Captain Obvious

Nicely done! Thanks for the pics.

Thanks for the additional info. Jim, When you get a chance, I'd be interested in some pics of your soldered on ball at the pedal end. So out of curiosity, has anyone done anything that did NOT start with a Lokar kit?

You give me way too much credit. Sorry you couldn't prove me wrong on this one. I was really hoping you could. So much work for two stupid little screws! I've pulled the dash a number of times, and I agree. It's not really that difficult, just awkward. The A/C evaporator in there really crowds things. If it weren't for that, you would probably have been able to get to it from the front. Anyway, glad you got it out, and here's hoping you're back on the road in no time!

My pleasure! I was going to tell you that based on your measurements, it was time to try another relay and you beat me to it. Here's hoping the next electrical glitch is solvable as well!

Well that's really a bummer. Not to mention the effort and more money you're going to put into a tranny that you though was ready to go. Don't do it now though... Spend your time getting ready for the storm.

Yeah, those things! That's where most of the problem was on the cars I've been into. Cleaned and greased, went from 10ftlb to darn near zero!

Thanks guys. I've recently cobbled an alternative throttle body onto my EFI, and it's working great. Fantastic even. Smooth as butter. I modified the throttle body to work with the stock linkage, but it was originally set-up for a cable. For proof of concept, It was faster for me to convert the throttle body to work with the stock linkage than it was to convert the whole linkage system over to cable. I'm getting ready for my off-season modifications, and the cable mod will probably be one of them. Mike, when I went digging, mention of your conversion came up, but for some reason I thought you attached in the engine compartment. Do you have any pics of the details under the dash? How is the cable jacket held in place?

I've been into two cars now (my local buddies, and then mine) and I believe the most problematic part of the whole system is where the arms pivot right where they poke through the cowl. Make sure you pop off those little C clips and take those parts apart and clean and grease everything. One all (both) cars I've messed with, those pivot points were very stiff, and they shouldn't be. They should be almost free spinning. There is a little wave washer that takes up the slack, but there should be no rotational resistance other than a tiny bit of friction from the wave washer. I suggest the ZCCA judges use the existence and proper working of the park function as a tie-breaker at future judged shows. Z trivia!

Yeah, it sounds like that relay isn't switching the way it should. A little surprising to me though, since it really isn't that much current we're talking. That coupled with the fact that you already replaced that relay once before because of a burned wire. Makes me think there could be something else going on, but making sure that relay is working properly is the next step. You could electrically test that relay in place by measuring the resistance between the G and the diagonal L. With the relay connected normally, you could*: Make sure the blower speed switch is OFF. Connect an Ohmeter between the G and diagonal L on the relay. (Stick the probes into the back of the connector going to the relay). With the key in the OFF position, you should measure infinite resistance (no continuity) between the G and the diagonal L. Then with the key in ACC or ON, you should hear the relay click closed, and you should measure nearly zero resistance between G and diagonal L. Like less than one Ohm. Or you could open it up and have a peek inside. Whatever is easiest. * Note that this test method assumes that relay doesn't power a whole bunch of other stuff other than just the blower motor. I didn't dig through the wiring diagram enough to know for sure, but I think this should work.

Oh, and forgot the real point... Unless you're really digging originality and crave the park function, I would just clean everything up and put it back together and forget you ever saw that spring. Make sure you take apart and clean all the crusty grease and corrosion out of the wiper stalks. That's where the real problem probably lies. Use waterproof grease and get new rubber shoes-booties.

That spring is a rotational "clutch" that engages when the motor rotates in the reverse direction to "park" the arms. You might ask... Rotates in reverse? Park? WTF is that all about? Z Trivia - An almost long forgotten feature of the wipers is the "park" function. When you turn the wipers off, the motor spins one extra final rotation in reverse and that spring clutch engages (like a Chinese finger torture grabber) and "parks" the wiper blades in a lower position than they normally wipe in. However, at this time, everybody's springs look like your do and have the little tab has rusted and snapped off, and the park feature no longer works. At this point, I believe just about 100% of Z owners has had his wiper arms off for some reason over the years and they all have just repositioned their wiper arms so the at rest position is where they want it, and never even ever knew there ever was a park function. Why and how do I know? Because a buddy of mine and I went through the same thing a couple months ago and he dug into it and turned up the existence of this long lost function. He re-formed the broken off tab on his spring and I bet at this point, his park function is the only one on the planet that works. There are a coupe old threads on-line on one of the forums (don't remember which) that talks about the park function. Might be someone who changed over to the Honda wiper motor and was wondering what all the wires were. There is also some talk about it in the FSM.

Haha! Yeah, that works, but the one I was thinking of was: Have you ever noticed how anyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone driving faster than you is a maniac? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWPCE2tTLZQ Long live the Carlin.

Haha! Have label maker. Must use it! Just kidding. I feel that you can't have too much explanation. I've opened things up sometimes and seen scrawled writing inside things like that relay. And the scary part is... it's my handwriting, but I don't ever remember being in there before. At least with a label maker, you have plausible deniability! So if the relay is clicking when you turn the key to ACC, now I'm almost ready to condemn the relay. I suspect the contacts inside are burned up or so dirty they can't supply the motor with the necessary current. You can probably open it up. Most of the relays of that era have little bent in tabs on the underside that you can easily unbend to pull the shell off. But before you do that... Are the contacts on the other mating half of the relay connector as clean as the side in the pic? If so, they look fine.

I'm considering a throttle cable upgrade and I'm soliciting input. I searched around a little and the ones I've seen attached to the throttle linkage in the engine compartment. That works fine, but has anyone gone whole hog all the way to the pedal? Has anyone connected the cable directly to the gas pedal and completely eliminated the stock linkage? (PS - I know this is a fuel related question and I put it in general. I didn't want to put it in the carbs or FI sub-forum, because what I'm looking into could pertain to either.

A fresh set of eyes often brings new insights. The best solution would be for ramsesosirus to knock out a bunch of OEM shaped shims with the laser table (even though he is out of the woods with his squeal gone). Then offer them to members. I can bend the tabs myself.

OK. Just checking. It's my calling.

Captain Obvious wants to know if you remembered to put oil in the trans after you were done with the install.

Yes, to you and all the others in the path of this upcoming storm. Stay safe, and I hope everything is OK. Now is when you are glad you didn't buy that place right on the beach, huh?

Yeah, a little creative license there. I was guessing from the on-line pics that the shims went all the way to the bottom of the pads. Give 'em a try! Might be enough coverage! Can you tell (from memory?) if they are thicker than the originals? They look thicker in the pics although it might just be a burr from the cutting process. Or the paint?

Oh, and don't worry. We'll get you into late fall! In fact, you already have a workaround. Just keep that L to G jumper in place and make the promise that you will never ever ever forget to turn the fan switch to OFF when you park the car so you don't drain your battery.

First off, just a point of clarification... You said that when you jumper L & G wires "the fan runs at full speed". Do you mean that 1) the fan runs at top (full) speed all the time, regardless of the position of the fan speed lever? Or do you mean 2) the fan runs at the correct speed (depending on the position of the speed lever) and by "full" you mean "not sluggish". I'm assuming "2", and I will move ahead based on that assumption, but I just wanted to check. So assuming the fan behaves "correct" with the jumper in place, that's good, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the relay is the problem. There are still other things that could be causing the issue, although the relay is suspect. So with the relay connected as designed, you should be able to hear (or feel) it click when you turn the key from OFF to ACC or ON. You should also be able to measure the voltage on the other L wire (not the diagonal one, but the other one) go from zero to battery voltage when you turn the key to ACC. This other L wire is the actuation control wire and it should have 12V on it any time the key is in ACC or ON. When this happens, the relay should click closed. Can you snap a picture of the relay? I'm still unclear how it makes it's connection to ground, and that could be a problem area as well. It appears to be internally connected to it's metal shell and that shell is then screwed to the body where it mounts? I'm not yet ready to condemn the relay, but if you do get to that point, I don't see anything special about it. I think it would be easy to replace it with something generic.

That's what I do as well. After getting a couple speeding tickets in my past, I now pretty much lock my speed right at six miles an hour over the limit. Unfortunately that isn't enough for some drivers behind me. If the guy behind me is really being a dikk, I slow down to exactly the limit. They usually get the message and accept six over. Another facet that drives me nuts is the guy who rides your butt even when there's another car in front of you. It's not like the guy behind you would be going any faster even if I wasn't there. They would still be limited by the next guy. And the next. And the next. A-holes... all of them. I hate everyone. Remember what George Carlin says?

Nick, That device is part of the air conditioning system and is known as the FICD, or "Fast Idle Control Device". It's purpose is to pull on the throttle linkage a little bit when the air conditioning system is turned on to account for the load of the A/C compressor.

That white wire should have a strong healthy 12V on it any time the key is in ACC or beyond, regardless if the fan switch is turned on or not. So there's clearly a problem on the power delivery side of things. You have "some" power at that white wire, but it's not a good strong connection. First, I would make sure the fuses are good. I think heater is powered by either the third or forth one down on the left column of the fuse box, but while your under there, you may as well take a good look at every fuse. Take them out, look at them in good light, and gently clean up the brass fingers of the fuse block. If all the fuses are proven to be good, I would take a look at the "power relay". (The device in the lower right of the diagram you posted.) If that relay is having a problem like a bad ground connection, or dirty contacts, then the fan won't get strong power. Is that relay screwed to the body? If so, that's how it makes ground connection. Make sure that isn't dirty. For testing the power relay you could jumper it out of the circuit by connecting the L wire to the G that diagonal from the L. If you do that, it shouldn't matter whether the key is ON or not, and the fan should get power. Good luck with the troubleshooting, and let us know what happens.

I'm assuming the fender liners are high density polyethylene, or polypropylene. ABS would not be a good choice there because it's probably too brittle.