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Thank you for the input everyone. I appreciate it very much. I have to make a correction to my initial claim that the car ran fine with the smog equipment in tact. Turns out the smog pump wasn't functional. So Rod stripped it down and rebuilt it with minor modifications. Per Rod, "The green ones are left out along with the blades (green arrows) . The front and rear bearings (red arrow) replaced and should last a lifetime. So the pump looks stock and functioning just not pumping air." We've decided to go this route because I want #187 to be enjoy daily. I don't want the headaches of garaging her every few months of driving. Plus, it's an easy reversal if we want to revert back to stock. As it was explained to me, by rendering it nonfunctional, many issues relating to idling can be traced back to the carbs, "as all other vacuum leaks will be eliminated." And with Bruce having rebuilt the carbs, we don't foresee any problem in the foreseeable future. As a side note, I'm not too concern about resale of #187 as she will never go on the market so long as I'm alive. In fact, she might accompany me to the afterlife as I'll be buried in her. ? So she started as a U.S. model and now has become Canadian 'eh'. ??

Hi Elliott: Hope this note arrives in time to be useful... Your comment about your shock towers measuring at 906mm separation distance caught my attention, so I asked a few other CZCC members offline if they'd mind measuring that distance on their own Z's (none of which have experienced any collision damage). I've received 4 measurements: Owner #1 - 240Z: 905mm (measured between the centres of the shock tower cover 'buttons') Owner #1 - 280Z: 906mm (ditto) Owner #2 - 280Z: 905mm Owner #3 - 280Z: 916mm (measured to the centres of the top surfaces of the strut rods) All three are well-known and well-respected members of the CZCC community (they can self-identify if they want), so I trust their measurements. You can make of this what you will. To me, it suggests that the factory may not have been that successful in assembling the cars to meet this particular part of the dimensional design spec. I've done a lot of reading on unibody structures over the past few weeks and it appears the manufacturing tolerances of +/-3mm were accepted on 'long' dimensions like this in the 1960's and 1970's. That would allow a car with a 910mm shock tower separation to pass inspection on the line. That said, we now have three cars that measure 6mm - 7mm under design spec. i.e. 100% more than 'acceptable'. What does the distance between the front shock towers affect? The obvious answers are: 1) suspension camber angles, and; 2) hood-to-fender bodyline gaps. Camber Angles: A 3mm inboard movement of the top of the suspension struts amounts to 1.5mm on either side. That gets played out over a strut length of about 250mm. So -- if my grasp of high school geometry hasn't slipped too badly -- that's the equivalent of adding 0.35 degrees of camber on either side. Double that, to 0.7 degrees, if the shock tower separation is 6mm under spec. I've read that most passenger cars with strut-type front suspension run a static camber setting of between 2 - 3 degrees (positive). My feeling is that making that less positive by 0.35 - 0.7 degrees isn't going to affect the car's road manners that much. Of course, if the change in the shock tower separation is the result of accident damage that plays out on only one side of the car (i.e. one of your towers has moved inboard by 7mm), then you can double all of these numbers. Hood-to-Fender Panel Gap: Based on visual evidence, 1/8" to 3/16" seems about right. That would be 3mm - 5mm, so 4mm nominal. The width of the hood outer stamping is probably going to be consistent to +/- 1mm from one car to another. If 913mm really is the target, then regular production tolerances ( +/- 3mm) would allow this to be under by 1.5mm on each side. Combined with a hood that over-spec in width by 1mm (or 0.5mm on each side), then the hood-to-fender gap would shrink from the nominal 4mm to 2mm. That's about as tight as you'd want to get for these cars. If the shock tower separation distance is only 905 - 906mm, that implies that the hoods for Owner #1 and Owner #2's cars won't be able to close without hitting the fenders. But they do. And that makes me wonder whether the FSM design spec of 913mm is either wrong, or was purposely published at the high end of 'tolerable' so that there would never be hood closure problems (i.e. the spec should really be read as '913mm, +0 / -6'... or maybe +0 / -8). For purposes of what you're doing to get your Z back on the road, my thinking is that you may not need to bother spreading the tops of the shock towers apart in order to be assured that the hood will close. In fact, that may end up simply generating extra-wide gaps between the fenders and the hood edges. From the evidence of the measurements supplied by Owner #1 and Owner #2, we seem to have some degree of assurance that your hood will close just fine with your shock towers sitting at their current separation distance of 906mm. Your call, though.

Thanks Capt., where does one buy fusible links, are they sold by wire size or colour? The connector caps for the fuel injectors are working but in rough condition so I was going buy new ones and splice them in but @240260280 suggested going to the wreckers and look for Audi/VW. I got enough to change every connector on the car for $10. Passat's had all the right stuff.

NOS

It should also not really draw any power away from the engine without the vains.

Looking awesome. Great attention to detail.

Yes, it's still for sale

That is a very nice set of connectors. Proper spacing and everything. You might consider using a male and female connector (Weatherpack is popular, I think) at the end that you cut so that you can just remove all six as an assembly whenever needed. Much easier than splicing all six separately. Looks like it was made for it. http://www.whiteproducts.com/connectors.shtml

Dude that's awesome and I really appreciate all the research! I've got my tower braced right now at about 907 center to center while I've been working on the rails and inner fenders. I'm currently re attaching the fenders to the frame and have confirmed number in the vertical on both sides are the same. I'm pretty confident that everything will line up. I laid one of my old fenders on there and bolted on the door. Checked gaps etc because of having to lift the one side, i was worried it may cause issues but shes spot on. I measured the hood just now and it "seems" as though there will be sufficient gap for it to close low n behold the gap is same front and rear in relation to hood width.thi g's are looking up! In the topic of this actual thread. Once I finish the tie in, I'll be onto the over wheel air things. Should be fun.... I still haven't decidied on what the plan is haha. Maybe full on tin basher, or I might do card board cut outs and basically replicate it but with square corners essentially boxing it. Sent from my SM-N950W using Tapatalk

I have the rear brake lights in/wired. How much time does it take to install the brake light/license plate bezels that have the little plastic rivets? Thanks, GI

Oh, and I used VW connectors on my injectors as well, but I used a different version with end release clips instead of the one single side release. I found I liked them much better for the injectors, but I liked the side release in the other locations better. I used to have a pic posted, but photobucket extorted it out of existence. I'll get a new pic loaded up when I get a chance.

No open casket. Just an urn with a Z on it. The cremation will take place at the time of the accident.

Before you say gone and gone don't overlook early cars from Canada and a few other countries that were non emissions and had no smog system. You might be missing out.

Yes, that was Genius! I am very impressed. Not that it matters, but I would recommend that you keep the entire system in tact and keep the air injectors on and the smog system operational. I still have this on my '70 and it runs wonderfully, never any problems. Unless you plan on racing the car, I would leave them on. Also, I think it adds to the value of the car. For what it's worth, I have always felt that if the owner had no problem removing the smog system from a car, what else has been modified or changed. It's just the beginning. When looking for a Z that I would purchase personally, I always look for the smog system. If it's gone, I'm gone.

Those look great! @Bruce Palmer has been very helpful to me, they know what's going on.