Walter Moore

I have seen the G-nose kit for sale on E-bay... It looks nice to me, but I am not in a position to spend that kind of money at the moment. My "plan" (...first there was the plan, and then there were the assumptions...) is to eventually install a "BRE" style front spook and spoiler on my 240Z, but not until I have the thing basically drivable, and that isn't going to happen any time soon. My car is a '71, and personally I like the retro look, but not the stock look. The huge air dam/ground effect/whale tale look is an '80s thing, and I just don't want it on that particular car. Now if I had an '80s model... But to those who want make their car look like a 911 Turbo, that is their business. To each his own.

I have the old latch sitting in a jar full of automatic transmission fluid. That should eventually free it up, if it is just rusty... But if the thing is actually broken I will be looking for a replacement. Only time will tell.

The intake has the part number "E46" cast into it, so I am sure it doesn't belong to a 260Z... The 5 seconds I refered to is the time the Haynes manual claims the system should take to bring the idle speed back to normal after letting off the throttle, but that may only apply to the 260Z version with the electrical signal from the speedometer. If I understand the operation correctly, it would prevent backfiring, at least in theory. In any event, I think that I will just park the "throttle opener" somewhere as a decoration and get on with the restoration.

This may not be the right forum for this question, and those of you outside of North America likely don't know what I am talking about, but there is a device on my intake manifold that the Haynes manual labels a " Throttle opener control system". I assume from the description of the function that this an emission control system. Does it perform any other important function? The reason that I ask, is this system connects to the linkage for the carbs via a sleeved lever that actuates the linkage near the front carb, and this sleeve is rusted in place. With the throttle opener connected, the throttle is jammed. I am re-building the engine (step 1 of re-building the car...) and if I don't need this vacuum operated menance I would prefer not to re-install it. From the manual I gather that it's purpose is to prevent dumping excessive unburnt fuel out the exaust pipe when shifting gears. On the otherhand, I am not impressed with the idea of having something on the car that holds the throttle open for 5 seconds after I let off the pedal... The Haynes manual claims that this system was installed only on the 260Z, but my car is a 1971 240Z, with an L24 engine and 4 screw round top carbs, and it clearly has all the hardware, except the solenoid to disable the system when the car is moving less than 10 MPH. ( No wire from the speedometer...) I guess the book is wrong. We don't have emissions testing here in Indiana, and even if we did, I think that pre-1975 cars are generally exempt outside of California, so if it won't hurt the car any I am not going to re-install this when I put the thing back together.

For the record, just in case anyone else ever needs to know, I finally got the hatchback open today. This is how I managed to get it open: Step #1, searched on E-bay until I found another license plate light assembly. Step #2, purchased said light assembly. Step #3, After the replacement assembly arrived, I "removed" the old license plate light "tag light" assembly with a hammer. ( It is plastic. ) Step #4, Used a punch and a hammer to force open the latch, which was rusted shut. Now all that I have to do is find a new latch, I haven't seen any of those for sale on E-bay... :disappoin

I think that in the U.S. the insurance industry began to get into the picture in the mid 70's as well. The insurance rate for high horsepower cars became artifically prohibitive. At least that is my impression, since I owned some late 70's U.S. cars that clearly had way more horsepower than was advertised. You just can't push 5000 LBS as fast as some of those cars went with the insignificant amount of power that G.M. claimed the engine delivered...

What exactly are these motors. I do not understand the rb20 rb25 rb26 designations. (Of course I only recently learned the L24..L28 designations. Sorry for my ignorance..

Well, tonight I finally got the engine and transmission out of the 240Z that I bought a couple of weeks ago, and have started looking for rust. It is there, in all the ususal places. The bottom of the doors have rusted away, and there are bubbles on the fenders and hatch lid. The floor pan is ok, but some of the original rustproofing is flaking off. I was delighted to see that there is no serious rust on the "strut towers" or what ever the areas where the struts mount is susposed to be called. Four frends, or family members of mine have lost cars to rust that removed the metal to which suspension part were attached. Some of those people found out about the damage while they were driving If you haven't removed the door panels and checked the bottom of the doors, on the inside I strongly recomend doing so. Water gets down past the window when it rains and sits there with nothing to do but eat the metal.

One additional tip for avoiding rust in your Z car. Never, under any circumstances drive it here in the American rust belt (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, etc.) during the winter months, when the roads are white with salt. 1970's vintage Japanese cars don't rust here... they dissolve... At least part of the reason that I bought mine was so that I could prove that there really was a 31 year old Japanese car in Indianapolis that hadn't returned to iron ore...

I crawled back there from the driver's seat and searched into the area with a flashlight. The release is pressed down as far as it will go. I think that either the latch is broken, or the mechanism is so rusted that it can't move. I squirted some 0W-30 (Mobil 1) motor oil onto the latch in the hope that it is just rusty and a little oil will free it up. I will be too busy to look at it for a week or so, perhaps that will give the oil time to disolve the rust.

Well, we tried to remove the "tag light" but the part that hold the light bulbs is held in place with screws that can only be accessed by opening the hatch. I can't get to the latch mounting screws without drilling through the plastic bulb holder assembly. We did not see anything to pull from inside to release the hatch, but I will look this evening. Thanks for the suggestions. If there are any more ideas out there I would appreciate the input.

"Over restored"... "Braided hoses"? I will be happy if I ever get mine to start...

Ok, this may sound stupid (in fact it does sound stupid...) but I can't get the hatchback door open on the 240Z that I just bought. Saturday I bought a 1971 240Z, beat-up, and with 20 year old tires... and I can't get the hatchback door open. My son crawled into the back and removed all the interior panels, and I tried to remove panels from the outside, but no matter what we tried, we cant get the latch to open. (Yes, we tried the key... ;-) ) The car has been in storage (indoors thankfully) for more than 10 years, so I think the latch may be rusted shut. Perhaps it was broken all that time... Anyway, if you have any suggestions, please help...