Captain Obvious

Well I guess I know less about diesels than I thought I did... Why can't they use manifold vacuum on a diesel? They do generate manifold vacuum, right? I guess if it's a turbo (which sometimes may generate positive manifold pressure) there might be a problem, but is there still an issue on a N/A diesel?

Gotcha! You purposely "preloaded" an appropriate offset into the plates before you lowered the car onto them, So simple... But not obvious!

He was in a lead role in some of my most favoritest films ever. Ever ever. Thanks for the laughs, and RIP Dr. Fronkinshteen.

I haven't read the TSB for the 78 reroute, but I thought the ported boot was a "car won't idle correctly" thing, not a fire safety thing. If the AAR gunks up with condensation from impurity carrying blow-by gasses it might stick get sticky and not operate properly resulting in improper idling conditions. The 78 style reroute of the hoses allows the AAR to pull from further upstream than the PCV line so the air that it pulls from should be cleaner. Both the 78 style and the earlier routing should have the spark arrester in the PCV hosing (which IS a fire thing). I think the "AAR fire" thing was Blue's theory that (however improbable) a gunked up AAR could potentially cause an engine fire if that flammable gunk were paired with an electrical fault inside the AAR resulting in an ignition source. ZedHead, Do you know if that TSB posted anywhere? Would be an interesting read.

I always thought that spring was to prevent kinking. Why not just put on a ported boot and plug the hole. That's what I did. The OCD simply won't let you have that unused nipple sticking up in plain view?

Nice. So how did you account for the large initial squirm without slipping the top plate completely off the bottom plate? Did you lift by the control arms, or is it just not as severe as I'm picturing?

Thank you... Thank you very much. I also do Jive, and I'm studying Klingon. So let me see if I understand this pump thing. On some cars like Volvo, and VW, they don't use manifold vacuum for the brake booster, but instead us an electric pump to generate that vacuum? If that's the case... Why? Isn't it a lot cheaper to just use manifold vacuum?

I've seen that sheet metal plate idea used for people who are doing home alignments. I've not tried it, but it sounds simple enough. I would be a little concerned though that the suspension really develops a lot of positive camber when the wheels are completely off the ground. You'd have to be careful that the plates were large enough to insure you didn't completely slide one off the other. Maybe people jack up each corner using the control arm so you keep the suspension compressed and then slip the metal plate sandwich under the tire?

He shoots... He scores!!!! I've seen early couplers that are a hard plastic material. When did they change to the softer rubbery material? I've got poly in my car from my PO, but I'm just curious when the change occurred.

I think I have a translation: "I do molding of parts and I use a vacuum pump to degas my resin mix before I pour it into the mold. I tried one of those Hella pumps to degas my resin, but the pump was incompatible with the fumes that are come off the mix as you pull a vacuum."

The manual says the needle shoulder should be flush with the bottom face of the piston, not pushed up so that the shoulder is even with the bottom of the groove. I'm no carb expert, but here's some other stuff to consider: The round top nozzle adjusting nuts are M10 x 1.0. This results in .0394 inches drop for each turn. 2.5 turns down is .098 down the needle and at that location along the needle you're running between station 1 and station 2. This means that at 2.5 turns down, the SM needles will idle and no load leaner than stock. It's not until about six turns down that the SM's turn the corner and start running richer than stock. So if you're getting a transition lean pop from no pedal to much pedal, it might be because you're running lean at no load when you're high on the needle. Pushing the needle up so the shoulder is even with the bottom of the groove is about the same thing as turning the nozzle another turn down so that would help. I don't know where you would be on the needle at light cruise, but you might be leaner than stock there as well. Here's a chart I whipped up that illustrates the difference between the N-27 and the SM needles:

Yeah, sometimes everyone uses different terminology than what's in the manual and that can make stuff hard to find. It looks like you have successfully cross referenced the colloquial names to the official manual names. And I found a pic of the plank/dolly combo that I use when loading the suspension. These allows the suspension to find it's "at rest" position before tightening the suspension bits into place. I think this is better than ramps because the dollies can squirm around as you jounce the suspension: Just make sure you block the other end of the car from moving in some way when you do this so it doesn't roll around. And by no means ever try to do this on all four corners at the same time unless you've got a very level floor. DAMHIKT.

The ported version was introduced in 78 and they changed the tubing scheme to try to keep the AAR cleaner. I haven't investigated it, but I've heard that Nissan tried to update earlier years to the 78 style. Not sure if it was an official recall or just "while it was in here" kind of thing. They probably superseded the non-ported version with the ported one.

Gotcha. Stock rubber bushings. Then you do need to pay attention to the order of events. Here's the summary: First tighten up the eight small bolts (the ones you circled). Second, load the suspension. Third, tighten the four large bolts that thread into the control arms. As for loading the suspension, there are several options (ground, ramps, etc), but I do something a little different. I use a pair of small moving dollies with 2x10 planks across them. I lower the rear tires onto the planks/dolly combos and not only does this give me enough height to crawl under and tighten stuff, but the dollies allow the rear suspension to squirm around under load to equilibrium in a loaded position. Kinda like the alignment platters they use under your wheels on the alignment rack, only taller (and cheaper). JUST MAKE SURE YOU PUT THE FRONT END ON JACK STANDS OR AT LEAST CHOCK THE FRONT TIRES. You don't want your car rolling away on the dollies. Also, while you're under there, I'd take the time to loosen and retighten all four of your spindle pin nuts too. They need to be done with the suspension loaded as well, and you don't know what the previous owner did.

Gotcha. Maybe you could use a BMW steering rack instead to compensate?

Are you using stock style rubber bushings, or poly? Because (as Zed Head mentioned above) if you're using poly, then the sequence doesn't matter at all. Snug everything up and then do your final tightening in any order you want to. No difference.

Why were the crossmember mods garbage? What went wrong?

Can't do an episode without "BOFF!!!"

It should go into fifth just like any other gear. Wouldn't be the first time something like this happened... I went to look at a "five speed", and after trying unsuccessfully to get it into fifth, I had the difficult task of breaking the news to the guy trying to sell it. He (honestly I think) didn't know. Boy am I glad I checked!! (Sorry...)

Thanks for the laughs. That's funny stuff!

I realize I'm often the dissenting voice, but I don't like them. I think they look "kids smartphone". Too cartoonish. On the good side, the Kardashians will now be able to communicate using the new images.

Sounds like success! You are the man! I used to be able to do SMT without magnification, but not anymore <sigh>. When doing the small stuff now, I'm doing the same thing you are with a loupe, and it's a real pain. I should invest in one of those bench mounted magnifying loop lamps too.

So what's the other work in progress in the background with the MM wheels and the multi-color paint scheme?

Yeah, from your reminiscing in the injured and bored thread, we know what you mean.

If by unique you mean "there does not exist another one like it anywhere else on the face of the planet", then I suspect the answer is "No, it's not unique". It's not an OEM Z knob from any year... I second Dennis' belief that it's aftermarket.