Mikes Z car

I had one of those battery draining alarms on the Z I used to have, it went off if it sensed a voltage change from the dome light coming on when a door was opened. It had a timer so you had to turn the ignition on within 30 seconds or whatever the timer was set for after you got in the car otherwise it would go off. I set it off myself a few times taking too long to get the ignition on but it did prevent one theft. It never false alarmed.

I actually thought I had a bad valve due to intake/exhaust misfiring and it turned out the problem was my carbs were set too lean.

That is a good explanation, I will try that.

The carbs on the 240Z I used to have may have been out of adjustment since I didn't know how to adjust them. 3 in one might have worked fine if I had had the mixtures set right.

duffman, That is what it does, I don't get much resistance at first but after the damper goes a little ways in to the carb the resistance is there. When I had a 71 240Z back in the late 70s I didn't have the support of this web site and I used 3 in one oil for the dampers. I had to pull the choke every time to pull away from a stop to avoid a stall due to running lean because of damper oil that was too light weight. Over 30 years later I finally found out why.

The damper stalks drop relatively quickly into the top of the carb though the pistons resist being pulled up once the dampers are in place. Thanks on the drawing. I am a big fan of drawings.

I THINK I figured out what was really happening with my carb piston being too easy to push up, I am a little slow to connect the dots sometimes. The formerly leaky valve has some melting on the cap, it looks like a PO dropped it on the exhaust when the exhaust was hot. The melting caused a part of the plastic cap to dribble down below the flat face on the bottom of the stalk cap that is supposed to mate with the flat corresponding face on the very top of the carb and apparently is supposed to make a somewhat air tight seal. This protrusion prevented the stalk cap from screwing down completely to make an airtight seal with the top of the carb. I had noticed the protrusion but not its effect before but only broke off the protrusion this weekend as an afterthought not realizing that fixed the problem. I tried an experiment tonight and unscrewed the carb damper a few turns and sure enough the piston is easy to push up if there is no airtight seal. Sorry I ran everyone around and then found out about the melted cap! At least some good info came out of this troubleshooting I think. Mike Here is an improved drawing. It shows the 3 chamfered areas. They are slightly exaggerated to make them easier to see.

Bruce, Is there any info on the 3000hr barrier coat you mentioned? Was it tested with a salt spray or anything like that? Mike

If he gets $580 for that I will sell the one off of my car and drive with vise grips

I am really curious about what responses you might get to your question. I have used rust bullet (similar to POR 15) and then undercoated over it. I have also experimented with spraying transtar 4423 anti corrosion spray into crevices and then undercoating over that area with the idea that the transtar flows more freely and will flow into cracks better.

Captain Obvious, If the valve sticks open again I will take Blue's advice and replace it. I did have some backfiring through the carb as they were running lean until this last weekend but it didn't happen a lot. Your noticing the missing chamfer on the bump stop washer is a good observation! I realized that chamfer was missing shortly after I posted the drawing. Bruce, Cleaining the pistons and domes seems a great idea, thanks. My front carb piston had been sticking but I freed it by moving the dome as I tightened the screws. Probably need to verify I didn't bend the needle and look at repositioning the nozzle as you suggest. Thanks to everyone for the great information! Mike

Blue, Thanks. I took the leaky valve apart, wiped it off and put it back together like the other one was and now it works okay for some reason. Maybe some dirt got stuck in it. I will recheck it at a later time to make sure it is still working. Attached is a drawing of the valve as I was seeing the one I have.

Wow, Thank you Blue and Captain Obvious! Great info. I do have a micrometer, I will compare the diameters of the two dampers. I will also check how perpendicular the stalks are to the knob. I didn't look at them closely because I figured I didn't know what I was looking for. I am curious Captain Obvious, did you notice any performance issue with the stalk that was bent? The more difficult to push up piston will definitely dent my finger as I push it up. First time I tried it I thought it was stuck.

That may well be a good way of looking at it. I just didn't want it to confuse me by causing some other operating anomaly that later on would leave me scratching my head. My parents went to New Zealand a few times many years back. They really liked your country.

This seems rather off the wall to me but the two dampers on the SUs on my car are rather different in their resistance as I stick my finger in each carb and pull up on the piston. I had emptied the old oil from both carbs with my finger over the end of a drinking straw and then I put 30 wt in both dampers on the carbs (couldn't find 20 wt here). I was setting up the mixtures in the carbs VIA a 2003 beandip post and while getting good results (accidentally laid some rubber for the first time with this car today) I noticed that the one piston was much easier to pull up than the other. I swapped the dampers between the two carbs and the problem followed the dampers indicating the dampers are different. There is plenty of oil in both carb dampers as indicated by a smooth pull of the piston all the way to the top position. They seem to drop at the same speed. Is there a way to know which damper is right or in this case would it be better just to get two new ones? If they are different I would think the slower damper would cause that carb to be richer leading to an imbalance. Anyone seen this problem before? Thanks for any ideas. Mike

I don't know if this is a valid idea but I look at the green movement as a bad thing as currently being done but maybe it raises awareness of the environment to assist us in accepting something that will actually be worthwhile later on? What I am hoping for is to retrofit my 240Z with anti gravity and maybe with electric drive some day because I want to keep the car a long time. Anything that increases MPG I tend to like.

The PO of my car had it painted and it looks like they didn't use primer below the doors and below the rear bumper. The paint is stuck on good everywhere but those two locations. I didn't know that sort of thing ever happened to anyone else.

beermanpete, Thanks for the link.

Nice speedometer picture. Put the gas tank back in I took out in the spring to seal, no leaks. Thanks to all of you for making that easy with your posts. Drove the car today to get a fill up and the tank capacity totals to 15.6 including the 10 gallons I put in at the house. Doesn't include the drive to the gas station though (7 miles). Undercoated the area the tank normally conceals, painted tank exterior and straps with Rust Bullet and black shell. That was a fun drive to the gas station. First real drive since last year.

Neat idea! I wish someone sold these.

Looks great. Hopefully my picture wasn't confusing because it should be turned 90 degrees counterclockwise to be correct. I had cropped it and the upload process turns it sideways if the picture is too tall apparently. I didn't know that might happen.

Happy Birthday INST3D! This is what my 240Z (MFR 1/1970) looks like in the dogleg area.

Sounds great. Looks like fun too.

Nice drawing by the way. I asked if the panel was for a 280Z because my 240z has a couple of additional holes in that panel towards the left and down though at least one would be off screen in your picture. I don't know that the left/right panels are different I never thought to look. What is your goal with your drawing? I tend to put as much detail as I think I can do in my drawings but I don't know if it is always a good idea. Sometimes simpler is better for clarity but I like detail accuracy if I can stand to take the time to do it. Let your conscience be your guide.

That looks like the inner metal panel over the wheel well on the right side of the car, must be a 280Z?