been working the past year on bringing it back to life thanks to the advice and knowledge from the members here. I would probably be ripping my hair out or spending alot more money if it weren't for this site. Thank you all and keep up the good work. Chris P.S. Any members here from the East Bay Area?

When the car is in normal operating temp(about the middle of the temp guage) I tune the mixtures correct. I take it out for a drive and she gets a little hotter when I drive around for a while(about 3/4 or a little more on the guage). I come home and check the mixtures and it seems like now there running lean. It was pretty stupid of me not to disconnect the fuel pump, at least with a new one I'll know it's working properly(50$ mistake :stupid: ) I never pulled the carbs apart when it dies cause usually it happens while I'm on the highway. I'll find a road with less traffic and if it happens again I'll check the carbs to see how much fuel is there. Chris

They seem to be a good deal...I inquired about them today and found that the whole kit shipped to my house in the east bay would be about 280$. Not bad since to recore my radiator to a 3 row would cost about 275$. A four row from MSA is about the same price without shipping and tax. You can forget about the 400$ for there aluminum radiator, that's way too much. Chris

Today I got to work on her again. I bought a inline FP guage and came back home. I started checking things and found that my + wire from the distributor to the module had nearly broken in half :tapemouth So I go and rewire with new connectors and everything now is nice and clean and tight fitting. Before I started it I plumbed in the FP guage and blew back through the lines going to the carbs, then the return line and they seemed fine. I took on the fuel filter and blew back to the tank, plenty of bubbles. The the return line back to the tank. Seemed there were no problems so I put it back together and fired her up. She started fine, but soon began to bog and then died, not to be started the rest of the day :disappoin I searched and searched and found that my fuel pump must have gone bad when I blew air back into it???? The pump seems to suck, then on the out stroke push the fuel back out the pump to the filter???? I finally found one at the end of the day, but wasn't able to get it installed yet. Maybe my pump was on it's way out? Anyway I'll try again on Friday. I'm gonna flush my cooling system and bypass the hot water to the intakes, she seemed to run on the hot side (3/4 on the guage) and I'm wondering if the hot intakes, coupled with my ceramic coated header vaporized the fuel before she could use it. That may be why my mixture settings seem to go lean when the car gets hot. If my car still runs hot what do you guys think of this replacement radiatorJagsthatrunradiator seems like a good deal since a to recore mine to a 3 core will cost about 270$ or so Thanks for your help, I will figure this out, she will not beat me Chris