Brandy

thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!! I am now going to learn how to work in Excel....

Since I'm not exactly too computer savvy, I tried adding my car's VIN, but was not sure how to save it on the website. Any instructions!

I'll try this too, though I'll also admit that I have reached a slight when-is-this-damn-thing-going-to-be-ready-to-drive, and send you the wiper motor - name me a figure and I'll even pay for it to be fixed. Really!

My 4Runner had the similar sounds, plus it would make the steering wheel shimmy. I had delayed in having the tires balanced. Perhaps it hopefully is something as simple as that.

My husband graduated from the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point and has always sailed on the Preposition ships for the Navy. Never saw him in his dress whites, but they have also 'shrunk' while sitting in his trunk. As for The Wife (me), I've also invested way too much time housebreaking my husband (I'm not kidding, either), plus I can never admit defeat, so I plan to stick around for the long haul...

Ditto from another Z 'girl'. Rather than change the carbs, invest the money in a Factory Service manual specific for the year, and be as specific as possible when asking questions on this board (and trust me, you will have lots!). When I got my Series I Z, these guys were able to diagnose a gunked-up gas tank (had it cleaned out), SU carbs in need of a re-boring, and some electrical problems. I love the fact that compared to my husband's upgraded '69 Camaro, my Z is easy to work on. I also hope that you plan to learn about your car as you work along with your stepdad. (BTW, my first gut reaction to 'my stepdad wants...' was 'Get your own car!'...but then I calmed down) :cheeky: . Lots of people out there somehow think that the only way to get the 240Z to run is to gut the engine and change everything. While it can work for someone with the patience, knowledge and deep pockets to do upgrades, for the rest of us, the enthusiasm for this car also follows into the engine bay. And show us pictures!

Since spiders need a steady source of food, using the bug bomb would be a great way to start. My storage shed unfortunately is home to a veritable colony of Texas Recluse spiders (and I have the resultant scars from bites), and I bomb the daylights out of it once a month. Amdro sprinkled along the wall/floor connection also keeps out other ants, roaches, etc. If at all possible, keep the garage as bug-unfriendly as possible *might* help, even if only a little.

I have a spare...it's missing the tiny screw though, send me an email with your address....

Also check the condition of the hoses bringing fuel to the carbs. When I had the carbs on my Z rebuilt, the original (read: Cracked) hoses had been re-used but not clamped into place.

You guys are great - if you lived nearby I'd make you all lasagna. I went through the tech section, and literally downloaded everything from ZTherapy, it's just the basic simple how-does-this-thing-work that got me stumped. We replaced the spark plugs (the old ones were fouled), ignition wires (the old ones looked literally original), and I got a new ballast resistor since the original was cracked (not sure how important that was, but the new one was only a few dollars). I plan to *try* to use this car a few times a week to go to work (150 mile round trip every day), my commute is along a pretty deserted highway, and my husband didn't want to worry about my getting stuck when he goes back to work (he's a merchant marine). Plus, if my car works, I won't need to use his car (69 Camaro, but that car hates me anyway). We adjusted the idle using the tach and idle adjustment thingy *a brandy-ism*, so the car idles at around 800 rpm (anything less, and she gets rough). It was at that point that we tried to sync the carbs. And I'm not kidding about the guys at O'Reilly's not knowing what the unisys was for.... Thanks guys - now to find another thing wrong with the car....

Hi all... Latest in my slew of apparently simple questions has to do with tuning the SU carbs. I had the carbs on my '70 240Z rebuilt, *supposedly* tuned by idiot mechanic, and now husband and I wanted to 'practice' using the synchrotester. Well, outside of the fact that the 'better' synchrotester by MSA is flimsy (read: broke), the carbs were vastly out of whack (front read 3 at idle, rear read 17). I ordered a uni-sys (sp) through the local O'Reilly auto store (a lot cheaper than MSA, even though its the same brand). Outside of the scary fact that the guys at O'Reilly had no idea what the thing was, I expected to be able to sync the carbs. Digressing back to question: how does the unisys work? We tried setting it up according to diagrams and pictures in both the FSM and Haynes manuel, but the little red thingy sat at the bottom of the tube (tube was maintained at a perfectly vertical position). Yes, car was running, yes, the air filter was removed, no, fingers weren't sitting on anything that needed to move, and no, no directions were included. Any simple ideas on what we are most likely missing?

I have the original steering wheel, plus horn, from my '70 240Z, if you're interested. I restored it to the best of my ability using information from this website, so it looks pretty good. Let me know if you or anyone else is interested.

Well, sort of. I really thought that the rims on my car were 14's, since lots of photos of other Zs with similar or the same rims were listed as 14's. That's why I questioned why I had 13" tires on the rims, and if it was even possible to have 13's on a 14's rim (if in fact the rims are 14's...I haven't the vaguest idea how to measure them short of removign the tires). The tires don't 'look' small, and when I placed the dimensions on the www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html website, it seems as if it's almost the same size (just a bit larger) than the originals. Bear with me guys. I tend to want to learn slowly (this way it'll stick to to the grey matter), and I just got through tuning the carbs and disemboweling and re-wiring almost the entire car (and no sparks nor shooting flames!), so I'm trying not to jump headfirst into the whole tire thing. I like the look of the slotted mags, and would prefer to be able to put as wide and large a tire on on it without having to deal with all the extras of additional offsets, etc, since this would be something I would have to trust a mechanic to do, and so far I really hate all of them near me since they know absolutely squat about older cars. I have no problem holding onto the rims and tires I have on the car right now, since the tires are fairly new, it's just finding future replacement 13's wider than 185 is the problem.

For those of you with a sense of humor.... I am able to get a set of '5-slotted, mags' rims, size is 13x5.5, bolt pattern is 4 on 4.50, backspacing is right @ 3.5". The rims that are now on my car are what I thought were 14s but the tires that are on them are 195/70R13, so I guess I have 13s for rims (but again, not too sure). Can anyone point the way to a website or person that might be able to tell me what size(s) tires can fit on the 'Shelby' wheels, or even if these rims can fit on my car (stock '70 240Z)? Plus there is actually nothing wrong with the rims that are presently on my car, and the tires have less than 100 miles on them (because I've been FIXING the car's entire wiring setup for the past year), so they are essentially new. I just like the look of the mag wheels, and since I'm having to replace the airdam with an incredibly great set of original lower frnt valences, I think that the clean look of the slotted mags might make the car look 'neat' (can't help it, guys; a girl's gotta look good, so does her car...) As always, any advice (be nice, please) would be greatly appreciated.

I'd love to be pointed to someone in south TX that can tint (and hopefully do some bodywork at the same time). I like the privacy aspect of the tint, but also want to be able to see out of my side windows at night, so I guess I would be more amenable to a tint that has a more UV aspect than 'darkness'. I plan to have my Z repainted this summer, and at the same time get all the weatherstripping replaced (apparently it was originally done by a drunk person), and wouldn't mind getting the tinting done, too. I keep a louver on the rear hatch for definite privacy issues, but since we want to return some day to the east and weird weather, it would also help keeping the rear hatch area clear.

I've had that article printed out and saved in my ever-growing folders of Things To Do When I Have A Garage. I'm getting better with my car, in that I can look into the engine bay and at least recognize a large portion of what's in there (though I need to get a digital camera so I can take pictures and have you guys identify some things). I plan to do the upgrade, but not at this point. And the reason that I need to replace the ballast resistor is that it is literally beign held together with duct tape and solder. I DID, however, continue my search for a ballast resistor, and was pleasantly surprised that O'Reilleys has it (Bosch #00802) and that there is a store near my house. So I now have things to do this weekend. ...oh, yeah....yay.....(as I had originally planned to just sleep through this weekend) But as always, thanks everyone.

I tried that same website yesterday, but when I called to double-check, they cheked their own stock and said that they were out and couldn't tell me if the part would even be re-stocked. That's why I hope to get one used but decent instead. And when I've learned even more about my car, I definitely will upgrade it to an electric ignition, since it seems that a lot of 240z owners are doing that. Thanks, though.

Hi all - I'd love some advice on my '70 240Z. I replaced the distributor, had a new ignition coil installed, the SU carbs rebuilt, and spent last weekend sitting in the hatchbay replacing the rear electrical harness so I can have rear lights. This weekend since there's no football, I plan the herculean task of going through the engine bay and tracing out wires that have been painted black and will need to cut and splice wires from a replacement harness I obtained so I can have a neat set of wires (I don't have the intestinal fortitude to dig under the dash and remove the entire setup from there, plus, I've gotten pretty good at cutting and splicing). When the distributor and ignition coil were replaced (they were both shot), I recleaned the ballast resistor, since the ignition coil the now-fired mechanic installed apparently didn't come with one (I'm not sure they did to begin with, though this item shows the resistor with the ignition coil http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7949069225&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT I did get several suggestions to upgrade the ignition to electrical, but I'm the first to claim defeat in doing some upgrades and I hate every mechanic within a 100-mile radius of my house since almost all have managed to mangle my car. Finally to my simple request - does anyone have a decent/unused ballast resistor they can part with? The connections on mine are pretty flimsy, and even with solder holding them in place, I really can't risk getting stranded again at nighttime in my Z.

I'm interested in the lower front valence set-up (3 pieces), or the airdam (if on the car) if it's urethane. Brandy Port Isabel, TX

...I'm getting a headache....numbers numbers everywhere... (This is almost fun) What I might end up doing is either running the 13" tires presently on the car to the ground (shame, really, since the tires are almost new, since I've yet to put 100 miles on the car since I got it - last year(!)), or sell the rims with the tires and get a new/fairly good used set of rims with new tires. Whatever I do, I'm printing out this entire page to take the several tire shops in the area (Firestone, TireRack - their webpage won't give me info on the '70 240Z), and see which is the first one with mechanics who seem to know what they're doing, and go from there.

As far as I can tell, 13"s weren't supposed to be on the car (PO was a cheapo). I'm going to see if I can sell the tires locally (tons of Ford Fiestas around here), and get a new set of tires - thanks, the 'complete' size was what I needed!

ooh, boy, more things to check out. Actually, we (hubby and I) will most likely pull the tires off one by one BEFORE we bring it to a shop (yet another one) to have new tires put on, or at the least to get the alignment and brakes checked. And this page will be printed out and all requirements followed to the hilt. Thanks. But I still don't know how to pick the right size/width tires.....?

Wow, you're quick - and loaded with info - thanks, Carl. :cheeky: I'm going to stay with the rims for the time being (I love th erims listed in the MSA catalog, but I'd have to sell bodyparts to afford a set right now), but since I know next to nothing about tire size and width, I'm still at a loss as to what size(s) of tires I can fit on the car. Considering the constantly-growing list of things to check for with this car, I'd like to put new tires on it, at the same time get the brakes checked out (again, supposedly new, but they squeal like a fatally stuck pig), and a wheel alignment. I live in southmost TX where good mechanics who can work on cars older than 5 years are rare, so I may have to settle for a company like Firestone (who did, to their credit, double-check to see if they can do an alignment, unlike PepBoys, which I hate with a passion). I just can't figure the difference in reading a tire size, like 175/80/14 versus 180/65/14, and so forth. I just want to be sure I have all the information I need before I set foot again in another car shop. I'm going to measure the rim width when I get home, and according to other posters on this site, it might be either a 4.5 or 5, so that's a start.

Hi all - After having PepBoys mangle my fireglass airdam, and then backing off on replacing it (it wasn't new), I'm debating getting another airdam in the future but will be recovering the front with the lower valence. At the time I was crawling under the front end, I realized that the beautiful almost new tires (Road Hugger[?]) are 13"s, which is another reason why the car sits pretty low. The rims are supposedly (the PO has almost zero credibility at this time so everything he has so far told me is suspect - with reason), dealer-installed optioned, and I like them (you can view them at my cardomain site), so I might keep them. However, I'd like to replace these tires with either 14s or 15s (if possible), and done as painless as possible (no cutting or adding of other equipment). At this time I'm clueless as to what would fit and what would look nice. Any pointers would be appreciated.

Hi. Instead of replacing an aftermarket airdam that PepBoys mangled and won't make good on, I'm thinking about replacing the airdam with a close-to-original front valence (three pieces). The better the condition is preferred, and metal over fiberglass. Anyone have the valences when replacing them with an airdam? Thanks. Brandy