Captain Obvious

Looks great. I remember seeing an adjustment procedure in some of the literature. Probably one of the FSMs, but I don't know what year. I took a quick look and couldn't find it. It's in there somewhere though. Charts, lines, pressure readings... If you can't find anything, let me know and I'll dig again. Just remember the bellows are an atmospheric pressure compensating device. And the tighter you press the bellows in, the easier it is to actuate the throttle opener. In other words... If you don't have it adjusted in tight enough, it won't do squat. If you have it adjusted in too far, it will hang the idle up too long when you release the throttle. You want something between squat and too long.

Wow. OK... Well after seeing your pics, I think those are the earliest versions of the flat tops. What's your build date stamp on the door jamb plate? Early 73 probably? From what I've heard, many of those really early ones were pulled off and replaced with later versions because of complaints. And if the customer returned again with additional complaints, then the whole rack was pulled off and replaced with round tops. In addition to the very early nature of that set, I also see a number of little things wrong or missing. So honestly... You guys won't hear me saying this much, but unless it's a labor of love and you just want to be able to honestly say "I'm running the original carbs that came on this car from the factory", then even I would change those out. At a minimum, if you want to stick with flat-tops, I would change over to the later version. If you're not that interested in fighting the incoming tide of sentiment against the flat-tops, then I would switch over to a pair of round tops. Nobody would hate you for that, and in fact, most people would think it's right thing to do.

I'm not sure if the 240 is the same as the 280, but if it is... Bunch of other related discussion in this thread: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/55746-fuel-gauge-accuracy-1975-280z/?

One thing I saw in your previous pics was that your "choke pull off" actuators are disconnected. I'm assuming the vacuum sources for those have been adequately capped off? If not, that's a problem.

If you've got fuel at the middle of the rear sight glass and 20% up on the front, then you'll eventually need to take a look at the front. You've got bigger fish to fry right now though. That level discrepancy won't prevent it from starting. When you get a chance, can you take a pic of the front side of the front carb (the sight glass side) so we can see what type of flat top you're dealing with?

Haha! Welcome to old Z ownership! This is the kind of stuff I was talking about. The weights and springs were very stiff on the posts because of the rusty cruddy: I cleaned everything up and now it all moves free, but I can't easily do anything about the wear:

An appropriately sized electric being the only pump is just fine as long as it a) can keep up with fuel demand, and b) doesn't have such a high output pressure as to overpower the float needle valves. But about the cranking thing.... You should enough fuel in the float bowls to run the engine for maybe thirty seconds with no fuel pump at all. If your bowls are emptying out overnight or something, you need to put looking into that on your list. You've got sight glasses on the side of your flat tops to check the bowl level.

Oh come on...... I know some stuff, but I'm not comfortable with that responsibility. Haha!!

Well compared to the other stuff in your stable, one of those should be cheap!

Yes. For now. Get it running reasonably well before you go trying stuff like that. I'm not ready to talk you through modifying where you get clean air for your idle mixture air, or what to do with all the other stuff like the idle compensator and the anti-backfire valve and the air pump supply, and the, and the.....

Nice cars! You got one of these?

Excellent! Now go do some smoky burnouts!

I'm no suspension guy, but I believe the PU bushings were designed that way to prevent metal-to-metal contact. There is no direct metal-to-metal contact between the strut housing and the control arm (with either the stock rubber bushing, or the PU aftermarket replacements). If you cut off that PU flange and replace with metal washers, you'll end up with metal-to-metal. You need something to keep the strut housing from sliding fore and aft between the ears on the control arm, but you don't want it to be metal. Needs be strong enough to support the forces at work though.

Uhhhhhh.... Yeah, that aint right. If it springs back slightly, I'm guessing that it's rusty cruddy and virtually locked up. I was just messing with one similar a few days ago. Weights and springs had rusted to the pins they are supposed to pivot on. Maybe you threw a spring too, but I bet it's just wear and crud. The one I was messing with also had wear marks on the sliding components. So now it moves easy, but it's still notch because of the wear.

Flat tops FTW. By the way... You got a boat?

Not exactly sure what you mean about the notch, but that's what makes it have a front and a back. The notch is not in the middle of the spindle pin. If you put it in wrong, you'll have too much threads sticking out one end and not enough on the other. And yes... You should be able to push the pin (slightly greased) in one side using two fingers until the threads pop out the other side. And then you should be able to use two fingers to pull it all the way through. There should be no wedging at all. The only wedging occurs as a result of the wedge shaped locking pin.

Good man. The problem would be it would be hard to get the pin in, but you wouldn't know why. Is it a misalignment issue, or a burr issue? Now at least you'll know. Haha!! Also a good idea to test fit the locking pin now to make sure it inserts fully without problems. Oh yeah, and you do know that the spindle pins are no symmetric, right? There's a front end and a back end.

Man that thing is hammered! Literally!! Have you made sure the spindle pin slips cleanly through the strut body?* With that amount of deformation, It's likely that some material has mushroomed into the hole. I can't tell from the pic if it's been filed back out enough to get the pin in. Easiest to check it now before you squeeze the strut body into place. * If you've never messed with them before... The spindle pin should be a slip fit in the housing. Two fingers should be able to spin it all the way through the strut body. In one side, and all the way out the other. If you can't do that, there's a burr inside the hole causing interference.

Thanks Jim! I've never had the opportunity to examine them side by side. Thanks for the details. So then the answer to the "what's with the nubbies?" might be as simple as "We wanted a way to keep them from getting mixed up at the factory."

Failing all else.... Destroy the control arms to save the frame. Control arms are replaceable.

I don't think it's a leverage issue. The bolt head moves, it just turns the inner bushing sleeve along with it. In other words, when you put the wrench on it and turn the bolt head, it'll move easy, but then spring back because you're rotating the inner bushing sleeve inside the control arm bushing. You're just torqueing up the rubber in the bushing. I think if you put the breaker bar on it and just kept spinning and spinning it, all you would do is shear the vulcanized rubber joint and separate the inner tube from the outer tube. Still wouldn't help get the bolt out of the inner tube. Ideas on solutions? If there is enough room to get in there with the recip saw (without hitting the frame member or the control arms) and cut it off at the sides. Or if there isn't enough room, cut the head and threaded stub off and spread the frame member a little to give you clearance to pry the remainder out Or if you can't spread the frame enough, drill shallow holes into the bolt shank until you have opened it up to the point where there's no metal left and it should fall out.

LOL! I thought that might be the case. They needed to haul the heavier 2+2 around! Haha!!!!

I did the exact same thing just the other day! We actually got two days in a row where it did NOT rain, and I took my Z out for a bit. On the good side, it started right up and ran exactly the same as it did when I put it away last fall. On the bad side, all of the unfinished winter projects are still un-finished.

Sorry. Can't help you with that one. No idea!

And anyone know why they put those little nibbies on the back of the 2+2 taillight panels? Do they serve any functional purpose? From what I can tell, the panels are identical except for that feature. Seems weird to spend the money to have two different molded parts for no functional reason?