26th-Z

Please clarify the "Brown Bread insulation" for me. What is it? Where do you get it? I'm confused! SOP

Relevant pictures

Lots of electrical questions lately....

I just went through the SportZ article again - volume 4, issue 4, fall 2004, "Crank Up The Power". The article incorrectly states that the 240 -280 Z came with a 60 amp alternator. As I stated previously, 50 amp for most of the 240Z population. The early cars like mine came with a 40 amp alternator. When you add up the amp draw on the alternator, fully loaded, it is easy to climb past the 50 amp mark. Head lights and running lights will draw more than 15 amps alone. Wipers draw about 5 amps. Fog lights, another 5 or more. Electric cooling fan - 8 amps. And finally, stereo system - 20 amps at a minimum. The main wire from the alternator with the fusible link is #10 gauge and is not adequate for current applications over 40 amps. The spade - lug connectors used throughout the wiring harness are rated for less capacity than the wire they service. Their recomendations include replacing the alternator, increasing the main alternator wire gauge, adding fusible links / circuit breakers, capacitors, and addressing the battery capacity. A very informative article.

I think the $470 MSA kit is a pretty good deal and you can get it "stock" if you want.

My parts book shows the Hitachi and Mitsubishi alternators at 50 amps begining 7 / 72. Canada cars got 60 amp Hitachis begining 7 /72. Begining 8 /73, the parts book shows a 50 amp Hitachi for the L26. This is begining to sound like a water pump issue. If the water pump shaft moves / wiggles at all, replace it immediately. Back to the amp capacity thing....There is a good article in the latest issue of SportZ magazine about this very subject. Bottom line is that there is VERY LITTLE capacity to spare in both alternator capacity and wire gauge. I'll go read the article again and report back. This is the second or third time this issue has come up in the last month.

You guys keep your hands off my knob!!! I saw it first. That's my bid and I swear I'll let all the air out of your tires if you outbid me. $15 for an old knob is enough!

Lots of good advice and several valid points. I like the "go ahead and cut it up. It makes mine more valuable" one the best. My father bought an old porsche and was thinking of cutting the top off. He remembers the days when coachwork was typically personalized and is considered quite interesting in the classic collector car world. I told him the same thing; "If you want an open car, buy an open car". On the other hand, many people are constructing replicars of famous Zs that no longer exist. I think it would be a very admirable project to replicate a prototype example, just as it is popular to replicate the race cars. Convertables are popular. Have you given thought to a convertable, MickieB? There is a rear hatch deck component I have seen called the "Pantera" deck. My first thoughts about it were how well it would work with the targa design.

A targa top scheme was thought of during the design process of the S30. Here is a poor quality picture of the C2 protoype constructed aroung June of 1966. The C series of prototypes played with the idea of pop-up headlights. The C-1 was a roadster and the C-3 looks remarkably like a 1967 Maserati Ghibli.

Thanks for the compliments, Ben. The spun aluminum slots on Her Majesty are 14x6s that Rob put on the car about a year after he bought her. They have been on her since I can ever remember. They say "Japan" inside the castings, but other than that, I know little more about them. They are old, have a bunch of curb rash, and when I started the restoration, wheel reconditioning was in the budget. Ok, so I thought you knew I had the Watanabes. This all started when I decided I really wanted American Racing Libres and bought a set from a junk yard in Sanford, Florida. The guy took these nasty old dirty, dusty Libres off the shelf; still with old tires mounted - $400. When I got the tires off and the wheels cleaned, I discovered they weren't a matching set. The junk yard gladly took the cleaned up wheels back and refunded my $400. About two weeks later, I wrote to an add on Zcar.com for a set in N.C. - $350. This was when I met the lovely Jim Edwards who is listed all over the net and I have filed fraud charges against. I'll never see that money again. During that time, Alan sold a set of his Watanabes and made a crack at my Libres falling out of style and wouldn't I rather have his Wats. Last winter, I saw a set listed on eBay. I took the add to a car club meet at ZFever in Tampa and talked to Doug about them concerning offset and we misjudged the deal. I think they sold for $700 or so. With the description and pictures, I struck up a conversation with Alan who taught me more about Watanabe wheels than I could absorb. Then, one early Sunday morning, I saw the wheels I bought posted on eBay. They were exaclty what I was looking for. When they arrived, I was talking to Alan who turned me on to Japanese Yahoo auctions for lug nuts and wheel caps, and I was able to find new lug nuts, new wheel caps (plastic), and the Falcon sticker about a month later. The Watanabes are used, of course, but they are in real nice condition. Very minor curb rash and they have a nice ring to them when you ding. The insides are sealed with some sort of white paint. I should weigh them.

Hey thanks! I like the color and agree they may look good with the green. I also like that dark wheel Jap look - sort of sinister. May have to experiment with it. I prefered this spoke as it engages the rim inside the lip rather than the other type where the spoke laps over the rim. I just thought it looked more period correct. I picked the size for the same reason and they should appear similar to the slots in my avatar.

Sorry, That's the steering wheel for Her Majesty. The original idea was to simply change out a few parts, but now that Princess 27 has arrived, I can do one car each way - stock and street modified. Here are the wheels - 14x6 - and I'm thinking about some 205 - 215 Toyos. I'm going to have the centers repainted charcoal to match the grill and valance - the hubcap look!

You mean of the Momo wheel? I bought this for Her Majesty.

Thanks for the PM larsz

Good looking - wow!!! Wanna trade my mahagony Momo for that? What a nice steering wheel! That is the exact sticker I have, Lachlan. It came with the wheels, lug nuts and center caps when I bought them for Her Majesty.

All of my literature and photographs show the "rubber-base bumber" on the domestic cars, S30, S30-S, PS30, HS30, and HS30-H. I have no photographs of any HLS30 with the piece. It is mentioned in the North American parts catalogs as 62692 and 62693-E4101. I recall the past discussion and it was mentioned that the rubber was used to keep the bumper from snagging pedestrians.

Victor, I have a round decal that says "Falcon - Racing Service Factory" around the edge and the logo in the middle. It is still in the envelope labeled original sticker. What's that all about?

Brian, The door lock mechanism is a pretty simple design. Somewhat difficult to reach inside the door, but what I would call "theaver's friendly" simple. Most often, the plastic / nylon bushings, washers, spacers wear out and the system of bars and levers jambs up. There is no telling why yours won't work. Remember that the locks don't work when the door is latched open. Set the door striker latch cam on close when you are working on the mechanism. The part number for the lock mechanism is 80502 and 80503-E4100. The door handle rod has a screw adjustment bushing on it - 80698-E4120. HO510-21001 is a bushing / spacer as is 80515-N3000. Send me a PM with a fax number and I'll fax you an exploded diagram from the parts catalog. Now here is something interesting I found while searching the parts archives. Not pictured, but listed as Assy-Lock and Remote Control Door 80500-E4100 applied date up to 6 / 72. Remote Control? Wassatt?

I have $1782.50 in the engine for Her Majesty. Around $900 of that was at the machine shop. No serious machine work, just polishing, but the balance was way out and we spent a lot of effort on that. The head work was real simple too. You should see how pretty this engine is.

White Alarm System Sirens Rock!!!!! No power yet? My all time record is now up to five days. I get to cut up a tree this weekend!!!! PARTY!!!!!

That's the siren for the car alarm. Everybody sing along......!

I would think 7 / 71 is a little early, Phred, but I have seen chassis with both the lid / boxes fitted. THe switch-over came when Datsun built cars for the '72 model year. You should write to Beck with your VIN to see how early the chassis changed. I always thought it was in September with HLS30-46001

Hi guys, I checked out Bob Zola's add and noticed the tops of the boxes where the knob attaches looks perfect. Usually, the slot corners chip off, crack and break. I was a little surprised to see them for $40. They could easily be reproductions, but the repro is just as good as the original. The hinge is a thick strip of soft plastic that is pinched along the axis of the hinge so that it bends easily. One leaf is riveted to the lid. The other leaf has holes for a pan head / phillips screw and washer to the body.

This one is a chapter size slice of the 240 Z gossip cake. In the 16 months I have been around, I have seen a lot of funky stuff go on, but this one is really strange. You take care of your deal with Chloe, Andrew. I'm not going to raise hell with her.