Captain Obvious

I just installed a pair of DEA part number A2401 from Rock Auto and I'm not impressed. I had every single one of the problems mentioned above and then some. Here's my product review: The threaded stud out the back was longer than stock, and way longer than necessary. Not that it really causes a problem after installation other than leaving a bunch of extra exposed threads out the back of the nut to get rusty and make it harder to get apart again in the future if ever necessary. But what it does do, however, is make it so that you have to jack up the engine just that little bit more before you can slip the mount into place. I cut off the excess with a hacksaw after this pic, but here's the DEA and the OEM mounts to compare: Next, the DEA mounts have extra rubber molded onto the top that interferes with the location of the U-shaped bracket. A little hard to tell from this angle, but you can see the corners of the rubber don't let the U bracket sit all the way down flush like it should: I trimmed off a little of the rubber with a razor knife, and although not perfect, it fits a lot better than when I first tried. Note the angled edges of the rubber along the bottom: And (no surprise), I also had issues with the locating pin and had to modify it to get the mount into place. I filed it as Siteunseen described above: And then after getting the mount into place, As zKars described above, I discovered that the metric bolts that hold the engine bracket to the mount didn't thread into the new mounts. The original mounts use a M8x1.25 bolt. but the DEA mounts have a 5/16-18 thread. Not the end of the world... I had to go out and buy a new set of bolts to use, but it would have been nice to know that before I smeared the first couple threads trying to get the original hardware to work. Lastly, even after getting the new English threaded bolts to use with the mounts, getting the bolts started was a royal PITA because the holes didn't line up well. I had to loosen up everything including the bracket that bolts to the block and still use a pry bar to wedge the parts around just to get the first couple threads started. In the end, they're in, but it was a wholly unsatisfying proposition. I know "you get what you pay for", but if I ever do this again, I won't buy that brand. Might have been easier if I didn't have the trans mount in place and could get more movement of the engine in the bay to get things to line up, but doing it one side at a time with the trans mount connected was a bietch. Not impressed.

My pleasure. Glad to help. So what's the deal with the distributor block off plate? Is that just to keep stuff from falling down in there until the distributor is installed, or are they doing some fancy DIZ crank pickup thang?

Oh, I thought you could just lift it but it sounds like you're getting the mechanical advantage by rotating over the square corners of the half shaft flange. Whatever the issue, I hope you get to the bottom of it! I remember there was another guy with a similar problem a short time ago... I wonder if he figured his out.

Very nice.

If you can lift the wheel into the correct position manually with your hands, then the problem is in the strut mount at the top, not inside the strut body. Why do I say that? I say that because if the strut internals had overextended then you would still have to compress the spring in order to lift the wheel, and there's no way you're doing that with bare hands. Looking at your pics, the top spring end still looks to be properly seated in the upper soring perch. And if that's the case, you're not going to compress it without mechanical advantage. I think the problem is at the top of the strut assy.

I'm not positive about the seat internals themselves, but I do know that 77 and 78 had a different design mounting point scheme on the floors and different seat rails accordingly. Because of that, the 77-78 rails cannot be used on the earlier cars, and vice versa. I do believe that the mounting points where the rails attach to the seats are in the same positions for all years, so I think if you use the appropriate rails, you can put any year seat in any Z.

I'm not sure if this is the accepted answer or not, but if I were doing that, I would adjust the rear gap so it is the same as the front gap. Split the difference so it looks even?

Honestly, I did it that way because John Mortensen said so. I'm not a suspension guy, but I believe the theory is that you can still get some of the "crispness" benefits of the poly bushing but you don't snap your T/C rods off like some of the folks running full poly on the rods. And except when you're in reverse, I don't think there is any advantage to rubber up front and poly in the back. (Remember to consider the lack of my credentials however.) I know it's subjective, but I do not find my ride harsh in any way. My PO put poly everywhere and I've taken most of it out. All of the moving suspension components (with the exception of the front bushing on the T/C rods) are now rubber. I've still got poly on the steering rack, on the rear trans mount cross member, and on the mustache bar. I've got KYB strut inserts all around. Maybe it's just that I compare my car now to how it was when I bought it. It was a disaster when I first got it. It's light years better now than it was. I'm running stock size and profile tires and also have comfy Fiero seats... Might be contributors as well? I think you should pop on over and take my car out for a drive and see what you think.

For closure, here's some fresh pics of the tension rod bushings showing how the bushings should be installed. Thicker rubber sides outwards, and the washers concave in pushing towards the rubber. Smaller support washers on first and last: Here's how it should look if you're doing half-n-half with rubber and poly. Poly in the front, rubber in the back: And here's a shot of mine on the car:

OK, Here's some fresh pics of the tension rod bushings. I opened one of my new spare packs for the pics. Here's how the bushings should be installed. Thicker rubber sides outwards, and the washers concave in pushing towards the rubber. Smaller support washers on first and last: Here's how it should look if you're doing half-n-half with rubber and poly. Poly in the front, rubber in the back: And here's a shot of mine on the car. Best I could do half blind sticking an arm under there. Wildly snapped ten pics and got one that worked out OK:

With how much harder the poly is, I'm not surprised the poly tube is longer than the one for the rubber bushings. I hope you like that Delco kit as much as I did. Hoping I didn't steer you wrong. Pun intended. So, are you planning to half-n-half the bushings poly/rubber? That's what I did. And I'll snap a couple fresh pics showing the correct orientation of everything.

Yes, it's a recent purchase. I just bought a pair about a month ago. The photo is wrong, but the parts are right. Buy AC Delco P/N 45G25036 {#88913234} and you will receive the kit in my picture, regardless of what is in the pics on other websites. That's why it's our little secret.

Yup. Getting all the hardware with that kit was the main reason I took a chance on it the first time. And then I was so impressed with the quality, I bought two more to put on the shelf for the next time. The bits fit right, the large washers are very stout, the small washers are the right size ID. You might even consider buying two of those kits just for the hardware? I'm not sure you could find all the right parts without the bushings any cheaper (currently under $10 per side). Important note... The pic on RockAuto's site doesn't show the correct kit anymore. The part number is still there and when you order that part number, you get the right kit, but the pic is just the rubber bushings. Good way to keep the good kits available to those "in the know" and not bought up by all the masses.

Blue, Sending you PM.

Bump. (I'm such the conformist.)

I'm not sure I would trust that the length of spacer tube they use for the poly bushings is the same length as the ones that come with the rubber. I measured the length of the tube in this AC Delco kit to be 1.813 inches (46mm) long. You can compare that to the tube from your poly bushings: And by the way, this Delco kit is still available from Rock Auto, and I think it's very high quality for an excellent price.

Nice. Great simple mod to get away from hard to find parts. I love that kind of change.

That's really interesting. I guess it could come down to the pump's internal design. So was the new pump the same brand and style as the old one? Good sleuthing!

Glad to help. Just remember that this is a sample size of exactly one gauge so far. No guarantees that others will be exactly the same. I'm not going to pull my fuel gauge out of my dash to do the same measurements, but I should be able to power it up through the dash connectors above the passenger's knee. I'll do that one when I get a chance to see how similar it is to the one on my bench. My fuel gauge in the car isn't accurate, but I haven't even determined yet if the issue is in the dash or in the tank.

Dave, I took some sender resistance vs needle position measurements off a spare fuel gauge I just picked up. Granted, this is a sample size of one, but here's; what I got. Here's "running on fumes" empty at 100 Ohms: Here's "just topped off" full at 10 Ohms: And here's a whole bunch of points along the scale:

So is he skittish about getting involved with another Z guy after getting stiffed on that 76?

Thanks for the additional pics. Still thinking those intake runners would really look sweet on an L6 engine. Maybe you can do some show-n-tell of the BMW stuff when I'm in the area for Zcon?

Sounds like it's something to do with the bulbs that are dimmed with the knob. One of the dash illumination bulbs shorted inside? One of the sockets shorted inside? Wiring fault? Pinched green/white somewhere to ground? What year are we talking here?

Nice pool pic. Can you spot "your" chaise lounge from there? You know... The one you got stuck to all day Saturday and burned to a crisp?

Great. Thanks for the fuel rail pics. Looking at the intake manifold runners, they didn't do any Siameseing of the cylinders like they did with the Z, did they? They didn't have to because it's a flow through DOHC head instead of having both intake and exhaust on the same side? And that tank looks great.