ChrisA

Hi Ron, can you tell me what booster you went with? For my future reference. Thanks, Chris

Hey All, here's a link to exactly what I put in the 72 that Bill Ramsey has now. http://www.truck-lite.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=23781&langId=-1 They are 65/55 watt bulbs. I wanted to get some Sylvania SilverStar's I think they were called. They are more of the HID lookalike than the bulbs I ended up using. The SilverStars were like $35 a piece and I didnt want to spend that much on the car. I ended up going with a Sylvania 9007LL bulb which has good brightness. Coupled with the reflector system in the 7" housing, they really were brighter than the stock H6024 Sylvania sealed beams that were in the car. Hope that helps. Chris

Your car has the composite housings with the 9007 bulbs. They need to be adjusted. I never did. They are brighter than what was in the car before. If I recall, I had them pointed down to low which might explain your problem. The front end on that car is tweaked upwards anyway. Plus I never really drove that car at night. Get your Dad to sit in the car then adjust them up a little. Chris

Greg, yes, big difference. I was running 9007's though not H4's. Chris

Ben, I would say you'd need something somewhat resistant to moisture as the rain will get down in there. Unless you dont drive it in the rain!! I wonder if a good lithium base grease would work. Maybe Lubriplate #105. Supposed to be good for hinges, locks and latches. And has anti-wear and anti-seize compounds. And I would guess if its good for hinges it must not run off or slide off the contact point. Good luck with the project, Chris

Mike brings up a very important issue with the headlights. A couple years ago I bought this harness pre-made by Painless Wiring. Plug's in, no cutting. Made the stock headlights brighter and allowed me to switch to composite housings with 9007 bulbs. Which are a kind of HID look a like system. http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcatalog/catlarge/30815.jpg Chris

That's a good point, not that it would matter to me if I needed one but my stock antenna tip is bullet shaped. I wonder if the ebay item is a supersession of the factory part? Were there differences between the years? Thanks Ben for the link to that. Chris

VERY nice job Ben!! Chris

Carl, try this one. http://www.lindsaybks.com/dgjp/djgbk/babbitt/ Chris

Me thinks Tom is testing someone!! Chris

Okay, I'm no tranny expert but he said he changed the clutch and pressure plate "since this problem started". Could he have a clutch related problem which is causing the hard shifting? Not getting enough release which is causing some kind of drag. I dont believe it would be fluid related. FWIW, Chris

Good news Bill. So now you have a $270 Z car. Chris

Thanks Will, I was hoping someone would notice!! It was a shame, the condition of that car when I bought it. At least when Bill got it, it was driveable! When I got it, it had no radiator and the motor was trashed. Chris

Does anybody know if the 710 was ever brought to the States? They seem bigger than a 610 in pictures. Chris

Welcome all you new members!! Glad to have you and your Z's here. Chris

Hi beams were on ehh??? Chris

:stupid: Chris

I went to Hooters in Tittsburgh once!! Chris

Hey Bill, you want to respond to this one? Or do you want me too? Chris

Larry, there is a locating pin in roughly the center of the rear spindle pin(your first picture). It holds the pin in the control arm. Did you remove it first? You must remove it to get the long pin out. If you did, then you are fighting the same thing that most Z owners fight. The spindle pin is a pain to get out sometimes without mushrooming the ends. If you search the forum's you will find many references to removing it. I made a tool from some specs Beandip (Gary) gave me. It makes the job easy. If you thread the nut on about half way and hit it with the right sized drift in an air hammer you can get it to slide a little which might loosen it up to come out all the way. On the front bolt, just hammer it out. You can get new bolts for that. Much luck to you, Chris

When my Dad and I rebuilt his 72 Cutlass engine, we relied on the knowledge of Joe Mondello. Most folks in the Oldsmobile circles know of him. His reputation speaks for itself. If he says "use wd-40 on your ball hone" then that's good enough for me. No different than using any of the advice from this group. No disrespect intended. Just facts you can use. Chris

Ditto, when I was younger and thought I could just look at something and take it apart I ruined a stub shaft. With a 1" impact gun, the nut comes off really quick but like Panchovisa said, I ruined the end threads on the stub shaft to the point where the new nut would not go back on. DUMBASS!!!! Chris

Any time you install new piston rings you need to hone the cylinder walls to break the glaze in order to allow the new rings to wear in and seat properly to minimize oil consumption. The hone has a flexible drive shaft and is typically driven with a 3/8" electric hand drill at speed under 1000 rpm. A pro shop might use a hone in a drill press to run it as straight as possible and to have better control over axial motion to produce a cross hatch pattern on the cylinder wall. If the cylinder is fairly clean and not significantly scratched you could use a flex hone (often called a ball hone) to break the glaze and remove minimal material. These are quick and easy to use but need to have a fairly close match to the bore size. If it's smaller than the bore it won't work. If it's much larger than the bore it will be difficult to keep the balls inside the cylinder with close approach to the ends of the bore. If you have more than one bore size to work with you need multiple tools. If the cylinder wall is slightly scratched, and you need to remove a little more material to get it to clean up, then the flex hone is not the best tool. It can remove material more in the middle of the bore and less at the ends, therefore causing the bore to be less straight. Use it almost dry or the balls will clog, you can use a little WD-40 as lubricant that's my own experience talking. The articulated three stone hone is a more universal cylinder tool. This may have a much greater working range to work with small bore and large bore engines, so you only need one hone. It should also help to keep a more constant bore size (straighter cylinder) when removing a little more material to clean up a slightly scratched cylinder. An abrasive hone is subject to wear as it is used, so the abrasive may need to be replaced occasionally (maybe every 30 to 50 cylinders or so). The straight stones are cheaper to replace than buying a new flex hone. If you like to use various grit grades, the straight stones are also fairly easy to change, as opposed to buying multiple flex hones. With any honing process some of the abrasive grit wears off of the tool at the same time that fine metal powder is bring removed from the cylinder bore. This stuff is VERY bad for an engine if it is left inside. So it is best to do this honing on a completely disassembled and bare engine block, and clean it thoroughly before assembly. It is possible to hone cylinders with an engine still in the car and partially assembled. If you do this, pay special attention to keeping the grit off of the crankshaft as well as possible, and do your best to clean everything thoroughly before reassembly. It would also be a good idea to install a magnetic oil drain plug, and to drain and change the engine oil soon after initial run in Much luck to you, Chris

Good going Mark! Nice job with the jig/rig. Chris

Larry, I might be wrong on this but I thought you had to remove the peening or you would destroy the threads on the stub shaft if you back the nut off with a big gun. The peening is where the nut has been hammered down on the edges as a sort of locking method to prevent the nut from spinning off. It flattens the edge of the nut making it kind of square on a round shaft. Some of our engineers could probably get more technical. Chris