Arne

Or you could just be honest and tell her that you can't wait much longer, and that you're going to start looking for one of your own. Maybe that'll get her to thinking...

I drove mine to work again today. Came home with the window down listening to the exhaust and grinning...

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/car/588038575.html

Stephen, the harness pair I sent you was sold to me as correct for 9/70-12/70. I just reviewed my previous research on this subject (http://classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19793 - a long thread) which makes me believe that it should also work on 2/70-8/70 cars - in fact, since the earlier research indicated that the 4650 and 4651 numbers may have been used for both versions from 2/70-12/70, it may actually be a 2/70-8/70 part. I had forgotten that the very earliest cars were different. My bad. That previous research also tells me that the problem in making the dash harness I sold you work for a 1/70 car is in mating with the engine harness. The rear body harnesses are shown by Nissan to be all the same from 9/69-12/70. So your rear harness SHOULD mate up to the replacement dash harness just fine. On the other hand, the engine harness for 2/70-12/70 is different than for your early car. Just what might be different, I don't know. But apparently connector type is one difference. Perhaps that's all there is, but I have no way to know for certain. At this point, there are probably only three options, none are perfect. 1.) Find the proper 12/69-1/70 dash harness set. Probably hard to do, as there were probably only 1500 cars made with that harness. 2.) Find a good engine harness for 2/70-12/70. This may be a bit easier than option 1, but still will take a bit of work to find a good one. Ideally you'll want one for a manual transmission car, although I know from experience that an automatic harness will work. But there will be left-over wires under the hood, which is not optimal. 3.) Attempt to change the wiring connectors to match your existing engine compartment harness. I suspect this is possible, but would be tedious at best, as you'd need to positively identify each wire to make certain you moved it to the correct connector and pin location. There's a fair amount of risk involved, I think this would be my last choice. Option 1 is obviously the best, but the proper harness in good condition will be difficult to find. I find it hard to recommend option 3, but it may still be viable. Option 2 isn't ideal, but might be the cleanest, if strict originality is not required.

They must have used better stuff on the 240s. All three of my '71s still have/had the rubber-head bolts.

No, Stephen. They are talking about replacing the rubber-head bolt on the pedal itself, the one that pushes against the plastic plunger.

Interesting thoughts. Remember the guy trying to sell a high-dollar Z a while back ranting about how we Z enthusiasts are cheap b*****ds and aren't willing to pay what these cars are worth? He wasn't pleasant about it, but the gist of his rant was that we Z people are holding down the values on our own cars. And you know what? Maybe he was right...

Is that a recent picture, Mike? Those aren't the wheels I saw on it last time I saw it.

Hard to say for certain, but I don't think that car is either. That color is not red enough for 110, but not orange enough for 918. Part of the problem is that it's very hard to find an unfaded example of 110. My car is the earlier 905, but it has faded towards orange enough to be virtually indistinguishable from 110. True 110 should be more red than orange, but once it has faded, it can approach 918 in color. True 918 is very orange, slightly more towards the yellow end of the orange spectrum, not so much reddish. Bear in mind that this is all simply my opinion, and how I've perceived these colors. But I think my descriptions are accurate.

Larger venturis should not have anything to do with it. They might run rather rich, but shouldn't affect the idle speed significantly. Are you certain the throttle plates were closed, or were you seeing the pistons being down?

Yes, the NGKs are opaque blue these days. But they do have the bent boot on number 6 only, which is the same as my original 1971 date-coded wires have - five straight and one bent. Don't know what is 'correct' for a 280Z, though.

The 70 amp ZXT units appear to be hard to find. Even parts suppliers generally sell the 60 amp unit as covering all ZXs, both turbo and NA. So if a ZXT in a boneyard ever had its alternator replaced, it likely has the 60 amp unit instead.

I like all of them. I think Libres would be one of my first choices on a lighter colored car - say, 919 yellow, silver or white. The 'other' mags (Performance Specialties) do look nice on the green, and both the slots and the caps look right on the red car. I've been trying to figure out if I want something different yet vintage for my red car, and the more I look at pictures, the more I think I like the P/S mags. Polished up nicely, they give a great vintage look.

If everything else is equal, a larger diameter, and therefore lower profile tire rides harsher than a taller profile tire. Of course, everything else is rarely truly equal...

There are longer stems, which is the best way to go. But extenders are also available. Any auto parts place should have the extenders, a tire shop can change to longer stems.

Christian, is it drivable in the daylight? Feel like driving down to Springfield later this week or this weekend? I bet we could track this down in fairly short order...

Sorry dude, but there is no one correct answer. The correct answer will be different for different people, cars and situations. Dave's triple carbs are great for his modified motor, but would be overkill for my stock motor. In my case, the factory twin carbs are better.For you? I dunno. You're going to have to decide what it really is that you want, how much are willing and able to do yourself, and how much you can afford to pay. And yes, I'm going to say it again. You do NEED to do some serious reading so that you can figure out what is going to work for your goals and budget.

What month production? (Found on door jam tag.) And is it an automatic or a manual transmission car? I ask this because there are several different engine compartment wring harnesses for a '71 240Z, depending on the answers to those questions. I have a spare harness for an early production '71, automatic. The automatic harnesses can work with either transmission, but a manual harness only works for manuals.

First guess - U-joints. Check for play there, probably in the driveshaft u-joints, less likely to be the half-shaft joints. If you find any play in any of them, I'd replace all six. Edit - I did not mean to imply that the half-shaft u-joints are less likely to be bad, but that they may be less likely to cause the type of vibration you describe. I would recommend that you check all six.

Gus, I can't remember the VIN of your 'new' 240Z, but I seem to recall that it is about the same vintage as my red car. So if you need any help identifying something, or trying to figure out what something should look like or how it goes together, feel free to shout.

More or less. Go by the cam lobes to get you close. Then use the piston in number one hole to fine tune. Do not pay attention to the direction the rotor is pointing until TDC is verified.Try putting a pencil in the number one plug hole so that you can easily see when the piston gets to the top of its travel. When you have that spot identified and the cam lobes on number one are V'd upwards - then verify your timing mark at zero. Make any adjustments to the timing marker at this point. This is TDC. Once you have TDC pinned down and marked, it's time to statically set the timing. Re-install the distributor cap, mark the distributor body where number one wire connects. Remove the cap and turn the distributor until the rotor is pointing towards that mark. Re-install the cap again. Pull the spark plug from number one, re-connect the plug wire to the plug and ground the plug where you can easily see the spark. Then turn on the ignition to run, not start. Turn the distributor clockwise just a bit, and then turn it slowly counter-clockwise until you see the spark at the plug. Tighten it down where it sparked. That process should get you in the ballpark.

There are two kinds of G-nose kits. The good ones come in multiple pieces as noted above. There are one-piece noses available sometimes, too. They are harder to get to fit nicely, but can be cheaper.

I beg to differ. My experiences lead me to believe that as a seller, I can be TOO honest and up front. While I do want to protect my 100% positive feedback, typically, items I sell on eBay go for less than the prevailing prices. I guess I just tell too much, as I frequently hear back from buyers that the item was much better than they expected. I prefer to describe items in the manner that I would want to see if I were buying them. Perhaps it make them sound worse than they really are, and inhibits bidding. On the other side of the coin, the large number of flakes bidding on eBay really irritate me. I'm sorry, if you are online enough to place three bids and win in the final 30 seconds, but then can't be bothered to contact me or reply to my messages for several days afterwards, that's just inexcusable in my mind. Don't make excuses, if you're not ready to pay, don't bid. Frankly, I've just about given up on eBay entirely - both buying and selling. I have much pleasanter results in placing a fair price on my Z parts and advertising them in the classifieds here. Maybe I don't get as much for my parts as I might have on eBay, but the aggravation factor is much lower, I get to communicate with other Z people, and help good people complete their projects or keep their car on the road. Much more pleasant this way.

'70-78 coupes (not 2+2s) were all the same size and shape and will fit interchangeably. The differences were in the defroster grid. The very earliest 240Zs (first 1400 or so) had no defroster at all. From then through mid-72 the defroster grid lines ran from top to bottom. From mid-72 on the grid lines ran side to side.