Captain Obvious

LOL. Easy peasy!

Much better! And I forgot to mention it earlier... Make sure you lube your new hinges so they don't end up like your old hinges.

Oh boy... You've been reeled in now. Make sure you get a hands free mount for use while driving:

I remember the metric alphabet. It would have made things so much easier. The decabet:

Unfortunately it's way too open ended question to answer. The only applicable answer for a professional shop would be "Time and materials". If they can't look it up in the fixed rate book, then they can't really provide an estimate. So unfortunately the answer is either fix it yourself or take it to someone and open your wallet. If you aren't interested or capable of doing it yourself, then the best you could do is to take it to someone you can trust and give them an upper limit? Someone you trust not to inflate the numbers and who will call you if the job is looking like it is going to exceed estimated scope. All that said, in your original list of issues, most of those are "common" problems with the old Zs and most of them aren't the wiring harness itself, but devices that plug into it. And the A/C issues may not even be electrical at all. Might be leaked out Freon or a vacuum leak.

Guilty as charged.

Well I had a thousand stars that had to line up to make it to Atlanta and there's no guarantee that's going to happen for Branson. Won't know until we get closer, but here's to hoping!

I usually just kneel in front of the car and balance the front tip of the hood on one hand while I reach around the side and put the bolts in one side. Switch hands and do the other. Seriously though, I'm glad to hear the problem has (pretty much 100%) been confirmed to be worn sloppy hinges. That's a simple solution and the alternatives would have been much more of a mystery. So... Cut one of the rivet heads off the worst hinge pin and let's have a look at the wallowed out holes!

Here's a pic of the AFM in my 77. I haven't owned the car since new so I can't guarantee that it's original, but I believe it is: Seems the later AFM's used the green protective screen printed coating over the laser trimmed resistors.

I suspect OHMIC is a company that Bosch sub-contracted out to for construction of the board. I bet that Bosch did not silk screened their own boards. And the 7444 is probably a date code for 44th week of 74 (making it a prime candidate for the 75 model year).

The AFDB (Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie) >> https://zapatopi.net/afdb/ Construction instructions here >> https://zapatopi.net/afdb/build.html But the basic principals shown below: Also available in pdf format. I've had a copy this on my bulletin board for quite some time: https://zapatopi.net/afdb/afdbdiagram.pdf

In the past, I've done some susceptibility testing (and mods) to determine susceptibility of some electronic equipment to external EMI forces. It's a real pain. And that was before cell phones became commonplace! I can just imagine it now. What you DON'T want is for some guy walking through the refinery getting a cell phone call and sending the flowmeter readings squirrely and triggering an unforeseen or unpredictable "event". Or the nuke plant. Or the distillery. Or the Viagra factory. Used to be we had to worry about the guy walking through the plant with the walkie-talkie. Now everyone has a cell phone. Yeesh.

Yeah, I know. And about the only time I miss having one is when I travel. Someday, I'm sure I won't have the choice anymore. In the meantime, maybe I'll work on my EMP generator?

I had heard that the sweep style of the later AFM's was different than the earlier ones... Something like the ZX's used a logarithmic sweep for the voltage while the earlier Z's used a linear output? I have no input as to the validity of that, but I think I read it on the internets.

Wait... So I'm supposed to take the heat for all this? Like my post was the spark that started it?

Not quite yet. When my flip phone dies, I'm gonna get a huge phone like this:

So here's my take on the whole thing... The hinges only have one "stop" that is used in application, and that's a stop to limit the fully OPEN position. There is no stop to limit the closed position. The only stop to limit the closed position is the hood latch. And all the springs do is constantly apply force to try to open the hood. They don't do anything to control position, just apply a force in a direction that will preload the springs toward one side (the open direction). When you run without springs, that preload is gone and the hood will (may? can?) ride lower depending on how much play there is in the hinges. The spring preload will first take up all that looseness and (once the slop is all loaded to one direction) will then apply force to open the hinges. Of course, some slop is required because the hinge has to pivot, but if you have too much, you will run out of adjustment range on the mounting holes. After watching the video, that hinge looks really sloppy and I believe the assessments above that the hinges are worn and you have run out of adjustment range. Once you get yourself a replacement set of hinges that are tighter, you could open up one of the old ones and look at the ovaled holes and worn pins. That would probably be some neat pics.

Oy. That hurt.

What??? You went over my helmet??

Royal Club Shandy: Beer Advocate's rating? 1.65 out of 5 (Awful) Sounds like the perfect beverage to use for the AFM calibration check!

I watched the video. There's a lot of mechanical amplification in the hinges, and that translates to any slop in the holes as well. I think you should take the hinges back off and mess with them on the bench.

Me too. All the (two times) hood torsion work I've done has been OFF the car. There's no way I would ever ever try to put those things together on the car!

Thank you Santa! Now you and I just need to wish that the results of our attempts goes up and is commensurate to the improved quality of our tools.

Yeah, that ain't normal. I know it's a pain in the arse, but how about taking the torsion rods back out and finding out where that 3/4 inch slop is occurring. I've done the torsion bars twice and they're not that bad. Once you figure out how things are supposed to go together, I remember it being a ten minute procedure.

I'm not a body guy, but I don't think that's normal. A little play would be required, but not a lot. How much lifting are you talking about? Eighth of an inch, or three quarters?