TomoHawk

Your driver's pull might be missing then. You should be able to see the vent tube underneath the dash in the corner. The tube is about 2 inch dia. and points down at your left ankle.

On my '78 280Z... I have this strange dripping inside my car on both sides under where the drain tube/elbow is for the air cowling. On the left it drips on my left foot while driving in the rain, and I assume the same on the right. So when there is a decent rain, the carpet is wet. I haven't had time to get the cover off and look in there to check the tubes and see if they're blocked, but I plan on it after the car goes into storage. (wish I had a mini video!) These tubes might be cracked, and/or blocked, so they fill up with water and/or drip into the car. Can somebody tell me if you can get at those drains from the outside of the car? I'll check them & clean as necessary. If they are cracked ( all the rubber parts are dry & cracked so far) Can you get replacements? Has anybody tried removing these tubes without removing the dash first? thx

Do you mean the push-pull knob on the vent eyeball that open & closes it?

YOu gotta have thr driver's vent on there, bud. With the exhaust pipe under the floor, your foot gets toasty.

To me, it wouldn't make a difference if they were missing, In fact mine ARE missing, and I only noticed it lately after a show. I think they'd even be in the way since they stick down some.

Yeah, those are them. thx

Gary, How about one of those neato grounding systems from eBay? You know, it's $173, and has about a dozen 'gold-plated' ends? Guranteed to increase your horsepower!! Or just make up your own ground wire and attach in 2 or 3 places.

On a 280Z Does anyone have pictures of the two pieces that go along the bottom edge of the dash? The pic in the microfiche don't show you how it should look with the pieces in place. The bottom right piece has a flare & curve on the left end and a notch on the right for the vent knob. The bottom left pice is long and narrow with several notches along the bottom edge for vent knob & hood release knob. thx

Those washers are used on the hatch cover. What I'm thinking of is a totally plastic part with a screw in it that draws up the shank like a molly bolt. No screw threads to cut into metal & rust.

The black face gauges came from aviation. They had a black matte finish to prevent reflections of bright light. Sports & racing cars adopted it for the same reasons.

I was seruiously thinking of replacing a few of the metal clips with some large rivets with the screw insert (like a molly bolt). The head is about 3cm in diameter, so I think it would work well on the lower corners/edge of the door panel, and maybe other places. Every time I get out I hook my toe on the lower front corner, and it gets loose. thx

Vicky, I was in Apollo Beach (off 41 about 4 miles N. of Ruskin) Last Weekend. I keep forgetting to give you a call! Probably because I don't have your number. :stupid:

You gotta remember the old-fashioned white-faced gauges also had the fancy pointer and lettering, not like the newer "ricey" stuff.

I put in some 7volt bulbs into the gauges. Now I run the instrument lights at 1/2 power.

In model powerboat racing engines, we open up the case and take off all the sharp corners. It does a workd of good in those little mills, that can spin up to 14,000 RPM- stock.

I found the same thing in a Mitchell's book at the library.

My fuel gauge only reads about 35 with the engine on. I should check the voltage at the fuel pump? Maybe clean out the pump strainer?

Dash caps are made of plastic, dude.

Yours must be stuck closed then, or something blocking the hose someplace. If you take the hose going to the throttle body boot off, the idle should go up. Otherwise, probably time for a new one. Check that you have power at the plug with the engine on.

You don't even have to do that. The engine should be idling high when you start it totally cold. After a few minutes the idle should come down. If it doesn't, squeeze the hose on the air valve ( on the throttle body side) with pliers( to stop the air flow), and the idle should come down. That means it's not closing.

I just put a full dash cap on my 280Z from Too Intense. It was more affordable than the MSA one, and IMO, looks better. I just painted it and the exposed parts on the old dash the same color, put it on, and held the top on with the defroster panel. It's on there loose, but doesn't rattle or fall off.

On the 280Z, You could probably re-use the plug shells, if you carefully removed all the pins, and got new ones, which I know you can do. I would prefer to get new wires with the same color codes as the old tho. Some of the plugs, like in the engine area, have the wires moulded in, so you would have to splice into the wire itself there.

"Pick-A-Part" is the generic term tfor a junkyard or auto salvage yard that primarily has or allows the customers remove their own parts. You can pick off your own hood or doors, or whatever. If you want the brake rotor, you need to remove the wheel, then the caliper & rotor. In that case, you might have to buy the entire brake caliper-rotor combination.

Could you post a pic or a drawing of how you cut the bracket? thx

Here's a pic of the Maxima bracket. You can see why the stub axles need to comw out.