2ManyZs

No problem, I would hesitate drilling holes in a good rear bumper myself. Not that I have one. :disappoin Bet you will be able to find someone that wants to replace a set of rusted one on their car. :classic: Always someone looking for parts isn't there?

Only the rear bumper will require holes to be drilled in it. You may need to drill holes in the front bumper guards to mount the over-rider though. Can't remember if the guards had extra holes or not. :stupid: The 72 bumper should have the same spacing as the 73. I believe it was only the 70-71 guards with the wider spacing. As far as looks, well, that's a matter of taste. I prefer the cars without them, but that's just me. How much protection? Not much, if any. You can add all the bars you want, but they will still be bolted to a very flimsey bumper (by todays standards anyways), none of the early bumpers really offers much protection since they are rather thin and light gauge metal to begin with. The later bumpers that everyone hates because of their size and weight are really the only Z bumpers that offer much protection.

No need to bleed the clutch system unless you replace the slave cylinder, just hang it out of the way when you pull the trans. The flywheel bolts should be torqued to 100ft/lbs. The pressure plate bolts should be 17 1/2-19ft/lbs, you could just tighten them securely with a 3/8 ratchet and they will be fine. Doubt if a clutch kit will have an alignment tool, you could probably find one at an auto parts store pretty cheap, or if not MSA has them for a reasonable price.

Hard to kill an L series if it is taken car of. Too bad it's harder to keep away the rust monster that has taken more cars out of circulation than accidents and wear and neglect combined.

The rear bumper over-riders were all the same for all the 240's I believe. The rear ones all mounted to the bumper itself and did not mount to the upright bumper guards. The 72-73 front bumpers should be the same if I remember correctly. The 70-71 cars had a different spacing between the guards so be sure you have the correct ones. 70-71 were spaced further apart than the 72 and later cars.

It will be much easier to remove the trans if you remove the shifter before you attempt dropping the trans. You will need to take the console off, remove the shift boots and pull one pin on the shifter. No big deal but it will be easier to work the trans out if you don't have to drop it so low to clear the shifter. You will also need to unbolt the slave cylinder for the clutch from the side of the bell housing. 4 bolts hold the driveshaft flange, all should be 14mm. Take them out and drop the driveshaft. Unhook the speedo cable and reverse light wires, remove the bellhousing bolts and then lastly remove the 2 bolts from the trans mount. It's a rather easy job, shouldn't take more than an afternoon if you have the tools available, and a good set of jackstands to raise the car up high enough that you can slide the trans out from under it so you can have some room to work. BTW, when you drop the trans mounts, the rear of the engine is going to drop with it. If you can, I usually loop a section of rope under the rear of the engine and tie it to the hood latch framework to keep the rear of the engine a bit more securely. It will help a great deal when you go to put the trans back in, with the engine flopping around in the motor mounts, you may have a hard time lining up the input shaft thru the clutch. Conversely, anyone that is pulling an engine will find it easier to separate the engine from the trans if you loop the rope under the bellhousing to hold the trans still.

It's more than likely the seatbelt warning/interlock.

If you only change the dash, the VIN number on the dash will not match the VIN number on the chassis, therefore you are altering a vehicle VIN number. Not legal.

Definately change the sender first. One little gob of sludge buildup in the sender and they are out of whack, they were notorious for it. Or you could just pick up a cheap mechanical gauge at an auto parts store and hook it in temporarily just to verify your oil pressure and get an accurate reading. You can change the spring in the pump if the pressure is low, or shim the one in it. Haven't done one personally as I usually replace the pump with the high volume pump just to be sure.

Just another reason to believe the old adage: "A fool and his money are soon parted."

Not many people are going to take a restoration to that level. I guess the one question on most everyones mind is going to be how long did it take you to re-assemble it? Simple to take one apart, but to put it back together from a bare shell takes a lot of time and patience. I guess you get the award for taking a resto to the "nth" degree, especially after seeing all the nuts, bolts, and washers re-plated. Job well done!

It is not necessary with carbs, only fuel injection. But it never hurts to get the best available hoses instead of the cheap stuff. For what little bit extra it costs it wasn't a bad deal over some of the flimsy, soft rubber hoses you find at some auto parts stores.

Shouldn't be a problem, just keep an eye on the voltmeter for a while. If it isn't pegged on the high side of the scale, your voltage regulaor may be OK. But just to be on the safe side, it might not be a bad idea to change it when you can. They are cheap and they do probably fail more than any other part of the charging system. With a new battery and alternator you should be OK on your trip.

$900 for an alternator???? That's outragious. And unnecessary unless you plan on making your Z into an electric car.:cross-eye

First thing to do is to find out if it is just surface rust or if has gone beyond that. Take a small screwdriver under there and push against it. If it doesn't go through you are in good shape. Clean it and paint it or use a rust inhibitor like POR-15 on it. If it goes through or you find any weakness, you should either patch or replace. You can do the same test on the front frame rails, rocker panels (in an inconspicuous place), under the battery tray and all the other places a Z normally rust. You don't have to beat on it, a simple push will tell you all you need to know. If it is weakened from the inside you will notice a lot of give in the metal or you may even poke a hole in it, in that case it's time to start welding. Do a search here using the search function on the main page and you should come up with numerous posts on rust problems and how to repair them. If you can't find the answer to your dilemma, we are always here to answer more questions. Oh, a 77 is a 280Z, the ZX's started in 79 in the US.

Or maybe you caught him on a date with his boss's wife.:stupid:

Hey Mr. C, I was looking at your link to the RB car on Ebay. Noticed something interesting that we can't seem to find here in the US. The fender flares he had that weren't installed really looked nice as they were actually more than just the fender flare. They ran back along the bottom of the quarter so that the flare blended in with the rest of the quarter. They had a very nice shape to them, better than some of the flares that are still on the market here anyways. Any of you know where these can be found? Or know who the supplier might be? I'm assuming they are fiberglass, but since we seems to be losing suppliers for even the fiberglass parts there might be quite a few people "over here" interested if they are still in production somewhere else in the world.

Only one thing you haven't thought about. You can easily change the data plates, but you are forgetting the VIN number on the firewall above the brake booster. Not easy to change. Won't even go into what can happen if you are caught altering VIN numbers. Not only would the DMV would be hot after your heals, but in CA you would have CARB after you too since you would be doing this to get around their smog laws. If it were a race car I would say who cares, but a street car might be another matter, especially when it comes time to sell it if you were ever to do so.

It will probably take a little more than an hour, but the modifications you need to do are quite simple. You need to cut the dust shield for caliper clearance and bend the hard line to the caliper. That's about it, a few careful bends in the line, and a few snips with the tin snips or rotary tool and you should be good to go. To answer an earlier question, you do not have to change the master cylinder (unless yours is of questionable operation that is) to do this swap. You can, however, upgrade to the later master cylinder with the 15/16 bore for a little higher line pressure (possibly) and fluid capacity. Not sure if there is a big difference in the actual line pressures, but a little more fluid is probably a good idea since you are now feeding twice as many pistons on the front brakes.

I was thinking a very dark maroon metallic..............

That is the one I was hoping they would build. BUT.........

You can get alarms pretty reasonable now, I paid over 400 for a Clifford in 85 and never installed it. I think it's still sitting in my closet. A decent alarm shouldn't be much over 250 or so nowdays. My idea of an alarm is a loaded 9mm, and a bumper sticker that says "Gun control is being able to hit your target while it is running"ROFL :devious:

First thing is you really ought to get yourself a Factory Service Manual for the year of your 280 engine. There are just so many tests described in there to troubleshoot your fuel injection it is worth it's weight in gold (well almost) and it will make your job so much simpler. One thing I'm thinking about is that your water temp switch or air temp switch may be bad and is causing the cold start injector to enrichen the mixture as if it is trying to choke for a cold start. That's one idea, as far as any others, I don't have my 280 anymore and therefore don't have an FSM to go by. As far as the pressure regulator goes, I don't think that will cause a flooding condition as it is before the injectors, the injectors will only flow so much fuel unless something is tricking the FI to think it needs more. It could be in the air flow meter, one of the temp switches, cold start valve ( injector),possibly the throttle body itself. There are a lot of things that need to be checked and without an FSM I'm just grasping ideas out of thin air.

Has to be some reason for the lash pad being off, I think you might want to pull the head and check out the valves. Lot of different possibilities, but usually a lash pad won't come of for no reason. Was the spring holding the lash pad broken? Does the valve spring look OK compared to the rest of them? Since you have another head you might want to think about swapping them and take a good look at this one to see if the valve is seized in the guide or if there is something else wrong. If the spring retainer that holds the lash pad in place was broken, you should be able to just replace the spring and lash pad and see how it goes from there.

The voltage regulator will be already set. I think the battery is probably showing that it is bad because you have been driving it for a while without it receiving any charge at all. Basically you have been running the ignition off the battery since it the charging system is not working properly. My vote goes for alternator and a new voltage regulator (it's cheap insurance) and then have the battery trickle charged for an afternoon before you drive it again. If the battery won't hold up after a good charging and driving it with the new alternator, well, you know what that means. You have been driving it with a low charge from the alternator that it is possible the battery will not be any good since it has become so throughly discharged.