Mikes Z car

I love that repair, nice looking and creative!

That is good because I don't have any badges! My previous 240Z had a lot of exhaust smell in the car and it had the badges behind the small window and the two vents on the hatch, it was an 8/71. Whenever I would start it up it would really stink up the area. Once I fired it up and a poor nearby pedestrian started waving their hands around to dispel the stench, I kid you not. I still feel bad for the guy but laugh anyway when I think of it. The 240Z I have now is a 1970 and has no badges behind the small window and none on the hatch as they were filled in too. I don't usually smell the exhaust in this car but that makes no sense to me except that I don't get the stench with this one upon starting up. Does it make any sense that some cars have much smellier exhaust than others? Maybe beano would help.

A PO of my car removed those vents and filled them in, they haven't caused a problem as far as I can tell.

I could use the rubber seals for the air cleaner, tried stick on weather seal but that came loose. Looked at duplicating door rubber parts using rubber compounds that are dual part like epoxy. Saw on the net how to do make your own mold. eBay sells the dual part rubber or whatever it is called.

Ha Ha Blue that is hilarious. Here is a similar poster from the X Files that was behind Mulder's desk: Ace hardware here doesn't have half sizes such as 3.5 mm screws, off to another store they say does have them.

Thanks Geezer, I wonder if the M3.5 X 16 would be easier on the plastic? I will try that size in place of the wood screws and see how they fit. Mike

Thanks I was hoping the picture would help. My door sills came from a JY, I don't think I have the right screws on the sills, they look okay to me though. When the aliens get there give them milk and cookies and they will stop swiping stuff.

FWIW here are the screws used now on my clamshell that work. The 4 screws that are all the same size may well be a #6 size I don't know. Sorry for the blurry photo Captain Obvious, if you want close up pictures of the 6 screws let me know. how to verify.

My clamshell has a sense of humor and likes to hide the screws in the lower clamshell half, are they stuck there? I am willing to take a picture of the screws that came out of mine (they have wood screw threads -edit they look like self tapping) since I have the clamshell apart but although they work I don't know that they are the ones that are supposed to be there. They are taped to the clamshell right next to each hole they came out of outside in the 17 degrees that we have here now as I have the clamshell apart. Plastic usually uses wood screw threads right? My screws are trying to strip out too and I went to a lot of trouble with glue and a heat gun (to correct warping maybe from heat?) to salvage the clamshell I have. A coupe of posts the screws screw into were broken off. Captain Obvious with your part making skills I imagine you will have a whole box of those screws manufactured by morning using nothing more than a bench grinder. heh heh

Complete with a water rescue. I wonder how long it took to set that up. Nice in car video.

TomoHawk, The PO of my car put in a 40A cartridge fuse to replace the fusible link. I plan to replace the fuse with a 16 Ga fusible link as I understand that was the original fusible link gauge on a 70 240Z. The wire I got has printed on it 16 Ga fusible however I remember seeing a thread on fusible links where ratings were by color. That never made sense to me. Someone mentioned a harness engineer determines what size link is needed, but why use colors instead of gauge? Maybe to prevent someone from substituting ordinary 16 Ga wire for a 16 Ga fusible link thereby ignoring the safety feature fusible links are supposed to have where they don't throw molten metal around when they burn out because of special hi temperature insulation? Blue, slow blow fuses probably burn faster than a fusible link?

We have had a mild winter in Idaho too though most aren't too bad anyway. They spray the roads here with sand and a liquid of some kind, I don't know what it is though I understand some liquids are corrosive to some degree. I don't see rusted out cars here and my DD for 11 years here shows no sign of rust. I don't drive the Z in the winter though. I have the turn signal switch in the house now to clean the contacts for winter work.

The picture was already there. Oh well.

This is a nearly 2 year old thread but I was just taking pictures of this area of my car a few weeks ago to assist in figuring out where to place relays for a turn signal relay upgrade and remembered seeing the parking light relay in one of the pictures. Thought I would post where I put the parking light relay on my car. Mike Parking light relay location:

I love drawings and have thought for a long time there should be 3D drawings of the Z car in Autocad. It is a lot of fun for me to see the results you, motorman7 and you, INST3D are getting! This is one of those things I get excited about. Mike

E, Thanks for the idea on the foam pushing against the chrome. That might be what filled in the gap that I wound up with. Below are pictures of what I did but the gap at the bottom after installation bothered me a bit so I figured there was more to how the foam went in than what I had guessed. I would enjoy seeing a picture of the vent you have if you still want to post it. Chris, I hadn't thought of the bellows as being springy because they are so stiff now that it hadn't occurred to me. With your search idea I did find a heater box overhaul thread (listed below) I don't know if that is the one you had in mind, it is a good one. Jim, Thanks for the idea of protective wrapping, that opens up some possibilities for materials to use especially if I end up refreshing moving parts of the duct system. Mike Gap visible (need more foam tape?), foam tape is not sticking out far enough and is offset: What I did that wound up leaving a gap (foam tape spray painted black later to hide better): Foam tape I used (I glued in with glue gun glue to make it stick better): Typing in heater for the search (instead of duct like I did) yielded other threads on this in case someone else finds this thread and wants more info: Heater box overhaul: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/thread23409.html More info: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/thread46605.html

Hi all, How do the two middle vent parts I have marked on the drawing seal against each other? The drawing is from a 71 FSM and my car is a 70 but I imagine they would be the same on this. I noticed a black powdery substance in that middle vent underneath the vent part that rotates. Is that the remnants of a seal that used to be there? The part on the right is a flat piece of metal riveted to the part immediately next to it further on the right. Thanks

Thought I would add the emissions decal on the underside of the 1973 hood that is on my 1970 car. I don't know the VIN that was on the donor car as the hood was installed by the PO.

INST3D, If I am interpreting your question correctly that turn does not exist on the bottom as the driveshaft tunnel just continues back and gets smaller. You can see the continuation of the tunnel in my car looking down into the stowage area. I can't get better pictures from the bottom as my car's driveshaft/ exhaust are in the car at this time. Maybe someone else has a close up of the bottom area? Mike

You may want better pictures from different angles. Some of these aren't as clear as I would think you might want. Best I can find now. Apologies to whoever took these pictures, I don't remember where I got them.

I remember a little more now, I THINK I read Cadillac was using zener diodes in the alternator. Not sure how they would do that, though that would be charging with more of a square wave rather than a series of brief pulses I would think. Pulses may be better? Captain Obvious, I will keep an open mind on the subject of unusual ways to charge batteries, not ready to give up yet. Mike

INST3D, I remember seeing pictures of Z cars, 240, 260 and probably 280 that were taken when the cars were on a rotisserie with everything stripped off. The best ones I think for doing drawings were painted (or coated) all one color. I just looked on the web searching for "240Z rotisserie" to see if I could find a picture like that but no luck. I am still looking in my own Z car picture collection though I am sure I have one just can't find it. Somewhere there is a picture that will help you.

hls30.com, From reading that web site a fascinating aspect of the battery charger you are using is that it does pulse charging (these kinds of things fascinate me). I remember reading some years back that Cadillac was using pulse chargers in their cars though I never saw that independently documented and never heard it again. I also read that pulse charging is supposed to be able to reverse some of the sulfation in a battery (seems to be what you are experiencing?) thereby bringing it at least partially back to life something I understand an ordinary DC type of charger or alternator can not do. Mike

I have one called "Battery Tender" sold by O'Reilly's that has worked for a few years. The other charger I had kept overcharging which caused the electrolyte level to fall below the top of the plates which caused a permanently dead battery (sulfation).

I am curious with no answers, do you have points or something like a pertronix ignition?