Getting the 73 Back on the Road

[SteveJ]

4 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

Translation - "After she left the garage, I sat in the drivers seat, grabbed the steering wheel, and made 'vroom vroom' noises. It was fantastic."  

To be honest, I didn't vocalize the "Vroom! Vroom!", but it was definite loud inside my head.

[SteveJ]

I received the master and slave cylinders today, so I decided that would be on this evening's agenda. I used my master cylinder fluid removal tool, known colloquially as a turkey baster, to remove the remaining fluid from the clutch master. The fluid was approaching vantablack in coloration, though it was still reflecting some light.

I then decided to move to replace the slave cylinder. I put the car up in the air with the Quickjacks. I can't say enough good things about them. I slid under the car to evaluate the task at hand. I grabbed my wrenches and bleeder bottle and set about trying to pull any fluid through that I could coax out. Of course, none came out because no one was depressing the clutch pedal. Okay, so then I broke the connection loose at the soft hose. For this, the 17 mm banjo wrench I grabbed could not get a good grip on the nut on the hose. Fortunately, I managed to use a conventional open-ended wrench without rounding off anything. The bolts holding the slave to the transmission did not put up a fight, and soon I was able to remove the old, grungy slave cylinder. It was on there for 27 years, but I did not drive the car very often since 2002, and none at all since 2010. However, brake fluid is not too kind over the years, especially when it is probably the same fluid that was put in 27 years ago.

Assembly was the opposite of disassembly. (Thank you, Haynes manual.) It was a little tricky to get the slave lined up over the bolt holes in the transmission, but that's more a function of a shoulder punished by years of American football and rugby. With the slave cylinder in place, it was time to go after the master cylinder. With the car up in the air, it was pretty easy to tackle this. I broke the hydraulic line free, removed the clevis pin from the pedal, and removed the two nuts holding the master in place. I adjusted the arm in the new master to match, got fork in the arm in place around the pedal, and replaced the nuts. Next came replacing the hydraulic line, and I finished off with reinstalling the clevis pin. I'll get the wife to help me with bleeding the clutch on Saturday morning when the temperature in the garage will be more to her liking.

The nice thing is that I got another thing crossed off the list without adding anything more to the list.

 

[SteveJ]

The plan for today was to start early with bleeding the clutch...yeah, here's how that went.

1. No fluid moving through the hydraulic circuit.
2. Lots of time spent removing the hose between the slave and hard line.
3. Got lots of gunk out of the hard line and clutch hose. I used air on the hard line and 14 gauge solid wire on the hose.
4. Wrestled to get the hard line and hose reconnected.
5. Bleed the system only to find a leak between the hose and slave cylinder.
6. Researched the problem and found this thread: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/46057-slave-cylinder-hose-gasket/
7. Found my sealing washers and got everything reassembled.
8. Got the clutch bled with no leaks.

Don't you love it when a simple task takes several hours?

I also replaced the old battery cables and installed the H4 housings with LED bulbs for the headlights.

It doesn't seem like much, but it ended up being a long day. I decided to put off the startup until next weekend.

[ETI4K]

I thought every simple task took several hours. 😁

[SteveJ]

47 minutes ago, ETI4K said:

I thought every simple task took several hours. 😁

The headlight swap and battery cable change actually went as expected. Sometimes the breaks go your way.

[SteveJ]

So I got bored today. I got the new battery and decided that I didn't like how the new cables fit on it with the Nissan battery frame, so I got different cables.

With the new cables installed, I pulled the plugs and removed the valve cover. I put a squirt of oil in each cylinder and bathed the cam lobes with oil. I then used the starter to turn the engine. It did not hesitate.

Next I put some gas in each carburetor via the float vent using a 1 ounce syringe. I put a short spray of starting fluid into each carb and climbed behind the driver's seat.

 

[ETI4K]

Awesome!  Always a great moment.  I sure those love new/rebuilt motor starts.  If that thing started that easily, you'll get it dialed in lickity split.  Feels good doesn't it?

[SteveJ]

Just now, ETI4K said:

Awesome!  Always a great moment.  I sure those love new/rebuilt motor starts.  If that thing started that easily, you'll get it dialed in lickity split.  Feels good doesn't it?

You don't know the half of it. When I took the car off the road 11 years ago, I had a lot to learn. I have gained a TON of knowledge reading posts from all of my friends on this site and around where I live. It also took a lot of effort to change my priorities to put the car up high enough to get it done.

[SteveJ]

I added some gas to the tank and some oil to the dampers and ran the car again. She starts up and idles, but she needs plenty of tuning. At least she is pulling gas from the tank.

The tachometer isn't registering, but that is because of how I wired the Pertronix. I just need to re-wire it a little to stop bypassing the tach. (I figured that out by reading a Hybridz response from @beermanpete. I miss that guy posting here.) The rear carburetor is leaking fuel at the banjo fitting. I'll take that apart and put in some new sealing washers.

 

[SteveJ]

And @beermanpetewas spot on. The tach is working again. What I did wrong was put the black/white from the ignition ON position on the coil positive. I removed it from the coil and made a jumper to go between the black/white wire and the green/white wire, and the 240Z tachometer works just fine with the Pertronix. (I put in extra words to help anybody searching for this solution in the future.)

 

[SteveJ]

This evening was a short one. I replaced the sealing washers on the banjo fitting of the rear carb. After cranking the starter to run the fuel pump, I verified that it had no leaks, but then I noticed a little fuel on top of the float bowl on the front carb. After changing out the same washers on the front carb, I was ready for an attempt to balance the carburetors. I started with both at 2.5 turns down. I got the engine warm and checked the engine speed. It was about 650 RPM.  I bumped up the idle screws and balanced the carburetors with an idle of 750. 

I then held the engine around 1000 RPM. The back carburetor was pulling according to my air flow meter, but the front didn't budge. I fiddled with the balance screw and a few other things, but nothing changed. I called a Z friend, and we went through a few things and decided that I should test the front damper. Just as I was about to hang up the phone, I noticed that the vacuum advance was still unplugged from when I was getting it out of the way earlier. Oops. Well, with the vacuum leak gone, the front carb seemed to respond MUCH better. 

[SteveJ]

I haven't been neglecting the 240Z for the past week. I have just been waiting on finishing things before posting about them.

Early in the week I purchased a premium $20 Dual brand receiver from Walmart to install in the car. No CD, no tape deck, but it has USB, Aux, and Bluetooth. I wrestled out the old Audiovox tape deck and shook my head on how I wired it 28 years ago. The only good thing was that it was an excellent benchmark to show how far I have progressed over that timeframe with regard to my wiring skills. One of the challenges was finding a source for the constant 12VDC source. A long time ago, I jury-rigged getting the power from the map light. Yeah, that wasn't happening twice. Using the FSM wiring diagram and my multimeter I figured out my solution. The 12VDC switched source would be coming from the 3 wire connector for the radio. The ground would come from the 3 wire connector for the rear defrost switch. The 12VDC constant would come from the rear defrost relay. I made jumper harnesses for the ground and 12VDC constant.

I connected everything and tested the stereo. It worked...except for the right front speaker. I tested the wiring, and found the positive wire was broken somewhere. I decided to start looking at how to install the speaker enclosures. Early on I discovered the old speakers were too deep. Fortunately I had to source speakers for the 260Z to fit the enclosures, so all I had to do was order another set of Pyle speakers from Amazon. Again, nothing but top shelf stereo equipment for me.

After the speakers arrived, I put the stereo end of the speaker wires into a connector. I also started fitting the enclosures. I had to trim the driver's side to clear the dead pedal. I also had to get some longer M6 bolts for the hood release bracket, but I plugged the wires into the speaker and got the enclosure mounted. Then I went to work on the passenger side. I decided to remove the fuel pump relays since they are not being used any more, and I removed the relay bracket. I did dry fit of the enclosure and trimmed it to go in more easily. After plugging in the speaker I went to install the relay bracket...Well, that took a lot longer than I hoped. It doesn't line up that great, especially with regard to the top bolt when you have the lower bolts cinched down. It doesn't help that you can't see how misaligned thing are unless you can miniaturize yourself and contort your body just right. Anyway, after an hour or so, I finally got the bracket mounted. I plugged in the stereo and tested. Yes, I have tunes for my next road trip.

After I was happy with the stereo install, I pivoted to the hazard switch. I got the retaining ring loose and pulled the old switch through the dash. The connectors came apart with a little coaxing. I dug out the replacement switch that I found despite buying it 16 years (and one move) ago. I got the wife to direct me while I tried to line up the switch with the opening in the dash. That's another thing that took a LOT longer than I remember it requiring. UGH! I managed to get the retaining ring on without pushing the switch back through the dash. After installing the knob, it was time to test. The turn signals worked. Now for the hazards...Nothing. Dang it! Fortunately I knew where to look. It was my own blog where I broke down the turn signal circuit. I saw that the white wire from the battery fed the circuit. I checked for continuity between the wire at the dash harness/engine harness junction and the fuse box. No continuity. Dang it!

 After dinner I removed the center console. I also pulled the stereo. I removed the screws holding down the fuse box so I could pull it toward me for examination. It took about all of 5 seconds to find a connection that pulled loose. I got it reconnected and buttoned up everything. I LOVE removing/replacing stuff for about an hour to work on something for 5 seconds.

Anyway, I tested again, and all worked fine. I found the bulbs loose on the tachometer, so I got them plugged in for the turn signal indicators.

I tested the horn again. Well, it almost makes noise...I figured it might be time for a new relay. Who knows? I might need to clean or replace the horns. 

I sat down and ordered a bunch of LED bulbs and looked for a horn relay on RockAuto, Z Car Depot, and MSA. No one has a friggin' horn relay anymore. When the hell did that happen? I found a generic horn relay on ebay and ordered it.

Edited August 23, 2021 by SteveJ