Captain Obvious

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?

When the coil discharges, that energy WILL go somewhere. Physics dictates that it simply MUST. The problem is that if you don't encourage that energy to go somewhere you want it to, it may go somewhere you don't. With a hollow dummy HT wire on the coil, that energy will look for a different path, and you don't want that to happen. It could create a carbon trace on the body of the coil and arc from the coil nose to the body. It could create a corona discharge little plasma cloud at the coil nose and the ozone created could ruin all the rubber insulation in the area. It could reflect back into the primary side and damage your ignition module, condenser, or points. I'm no high voltage expert, but it just sounds like a bad idea. I've worked on a couple systems that even warn against intentional continued misfires like that because of potential damage to the ignition system from the reflections. The title of the thread is "How to Safely Disable the Ignition Coil ", and I believe the answer is "By disabling it on the primary / low voltage side." There are lots of ways to do that, but if it's for theft resistance, the trick is to make it easy for the owner to use while making it difficult for the thief to detect, disable, or bypass.

I agree with most of the above. The alternator only supplies what is needed, and the advantage to a higher amperage capable alternator is that it is CAPABLE of supplying more amps to the system if asked. The original alternator was sized in relation to the expected needs of the original car, and in theory, anything larger than that is not necessary. But, if you go adding an electric fan on the radiator, fog lights, electric windows, a rear window blower defroster fan, or a huge bass thumping stereo system? You may need additional capacity. Contrary to opinions above, I don't think adding H4 headlights should be a significant change from the original system. You're replacing one high current draw item with another one of similar draw. As for the wiring... since the alternator only supplies what is needed, if it's just an alternator capacity change and you don't add additional accessories, the wiring will not know that anything changed. But if you go adding those high draw accessories, you need to really study the current path(s) involved and make sure the wiring is up to the task. I haven't looked, but I suspect availability could be an issue. In this day and age of more accessories is the norm and bigger is better, the higher capacity alternators may be cheaper and easier to find (up to a point).

Hmmm... Not sure I explained my concern properly. My concern isn't when the switch is in the disabling position. I believe it is easy to short the spark to ground. Even on the high side... No problem. My concern is what happens when the switch is in the normal "non-disabling" open position. The concern is what prevents the spark from jumping across the open contacts in the switch (where you don't want it) instead of jumping the gap at the spark plug (where you do want it). The simple answer is "distance". But distance takes size, and size makes for non-discreet. And don't think for a minute that just as long as the gap inside the switch is greater than the spark plug gap that you'll get the spark only where you want it. Not only is high voltage a little unpredictable, but the desire for the spark to jump the gap actually decreases under compression. That means you'd need something significantly larger gap at one atmosphere. So I'm back to a big 'ol knife switch mounted on the inner fender well. Label it "RUN" and "STOP".

Actually, I believe the rivet is part of the current path, so it needs to be a good conductor. Thankfully copper is a common material used for rivets and they are easy to find. Even more thankful though... Replacement used switches are easy to find as well. Probably even easier to find than the correct sized metric rivet.

Thank you! thank you! That looks just like the parking brake handle in my car. it's a little embarrassing when I can't even remember what I did!!: Also what is that residual pressure valve? Never heard of that... I'll have to read up. But in the meantime, won't any residual pressure in the rear lines encourage the rear shoes to drag? Is that an alternative in case the rear auto adjusters don't work right? And lastly... You absolutely MUST get a couple pics of the shell in the boiling acid!! That's going to be a site to behold! (as opposed to a sight to be unseen). @siteunseen

Haha! Well need I remind you that I'm not a professional, so just keep that in mind with any advice I may espouse. May I offer you the use of my surface plate? My project du jour is replacing my original throttle body bushings with Delrin bushings, and I whipped the granite out the other day to check the mounting surface. (Actually, I just took the plate out to take a pic, but it looked wrong naked, so I plopped the throttle body down on it for the pic): I don't foresee needing it again until the spring at least, so it's yours if you would like to borrow it. Like I said, it's no Starrett like the nice one I'm sure you used at work, but it's good enough for the home shop work that I do.

Problem I see with having a way to short the high voltage side to ground is that the spark is likely to jump the switch to ground even when you don't want it to. See all that thick silicone insulation on the spark plug wires? It's there because you need all that insulation to keep the spark contained and prevent jumping to ground. I'm having a hard time coming up with anything discreet that can handle the voltage when it's supposed to be open. I mean, I can picture a huge knife switch with contacts two inches apart, but that's not discreet. I think it would be better to just disable the circuit on the primary side. Is there some reason it's more desired to do the disabling on the secondary side?

Takhli, I recommend that you get yourself a small granite surface plate for that kind of work. Haha! I'm no machinist or engine builder, and I have one. And despite the picture of that beautiful Starrett that you and I would both probably love to have, I'm not suggesting you need to spend big bucks. But I do think seventy dollars would be well spent to purchase a small import. For $67 plus shipping, here's a 12 x 9 x 2 thick example from MSC. "Shop or Toolroom Grade, 0.0001 Inch Unilateral Tolerance, Includes Certification": http://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/00150003 That would be large enough to do things like adjust thrust bearings and check main caps for flatness, etc. And according to your claims about your door, it would certified to be at least twenty-five times more accurate. Matthew, I'm a little reluctant to go into any of the other stuff above because the storm that I ignited seems to have passed and I certainly don't want those clouds to come back. But I wanted to explain that as a fellow Z enthusiast and member of this forum community, my loyalty is to you. With that in mind, I saw a questionable tool being used by someone in your employ for something important to you, and as your ally, I thought it would be a good idea to suggest the correct tool. It's easier to get good results using the correct equipment in good condition. It's the less common guy who can get the same good results from sub-standard equipment by making up for shortcomings with understanding, expertise, careful technique, and of course... Time. Based on the workmanship details posted so far, I suspect Takhli actually IS one of those less common guys who has a true understanding of the concepts behind what he is doing and can get the same results from sub-standard equipment. But even with that as a possibility, I just want to make sure you are getting what you're paying for. It's also potentially future trouble for other people trying to use the same alternative tools without having the understanding and expertise necessary to achieve the desired results. In other words, I don't think the phrase "Hey, take this over to that door over there and make sure it's flat." should become common workmanship instruction in the world of engine building. nor do I expect to find that suggestion in engine building instruction literature. But the bottom line is that I want you to be happy with what you get, and was just trying to help achieve that end

"bench top is a solid core door -- I know its dead flat" Ummmmm...... OK?

the_tool_man, I poked around a little with the concept of using it for an EFI controller. One of the early problems I ran into is that there is a lot of support software downloaded to the device (to make it Arduino) that I'm not comfortable having in a finished piece. If I'm going to trust the reliability of my car to something like that, I want to know what each and every line of code is doing. And with all the overhead and debugging code (that I didn't write) that's required to be in the device, I can't be that sure. That's one of the tradeoffs for being easy to use.