jmortensen

The yokes on us.

You can buy a used 308 for about the same price as a new Civic. No, that's not a joke. The only problem is that it is harder to get financing for a used car loan and the interest rate on the loan might be higher. But if you don't mind paying just a little more for it, then it's not a very expensive car anymore. Same thing with the Z's; I'm doubting Carl's optimistic view of future pricing for Z's, especially in the US where Japanese cars don't command the kind of prices that American cars do, and even more so in a recession. OK, so a PERFECT series one Z might, if you can find a buyer, bring about the same as a high end Civic at the Honda dealer. You might even find someone willing to spend as much as they would on a new Accord. Perspective sucks sometimes, but that's really where they are at. They are going up in value, but the value of the dollar is going down, and people are spending relatively more for cars today than they did 30 or 40 years ago. So how valuable is that series one Z, really? When put in context of what you could buy new for the same money, not too valuable. I know it's a rarity thing and that new Civics are a dime a dozen, but I just don't see Z cars going to 60K any time soon.

If you've used BOTH adjustments on the distributor (10mm bolt and 8mm bolt IIRC) then you'll have to reclock the distributor shaft where it plugs into the oil pump drive. Disconnect the sway bar from the frame rail, pull the pump off, pull the shaft out, rotate it one tooth and put it back in. This procedure is a LOT easier if you have someone on top to tell you if you hit it right. Since the teeth are helical it's hard to judge if you've moved it to the right position. If you have a helper you can have the cap off and a mark approximately where you want it to be, and then the helper can just tell you if it's right or not.

Bushings are guaranteed shot if they haven't been replaced. You can pretty much bet on outer tie rod ends and ball joints needing replacing too. Search on the bushing replacements before you dive in. Things like poly TC rod bushings can be a problem, as can pulling the spindle pins in the rear to change the outer control arm bushings. These things have been discussed ad nauseum. As to the question about modding the car, make it perform the way you want it to perform. It's your car to enjoy, no point not enjoying it so that others feel better about it. If you really don't want to mod a nice series one, sell it for more than you paid and get a nice series two and mod that one.

I would expect as much. Like I said before raising gas taxes penalizes those who drive vehicles that can actually do real work. Subsidizing "efficient" vehicles exacerbates the problem. Eliminating the subsidies for green cars is a no-brainer, but to really fix the problem lower taxes is the most likely answer, especially in a depressed economy. Pricing people out of the market for gasoline doesn't solve the tax revenue problem. This is really just your standard Laffer curve argument. There are obviously disagreements about where the optimum tax level is, but I would argue that in a state with a depressed economy like OR raising the tax doesn't sound like a good answer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve There are some other solutions: stop spending money somewhere else in the state budget, make the system for performing road repairs more efficient, reduce the number of roads, allow privately owned toll roads in addition to publicly owned roads in the most heavily used urban areas, etc.

There's the debate right there. Is carbon creating a "cost" for society? If there is no cost to society, then all you're doing is needlessly limiting consumers' choices and harming producers' ability to sell what they want where they want.

I just re-read your post. Seems like you posted that a complicated "FIX" would be for the govt to install a tracking system in your car. Fix implies that it solves a problem, not that it is "the dumbest idea ever". As to your gasoline tax idea, I think raising the gasoline tax at a time of economic crisis would be an extremely bad idea. If anything the tax on gasoline should be lowered. Even a Keynesian should be in agreement there. I suppose if you're one of those Gaia-worshipping types, then what you propose makes sense in a save-the-world-damn-the-people sort of way, but I'll be over here countering every vote you make.

Jesus Christ dude! You really want the government to have a friggin TRACKING DEVICE on your car?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?! And you want to tax inefficient vehicles more??!?!?!?!??!!!?!?!?!! Do you not realize that "inefficient" vehicles are likely the ones that actually DO WORK like bringing your FOOD into town and BUILDING stuff and HAULING GOODS around. Let's make those activities vastly more expensive and see what happens to society.

Exactly Bruce. What are they going to do? Inspect every package or shipping container that crosses state lines for contraband aftermarket car parts. This is a stupid idea that is completely unenforceable. Congrats on your mouth-breather governor OR...

He's talking about the module itself. The distributor has the timing curve set mechanically. The module just amplifies the signal from the stator/reluctor and sends it to the coil. I would remove the module from the system just because it is another point of failure. If you take the red and green wire and hook them to the Ford trigger pigtail on the MSD it works fine. Then you can keep the module and a pigtail that fits the C and B on the distributor to the coil in the glovebox. This way, if your MSD takes a crap, you can very easily switch back to the stock ignition and keep driving.

No Udaho.

I think you have two different problems. The toe problem can be a bent control arm or a poorly machined strut with the spindle pin bore drilled at an angle. Seen that one on hybridz.org a few times. The actual amount of rubber in the spindle pin bushings is pretty small so it would have to be GONE to really affect toe significantly. You can put a prybar in there and see if you get excessive movement, but I'd be much more inclined to think that the inner rear control arm bushings would be the culprit, as they have a lot more rubber that may have degraded. The fender height issue could be a number of things, but unevenly sagged springs or a rear quarter that was poorly fixed at one time and welded on too high or low would be my first choices.

I wouldn't hesitate to mod a 260, as they are the least desireable Z in my experience. If you're really looking for a lot of power, there are lots of alternatives with turbos or other-than-Datsun engines. Have a look over at www.hybridz.org. Everything from SR20DETs to V8s of all sorts to RB26s and 1JZ's have been done. I like the L28ET and V8 options, as they are relatively inexpensive and they've been done enough times that you won't really be charting new territory and you can get plenty of power from either.

Anything wider than a 215 on a 7" is really "too wide". You can run wider, but why not get the correct size rim and run the right size tire on it? https://www.hoosiertire.com/faqrr.htm#4

The problem there is how do you get to the original tow hooks? Especially if you have a deep air dam or like I'm planning a splitter, you just can't get access. 1 x 1 x .065 square tube is less then a lb per foot, so with that tube you might add 2 lbs to the weight of the car, plus the brackets themselves probably weigh a lb. Doesn't have to be a huge amount of weight.

It would be far cheaper in the end to buy someone else's restoration than to either do a restoration yourself or pay someone to do it for you. If you like the welding and bodywork and have the resources as Rob mentioned then go for it, but if the goal is to drive around in a really original 240Z there are cheaper ways of getting from here to there.

I had the same thought, and I am going to have to think about how to install them. I was considering adding a cross bar between them. I was surprised at how short they were when they came in though. They look like they'd be 16" long in the pictures, but from the front mounting hole to the tow hole is 4". The whole bracket is 10.25 from front to back.

#9 looks right.

I wanted to buy Brian's tow hooks but planned on modifying them, particularly the rears. I emailed Brian about it and he actually special ordered them without the bend and paint for me. Can't ask for much better service than that! Thanks Brian.

Sounds right to me. I can't answer any of this, I don't get along very well with electricity. Someone else here can help I'm sure. I do know that the stock Z tach wiring is FUBAR. I think there is a tach adapter you can get from MSD, a search should find that pretty quickly. I ran an autometer so I just bypassed that whole thing and hooked the MSD directly to the tach.

If you're looking at a 6A they have a Ford magnetic trigger pigtail on the side of the unit, I think the wire colors are purple and lavender or something like that. This is a separate pigtail from the one that has the wires that connect to the + and - sides of the coil, etc. You can connect the green and red wire directly to the MSD at the Ford pigtail without the need for the E12-80 module. I ran mine with the module and then later figured out I didn't need it and cut it out of the ignition system. I kept it in the car and figured if the MSD ever took a crap I'd just hook it back up. I can't answer your question about which one is the pos and which one is the neg, but I'm not sure there is a + or - wire there. They're just wires that go to the pickup coil of wire in there. They aren't powered.

Exactly. You can have a 50KV coil on your E12-80 distributor, but that doesn't mean you're getting 50KV to the plugs when the car is idling. As you put more load on the engine the resistance at the plug gap increases and then the voltage at the coil jumps up and you might get closer to the 50KV rating on the coil. With MSD the coil gets 460-480V instead of 12 like you'd get from the E12-80 distributor. Even though the dwell time is shorter, that huge increase in voltage soaking the coil means a hot spark every time, and the reason they drop back to one spark above 3000 rpm is to allow for enough dwell on the higher rpms.

You're talking about the pickup wires, right? I don't recall, but I do seem to remember that it didn't matter which way you hooked them up on the MSD. It was just looking for the signal.

Yes, magnetic pickup.

I think it is worth it. I seem to remember that I got better mileage with it, and I had a friend to back to back dyno runs with and without MSD and picked up 8 hp with it. I can't speak to the exhaust fumes, but I think that's probably a hatch seal issue or a leaky exhaust. I would suggest the 6AL or equivalent from Crane or Summit. The rev limiter is a nice function to have.