Zed Head

The throwout bearing collar, which is what i think you mean by clutch sleeve, matches the pressure plate (aka clutch cover). It really has nothing to do with anything else. The reason is that different pressure plates can have the contact surfaces for the spring levers different distances from the flywheel surface. The collar height ensures that that the clutch fork will will sit at the right angle for the slave cylinder's range of motion. That's probably why many kits come with new collars even though they don't really get much wear. Forgot to say that the various liquid volumes needed is in either the Owners' Manual, the GI chapter, or the Tuneup chapter (maybe). Pretty sure it's in GI. You'll probably need a little less, because not all of it will drain out.

Leave the wheel on the ground, or on roll-on lifts when you do the work. Suspension loaded. The holes will all align without much work. The control arm will move back and forth pretty easily with the TC rod unattached. If you try to do the work with the wheel hanging that's when you'll run in to problems with load on the TC rod and hole alignment. The two sleeves are clamped between the washers, and the rubber sits between. The rubber is not really clamped like the other suspension rubber, so no need to install passengers and/or load the suspension before final torquing. Remove the old parts, stick a washer, the sleeve and some rubber on the end of the rod, slide it in to its hole, fiddle around with the two bolts at the link to get them to drop in, tighten the two bolts, then stick the rubber, the washer, the small washer, and the nut on the end of the rod. Torque it down and you're done. If your car is not lowered much you can do it all in the driveway.

This guy did some really nice work with an S52. I have no idea what the BMW variations are, or mean. rt260, BMW M Powered - S30 Series - 240z, 260z, 280z - HybridZ

Did you inhale some air through it?

Seems odd that the fuse blows when the engine warms up. Might just be coincidence. And you didn't say if the lights are on when the engine is warming up. You might leave everything on that would normally be on when the engine is running, except leave the engine dead. That will load the electrical circuit but take out any engine related functions. Although I can only think of one that might cause that. Maybe the floor temperature warning lamp, or its relay. If you have a catalytic converter. I assume that the gauge lights go out also? On my 76 they're on the same circuit as the tails.

I attributed "soul" to concern for the well-being of the people using the product. Honda did not appear to have that concern. My lumping of all big corporations in to one big soulless entity is probably too large of a generalization. But the tendency is still there, I believe. It's been noticed for centuries that "power corrupts", it's just one of those things that everyone needs to be aware of. I've copied a paragraph supporting my view of Honda as having no "soul" below. Sorry if I touched a nerve. It looks like you work for a big corporation that probably has its own issues. I've worked for several big companies and seen things that weren't right but had no means to do anything about it, besides getting fired if I made too much noise about it. All you can do is try to chip away at it while keeping your job. But justifying it as okay doesn't help. Here's the passage from the NYT article. Honda could have saved lives - "In each of the incidents, Honda settled confidential financial claims with people injured by the air bags, but the automaker did not issue a safety recall until late 2008, and then for only a small fraction — about 4,200 — of its vehicles eventually found to be equipped with the potentially explosive air bags. The delays by both Honda and Takata in alerting the public about the defect — and later in Takata’s acknowledging it extended beyond a small group of Honda vehicles — meant other automakers like BMW, Toyota and Nissan were not aware of possible defects in their own vehicles for years, putting off their recalls"

Sorry, but I don't see this going anywhere good or interesting. I'm still wondering what the "work for free" comment meant though. We all do bad things for money? You gotta do what you gotta do to survive? The ends justify the means? ???

I don't know a lot about what to look for in a restoration but the gap of the front wheels did catch my eye. Seems like the right wheel is further forward than the left, even though the wheels both seem to be pointed straight ahead. No pictures from underneath either. This would make me look closer on any car, even a cheap one.

Your snide comment set me off. Then I edited my post to avoid the pissing match. But obviously too late. You're taking a superior tone with not much to back it up. Doesn't make for productive conversations.

Never mind. Internet forums are a poor place to vent...

philbar73 might be thinking of the fan clutch. Which you would probably be using if you're going back to stock, since the stock fan won't work without it. You didn't mention any details about the car or engine, like year, stock engine, etc. I have a ZX motor in the garage with the third pulley. It is attached with 6 bolts to bosses in the second pulley. Nothing to press on to so I'm sure it would fall right off if I removed the six bolts.

The potentiometer would just provide the final path to ground. Each bulb's resistance stops a dead short from happening when the pot. is at zero resistance. So the theory that there's a short in one of your gauge bulb plugs or one of the other bulbs controlled by the pot. seems to fit. It would be a different kind of short, not to ground as usual, but across the intended load. The pot. just completes the circuit. It's odd though that you've had two potentiometers that are off-on instead of a gradual resistance. Hard to see how a short in the circuit before the pot. would cause that. Since you can remove the plug, a $3 Radio Shack potentiometer might show something. Maybe you got two bad potentiometers. You didn't mention year of car. I added a 1976 picture, but the early cars had some odd wiring schemes. Edit - may not change much, but the potentiometer may not actually go to zero resistance. The diagram shows a direct power feed to the pot. itself. So the final resistance in the circuit may be the pot. illumination light itself, if there is one. Or the diagram may be incorrect. Edit 2 - the electrical guys already knew this but the above (italics) is wrong thinking, That extra red circuit is just the ground for all of the other lights like the AC.heater controls and cigarette lighter. There are a lot of lights on that potentiometer. Any one of them could be the short.

The seller says sale fell through, so the $17,600 must have been over the reserve number. No new pictures though, still hiding the front end damage.

By manually you mean with a wrench on the damper bolt? I wouldn't trust those numbers, even on a freshly run engine. You'll get some leakage past the rings when things are moving that slowly. If you've adjusted lash on these engines you'll know the sound. But beyond that, 11 years of not running will almost certainly allow some rust in the cylinders and valve seating surfaces. Might be worthwhile to mount the transmission and starter and give it a good spinning with the plugs out, then re-test. I don't think that your results are very informative. Do you know anything about the engine? 200 psi+ is well over the pressure you would see on a stock engine. The 5 and 6 numbers are strange.

You could try new bulbs. Filaments wear and light output drops over time of usage. I saw a noticeable difference when I installed new stock headlights.

From the Portland Oregon area. Actually east toward Mt. Hood. Doesn't look bad, supposedly dry inside and it runs. Rims alone might be worth the price. A fairly cheap project car. 1978 280z Datsun

Find some old open diffs and take their shims. You might also try to cross-reference the parts to other brands and models. For example, truck diffs might be plentiful. Of course, luck will be required to get those numbers.

Things expand when they get warm. Gaps can open up. That's all. The current flowing through the wire and fuse caused the parts to heat up, the gap opened, the current stopped, the engine died. Then he would he sit beside the road and wait, the gap would close, the current could flow again, and he'd start the engine and drive on.

I would take a look at the relays involved. They're mechanical and do get stuck or sticky. Actually, I would just trace out the whole circuit that feeds the ignition system and the EFI system and examine each component and connection. I know someone that had a fuse in the trunk that would overheat while driving, opening the circuit at the connection points and killing everything, but leaving the fuse intact. After cooling, back to normal. It was a BMW though, so not directly applicable.

You can build a bump starter with a piece of wire and a single female connector of the same size as the terminal on the starter solenoid. The wire just needs to be long enough to reach from the solenoid to the battery positive post. Two feet is about right. OR, even more primitive - a screwdriver to bridge the gap between the end of the positive cable and the solenoid terminal.

If it's a manual transmission you can put it in to high gear and move the car by pushing on a tire to turn the engine. That will get you close. Then twist the distributor shaft mechanical advance mechanism to get on the lobe.

I'm guessing that there's a stud under that rubber. Maybe someone missed a step during manufacturing and didn't clean up the leakage. Or somebody forgot to put the bolt in but poured the rubber anyway. The two holes are probably for the big ugly vibration damper that Nissan added to later Z's.

Timing could be a factor but it would most likely be a consistent problem. Does the no-start happen randomly, whether the engine is cold or hot, or is it only when hot?

Oops, I missed the fact that Test 6 asks the same thing. What they want you to do is to ground the center wire of the coil, the big one that's the same size as a plug wire, to the block so that the current from the coil has somewhere to go. So that you can crank the engine over without the engine starting. So pop the wire out of the distributor cap. leave it connected to the coil, and place or clamp the metal end against a solid piece of metal on the engine block. Just make sure that it's solidly placed, if it gets loose it can spark to things that shouldn't get spark. And if it's too far away to spark, the electrical pulse can do other damage if it has no way to discharge. As I understand things. The spark from that wire will be a big one.

The test connections are at the connector/plug ("receptacle" = receiver) so your second tests were correct, and results look good. I would do Test #6, since that measures voltage during starting. Your starter could be drawing too many volts or your battery could be weak. I would also do something similar Test #9, since the module grounds through the distributor body, except Iwould just measure resistance to ground. The ground is the other important part, that allows current flow. You can have correct voltage but low current and have problems. Measure resistance from the distributor body to the engine block. I don't know why they test voltage drop with the coil discharging. It seems like a good way to make a mistake and damage the module. Check the ground first.