jmortensen

Yep, as Camo says seek and you shall find. There was a thread about eliminating the strap just a couple months ago, had links with pics and everything.

The rumor which I fell victim to is that R180's and R200's have different length halfshafts. As you've already pointed out, it isn't true. If you hate the strap as much as I do you might want to consider another alternative. I know they've been discussed before, I really like the U shaped piece that slides over the bottom of the diff crossmember and attaches to the diff mount, because it is very easy to do and controls the diff in both directions.

And here I was thinking that bpilati was the one that was confused when he said "The Stock 240Z is a great handling car. Even in a worn out state, it can still take a curve pretty respectably." I agree that the Z was a great handling car back in the day, but it can't hold a candle to most sedans on the road today in stock form. Agreed. That's what I love about track days and autox in my Z. I've got mine to the point that I consider it a very good handling car, but it is very far from stock form, and like Richard I've changed most of the suspension geometry to get it to handle. I love my Z for what it is and what I've made it, but I don't fool myself about it's capabilities. Back to the point of the thread for a moment, I don't see a real advantage to putting R33 suspension under a Z. Spend that time and money modifying the stock setup and it should do all you need it to do while carting around less weight. Jon

Yeah, tires will make a difference. I stand by my statement though. A stock Z handles like a wallowing pig. Richard's Z on the other hand... But then again Richard has changed a lot of that bitchin factory suspension geometry, haven't you Richard?

A stock Z handles like a wallowing pig. A worn out stock Z handles worse. According to zhome.com a brand spankin new 70 Z pulled .73g on the skidpad. Looks like the Jeep Liberty, Kia Sorento, and Suzuki XL-7 posted very similar numbers to a stock Z at .74, .73, and .72g: http://motortrend.com/roadtests/suv/112_0404_suvs/index11.html The Z is a great platform for modifications and can be made to handle very well, but it isn't that great out of the box. By the way what car have you seen that has MacPherson struts that do not angle inward? I've worked on quite a few, never seen a vertical setup that I can recall.

. You guys kill me!

The bright links on the chain are only for initial assembly. Once you have the engine assembled you should never have to worry about them again. The cam timing should be checked by looking at the notch and dash in the cam gear and the plate behind it and observing how they line up. What are you trying to measure or accomplish with the bright links on the chain? You mentioned the V and the notch. How do they look? Lining up correctly? Scratch the piston??? That's pretty out there. ;-) You aren't going to damage the piston with a pen or a welding rod stuck through the spark plug hole as long as it doesn't fall in or get stuck in there sideways. If you keep one hand on the pen and the other rotating the crank nothing will get damaged. You should use something that you can set on top of the piston though, because pressure on your finger won't get you a very exact measurement. There's quite a bit of crank rotation where the piston barely moves up or down. I don't think you need to pull the cover, unless you have to replace the chain due to wear. Otherwise I think you'll be able to adjust the chain with the cam gear, or maybe just leave it alone entirely and focus on the distributor drive or the crank pulley.

There are 2 TDC's. TDC Power stroke, the real TDC, and TDC on the exhaust/intake stroke, which is TDC for #6 IIRC. So you should get 2 TDC's on the pulley for every one time the cam lines up. The chain jumping would change the cam timing, but it would not change where TDC is, so when the pointer points at the 0 mark on the pulley, you'd still be at TDC, but the cam wouldn't be in the right position. If the rubber in the harmonic balancer separated that can allow the outer ring on the balancer to spin relative to the inner, and that will cause problems finding TDC. I would start by pulling out the #1 spark plug and use a pen or a piece of welding rod to follow the piston up as you turn the crank. When it tops out, then see if the pulley shows TDC. If not, then you know that your harmonic balancer has come apart. If it matches up, then check the cam mark. If they look OK, then I think your distributor drive is in the wrong spot.

Here's a link to Terry's picture page and specifically the drip rail removal. http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/pictures?userid={7DC317B0-8EDB-4B2E-A837-F708D07C9769}&inv=9C67398D46D99D9&userid={7DC317B0-8EDB-4B2E-A837-F708D07C9769}&AlbumId={58D0E16C-17AA-4A01-9908-4535ADE54EFC}&inv=9C67398D46D99D9&GroupId={75FF3451-95EB-4D59-974B-686622B9408B}

Getting closer, about 1/2 hour left...

Maybe the owner really likes... corndogs.

You can pull the rubber boot back on the master and slave and see which one leaks if you just want to know which it is. Most people replace both at the same time, so if you're going to replace them both then you don't really need to find out which was the culprit.

Very pretty Z car. Nice work!

Nobody has bid on the 9mm 240 rods or the ARP rod bolts yet... can't believe it. Get em while they're hot people.

We forgot the geezer busses headed for Solvang... ;-)

The 154 is a beautiful drive but is usually not a shortcut, especially if you get stuck behind someone towing a boat to Lake Cachuma, which happens pretty frequently in the summer months.

'79 Mustang 4 cylinder, smurf blue on smurf blue with plastic wood trim. Bought it from the high school auto shop. Had tons of fun drag racing my friend's diesel rabbit. We were pretty much dead even to 60 mph... at something over 20 seconds. Learned many life lessons in that car, like "The only thing that's gonna get screwed in the back seat of a Mustang is your back" and "Don't do donuts in construction areas at night, because there may be large mounds of dirt that you can't see until you hit them with the right side tires and get up on two wheels and scare the crap outta yourself" and "A car with badly adjusted drums can roll damn near forever" and "If the gas gauge is broken but you're sure the tank is empty and you go to fill up the tank and it only takes 3 gallons, the vent is plugged and the tank is still pretty much empty, so don't go driving off into a desolate area because you might get stuck 3 gallons away from anything" and assorted others...

Just as a reality check, the Z aftermarket is PUNY compared to the other car makes out there. The guys at MSA could make 50 times the sales (albeit at a lower profit margin) if they sold Mustang or Camaro parts. I could be wrong, but I don't think that anyone at MSA is buying a yacht anytime soon, and if I were going to start a mailorder biz for Z parts I doubt hiring a bunch of telephone operators would be first on my list of things to do. Victor, you called on Monday morning right? I've worked in a bunch of mail order businesses and Mon morning is always the hardest time to keep up with the phones. If any of those businesses I worked for actually hired enough people to keep up with the Mon morning rush so that there was no hold time, they would have 10 employees sitting on their thumbs for most of the rest of the week. I'm just glad that they still make parts for our cars, and that businesses like MSA and VB and Modern Motorsports and Classic Datsun and Zparts and Zedd Findings even exist. As long as they are selling quality parts and aren't ripping me off I can deal with a little lackluster service. Try getting a hold of Ross Corrigan sometime. Sounds like a complaint in the making, but then again, try getting a CV adapter or a billet stub axle from ANYWHERE else. These companies aren't JEGS and they aren't Summit Racing, and they never will be.

3.36 is the tallest gear ratio I know of. It was also stock on manual 240Z's so is probably the most plentiful R180. With a stock 240Z 4 speed and 3.36 and 225/50/15 tires you're going to be gear limited to 153 mph. You'll never get there with anything close to a stock Z though. This might help you: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/transmission.html

IME wheel bearings make more of a growling noise which changes with load. You can usually identify a bearing noise by swerving side to side. If the noise changes pitch or goes away while swerving, then it's a wheel bearing. Thunk or a thump huh? If it changes with vehicle speed then my first thought would be a U joint, but you say you just fixed those...

In CA they do. As I said in my previous post everyone I knew who owned a Harley in CA bitched about being pulled over for noise. They all said it was a "safety feature" because if they were in your blind spot you could still hear them. Not sure that I buy that argument, but it was a big enough problem that they had a rote argument to tell the cops when they got hassled...

Actually the only sticker on my car is a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo sticker. They might pull me over for my license plate frame though, because it says: TRD What's that spell???

Try over at www.hybridz.org. All of your questions have been answered before. Read the stickies in the V8 forum and search the forums. You should find everything you need and more.

The master has to fully relax to release it's pressure. When the piston in the master goes all the way back it opens up a little hole to the reservoir, and the pressure just gets released. If the rod between the back of the master and the reaction disk is too long, the pressure can't release. So as you drive longer the brakes get hotter which expands the fluid which has nowhere to go and basically applies the brakes more and more and more until you stop. You have to have a little bit of play between the rod and the master, 1/8" or so. If not, the problem you're experiencing will result.

So how then is this not an abridgement of First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights again? Poodles or honor students are fine subjects for stickers, but when a sticker says something that could be construed as having to do with import cars then one immediately forfeits their rights??? I can't believe that I'm reading this on a Z car website! Talk about self loathing...