Captain Obvious

The normal saying is "pics or it didn't happen", but in this case, I trust you completely. And thank you. Nice pump. Does the check valve work?

Looks great. I did the same thing with my headlight switch and the lettering came up much nicer than it was when I started. It was hard to believe how white they got after all these years. What I thought was faded yellow paint was, in fact, murky brown muck covering bright white paint. In fact, no competition intended, but I think mine came out better than yours did. Mine may have been in better shape to start with? I know I used an old toothbrush just like you did, but I don't remember what I used as a fluid. It may have just been water, or it may have been the lightly ammoniated window cleaner, or it may have been armor-all. I'll snap a pic when I get a chance, and I believe I've got another spare stalk still dirty in a box somewhere. I'll try to recreate my success and if I can, I'll let you know what worked for me.

Before I clicked my connectors back into that holder, I filed the retaining lip tab things down a little. Not enough that the connectors pop out by accident, but enough that there's not as much drama in the future if I ever need to get them back out again. Been so long that the details are fuzzy, but I may even have carved off some (but not all) of the retaining tabs. And unfortunately that was before I started taking pictures of everything so I don't have any shots either. I do know that there was no way I was going to go through that again!

Bonus points and hazard pay if you can get a shot of you riding one of those awesome looking remote controls.

I haven't seen nylon insert style locknuts on the (stock) Z either. All the suspension stuff I've ever messed with were the distorted-thread style. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen the nylon insert style used on the suspension of any vehicle ever. It's always one form or another of the all metal distorted thread style. I'm no Z genealogy or history expert, but if you've got nylon insert locknuts on your suspension, I'm skeptical that it came from the factory that way.

What Zed said. For those of you who have not had the pleasure... Getting the connector shells out of the holder block is a royal PITA. With enough time, contortions, and small thin bladed instruments, I succeeded at getting mine apart, but it was a frustrating ordeal. Something so seemingly simple and ordinary, well.... isn't. So if you're planning to pull the main engine compartment harness out of the car, be ready to deal with that.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I was wondering if the squeaking you had was from not having the bolts tightened down proper. Glad to hear (get it?) you got it figured out.

Haha! I love that Pinto pic.

Jeremy, Lube on the ID of those bushings is OK. In fact, I would recommend it. You don't need it in there for the lubrication properties (because there shouldn't be any relative motion), but it will help with corrosion resistance and to help keep water out of that area. And a little lube on the end faces where the big washers contact the rubber wouldn't be a big deal either as those surfaces do slide. I would use silicone lube though, not anti-seize. If you get the rubber bushing "wings" in the proper locations and torque those big bolts down tight to spec, you shouldn't have to worry about the bushings spinning in the bracket. Are you sure the squeaking is coming from the rear inner bushings?

Maybe it's just camera angle. I just took a look for other similar pics and it could just be from the way the camera isn't dead-on towards the end of the shaft. If it rotates straight and you can't wiggle the top around with a pair of needle nose, then maybe it's an optical illusion.

I just took a fresh look some of the FSM's and I didn't see that plate adjustment procedure documented anywhere. I didn't know what to do with them either, and it just seemed to make sense. It's nice when you guess right! Chris, Yeah, that distributor drive shaft looks funky to me... Isn't there some kind of bearing boss feature on the top of that shaft that is supposed to locate in a hole in the front cover? It's been to long since I had mine out, so I don't remember the details, but I can't believe they let the top of that thing flail around. There's got to be some kind of bearing surface. Maybe the oil pump drive shaft is too far down? Is that even possible?

I don't know how you're "really" supposed to handle those two timing adjustments, but what I did with mine was a little "backwards". I locked the R/A indicator just like you have in your pic with the indicator line centered at zero (between R and A). Then I hooked up a timing light and timed the motor using the underneath adjustment such that it was spot on and then locked down the underneath adjustment. And from that point forward, if I'm going to make any adjustments, I'll use the top adjustment. My thought process is that now that I've got it set like that, I can pull the distributor and put it back on and just use the scribe line indicator marks to get it very close to correct. And if for some reason that I want to retard or advance it a little, I can use the guide scale to gauge the relative magnitude of the adjustment. Also... Is your upper tip of the distributor shaft really off center in the hole or is that an optical illusion caused by camera angle? If it really is off center as it appears, you might want to look into that.

Haha!! OK... Who's the wise guy? I check the mail, and this package was just delivered.

I understand about wanting the extractor tools and good luck with the project. With the exception of the big ECU connector, I redid all the connectors on my EFI harness a while ago and have been very happy with the outcome. Reliable and predictable. Nothing intermittent, and nothing that I have to question as to the integrity. That kit from ebay gives you the option of splicing wires or pulling the contacts out of the housing and crimping new contacts directly onto your wires. Either way should result in better connections. Just make sure you clean the male contacts in all the mating parts. Having fresh clean female contacts in the shells being mated to green corroded pins in things like the AFM and WTS won't do you any good.

"Nut Cutter Nonpareil" Title accepted with honor. I'm not sure if neglected is the right term, but there are definitely things I had intended to do to my Z this off season that I haven't gotten to. And I'm running out of time before it's not "off season" anymore. Hopefully in the next week or so I can get some Z work done!

I like it too and can think of a couple reasons why one might want to do such a thing. Compression test? Checking the oil pressure? Making sure the applicable cam oiling features flow correctly? My question is why didn't you make the adapter so it went on the outside of the bell housing area instead of behind the flywheel? That way, the thickness of the material wouldn't matter. Was it just because the plate required would need to be wider than what you had laying around?

Yeah, that AFM connector without the retaining clip is probably why the OP's connector looks like. I did my harness rebuild two years ago maybe, and I don't think my AFM connector clip was missing, but I didn't put it back on for that pic. It's probably in the bag with the rest of the connectors I replaced. As for which cars the connectors came from? It's a non sequitur. I bought those connector shells new, not from donor vehicles. I wasn't' sure which style I would like the best but in the end (since I didn't have a rubber boot that fit either of them) I used the style with the secondary retaining lid as insurance to help hold the contacts in place.

Well of course there's a little "blackmail" in the desire to get his car working. We bought it as a severely overheated, non-running derelict, last fall with the intention of repairing it for him to drive. And I made it clear to him that while I would eventually get around to working on it, things would definitely progress faster if HE were to take matters into his own hands to do some of the work. In other words, the more sweat equity he expressed, the faster the job would get done. Not only would it be more hands turning wrenches, but his interest sparks my interest. And working with him went really well. I don't know if he'll ever turn into a hard core gearhead, but his ability to pick up the concepts of this kind of work has been excellent. I can explain things to him with hand motions, analogies, some physics, and he gets it. We were pretty deep into this engine and when he turned the key for the first time after all the parts went back together and it actually started? He was a happy boy. Haha!! And remembering back, last fall, I used his car to help me get a couple things done on OTHER cars in the family. The family truckster needed front brakes, and my daily driver Civic needed an oil pan gasket (I'm really down on Felpro at this point). I told him we couldn't put his car into the garage bay until those other two things were done since they were higher priority. But this thread is about lug nuts... This is my favorite pic. If you look closely, you can see wispy smoke trails from hot chips and some cutting oil:

I found my box of connectors and snapped a couple pics. Here's some options for AFM connectors. Original brittle shell and cracked dry-rotted boot on top, and two new options below: The bottom left has a boot retaining feature similar to the OEM connector shell, and the one on the right has a redundant contact retaining hinged door to help hold the contacts in place: Here's another shot so you can see how the hinged contact retaining lid works:

Awesome. Car looks great and I'm glad I could participate in this secret project! My kid had me chained to his car (not a Subaru, but a Hyundai Tiburon) in an effort to keep me working on it, but he underestimated my lock picking skills. When he left for school, I picked the lock, shed the chains, and snuck out of the garage and into the shop where the lathe is to cut some lug nuts. As for the kid's car, I'm trying to have him do whatever he's capable of. I did all the delicate valve work, but he's doing a lot of the work. And for an update on progress... I've got all the valves back in the head, the head back on the car, and we started it first time yesterday. Runs great!! Couple small issues to deal with, but it's alive!!! This pic is close to the beginning of the job before we pulled the head. Here he is doing a little wrench turning while my Z sits neglected in the background:

End is in sight? Ummmm.... Not until the cloud clears!!

If it's not too late, you might want to order a couple extra of the crimp contacts in case you get a couple that you have to re-do. I don't know how much experience you have with that kind of work, but it often requires "the knack". Wouldn't be surprised if you got a couple crimps that don't turn out as nice as you wish until you Get The Knack. I think I've got some of those kinds of parts in a box somewhere... If I can find that box, I'll take some pics of what I have. Also, out of curiosity... If you're putting new crimp contacts on the wires, then what do you need the extractor tools for? The old contacts are all green and corroded anyway. Aren't you just going to clip them of the ends of the wires?

Well said. Once I started taking stuff apart, I couldn't stop. Now I not only want to know... I simply HAVE to know. But whatever works for any individual... If you want to take your car to a shop, then more power to ya! If you want to try it at home, that's great too!

Yes, front toe is the only adjustment, but it IS a little more complicated than that. You could have the front toe spot on but if the line through the center of the front toe isn't parallel (or coincident) to the thrust angle from the rear wheels, the car will pull when you let go of the wheel. You have to take the thrust angle into account too and compensate for it or the car will drift. But that's why you can succeed with just the tape measure on the treads... If you complete step one "make the car go straight when you let go of the wheel", you have successfully got the front toe aligned symmetric to the thrust angle. And after that, there's the matter of putting the steering wheel straight. I guess you could consider that a cosmetic issue, but my little engineering brain can't deal with driving a car where the wheel is all wonky even if I know the underpinnings are working properly. Just can't handle it.

I agree completely. It comes down to the skill, understanding, and patience of the person doing the work. The best laser guided rack on the planet can't overcome everything that a hurried, inexperienced, and probably creatively uncaring tech can come up with. Technology can help make it idiot proof, but nothing ever is completely. If you are going to measure and adjust the rear alignment, then you need more than just a tape measure, but if all you can adjust is front toe, then you can get an accurate thrust angle compensated alignment with the tread measuring method. Just have to understand how and why.