2ManyZs

The bumpsteer spacers are for regaining the proper geometry in the front suspension but its not the camber, it's the roll center. They do decrease the bumpsteer also but at the same time the move the roll center of the car back into its proper place. Lowering the center of gravity that much puts the roll center of the car below ground. The spacers bring it back above ground where it is supposed to be. The stock suspension has a very low CG to begin with and lowering the suspension will lower it too much. Wish I could find the diagram I had that explains it. Have to look around here and see if I can post it.

If the intake you have from the 72 is complete with all the linkages and hoses you won't need to leave anything behind from the 73 manifold. Just unhook the carb linkage at the clevis where it connects to the long shaft from the firewall and use the linkage form the 72. The only thing that might possiby be a little different is the water hose that goes from the front of the intake to the thermostat housing and perhaps the short rubber hose that connects to the transfer pipe around the back of the head. You should be able to use the 72 hoses with no problem if you have them, if not you can get them from MSA for a reasonable price. I would suggest using new ones anyway as they can be a PITA to replace when the itake and all its hardware is on the car, especially the front one. Of course you'll need a new intake gasket, and some new vacuum hoses but that should be about all you need.

These mirrors may have been on a Toyota 2000GT but they definately aren't the original style for the Z. The Z mirrors had a solid stalk with no holes. :disappoin They would probably still look good on a Z, but if you are trying to re-create the original style or look, these won't do it.

Not only has he put a lot of work into his car just so he could show it at the National Convention. He has worked on getting us as a group a lot of really great pics of the cars at the show. The best part of the pics is the fact he took the time to include the year of the car and the owners name. It's great to be able to put a persons name to the cars we all want to drool over. Good job Ken! :classic:

If you are ging to use the earlier 72 carbs, I would suggest using the 72 intake with it. I believe the 73 intake is close to the same but the 72 will have less ports to plug off. Not sure, but I think since it was an automatic car it will also have a dual point distributor(or did all the 73's have dual points). You might want to swap that out for an earlier single point out of a manual trans car. The second set of points were used to retard the timing if my memory is correct. All the intake parts from the 72 should bolt right up to the engine with no problem.

Sounds like you just may have the contacts to solve part of the mystery here. I'm 95% sure the unit that is in my R-200 was from a Subaru. I know that some models of Subaru's did have the R-200 in them, but have never been able to track which ones it may have been that got the Torson unit from the factory. Perhaps with your contacts, you could find out by researching possible Subaru cars that came with the Torson, and then which ones came with the R-200 rear differential. If it proves to be correct they may already have a Torson unit we can get to put in the R-200's, but I am quite certain there is not enough room in the R-180 case for the Torson unit.

I agree, you definately need a little restriction to allow for the heat transfer in the radiator. Maybe with an aluminum radiator you could get away with not using a thermostat since the aluminum would allow faster transfer of heat than the stock radiator core. It could be possible you need to run an elctrice fan that kicks in at a slightly lower temperature also. Double check the temp gauge, and maybe replace the temp. sensor to be sure of what the actual temperature is. Especially if you are still using the stock electrical gauge. A mechanical gauge on a temporary hook-up would be an ideal way to get to the root of the problem.

Ya gotta like a problem that is easily fixed and not too complicated. Turn a couple screws and unhook a couple wires and its done. Glad it turned out the way it did. It could have been a "head-scratcher" that took a while.

I believe all you need to remove them from the case is a slide hammer on the flange. As fas as the bearing being pressed on, that part I'm not sure about. I know the bearing is pressed on the pinion shaft, it would seem these would be too.

First off, the 240 tach is the more innacurate of the tachs in the early cars. That's one reason most people update to a 280 tach as its a bit more accurate. The regulator may be making the difference in the gauge reading. It is trying to make up for the weak alternator. I'm not sure about that, but it seems logical. A 50 amp alternator should be OK, since the factory rating is 45 and it's possible you won't get the full 50 anymore than you might get the full 45 out of a factory replacement. They are rated at that, they may not always provide that rating.

The factory rating for the alternator is 45 amps, so if your is only putting out 30 it is a bit weak. So being that it isn't supposed to be 50 at least you know yours is not as bad as you thought. I'd change the voltage regulator first, check to see what the gauge does then, and if it still acts up then change the alternator.

Well, it definately sounds like the side bearings and races are the cause of most of the problem. However, if it has been like this for any lenght of time I would definately check it out. It may have caused some problems in the spyder gears. If the ring gear and pinion don't show any abnormal wear you may be OK there, but the spyder gears may have taken a beating. I'm not trying to be the bearer of bad news, only trying to make sure you check more than the obvious problem so you don't have more in the future. No sense in spending money to fix one problem and have damage that will end up defeating what you are doing now.

Tell her we are dying to know so we can find out if there are anymore available. Please?:cheeky: Tell her we won't tell you where she got it.

Before you pull it apart to change the side bearings, you might want to take off the back cover to check to see if it may be the ring and pinion itself that is causing the clunking. It is entirely possible this could be the problem and the noise is just being transferred to the side of the case. Or it could be worn spyder gears which would transfer directly to the axle shaft. It might even be a pinion bearing. A little more investigation would be a good idea before you disassemble it, just to be sure you have the right parts to repair it. I haven't changed the output shaft bearings, but if I'm not mistaken I believe you would need to remove the flange retaining bolts and use a slide hammer to pull them. Shouldn't be too difficult, but to be safe you should at least pull the rear cover to look inside and see if the problem goes any deeper into the diff, if they have been bad for a long period of time they could have caused other damages inside.

Hmm, is right, this is an odd problem to say the least. Well, I guess we can rule out the ignition control module. Now what is going through my mind is a short of some type either in the tach itself, or in the wiring off the coil. Seems very odd the tach acts that way just when the engine develops a problem. I would suggest a thorough check of all the wiring form the coil to the tach and perhaps even trying it with the tach unhooked. I've never heard of one having this problem before but I guess there is always one to be the first. Might want to double check the charging system just to be sure there isn't more than one thing that is contributing to the problem. I'm not as good on electrical problems as some of the other members, so somewhere we'll find the answer. :stupid: After reading his instructions on the site I'm wondering about another thing, is it possible your coil is one that is designed for the ballast resistor? If you have taken out the ballast resistor and used a coil that is designed for one that will foul the coil and cause it to burn out. I'm not sure what you have done so I'm just asking to get all the answers to questions that are running around in my semi-empty skull. Another question that may not be anything, but where did you connect the tach lead to? It should run off the + side of the coil if my memory is correct. If it is anywhere else this could be where the problem lies. It should have it own separate wire and not be piggy-backed to anything.

MSA's order number is 800-633-6331 Tech help line is 714-639-2620

Well, the front toe-in is really the only thing that is adjustable on a stock Z. It should be somewhere between 2-5 mm toe -in, or .08-.20 in. The front camber and caster are non-adjustable as are the rears unless you have installed the concentric camber bushings. You might be able to change the front caster slightly by tightening or loosening the mount on the T/C rod, but the results would probably be negligible. My old Haynes manual gives the camber settings for the front as 50' + or - 30', and the castor as 2degrees 55' plus or minus 30'.

Since Jegs is mostly into NHRA and drag racing I would say their cage kits are not SCCA approved. I doubt for the price they are asking if they are even DOM tubing. Not only that, but a 12 point cage wouldn't be legal in SCCA unless you were going to run EP or GT class. I only say this because there is no sense in buying something only to find out that it isn't legal to use even in an SCCA sponsored autocross if that is your intention. If all you want is a roll bar in a street car it might be OK, but I would recommend DOM tubing for the strength even for just a roll bar. Beware of buying from someone that is not in the business of selling parts for the type of racing or whatever you planning to do.

First thing I would chek would be how the electric fan is wired. It isn't stock and it could be wired whereby it is taking its power form somewhere it shouldn't. Since you say you have changed to the HEI it is possible that the fan could be drawing away from the ingition, any electronic ignition needs a consistent voltage to run properly. That's why a car with a weak alternator will run farther on a set of points than it will on electronic. Another possibility would be a faulty ICU in the HEI itself. It should be a small square under the plate in the distributor. It should have a couple wires running to it. Not sure exactly what it looks like in the HEI but they are all similar. When one side of the ICU burns out it will try to run off the other side of it and overheat, bringing about similar problems as the ones you described. Another possibility is an overheating coil, you didn't state as to whether or not this has been replaced or not. If not, try a different one just to make sure if you do not find any other problems. There still is the possibilty of vapor lock with the symptoms you described. So if you find no electrical problems this might be your next step. Try blocking off the water to the intake, (the line that comes around the back of the head) and see if this helps. It is a slight possibilty since you say the symptoms are dependant on engine temp. It could be a faulty water control valve.

If you want the cross bar between the front uprights under the dash where it is out of the way, you will probably need to have a cage custom built. I believe all the cage kits on the market will have the cross bar in front of the dash. This is because the kits have the front uprights mounting to the floor just ahead of the front corner of the door. I had an Autopower weld in cage kit in my 280. It fit very tight to the dash and the cross bar was against the dash. It wasn't really in the way, but it was possible to to hit your knee against it. I have heard that Kirk Racing Products sells a decent cage kit with the Nascar style door bars but have not seen one installed in a Z but I would imagine they will be the same as the Autopower with the cross bar behind the dash. If you get it close enough to the steering column and dash it really isn't too bad in front of the dash, mine was a 2 inch cage so if you put a 1 1/2 inch cage in you would gain a wee bit of clearance. It is possible to cut the corners out of the dash and run the top bar down the the floor so that the cross bar can be behind the dash. You'll have to remove the dash to do this so you can notch it out for clearance around the main upright. A custom built cage will cost you a bit more but it may be worth the money as you can fit it to the car and your preferences as it is built. As far as the other question, the front sway bar mounts usually break because of the rust that always forms inside the front frame rail. The front frame rails always rust out from the inside out, so until the sway bar mounts pull out or a hole develops you don't know how bad the frame rails are. Only way to make sure they don't pull out is to replace the frame rails so that you know their condition before doing any type of racing, autoX or road racing. Rear bars were added after 73, or possibly during the 73 model run.

The triples will bolt up and work fine on the 2.8, the only thing you may have to do is to re-jet the carbs. As far as the transmission goes, if it came from an L series engine it wil work, L-24's, l-26's and L-28's all have the same bolt patterns.

Well, since you quoted me I'll have to say one thing. The owner not only did a lot of mods under the hood that a lot of members might be curious about, he addressed the complete package. He didn't just try to build a killer motor, he also upgraded the suspension and the brakes. His engine choice wouldn't be my "cup of tea" personally, but I do respect him for building a "sleeper" that can handle and stop as well as go. While it may not be a 100% restored trailer queen type of car, it is not chopped up, not overly modified in its outward appearance, it is a decent car that will not attract a lot of attention. It's not "arrest me red" and it's not a car a thief would follow around all day trying to steal it either. So in reality it is the ultimate kind of "sleeper", it won't attract a lot of attention until the person behind the wheel decides he wants it.

Bob Akin raced in the glory days of IMSA. He spent most all his time behind the wheel of Porsches as stated in the article. If I remember right he drove 935's, 956's, and 962's against people like Bob Tullius, Hurley Haywood, Geoff Brabham in the Nissan GTP car, Bob Wolleck, Al Holbert, Brian Redman, and many other of the best drivers of the era. I believe his involvement with the Nissans started after his retirement from the professional ranks and only when he started his own vintage race car business.

Any year 280 block will work from 75-83. The better block is the F-54 from the later ZX's. It has siamiesed cylinders (more webbing between the cylinders) and is purported to be stronger than the earier L-28's. Any 2.8 is going to be an improvement over the 2.4 so the F-54 is not a mandatory block. As far as the 5 speed, it will go behind any of the L series engines so an L-28 isn't mandatory for that swap, but a displacement increase is always a good thing.

An N-42 head will fit on the L-24 with no problems, just bolt it on and swap over your intake and exhaust and go. Most of the N-42's were installed on the FI L-28's so it may have cutouts for the injectors. No worries, the intake covers them up and they will not be a problem. The N-42 is nearly the same as the E-88 head as far as compression ratio etc. but has one big advantage. It already has the larger valves. One problem with these heads was the bronze valve guides, they should be replaced with steel guides as the bronze tended to fall over time. Dropping a guide isn't much better than dropping a valve. So, check to see if it has steel guides already, and if not, install them and hardened valve seats while you are at it.