Ricklandia

Chris - thanks for the link. For those willing to try it (Mousemilk), I strongly suggest you read the MSDS first: pretty high concentration of toluene so use with care.

Gary, I see what you mean about the PB smell, not that I object. My wife, on the other hand, came in from the garage in a panic as she thought something toxic had sprung a leak. And that was with the garage door having been open the entire day. Of course, it's been raining for 6 days straight so the humidity has been like a sauna. I didn't see Kroil on the shelves at the local parts place, but I'll keep an eye open for it. Gonna let things soak for a few days and see if it helps. I did find an EZ-out set at Sears and will heed everyone's advice. I can definitey see that snapping one off would be "not good". A bit off topic: since I have the front suspension apart, were the parts originally painted from the factory or bare metal (ie steering knuckle, sway bar, tie rods, etc.)? I'm not shooting for a show car resto, it's just that some of the parts show signs of having paint on them and I'm curious if I need to recoat them for preservation purposes or if it's only cosmetic.

hehe well I was out and about (tool shopping :laugh: ) so I popped into the parts store and bought some PB Blaster penetrating oil. Can't hurt to try, it's only a buck or so more than WD40. Personally, I've always used WD more outta habit than anything else. Love the way it smells when sprayed on hot metal (smells like chocolate). I'm having a hell of a time cracking loose the lock nuts on my tie rod ends, hopefully this PB Blaster oil will show me I was wrong all these years.

Hehe, tell me something I didn't know! On a more serious note, what makes these oils "penetrate" better than WD40 or other similar oils (CRC for example)?

I emailed Courtesy Nissan and they quoted me $95ea for the ball joints. A bit stiff compared to the aftermarket units, but coming from them I am assuming they are at least Nissan parts. The rod ends they have pictured on their website look to be true Nissan (at least compared to the aftermarket ones I've seen). At this point, I don't mind paying the xtra money compared to the frustration of getting parts that dont fit properly. Speaking of frustrating... Any tips on breaking the Tie Rod ends loose? I have the ball joints out already (amazing how easy the second one comes out compared to the first!). I heated up the locking nut on the rod end, but cant get it to budge. I started looking at the threads on the inner rod and began to question if I was turning in the right direction, but either way produced no progress. To gather up torque, I simply hooked a box end wrench over the rod end and held it pinned to the floor with my foot (big wrench) but using all my strength I cant get the F'n lock nut loose. Any suggestions would be appreciated at this point, otherwise I'm hosed.

Been searching for threads on rusted/snapped bolt removal. I managed to snap off one of the sway bar mounting bolts flush with frame rail. Some of the threads mentioned an "Easy Out" or "EZ Out". Can someone elaborate on this, or point me in the right direction? I've never heard of this gadget before. My bolt is snapped flush enough that I have no chance of getting vice grips on it, and unfortunately I dont have a welder either to tack an extension on. :disappoin

Okay, this time I am the moron. In a moment of weakness, I bid on a pair of ball joints on eBay. Unfortunately, as I was to find out yesterday, I won. I say that after spending 2 hours trying to get the new ball joint bolted back in. I hadn't dropped the traction arm completely off as I don't see that it's necessary, so I thought that might be it. At one point, I packed up my tools and thought I'd call it a day as I was so frustrated. I went back about an hour later to look again, this time unbolting the steering knuckle from the strut and laying the entire ball joint/steering knuckle assembly onto the traction arm. And what did I find? The bolt holes on the "eBay" ball joints dont line up. :mad: So I'm thinking, are the left and right ball joints different? I open up the other ball joint, same thing, the holes dont line up. Mind you, they're not off by much, a couple of millimeters perhaps, but enough that it will not bolt back up like the original does. In fact, it wont bolt back up at all, once one bolt is installed, the others are off just enough that it cannot be threaded. Just plain poor QC as I see it. So... The local parts house is unreliable for parts needed (tie rods and ball joints), the local Nissan dealership says they can get neither (unless I buy the entire tie rod assembly @ $180/side). Any suggestions for NOS ball joints and/or outer tie rod ends? VB lists the tie rod ends but not the ball joints. Does anyone know if Courtesy has Ball Joints? Or if the parts they stock are true NOS parts?

Adjusting the timing is really simple. Loosen the distributor hold down bolt slightly, just enough that you can physically turn the entire distributor housing. Turning the distributor housing clockwise or counterclockwise will either advance or retard the timing. Getting this timing correct is important. It can be done without a light, but that assumes the car is already running somewhat correctly. I'm starting to think your's might have more involved if you cant get it running at all. Is it trying to run at all?

I would like to thank the morons at the local (insert local autoparts store here) for screwing up my perfectly planned weekend. Stopped in and ordered two new tie rod ends, and new front brake lines, already had the ball joints. "No problem", the counterman tells me, "they'll be here on Wed". Perfect. I ordered some sway bar bushings and a few other needed items from VB, even paying for a little rush delivery so I can have them by the weekend. Three days to work on the car, chug a few brews, watch good racing on the tube while I work... what could be better? I'll tell ya what could be better... if the MORONS at the parts house would do their friggin jobs! Stopped in after work yesterday to pick up the parts, open up the boxes to inspect (this aint my first time at the rodeo) to find... two completely different tie rod ends, and two completely different brake lines. AAAAaaaarrrrggghhhhh!!!!! :mad: So the Z will sit on stands for at least another week till I can get in the correct parts, from VB this time.

Possible the distributor got turned while you were working on it? When you're cranking the motor does it sound like it's "trying" to fire at all? Backfiring out the tailpipe sounds like the ignition timing is severely retarded, causing the spark timing to ignite long after TDC, so much so that the exhaust is loading up with unburned fuel. First thing I would be doing would be to whip out the timing light and check the timing. Pronto. If you don't have one, they're not too expensive at the local parts chain stores (~$30-$35)

Doesnt that just drive you bonkers! You take the time and energy to replace a part, then spend hours if not days trying to figure out why it didn't fix what it should have. What ever happened to factory quality control? How's it going with the electrical cutout problem?

Here's a highly compressed grayscale version for you dialup users that just want a quick peek. Acrobat does some goofy things in the conversion, but you get the idea. Mr. Camo, I got an error when trying to view yours, that's why I made this version.

Vacuum leak? Is the car idling normally? might be something as simple as the integrity of the booster vacuum hose.

No new cartridges. I was just thinking about heat transfer to the tube from the knuckle itself. The tube seemed to be fairly thin cased. Thx for the advise.

Thx Carl. what I'm worried about is if I need to put heat to it like I did with the tie rod ends. I pounded on them for damn near a 1/2 hour before I had to break out the propane torch to heat things up. I removed the rubber o-ring, I'm just worried that the heat might not be good for the strut casing if I need to fire up the torch again. The front suspension looks like it's never been touched, the balljoints look like they're in there but good. I've been soaking them in WD40 for days but I don't think it's gonna help much. A bench will be nice one day but I don't think it can happen for a while, unless I'm forced into it by this job. Anyone ever have to put a torch to get their ball joints out?

DUMAS question: I'm replacing my ball joints. I removed the steering knuckle bolts and dropped the torsion arm down to get at the ball joint castle nut. the ball joint is severly stuck in place. I have a ball joint fork, but what I want to know is if it's safe to bolt back up the steering knuckle so I can slam it out? My tie rod ends were stuck bad enough that I had to put a torch on the arm to break it free. I don't have a solid bench or bench vise to do it off the car. Does anyone have a suggestion to break free the ball joint on the car, or is it time for me to invest in a decent bench and vise?

S.O.P. for bleeding brakes is always start with the brake FARTHEST away from the M/C - so it would be passenger rear, driver rear, passenger front, driver front.

The idle issue is most likely related to the Vacuum booster. Check the line for leaks, if not that, it might be the booster itself. As for the Master cylinder, no leaks anywhere? (wheels cylinders?) Just to be sure, in what order did you bleed the brakes?

Have you ever tried the "chrome" paint? I got all the way to the hobby shop but totally forgot to ask the modellers there about that.

Any tips on paint removal from the plastic lenses? I'm gonna take a drive to the hobby shop and see if anyone there has a recommendation for restoring the "chrome" strip. If I find out anything I'll be sure to post it STAT.

hehe - When I pulled the rear deck carpeting on mine I found it painted in the glorious original 112 Yellow. It's very hypnotic, it even has me contemplating going back to it some day.

The effect can be seen by the naked eye, not only on film or video. The principle is the same: Much like a camera, your eye/brain combo has a limited ability to process information (light) and convert it to an image. In the case of your eye, it's roughly 50 frames or images per second although in most circumstances it's hardly discernable above 30fps. The "reversing" effect is simply a syncranicity issue.

Dude, if you don't get this taken care of, you might have NO car, not to mention no life! Don't push your luck on this one, things could go from bad to horribly wrong really quickly.

Oh man... I dunno about you, but I'd be more than just a little nervous about that. Inner tie rod ends gone bad maybe? Seriously, I'd get the steering rack looked at ASAP.