Weasel73240Z

Where are you? It's nice to hear from another frustrated New Englander...

So just as I'm getting the itch to drive my Z, I got met with a snow squall today on the ride home from work. Not enough that they'll salt the roads or anything, just a little insight into life in New England, for all you lucky warm weather guys.

I can post a pic of mine when I get home at 3 PM. Its an original 73 console, and I think the work choke is written right on the light. I could be wrong, I'll check when I get home.

I don't know how much I'd invest in getting it running, although it would sell for more that way. Based just on what I can see, even running, I doubt it's worth more than $1,000. It looks like the body needs a lot of work, most of the chrome is bad, Weber carbs :sick: , the interiors bad, etc. And sitting in that field for years, I'm sure the floors (and probably the frame rails) are toast. Probably a $300 - $500 parts car if not running, and still under $1,000 running. Just my .02.

That's the first Z I've ever seen that I'd call grotesque. :sick: Well, to each his own. I wouldn't mind buying it cheap if its really pushing 300 Hp and putting the motor in a series 1.

I could probably use a generic hose, I was hoping to get the correct, cloth-braided one.

Hey guys....I'm trying to find the valve cover-to-air cleaner hose (part #11826-E4600) for my 73. I'm running ZTherapy SU's with a 1972 air cleaner, not the original tuna can flat tops that she came with. I've tried every source I know of, and everyone is NLA. I'd love to find a used one in good condition. If someone has a new one hanging around, that would be even better. I'll pay cash, or maybe I have something you need (original AM/FM stereo, Hitachi flat tops, smog pump, 3.36 differential, 4 speed tranny, 1973 hubcaps, etc.) for a trade. Let me know. Monday at 2 PM, Life begins again...the Red Sox season opener!

I'm going into my 2nd year driving my 240, and I have not passed (or seen) a single 70 - 78 Z car on the road yet. Occasionally a 280ZX and plenty of 300's and 350's. I know there are some, I'm a member of Z Car Club of New England (last count 30 members), but Z's sure are few and far between up here in snow country. Life in New England I guess. But it does make our Z's feel a lot more special.

You're right Johnny, I should stop trying to convert people to Mac users. If too many people come over, the hackers will start writing viruses and worms for Mac. I digress, Macs suck, don't anybody every buy one.

I'm running Mac OS 10.3 that come with it in 2006...never updated...never had a problem. And I use Macs at my office (I'm an engineer), VectorWorks (the Mac version of MiniCad) is an excellent drafting program. I also run Microsoft Word on my Mac OS. 5 years ago, there were software availability problems, but not anymore. Don't ask why I defend the Macs so much, I just love em.

I guess my only question would be...why? Do you not like a user-friendly OS? :classic:

When will you all break down, and buy a Mac? No viruses, they never break down, and they now run all of the Microsoft software. I have no anti-virus on my Mac, and I've never had a problem. And no, I don't work for Apple.:laugh: I just don't understand why people still use PC's, except that they are cheaper to buy then Macs. But once you factor in all of the down time, repairs, anti-virus software, etc., that you need to keep Windows-based machines running, is a PC really cheaper? :stupid: I paid $1,200 for a 20" iMac, and not a penny on it since. And the Confliker wasn't written for Mac's, so I have no worries about today. Just my .02.

Justin, I don't know what your carb setup is, I assume your running round top SU's. With that set-up, you probably don't need the electric pump, especially in Kansas. The electric pump was added to help with vapor lock, which is probably not an issue in cooler climates like your (or mine). I run the mechanical pump only with ZTherapy carbs, and it runs fine.

I tried searching, and it seems like nobody agrees on what is the correct vacuum source for the distributor advance. I search "vacuum source" and get about 20 posts, and 10 say 1 thing, and 10 say another. I'm running a 1979 E12-80 280ZX dizzy, with my stock L24. New ZTherapys carbs. Should I be connecting my vacuum advance to the small tap behind the front carburetor, or to the balance tube? My FSM is for a 73 240Z, so that isn't helping. Thanks.

Thanks everyone. It seems like the 60 Amp option is plenty of juice for my set-up.

The car is a 1973 240Z with E12-80 ignition from a 1979 280ZX and an MSD Blaster 2 coil, nice stereo/CD (no amp) but otherwise, pretty stock. I'm planning on doing an alternator upgrade, and eventually the headlight wiring upgrade. I don't plan on adding any more electronics to the car (except the headlight upgrade), so the demand its at now is about all it will ever have. My question, do you think I'd be good with the 60 Amp upgrade (MSA - $120) or do I need to spend the extra for the 120 Amp upgrade (Z Specialties- $225)? It almost seems like with my set-up the 120 Amp is overkill. But I also wonder if the 120 Amp set-up would throw a hotter spark with the MSD coil/E12-80 ignition, which may make it worth the money. Thanks.

I recently lost about 35 pounds in a year or so. I did it by staying our of the drive thru's, eating cereal at night instead of a regular meal, and running 2 - 3 miles, about 3 - 4 days a week. But, I also just turned 40, and I've always been an athlete. Unless you have 100+ pounds to lose, 30 pounds in 3 months is real aggressive. Also, in your plan, what do you "win". The wife gets to drive the Z? I don't even let my wife stand on the drivers side of my Z. If my wife offered me A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G to lose 30 pounds, the cute brunette from next door would be visiting us for a pillow fight!

Definitely sounds like one of the 2 caliper mounting bolts snapped off or backed out.

Looks like you might have nailed it Brian. I finally got a chance to put the rear end up and investigate some more this afternoon. The wheels spun OK, with a little "rub" on the shoes, but I still backed the emergency brake off a bit til there was no rub at all. However, when I removed the drums, I could see where the backer plates were clearly rubbing against the fins on the drum. It looks like I managed to bend the backer plates slightly when I had them out. I bent the backer plates back to straight, and the rubbing seems to have gone away. Of course, it SNOWED again in Massachusetts today , so no test run. I can spin the diff. easily with the drums off, no noise, no bind. I think it was just the backer plate, thankfully. I'll report back for sure when the latest snowfall goes away and I can try another shake down run. Thanks as usual for the help. BTW, I agree with the post last week that pointed out that the help we get on this site is worth something, so I got my screen name back "in the red".

The drums aren't new, but I did glassbead them to clean 'em up. It really does sound like a brake thing to me Brian. Since you had the same symptoms, I'll investigate a brake rub/backer plate issue first. I never got to work on it today because I'm finishing up a few Winter carpentry projects. I'll update when I take a look tomorrow.

I bought the diff from a local Z car guy, who I've bought stuff from before. The noise seems to be coming from the wheels, not the diff. Tight may have been an exaggeration, but there was no play or wobble in it. I have to put the car up on jacks today and diagnose some more.

A quick summary: This Winter, I installed a 4.11 R180, a 280 ZX 5 speed, new rear KYB's, new urethane bushing kit and refurbished (cleaned, painted) my rear control arms. The diff. was nice and tight when I installed it, no play. The u-joints are all original, but none of them had any slop at all. The driveshaft u-joints had no slop either. Everything from the tranny back came out of the car during the process, except the fuel tank. I didn't have any rear end noise with the original set-up. I know that I need to go back and re-torque the rear suspension bolts, because I had the car up in the air when I torqued them, and I now know that's no good. But I figured it would be OK for a 1/2 mile cruise down the road just to shake the dust off. Its 65 in MA today, so I took her out for a quick shake down, and I'm getting a really bad noise from both rear wheels. It almost sounds like the emergency brake is rubbing, but it's not, both wheels spin without resistance. I didn't replace (or re-pack) my rear wheels bearings, and I'm wondering if this is where I screwed up. It sounds a bit like it could be gear/bearing noise. I did need to use some heat to remove spindle pins, etc. I'm wondering if I overheated the bearings, or cooked away the bearing grease. The only real hint I can give, is when one side of the car is "unloaded" the noise seems to go away from that side. In other words, if I take a hard left, taking some load off the right rear side, the noise seems to go away from the right rear wheel. Any ideas?

Just some advice John...people on this board don't generally respond well to "txt lingo". I think most of us on here grew up before text messaging. Throw in some punctuation, an occasional period, and use real words, and you'll get better responses. This isn't directed at you John, since I don't know you, but I honestly think a lot of young people are fast becoming functionally-illiterate because of "txt speak".

That better be one hell of a big tax return! The scanner is 3K and the printer is 30K!!!! You'd have to make a lot of parts to get your loot back.

I'm sure you've heard this before, but get the "Just SU's" DVD from ZTherapy. And get a good timing light.