260zCaliCar

I have an L26 with SU carbs and the water outlet I think your referring to has been blocked off, here is a picture. Hope this helps. If not, let me know where your looking and I'll try and grab a pic for you.

My diagnostic skill is nothing like everyone elses, but if I were to guess (without listening to the video) I would venture that your over heating and the fan clutch is kicking in. Someone may want to make a better suggestion, but that's my guess. FWIW

Hi Sandy, Your welcome to the guy I used. He did a very good job (paint and chrome), but cost vs time is the way to work with him. (the more time you give him, the better the quality, and the lower the cost). I'm sure he will remember my Z, if you go in to talk to him, tell him that you were referred by "Mike" with the red Z that he worked on for months (like I said, time vs quality vs cost). It is Deluxe Auto Body 21417 Ingomar St Canoga Park, CA. Phone: 818-703-9363. I attached a pict of what it looked like the day I picked it up... We replaced the door rubber which is why it is sticking out a little bit (it's perfect now that it has settled in). If you want more information, feel free to PM me.

Your efforts came out so perfectly that it doesn't look real! Without question you've raised the bar to the top. Hat's off to you.

Your right, and the use of poor English is an issue that has been brought up many times in the past, Moonpup, with all due respect, even you piped in on the subject: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28447 Arne, our moderator has also commented on this topic: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33812 Arne said "....they can't help or get help from posts which contain slang, txt, poor spelling or lack of punctuation. It really helps these non-English speakers when we try hard to use complete sentences, good spelling and proper grammar. Just courtesy, IMO." I agree with Arne, good spelling and proper grammar is "Just courtesy" If Richard1 wants to comment on things in the future, he too should use common courtesy. Do you disagree? Look, I've obviously stepped deeper into this one then I ever should have. At the end of the day, I really enjoy coming online and reading the posts, learning about Z's, and sharing common experiences. I guess I reacted when I saw someone personally offend an innocent, valued, "online forum friend". I'm not getting any deeper on this one, if you'd like to reply, I'll look forward to reading it later tonight, but I won't be responding back. Now, it's time to try and make a little money.

I understand allowing people to be upset and sharing their bad experience. I understand the need to blow off steam. I understand people wanting to warn others not to take the same path that they took. The above quote resulted in this: The relevant component of the site rules are as follows: “..... moderators of Classic Zcar Club will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum.....” Richard1's comments have been found objectionable by multiple people on this site... Sounds like perfect grounds to kill the thread.

I agree, kill the thread, it serves no value. I would also seriously consider whether or not Richard1 is an asset to our community. "Bon Voyage" Richard1. One more thing Richard1, learn how to spell before you join your next group.

When my fuel pump became "extra loud", I started getting vapor lock with similar symptoms to yours. Replaced the fuel pump, never happened again. FWIW Mike

I'll be interested to hear about the brown one with the giant dice hanging from the mirror. It's the one that I noticed on craigslist.

Good luck Neighbor! I took a look at the ad on craigslist. Looks like a nice car, and appears to have lived it's whole life in California (You can tell by the license plate). Find out if it's the original paint, if not, you should take a magnet with you to look for repairs (magnet won't stick to bondo). Also, like everyone else said... look everywhere for rust and/or rust bubbles in the paint... remember to look under the battery (even my california car which I bought in 1979 rusted under the battery).

Sorry to bring back a semi-old thread, but this question works well here. I am wondering what the interior diameter of the master vac hoses are. Mine are really starting to crack and I don't want to remove them until I have a reasonably good replacement. I simply cannot find them anywhere. Thanks!

What specifically is blowing, the fusible link or the 30/20 amp fuse, or both? I can't really tell from the posts above. FYI, according to this site: http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/fusiblelinks/index.html Fusible links are more like 40, 50 and 80 amps, so if that's blowing then lowering the "popping point" of your fuse from 30 to 20 amps would have no chance of working. What you learned from this little experiment is that your fuse has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the fusible link is blowing. Which fusible link is blowing, the black one? That one is for the alternator/ignition relay. I would stop focusing on the fusebox and start tracing the wires again from the fusible link through to the ignition and the alternator. I have a feeling your going to find a problem somewhere in that path. What's interesting to me is this comment you made: bad coil ballast and a half broken igntion relay (ground was ripped off the casing). Are you absolutely sure you fixed the ignition relay correctly? If you didn't, that may very well be where you're shorting out.

Humm, let us know how that goes. I'll be interested to know if lowering a 30 amp fuse to a 20 amp fuse solves the problem. Should be a valuable educational exercise. Also, you may want to give things a try after each fix so you know exactly which fix actually solved the problem.

If you go to the main screen of ebay and find the search field, to the right there is a link called "advanced search", click that. When you get to the advanced search screen on the left side it says "items" in grey, below that it says "By seller", click that. Type 'the-z-connexion" into the sellers user ID field, then click search. That should work. Let me know! I bought things from him in the past, he is a good guy.

Will... That gas cap you found cracked me up. To search ebay, I set up (and saved) an advanced search which specifically removes him from the results so I never see this stuff. I still can't believe it!

LA county is a really large area, you may want to give a little more detail about where in LA county you are. Ditto on a description of the problems your having. If nobody has ever messed with your electrical system you may have nothing more that bad grounding and or corroded/bad fuses.

Wow, if I ever need to replace my head gasket, I won't ask you for step by step dis-assembly instructions Oh, re-assembly is simply the dis-assembly instructions in reverse. Good luck to you, when you get this back together I suspect your going to have an incredible Z. Keep the pictures coming!

Well, just to keep perspective, I placed my order with him last August (10 months ago), he finally emailed me in January (6 months ago) to tell me that he was just not going to come through with what I ordered... but would send me a choke cable that I really didn't need. I told him that would be great and thanked him (figuring that something was better than nothing). Sorry to say that something would still be better than nothing, and at this point I know what "nothing" feels like. Regarding the "work out of their home" thing, I've been working out of my home for 18 years, I now own 4 apartment buildings in Los Angeles without mortgages. His phone works fine, and his email works fine. He told me he had the choke cable in his hand, there was no supply problem. His decision not to send it had nothing to do with working from home, it was a poor business decision. I've said it before, I like the guy, I sincerely hope he's ok and the fact that you got your parts back leads me to think that he is. He let me down, he's let others down. Until he reappears and makes things right, which I am totally open to him doing, he will remain on "the other short list". You should write him, thank him for his efforts on your behalf, then tell him that he needs to make it right with a couple of his customers as he is getting a bad rap. See if he asks you who... And then we all can see what he does with the info. As far as I am concerned he can just send a check to this club on my behalf for the amount I paid him and we can all call it a day. I would consider that a more than acceptable solution. Don't worry everyone, this is my last post about Zeddsaver, I promise

That's to bad, I'll keep a good thought for his health and safety, but I don't think that I will ever be able to use him again. I hope the couple hundred dollars he has of mine take him far in his life.

RXsleeper, I think you hit the nail on the head. Your term "tramlining" did it. I googled the word and sure enough, it's a combination of tires and/or alignment. Given that both misturmoneybags and I live in Los Angeles, I found this comment on an Infinity board funny: "The worst case I ever had was while living in LA - the tires I had installed had their tread grooves at EXACTLY the same width as the rain grooves that SoCal DOT placed in on the freeways. My car would track on those and my car would swerve back and forth in the lane. I got stopped for suspected DUI within a day. I took them back and replaced them with a different brand of tire." Alignment was at the top of the list of other items that cause this. I suspect the reason I didn't see bushings as a potential source on the other boards is our cars are old enough for bushings to be a potential problem. Personally, since my bushings only have a few thousand miles on them, and my tires are brand new... It's alignment time. I'll let you know what happens.

We seem to have a common thread here. My specific symptom with these new tires is that the z wants to exaggerate my steering, as if it grabs the "rain grooves" in the freeway, then suddenly breaks loose of the groove. This didn't exist with my old tires, and now it does. I haven't tried putting the fronts on the back and vise-versa, but it's certainly an interesting idea. Just out of curiosity, if you take the car out on a regular street (not the freeway), do you still have to battle the steering? My steering issues are much less on streets (I had assumed it was because there are no grooves in the streets) Misturmoneybags, you would be doing a huge favor if you let us know the outcome of your visit to the mechanic.

Thanks Carl, you confirmed my first thought which was wheels/tires. When I got my classic car insurance and they limited my driving to 3000 miles a year I went out and bought cheap new tires. Immediately the car seemed to have a mind of its own (like he says, wobbly and twitchy). When the guy mentioned that he just bought the car, the thought ran through my mind that the PO put new tires to make the car easier to sell. Misturmoneybags never answered my first question so I never posted this logical jump (my other initial thought was tires out of balance which is why I asked for further clarification of the symptoms), but it would be interesting to know if his Z has new tires, and if so, what.

do you mean the front wheels bounce (as though they are out of balance), or does it feel like it wants to turn and you need to keep pulling it back?

The fuse may work, but it's connection to the car can still be bad if the contacts are corroded. All I can tell you is that I know from experience, and many others on this site share my experience... Just because a fuse tests ok, doesn't mean that its closing the circuit in your z... But I can only give you my 2 cents worth. If someone else as a simple test to determine why the headlights don't work without starting with the fuse, I'm all eyes. Every electrical problem in my Z was traced back to fuses that tested ok but the contact was corroded. Every single one. I just reread your initial post. If by flashers you mean turn signals, and your sure all your fuses are okay, Then it furthers my idea that it might be the combo switches in your steering column since the hazard lights come before the turn signals in the circuit. Take the clam shell off your steering column and see if anything looks funny. Unplug the combo switches and see if you have power at the connector. Honestly, I don't have many more suggestions since all my experience is based on experience and generally all my electrical problems have been fuse related (or bad bulbs). Just out of curiosity, (and please don't take offense to this question...) how do you know the positive terminal on your battery touched the body of your car "while you were driving"? My followup question is how could that happen, is your battery not bolted down?

The flasher fuse is the third fuse from the left, bottom row. The right headlight is the far left fuse, bottom row. The left headlight is the fuse between the flasher and the right headlight. they are different circuits. The instrument harness is controlled by the third fuse from the right on the bottom row. It also is on a different circuit. So... I would have to guess that if all these items have failed, you have more than one bad fuse... OR and this has happened to me many times... The other fuses and/or holders are corroded and your getting a very poor connection. When you replace the fuse you think is bad, it "wiggles" the other fuses and you get a temporary connection. First thing tomorrow morning, go to the auto parts store and buy all new fuses. you need 9 10amp fuses and 5 20amp fuses. Replace all of them one at a time. Each time you take one out, clean the terminals (I would disconnect the battery before you do this). Once you have them all done, see if the headlights work with the key off. If so, remove the flasher fuse (since you think that's the problem area) and turn the key to the point where it normally blows the fuse (I wouldn't try starting the car yet). Do the gauges work? Do the headlights still work? If yes, start the car... Does everything still work (remember the flasher fuse is still out)? For me, this would complete the first round of troubleshooting. After this, I would remove the fuses for the headlights and gauges and replace the flasher fuse. Does it blow? If not... Then I would turn off the car and replace the removed fuses one at a time (turning the car off between each fuse installation) until it blows. This is probably enough troubleshooting to get a better picture. As I said. There are many more people on this site that are better at this then me, and I will definitely not be offended if someone wants to say this is a dumb approach. But if I were in your shoes, I think I would attempt to isolate the circuit so I know which wires to start tracing. As a totally blind initial guess, I might consider something in the steering column since it's certainly a place where the lights and the flashers share space. But that's a guess with very little information, and no formal skills on my part other than what I have picked up playing with my own electrical gremlins. Good luck, let us know what happens. Oh, if someone else suggests something take their advice first... Good luck