2ManyZs

$900 for an alternator???? That's outragious. And unnecessary unless you plan on making your Z into an electric car.:cross-eye

First thing to do is to find out if it is just surface rust or if has gone beyond that. Take a small screwdriver under there and push against it. If it doesn't go through you are in good shape. Clean it and paint it or use a rust inhibitor like POR-15 on it. If it goes through or you find any weakness, you should either patch or replace. You can do the same test on the front frame rails, rocker panels (in an inconspicuous place), under the battery tray and all the other places a Z normally rust. You don't have to beat on it, a simple push will tell you all you need to know. If it is weakened from the inside you will notice a lot of give in the metal or you may even poke a hole in it, in that case it's time to start welding. Do a search here using the search function on the main page and you should come up with numerous posts on rust problems and how to repair them. If you can't find the answer to your dilemma, we are always here to answer more questions. Oh, a 77 is a 280Z, the ZX's started in 79 in the US.

Or maybe you caught him on a date with his boss's wife.:stupid:

Hey Mr. C, I was looking at your link to the RB car on Ebay. Noticed something interesting that we can't seem to find here in the US. The fender flares he had that weren't installed really looked nice as they were actually more than just the fender flare. They ran back along the bottom of the quarter so that the flare blended in with the rest of the quarter. They had a very nice shape to them, better than some of the flares that are still on the market here anyways. Any of you know where these can be found? Or know who the supplier might be? I'm assuming they are fiberglass, but since we seems to be losing suppliers for even the fiberglass parts there might be quite a few people "over here" interested if they are still in production somewhere else in the world.

Only one thing you haven't thought about. You can easily change the data plates, but you are forgetting the VIN number on the firewall above the brake booster. Not easy to change. Won't even go into what can happen if you are caught altering VIN numbers. Not only would the DMV would be hot after your heals, but in CA you would have CARB after you too since you would be doing this to get around their smog laws. If it were a race car I would say who cares, but a street car might be another matter, especially when it comes time to sell it if you were ever to do so.

It will probably take a little more than an hour, but the modifications you need to do are quite simple. You need to cut the dust shield for caliper clearance and bend the hard line to the caliper. That's about it, a few careful bends in the line, and a few snips with the tin snips or rotary tool and you should be good to go. To answer an earlier question, you do not have to change the master cylinder (unless yours is of questionable operation that is) to do this swap. You can, however, upgrade to the later master cylinder with the 15/16 bore for a little higher line pressure (possibly) and fluid capacity. Not sure if there is a big difference in the actual line pressures, but a little more fluid is probably a good idea since you are now feeding twice as many pistons on the front brakes.

I was thinking a very dark maroon metallic..............

That is the one I was hoping they would build. BUT.........

You can get alarms pretty reasonable now, I paid over 400 for a Clifford in 85 and never installed it. I think it's still sitting in my closet. A decent alarm shouldn't be much over 250 or so nowdays. My idea of an alarm is a loaded 9mm, and a bumper sticker that says "Gun control is being able to hit your target while it is running"ROFL :devious:

First thing is you really ought to get yourself a Factory Service Manual for the year of your 280 engine. There are just so many tests described in there to troubleshoot your fuel injection it is worth it's weight in gold (well almost) and it will make your job so much simpler. One thing I'm thinking about is that your water temp switch or air temp switch may be bad and is causing the cold start injector to enrichen the mixture as if it is trying to choke for a cold start. That's one idea, as far as any others, I don't have my 280 anymore and therefore don't have an FSM to go by. As far as the pressure regulator goes, I don't think that will cause a flooding condition as it is before the injectors, the injectors will only flow so much fuel unless something is tricking the FI to think it needs more. It could be in the air flow meter, one of the temp switches, cold start valve ( injector),possibly the throttle body itself. There are a lot of things that need to be checked and without an FSM I'm just grasping ideas out of thin air.

Has to be some reason for the lash pad being off, I think you might want to pull the head and check out the valves. Lot of different possibilities, but usually a lash pad won't come of for no reason. Was the spring holding the lash pad broken? Does the valve spring look OK compared to the rest of them? Since you have another head you might want to think about swapping them and take a good look at this one to see if the valve is seized in the guide or if there is something else wrong. If the spring retainer that holds the lash pad in place was broken, you should be able to just replace the spring and lash pad and see how it goes from there.

The voltage regulator will be already set. I think the battery is probably showing that it is bad because you have been driving it for a while without it receiving any charge at all. Basically you have been running the ignition off the battery since it the charging system is not working properly. My vote goes for alternator and a new voltage regulator (it's cheap insurance) and then have the battery trickle charged for an afternoon before you drive it again. If the battery won't hold up after a good charging and driving it with the new alternator, well, you know what that means. You have been driving it with a low charge from the alternator that it is possible the battery will not be any good since it has become so throughly discharged.

There are a few places left for the parts you are looking for. One is Motorsport Auto, they will have the air dams and rear spoilers and a couple different styles of fender flares. Another is Z Car Body Parts, they have mainly these same items, and they also have the IMSA style body kits, and the California Z kit orginally sold by Jim Cook many years ago. There have been a couple suppliers who have recantly gon out of business, so the number of suppliers is steadily dwindling. You can find both of these in the web-links here on the site, and a few others as well. Take a look around and do some shopping for what you are looking for.

Mr. Camouflage, I think the console piece in question is the arm rest on the rear of the console seen in the first group of pics, you have to look hard to see it. It was a dealer option in 72 according to the info on zhome, not sure if it was offered before that or not. May have been added later when it was available. It's a shame the production numbers on zhome don't break down the production numbers between the manual and automatic. But sincde the total production for the US in both 70 and 71 is less than 72, I would have to say an automatic is part of a small number as far as the yearly production numbers. I've seen that center cap before as well, but can't remember what wheel it was. Oh well. Looks like a good candidate for a good cleaning first and foremost. Then it would be just a matter of checking out the body for any rust and going over the mechanicals. One word of warning, I rememeber some discussion about the early automatics not being as good as the later auto's. Besides that, they are very hard to find if anything is wrong or needs to be replaced. Just though you might want to know in order that you can do a thorough job of inspecting the mechanicals.

The coil springs are not interchangeable between the 240 and 280. The 280 springs are longer and also stiffer. You would have to cut the 280 springs to get the car back down to it original ride height, and that would be a guessing game on how much to cut. The springs are interchangeable between all the 240's and the early 260 with the small bumpers though. The late 260 (big bumpers, FI) and the 280's all have a larger diameter strut housing and it is longer by approx. 2 inches. You could probably find a set here by posting in the wanted section of the classifieds, someone somewhere is probably changing their stock springs and may be willing to sell the set. Plus there are quite of few who have a stock pile of extra parts, I'm one of them, but right now I don't have a set of springs to offer you. If you can't find a set, get back to me in a few weeks and I'll see what I can do.

Early 240's before 72 didn't come with a rear bar standard (at least here in the US) but they all came with a front bar. Most of the time the front bar is a bit more expensive than the rear one. If you run a rear bar without a front one you may end up with more oversteer than you would like. I'd either run just a front bar or as a pair. A lot of it will have to do with what size bar (or bars) you install.

Never had to do it, but I would say you could probably do it without removing the whole door. You could try to block the rear of the door to hold it up(maybe with a jackstand) and just remove the hinge itself. There should be someone here with a complete door hinge from a parts car, you could try placing a wanted ad in the classifieds here.

I would use a spring from a Z. It will have the proper size and tension for the weight of the door. You should be able to find one at a junkyard or maybe someone here that is stripping a car out for parts. Been a lot of them losing their life lately due to too much rust seems like.

Hmm, that's funny, I just finished watching Gone in 60 Seconds!

I think the only way to change your username is to go to the Administrator. Mike had to change mine when the chatroom was first available because I had an apostrophe in my username, it wasn't recognized by the chatroom software and would not let me enter.

Besides what Rick said, be sure to check your fluid level in the clutch master cylinder. If it is OK, the first thing to check is the master cylinder/slave cylinder operation. Much easier to replsce these instead of replacing a clutch disc if there is nothing wrong with the clutch itself. It may also have contaminated fluid in the master cylinder. If the hydraulics are OK as well as the slave cylinder adjustment, it may be time for a clutch and pressure plate. One other item, check the adjustment on the clutch pedal itself. Check nthe height of the pedal from the floor (find the measurements in most any good repair manual) before you start tearing things apart. It may be something simple.

If you have an E-88 it should have round intake ports and square(or more accurately rectangular) exhaust ports.

If you search through the web-links here you should be able to find probably 90% of the repair panels you may need. Motorsport Auto, Zedd Findings and many others have floor pans, frame rails, rocker panels, quarter panel repair panels, lower front fender repair panels. About the only thing you may have trouble with is under the battery tray on the inner fender, this may need to be fabricated if it is rusted through. Not an easy job, but with patience it can be done quite well if welded properly. Be sure to check inside the rear wheel wells, the rocker panels, the bottoms of the front fenders, under the battery tray, behind the seats on the floor pans, and the bottoms of the front strut towers above the frame rails. If you use the search function you should be able to find many threads and posts dealing with rust issues. Good luck on your project, it sounds like you may have a car that needs to be fixed and brought back to life.

As far as the 350 is concerned, does anyone really care?? I know I don't. No matter where the steering wheel is put, it won't help the looks of that! :sick:

1 person, 4 Z cars. 2 Many Zs for the two car garage. :cross-eye But I have been hearing 2 Many Posts:ermm: