zKars

Excellent! Sorry to Alberta, as I think I just sent "spring" to Toronto, since snow is predicted here this weekend and its in the 20's © there!

The bidding is gettin' up there.... $351 and climbing.. 2.5 days to go....

Rare isn't the correct term. Low volume yes. That is an early 70-72 variety and looks to be pretty near perfect. If you want a new one, actually a Stainless steel reproduction, search for "Stainless Steel bumpers" or "Harrington group" here to find the related theads, or search for "harrington group bumpers" on ebay to find them there. Outstanding quality and service in my experience. Worth every penny in the long run.

Greg: Assuming we are talking about the black tar and aluminum skin stuff, sorry the stuff has to be bonded to most of the metal panel to do its job. Thus removing it will be not so easy. I've used lots of this stuff, and any place where it gets hot, well, it is ON there. Maybe stick (ha) with thick sound absorbing pads for now. At least buy the cheapest stuff you can so that removing later it won't be too painfull. b-quiet is my favorite.

Is there any chance you mixed up the front and back Tokico springs during the last mod? This is the most common cause for this hi front low back problem. The 280 has the taller strut insulators on the rear when stock, the front has the same shorter height ones on the front as the 240z. Any chance the tall ones ended up on the front some how? THe loss of the bumper weight would not be this dramatic.

Ksechler, are the wheels turned slightly right? Can't really tell. Looks like you could lose a little caster on the front there if they are straight. Might save a bit of rubbing on turns. Maybe the T/C bushings are shot? I also believe the 16" tire options outnumber the 15"s in most categories. Just do a quick list of 225/50-15 and 225/50-16 on TireRack if you need proof. With every possible kind of tire checked, in 15" there are 12 results, but with 16", there are 65 results... At 205/50 15 vs 16, 23 at 15", 43 at 16" And 225/50-16 Yoko S-drives on 16x8 +3 VTO's do NOT fit with a stock front valance rub-on-turns wise... But 215/40-16's do. Lots of choices in sizes around there to pick from to... Not a prayer in 15"

The word is "Patina".....

I think I can help. I have some spares. catch me at z240@shaw.ca all the way over here in Calgary.

Dang 260's and their 'safety' crap. There is an interlock unit that has input from the seats, seat belts, ignition, voltage regulator, an Inhibitor switch (on trans or in shifter console??) etc... all of it aimed at preventing connection to the starter terminal. Tried sitting in drivers seat with seat belts on? FSM with wiring diagram is here. Good luck! XenonS30 Look in the BE Body Electrical section. End of that chapter has the interlock diagrams.

Yup, I have a fresh shell just in that has good T-rod pockets. Love to chop them out for ya. Might be a few days. $40 + shipping?

Well it is a K-car... But the rear end isn't wide enough to be Kardashian..

Tease!!! That's not fair. Not all of us can go for a Z drive right now.....

That's an A/C evaporator core you seeing in there from the dealer installed A/C unit from the time. Heater core is in where granny says it is. No wonder you're concerned about the foot well space. Those ancient things are massive. You have to retain at the very least some warm fan powered air on the defrost to make driving in cool wet weather safe. Whether you want to retain the A/C part, get it working is totally up to you. They are separate, I'm sure you can remove the A/C box and leave the fan and heater stuff alone.

The reason that shortening the strut/spring via the use of shorter springs or strut change causes an issue is that you alter the angular relationship between the control arm and the tie rod from the rack to the wheel hub. Generally speaking, stock, the front control arm is at a approx 10-15deg angle to the ground as viewed from the front (wheel side lower of course) and the tie rod end follows the same angle. When you shorten the strut, however done, the control arm generally ends up more parallel to the ground. To compensate, you need to put in a spacer to restore the strut to stock length to get your steering geometry back when going over bump (control arm moves up, tie rod does not, result is some steering input you don't want... Overly simplified, its a 3D problem, but I hope you get the gist) So, after you change out your strut assembly and get the car on the ground and settled (move car back and forth and steer L and R) just look at the control arm. If its more or less parallel with the ground, put the spacer in. If its still angled nicely like stock, don't bother. In any event, on a street driven car you'll likely never feel the difference either way....

Any alternator and voltage reg that keeps the system voltage over fully charged battery voltage will keep things generally running. 13.8 at idle is wonderful. Relax.

You mean the hole that give you access to the 24mm head of the long bolt that is the Moustache bar end mounting point? Its about this big : '------------------------------". Or at least a 24 mm craftsman socket has about 1- 1.5 mm clearance around it when its on the head of that bolt. There's not supposed to be a plug to cover that hole.

Sure sounds like grounding issues. There most certainly WERE ground wires on the stock EFI harness. Obvious open bare ring terminals with black wires attached into the harness. The ones that comes to mind are right on top of the intake manifold, more or less in the center. Another is on from the AFM harness to one of the AFM mounting bolts, or rather from a simple black wire with ring terminal ends jumper that connects the body of the AFM with its mounting bracket on the body. Its mounted in rubber feet, so it needs that. SHould see a dangler somewhere on that EFI harness. Hunt!

There is a welded bracket on the frame across from the starter where the clutch hard line connects to the flex line to the clutch slave. Its the same as any brake line L-bracket at any wheel. If the car has no such bracket, or the bracket it has looks poorly attached, it likely was an auto.

George my response was a test of your resolve. Now that we understand shortcuts are not your thing, you have a heck of a job ahead of you. I'll have to take a picture of the back side of a dash so you can at least see how the thing mounts and what you're up against to get its two mounting screws out. Now since the windings are all exposed, you "could" flush it in place with a contact cleaner, some small ID plastic hose to aim the spray, a mirror, a light held in you teeth, goggles to protect from splash, spray and twist the handle back and forth. etc etc etc... DId I mention that alot of contact cleaners are hard on kinds of plastic, don't spray it just anywhere.... Then all you have to do is re-connect it! Simple, eh Zedhead?

Option 2. Don't fix it, just disconnect it and re-connect the two dash-side leads to effectively bypass it. This just puts the dash lights at maximum brightness. Unless you have replaced your bulbs with fancy LED's or the like, you won't likely find the dash lights too bright. If anything you may actually be able to see your gauges at night for the first time!

Mikuni 40's are a hair under 5"

Now we need a source for just the right coil spring. AFM flap spring? old Thermostat bi-metal coil spring, innards from a tape measure? Think man!!

Zeddy: Anti-rotation feature = spot weld. John, don't confuse us with simplicity and reason at this point. We are on a design adventure here!

Numerically lower or higher ratio? I noticed MSA via Kameri has a listing for a ring/pinion sets in 3.154, 4.875 and 5.143 Motorsport! Kameari R200 Differential Gear Set, 4.875 Ratio, 70-89 Z/ZX - The Z Store! Nissan-Datsun 240Z-260Z-280Z-280ZX-300ZX(Z31/Z32)-350Z-370Z Parts

and a torsional style spring tension can be adjusted SO simply by just wrapping it more tightly or loosening it. No more hunting for just the right return spring! Brilliant!