Captain Obvious

Yeah, I've been incognito. Busy on ten million things, some Z and some not (like the wifemobile). I'm still reading the forum, but I'm not posting much. Surgery on the wifemobile seems to be holding together but we stopped driving it a few days ago (again) because it threw a code and needs a new O2 sensor. Hopefully that's all it is. I've got the Z in the garage, all four corners up on blocks. Redoing all four corners of suspension. I've got two goals for today. 1) Get the Family Truckster back in operation and 2) Completely disassemble the steering rack for the Z and clean out all the old chunky grease. I'm planning to post a couple pics of neat stuff I learned about the steering rack when I get more time.

Lenny, What? You don't get enough of working towards deadlines at work? You have to impose some at home as well? Sounds like great progress. Hope the remainder of the work goes as well!

Has anyone found steering rack bellows that actually fit well? Sounds like Raybestos is NFG and MSA's offering is ok, but not great. Has anyone found something better than either of those?

I guess it's heresy, but I've heard that the filtering performance of those clear glass filters isn't very effective. I've not studied it, so I can't substantiate it. But that's what I've heard. Poke around a little on-line and let us know what you find out. Maybe I'm not judging them fairly?

Pretty much anything disposable with a paper element would be better than those clear glass ones. Most people just use the ubiquitous Fram G3:

I've got both front struts apart now and my springs have 11 (full) turns and had lots of preload when installed, so I know they aren't the shorter Tokiko springs that I've seen pics of. At this point, I'm guessing they are stock and that someone (maybe two PO's ago) painted them red. And to my surprise... The second strut was actually put together mostly correct. Top perch wasn't lined up correctly with the first coil, but at least the order of assy was correct on the second side. That's better than what I found on the first side! Have I mentioned that my PO has made some mistakes?

Yes, those are the filters in question. If you've pulled the fuel line and verified that you're getting fuel TO the carb, but not getting fuel IN the carb, then that filter is most likely plugged with the same crud that you found in the clear glass filter. BTW - I have very little faith in those clear glass filters with the cleanable plastic screens. I don't think they are very effective. And if you find your banjo filter plugged, that would be corroboration...

Thanks guys. I've seen a couple of pics of what were supposed to be 280 front springs and in the pics, there are 11 turns. The FSM says 9.5 active turns. I'm assuming the last turn+ on each end isn't active. I'll count the coils and measure the diameter and post my results. BTW - My PO's skills left a lot to be desired. Everything I take apart has issues, and the struts have been no exception.

I'm doing some suspension work on my 77 and as part of that, I'm replacing front struts. Question is... Is there any way to tell if my springs are stock or aftermarket? The reason I ask is that my PO sprayed the entire underside black, but my spring compressor scraped off a little of the black coating that the PO put on there, and the springs are red underneath the black. I always thought the springs were stock, but who knows what the PO(s) did. And of course, its always possible that a PO painted the stock springs red, right? I found Koni inserts in there now, so its clear that PO's have been in there before me. Hence... Are there any markings or telltale characteristics of the stock springs that would identify them as factory instead of aftermarket? Number of coils? Diameter of the wire used? Top or bottom coil design? Anything?

Only link between rich running and the thermotime stuff is the cold start valve. But yes... Problems with the thermotime or cold start valve could certainly cause rich running problems. I disconnected my cold start valve completely. Both fuel and electric connections. Only thing it's doing at this point is plugging the hole in the intake manifold, and I'll make a cap instead when I get a few spare minutes. Can I notice a difference? Yes. When the engine is cold, it definitely cranks a second or two longer before it catches, and it sputters for a half second when it does catch. Enough to be objectionable? No. I think the simplicity of getting rid of the thermotime, CSV, and all it's associated plumbing and wiring is a net gain. Keep in mind, that I'm not driving my Z in the dead of winter, and I'm in the SE PA area, so if you're trying to start your Z on a very cold CO winter morning, then this may not be an option for you. You might NEED the extra fuel boost from the CSV just to get it to light off, so YMMV.

I've been through the START and AFTER START enrichment circuitry and I would be hard to convince that the problem lies there. That circuit's contribution decays to zero in 15-30 seconds after the key is released. I would continue to concentrate efforts outside the ECU.

Just watched the video. It was documented history in the making.

Yeah, too bad there wasn't a video or anything! How about this. There was so much smoke and haze in the garage that the camera wouldn't have worked anyway. And it wasn't really "running", but was in fact simply "sputtering rhythmically". Work with me here... I'm trying to set up explanation for Lenny to have a second chance to get the camera rolling and have justification to claim it was the first REAL success. :paranoid: Yeah, yeah. That's the ticket!

Lenny, That's awesome! History made today, right? Up till this point in time, there have only ever been two engine control systems used to run a Z car motor... a) The factory Bosch/Hitachi and the MS options. Today marks the use of a third. Smoky and poorly running, but it was the use of a third option!

Still can't shake the old Alfas, huh? First generation Spider. The Giulietta Spider. Before the "Duetto". Before the "Graduate".

I third the motion. I don't know how much moderation is performed behind the scenes, but I suspect there's not much. "Refreshingly civil." I like that too. "Welcome to Classic Z. We strive to be refreshingly civil."

I agree. This is a cool thread. I'm not sure if I've got any pics of my first Z either, but I'm going to look. If anything, I might have some from after "The Accident". :dead: hr369, Looks like something from The Mod Squad!

What he said!! Well, I might not spend as much time on the forum as he does, but other than that... What he said!! Ummm... On edit, I guess I've got a hard time justifying that when I've got three times his post count, right? :stupid:

I'm a little confused here... Who actually owns this car? You sure seem emotionally attached at this point! :laugh:

Cool. Good luck with it and here's hoping everything works out as intended!

Wow... What are the chances?? The window for that kind of damage is like what... inch and a half wide? More than that and he would have caused way more damage and less than that and he would have missed you completely! Those darned younger guys. I think we should get rid of the lot of them. And their Hondas. PS - Exmark!

I've seen a few of the aftermarket needles shorter than stock, but as long as the needle is long enough that there is still needle sticking in the nozzle even with the piston all the way up, then making it longer doesn't really matter. However, if the needle is so sort that it pulls completely out of the nozzle when the piston is all the way up, then that's a problem. Does that make sense?

And I'll give you a different perspective... I would derive all of my analog stuff using precision reference voltages or current sources. I wouldn't want to have to know what the battery voltage was unless I really needed to. You might be able to figure out a way such that you do not care what VBatt was at all. :bulb: I'm assuming there's a good stable (maybe even band gap) reference source used by the on-board A/D's and D/A's? There's no way they're using the digital supply for conversions, right? Use the same or another good reference source to drive the sensors and the battery voltage no longer matters. You might still need to know when it comes to the injector pulse because the opening speed is so influenced by system voltage, but other than that, I'm thinking you shouldn't care.

Lenny, Cool. So do the calculated numbers more closely match your measured? Also, I don't remember where I read it, but I thought the reference was also intended to account for temp drift of the AFM resistance. Let me see if I can dig that up or if I'm imagining things. :bulb:

Great progress! As for the temp sensors... The data points in the FSM for the temp sensors are wrong. Use these instead: Steinhart-Hart coefficients for the temp sensor RTD's. Same ones for both the IAT and WTS. C = 1.89571E-07 B = 0.000257545 A = 0.001305386 Graph it in Excel and you can pick off as many points as you need... You want me to send you my file?