Marty Rogan

In October I am headed for Road America for a lapping day event. I am pretty stoked about that. RA can be pretty tuff on a car, so I am thinking of getting more agressive shoes for the stock drums. The front is in great shape. I just completed the Toyota 4 piston, vented rotor, with SS lines all around, a few months ago. I am running Axxis ceramic pads in front. I will need shoes that can be driven on the street as well as the track. Any recommendations? TIA, Marty

Zedhead, You will likely get all kinds of opinions. Everyone has them, that's why they are called opinions. So, here's what I do. This applies to short term storage of 6 months or less. Clean the car thoroughly inside and out. Put in fuel stabilizer, then fill the tank. Drive the car at least 20 minute to get it up to operating tempurature and all the moisture out of the exhaust system. Pull it into the parking spot and turn it off. Don't start it again till spring! I used to put the cars up on jack stands, but with todays radial tires and a short term it doesn't matter as much. If the Mustang has biased ply tires, you can put carpet under them and jack it up just enough to take the weigh off the tires. So people claim that the springs can sag if you let them hang down. I haven't seen any permanent sag in my experience. Stuff a rag in the tailpipe and the air cleaner snorkle if you have the stock one. Mice love those kinds of places. If there is a lot of moisture where your car is, place some desicant inside. Pull the battery out and put it in your basement on a thick piece of would. throw a charger on it once a month. Get a decent quality cotton car cover. Forgetabout it! Get a subscript to Sport Magazine and hang out here. Plan your next Z improvement project and buy a bunch of parts over the winter. Or if you are real lucky and have a heated garage, you can do those projects over the winter. Well, that is what I have been doing since 1980. I have never had problem with a car in all that time. Enjoy! Marty

Hi All, I am in the planning stages now for a suspension upgrade that I want to do over the long winter hibernation here in Chicago. The car is an early '71. I use it for street driving and about 1 high speed autocross a month at the track. Right now the car has Koni shocks front and back, stiffer competition sway bars front and back, and as best i can tell, it still has the stock springs. It actually handles pretty nice and corners fairly flat with this setup. With the original bushings still in there, I think there is room for improvement. I plan on keeping the Koni's and the sway bars. I have already acquired Energy Suspension PU bushings. While I have it apart I plan on painting everything with POR-15, replace the ball joints and the outer tie rod ends. So, it seems like I should replace the springs while I have it apart. I was looking at the Arizona Z Car Sport Springs. They are rated at 180 lbs. front / 200 lbs. rear. They don't lower the car at all. At about $200 a set, they don't sound bad. Anybody out there have experieince with these springs? Would like to hear your impressions. If not, are there any other brands that you would recommend? Any other suggestions to improve my set-up? TIA, Marty

Brian, Do a search on steering wheel. several write-ups have been done on this. I believe there is one that was just placed on the technical How To forum a couple of days ago. Marty

Vicky, I have used Banzai a couple of times and found them to be great to deal with. They have most of the reproduction decals, that are of very good quality. I am not sure if he obtains and resells any part you want, or just what is on his website. I have only purchased what he has listed. He is a nice guy and knowledgeable too. Marty

HLS30.com, Charlie Osborne is a good guy, bought a couple of things from him. Too Intense Restoration is also another source that can sometimes get hard to find parts, but not always at a good price. I used to buy a ton of parts from Courtesy Nissan in TX: http://www.courtesy-nissan.com/ Their customer service used to be very good. They would try to find you hard to find parts and offered a Z Club discount in the range of 25-28%. However, something changed down their and their service really sucked the last time I bought from them. their prices seemed to really climb up there too. That's when I found Chloe. She had vastly superior customer service, she had truly amazed me a couple of times by finding those impossible parts and her prices were about the best out there. She will be sorely missed. I just hope she is ok. Great vendors are hard to come by. Please share any other good vendors that you find! Marty

Personally, I would get the Felpro Full Engine gasket kit and change all the gaskets on the engine. It will never be easier than when you have the engine out, especially the front cover gaskets. I also put in a new timing chain while I had mine out. Its a good time to put a fresh coat of paint on the block also. Put on a new water pump also. It's much easier to get at and they don't cost that much. That's all I can think of in addition to what others have mentioned. Good luck with it! Marty

Beandip, Is that the clutch slave cylinder adjustment that you are referring to. as "the linkage"? It seems to go into gear fine. Especially with the NISMO busshings, it has a much more positive feel when going into gear. I have had bad synchros on other 240's. It usually shows up as crunching while going into gear. I don't get that on this car. Would the sychros really go out on a trans with only 10K on it??? Marty

My first thought was that the inner shift boot must have been pretty stiff. It would not be very practical to drive around without one, especially if you get caught in the rain! Marty

I have an early 71, with the type A trans. The trans was rebuilt about 10k miles ago. One time it popped out of 3rd gear on me, and didn't happen again. I thought maybe I didn't engage it fully. Well, the thow-out bearing had seized and was making noise, so I pulled it out and changed it last week. While I had the trans out, I replaced the shifter bushings with a NISMO bushing kit. It replaces the rubber bushings with aluminum ones and takes all the slop out of the type A trans. Replaced the inner shift boot as well, since it was ripped. Saturday, I was a track day. Numerous times while declerating in 3rd (under hard braking) it kept popping out of gear. Not a very endearing quality while you are on the track!!! It doesn't pop out under accelleration thankfully. I got through the day by hold the shift lever. Any ideas on why this could be occuring? Marty

I feel your pain. I had one hell of a time bleeding my brakes after putting the conversion on. Make sure you thoroughly bleed the master cylinder first. Thne move to the right rear, left rear, right front, and then left front. I also had to crank up the rear drums a bit more. If that doens't do it, try this racer trick that Rick taught me. Once the brakes are bled all around, go to the right front, remove the outer brake pad, open the bleeder screw, then take a pair of lock jaw pliers and force the pistons in. Be careful not to push them past the seals. Put the pad back in and do this to the inner brake pistons. Then repeat on the left front. I was amazed at how much extra air I forced out of the calipers. Once I got it bled correctly, the brakes are killer! I also highly recommend installing SpeedBleeders on all 4 corners and the master. It will make your life much easier. Good luck! Marty

I was cruising Ebay yesterday and saw Midwest Z posted a 432Z Mesh grille up for auction. This just keeps gettinge weirder. Chloe, where are you????? Call home, we're worried about you! Marty

I did this conversion. I just finished a second track track day on them and the prerformance is FANTASTIC!!!! To answer you questions: You can use the stock metal lines, if you bend them VERY carefully. You could use the stock rubber hoses, but why??? You must be doing the conversion to get better brakes. Braided hoses eliminate the expansion possible in rubber hoses. MSA has Earl's braided hose for only about $70-80 which about as cheap as anywhere I have seen. The vented rotor calipers are very wide. Slotted mags won't fit. Also, if you have 15" of larger wheels, the diameter should be fine. It's the configuration of the center portion of thewheel that you could have problems with. I was going to use an Enkei style mesh wheel, which has a very flat center. The wheel snugged right up against the caliper to the point that the car would not move. I put on a set of Panasports, which bow out away from the center of the wheel and they cleared the calipers great. I recommend the JSK Innovations spacer. It is a quality made piece. Check their website for current prices. You will also need to trim the rotor splash guard to make the calipers fit. As someone mentioned, you need longer bolts to hold the hubs on. Make sure you use 10.9 grade, hardened bolts! Good luck with them. Marty

Hey zhead240, That car can't be more than 5 miles from where I live. I can try to arrange to look at it for you if you want. Give me a PM with your phone and email info. I can take some pictures of areas of concern and send you an honest opinion. Let me know. Marty

Congrats Chris!! Having 26 and 27 is way cool. And twins too! Looks like you have a lot of work ahead of you. I give you a lot of credit for taking that one on. I have often thought about restoring a very early Z. But I am not sure I am up for digging in that deep. Anyway, it should be fun. Marty

I recall reading something on the ZT website about them tapering the shafts for better air flow. I don't know what is hanging up, although I suspect the linkage. It's just a matter of where and what to do about it. It usually happens at stop lights, so I can't exactly jump out and fiddle with it. I haven't had any time to work on either. I'll have to make time one of these days soon. At least it's driveable now.

Unfortunately, it was at the shop, quite a distance away, so I didn't see it personally. But from the way he described it, it sounded like the butterfly it self was undersized, or misaligned somehow. I understand your point that it would not close 100% though. It seems to have always had this problem of sometimes idling too high after being warmed up. When you blip the trottle, it drops 200-300. It is still doing this sometimes now. That is one reason I went with the ZT carbs in the first place. I am sure that there is no wear, since these carbs could not have more than about 2K on them. Funny, my '71 seems to have just the opposite problem. It idles low (about 550) when it is cold, and then idles correct and steady (800-900) when fully warmed up. I am not sure why this happens on 240's. Marty

Well, Someone said, "if you think it is electrical, it is probably a fuel problem". And they would be right! In this case, it turned out to be a lack of fuel!! :stupid: The gas gauge quit on me. Still haven't figured that one out. Thought I put it away for the winter with a full tank. Only drove about 80 miles, so it never occured to me that I could be out of gas. It had other carb problems too. The butterfly valve screws were backing out, had a bent linkage and needed new needles. The mechanic also told me that the butterfly valve will not close completely and is letting air get around it. Said he could not fix that due to the way that Z Therapy installed the shaft with roller bearings. Anybody heard of this issue before? Anyway, I got it back and it idles at 1,000 now. A little high, but at least it is steady and doesn't stall out on me. I'll have to get around to putting the Pertronix back in. At least I can drive it now. Marty

Carl, What symptoms was your car having that made you suspect the Pertronix went bad? What ended up being the real problem? It may shed some light on what's going on with my car. Thanks, Marty

Thanks for the tips guys. I didn't even think to check their website. Marty

My 70 with Pertronix unit installed died yesterday. Was sitting at a light. It was not holding an idle. Had to keep feeding it gas. Then it just started loosing power and died. Couldn't get it started again. It seems to have a very weak spark. I was thinking the Pertronix might have fried. Is there anyway to test it??? TIA, Marty

Marc, I really hate when people don't respect others property. Its really hard to tell from digital pix how bad things really are. It may be possible for a Paintless Dent Repair shop to get that out. Recently, the wind blew a metal framed lawn bag holder into my fender. It dented it and put a mild crease into it. They removed the dent so well, you would never know it was dented. Cehck them out. It cost me $60. You may also be able to get the scrape wet sanded out. I would have it professionally done though. Hope it works out for you. Marty

I can't directly answer your question. I have heard however, that it is VERY expensive to build a stroker motor correctly. Putting a turbo in there should be plenty of power increase. With inter-coolers and upgrade turbos, and engine management, you can get some serious HP from a turbo motor. Marty