540Z

Yup. I'm a dipstick... Red 'n' Yeller wire fell out of the back of the headlight harness connector when I gave her a little more than a cursory tug. A little solder & heatshrink and life is good again! Good thing I had a few connectors left over from a parts car. I've got one of those dual relay headlight harnesses from VB or BV (that company in Kansas now known as Black Dragon), so I guess it's time to install it. Denial is not just a river in Egypt... Thanks a lot for your help, guys! TR

While looking through a schematic in repair manual, it appears to me that the grounds for the headlight system are located near the headlight switch itself. Isn't that kind of odd? Just a thought. TR

Hey Guys, I'm having a bit of a problem with the headlights on my '72 Z. It seems that the driver's side headlight is very dim while the passenger side headlight is fine. If I unplug the pass side headlight from the harness, they both go out entirely, but if I unplug the driver side headlight, the pass side headlight is OK and remains on. I cleaned up the connectors to both lights and checked both fuses and they appear OK. Any ideas? Thanks, TR

I've read the JTR section on tach conversion. The author has the unit hooked up to a GM HEI distributor and coil. I am not familiar enough with the HEI system (which I don't have) to know what that system is comprised of. I have been testing the tach on a frequency generator and have had only marginal success in making it operate, but I know the part did work fine when I removed it form my parts car.

Hi Folks, I am having a heck of a time trying to find out info on how to make a '77 280z tach work in a 1972 240z Scarab convert. The vehicle has a 327 Chevy motor with an Accel 71000 series Magnetic Breakerless (Hall effect) distributor and an Accel Super Coil, model 140001, no HEI module, and a large gap in the wiring harness where the old tach hooked up. I still have the old tach, but I don't think it is good for anything but the housing. Help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Thanks guys, I am currently investigating the mechanical aspect of the rear brakes. It makes sense that the drums could be out of spec.. I assembled the rear wheel cylinders to the vehicle per the manual but it mentioned to set the shoe adjustment fairly close and let the parking brake mechanism take up the slack by ratcheting it up several times. Apparently that didn't work. I can still push the vehicle with the parking brakes set, so I'll keep trying. As for the reaction disc in the vacuum booster, what is its function, location in the booster, and appearance. Nothing fell out while I was assembling it to the vehicle and it holds vacuum when applied.

I neglected to completely answer your question, Dave. The pedal feel is light to about the halfway point, then spongy, pressing almost to the floor. The pedal feels firmer when the engine is off and there is no vacuum applied to the booster. I will try to observe how much brake shoe/wheel cylinder travel exists. I know the parking brake is only holding near the very top of its travel, and I've ran the adjusters up some to try to close the distance between shoes and the drums without much success. The drums seem to be within their wear limits also. What gets me is the fact that all these parts are new or N.O.S. Thanks for your help, T.R.

The brake system is entirely original spec for the car. The Scarab Kit stuff applies only to the drive line (i.e., engine mounts, motor, trans, radiator, frt sway bar, drive shaft, shifter only). As far as the cylinders expanding, they must be a little as they are applying some, albeit slight pressure onto the drums from the brake shoes.

Hi Folks, I have a rather large problem with the brakes on my '72 240z. I'm mostly finished with a resto/rebuild of a Scarab Kit 240z. I decided to replace the entire brake system with all new or N.O.S. parts. I have bled the system completely to remove all air, and even resorted to having a local garage power bleed the system for me. It appears that I still have minimal rear brakes. I only have half a pedal, and this diminishes when the engine is running. This is a completely stock brake system. I really need help with the following questions: 1. Are 7/8" Tokico and 7/8" Nabco stock Master Cylinders interchangeable? 2. What type of adjustments, if any, need to be made to my new vacuum booster push rods? 3. Will a brake pressure switch from an early '77 280z work in the early '72 240z brake system? Does that switch also double as a proportioning valve? Could this be the cause of the trouble? 4. How do I know if my rear proportioning valve is working? At this time, I can rotate the rear wheels by hand if the brakes are applied. Any help or advice you all can render would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again, Tony Russo

Hi Folks, I have a rather large problem with the brakes on my '72 240z. I'm mostly finished with a resto/rebuild of a Scarab Kit 240z. I decided to replace the entire brake system with all new or N.O.S. parts. I have bled the system completely to remove all air, and even resorted to having a local garage power bleed the system for me. It appears that I still have minimal rear brakes. I only have half a pedal, and this diminishes when the engine is running. This is a completely stock brake system. I really need help with the following questions: 1. Are 7/8" Tokico and 7/8" Nabco stock Master Cylinders interchangeable? 2. What type of adjustments, if any, need to be made to my new vacuum booster push rods? 3. Will a brake pressure switch from an early '77 280z work in the early '72 240z brake system? Does that switch also double as a proportioning valve? Could this be the cause of the trouble? 4. How do I know if my rear proportioning valve is working? At this time, I can rotate the rear wheels by hand if the brakes are applied. Any help or advice you all can render would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again, Tony Russo

I am the owner of a '72 Z-car with a Scarab V8 conversion. It has been a very interesting car with a rather unique personality. The car itself has an interesting history, with myself being the third owner since its conversion. The car started out in stock form, somewhere in California. The original owner, a good friend of mine, was stationed at Fort Ord and purchased the car new sometime during '72. The car and its first owner made it back to New York in late '76. The car was then continuously driven by the second owner, the younger brother of the original owner. Anyway, to make a long story even longer, There was a third brother who didn't own the Z, but instead owned a '64 Corvette. This brother left the aforementioned 'Vette in the wrong place at the wrong time. Did you ever see a just what kind of damage a well intentioned, but poorly parked Cement Truck can do to the rear half of a mostly fiberglass automobile? Yep, flat. Real flat. When life hands you a lemon, it's lemonade time. Four of us drunken bozos were sitting around the garage one evening during the summer of '78 lamenting the flattened Corvette and trying to figure out why the Z-car was starting to act like a mosquito fogger when an idea hit. Hmmm, didn't I see an ad in Motor Trend for a Z V8 conversion? The rest is history, or at least local legend. The conversion kit was offered by Scarab. It consisted of pretty much off-the-shelf components mixed with the obviously custom parts. Here's what I can remember was in the kit: 1) Bell Housing. Even has "Scarab" cast into it. It uses the stock Z slave cylinder combined with what appears to be the clutch fork of a 60's vintage Chevy truck. 2)Heavy duty Front coils for the front struts. Didn't work a whole lot better than stock. But, with the addition of Bilstein struts and Tokico coil overs, life got much more interesting. 3) Generic 15/16" front sway bar. I have no idea who made it, works great though. One Word, "polyurethane". 4) A Hurst Competition Plus Shifter with one minor modification: the receiver for the shift handle is moved rearward approx. 1-1/2 inches. 5) A Chevy twin-core Radiator with a large splash pan attached to the bottom, apparently intended to act as a lower support. The upper support is the stock Chevy upper radiator support used forever. 6) Two funky little pieces of steel C-channel that serve as motor mount adapters between the early-style SB Chevy mounts and the Datsun frame. 7) Transmission Crossmember. Looks a lot like stock Datsun, but with a steroidal air about it. Also has a big rubber block for the transmission attachment. 8) Headers. Cheapos, but work pretty well considering the confinement at the beginning of the transmission tunnel, the steering column and the frame rails. 9) Drive shaft. A teeny little thing, mounts very easily, one end Chevy, one end Datsun. It even has greaseable universals. 10) Jeep CJ- type throttle cable. Hey, it works and it's cheap. 11) Speedometer cable. It's some kind of an adaptation. Datsun one end, Muncie other end. I don't ever want to try to replace it. 12) A cute little circuit board that mounts between the Tachometer and the coil. The installation was a piece of cake, everything went together very smoothly. I don't know whether Scarab still exists, but they did make a sweet kit. I have owned the car for the last 16 years and aside for its rusting to oblivion and back, it's still a runner. The rust is being repaired the right way and the car will be better than new. The 327 is being cleaned up and will be a hot runner again. One word of advice for anyone doing a Sb Chevy -Z conversion: don't dump the clutch! Rearends are rare and expensive.