EvZ

Well, it's been a while. I bought a freshly rebuilt Master Vac and had it installed The old Master Vac was not actually broken, the vacuum was all there. I changed it because of the possibility of the reaction disk gone awol. It didn't change anything so far. Still the same problem. Now we are fiddling with the pushrods. Does anyone know, how much the pushrod has to be adjusted where it connects to the brake pedal in the resting (=brakes off) position?

Hi guys, I'm not really all that mechanically inclined, so I am going to wait for my trusted expert, who is currently on vacation, to come back. I think brakes are nothing to be messed with by an amateur. But since Z's are really rare in Germany, I am really lucky to have someone nearby for all these things. With the info I gathered here, I am going to have him check all these things. Then I will post the results. Number one focus, after switching front and rear circuits to the right positions, will be the adjustments of the pushrods and the proper placement of the reaction disc. In the process I will also have the proportioning valve checked. Would it be recommendable to get a freshly rebuilt master vac, in any case for safety reasons? I have a line on one right now without having to send in the old one, and the deposit hassle.

Cool! What a helpful post. Thanx! Markus

Hi all, I have a problem with my brakes. I have read lots of posts on the topic, and I wanted to get some reassurement, that I am on the right track. For the longest time, I thought my brake booster / Master Vac was toast. It seemed that when I stepped on the brakes, the first half of the brake pedal travel was normal, and the braking itself seemed normal. After about the halfway mark of pedal travel I reached a strong resistance, it felt like I floored the pedal. Strong braking needed a lot of effort all of a sudden. So I thought the brake booster was not doing its job anymore after this point. I checked various Z forums. I read that if a brake booster is defective, it does not do any boosting at all - either it works or it doesn't. After testing my booster with various methods I found here, I concluded, that the booster is actually ok. The check valve, which allows the vacuum to remain in the booster is also operating normally. The booster is providing power in the first half of brake pedal travel. The brake lines have all been properly bled and the brake fluid is new and clean. Ok what now? I checked the master cylinder (which is brand new btw, the whole car has been restored with mostly new parts before I bought it). It turns out, that someone reversed the front and the rear circuit on the M/C. I am assuming he had the wrong manual, my Z is from 1970, and he probably had a manual for a '72 and later, where the circuits and reservoirs were reversed on the M/C. So I have to get that done. But even changing the front to the rear (vice versa) circuit will probably not change the feel of the brake pedal, and the dead stop in pedal travel that I am encountering. Someone suggested, the problem may lie in the adjustment of the rod going through the booster which is attached to the brake pedal. It may now be set up, that the brake pedal travel is moving outside of the bandwidth where the booster supplies power assistance. Apart from switching the brake circuits back to normal, does this seem to be a reasonable solution to the problem? Anyone here have another solution? Is there anything I forgot? Am I on the right track? Cheers, Markus

Hi everyone, great to have a resource like this on the web. My name is Markus, I am a Canadian living in Germany. My first own car was a '72 240Z when I was still in high school in 1984 back in Vancouver / BC. It was actually a real piece of junk, it had been in an accident before I bought it, and the front left frame rail was not quite straight. I was warned, but it looked just too cool, so I ignored the good advice. And it went like hell, I used to rat race other guys with their Camaros and made them look bad. I just loved it. A couple of year later I sold it. And over the years, it has been the only car I owned, that I always wished I could own again one day, this time as a collectors item. I took part in a classic car rally here in Europe with my '74 Porsche Carrera, and there was some other guy with a 240Z. They are really rare in Europe, especially in Germany. So was was hooked again... I started looking for one, and I came across a fully restored Series I 240Z, including a complete engine rebuild. It was bare metal stripped and completely redone, now it looks like new out of the box, completely original. I even have the original hubcaps, the original radio, and a/c. It has an amazing documentation of the restoration with over 2000 pictures on DVD and a 3" thick folder. This car was in Hungary. The owner had brought it over from the States as a rust bucket, and did his thing. Then his stupid wife decided to leave him and to pay her out he had to sell it. The only good part is, he sold it to me. This was at the beginning of June. I am member in the German Z-ZX Club. (www.z-zx-club.de). I also collect old 911s. Any members in Vancouver or Victoria BC send me a post, as I am back in BC on a fairly regular basis. maybe we can meet up. Same goes for Germany, of course. Cheers, Markus