Ben's Z

I am going to media blast in a blast cabinet all my suspension parts. My half shaft u joints seem to be in fine condition; would it harm the u joints to put them in the blast cabinet as well to blast the half shafts for paint?

Well I got both spindle pins out, second one pretty much destroyed my puller tool I bought. Those bastards are really in there.

Found some more I took. 30+ years of dirt, grime and rust.

Well, I went to Ripley's Muffler & Brake today to take some preliminary pictures of my chassis before tear down begins. I bought a spindle pin puller for $40, I think I am set to go. I plan on coming to my first Houston Z Club meeting on Tuesday, and by that point the car will probably be on cinder blocks. Here is a rundown on what is going on... Energy Suspension Black Poly bushing kit. 4 new KYB struts 4 Eibach Springs Media blast all suspension components and paint with Rust Oleum Flat Black Oil Based paint. Mix in some semi gloss at about 4 to 1 flat to semi to give the chassis a little more sheen. Here goes nothin'!

I am going to finish repainting my 3 taillight panel sections today from the blue that they were back to Dupli Color wheel paint HWP102. What was the factory color on the license plate lamp housing? Is it the same as the panels or just black?

I saw an old post on another forum with some guy from Houston who sold or rented a spindle pin removal tool. Does anyone know who this guy is and where I can contact him?

How hard is it going to be to replace my valve seals with the cam still on? I searched google for this and did not come up with much. Doesn't someone make a tool to help you do this procedure?

I too am interested.

I have my polishing wheels left from doing my valve cover and bought some white rouge that is supposed to be used on plastics, maybe I will try that.

I have my panels off the back of my car to repaint them. I figured while I had them off for paint I would replate the plastic taillight surrounds. Has anyone had this done? What was the cost?

If I ran high octane what is the most I could pull out?

How do you check total advance?

Hey thanks. It took me awhile to find the notch for the timing mark but I finally found it. I was around 5 degrees BTDC, I think the manual says 10. I have it at 10 or 11. After driving it, it seemed much more responsive. Do you think I should back some more timing out of it? Say 15 degrees?

I want to check my timing on the 77. I have never checked the timing by myself on any car I have owned, so I am green. I have a borrowed timing light. What are the steps to checking it? I know it should be at 10BTDC. Thanks,

Arne, I found BD's kit last night and it said no splicing all plug n play, not true eh? Thanks for the heads up, I almost ordered it.

Yeah black dragon's website for looking up parts is complete garbage. Someone should tell them it is 2011. Does his kit look ok in the car? Is it completely noticeable? Anything particularly unsightly?

I guess everyone else feels this is well within normal? Must be something else that is coming out of my tailpipe. Raw fuel from the EGR being dismantled? I would think this would be a lean condition having all this emissions stuff off the car...

Sorry guys my electrical skills and knowledge are limited to rewiring boat trailers etc.! I understad it now. Is the black dragon kit hard to install?

To be honest I worked for Truck-Lite and sold these headlamps about 2 years ago. Never once did these lamps not just plug in in place of a 6014 or 6024 headlamp and work just fine. I may have misspoke. I believe he said that when I pulled the headlight switch the female spade in the other terminal went to about -11 volts. You have still not answered my question as to why on this car these LED headlamps do not simply plug n play, but on any other car, truck, jeep Mack truck at Waste Management and Allied Waste, they plugged in and just worked. Something is different about these datsuns.

What he said has to be true because the cibie high and low beams worked fine. I plugged in the first LED lamp that night compared it to the stock cibie. When the left front headlamps was LED it was on high beam and the right side was on low when the switch was on low beam. Pull the highbeam switch back and it would go off.

Well bad news. It took some time and my wifes uncle who is an electrical engineer, but according to him using a volt meter, when you pull the hi beam switch on my car it reverses polarity. The voltage gauge would go from around 11 + volts then pulling the hi beam switch back to 11- Volts, and visa versa; thus my LED headlamps would only work on either a) lowbeam or hi beam. He thought this could be rectified with some sort of relay. Can anyone else confirm this? He said halogen bulbs don't care about a positive and negative side but he said with the diode on LED lamps it does matter.

My car has no balls, so I did a compression test. I only did a dry test, because I did not see a large deviation in numbers. Does anyone think I should do a wet test too? Here are my results on an engine at or close to operating temperature. From the firewall to the radiator fan as follows 150, 136, 149, 149, 134, 139. Thoughts?

I have not checked either. I do own a fuel pressure gauge. Should I remove the filter and put in the my Tee fitting and check the pressure there? What should be the pressure?

Hmm, I thought that a intake leak would cause the ecu to fatten up the mixture causing it to run rich.

I know I have a donut gasket leak on my 280z. This car runs like crap cold and isn't making any power. Previous owner did remove all the EGR stuff not sure if this is it. Have some smoke under hard accel, smells rich. I think I might have a vacuum leak causing it to run rich. I was going to do an intake and exhaust manifold gasket. Any words of advice before I try this? Are the exhaust manifolds bolts going to be a bitch to remove?