Pomorza

Hey guys. My ball joints on the Z are, well to put it nicely, dead and I require new ones. I found ones at autozone that run for ~$40 a piece. Has anyone ever used these? Jan

Sorry guys for not being up to date. I took the car into the shop the other day to get it looked at (and get the rim fixed). According to the mechanic, other than rearranging my alignment I didn't do much damage. The ball joint(s) are in really bad shape so I need to replace those before anything really goes on. The rim was about 80% fixed as apparently it is made out of a rather hard alloy that the machinist had a hard time bending back. Jan

Wow this thread made my night. Wow Jan

Sorry I didn't know the technical name of them. Yes rivets that would make sense Jan

Said clips Jan

Hello all Over the past couple of months I've been investigating exactly how well the rear section of my car is sealed. This past week I discovered, by accident mind you, that the tail light gaskets were no longer really doing much of a sealing job. This weekend I finally had time to actually take the lights out and see how bad the situation was. Well, the gaskets, which I'm assuming back in the 70's were rubber, were hard as a rock. They didn't come off as much as fall off. Taking the light out of the rear of the car most of the gasket material fell to the ground. I replaced the gaskets with new gaskets I had picked up from MSA the week before. The whole process went rather peacefully other than the nearly everyone of the plastic clips broke. Which begs the question, does anyone know where one can procure such clips. Literally all but two of the ones holding the rear of the car one broke. Thanks Jan P.S Pictures 1. is the driver's side with new gasket 2. Older gasket from passenger's side 3. Completed Z

Bit off topic here. I've had this same issue earlier when I bought my Z. The previous owner decided that rich was just not rich enough, and had it set so rich that it barely idled at anything lower than a 1k. When I went to pass emissions I failed with CO levels in the 2k range. Secondly, that ticking noise is the injectors. I have the same noise (it drives me nuts) when the car gets warm after driving on the freeway. I've cleaned and cleaned them with everything under the sun (other than take them off) and nothing seems to help. Jan

I will check again. That tie rod is rather loose to begin with as it is in need of replacement so that maybe what your seeing. Jan

I'm going to check the rack here in a few days when I'm disassembling the suspension. I think I have to take most of it off to get the new bushings on it. (I got carried away and bought every possible suspension bushing on the car). I'm just hoping I can get that rim fixed. It's not even a year since I put those on there. Jan

Here are some pictures of the damage done. The rim is I think the worse of it as the lip is nicely bent inwards. I don't see anything bent or out of wack, the only noticeable difference between once side and the other is that the driver's side tire is pointed outwards a bit by that I mean the front section of the tire is pointing a bit more outwards than the rear. I'm redoing the entire suspension in the near future and replacing all the struts, springs and bushings so I'm going to have everything apart pretty soon. I will though take it to my alignment shop (which happens to be my local mechanic) and see what they're opinion is. I don't need to download the copy SteveJ as I actually have a physical copy of both the FSM the Haynes manual and the original owners manual. Jan P.S What is TC? I'm very bad at these acronyms

Ah I see. The lowers look in good shape at least at this point. I have noticed that I bent the lip of my rims in one area. Jan

What is LCA? Jan

Hello all I was forced to drive onto a median earlier this evening. Median is like the little concrete divider. I hit and drove onto it at roughly 35-40mph. The steering wheel is now pointing a bit to the right when the car is going in a straight line. I'm thinking I just messed the hell out of my alignment (as I hit the front left wheel) but what are the chances I did any real damage? I spent a good 30-45 minutes inspecting everything I could with a flashlight. It all looks like it should but its dark and rather difficult to see. Sorry this is rather vague and out of left field but I'm a bit worried I might of broken/bent something important, like the rack or something. Thanks all Jan

Yup that's the next step. Just need to find the time (and $$) to do it. Jan

Fixed. Pictures included. Jan

I'm not positive if were talking about the same thing here, but I have a fuel pressure gauge mounted on my Z right past the fuel filter. I just went to the local race shop and picked up a standard FP gauge. It does the job just fine for me. I do have a suggestion though as I've met someone that had a similar issue. When your first start your car and it runs like car, pull on the harness going to the computer (and by pull I mean GENTLY TUG). A friend of mine had an issue where the solders on the inside of the computer (the FI one that is) were loose causing the thing to loose connection with the rest of the car. I would personally start with the basics. Make sure your have enough fuel in the car and that your AFM and TPS are set correctly. Also check all the connections and connection points to see that they are on tight and aren't covered in crude. Remember these cars are 30+ years old. Even the best wires and connectors will have issues. Jan

Bit of an update. I pulled the carpet off the floor the other day. Found that I had a massive surface rust issue on the floor board. Before heading of to get a heat gun (or ice) i started chipping away at the tar mat. Came off like paper. Didn't even have to force it at all. I sanded it all down and found that most of it except for one area was just surface rust. The seam between where the floor pan meets the fire wall (there a bit of a dip there) has straight through rust (:mad:). Going to meet with the metal guy pretty soon. Should be an interesting day. Jan

I'm going to agree with fastwoman here. You have fuel leaking out of something or back into your tank. I installed a fuel pressure gauge after it started doing this as I suspected I was loosing pressure. Long and behold, when I turn the car off for a long period of time the pressure drops to ~0. I would first check the injectors, and cold start valve. For what I remember the check valve in 280z's is in the actual pump (of course) which means a new pump may be the way to go if that's what it turns out to be. Jan

Hey guys. First off. Can this update be made on 280s. As have all the parts needed but the motor doesn't seem to fit. Is this a 240z exclusive upgrade? My old motor no longer works so I though this could be done? The problem I seem to be having is that the cage for the new motor is too big for the opening in the vent. (cage=fan thingy). Its about an a quarter inch wider on each side. Any help would be great. Jan

From all the material I've read on engines in the past five months, the consensus in most of them is that you should not use synthetic oils in a new engine until it hits 5000-6000 miles. I don't know if anyone asked this but what color is the smoke? Jan

Did you use just some spare sheet metal or did you actually buy a floor pan and cut it. If you did use metal what gauge is it? Jan

I'm saying this just for arguments sake. Power and displacement are never truly linear. Why this may look like it is, it has to do more with the amount of air and fuel being pushed into the "bigger" parts then the size of the actual bore. Example. I have an L28. If I was to stroke that out but leave everything else stock (cylinder head and fuel curve) I find it highly unlikely that I would get nearly as much power if I did what Z train did and added a better cam (which I assume would increase air influx) changed the fuel curve (in his case a better carb) and increased out flow (header). We can argue about this day and night but what he says is true. If your going to update your motor you UPDATE your motor not just the block. That is pointless and a waste of time and money. As you guys pointed out earlier a motor build is purely personal. If find having more than 250 hp in a Z unnecessary as they have plenty of it stock. But then again I know a friend of mine that had a 1000hp blown V8 his car. Its all preference. Jan

This was what it looked liked when I bought the car. Back then it was still sturdy enough to hold the water away. Now the middle of the rust is pretty much non existent and water just pours straight in. Jan

Well it finally happened. To make a long story short, when I bought my Z I was informed that it was rust free. Well come to find that was not exactly true. (go figure). Under my battery tray, I'm guessing right at the top of the floor board there was a large chunk of rust. It wasn't bad at first, well it is now. Today in Tucson we had a bit of a downpour. Making my way to school I sadly had to drive the Z through a rather length ankle deep puddle. (by long I mean oh, a eight of a mile or so). Well when I got to school I checked my floor board for moisture. Well come to find, tada its wet. (Oh no:disappoin). When I arrived home I went straight for the rust spot. And come to find, I felt the bottom part of the carpet through a nickle or so sized hole. So two questions. What is the best line of action here? I'm meeting with friends tomorrow to get their opinion on the situation but I would like your guys too. Should I replace the whole dam floorboard or should I just patch the hole that is there? Which is easier? I personally can't weld at all (never done it) but I know people who know people... Thanks Jan

Bit of an update here from my end. My old motor in my 280z decided that it would quit working the other day. I pulled it out and found that it had basically frozen. I got it working again but it barely moves any air. So I proceeded to my local parts store and asked for a blower motor out of an 89 Civic. $39.57 later I was home ready to work. To my dismay (and idiocy as its written in the review above) I forgot that these motors don't come with the plastic fan thingy. Well I zoomed off to the local pull-a-part yard and found (surprise) a 91' Honda civic with the SAME (literally the same one) motor. But before I could even get to work on said motor the yard man advise me that the yard was closing. (rats) I did though test both motors when they were out of the box. It seems that the Honda motor has a greater pushing force then the old OE one I have. It could be because the OE one is from 76'. Jan