kinfish

I live on the other coast but do visit a good friend in Santa Barbara regularly. Great town and perfect weather. Stop by Brophy's Bar/Restaurant overlooking Marina on the north end of town. Small but great drinks, food and customers.

Nicht sprechen zie Deutchse ....... but the grease is absolutely necessary for Polyurethane bushings. The final torque for the front inner bushings and the rear inner and outer bushings must be done "after" installing the wheels and the weight of the car is placed on them. That means you need a drive-on type lift to do final torque per spec.

Responding to Unkle's comment about "no reserve". Many of the sellers with high end restorations and lots of bucks involved protect their investments by buying back their car if bidding is not high enough in the "no reserve" auction. Costs them $500 + 8% + 8% but is better than taking a big loss if bids are less than their target price.

I also attended the auction and spoke to the owner before the car went up for bidding early Friday morning. He confirmed what "jimbeaux" said that he bought car at Scottsdale event last year. Owner said he lived in Charlotte, NC and brought 8 cars to be sold since he didn't have time to drive them all. Car sold for $10,700 plus 8% buyer fee = $11,556. Agree with Alex240Z that engine was never rebuilt. The A/C was dealer installed system and VIN #3074264. The buyer told me he was from Orlando and never owned a Z. He was simply spending some of the excess cash he made in the hot Florida real estate market. Engine did run smoothly but the engine compartment was far from being detailed. BJ making beaucoup bucks at these events especially when bidding goes into 6 figures. Guy that sold the Z says he pays $500 for the right to enter a car into the auction and then pays 8% commission on sale price. Buyer also pays 8% commission. What a racket. Did watch bidding on a number of vehicles and most shocking was bidding on a 1963 Triumph TR4 roadster ...... a light blue restoration ...... very well done but it sold for $90,000 ....... about 10 times what I thought it was worth.

I also experienced water pump failure on my 240Z. The water pump shaft breaks which turns the metal fan fan into a projectile. In my case the fan destroyed the radiator.

Early oil pressure sending units were fubar and generated bogus readings (low side). Dealer would replace them with upgraded unit at no cost if you complained. Yes, I bought my Series I 240Z new in Jan,'71 and still own it and it is on the road.

Dave's relay harnesses are designed to perfection and the quality of the product is top shelf. He is doing the Z-community a favor by putting them on the market. His time is valuable and he deserves to make a profit for the time and skills invested in each harness. With all the positive feedback on his product he is in a position to raise the price on future orders. I have purchased both the headlight and the parking light harness and will be one of his first customers to buy his next electrical invention / improvement for the 240Z's. Keep up the outstanding work Dave! Your products sell themselves without advertising.

I had similar problem with my rear outer poly bushing kit ...... the metal sleeves were actually too small and the spindle pin would not fit. The sleeves missed the final honing operation and deburr. I also called Energy Suspension and they promptly sent a set of replacement sleeves that were sized to provide a .016 diametrically loose fit with the pin (.628 dia). This is not an Engineering problem ...... the shop is not making the parts to print and hence it is a Quality problem that still isn't fixed.

You would generate more interest if you added the Vin# and the manufacturing date to your post. Both are available on the plate attached near the door striker on drivers side.

Dave, You are right ....... the ring connector is 5/16 dia! That is what I meant to write but somehow it came out 3/16 dia on the thread. I will try your quick fix to cut and open slightly. Thanks for feedback.

Dave, Received my parking light harness mid week as promised. Again I am impressed with your attention to detail. Another top quality product. Didn't install yet but will give feedback on light intensity when I do. Only comment is that you used a 3/16 dia ring connector to the battery positive. On my Z, I converted to marine type battery terminals which utilize stud and wingnut. The positive stud is 3/8 dia and hence the ring doesn't fit. Your headlight harness used a larger terminal and fit OK. No big issue with me ...... I will either use as is and connect under bolt holding terminal to battery or change the ring connector.

Tight fit on assembly of strut to control arm is common. Not sure if stack-up tolerances are that bad or whether Energy suspension has design hack. My set was way too tight to attempt assembly. The Tech at Energy suspension told me to simply sand the face of the bushing to reduce the thickness of the bushing flange area. I did so to achieve line-on-line fit which made assembly much easier.

A white '71 240Z sold for about $10,000 at the BJ auction in Palm Beach, Fl in March, 2004. It had new panasport wheels but the front end was obviously crunched at one time. I thought it was overpriced at that time.

Great job on both the design on the relay system and also the instructions. Based on the quality of the headlite relay system for which I was one of your early customers, I will send you a money order for this system. I'm looking foward to some better illumination for my gauges ........ using a flashlight at nite for my aging eyes is rather crude. You are providing the 240Z community a great service for a very reasonable price. Keep up the good work!

Sounds outstanding from my viewpoint. Based on the ingenuity and quality of your 240Z headlite relay system, I would place an order before you even finished development. I would love to get brighter dash lites since I tried to remove and bypass the dimmer switch but my aging body and not so nimble finger tips prevented me from getting access to remove it. Keep up the great ideas and also a great product!

Glovebox letters on my 12/70 Series I 240Z are also silver. My door also has the old age, warping problem probably caused by heat exposure. The flimsy plastic could not tolerate the load imposed by the wimpy spring in the light contact. Door pinned in middle due to latch. Never thought about moving the light to the other side ...... but that would make both ends stick out? Best solution is take bulb out and keep tiny flashlite inside glove box.

The old saying should drive your decision: "Best to do it right the first time then do it over" 500+ ft-lbs of torque is more than twice what spec calls for. Over tightening does not make it better ....... it can cause damage that will show up downstream. The higher torque increases pre-load on the stackup and you are asking for trouble especially if you have rolling resistance on the assy. I'd vote to do it over and avoid the labor involved getting to these parts.

"my oiler tube in the head is pretty messed up, could that be causing this? i'm at a loss now..." You imply that cam has the external oil distribution manifold ....... if messed up means broken or leaking braze joints ........ you may have insufficient cam lobe lubrication! If so, you should inspect each of the 12 cam lobes and look for signs of scoring and/or wear which can cause annoying valve train noise that increases with rpm.

My first car was a hand-me-down from my Dad ...... 1949 Dodge 2 door coupe - black with post down center of the windshield. Car drove like a tank, slow as a 3-legged turtle but the trunk was huge. Car cost $150 used but with rebuilt flathead. I stepped up to a 1959 Austin Healey Sprite which I bought for $600. Great car but cold and drafty in New England Winters. Left college with 1966 427 Corvette Convertible - blue with side exhaust and lotsa noise - a true muscle car but dangerous.

"Z" is the best if it is available.

E.Scanlon's post nailed the issue dead center. Good explanation. Price is driven by demand and supply chain. When the supply approaches zero the price increases exponentially. Wish I kept those '71 hubcaps that I threw in a garbage can when I moved in early 70's.