Curtis240Z

The Mikunis have a port for distributor vacuum advance on the front most carb. Also vacuum on the carb is not the same as manifold vacuum and thus most desireable when available. A wideband air/fuel ratio meter is immensely valueable for carb/injection tuning. I used an AEM unit mounted in my stock clock housing for a clean install.

As long as someone hasn't "rewired" the car incorrectly, the first thing to check when you get multiple lighting problems is a bad ground connection.

While triple carbs or injection will give you improved performance when properly tuned, your limiting factor with your current setup is the stock struts. I would invest in coil-over system first as that will lower your lap times significantly even with your SU carbs. Just my 2 cents.

Did you try the remote starter test with the new starter? If you did, then the new starter must of worked or you have a defective "new" starter (providing all connections are good and you have a good battery). You should get a successful test before buying a new ignition switch because this test isolates the starter by itself and if you can't pass this test, buying more parts at this point will not make the starter work any better.

To verify the operation of the starter by yourself: 1. Set the handbrake. 2. Put the transmission in neutral. 3. Remove the small wire that is attached to the starter via a spade terminal (push-on). 4. Make your own remote starter by using a piece of 16 gauge or larger wire crimped at one end with a female spade terminal, at least 24" long. 5. Attach the newly made wire to the male spade terminal on the starter being careful NOT to touch the big exposed terminal right below it (battery positive terminal). 6. Now you can touch the other end of the newly made wire to battery + and the starter should engage the flywheel and turnover the engine. If all you get is a click, then first verify that you have at least 12V at the battery WHEN you are trying to start the engine. If you got a healthy battery then change the starter. If the starter works fine during your test, then your PO is probably correct that the ignition switch is going bad.

The damper and pulley are considered "one part". So when the pulley starts to move you need to change the whole thing.

No, the rubber isolator is vulcanized between the damper and pulley, if it even begins to separate you need to change the whole thing.

Looks like the rubber isolator on your damper is toast. If you use only one fan belt then I would go this route: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/PEM06/10-2139

If it is radiator water, the level in the radiator will drop over time. Another test: before you start the car after letting it sit overnight, remove all the spark plugs. Then have someone crank over the engine while you watch all the spark plug holes. If you see an initial spray of water vapor come out of one of the cylinders, then BAD NEWS you need to pull the head. If it is a blown gasket or cracked head, running it for awhile won't harm it as long as you keep your radiator level up so as not to cook the engine.

The color of smoke will tell you what your problem is: White smoke that dissapates = water = water vapor if your car was sitting around for a long time OR radiator water from a blown head gasket or cracked head. Blue smoke = engine oil from the piston rings or valve seals. Black smoke = excessive rich fuel mixture.

one of them are lefthand thread

Got it: 275/35-15 A6 Hoosiers, flares and coil-overs all I need now is the reclassing.

Okay so the yellow wire is probably going to the water temperature sensor located below the thermostat housing (which connects to the upper radiator hose)

The GW and long BW go to each side of the ballast resistor (white ceramic block). The short BW goes to the + of the coil (along with the coil condenser). The black wire goes to the the - of the coil. If you trace the other end of the black wire it should go directly to the spade terminal of the distributor. (You have a non-OEM yellow wire there now.)

sent my approval in....

The spade terminal on the side of the distributor which is also connected to the the condenser on the side of the distributor should go to the (-) side of the coil. That should be the ONLY wire on the (-) side of the coil. The (+) side of the coil should have two wires the condenser located near the coil and the wire from the ignition. Since you also brought another hot wire to this terminal, the coil will always to energized. When this is wired correct and you still don't have spark, make sure your points are actually opening and closing.

Don't forget to change your flasher relays to the solidstate type because there is very little load on the electrical system with LEDs and the turn signals will not flash now. Here is the link to a flasher: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fspecs%2FCF12ANL-01.html I did all the exterior lights and dome/map and interior turn and HI beam indicators for under $200 from http://www.superbrightleds.com

stock 280Z door mirror, rubber clutch pedal stop cushion on firewall

The high capacity oil pump from MSA is the turbo oil pump. The extra capacity wouldn't hurt your situation, it is just a little more "insurance".

All 240/260/280Z owners who race their Zs in SCCA B Street Prepared (BSP), there is a proposal to move our cars to DSP. This is a great opportunity to race on a more even playing field. Send an email to seb@scca.com and voice your support for this proposal. The proposal is on page 45: http://www.scca.com/documents/Fastrack/10/10-fastrack-jan.pdf

The only downside to your design in my opinion is that copper is very heat conductive and I would want the wires to be away from heat as much as possible. On my aftermarket setup I used flexible plastic wire loom. You can see it in my Photo Gallery.

Thing is, the vacuum line feeding the Master Vac is dedicated to the Master Vac, so whether you connect the vacuum line to the Master Vac or not has no effect on the engine performance. It does however effect how well your brakes work. You can test this theory by capping off the vacuum line to the Master Vac and your engine will run fine, but BEWARE your brakes will be very hard to push and the stopping distance will be compromised! The 280ZX master cylinder is 1/16" bigger in diameter so it moves more fluid for the same amount of pedal travel. If you also changed to a larger front caliper, then your pedal travel is probably too long compared to OEM. So in that case if you want to shorten your pedal travel, the 280ZX master cylinder would address that. Note that the 280ZX master cylinder has the front and rear reservoirs switched as compared to a 240Z so you will have to swap the brake lines accordingly.

Because the fan will be cooling off the radiator where the fan switch is not located, you will not get good control when the engine is off (with an operating thermostat). Changing the trigger temperature of the fan switch will not change things much. I like the fan to come on and hold the engine temperature just below 180 degrees. Moving it higher would in my opinion defect the purpose.

If you go this route, it would be better to have the fan only work when the engine is running, because if it is allowed to run anytime the switch is calling, the closing of the thermostat will interfere with the switch reading and the fan will not go off consistantly.

Did you change the brake master cylinder? If you did....did you make sure the freeplay clearance between the brake master cylinder piston and Master Vac plunger is still the same? The most popular upgrade is to use a 280ZX master cylinder, but the indention depth between a 240Z and 280ZX is different. If you don't get the clearance correct the Master Vac could be applying your brakes, thus stalling at speed. Puncturing the vacuum line would release your brakes, which would let you go again.