ArnieTX

I installed a new pressure plate, clutch disk, and throwout bearing. I adjust the slave cylinder push rod to where it's just firmed up to the clutch fork. Excited and ready to roll, I fire it up and push the clutch in but cannot get it into gear. Back to the adjustment I move it out some more until I can finally put into gear. Good deal! I pull out and my clutch is slipping. Dangit, same symptons as the old setup. And btw-the old set up wan't old, it looked brand new. So now I'm scratching my head and I'm a little PO'd. I climb under the dash to see what's up there and I see a rod from the pedal that goes to the master cylinder. I figure maybe it's out of adjustment. I check the other 2 Z's and their rods are in the same place so it looks factory. As I'm sitting there thinking about my problem, which is becoming obvious now that the clutch slave cylinder is not traveling far enough for the clutch assembly to work correctly, I notice that the clucth pedal itself looks kind of bent and canted one direction. I push it down with my hand and notice that it is running into a peice of metal under the dash restricing it's downward travel. I pull the pedal to the left about 1/2" and now it has room to get to the floor. Bingo! Then it comes back to me .............. I remember the first time I jumped into this Z when hauling it home on the trailer I really pressed down hard on the clutch pedal trying to unfreeze it and I think I bent it. No, I did bend it! The good news is I have an extra clutch disk and pressure plate that is ready for another motor one day. LMAO - It was a good experience to go through and I learned how to use a transmission jack I borrowed from my buddy. I forgot to put the rubber shift boot back in so while I had the screws out of the console, I fixed my choke lever issue. One of the cable assemblies wasn't locked into the lever so when pushed forward it would move the hole cable and not the wire itself. Ducktaping the two cables along a 6" section solved this for now. I also lost all of my gauges and tach which turned into a two hour search. Turned out to be a fuse that was broken at the end where you couldn't see it. That was a very good lesson learned. I'll be checking all my fuses with a meter when I get a chance. It may look good but it wasn't. I have no lights up front. Going to yank the motor and tranny out of #3 today and pressure wash the engine bay. I hope to have it all stripped down and on a rotisserie in the next month. Happy Easter.

Yeah - I cleaned it out. The mouth on the tank is huge so I don't understand how the gas won't go down it without backing up.... unless it's full. I put a little bit here and a little bit there , maybe it just gets good gas mileage. Once I get my fuel gauge working this weekend I'll dive in further.

Got the temperature gauge working tonight, dirty connection and replaced the broken speedometer cable so now I know how fast I'm going. Still need to get the clutch fixed up, just haven't had time to track one down. Fuel gauge is inoperable because I broke the little clips that hook to the tank. They were pretty fragile. Car starts up every time though, I drive it around the farm every day. I gased it up but for some reason the gas doesn't flow nicely into the tank. It backs up as I pump. I have a feeling the hose that comes out from the back passenger side into the plastic tank in the hatch may be pinched bewteen the car and the tank. Just a guess. When I get a chance I will lower the tank a little and see.

I just did mine. I would leave the regular screws in place and tight and remove the anti theft ones first. If you don't you will be "chasing" them all over the steering column. I bought a little punch and pounded them until I got enough grip for a screw driver. Next time I would get a dremel. It's all about having the right tool.

Beautiful South Texas day today. My 4 year old and I cruised around in the Z. I like that it doesn't have an airbag. About to give it some gas and he knows it. Now we are talking real horsepower here. His job is to keep it out of the grass and mine is to stay on the gas.

Larry78247 lives an hour away and has his Series 1 on a rotisserie is his garage. I met with him last month to check out his project. He has cut a lot of rust away and replaced a lot of metal on his car. He also showed me some really cool tools for the process and shared some of his techniques. I'm looking forward to jumping into that part of the process. I'm saving my money for one of these. http://www.eastwood.com/dual-tank-blaster.html It's about $1200-$1500 bucks to blast my car if somebody else does it. I figure if I bought this blaster I could also use it around the farm on cattle trailers that need repaired and painted, tractors, implements, old buildings that need cleaned up, etc. So it would get more use than just my Z. Does anyone have any experience with this unit or similiar size units? Pros-Cons? Thanks

Got the gas tank back and new hoses on the fuel system. It actually runs good but without the temp gauge working I don't want to run it too long. I drove it around the farm a little this evening, it definitely needs a clutch. I played with the adjustment on the slave and could never get it to where it wouldn't slip and go into gear. A freeze plug is also leaking by the oil filter. Studied the temp gauge troubleshooting threads and will poke around tomorrow to see what I can find. I love that little car . I'll be stripping down #3 pretty soon and will try to build a rotisserie. Got my eye on a sodal blaster from Eastwood. Chugging along. Thanks

I'm driving. Got it running last night about 1AM and took it for a spin. Brakes are good and replaced clutch slave cylinder. Also found out it needs a clutch as it slips under a floored pedal. Will be installing a gas tank and clutch soon and adjusting the valves. Definitely needs some suspension love and a few metal patches on the floor. It was so much fun to get in it and actually drive it. I can't believe how tight the turning radius is. This thing makes a quick uturn. Once I get it roadable where I can get it on public streets, I'll be striping down #3 to metal. If you could see the grin on my face.....

Thanks Bonzi - The choke handle only moves one cable. I assumed the other slot wsa for the other side. Larry - I haven't messed with the mixture screws yet. I'm going to buy a new set of plugs tomorrow when I go to town so I have a good baseline. These plugs were in the motor and I honestly don't remember how they looked before I got it running. I bled the brakes tonight and have a solid pedal. The front rotors are a little rusty but the pads looked new. The clucth slave cylinder on the tranny is frozen. As a matter a fact, all three of them are frozen. I'll pick one up tomorrow along with new hoses for the engine. I hope to take it for a spin around the neighborhood this weekend. Getting closer. After that it will be time to take #3 apart and get it on a rotisserie. Larry - I may holler at you soon to come see yours again and take some measurements and record what materials you used to build it. Thanks

Cool. Welcome

I checked my plug wire locations this evening for grins and found that #5 and #6 were rolled. It ran pretty good like that. I rolled them back and it still runs pretty good. Checked spark plug gaps. Plugs are Bosch. Front three are still darker, back three are clean. I rolled the plugs and will see what they look like in a few days. I warmed the motor up and then pulled all the plugs to check compression. Throttle was wide open for this test, choke(only one cabled) was closed. I worked on my neighbors computer this evening and he let me borrow his compression guage. He also lent me some feeler gauges since I don't own any yet. Cylinder - Compression: 1 - 165 2 - 164 3 - 165 4 - 166 5 - 164 6 - 166 Motor showing 138,000 (guess) I doubt it's 238,000. Factory manual says 163-178 lb/sq in so it looks ok. I'm happy it's consistant across all cylinders. I have only one choke handle in the cab. It operates the carb on closest to the firewall. One of the other cars has a handle. I might yank it although it starts without the choke. Sometime this weekend I'm going to adjust the valves, inspect and bleed the brake system, and bleed - fix the clutch. This is a lot of fun. Later

Welcome

I pulled my plugs. The ones on the front carb were blackish , the 3 on the back were tan. I verified spark was there. I fired it up at turned the idle screws until the RPMS came up to ~900RPM. Before it idled at ~500. I tried to get that eldebrock sync tool thing to function but I screwed it in and out and it would only work if I gave it some throttle. I couldn't get it to register at idle no matter which way I screwed the center piece. I reved the motor to ~4000K and it sounds pretty good. While I was messing with the sync tool and reving the motor standing over the carbs, I would see several sparks coming from behind the right side carb. And it also makes some strange noise in that area behind that little aluminum shield the carbs springs attach to. I'm guessing an exhaust leak. What else would cause little sparks when you rev it up a little? The motor was getting pretty warm so I shut it off. The temp gauge doesn't work. Car ran for about 10 minutes. Fuel pump is working great now sucking gas out of 5 gallon elevated tank. I need step back and replace all my hoses before I go any further. As bad as I want to drive this thing I know the hoses on this car might go at anytime. And if I have an exhaust leak I need to fix that. I guess I need to take the intake off to see what's going on. The car doesn't backfire anymore. That little pop through the carb was the first time I started it. It doesn't it do it anymore. The "whine" has also gone away. The tail pipe is about 12" from the wall of my shop so when I revved it up pretty good it spit a bunch of soot all over the wall. I don't see it smoking though. I may borrow my buddies compression gauge and check compression before I do anything else. Hoses are a must. Maybe they sell a kit somewhere. Thanks

Thanks AJ- I'm watching my Z tuneup videos. I'll adjust my valves this weekend and do a complete tune up. I'll check out the additives at the local Napa and Oreilys. Larry - As soon as I get this thing road worthy, I'll drive it over your way and bring you a beer. I want to pick your brain some more on the metal work. Thanks guys!

I'll have to google valve spaceing, have no idea what that means. What kind of oil are you talking about for the valve seals? I filled the engine up with a 15-30 castrol gtx. Is there something else I need to add? Before I started it, I took the valve cover off and inspected it. Pretty clean. I sprayed a little pb blaster all over everything in there and hand cranked the motor over. The mustard bottle worked good to force fuel into the system. When squezzed I can hear it running through the lines into the fuel rail. Those bottles are really handy for squirting fluids into tight spots. I have one with ATF in it and was shooting it into the cylinders when I first got the cars. I'll double check my wiring. I had to replace the plug wires one at a time from a different motor. The wires were all cut up. The distributor looked brand new inside. This car came to me without a gas tank so I figure the PO must have had carb or tank issues and that's why he parked it. I just got home from an errand so I went out and turned it over again, it fired right up without the choke on. I put my hand over the intake of the left side carb and it is really sucking. Did the same on the right side and it isn't sucking that hard. I need to watch my videos now on tuning these things. I need to figure out how to confirm that both carbs are getting gas. There is a strange "whine" when I give it a little gas. I haven't taken it up past 2K yet. The whine sounds like it's around the belt area on the front of the motor. I'll be running it a little more tonight. A buddy of mine lent me a timing light so maybe I'll learn something there. Thank you for your advice and help. I really appreciate it.

Bought a new battery and still got the click when I tried to crank. Took the starter off and cleaned it up. That's when I noticed it had a spade. Went back to the car and found a wire hanging down that looked like it would go on it. Cleaned it up, put it all back together. Success, motor turned over. Changed the oil, the old oil look good and didn't see any metal on the plug. I ran a hose into a cup of gas (ignition disconnected) with the hoses into the carbs disconnected. I wanted the fuel pump to crank fuel through the system until it came out of the carb hoses. Then I would hook the hoses to the carbs and try to start it. The fuel never made it out to the carbs. Got on the forum and poked around finding soemthing about taking the valve cover off and manually pumping the pump. I did that and felt suction but it was not very strong. I decided to help it along and went inside and grabbed one of my empty mustard bottles I use on my hot dog cart and filled it with gas. I forced fuel all the way through the system until in exited the carb lines. Then I hooked up the carbs and squirted some more into the system. Radiater filled up 2 minutes later and it's time to try it. :classic: I cranked and it would cough a little, blow some smoke out of the carbs, cough and then it ran for a second. That's when I went to grab the camera. I started it and let it run for a minute or so, just long enough to see it working. I am a little worried about the coughing or backfiring coming out of the carbs and I don't want to hurt anything. I am so happy right now. Oil pressure present. Temp gas tank Cheesy Video - 1st start: <embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid120.photobucket.com/albums/o191/Dhanis_Dude/240ZFirstStart.flv"> Had a great evening! Thanks

I won't be doing any body work to #2. Just getting it running.

#3 is going into tear down mode for full restoral. I originally thought I would get it running and then chip away at everything a little at a time. It just needs to much to get it running. Instead, #2 is going into running mode so I can have a little joy in my life for all the time I spend working on these things. It's 99% there unless something internal in the motor is broken. Perfect World --> I can tool around in #2 to get my "fix" while I work on #3 from the ground up. Has anyone seen my medication?

The ignition in #2 wasn't original. It had 4 philips head screws. I was very relieved to see that. Dremel is a must and after I took out the philips and the first smooth screw, I chased that stupid thing all over the steering column. Darn right about leaving the phillips screws in. It was killing me. - I got to a point where I started thinking I would take off the signal stuff and steering wheel and slide it off the column. That's until I read that to remove the steering wheel, I needed some sort of puller. I learned a lot today.

Finally had some time to jump back into my cars. Fractured my wrist 3 weeks ago so it's slow going. Car # 3 is still the cleanest body out of all of them. I found a little more rust but nothing too bad to tackle. I've been studying it looking at what it needs to get it running and have decided that it needs way too much. It was a parts car so a lot of wires were just snipped and a lot of little things are missing. So, it's on to car #2. It's a complete car minus a gas tank. It needs floors like the rest of them but at this stage I want to get something running. Since it's a complete car, I've decided to push forward to get SOMETHING running so I can have a little fun. Tonight I installed my brand new carbs from Z therapy. I'll change the oil in it next chance I get, buy a new battery and see if she will crank. If she cranks I'm going to run some external fuel lines to a small gas tank to see if it will run. If I can get it to run then I'll finish cleaning my tank from car #3 and install it. Then it's brakes and clutch and by then I should be able to drive it around yard. I didn't have a key for car #2, but car #3 had one so I pulled the ignition out of it and installed in #2. There were two screws that had heads without any slot for a screwdriver. I made one with a punch, but it was tedious and a PITA. Finally got them out. I slapped in an old battery and flicked on the lights. They stayed on for about 15 seconds then went away. I get a click when attempting to crank on the right side somewhere but I know my battery is crap so I'm not concerned at this point. PICS of todays progress. Hopefully I will get #2 running by next weekend. That's my goal. By then I will have changed my mind again and be back on car #1. LMAO. I'm still enjoying this.

I've got 3 of them. One on each of my Zs. PM me and we'll get it heading your way.

Post a picture of what you are looking for please. Maybe I can help locate one for you.

Larry Not yet but I will before I start it. BTW - You are doing an awesome job on your Z. Thanks for taking the time to show me your stuff and teach me about different tools you used for your project. It was a pleasure to meet you.

Thanks fellows.

Hey guys I'll be getting some time this week to mess around with my Z. I need to install one of the metal fuel lines that runs the length of the car. I've been thinking about this though. To eliminate any issues related to the old system, issues like junk debris, etc flowing into my new Z Therapy carbs, what if I put the intake and carbs back together and tried to get the car running out of a gas can? This would eliminate the chances of hosing up my carbs from a rotten fuel system. If I can get it started like this then I will know it's good to go after I stick my lines and tank back in. If I just wait until my lines and tank are in to try to start it and it doesn't run, then I won't be sure if it's something else besides carbs. + I'm not even sure this motor is good so if I could get it running I could run a quick compression check once it's warm. Just thinking. I couldn't find any threads on running an engine on an external temporary tank. Does anyone know of one or have any advice on how to accomplish this? Thanks