Captain Obvious

So @Zup, I got your chewed up (what used to be an) antenna tip Perfect for my experiments. The first thing I can tell you is that it's chrome plated brass, not stainless. And I expect this to be the case for those antennas on ebay. Why is that important? Couple reasons: First, it means the prospect of buying something similar off ebay and taking a dremel to it isn't going to work unless you plan to send it out for new chrome plating afterwards. Second, it means that the "color" is different than stainless. Now unless you think some judge at a concourse show is going to dock you points for having a stainless antenna tip instead of chrome plated........ With all that said, it was tropical storming today and I had some time in the shop. Here's some pics: I had some other antenna here from a later year that I could mess with too: I made two proof of concept tips. One brass, and one stainless: The stainless would look better if I polished it. I didn't bother with that. Would still look different than chrome plating, but closer.

Than you make four out of four people now to support the theory of being designed that way. Thanks for the data point. Such a small difference though. It screams "oops" at the factory that they fixed by modifying the bushing.

What's the number and grind stamp you're looking for?

Excellent. Glad to hear they went in without incident. Out of curiosity... Did you find the same small amount of asymmetry in those outboard bushings that I did?

Sorry... One more thing while I'm in here. The rubber fuel line in this pic doesn't look right to me. Looks kinked. Is that just a trick of the camera angle?

Actually, that's not really a big deal. If you overfill it, it will just run into the carb throat and the first time you start the car, it will just get sucked in and burned. One little blue puff on that first start and problem solved.

I'll be the dissenting voice: I don't think you should block off everything. I think there should be a small amount of flow through the thermostat housing at all times (even when the thermostat is cold and closed). If everything is blocked off, you can run into the situation where the thermostat is sitting in a stagnant pool of liquid. Problem with that is a stagnant pool won't correctly reflect the temperature of the coolant inside the head and the thermostat could be delayed in opening. On my 280, I'm routing coolant through my throttle body, and that coolant bypasses the thermostat. Once I installed that line the temperature gauge reads completely different than it used to. My needle starts to move much earlier than before indicating that with the previous system there was no coolant flowing around the temperature sender until much later. So you don't have to pass the coolant through the carbs, but IMHO, there should be some flow. If you insist on blocking everything off, drill a hole in the thermostat. My experience with my 280 leads me to believe that the little jiggler hole built into the thermostat isn't enough.

When it goes from bad to worse To the Harbor Freight Community: I'm writing to apologize. I often reach out to tell you about Harbor Freight's commitment to quality and all the investments we've made to deliver quality tools at the lowest prices. Your trust matters deeply to me and I'm proud of how far we've come. So when we have a product recall, it hurts. A few months ago, we recalled our Pittsburgh 3 ton and 6 ton steel jack stands (SKUs 56371, 61196 and 61197) due to a manufacturer's defect. We asked customers to return them and receive a gift card that could be used to purchase replacement jack stands. I felt terrible about that recall because you should never have a concern about the safety of any of our products. Today, I feel even worse. I'm disappointed and embarrassed because we've identified a welding defect in a small number of the Pittsburgh 3 ton steel jack stands (SKU 56373) that replaced the recalled jack stands. We're now adding these jack stands to our recall. Unfortunately, this defect wasn't discovered during the initial recall investigation. If you own these jack stands or any of the jack stands in our original recall, whether or not you have had an issue with them, please stop using them immediately and bring them back to your local Harbor Freight Store for a full cash refund or store credit (see details here). We have investigated all of our other Pittsburgh 3 ton steel jack stands (SKUs 56371, 56372 and 57308) as well as the Pittsburgh 6 ton steel jack stands (SKUs 56368, 56369 and 56370) and Pittsburgh 12 ton steel jack stands (SKUs 56374 and 56375) and did not find the defect. Although none of these other jack stands are being recalled, if you own any of them and have any concern whatsoever, please bring them back and we'll give you a full cash refund or store credit for those as well. I want to apologize to all of our customers. While we've dramatically grown our team of engineers and inspectors, and intensified our tests and inspections, I assure you that the lessons learned from this will drive further improvement. As the owner and founder of Harbor Freight, I want you to know that we stand behind every product we sell and that safety will always be our top priority. Sincerely, Eric Smidt Owner and Founder Harbor Freight Tools

LOL. I tried to find the old SNL spoof ad where they circumcised a baby in a car to illustrate the smooth ride. But SNL has clamped down pretty hard on copyright stuff and I couldn't find it. Zup, I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Making a mast tip from scratch should be a relatively easy task on a lathe. I might be convinced to give it a go if someone has a sample to use as a pattern. As for getting the mast out of the body, all I can do is assure you that there's nothing holding it in other than corrosion.

I think those post-trip numbers are fine. I'd be happy with those too. If you put new rings in you'll probably use less oil, but there's no way I would go that deep in just for that.

Wow that's a real win! Way cheaper! So (other than to different arm shapes) does everything else look the same? Same mounting bases and everything else? Can't wait to see how it works on the gauge.

I think the biggest problem is that everyone thinks "poly is better than the crappy soft stock systems". Just ask everyone. It's all over the internets.

Agreed. I'm not a mechanical engineer, but my design sense tells me that they designed it for predominant forces in the wrong direction. They should have designed the bushing orientations for predominant forces in the up-down direction (both for gravity and for driveline torque) Instead, it seems they designed it for lateral forces first and then up-down second. They fixed that with the ZX mounting scheme and I've pondered a little on ways completely change the Z to a different scheme. But for now, just finding a modifiable bushing that could be adapted to the existing design would keep me occupied.

Glad to help and if there's any issues with the bushings come install time, just post 'em up!

I was picturing making a metal sleeve with an OD such that it pressed into the original outside shell (which you would leave in the moustache bar just like for a poly install) and an ID that would accept a smaller bushing pressed into place. I don't think I would trust epoxy there. The thicker the sleeve, the smaller the bushing could that be used. I would want to keep it as close to stock as possible, but just something available instead of unobtainium!

Here's some discussion about the insertion of those rear outboard bushings in this thread: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/55369-1971-hls30-14938-lily-build/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-525861 From that other thread: I also found a tiny bit of asymmetry with the rear spindle pin bushings as well. I don't know if it was designed that way, or if it was an accident, but I found a slight difference in the distance the metal collars stuck out of the new rubber bushings. One side was longer than the other, and all of them were consistent (as though it was done on purpose and not an accident). I put all four of them in such that the smaller distance was inward towards the strut body and the longer portion was on the washer and nut side. I found that with the bushing pressed into the center of the control arm receiving cylinder, the distance between the two bushings worked out to almost exactly the width of the strut knuckle casting. I found that if I reversed the bushings and centered them, I ended up with a gap where the strut knuckle fit. Of course, it was a small gap and would have easily clamped down as I tightened the spindle pin nuts, but I figured if I didn't have a gap in the first place, that would be better. Also, putting the longer end on the outside allowed more room for the rubber sealing washer. Don't know if all the aftermarket bushings do that, but I bought Raybestos 570-1030 - There are two bushings per box, so two boxes per car. If you squint right, you can see the asymmetry in this pic. See how the center sticks out farther on one side than the other: I found I liked the fit better with the short sides inboard towards the strut body. I found that if I reversed the bushings and centered them in the arms, I ended up with too small of a gap where the strut knuckle fit between the two bushings. Of course, since it's just rubber, I could have forced the bushing centers apart a little and forced the strut body between them, but I figured if things lined up naturally without having to do that, it would be better. With the small sides in, when I centered the bushings in the receiving cylinders in the arms, it worked out almost perfect such that the distance between the two bushings was very very close to the width of the strut housing. Seemed to perfect to be coincidental. So I don't know if they were really designed to be that way, but it worked for me. And if you're seeing the same small difference on OEM bushings as I saw on aftermarket MOOG, then I'm starting to believe it really might be intentional.

I firmly believe there are other options for rubber moustache bar bushings out there but the problem is figuring it out. The original bushings pressed in (lightly), and then were swaged over for permanent retention. I bet a workable solution would be to use a new bushing of "similar, but slightly smaller OD" than the original and press the new one into the remains of the old bushing. Kinda like what you do with poly, but do it with a new rubber bushing instead. All that needs to be done is for someone to find that "similar, but slightly smaller bushing". I saw some pics of Miata diff mount bushings that looked interesting... Anyone have a Miata that could measure some bushings?

I've seen a couple other owners use rods with some small imperfections in them (what it sounds like yours has), and they were OK. Mine had been bathing in brake fluid for a couple years and was not OK. Haha! And small world... I lived in Lancaster for a year, and my brother lived in Venice for maybe 10? I also lived in Pittsburgh for a couple years. We have probably run into eachother in the past!

Love the pics with everything laid out in proper geographic location. Excellent!!

Haha!! Agreed! After you clean that up, yours should go to 11!

If the surface of the rod isn't all pitted with rust, it should seal pretty well. In the area where it matters, yours looks pretty good. So about the vent passage... Are you sure the gasket you put on there isn't compressed into the vent and blocking it off? I'm beginning to think that there is NOT another passageway on the adapter plate or the back of the master cylinder. That slot may be the only vent?

Ewwwwwwww!!! That's got to be worth a quarter tank at least! Maybe a third! Woof! That's a perfect example of why I say... "If you have a couple moments of free time with nothing to do, clean some connectors on your old Z car."

ToolBoy, You can see the vent passage in one of the pics you previously posted: I thought there was slot in the master cylinder or adapter as well. I looked for pics, but unfortunately don't have any that would help there.

In reality, you don't ever want to draw a vacuum against the back of the master cylinder. In fact, on the original system, I there's a hole to prevent just that. You shouldn't block that hole (like with a gasket or something). and because there IS a hole there, the bolting of the master cylinder to the booster will do nothing to retain vacuum.