JimmyZ

Is it a single or dual pickup dizzy? According to the Haynes book it should be dual unless it's been switched. You have the air gap set @.012-.016 on the new coil. (Gap between projection and P/U)

Is it an automatic?? The following applies to dual pickup units... Water pump switch or relay then. Haynes manual pg 79 section 12. There is an advance control relay that uses the WT & relay change ignition advance. You did check for proper voltage at the coil too right?

I'll be in Vero tomorrow morning around 7:30AM. If you like I could swing by. I'll actually be in Orchid which is down by Disney's VB resort. PM sent Jim

You did try new plugs right?

Look under the car and under the hood for any fuel leaks before proceeding. Make sure that you're doing this outdoors if you smell gas. Hopefully it's just raw fuel in the exhaust. That's not good but better than a leak from your installation. Replace the plugs and see if #1&2 start working. Check the condition of the plugs against a manual. (Prob running rich or oil fouled) You've tried taking the tops off the carbs and cleaning/verifying free movement I assume. This sounds like one carb's piston is stuck. Raise one piston at a time to see which carb it is. The carb whose piston when raised kills the engine is the good carb. Brake parts cleaner or laquer thinner are excellent cleaning solvents for the pistons and bodies. Running an electric pump to SU's can be complicated if the pressure is too high. The needles weren't made to stave off much more than the trickle coming from the stock pump. Many guys I know use a regulator when doing what you've done. A clogged restrictor outlet on the end of the fuel rail can also raise pressure too high. The louder than normal noise could just be an exhaust flange gasket. One time I forgot to tighten my ignition adjustment and the dizzy turned a bit. The car was louder... Seems odd but true.

It might be a bad coil wire. (HT) You have checked that proper voltage is getting to the coil right? Assuming the plugs are all good then that leaves you with the coil wire. Try using a regular plug wire for the coil wire if you don't have a spare. AT least this will tell you if it's the coil wire. Very odd. Jim

AH! You're right Sblake! I'm thinking of another engine. THINK I"VE GOT IT!!! How about forgetting the key for the timing gear?? (Gear that slides over crank.) It's possible that the gear is simply spinning on the shaft. A quick test would be to see if the shaft that drives the dizzy can be hand(read needle nose pliers) turned. The fit of the gear may be tight enough to not permit this. It might even rotate the dizzy a bit. (But out of sync with the rest) This would be great because no valve damage would have taken place. It could also explain the 20 degree thing. Fingers crossed, Jim

A while back Mike did an article on his pan replacement. Try a search for it. Very nice pics. I installed a set of the pre-fab pans once. The spot welds on the rockers need to be drilled or chisled. Air chisel works nicely if you're gentle with it. If you do it right you can drill the spot weld just enough to thin out the metal and not go through. This will leave the underlying metal undisturbed. On the new pan you punch or drill new holes at about the spacing the old ones were for plug welds. As far as cutting the tranny tunnel side of things I think the PF pans have enough metal to ride about 1-2" up the side of the tunnel. As others have said don't cut until you have the pans in hand. First drill two holes into the new pan and rocker for locating dowels. This will allow you to repeatedly remove/replace the pans for trimming/bending. Make reference marks on the other side fo you can line things up consistently each time you replace/trial fit the pan.I got a sharpie marker and used it to get about 1/8-1/4" overlap. You can try to do a perfect butt weld on the tranny side but it's difficult to get every last edge to mate perfectly. It all depends on how much of a perfectionist you are. A properly burned lap MIG weld can leave you with )-1/8" of "lap/overhang" on such a lap joint. Make sure you seam seal this too. Look into weldable primer for your spot weld interface and definitely use some good sealer for that seam. I'd epoxy prime and then use sealer then paint. (duh) The pain in the arse are the reinforcements behind the seat mounts. These are usually toast on the Z's I've seen.. Excellent water traps. Whatever you put in there make sure that you can access the underside of the seat. Try a piece of ply or board to simulate the seat and reach your hand in. You know how cell phones, etc love to slide under the seat. Don't forget to involve some Ospho after you get things down to bare metal. The 24hr wait is more than worth it down the road. 2c Jim

I just read your story... STAYZ75Z. A very nice story and also very sad. I'm glad you have something to remember him by though. Didn't mean to doubt that you were a woman but given the recent thread and the sense of humor on the 'net anythings possible. Whatever I/we can do to help. Jim

Pretty cool when a chic plays with engines. Years ago my wife used to help me work on her car. (Me guiding) There's something respectable about a woman that can get a couple spots of grease on her and keep going. Maybe this is just some members sick idea of a response to the thread "Where have all the girls gone" God, I hope that the chain is still on and engaged in the right teeth. From what I've read a "bad chain day" will leave you with bent valves. (Read take head off and replace valves & hope that no pistons got holed) When the chain and pistons are out of sync the pistons will strike the valves and bend them so they can't seat properly. Have you tried taking the valve cover off verify that everything's alright? Turn the engine until the crank mark is at TDC and check the timing chain bright link for proper alignment. (Some chains don't have a bright link meaning take the cover off and check alignment bottom mark/top mark) Might have to turn it through a couple TDC's to align it because the 1/2 revolution reduction won't bring the link to it's mark every time. Hope I'm making sense. You can do a quick check by taking off the oil cap and looking for cam rotation during cranking. Does the engine sound "normal" when it's cranking or does it sound like some cylinders are putting up little resistance as the engine turns over. (Bent valves/no compression in "bad" cylinders)) Hopefully it's just a simple matter of the distributor needing to be engaged with the drive. Push down after rotating to mate. 2c Jim

You checked for spark before declaring it a fuel problem right? If your fuel sender got hung up you could have an empty tank. It takes a minimum of 1gallon to prime if you are on a flat surface. On an incline it's more like 2 gallons needed to pour in for prime. You have a 73Z according to your profile. On the 73's there are two pumps right? The mechanical pump has a higher likelihood of dying. If it's crud blocking things then change the fuel filter and check the old one for debris. Mine had bad tank rust years ago. It was so bad that I had to get a cleanable filter and sometimes clean it every 1/4-1/2 mile. (Had pizza delivery job at the time) That sucked so I took the tank out and cleaned it/removed as much particulate as I could. That bought some time and made things normal for a while. My suggestion... Check for spark first. This really narrows things down. (Fuel or IGN) Pour TWO gallons in and see if the sender was misleading you. If it doesn't prime then check/replace the filter. If that doesn't get it then replace the mechanical pump. Check upstream of the mechanical pump if it still won't prime after that. Perhaps someone before you put a filter upstream. It's completely possible that someone had the tank relined and the lining came loose like a garbage bag and is blocking things. It's also possible that the chunks of rust (if any) have clogged something other than your filter but this is VERY unlikely. This might sound silly or motherly but it's dead serious. Always be careful with gas. Be extremely mindful of anything that could ignite the vapors. Gas covered hands set ablaze will pretty much guarantee the loss of a few if not all of your fingers.. maybe worse. Perhaps someone with the dual fuel pump Z could chime in and tell us what happens when the electrical pump dies and/or gets clogged. Mine's a '71 so I wouldn't know. In a pinch you could bypass the electrical pump. (can't see why not) 2c Jim

The Renu process is tops... Unbeatable. For the less fortunate who can't spare $300-400 there's RKote. Mine was done a year ago and still no probs despite running ethanol/cheapo pump gas. Final cost for "in house" prep and RK was around $70-$80. I used Red Kote over a year ago with proper prep. Swooshing a bit of acid in a tank and expecting all the rust to cease doing it's thing is wishful thinking. I think this is where most people are getting their bad experiences from.. (poor prep) Here's my tank page.. Sandblasted inside and out, acid treated etc etc.. http://warbuddies.homestead.com/gastank.html My shameless 2c plug for Red Kote. :) Jim

Looks intriguing. I would guess it to be of some assistance but not completely effective. I've played with electrolysis and it's preety neat how changing polarity attracts or repels. Note the wording on similar products says "controls" rust. (Not prevents or prevents entirely) I can't imagine anyone subjecting their Z to salt like that. My buddy's father passed away leaving him a Ford F-150 only driven in Kentucky. It was five years old and had already had the brake lines replaced twice from rusting through! He was selling it and wanted me to look at fixing the oil leak. Funny but the oil pan had rusted through too. Wouldn't even think of using a Z on salty roads. In FL the beach areas are bad enough though. There are some things which you simply cannot overcome. Fertilizer, Chlorine, and road salt seem to permeate just about anything in time. Pool companies will add a few years to their pickups by spraying a thick liner such as Rhino liner. It's still a temporary stay of execution for the car though.

One other possibility might be the timing chain died or derailed. Let's hope it hasn't done that. Does the engine sound normal during cranking... Does it sound like all cylinders are making equal compression? Or are certain cylces "easier" sounding when cranking. To see if the chain is still engaged right you could always take the valve cover off and crank. Easier yet open the oil fill hole and have someone else crank and watch the cam rotate. If it doesn't rotate then from what I've read you will have bent some valves. Dunno if Z's hole pistons when the chain fails or not. Let's hope not. I'd go with Arne's supposition first and count this a remote possibility. 2c Jim

Years ago I got a book called Electrochemical Metalizing. It talked about plating and building up surfaces. You'd have to take off each panel for this approach. If you properly prepared your panels to zero rust then got a metallizing gun and sprayed... Well it would be an interesting experiment. (You could have a stainless coated Zlorean and be Darbi's dreamZowner!!!) http://www.flame-spray.com/2wire.htm In truth simply doing proper prep while down to bare metal during a refresh will yield you 10-15 years - possibly 20 years of protection. As for stuff behind the panel and in between panels you're kind of up the creek unless you undo the seams and treat the backside. (Quarter arches for instance) As for most of us when confronted by a hole in a QP arch... You can either replace the affected area or... Sandblast at vaious angles and hope to richochet some abarsive media in a hole then blow/clean well and ospho followed by epoxy prime. Any sand left in the cracks will cause rust so be sure to get as much as possible out. A shop vac and compressed air go a long way. (Using the shop vac most) I was once like you are now.. Trying to find a way to "permanently" protect the Z. Unless you operate it on a closed track there is more of a chance of it getting totaled than rusting away. 2c Jim

You can seel them to me and feel better. (The early tail light assys that is.) My guess is no also. The later Z lights look a little elongated. (Reverse lamp on side) I see you're near me. Have you tried A-1 in Apopka? They have or recently had a few 280Z's and maybe one 260. One of the desk jockeys has a 280Z project so he keeps the yard stocked with Z's. There's also the Sanford private Z yard. PM me if you'd like the number. Jim

OOps! I hadn't considered that it might be the nut on the tie rod's pin. An impact wrench dialed in to the right torque range would get it on or off nicely.

I didn't know if your speedo error was a problem that just came up or if it has always been that way. Just for "fun" I'd pop the speedo gear out of the tranny and see if it is mangled. Count the teeth and compare. A while ago I discovered that one speedo gear had become seized from a small piece of particulate. It wouldn't hurt to take it out and inspect it anyway.

This is clipped from an earlier post. I found it handy when doing tranny swaps. Go to this page about midway down and check out the colored gears for the speedo. (Tranny gear) http://www.geocities.com/zgarage2001/z.html (mid way down the page "Performance tips" link) Sounds like you should start with trying a different speedo gear. The gear that drives the plastic gear remains the same. All you have to do is determine how many teeth you need on the plastic gear. There are several threads touching this topic. Hope this is what it is for ya. Jim

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=16272&itemType=PRODUCT $99 from easwood! The normal galv line is 1/3 that. (Also avail for eastwood)

Good luck finding 1/4" lines if you can. I think I saw a 25ft spool of 1/4 galvanized line at a "real" parts store. If so, it would be fine. Shy away from anything small for the supply line such as the 3/16" commonly used for brake lines. Debur the ends when cut and use the proper bender for smooth radii. In time the ends that you cut may rust but that's a long way down the road. If you want ot get fancy then stainless... http://www.eagletube.com/ The reason 1/4" is less common is that 3/16 is a good balance for brake lines. It will move enough fluid and has less surface area for expansion. (Tubing expands under pressure) If you make a brake system with 1/4" lines you can actually feel the diff in the pedal. Read up on vapor lock and you'll see why fuel supply lines need to be large and as straight as possible. Copying the stock system with the same size tubing is fine too.

With the tie rod adjustment what are you trying to do? Is it just a simple replacement or are you trying to straighten a steering wheel? It would be best to have the car aligned at a shop for safety's sake. (handling in wet or ice) If it's simply a matter of not being able to turn it there is a place to grip the shank. In other words you should be able to get some sort of wrench/grips on both ends of the equation. Maybe the boot is covering the grip on your car. Send/post pics if you can't find it If you are reaching or need to reach the limits of tie rod travel somethings wrong. (Or being done wrong [see below]) The inner tie rod (on 240's) screws onto the rack. If someone else messed with it and didn't tighten the locknut it may be working loose. The other possibility is that the other tie rod is misadjusted. These would be the only reasons that one tie rod would have be adjusted that far out of whack. (Other than a severe structural problem which you should be able to spot) A quick and dirty front end alignment can be done at home. It is a temporary measure to "get you through" until you can afford to have it done right. One importnat thing is to have both tie rods be equidistant from their posts. You can measure or remove both tie rods and turn an EQUAL number of turns until the desired result is attained. Alignment angles are measured in degrees,minutes and seconds but you can get close with a homemade toe-in rig. Copy this design... http://www.bakerprecision.com/longacr16.htm Also notice they have some instructions at the top of the page. http://www.bakerprecision.com/longacr16a.htm When you take it to a shop their tooling can take all four tires into account. At least if something is wrong like a bent/damaged frame they can tell you. Ask for a printout of the data before and after. It's nice to see what the machine sees.

Unless you have the block stripped and are able to clean the galleries tapping is a risky idea. Here's the type of adapter to look for. Never did business with these people but I imagine this is what you need. The sender you have is probably 1/8 npt. http://www.egauges.com/vdo_acce.asp?Subgroup=BSP_Adapter_Bushings

If you have a thread measuring tool which comes with tap sets here are some tell tale TPI's (Threads per inch) By measuring the old male thread vs the new male you can tell if it wil work. Be careful when screwing something unknown into the cast iron block. It is softer than the steel pickup bib and will strip/crossthread if you have got things wrong. If you don't have a good answer I've got a spare block I can check for the thread info. You might also be able to find an adapter for NPT to BPT. (SPeed shop etc) Tapered thread forms... American NPT (National pipe thread) 27 TPI for 1/8" 18 TPI for 1/4-3/8 14 TPI for 1/2" British Pipe threads 28 TPI for 1/8" 19TPI for 1/4 -3/8 14 TPI for 1/2" Taken from Machinery's Handbook 2c Jim

I'm so sorry Darb. Like the others said at least you are still here. At least you didn't smash your face and loose teeth or worse. I know what it's like. Me and a friend were at a dead stop and some lady driving 60mph nailed us in the rear. The way Florida laws work now there was really no point in pursuing things legally. Back in the 1980's I would have been set for life. Don't know what the laws are like in your state but a lawyer is a good idea. I've had two such accidents and have neck problems and headaches.. Probably will for the rest of my life. I'm not the sueing type and never have been. It has affected me from and from time to time pisses my wife off because she has to rub my neck to alleviate the headaches/relax the muscles. Don't sign a release form. Hope she was insured. Glad it wasn't the Z. Jim