Walter Moore

I had a friend who owned one in the early 80's. He said it was the safest car he ever owned. The only way you could get hurt was if it fell off the jack stands and crushed you. When it worked, it was cool. I gather like a lot of Italian cars (and many American cars) if you got one that was "good" then it ran forever. But there were a lot of problems with that car. My friend's was a much earlier year than 84. (Mid to late 70's) His car had a 7 foot cable that connected the clutch pedal to the clutch master cylinder. It had a hydraulic clutch, but a cable to connect the pedal to the master cylinder. (strange I know...) On his car this cable kept breaking in a particular location. At first it would last a couple of months, then weeks, and by the end it would be broken within 24 hours of being replaced. I gather that someone eventually told him that this happened when there was a problem with the tunnel through which the cable ran. It became progressively worse until the car was junk. The only way to repair this was to cut the unibody open and rebuild something. He also had electrical problems that could not be cured. One of the problems (I don't recall what it was) he looked up in the Fiat factory service manual and it literally said something to the effect that the cause was unknown. On the other hand, my friend is the only person whom I ever knew who drove faster and more recklessly than I did at that point in my life. So there is the strong possibility that he just beat the car to death. If the current owner of the car you are looking at just drove it like it was an economy car, which I believe was it's actual intended purpose, it may have served him very well. I would just caution you that in my experience, flogging an X/19 isn't a good idea.

Are you certain that the door is original? My driver's door has the opposite problem. I have a 71, and I am fairly certain that my driver's door came off of a much later car. My driver's door fits OK, except at the bottom it is about as far IN as yours is OUT. There is no fixing the door if this is the problem, except to replace it with a door from the correct year. Since I already have the car painted, and only wanted a driver anyway, I have the project scheduled for a later date. (Like when it starts to bother me, which may be never.) But on your car it looks like a problem.

The black wire that actually connects to the output terminal of the alternator is a fusible link. (According to the FSM) It connects to a White/Red wire (which is one of the largest gauge wires on the car by the way.) You should have +12V on the B+ (output) terminal of the alternator with the engine off. If you don't you have a break in the wiring. I suspect the fusible link is open, or you have a broken wire in that area.

I haven't had any problem getting the stock plugs locally. It seems like the last two times I bought them either Advance Auto, or O'Reilly had them in stock.

Read these threads first: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?23193-so-i-started-to-roller-paint...&highlight=roller+paint http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?23103-roller-painting&highlight=roller+paint http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?20410-VERY-INTERESTING-THREAD-ABOUT-PAINTING-WITH-A-ROLLER.-Hybridz&highlight=roller+paint I tried this but it didn't work for me. I ended up just using undiluted tractor paint with a brush and wet sanding then buffing with rubbing compound followed by polishing compound. First off, the paint ended up costing more like $75, but the paint thinner, sand paper, and buffing compounds needed added substantially to the cost. Second, it took literally weeks of backbreaking work. Third the final result is not going to impress anyone, unless you tell them that it was done with a brush, and only then because they strain their eyes looking for the brush marks that were sanded away long ago. The real problem is that the paint thinner pools, and leaves layers that are slightly different colors. When you wet sand through the layers you get blotches from the different shades of paint. The areas that were covered heavily with the brush don't have as much of that problem, but it is still there. At best you end up with a good 10 foot paint job. It looks good from 10 feet away, but the closer you get, the more obvious the problems become. My car looks pretty good in direct sunlight, because the lime green color is blinding and you can't see the defects. But on a cloudy day, or under artificial lighting it looks like a topographical map. (Which is accurate.) Sometimes people mistake it for 40 year old factory paint that has been badly cared for. Is that what you want? About the only good thing is that rock chips are easy to fix, get get a brush, sand paper, and rubbing compound and blend it in.

There is a fusable link between the alternator and the wiring harness. It sounds like either that link is blown, or not hooked up properly.

Let us know how it sounds. Sitting under a solid metal finisher plate seems like it would muffle the speakers, but who knows.

I have the K&N in my car, but that was mostly just because the paper ones are not available locally. One thing that I will warn you about the K&N is to be careful that you don't over-oil it! Too much oil and the thing may as well be air tight.

I didn't know that Jay had any Japanese cars in his collection. Jay is a comedian, not a historian. I don't trust a lot of his running commentary. He just repeats what he has read or been told. But I love to see the cool cars he features. (Where else would I get to see old Lambos?) The cars are the stars of his garage, and so long as you take it in that spirit all is OK.

You don't have a Fram oil filter do you? I have had the anti-drain back valve in the base model Fram filters fail, allowing all the oil in the filter to drain back into the pan. And yes, it happened on a new filter! Full disclosure: I have no financial interest in any oil filter manufacturer or reseller. I am just reporting on my personal experiences. I am sure the problem could happen with other brands, I have just never experienced this failure except with the brand listed above.

I prefer wheels that hold air and don't look too beat up. Beyond that, all is fair. It seems like no one likes my wheels, which is why they were cheap!

Mostly you need a lot of time and money. But seriously (the above was serious, but rude...) First you need to consider the amount of rust, or more accurately the degree to which structurally significant portions of the car are missing. Make sure that the unit body is repairable before you start throwing money at the restoration.

The show was at the Bolingbrook mall, and the hotel was in Lisle IL (Which I now know is pronounced "Lile"... after people looked at me strangely when I tried to pronounce the s in the middle.) By the way, the Windy City Z Car club did a great job organizing and running the event. A big thumbs-up is in order.

Mine is black now. ;-)

I wonder how/if this applies to an engine with dual SU's , or fuel injection. Still, a 20HP improvement at the rear wheels is... unexpected from just an exhaust system upgrade.

Interesting... you have a capacitor between the negative side of the coil and the frame? Is that shown in the FSM? I never had a capacitor there, even when I was running points. Now that I have the S130 distributor (and a stock S130 coil) I have no capacitors in the ignition system at all. (Except as they may exist inside the E12-80, but those can't be very large if they exist at all)

I know that historically U.S. made cars nearly always used combination brake/turn signal lights in the rear. It was even an issue when you wanted to use a European car with separate turn signals as a tow vehicle because the standard wiring harness on most small trailers was made with only four wires. One for running lights, two for the combination stop/turn lights, and one for ground. You had to buy or make a module to adapt from the six wire system to the four wire system. Doesn't the U.S. specification 240Z have combination lights, or does it just have red lenses with separate turn and brake lights? (I have never followed my car, since I am the only one in the house who will drive a car with a manual transmission...)

When the engine isn't running you have no vacuum assist, so the pedal is hard to press regardless of how well the overall system works. When you bleed the brakes, do you actually get fluid? How do you know that you have no front brakes? Have you tried to spin the wheels with the car on jack stands, or are you just assuming that you have no brakes because the pedal goes to the floor? The later symptom could mean that you have air trapped in the rear brake circuit too by the way. My guess is that you still have air trapped in the system somewhere, and that is causing the true problem. How are you bleeding the brakes? I have had the best luck with a vacuum bleeder, but I know people who hate those things. I will let one of the professional mechanics on the board give you more accurate information, but of all the cars I have ever owned, the Z has been the one that I had the most difficulty getting the braking system to work. I cannot explain WHY that was the case, because it isn't that different than other cars of the era, but it took me many tries to get it working. Check for leaks in the rear braking system where you replaced the line. Even a really small leak will cause the soft pedal you describe.

Hello! The Contour looks fun. It should be interesting to see what you do with the Z.

The switch enables the vacuum advance in 4th gear to give the engine a little extra torque. Assuming that the VA actually works in your distributor. When they get old they often fail. As for the transmission swap, the throw-out bearing and collar have to match the clutch, not the transmission. Do a search on the subject. There are several old threads that go into great detail.

Or a reasonable facsimile there of...

The purpose of the long air tubes was to direct fresh air against the hot exhaust valve in the hope that this would encourage more complete combustion. Removing them, and just pumping the air from the reactor pump straight into the manifold will not hurt your engine performance. In theory it might reduce the effectiveness of CO reduction produced by the air injection system. (If in fact that system actually accomplished anything measurable beyond simply diluting the exhaust with fresh air.) The tubes themselves restrict exhaust flow and in theory should hurt performance, but only at high engine speeds.

Your intake manifold appears to fit the early cars. (I see 4 screw carbs...) I would guess that the picture of the 71 hose is the part that would fit the manifold. Whether or not it would interfere with something on your rather unique setup, only you will know. (Unhappily, you may only know after you try it.)

Heh, we had an entry in a local car show that was an early 50's Ford V8 flat head. He titled the entry "Flat tops and flat heads". I thought it was clever.

Impressive. Obviously the rebuilt calipers from the generic parts stores don't get this level of attention. What does it cost to restore calipers to this level?