tlorber

I bought Meyle (sp?) ball joints from IMC. They were about 3/16" off.-The Germans and the Japanese never did quite see eye to eye. Rather than looking for other ones, I took about 1/16" off the ball joint itself (angle grinder) and the remaing 1/8" out of the control arm (die grinder). More work than I expected when I bought them, but really only cost me about 25 minutes per side. I think I paid around $12.00 for each ball joint.

Glad to see there will be another one on the road again....at some point.

I have some old western wheels, (similar 8 spoke pattern to the panasports) on my roadster. I masked off the aluminum lip w/ 2 layers of duct tape and had the spokes sandblasted ($35.00). I then sprayed the spokes with a Duplicoat Silver (they have many colors of silver including a few gunmetal variations-$8.00) and coated them with a 2 part clear coat ($28.00 with hardener). Total cost was less than $80.00. If I knew how, I'd post a pic.

They were pretty tight. In fact, I think I had to turn them inside out and sort of roll them over the rack. Kind of tough with all the grease I had applied.

Good to hear. Thanks again.

I bought mine at MSA. They have 2 kinds, the expensive ones and the "aftermarket" ones for around $39.00(which I bought). They fit fine and fasten on with zip ties.

I'm considering the exact same wheels, and size, though I'm not quite there yet. I read that the offset is +4 for these cars. The only distributor I've found for the Rotas is a guy in Northern California-I think he wanted around $590 shipped. I haven't priced out the Konigs yet. Please keep us posted.

Thanks for the input guys. I bought the sway bars as a kit from MSA with both bars together. They didn't seem very receptive to swapping anything out-I asked a few times since I was tired of waiting 2 months for delivery. Zsaint-that looks like the bar I have. I'll have to blow the pics up for detail. Did you have any interference issues? It looks like the bar sits slightly above the cross member that the diff sits on. By the way, that rear rotor conversion looks nice. Was there much adaptation required for that? Were you able to use the original master cylinder?

My car does have the brackets for the bar that later came on the 260's. However the MSA bar mounts differently. You have to drill holes through the floor and the bracket goes right under a transverse frame member (as described in their instructions). MSA said they prefer the support provided by the bracket location for their bar. As to whether the bar goes behind or in front of the mustache bar, I can't answer, which is why I'm looking for a picture.

Does anyone have a picture showing an installed MSA rear swaybar? I'm almost done recoating my suspension parts, and then I'll be ready for the bar. This is for a '73. My main questions are regarding front to back and up/down orientation. Thanks.

They also recommended a Fiat (Fix It Again Tony) Spider. Not sure sure I'm happy to be associated with that group.

When you drive out the inner bearings, make sure to alternate tapping/pounding around the circumfrence of the bearing race. Otherwise you will bind the race. Also, when you have replaced the wheel on the car, take it for a drive, doing some hard turning and then check the tightness of the hub on the spindle. When I replaced my fronts, I didn't drive the inner bearing race in deep enough. As I drove the car, they moved deeper into the hub (where they should have been) and created space between the castle nut and the outer bearing race. This is obviously a dangerous condition.

Has anyone here installed these? I'd be curious to know how they perform on a Z. http://www.v-performance.com/products/air_fuel.html Thanks.

Andrew, Just curious, but can you elaborate on the wheel falling off at 70mph?

As a side note, the guy I bought my electronic dizzy from was looking to sell a stroked out 3.1 short block (this was about a month ago). He had just rebuilt it and then decided on installing a skyline motor instead. I still have his number somewhere, so if anyone is interested let me know. It was up here in the L.A. area.

Well I did get this done. I'll have to go back and take a pic. It came out great-I left the bushings about 5 thousandths large and press fit them into the bracket with a C clamp and then "line honed" them with a 5/16" drill bit. It is extremely smooth, with zero play. I also modified the bar that turns the linkage on the balance tube. I welded a bead onto the round barstock, and then ground it square. It now fits snugly, with a larger contact surface, but still slides to allow for engine movement (quite ugly I might add since I'm not that great of a welder). I think that eliminating the play at these 2 points will make a huge difference in the feel of the throttle. I'm anxious to get the car out once I've completed the suspension bushing replacement. Thanks, again for the input here.

It HAS been around for quite some time. I have not seen it, but I'm not that far away. If you are really interested let me know and I can get over there.

If its the ones I'm thinking of, (the screws for adjusting the pitch of the headlights) I had to grind a new slot in the rusty heads with a dremmel, and use a standard head screwdriver to adjust them.

My driveway is about a 3% slope as is my street. All I know is that for both the Z and the roadster (which has the same carbs,) the idle changes when parked on the slope vs. when the cars are parked in the garage or on a flat surface. If you're asking whether a 1" or so difference in spring height over a roughly 90" wheelbase would make a difference (thats slightly over 1% grade) I can't say for sure. However, it's all relative. As long as the car is adjusted on level ground, which is probably where it will spend most of its running time, the height difference will be "cancelled out" so to speak.

Its also very important to have the car level when tuning the carbs. Incline and decline can effect idle rate.

Hillary Clinton has had one going for a while now!

What year is your car? I'm planning on upgrading to an internally regulated alternator to bypass the mechanical one on my '73.

Arne, Can you direct me to that past "RT-mount" thread? I was under the car this weekend looking at that rubber strap-that thing looks worthless since there is so much slack in it. If there is a means of providing more support, I guess now is the time to do it since I have the rear suspension apart.

Good to know. I have a similar problem-although my mount looks fairly new. Do you have any pictures of your solution?

Well, maybe someone trying to tell you something. If you can drive the car on private property, great, but it won't be worth it if you get caught (no reg, no insurance, and oh yeah, no license) on public streets. It could end up delaying when you are allowed to drive legally. Re the car, I'd try leaning out the carbs, and checking the float bowl settings. You don't want to wash out the rings. Also, if the car has been sitting it could be that the fuel float in the tank is sticking, providing a false reading that is too high? Do you know how much fuel from empty that you put in the tank?