oranngetang

Kurby, those look WAY nicer than mine, no lumpy ridges or dips, and straight.

I have a gear reduction starter in the mail just to see. My thoughts are compression is higher in a hot cylinder. When it refuses to roll over and you let off the starter, the engine pretty well kicks backwards with some serious authority. I have the SS needles in right now. They work well for driving around town and idle well, but the taper is too aggressive further down. Waiting on a couple of other needles, SM and something else... W02 perhaps. I can't recall, from APT. I'll try ZTherapy on Monday again for the stock needles, no luck so far.

So... I'm still trying to deal with GC about this. Getting some good communication right now, though it's been what, 9 months now? I agree that the struts were sectioned too short, but they keep coming back with kind of a 'you got what's on the invoice' argument. Sure, the springs are the springs that were suppose to ship, but it doesn't say anywhere where the tubes were to be cut, on the invoice, etc... The good news is, with the second set of wheels and tires, the knuckles and calipers have loads of room and the tires fit nicely inside the fenders. The car is still very low, hits every speed bump and can't drive into Canadian Tire, but it's drivable.... A disappointing experience. When I assembled the kit I put the camber plates up top, as they provided no cut out template or instructions but the hardware actually came with a small underplate, so it's not just washers and bolt heads supporting the car... The solution at the time was to send me some strut bars, so I could move the plates under the towers as they're suppose to be, and give the tops of the cut towers a clean finished look with the stress bar plates. I would also gain 3/8-1/2" ride height which would be great. It's been, since last August trying to get these in the mail... The last response basically said, yes we have had them for a long time and yes we're distributing them, but not to you... Will see how things pan out. If they pull through and send me some, great, if not, well... You know where not to shop I guess.

1. You need to unscrew and remove the black damper caps, they're thumb tight and slide out with a damper-plunger on the end, they may be wet with oil, FYI. 2. Unscrew the 3 or 4 screws that hold the dome down and lift it straight up. this will uncover the piston and piston return spring. 3. Remove the spring (it just lifts out) 4. Very carefully lift the piston straight up, the needle is attached to the bottom, so lift straight up until it is free. The centre of the piston where the damper came out of may be FULL OF OIL, so be careful not to tip it by accident. There may also be a plastic washer that sits below the spring, so don't lose that. Those are your needles. If you decide to remove them, note that there is a shoulder at the thick end that isn't beveled. That shoulder must be flush with the lower area of the piston, not the notched out groove it's mounted in. For example, when re-seating this needle it would be wise to turn your jet adjustment nut all the way up so the top of the jet nozzle is flush with the jet sleeve. Slide the needle into the piston, but not all the way, tighten the needle screw enough you can still move the needle into the piston without much force, hold the bottom of the jet asembly UP and lower the piston into the chamber. This would seat that needle at the same height as the nozzle sits, in each carb. If anyone has anything to add or remove, please speak up as I'm new to these things.

I have, several times.

Working on it... I'm finding it hard to believe that the only place I'm successfully having stuff put in a box and mailed to me is from the people that say the needles won't fit the carbs. The guys that rebuilt my carbs can't seem to be bothered to take an order or reply. I've pretty well wasted $200 bucks and a couple of weeks of driving the best highways in BC in the luckiest weather break ever, because someone can't get an envelope in the mail. I'm curious how yours runs on your stock needles, or did Dave grind yours aswell?

Thanks Kurby. I see Rockauto has them for very cheap; cheap enough I'll just order one. They tend to send via Purolator, who just leaves stuff at my door, and/or has their depot across from where I work.

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_14320456598798&key=ae923c8ceda7d3ad0f0ac558ac54d711&libId=i9veh02t0100rmwn000MA9bo4ihkl&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.classiczcars.com%2Ftopic%2F48994-starter-troubles%2F%23entry8&v=1&out=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.biopatent.com%2Fsolenoid.html&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.classiczcars.com%2Findex.php%3Fapp%3Dcore%26module%3Dsearch%26do%3Dsearch%26andor_type%3D%26sid%3Da5a0c881e67d18ab1771b97f5339d59d%26search_app_filters%5Bforums%5D%5BsortKey%5D%3Ddate%26search_app_filters%5Bforums%5D%5BsortKey%5D%3Ddate%26search_app_filters%5Bforums%5D%5BsortDir%5D%3D0%26search_term%3Dstarter%26search_app%3Dforums%26st%3D50&title=Starter%20troubles%20-%20Electrical%20-%20Classic%20Zcar%20Club&txt=Addition%20of%20a%20Relay%20to%20a%20240Z%20Starter%20System For my future reference

On a side not and until I return home, I've been encountering a starting issue with this engine and have somewhat assumed it's just a sympton of a higher compression engine. The car will crank endlessly without issue when cold, however once it's being driven and either stalls or is turned off it can barely crank. The pinion engages and the engine will rotate but gets stuck on a compression stroke and often takes several attempts before it kicks and I'm on my way again. Would installing a new or 'gear reduction' starter possibly help? I should note that for some reason immediately after this occurs, the ammeter shows nearly a full 55 amp deflection for a short period of time and then returns to a normal 5-8 amp indocated draw. I have a 60 A bosch alternator with internal regulator, most wiring between battery/starter/tach/coil, etc. is new. Battery is a fresh yellow top. $200 CAD shipped for a gear reduction starter on ebay from the normal vendors.

The covers will be worth it. Glad to see I'm not the only z with a hood that sits higher than the fenders and buckets. I've even bored out the mounting holes on the hood but can't get it to sit right.

I've been in the Kootneys sitting in hot springs and canoeing, thanks for the link. I'll catch up on some reading. There seems to be opposing opinions on even the SM needle being 'fat' on that first page. In other news, still havnt heard from the folks in Salem, so this evening I reluctantly spent another $100 bucks on two pairs of needles to work with from elsewhere. I have zero luck with US based businesses.

At times I also consider using an 8 lb sledge on the Z. What did you hit?

I think that's where I'm going to end up. Hopefully I can get my hands on 3 or 4 pairs, and work my way to something that works well.

It does not seem these engines require nearly an aggressive needle as what these SS are. I still havn't heard back from zTherapy, but I'm thinking a stock needle might actually perform better than SS or Rebello at this point, seeing as I also need to lean out the mixture screws to the point of idle problems in order to get an acceptable cruising fuel ratio. Currently I'm able to idle ~20-23 AFR, cruise at ~15, accel at ~14, but as soon as I'm close to WOT, ~11, 10, 9... I was ambitious enough to set up a GoPro to review some data this afternoon, but upon reviewing my footage I see the camera was not at all happy with the AFR gauge LCD refresh time. I'll have to play with some FPS settings to see if I can get a reading on that gauge while recording, rather than 1/4 of the display randomly flashing.

Agreed. Stanley, did you try a thicker oil or what? From what you've described, it should help with your WOT transition.

APT's SS needles showed up today, they're about 1/8" shorter than the needles that I have in there but fit like a glove so far. Engine fired right up and idle mixture works well with them, as did prelim 4K RPM without load in the garage. Snowing out... I'll attempt some go-pro/AFR and whatnot someday when it's dry out.

I did a couple of hours of reading yesterday as to what the difference would be. Honestly, everyone is quick to point out the 70-71 needle and the 72 needle (s). I can't find any evidence that the jets or needle diameters/lengths are any different. ZTherapy even seems to say all nozzles are 0.100" as are the needle bases, and the nozzles are are a one size fits, though they offer plus or minus sizes. APT emailed me today in reply to my needle questions to state that only k&n air filters are interchangeable between SU, nothing else. Seems to be some confusion between various sources. I ordered those needles prior to the reply, so if they fit, I'll have to let them know.

A pair of SS needles jumped in the mail from APT this morning. From the chart I posted, looks like a richer needle with cruise efficiency considered. SUmidel never got back to me, and with current events in CA going on this week I doubt I'll hear from zTherapy until Friday or the following Monday. Placed some nuts in pistons around the damper reservoir to limit overall piston rise around for an experiment. Greatly leaning out the AFR at WOT and cruise, but with obvious flow restrictions. Interesting to see how this balance can be manipulated. Quite interested to see how stock and SS grinds will behave.

Nice Zs!

Comparing the SM against the SS and RB needles (what seems to be popular stock), using mintylamb's charting has got me wondering. Both needles seem to decrease radius at about the same point mine do and continue to do so, just slightly less aggressively.

These are the bulbs I ordered. Of the two, the full yellow/domed style was a hair smaller in diameter than the four diode bulbs, but both fit and left a tonne of room between the socket and green plastic domes. The domed style is also slightly brighter than the other, or so it appeared. Dimmer switch is full bright in any position due to the insignificant current draw. The color appears as a white/blue tone, even through the lens ~8000K ish. Much brighter than stock bulbs, though the speedo still seems like it could use more lumens. This is the auction I purchased them from on eBay. 10 of them for $3.64 USD and free shipping.

Words of caution; the widebands will make you look at an engine that's running fine and decide it's got WAY more potential, or isn't running fine at all. Chuckles

@ 3. I've got some reading to do when I get back to the house.

I should amend. 272 variants of 0.090" needles, 226 variants of 0.100" needles and 73 variants of 0.125" needles... If they all 'fit' then there appears to be a hell of an aftermarket variety out there. If anyone has a PDF bible of what the tapers measure, here's where to post it

I gave it a go without much success. Perhaps I removed a little too much material, maybe not. It seems at the point where the engine doesn't want to run do to lack of fuel, I can decrease the jet height by say, 1/8th turn and the revs will increase to the point the piston lifts slightly, which seems to give MORE fuel and it further increases, gets too rich, slows down, bogs, leans out, piston raises, etc... So it'll wander-idle now, depending on how I set it. I'm pretty much at the point where I don't even want to look at the car today as the diff mount has also shaken itself loose again... But, I may try removing the piston spring and placing a washer or two on the bottom, to see if it'll hold that piston down, until there is a little more vacuum. I'll post any findings... Looks like SUmidel has ~120 different needles for their british SUs. Given they come in .900, .100 and .125 variants, would the length be close or the same to work with our Japanese SUs? HS6 needles must be similar if not the same?