Jeff G 78

Open the hood and watch the rack near the steering shaft. With the car sitting still, have a helper turn the wheel back and forth 1/4 turn each way. If the rack moves back and forth or up and down in the mounts, replace them. Then, lay down and watch the tie rod ends at the knuckles while the helper repeats the test. Again, there should be no play in either joint. If all those things are tight, the rack itself might be the problem.

The car looks like a $5k car on the east coast, but I agree that the paint isn't good and it's hiding quite a bit. If you want a car that you can drive as-is, this is a good choice. If you are planning on repainting it after you buy it, you could start with a cheaper car that will likely need the same amount of bodywork. You WILL find rust areas that need repair on this car. The paint has too many tell tale signs of underlying issues.

Be careful as the original finish was likely a baked on combination of wet and dry products. A repaint might scratch easier.

Yay! Feels good to get it done, doesn't it? Now get off the computer and go enjoy it!

Personally, I'd keep the Panasports Kedyone kenobi. They look great and they are fantastic quality. The Konigs are great, but they are cheaper for a reason. The Panasports meet all Japanese OE specs. Very few aftermarket wheels can say that. Look for the "JL" that is cast into the rim. Konigs were not available in 16" when I got my Panasports, so I had no choice. Had the Konigs been on the market, I might have gone that way to save $500 or so, but I am very happy with my purchase. Since you already got the Panasports, be happy and keep them.

Uhhh honey... I was out for a walk and the cutest little green car followed me home. I really, really tried to find its owner, but it didn't have a collar. It looked sad, dirty and hungry, so I think the poor little thing needs to come live with us. He will get along great with the ones we already have since they are all the same breed. Can we keep him, can we keep him? Pleeeeaaaaaaasssseee????

For those of you who don't visit zcar.com or haven't seen this, A fellow Z lover "Cyind" died today. Please click on the link below and help Robert's family if possible, or just send your condolences. He was terminally ill and lost his life today according to his brother. Apparently, his family doesn't have the money for his funeral, so they are selling his Z cars and parts to help raise money. http://www.zcar.com/forums/read/1/2132381

Very purdy Andrew! Nice price.

So far, so good. I fixed mine several days ago and it's still OK. One thing that *might* help is to put your car's color as the background color for your entire row. That way, if things get shuffled, we might be able to figure out which cells are shifted. There are enough colors that it should be easy to fix in the future.

Be sure to do the compression test correctly or the results will be useless. Adjust the valves per the FSM. Warm up the car before performing the test. Remove all 6 spark plugs, remove the coil wire and hold the throttle wide open. Crank the car over through 4-5 compression strokes and then record the results. Repeat for each cylinder. You should have 150 psi or higher and all 6 should be within 10%, not 20% as stated above. If the numbers are all low, add a bit of oil to each cylinder and repeat the test. If the numbers go up significantly, the problem is with the rings. If not, the problem is valve related.

Too bad my car doesn't deserve them yet. The wheels are by far the best looking thing about it. Someday I will have the cash for a new paintjob.

I have the unicorn gunmetal Panasports and love them, but I am always worried about rare wheels. If one gets damaged, I will have a heck of a time finding a replacement. :paranoid:

Gotcha Nota280. Thanks for clarifying. I can't believe there are that many JY S30s. Over the past 15 years, I know of ONE S30 in a Southeast Michigan JY. It was removed from the JY at least 10 years ago. It must be nice to live in an area with so many Z cars.

OK, mine are fixed - for now... BTW, who is "Nota280 (Stealth-Z)"? While I was fixing my entries, I noticed that a whole bunch of the 280Zs are listed by him and each note reads the same - "Engine compartment tag from Sacramento California area Pick-N-Pull". His bio only shows him owning one Z, yet the registry shows 34 of the 84 cars within the 280 tab being owned by him. There are also a few 240s and a few 260s under his name. Does he just pull VIN tags from junkyard cars??? If so, that's cool, I just found it interesting.

I don't even know where to start in the 280 section. It has been scrambled pretty well. Not only are the rows sorted wrong, but my notes are gone. Does anybody have a screen dump or saved version on their hard drive? I have a feeling that fixing mine would be futile. It can either be fixed all at once BEFORE anybody fixes their line, OR each member can repair individually. There can be no mixing and matching.

If you are happy with the current height, going with the KYBs and sticking with the stock springs is fine. If you decide to upgrade later to lowering springs, then the KYBs might not match up well. I believe they state that they should not be used with stiffer springs.

My LeMons car is actually cleaner than that car. We painted it with a roller and the paintjob looks almost as good in the photos.

The original chrome semi automatic is very long and the reception is great. As Walter said, the short black rubber ones are lousy. Also, they look like crap. I agree with Curtis. Every time I see a black rubber one on any car, I think they were too cheap to fix it right.

It looks pretty nice. Be sure to take a very weak refrigerator magnet with you and try to stick it to every inch of the body. This will tell you every place that body filler has been used. Most old cars have had some sort of work done - either for dent or accident repair, or rust repair. Even if the car is nice, it's good to know exactly where it has had work done. Finding some body filler doesn't mean it's not a good car, but large areas will be a sign that something is up and further investigating is needed. The only spot the magnet shouldn't stick is above the quarter windows where the roof meets the rear quarter panel. The factory used lead filler in the joint. Most Z cars have small cracks in the paint at this spot. Good luck.

There are very few cases of broken TC rods on S30s. S130s are the ones that fail when used with poly bushings. To eliminate the risk on an S30, use a new rubber bushing on the back side and a poly bushing on the front side. This will give you the stiffness of poly with the flexability of rubber.

Davey, you might want to measure the current ride height as your stock springs could have sagged quite a bit. Replacing them could possibly raise the car. I can't remember my numbers, but I have them written down somewhere. My Tokico springs lowered my '78 exactly 1" all the way around. Illuminas are good, but they are pricey. I run mine on 1 in front and 3 in the back for street use. The Tokico Blues are reportedly the same as Illuminas on setting 3. I'm not sure if the KYB GR2 struts are the same as they were 25 years ago, but I was pretty happy with the KYBs I had on a '76 back then. I was running completely stock other than the KYBs. The ride was firm, but not bad at all. I think you'd be happy with either KYBs or Tokico Blues with the stock springs. Replacing all of the bushings will make a huge difference. Do your research and try to borrow the spindle pin puller from either this site or hybridz.org. Replacing the rear outer bushings will be the hardest thing you ever do to your Z. It is well known as the official right of passage in the Z world. Be sure to check replace as needed the differential mount if you have any driveline clunks.

You say that you want a good balance between ride and handling. Does that mean this is going to be a street car only? You need to think hard about what you want out of your Z. Are the roads where you drive most often smooth, or rough? If smooth, you can get away with a more aggressive setup. If they are rough, you might want to stay a bit more conservative. Replacing the bushings takes a lot of time and energy and is not something you want to redo if you don't like the results. OE rubber will ride good and poly will ride poorly, but give crisper steering and handling. Either will be a huge handling improvement over 30 year old bushings. You will trade off ride for sharper handling with poly bushings. My '78 has a very typical setup with Tokico springs, adjustable Tokico dampers, poly bushings throughout, big MSA swaybars, and 16" wheels with 50 series tires. My Z is one of the worst riding cars I've ever driven on our horrible Michigan roads. It takes the smooth roads great and even does well over grainy surfaces, but throw in frost heaves or any sharp bumps and the ride falls apart. The S30's architecture simply can't cope with sharp bumps if equiped with poly bushings. Recession is the key to a good ride over rough roads. Modern suspensions allow the wheels to absorb bumps by receeding rearward as well as travel upward. Poly bushings hold the suspension rigid longitudinally which sends the shock of a bump directly into the body of the S30. As soon as I exit Michigan and cross into Ohio where the roads are maintained better, my Z rides just fine and handles the backroads beautifully. When I finally get it to a track, I'm sure I will appreciate my setup even more. If I just drove it as a daily driver though and didn't want that last little bit of handling, I would skip the poly bushings and replace everything with new OE rubber. I would keep the springs and dampers though. I like the way the car rides over large undulations and how it corners flat. It also looks great lowered an inch.

I voted who cares, but I guess that's not really true. I went with 16" wheels which are modern-ish, but otherwise I like period correct where it shows. 16" wheels are not really period correct, but tire selection drove my decision more than the desire for 16's. I have no problem with fiberglass or carbon fiber replica 240 bumpers, but I don't really like the style of the MSA type two front and rear bumpers. They give the S30 a look that is too modern. Under the body, I don't really care. Modern EFI systems, billet suspension components, and modern seatgs are all cool by me.

Hmmm, I just used mine a week ago. I have Adobe 9.2. Make sure you are viewing the PDFs with Adobe and not Internet Explorer. It can be changed in IE setup.

Nice car if the underbody is clean. Auto to manual swaps are not difficult. I did a swap about 25 years ago when I didn't have much Z experience. You just need a parts car to get all the parts for the swap.