Captain Obvious

About time you started posting! The short story here is that I unfortunately had to relinquish ownership of my father's 260Z because I wanted to drive a Z car again before I joined my dad in the hereafter and I wasn't sure I had it in me to go through the amount of time, effort, and expense to finish that project. Thankfully a very long time buddy of mine GGRIII (Gary who some of you met in Toronto) had coveted the car ever since the first day he saw it on a fishing expedition and jumped at the chance to buy it. I'm embellishing a little of course, but the good part is that even the car isn't under my ownership anymore, it's still "in the family" and I still get to have a hand in the reconstruction. GGRIII thankfully has more resources to work on a project of this magnitude, and I'm thankful that my father's old car has found such a wonderful loving home. I bought my current 77, and Gary bought my 74. I am honored! My dad is honored! And I can't wait until I get to drive it again! The car has gone from this running and driving rough example: Through this: And this: To come out the other side as this: Not done yet, but this is the fun part!

Wait a minute... I just took a quick look at mine, and the screw goes all the way through. So if the collar is threaded on the FAR side, then there shouldn't be any burrs. It just passes through a hole in the rod and picks up the threads on the far side. And the collar is split. I can't believe you can't just tap that thing off. Famous last words from someone who hasn't tried, right?

Yeah, then there might be a burr on the shaft as well that might complicate matters. Let's hope they put a flat spot on the shaft where the setscrew contacts to account for that. Pet peeve of mine - Setscrews directly on shafts with no provision for dealing with the burr... Hopefully they didn't do that.

Nice. I'd eat off that. Is that some sort of anomaly between cylinders 4 and 5, or just a trick of the light?

Cool. So mine is stock, but my tamper resistant clip has walked off somewhere over the years. Note that in 78, they changed all that (except for California). In 78 they cheapened up the BCDD and removed the altitude compensating portion off the bottom for everyone except CA. Presumably, either they argued that only CA had enough "in-state" altitude changes to warrant the compensator, or they just decided that it would be more costly to go through all the CA qualifications and certs so they just left that state alone. Anyway, the whole thing got shorter, and the adjustment screw looks different. I have a non-CA version here if someone wants to see that.

I haven't done it myself, but I second Zed's assessment. Once you loosen the screws, the collars should slide along the rod. Does the screw thread into the collar itself, or is the hole in the collar a through hole and the screw threads into the throttle rod? I ask because if the screw is threaded into the collar and the tip of the screw presses against the rod when tight, it may have kicked up a burr where the screw tip deformed the rod.

If I only had a pair of bushings from which to take measurements.....

Can't wait to see what it looks like after the dip! Hopefully there's metal under that paint and undercoating. The new owner of my old 260 has claimed that the only thing holding the car together was the tar undercoating...

I don't know if it's stock or a PO mod, but I've got a Nyloc style lock nut on mine. Small open end wrench on the flats of the adjuster screw, back off the lock nut a little, turn the adjuster with the open end wrench, and then retighten the lock nut.

Great! Wonder why it was so far out of whack... Do you think the PO was in there messing with things? And as for the suspension, I went through all mine a while back, and the night and day difference was amazing. It's so much better now!

Yes, you can get springs made out of stainless. I'm no spring or materials expert, but I'm assuming you give up some performance in other areas as a trade off for the corrosion resistance, but this doesn't appear to be a very demanding application. I bet someone who knows what they are doing could design a stainless version that would work. I've never messed with the early vent system ever, so I know nothing about it... It would be easier to make if it were a simple U shape instead of having that extra radius at the root of the clip on the one side. Is that feature important? Does the clip need to clear a lip or something there? Another idea is that similar clips (speed nuts, barrel nuts) are very common items. Maybe you could find one in suitable size and grind the hole out to a size that will accept the original clips that grab the posts?

Haha!! I was wondering what the view was from the land of ice and snow.

zed2, I don't think the first tape you listed is a good choice. It doesn't appear that it's for wrapping harnesses... It appears it's for attaching already wrapped harnesses in place so they don't flop around. It uses the very sticky acrylic adhesive like they use on foam mounting tape: Recommended Applications Bonding of cellular urethane, polystyrene and polypropylene parts Securing wire harnesses to headliners Bonding impact relaxation pads to door panels Attaching interior trim The second choice might be OK, but tough to tell since there's no real info on the product. As a matter of fact, if you take a look at the pics of the rolls, you can see that they even peeled the cardboard off the inside of the spools so you can't see the manufacturers name and part numbers and figure out who it's from. All you know is that it's impossible to find except through them, and it's 100% correct for all years 1955 to Present. Marketing...

Charles, I was hoping you would see this thread. I remember you were having troubles finding those things.

I wrapped my entire engine bay harness (from under the dash to the coil and both headlight stubs), and I used just over one roll. Point is... I've got some left over from my work, and you're happy to give it a try. Use what you need and send the rest back? If you're just doing some stuff over by the coil, you won't need much. Elliot EE 201. LMK if you're interested.

Beautiful. And may I be first to suggest that it's "built like a tank"?

Wait.... Before we continue to have fun at someone else's expense. Is your wife from Tunisia?

HAHAHAH!!! I completely missed that! Just goes to show how the human mind provides closure! But after seeing the definition, I'll leave it to the author to determine if it was intentional or not. LOL!

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't let you anywhere near the vat of boiling acid. Maybe at a distance with some telephoto. Love the pic of the roof! I've got a buddy who had one of his knees operated on and before the operation, he wrote with Sharpie on the good side "WRONG KNEE!!!"

Actually, to the contrary: The headlight upgrade won't do anything to change the overall total requirement. The original system was already designed to provide power to headlights, so it doesn't change your total draw from stock. And in addition to that, if you do the upgrade with the purchased plug in harness, it will reduce the load on the fusebox because the high current part of that system will come directly from the battery through new wiring that includes a new fuse for the headlight current. I haven't actually researched the power draw of devices you plug into them, but USB plug draw might be ignorable. Any idea what power you will pull through those? You already have a heater fan and the original system was designed with that in mind. So the same thing applies here as to the headlights. Doesn't change your total draw from stock. Changing to LED lights anywhere will be a system current reduction, not increase, so no alternator upgrades needed for that. Bottom line with your list so far? You're adding seat heaters and need to account for that. And if your LED lights reduce the system draw by the same amount that the seat heaters increase it, you're at a net zero change and don't need any alternator upgrade at all. You have to pay attention to the wiring to the seat heaters, but so far, you might not be needing anything more than stock.

Those lines look great. My PO redid mine and didn't do a great job like you have. I wish mine looked like yours! And it looks like your straightener did a great job as well. The straight sections look.... straight!

When I lowered my parking brake handle, I didn't need to add anything to the adjuster rod. Thankfully the rod already had enough adjustment length that all I had to do was readjust the linkage, but didn't have to modify it any way. Hopefully granny will have the same ease in that regard. The return spring I was talking about was something that I added at the base of the handle assy inside the car. More details in this thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/49952-parking-brake-handle-return-spring/ But here's one pic:

Good point. I also wouldn't be surprised if there were other technological advances over the past forty years as well. More pure copper. CAD assistance for mag field design. More efficient internal regulators.

I bought a couple rolls of the no adhesive loom tape for when I redid my engine bay harness. I used Elliott Tape EE 201. It worked really well, but there were a couple things I did notice. First, I tried to purchase something that had the same gloss (or lack of gloss) as the original stock wrap. But even though I tried to duplicate the original finish, the stuff I ended up with is glossier than the original wrapping tape. And it's more than just "new and clean"... It's glossier. Not a huge amount, but if I was judging the car for originality, it would catch my attention and I would ding it for that. Second, I've come to the conclusion that the original wrap DID have some kind of adhesive on it. Not the thick rubbery smeary adhesive on the ubiquitous 3M 33+ electrical tape, but I really think there was something there. That said, the non-adhesive loom tape that I used seems to stick to itself quite well and isn't going anywhere despite the fact that there's no adhesive. I have only had it on there for one year (or was it two?) so I can't provide any longevity info. If someone turns up a source for the "real" stuff, I'd be interested in a roll or two.

In theory, the larger armature would take more energy to rotate because of the mass, but I bet the difference would be so small that it would be negligible. Some tiny fraction of a horsepower. In other words, I believe the difference between a 100A capable alternator being asked to deliver 30A is going to be almost identical to a 40A capable device being asked to deliver the same 30A. Now about the other part... Yes, the more amps you ask it to put out, the harder it will be to turn. So a 100A alternator delivering full rating will certainly take more power to spin than a smaller one being asked to deliver it's full rating. Haha! Did I say that right? Only every time I'm driving at night in the rain and a good song comes on the radio. Oh wait... I'm not out in the rain?