alordzot

Some more info for all of you. I have already burned up most of the reprieve time but due to work I have been out of town for most of it. The car is in my driveway now and Virginia does not offer a non-op for titling the car. TO get the car running again I would need to install the round tops, drop and boil out the gas tank. I simply don't have the time. That is why I asked the question sell or part out. I can always have the junk yard come and get the remains. It is however looking more like sell it out right will be the best thing. As it is I do have a title for the car. Any one interested in purchasing????

Hi all, it’s been a while since I posted anything here much less visited the site. Well here goes. Some wonderful person trying to sell their house in my neighbor hood called the police in the county of Fairfax, Virginia and requested that they come by and ticket the Z sitting in my driveway along with my neighbors 1978 Pontiac Firebird. The cops came by last week and left us the following nice message: :mad::sick: “You must remove the following vehicle (Datson 240Z they could not even spell it right) from your driveway in 7 days. If it is not removed you can face a $10,000 fine and/or imprisonment of 30 days. If you wish to keep the vehicle you will need to register it immediately with the DMV and pay county property tax on it. If the vehicle is not operative at this time you will need to relocate it to the back yard and/or screen it from sight of the street and neighbors. (The county suggests that you erect a structure or place bushes at least 5 feet tall around it so it can not be visible.) “ Due to the above letter from the county I am no longer able to complete the restoration of my prized 240. To ward off all the comments: 1. I have gone to the county and protested the notice. It bought me a reprieve of 6 months if I placed a car cover on it. 2. The fine and jail time are real. 3. I could rent a storage area and store it however the places around here will not allow the car to be worked on while on their property. 4. Since it’s a labor of love I don’t want to send it out to be worked on by some one else. Besides I don’t have that kind of money. So in the end it looks like I need to sell it or part it out. Details on the car are as follows: 1. 1973 240Z. Not running at this time. When the car was parked for restoration it was running. Car is not running now. Carbs are off 2. The electric fuel pump works. 3. New OEM muffler installed never used. 4. New master break cylinder. 5. 2 sets of round top carbs 6. original flat top carbs 7. Additional manifold 8. Radio works 9. Rust in the usual spots but not out of control. 10. New break hoses install on all 4 breaks. SO HERE IS THE QUESTION. Should I part it out or sell the whole thing for $800 or best offer? Thanks in advanced Alordzot

Another way to fish the wall is with glow rods. They are 4 to 5 foot fiber glass rods that screw together and are designed for running wire through walls and in attics. you can get them at LOWES or Home depot for around 35 bucks and they are handy for fishing if you don't have a fishing rod.

Help, I need a mech in the Northern Va - Wash DC area that can install my carbs. I have a 73Z that had the original carbs (Flat Tops) on it Now gone, and I have since procured 2 sets of round tops. Both came with the manifold. Here are the questions I have. 1. Should I replace the intake manifold that came with the carbs or use the existing one already installed. 2. I know not to mix the round tops. However is there something I should look at to pick one set over the other? 3. Does any one know of a good mech in the area that I can take it to. I would rather do it my self but the wife forced me to put an addition on the house :tapemouth and I need the Z running so I can park it else where. 4. Was wondering if anyone would take it to a local tech school and have them do it as a class project? Education for them running for me.

Reading the posts brings up a question on my part. I have 2 sets of round tops and the manifolds are still attached. Should I replace the manifold that is currently on my 73 when I do the swap out? Thanks ZOT

You all make me sick:sick: My wife made me move back to VA/Wash DC to be near her parents cause they were old. Now 15 years later I am still here :stupid: an want to go back home to OC CALIF. Anyone want to swap places? wife and kids are optional. Hope you have lots of fun in Diego

Use the link below and get you boot! http://www.zcarparts.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=LSB

http://pesn.com/2005/03/17/6900069_Acetone/ This is an artical on why it works. If you can really belive it.

Here’s one here from the Washington DC area this past week. VDOT (Virginia Dept of Trans) had just remarked one of the many 4 lane roads around here so that both lanes on my side now went straight. Prior to this change the left lane was for a left turn only. Naturally obeying the new road signs I am in the new lane that goes straight and when the light turn green Off I go. Next to me in the right hand lane is our jerk!!!!, who immediately cut me off and gives me the one finger salute telling me that I can’t go straight from the lane I am in. You all know the type, the one that thinks he is god’s gift to the roads and can do no wrong. I being an old fart, I ignored him and pulled around him (60 plus in a 35). Apparently my ignoring and passing him set him off again and he started tailgating me and trying to run me off the road. At the next light he pulled up and was saying various things about my mother, what he wanted to do to me and other things that irate people are known to do at street lights. This time I return his salute and turn left. He cut off the person behind me and followed. Now the fun begins. Looking down the road I see about a ¼ mile ahead one of the local Police pulled in at a 7-11 giving a ticket (Unmarked car.) So I pulled into the 7-11 and park next the unmarked cop car. God bless stupid people, this jerk comes screeching in behind me and skids to a stop blocking me in and the cop Jumps out of his car with a bat and is screaming at the top of his voice that he was gona kick my @%^. Smiling, I point to the officer that now has his gun pulled out and pointed at him and quietly asked him to repeat the statement that he had just made. Need less to say the person in question got a very large ticket and was lucky that he was not hauled away. The Original person getting the ticket was let go with a warning and I was asked if I would like to press charges. I grinned at the cop and said I think that he had had enough fun for the day and I declined. As a parting shot at stupid I informed him about the Change in road signs and street markings which the cop confirmed and that he should pay more attention to what was going around outside the car then to what ever he was doing inside the car. (A possible Moral to this story is: once in a while a cop really is where one should be when you need one)

Note it also has round tops on it. SO i wonder what else was changed.

At one time there was a Z junk/car parts business in Fairfax or northern Va. Does anyone have the name and or info on this place?

Rest of the info follows. COP CHECKS Individual ignition coils can be tested with an ohmmeter the same as those on a conventional distributor or DIS ignition system. Measure primary and secondary resistance and compared to specifications. If resistance is out of specifications, the coil is bad and needs to be replaced. Also, pay close attention to the tube that wraps around the spark plug. Cracks can allow voltage to jump to ground causing a misfire. The spark plug terminal should also fit tightly. If a COP coil tests bad and is replaced, future problems can often be avoided by cleaning the COP connector and wiring harness terminals. Corrosion at either place can cause intermittent operation and loss of continuity, which may contribute to component failure. Applying dielectric grease to these connections can help prevent corrosion and assure a good electrical connection. Magnetic crankshaft position sensors can be tested with an ohmmeter, and the sensor’s output voltage and waveform can be read with an oscilloscope. The output voltage of a Hall Effect crankshaft position sensor can be checked with a voltmeter. On most vehicles, a bad crank position sensor will usually set a fault code which can be read with a scan tool. SPARK PLUGS As for spark plugs, long life platinum plugs are used with most COP ignitions. Such plugs are capable of going 100,000 miles under ideal conditions. But keep in mind any plug can still succumb to fouling and misfire if an engine burns oil, develops an internal coolant leak or runs too rich.

Just wanted to post more info on the subject. Hope it helps others. COIL-ON-PLUG IGNITION SYSTEMS By Larry Carley, Copyright 2000 CarleySoftware.com First it was the distributor that vanished. Now plug wires are starting to disappear. What’s next, the spark plugs? The answer is yes, but that won’t happen until direct fuel injection systems that combine the injector and spark plug into one assembly start appearing in a few years. In the meantime, you’ll have to learn how to diagnose and service the current generation of coil-on-plug (COP) ignition systems. Spark plugs wires are going away for the same reason that distributors went away. Vehicle manufacturers want to reduce costs and improve ignition performance and reliability. Plug wires are an assembly line nuisance, and are often the weak link in today’s distributorless ignition systems. The plug wires must carry anywhere from 5,000 up to 40,000 or more volts to fire the plugs. This requires heavy insulation plus the ability to suppress electromagnetic interference (EMI). The wires must also be coated with a tough outer jacket to withstand high temperatures in the engine compartment and chemical attack. As reliable as today’s plug wires are, there is always the potential for trouble. Even the toughest insulation can burn if a wire rubs up against a hot exhaust manifold. The connection inside the spark plug boot between the wire and plug terminal can also be damaged if someone jerks on the wire to remove the boot when changing sparkplugs. Plug wires can also radiate magnetic fields that may affect nearby sensor wires or other electronic circuits. Attaching the ignition coils directly to the spark plugs eliminates the need for separate high voltage wires along with their potential for trouble. Eliminating the individual plug wires also eliminates the need for wire looms and heat shields. That’s why coil-on-plug ignition systems are being used on a growing number of late model engines. WHY COP? Getting rid of the plug wires not only saves money, it also improves the durability of the ignition system. No high voltage wires means no voltage leaks and no misfires due to "bad" plug wires. Using individual coils for each spark plug also means the coils have more time between each firing. Increasing the "coil saturation" time (the time the voltage to the coil is on to build up its magnetic field) increases the coil’s output voltage at high rpm when misfire is most apt to occur under load. Chrysler says its COP ignition system on its LHS and 300M engines delivers 28% more spark energy than earlier ignition systems. This improves combustion and reduces the risk of misfire with lean fuel mixtures (lean mixtures require more voltage to ignite reliably). COP ignition systems are mostly being used on new engine designs, so if you haven’t seen one yet you soon will. On most, the plugs and coils are located on top of the cylinder head for easy mounting of the coils. A topside location is best because it keeps the coils away from the heat of the exhaust. This is the type of configuration Chrysler uses on its late model 2.7L, 3.2L and 3.5L engines in the Chrysler Intrepid, LHS and 300M models. Some other applications with COP ignitions include General Motor’s "Integrated Direct Ignition" (IDI) found on the 1988 through 1995 2.3L Quad Four engine, and the 1996 and newer 2.4L engine single overhead cam engine that replaced the Quad Four, 1997 and newer Cadillac Catera 3.0L, 1998 and up Lincoln Town Car 4.6L, 1996 and up Ford Taurus 3.4L, and many import nameplates including late model Acura, Honda, Infiniti, Isuzu, Lexus, Nissan, Saab and Toyota. Many engines cannot be equipped with COP ignitions because the location of the spark plugs doesn’t leave enough room to mount individual coils over the plugs, or the plugs are too close to the exhaust manifold. For example, on the current "Gen III" small block V8 in Corvette, Camaro and Firebird, the spark plugs are located on the side of the cylinder heads and surrounded by the exhaust manifolds. There’s no room to mount the coils directly on the plugs, so GM’s engineers put the coils on the valve covers and connected each coil to its spark plug with a short wire. COP COMPONENTS In a typical COP ignition system, a crankshaft position sensor generates a basic timing signal by reading notches on the crankshaft, flywheel or harmonic balancer. The crank sensor signal goes to the powertrain control module (PCM), where it is used to determine firing order and turn the individual ignition coils on and off. On Chrysler’s 2.7, 3.2 & 3.5L COP applications, an additional timing signal is needed from a camshaft position sensor located in the timing belt housing cover just above the left camshaft sprocket. Chrysler’s crankshaft position sensor produces a square wave signal that goes from a high of 5.0 volts to a low of 0.3 volts. The sensor is located on the passenger side of the transaxle housing so it can read three sets of slots in the flywheel. Two sets contain 4 slots each, and one set contains 5 slots for a total of 13 slots. Basic timing is set by the position of the last slot in each group. Once the PCM detects the last slot, it determines which piston is next in the firing order from the camshaft position sensor. This means the engine may have to crank at least one revolution before the PCM can sort out the proper firing order and start zapping the plugs. Chrysler also uses an Auto Shutdown Relay (ASD). The ASD relay routes battery power to the ignition coils, and is energized by the PCM as long as receives signals from both the crankshaft and camshaft position sensors. If the engine stops turning (stalls), the PCM deengerizes the ASD relay and shuts down the ignition system. The ASD relay also supplies battery voltage to the fuel injectors, so when it shuts down it cuts off both ignition and fuel. At the same time, the PCM also deenergizes the fuel pump relay to turn off the fuel pump. For "limp in" capability, the Chrysler system can run with input from the crankshaft position sensor only. The ASD and fuel pump relays are both located in the Power Distribution Center. The operation of the ignition system is essentially the same as any other ignition system. Each coil has a low primary resistance (0.4 to 0.6 ohms in the case of Chrysler), and steps up the primary system voltage from 12 volts to as much as 40,000 volts to produce a spark for the spark plug. On the Chrysler COP systems, there’s also a coil capacitor for each bank of coils for radio noise suppression. The only real difference between COP and other ignition systems is that each COP coil is mounted directly atop the spark plug so the voltage goes directly to the plug’s electrodes without having to pass through a distributor or wires. It’s a direct connection that delivers the hottest spark possible. Resistor plugs are generally used to suppress EMI. MISFIRES COP problems can include many of the same ailments as other ignition systems such as misfiring, hard starting or a no start. Spark plugs can still be fouled by oil or fuel deposits as well as preignition and detonation. So COP ignition systems are not immune to trouble. If the crankshaft position sensor fails, the loss of the basic timing signal will prevent the system from generating a spark and the engine will not start or run. A failed driver circuit within the PCM can kill an individual coil and prevent that cylinder from firing. But with COP, an individual coil failure will only cause misfiring in one cylinder. It’s important to remember that ignition misfire can also be caused by other factors such as worn or fouled spark plugs, loose or damaged coil connectors or terminals, dirty fuel injectors, low fuel pressure, intake vacuum leaks, loss of compression in a cylinder, even a tankful of "bad" gas contaminated with water. These other possibilities should all be ruled out before a COP unit is replaced. The most common trouble codes you’ll encounter with COP systems on OBD II equipped vehicles are P0300 series codes such as P0301, P0302, etc. that indicate a misfire in a particular cylinder. The important point to remember here is that a general misfire code (P0300) is probably not ignition related but is due to a vacuum leak or fuel delivery problem. A code that indicates a misfire in a single cylinder (such as P0304), on the other hand, will usually be due to a fouled spark plug, weak coil, dirty or dead fuel injector, or loss of compression (burned vale or leaky head gasket). If a misfire is due to a bad coil, you should find a coil code that corresponds to the same cylinder (P0351 to P0358). If a misfire is fuel related, you should also find a code that indicates an open or shorted injector in that cylinder (P0201 to P0208). A COP engine that cranks but fails to start, in many cases, will often have a problem in the crankshaft position sensor circuit (code P0320). Loss of the camshaft position sensor signal (code P0340) may prevent the PCM from properly synchronizing the fuel injectors, but may still allow the engine to start and run in a limp-in mode. On the Chrysler applications, a code P1388 or P1389 would indicate a fault in the auto shutdown relay circuit, while a P1282 would point you toward the fuel pump relay control circuit.

I might be intrested in picking it up. YOur profile said that your in MD. Is this correct.

I agree with the above suggestions. However having just done the same thing here are a few more pointers. 1. Change fuel filter in the electric pump if you have one back by the gas tank. 2. Pull up the floor covers and check to see if you have any holes in the Floor. If you do, fix them. Check the rails for rust also. (Both inside and out) 3. Make sure your exhaust system is functional. 4. Use WD40 or something like it on all bolts a few days prior to putting a wrench to them this will hopefully keep your cursing time to a min for them rusted in place bolts. Have a small low heat torch available to use in case of stuck bolts. Remember to keep a fire extinguisher handy. The Z-World would morn the loss of another treasure. Good luck