landmizzle

Hi all, Based on Bambikiller's advice I called Minilite and spoke with them. The 6-77 stamp is indeed the date stamp for the wheels; in this case, Jun 1977. The "SM" stamp represents the "Sport Mini" model of wheels which are made of aluminum. Thanks for the replies folks. I've updated this thread just incase someone else in the future has a similar question. Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z

Hi all, Thank you to everyone that replied to this ad. I now have a '72 240Z and am no longer in the market for one. Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z

Howdy, I can't answer for everyone but, I can tell you my opinion. I haven't forgotten about the '73 240Z. I simpley not very interested in it. This is based on several reasons; 1) Flat top carbs are terrible 2) Compression ratio dropped beyond even the '72 model. 3) Gained weight. Since you own a '73 please don't take offense. I realize that many of these issues can be addressed. However, it is the above listed issues that turn me off with regards to '73 and I'm sure affects other peoples opinions on these cars. There are some positives about the '73's. They are the most refined cars of the early Z's. Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72

Hi all, When I purchased my first 240Z (may she rest in piece....) she came with a set of Minilite wheels. I still have these wheels and plan on putting them on the '72 240Z I recently purchased. Unfortunately, one of the wheels is "out of round" with a very slight flat spot. I've talked to several places that claim they can repair aluminum wheels. My question is whether the wheels I have are Aluminum or Magnesium. I ask this because many of the places that repair aluminum wheels won't/can't repair magnesium wheels. I can't tell by looking at them if they are aluminum or magnesium. I took them to a local tire shop today and they couldn't tell me either. I'm almost certain these wheels are genuine Minilites. The only markings on the wheel I can find are stamps on the exterior side with the following; 6-77 SM 14x6 1/2x 13 1/2 I believe the 6-77 SM is a date stamp (don't know what the SM is for) and obviously the next sequence of digits is the wheel size. Are there any Minilite experts out there that can tell me what I have? Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z

Hi Brandon, I've put a Petronix ignition on both my 66 Mustang and my '71 240Z. Really, the main advantange is ease of maintenance. You won't have to to deal with points anymore. Dwell angle is constant and does not need to be dealt with. Some/many folks will claim performance increases. I've not seen any effects on performance in the cases of my cars. YMMV. I also like the Petronix units in particular because it keeps a stock look. Most people won't be able to tell you changed anything. The dual points that Nissan put on the automatic tranny equiped 240Z and I believe the 260Z, were not done for performance reasons but rather emissions. In your case, on your '71, the dual points won't help you any. Probably won't hurt either, it's just more complicated to tune. Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z

Howdy, Thanks for the compliment! I found the problem! The front passenger side marker light was incorrectly wired. I couldn't tell at first because the wires where covered in undercoating or some such goo. Following advice given, I disconnected the front marker lights and the problem went away. Bingo! Narrowed it down. Thanks to both of you folks for your input. I really appreciated the quick response. Now, I get to go for a ride after the sun sets. The wife wants to drive the Z now too. She's never cared to drive them in the past but since this ones an automatic, she's all jazzed about the idea. Go figure....... Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z

Hi all, Well, I've only had my new '72 240Z for a couple of days now and I've already discovered numerous things about her that set her apart from manual transmission cars (she has an automatic transmission). One of those things is a dual point distributor. I was talking to my mechanic about this and he said that this was an emissions thing and suggested that I just drop in a single point dizzy for simplicity of maintenance. Has anyone done this before? Would it actually work? Additonally, if I had a single point dizzy in there, then could I not take the next step of putting a Petronix ignition in the single point dizzy? I can't put a Petronix in there now because an ignition unit is made for the dual point dizzy's. Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z

Hi all, The good news is I finally purchased a new (to me) '72 240Z and have her at home. The bad news is I can't drive her at night because the 20AMP fuse to the tail-lights (third fuse from the bottom on the right hand side in the fuse box.) burns out after about 3 secs once I turn the head-light combo switch to the #1 or #2 position. I knew about this problem when I bought the car but figured it was just a bad switch. Nope. I've replaced it and that didn't help. I'm not an electrical expert so I'm hoping someone on this forum can point me in the right direction. Here's what I know. This fuse has a green-white (gw) wire running to it. It feeds the tail-lights, running lights, and dash lights. When I put a fresh fuse in, the dash lights come on briefly then the fuse burns out. The tail-lights and rear running lights (side markers) also come on but are very dim. The front parking lights and side-markers do not appear to come on. I've looked at the wiring diagram and have observed that the dash-lights, rheostat, tail-lights,license plate lights and rear marker lights are feed by the gw wire. The front parking lights and side marker lights are feed by a green-blue (gl) wire. On the head-light combo switch there is a plug that on the switch side has a gw wire. It ties into the plug and connects to a gl wire on the other side of the plug. If I jumper the fuse that keeps blowing, the gw wire on the combo-switch gets very hot and well begin to smoke within about 5 secs. The hot spot is just before the plug on the switch side. I assume a high resistance is developing somewhere in the circuit and thus the smoking gw wire. I really don't know where to go from here though. Does the hot spot develope near the short point? Since the gw wire connects to the gb wire near this point, does that mean there's high resistance in the gb wire? The connectors in the combo switch plug look fine (i.e. no corossion.). All other electrical components work fine including the head-lights, turn signals, etc. The hazard lights worked when I first inspected the car but didn't when I picked it up. Don't know if this could be related. I've checked the bulbs and connectors on the tail-lights, license plate light, and left rear marker lights and they look fine. I haven't checked to the front parking lights and marker lights yet as far as the bulbs and sockets are concerned.I've also followed the gw and gl wires around the body and engine bay and haven't found any obvious cracks in the wiring from what I can see. Certainly haven't checked every inch of wiring yet though. I've considered removing the fuse box and taking a closer look at it but, that will necesatate the removal of the center console. The fuse box from top side looks fine with no melted plastic or corroded contacts. I can remove the console for a closer looks but I wanted to get some advice before I start blindly removing parts that may or may not be involved in this issue. If anyone can give me some hints/advice on what may be wrong or what I should do next to better isolate the problem, I'd be extremely grateful. Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z

Hi mushupork5, Congratulations!!! Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I bet quite a few people are going to follow your example. I know I probably will. Of course with all the junk yards getting inandated with civic blower motor request , the laws of "supply and demand" will take over and the price of those little beauties is going to go up! Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z

Hi all, Here's one link you can use; http://www.zcar.com/forums/read.php?f=1&i=294757&t=294740 You can also go to www.zcar.com and go to their early Z forum. From there do a search with the keywords honda civic blower and you'll get a bunch of hits to look through. Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z

Hi all, I'll toss in my experience for what it's worth. I've owned three Z's since 1988 and have driven them all as daily drivers. I do rack up the mileage. My commute to work round-trip is roughly 90 miles. The nice things about Z's are that they are extremely reliable once you work out the issues of neglect or ignorance from the previous owner. Thats not to say things don't go wrong with them (u-joints anyone...) but, they do amazingly well. I almost forget I'm driving a 30 year old car. It didn't really hit me that I've been driving old cars until late last year when I was trying to get "Classic Car Insurance" on my '66 Mustang. The company, Hagerty, I think, turned me down because I had only one "modern" car, which turned out to be my wifes 2000 Xterra. The rest of my stable consisted of a '71 240Z, '72 240Z and a '86 Ninja 900 motorcycle. I then realized that the "newest" vehicle I owned was a 15 year old motorcycle. Funny thing of course, is I drive all of them daily and they are extremely reliable. They have the added benefit of being workable on even by an idiot such as myself. Can't say the same about the X-terra. I don't even like looking under the hood on that one. Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z

Hi Gav240Z, Thank you for the kind words. I do plan on holding onto the automatic and related parts, "just incase". I'm definetly getting the impression that numerous individuals would prefer that I leave the car as-is with the automatic. I'm curious as to why. I assume because that's the way it came from the factory. Were automatics relatively rare? If it will make anyone feel better, I'm definetly from the school if keeping the car true to it's form with the exception of bolt on reversable changes. Normally I confine my tinkering to suspension upgrades and such.I know the automatic swap is pushing that concept a bit but, I believe it's basically just a bolt in swap with the assorted bits and no major surgery (i.e. cutting here or there). At least that is what my mechanic is telling me. I posted about the automatic swap out in the "Suspension and drive line" forum but got no replies. So perhaps I'm flying blind here. Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z

Hi all, After doing a little more research. I've come accross an article that talks about swapping in the blower motor from an '88 Honda Civic. The article claims that the Honda unit blows quite a bit stronger than the stock Z unit and bolts in almost perfectly. It appears that any late 80's Civic unit will work and one responder was using a 1990 unit. This sounds really interesting. I wonder if anyone here has tried it? Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z

Hi all, I've been toying with sometime about putting an A/C unit in one of my Z's. I know the original dealer installed units were not very effecient nor that cold. I had one on my first Z and it was marginal at best. You cold feel cold air if you actually put your hand on the vent, but asking that unit to cool the cabin was a bit much. I know MSA and others sell aftermarket kits with modern compressors that are more effecient (i.e. rob the engine of less horsepower and less likely to overheat the engine.). However, what I haven't seen addressed is, do these units actually blow COLD air and effectively cool the cabin. I live in the central valley of California where 100+ degrees farenheit is the norm rather than the exception. Does anyone know of a unit that copes with such circumstances and can really cool the car? I was speaking with my mechanic and he was doubious about any A/C in the early Z's. Not because the aftermarket units were bad but, because the blower in the Z just doesn't blow enough CFM to cool the cabin. He said it was akin to turning the A/C on in your house AFTER the inside temperature was up to 95 degrees. It just takes soooo long to bring the temperature down. What has been your experience? Has anyone tried other units? Maybe from Classic Air or Vintage Air? If the bottle neck is indeed the blower, has anyone tried to "hot rod" the blower or install a different fan in the "squirrel cage"? I can live with giving up a few ponies and draining my bank account for some COLD air ( a slight case of frost-bite would be just about right....)but not if what I'll get is just a finger tip cooler. Comments, suggestions? Best Regards, Landmissle '71 and '72 240Z

Hi 26th-Z, I know how you feel. I've owned three Z's now and the most I ever paid up until this one was $3900. That was back in '93. Back then, for 4K you were getting a really nice Z. So, coparatively, I've only paid 1/3 more for this Z than I ever had. When you consider ten years have gone by and Z prices aren't going lower, I feel I got a pretty good deal. Ahhh, the price of addiction. Your right of course, that for the owners of Z's, the edging upward of prices is a good thing. I feel that Z's are begining to garner the respect they deserve and this of course is reflected in their price. Thanks again for your kind comments! Best Regards, Landmizzle '71 and '72 240Z