madkaw

I just had to share this product that I came across when planning my battery cables. I wanted to run as stock of a battery size as i could so I could use the original battery bracket and cover for my 71(just because I had one). Anyway, off the shelf battery cables have ends that hit the plastic battery cover and are usually pretty cheaply made. So, I went on a search for battery cable ends, but then realized that a crimper would then bee needed even if I found the right ones. Then i stumbled onto the Remy battery site and found these fusion battery terminal ends-what a great idea. They had 90 degree terminal ends and I could make the cables at home easily. http://www.remybattery.com/Departments/Cable--Accessories/Connectors--Lugs-and-Terminals/Fusion-Solder-Lugs-and-Terminals/Terminal-Clamps.aspx Were the cables cheap-well about 45$ to make including wire, but have you priced the kits on Summitt. bought the 2 guage wire from Napa and the terminal ends from Remy and had the cables done in 15 mintes and better then anything you can buy over the counter.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/ This is a pretty good site for the DIYer. I think the schematic is easy to understand and he is helpful with any questions. I also decide to go with a ganged 6 circuit fuse block from these folks http://www.wiringproducts.com/contents/en-us/d136.html later on if I want to wire in a electric fan, I will have some extra circuits. It comes with a #8 stranded power wire that is 12" long so you can place the box whereever. I will wire the relays close to it for the headlights.(Once I get thru wiring hell in trying to remember where everything goes on my harness-I can't even get my dash lights to work yet:stupid:)

Chris, I have found some really small magnaflow mufflers on the Summitt racing site. They have a 10" case length and should fit straight in there, but they are about 75$ each, but cheaper then Borlas. I LOVE the sound of the magnaflow on my daughter's 280zxt, but the turbo will sound different. At cruise the muffler is perfect for me, a nice low rumble. maybe tomorrow I will do a video of the LOUD machine:)

I will posting my exhaust sound clip shortly since I finally got the car running. I can sum up the sound as LOUD:laugh: This thing is like race car loud, so I will be shopping for some real mufflers shortly. I might as well have run straight pipes since these glasspacks seem to do nothing to quiet down the motor. Hell-i checked to make sure the header was hooked up to the exhaust. Now this was in the garage so it might be better once the car rolls outside. I will post a video soon enough By the way chris, I got a new netbook and i thought I had a bug stuck in my screen-nice!

Gnose, thanks for the advice, I actually took an end off of an extra linkage and secured it to the end by drilling a hole thru the plastic and rod and using a cotter pin to hold it on. It wasn't the most desirable fix, but it worked in the pinch. My plastic really looked damaged and when i took it back to the plater he tried using a different method of cleaning up the metal next time before plating. He actually used a media blast instead of chemicals to prep the pieces before plating. The problem with this method is that the zinc doesn't shine as well, it turns out almost matte finish. I don't have any more pieces to do to try an perfect a method with the plater, but he was suggesting a nickle dipping before the zinc. In the end, I am going to live with what i have. D240zx2-thanks for the comments and I hope to see everyone there(IN MY CAR). The pressure is mounting.

Well this is a big step towards Zcon. After having this engine together for the past 3 years, I finally get to start it up. I finally got my battery cable ends in to make my custom battery cables so i could use the factory cover. I am glad I did it, because these cables are much better then anything I could find at the parts stores. After i got my timing issue resolved, it fires up right away, but it is freakin LOUD. I might have to rethuink the glass packs on my duals. It's going to sound loud sitting in the garage, but I think it will be too loud for a daily cruiser. I was glad to see all my guages were working except the fuel guage, but I expected that. Even the tach works after doing the zx dizzy mod. I guess my alternator I bought off of ebay is a dud, never again will I buy an item like that from ebay. What's sad is that it was a Z forum member that sold it. I should have another alternator by this evening, which should help the car run even better--- instead of straight off the battery. I also noticed when the car was running that the temp probably only got to 160 at best, but I might have put a 160 thermostat in. Now I need to finish up running the harness around the engine bay and work on my headlight relays. Then I can bleed the brakes and take this thing for a spin:D

Arne, pulled and rotated shaft and it look much closer to the manual pic. Started right up and dialed in nicely-now got figure out why I'm not charging!

Okay guys, finally after years my new motor starts, but with some issues. I believe I got my dizzy off by one tooth, but need some verification of some stuff first. I had to rotate plug wires one plug to get it to run right enough to adjust timing, but still i'm not lined up with the adjustment slot to tighten down. The picture shows TDC position of rotor. It seems that i need to rotate the rotor CCW one tooth to get a perfect line up on the cap and be in the adjsutment slot range on base. So I need to drop the oil pump and rotate the shaft to acheive this-correct? It probably only needs to move 1/4" at best, will I achieve this in one tooth. I want to make sure before i drop the pump(changing the oil anyway). If my dislexia doesn't fool me, I believe i had to advance the timing to get it to run right.

Arne, I was thinking that the 2 black wires might be for the kickdown relay for the automatic-if there was one. This connectors are pretty worn from heat and dirt , so I'm thinking there location was somewhere down below and the only other thing I could think of wass the kick down relay. Sorry so-long to reply , but my laptop crapped out-as well as my washing machine, oven, and dryer earlier this month, I'm on a bad streak:cry:

is to have my car done and showing up down there with my family in wing formation. I have booked early, but getting worried the car won't be done in time:paranoid:

Yes Arne that helps. yes I did have the dual point Dizzy, but don't remember that relay-only the ballist resistor which I have jumpered since I have gone with an 81 dizzy. So maybe the black wire was the ground for that relay. The 2 Black wires aren't for the washer pump, I have the right color coded wires there for that. These are in addition to those wires. So I will have to complete the circuit on the neutral wires and then connect the reverse light to make things work. I'm glad you mentioned jumpering the neutral wires since it probably wouldn't start until I do.

I believe I have my engine harness about hooked up properly now in my 9/71, but I have some extra wires that I can't seem to pin down on the schematic. The engine harness wires basically end at the coil power wires, and I believe I have them all hooked up properly, but there is a red wire with black stripe and a solid black that I'm not sure about. The red/black stripe wire actually splits into to wire ends with some blade type connectors on it. This car was equiped with A/C at one time and that's the only other thing in that area that is not accounted for. I have looked on my schematic but just can't seem to make the connection(pun intended:)) Also, I have upgraded to an 81 zx brake MC and can't remember if the original MC for this car had 2 wires running to it like the 81 has. I have 2 black wires running towards the MC and I am assuming that they are for the MC. Okay-lastly, this car was originally an automatic and i have converted to manual-specifically the BWT-5 from an 82 turbo. So to get the reverse lights working what will this take. I see the 2 wires coming off the top of the trans that i assume are for the reverse lights, so I need to find the 2 wires in the harness that were used for the reverse switch on the auto and connect them? Any help or suggestion would be helpful and improve my chances of making ZCON!!!

Just wanted to give some notice to this guy and his web site. Daniel Stern-the actor- was in the home alone movies and many others, but I guess his sideline is Cibea headlights and wiring upgrade relay kits. I have been dealing with him and he seems to be very eager to help and the web site does a great job of explaining relays and how they work for our headlight upgrades. So if you want to do this job yourself, then I would recommend looking at his site for help. http://www.danielsternlighting.com/

Dave, thanks for the help and thanks for the compliment. I actually blanked all the stuff from the balance tube myself, and for a minute was worried that I blanked too much:paranoid: I might take off the center linkage and see if I can remove the arm some way. I only hope it runs as good as it looks;)

Okay, thanks it's starting to come back to me. So not having this will not affect me being able to sync my carbs right? The carbs actuate and return properly with the center linkage, so maybe I can remove this part of the linkage?

So I am hooking up my heat shield and return springs on my SU set-up and I am kind of baffled about the center linkage. Please look at the picture and the arrow,what hooks to this. Of course this pic doesn't show the heat shield and return spring. The rear carb seems to work as advertised as far as the balance screw, but the forward carb the balance lever just flops around. I believe I have the return springs in there proper place.

I am trying to get my wiring harness back together to get my car started. After some endless searching to find out what the fusible link even LOOKS like I figured out what I am missing(by looking at the MSA site:)) My question is; to save time and maybe expense can I use just a maxifuse or something in place of that fusible wire and more importantly what value of fuse would I use at this junction?

Thanks for the link. When i searched I didn't put in corner seals, I was using quarter window seals so i didn't come up with that thread. I guess i will need to take my laptop to the garage and read as I work!!!

Thanks E, I knew you would know. So the seal that goes on the DOOR frame, it should be folded like I found the old one? Does the pointed part go up or down? I guess I will try turning it all around to see how it goes unless someone has a pic. As far as the quarter seals, these old ones I have seem servicable, would they be sufficient? I think I have one side of the other type you are refering to E, but I didn't see where there was enough fastener attachment points on my window. I have only two screws at the top of the quarter, nothing at the bottom. I figured that the seal on the sheetmetal was for later models. Thanks again guys.

Even with my 'how to restore your Z car" book, I can't figure out the weatherstrip for the quarter window-specifically the lower corner pieces. My car is a 9/71 which is one of those transitional months for these cars. From what I read my car uses just the small piece in the lower corners. I don't remember what my car had since i took it apart so many yeras ago:stupid: I have included pictures of what I have in the way of new pieces and some old pieces I had laying in storage. Picture 2 shows some old seals that I had in storage. I think it is obvious that these slip on the bottom of the quarter window frame. They are actually very usable. Picture 3 shows the new seal that I got from MSA. Not sure where it fits into on the window. Picture 4&5 show another old seal that i had. It is basically the new seal from MSA with one end folded over. Still can't figure how it fits. So I need help fitting these seals. Do I use both kinds or will the seals in pic 5 suffice?

I try not to watch the calendar, but it is only 4 months away and I have lots to do. I have made some major progress in that I got my headliner in, which was holding back from completing many other jobs. The front windshield also went in with little trouble, though I nicked the seal slightly installing the trim. I had my trim powder coated matte black like everything else that is trim ,and I am happy with the look. The rear hatch was a bi$%h and it took three of us to persuade it to settle in. Again I suffered a nick installing the trim, it was even tougher on the rear hatch. I also got some tears on the inner part of the seal, but no one will see them and it shouldn't affect the sealing of the window. I also got some needed items from the plater, but once again there are issues. The acid or whatever they used ate up some off the nylon pieces. I was told by the plater that the "plastic "should be fine, but this stuff is nylon I guess. Anyone else have this issue? The ball end on one of the carb linkages looks really bad, but I can't remove that end since it is pressed on or something. So maybe I can replace that end or see if they can plate another one without dipping that nylon ball. Questions: Is the door latch assembly supposed to be yellow zinc like everything else? Mine are very clean, but it doesn't look like it everhad any "yellow" to it. How do you install a new choke grommet on a set of choke cables?

I have heard of this problem before, so i plan on installing rivnuts in all of the holes and installing the panels with black machine screws so they won't move around it all. Sorry i can't comment on the MSA rivets

I talked to the VB customer service and she said that there seals were NOT made by precision, but wouldn't tell who did make them. Your point about the channel might be valid, but I didn't notice much of a change in channel width with the precision seal. Either way, the precision seal channel is VERY tight around the trim and I did nick the seal installing the trim. Definitely install trim before installing the glass in the car. Lubricate seal with windex or something so the trim will slide around easier. I'm going to live with the nick, because it was scary enough putting a new seal on a 40 year old glass(with the vertical lines) without busting it, I don't want to do that again.

Arne, I would be tempted to use the VB seal, but it wouldn't match the front seal-and the difference is too great. I think your right that the seal does hide more of the SS then it should, but I powder coated all my SS black, so it doesn't show much anyway. A special note; I read that it is a good idea to install the trim before installing the windshield in the car and that worked out well. I put the glass on a body stand and was able to "work" the seal as i installed the trim.

Okay, so I thought I lost my precision hatch seal from MSA and i ordered another one from VB,---because MSA was on back order. I get the VB window seal today and notice a distinct difference in the seal when it comes to the SS trim channel. The pic says it all. The VB channel for the molding in MUCH wider then the MSA seal. It looks too wide and I would be skeptical of how well it would hold the molding in place. I used a precision on the front windshield and the molding fit very snug under the channel lip. I will probably send back or sell the hatch window seal from VB, but I wanted to present this to the forum for some feedback. I will say that the rubber on the VB seal looked better and seemed a bit softer, but the difference was negligible IMHO. There was no manufactuer name on the VB packaging, so I don't know who makes it