Captain Obvious

Here's one thread that contains discussion about the spring in the wiper linkage: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/58474-wiper-arm-linkage-assembly-parts/

Haha!!! Don't poke the bear!

Cool. Must be the road! I had a memorable I-85 experience while on the way to the show at Road Atlanta as well. Goes like this: I was riding shotgun with @Zup in his flat-top powered 73 and we were following behind @S30Driver (who was our navigator) in his red 280. Out on I-85 while we had the opportunity, Zup decided to put the pedal to the metal and show me what the boat anchors could do. He pulls out into the left lane and punches it. We pass S30driver and are gaining speed rapidly... Zup is counting off the speed tics as I'm watching the "slow" traffic in the right lane quickly fall behind. ninety-five. one hundred. hundred and five. hundred and ten. At that point, he lets up on the pedal. The car had more to give, but he just wanted to guarantee "over a hundred" and figured that an extra ten would account for any errors in measurement. Anyway, so we're slowing down and are about a half mile in front of our navigator... As our exit for the track peels off to the right!! So after we slowed down, we tucked back into the right lane and let our navigator catch up and pass us. "Re-calculating!"

Well before you go and start looking into other more complicated possibilities, I would double check the results with another compression test gauge. Get your hands on one that you have confidence in. For all you know, it's a test equipment issue. Maybe that lent unit has been dropped one to many times. And as for the test procedure, everything looks good except for at the very end... What do you mean "3-4 seconds for each cylinder"? Are you actually watching the gauge while you crank the engine, or are you just blindly cranking the engine for three or four seconds and assuming the cylinders have topped out in compression pressure by then? Reason I ask, is that in my experience, it takes three to seven compression cycles on the cylinder to top out at peak pressure. If you're just counting to "four one-thousand" and letting off the key, you may only be at half the peak "achievable" pressure. Here's to hoping your having a test procedure or equipment issue and not really having a problem with the engine itself.

Haha!! The link would be much less tenuous if you included "Montana". Or "Zircon-encrusted tweezers"

It's an epidemic.

Just him and the Pygmy Pony?

Yeah, there are plenty of ways to skin this cat. One of the reasons I did what I did was that it's self contained all within the gauge. Running a new wire or two to sensors in the engine would be simpler from the electronics standpoint, but more complicated from the wiring standpoint. In any event, I'm very happy with mine, mostly because it's done. And Jim... You, of course, are completely correct. Looking at the gauges frequently enough is the bottom line "proper" solution. But I learned from experience that even though I thought I DID that, in fact, I did not. I've grown confident and complacent.

Haha! Yeah, I put that in. Here's a thread about the mechanical part of the project. Pretty straight-forward: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/59361-temp-gauge-warning-idiot-lamp/ The real magic (and difficult part of the project) was the electronics behind the scenes to unobtrusively sense the signals and light the LED. It all sounded so simple at the beginning... Couple of comparators, some resistors... You're done, right? Well, to make a long story short... After scoffing at a friend's suggestion that I should just put a microcontroller in there and do everything in the digital realm, I ended up doing just that. After much comparison of different designs, I was able to Muntz a microcontroller based version down to about half the number of components required to do it all analog. Counter-intuitive, but true. So, in the end... the only computer controlled electronics in the car is that warning lamp, and I've got more processing horsepower in that little gauge than the first desktop PC computers. It cost about five bucks worth of parts and took me pretty much all of last winter. So it cost $thousands in labor. Another typical case of processors working differently in a sterile bench-top environment as opposed to the real world installation. It's done. It works. And I'm glad it's over.

I have one in my 77. Tied into both the temp and oil pressure:

Yeah, you're right. There's the possibility I was looking at the starting issue with somewhat rose colored glasses. I've not used a flat top car in the dead of Pennsylvania weather. The Z's were always fair weather cars. So, I'll temper my statement above to point out that I've had great experience with starting the flat tops from Spring through Fall. Cold fall, but fall none-the-less. And I'm sure the winters are way colder in Fitchburg, Wisconsin than they are here. Thanks for keeping me honest!

Here. I got this for you: And if I were there, I'd buy you a real one.

Wow does that ever sound like a bad idea!

Thank you all for your service. I was registered for the draft during one of the active conflicts, but my number didn't come up. So thanks to all those who's number did come up as well as those who served without being drafted!

Yeah, I'm thinking a whole bunch of little vacuum leaks. Can't quite tell from the pic, but one of the rubber tubes leading to your throttle opener device looks questionable. Like it's split down where it connects to the intake manifold? Anyway, everything needs to be airtight. Especially with the flat tops since you cannot simply crank the nozzles down to mask vacuum leak issues like you can with the round tops. So were you able to retest the compression with the chokes open? As for the coil voltages... It depends on where the points landed when the engine stopped spinning last time. If the engine stopped with the points open, then you should see 12V on both sides of the coil. However, if the engine stopped with the points closed, then you should see less. Five volts might be appropriate. You end up splitting the battery voltage between the ballast resistor and the coil. Probably fine. And just to poke a little, the flat top cars I've worked on start pretty much instantly even when cold. You don't have to crank and crank. Second or third compression cylinder and it pops. So while that's not really a legitimate comparison to where you are yet, it's at least a goal.

I've not been inside a Z transmission so the only input I have is generic transmission stuff. The only thing I see is there is some gear chipping on the reverse gears. Probably either from shifting into reverse while the internals are still spinning (clutch dragging a little maybe) or from clipping reverse on a downshift from fifth to fourth. Other than that, what I see looks like normal wear and tear on transmissions internals. If it sounds good and shifts smooth, I wouldn't dig any deeper.

Haha!! We're Classi!

I was thinking more like beating a dead... Know what? Forget I said anything.

So if we keep bring it up over and over again and talking about it incessantly... What do they call that?

You are clearly way smarter than I am. Didn't finish today. I cut it twice and it's still too short.

Man...... That's too bad. Maybe you can pull a Radar O'Reilly?

I understand! Our Family Truckster is a first gen Highlander. It's almost at 250K and, while it hasn't been bulletproof, we've certainly got more than our money's worth out of it. Way more. I'll be working on it later today... Exhaust rusted into two pieces. The real solution is to buy a new pipe for $1300. Of course, me being the cheapskate I am, I am hoping to do something a little easier on the wallet. I bought an aftermarket piece for $60 and have cut it apart. The plan is to weld the new end to the original part and get out of this for way less than $1300. Undercar welding. My favorite.

Haha!! Glad to hear your drive home from Zcon was less whiplashy than the trip there. For those of you who weren't at Zcon and haven't heard any of the stories... Once you got @wal280z's car up to cruising RPM, it had two throttle positions: 1) Accelerating, and 2) Face through the windshield There was no in-between. Digital. So there is clearly a couple issues going on that made it very uncomfortable to drive. (As a side note, I'm thinking it's something like high intake vacuum from a freshly rebuilt strong engine and a BCDD that is not working at all.) But it wasn't the time or place to fix the real root problem(s), but as a bush fix, we disconnected the TPS connector. That way the ECU would not know that the pedal was in the idle position and would not trigger the fuel cut. It was a successful Band-Aid that made the car a lot easier to drive. Didn't fix the problem, but at least masked it enough to make the car a lot easier to drive. So, Wayne... I'd be happy to help you with a cable conversion, but you've got other things you need to work out as well! Of course, I'm touting my throttle body conversion in conjunction with the cable. With the two of them, my car is the smoothest ever. I wish I had it with me in Atlanta so you could have given it a try!

Nice! And 18 MPG to boot!!

Wait... Am I the only one now without a set of Vidmar or Lista cabinets? Oh the inadequacy!!