2ManyZs

Well Mike, it's like this. I had a street bike for years, and the longer I rode the faster I rode. Last street bike I had was a brand new 1884 Honda Interceptor 500 (while ago huh?) and the more I rode that little crotch rocket the more times I had to do "evasive" manuevers around little old ladies, animals (ever hit a groundhog at 70mph?) and all did all sorts of crazy stuff. Yup, they are addictive, but today they are just a little too dangerous for me, I felt a hell of a lot safer on the race track in my 280. I traded the Interceptor for a dirt bike in 86, had that for a year, longer I had it, faster I rode it until the darn trees and big rocks started "jumping' out in front of me. Needless to say I don't own a bike anymore. Bikes today would be just too much temptation to ride like I used to. Part of getting older I guess, the "self preservation" mode kicked in a few years ago. I don't feel safe on the highways today in a 40 ton tractor trailer with all the traffic, people on cell-phones, and the like. But if I still lived up north where I could ride a snowmobile, I'd have to have the fastest one on the market!!

Guess you might as well go ahead and pull the distributor and fix it, it should have had a 10mm hex head bolt in it. So somewhere along the line someone has messed with it. You'll probably end up needing to fix it sooner or later, might as well do it now while you are thinking about it.

Hmm, guess it depends on how far down you are trying to tuck yer head. You know the old saying "place your head between your legs and kiss yer butt goodbye". Wonder if you'd have time to do that at 150.:eek:

Find a 10 mm wrench first, then look under the distributor body. You should see two bolts, one on the valve cover side and one on the back side. Loosen them both a little and turn the distributor. You should have a silver plate under the bolts with a small scale on a tab that sticks out a little further than the rest of the plate. One bolt is the pivot bolt, the other is on the adjustment groove in the plate. Sometimes they are a little hard to see under the plug wires but they should be fairly easy to get to if the distributor is in correctly.

I have them on my old IT car and I put a set on the 71, I love them. It just reduces the number of turns lock to lock and makes the steering a lot more responsive. Less movement of the steering wheel gives the same car response. If you like a quicker steering these are what you want. They are a factory part, through Nissan Competition I believe.

Now we know why you can't finish your Z, you just have too many vehicles to play with. You have to many other toys to keep you from the one that needs your attention the most. I'd have to vote against the last two on the list, too many nuts on the road today, a lot safer in number 1!

Nuttin wrong with mounting it on the bumper any way you want to, it's your car. I'm just wondering why the darn thing is so short, I can't remember what the later style looked like. Somewhere there has to be a pic of a 73 with the bumper guard mounted so you can get an idea of where it was mounted, or how close it was mounted to the edge of the bumper. Maybe someone else has a pic of a later 240 you can look at with the bumper guard mounted. Actually I think this short one may have been mounted to the backside of the bumper somehow. In your pic I think it is actually upside down. BTW, MSA only shows one part number for all Z's from 70-74 for the front so that raises another question. Where did this one come from and why is it different?

Well, wouldn't ya know the parts car has a rear bar on it. It's in better shape than the bumper for some odd reason and it doesn't have the front one. From what I can see it really is up to the person mounting the rear bar where it goes exactly. Mine is mounted as far back on the bumper as possible and the two rear holes are right at the edge of the bumper, make it kinda hard to get the holes drilled just right. What I would do is this, first set the rear one on the bumper and decide how far back you want it to sit in the rear. Then mark, center punch and drill the holes for the side mounts first. Make sure they are centered in the bumper top, and after you drill them out drop a bolt through the hole to hold it in place. Then trace the outline of the rear pedestal mount onto the top of the bumper in the rear. Take the overrider off and mark the center of the rear holes, center punch them, and drill them out. You will need to use the right size bolt with a hex head on these so you can tighten them from inside the bumper. Mine has a phillips head bolt, but you could use a hex head if you want. Then you will need to remove the whole bumper in order to get to the inside to tighten the mounting bolts, then mount it all back up. Hope that helps.....

Bad Dog, I have one of the front overriders that is the same as yours. I also have one that is ~31.5 inches overall, and ~27 3/4 between the mounting holes. The short one is brand new, still wrapped in the original plastic with mounting hardware and instructions (still in the original box too). The longer one is brand new but not in the bag, hence it has some minor surface rust. It also has the instructions and mounting hardware. I did a little cleaning on it with some polishing compound and it came out great. Not sure if I have a rear one or not, if I do it's probably rusted up, of a parts car somewhere in the past. Now as far as selling them........ not sure, but I might entertain offers...... last I checked the front ones were NLA from MSA.

Maker sure you have all the correct throttle linkage pieces for the round tops, other than that enjoy the improvement.

If you are going through the trouble to swap tanks by all means go ahead and change the vent hoses now while you can get to them. Even though they may look oK, when you go to take the tank out you may find they are hard and brittle. It's a lot easier to replace them now than it will be in the future, and it's a little insurance that you will have one problem erased and not have to worry about for years to come.

And I thought I had too many vehicles.

A couple other things to check would be the idle rpm setting and the ignition switch. If the idle is set a little too high this can cause the dieseling. If the ignition switch is going bad it won't cut off the current to the coil properly and this has caused more than one car to run after the switch was turned off. Seems like you have checked most everything, try separating your plug wires, they may be another part of the problem, they could be allowing current to cross over from one wire to the other.

I already put them in the links section Royce, but silly me, I put them under Racing. Couldn't remember where I put the link till I went looking for it.

I posted a link for Weber parts. Not sure where they are located. There are a couple more I saw in Grassroots Motorsports magazine but they didn't have a web site. It should be under the random links or search the links to find it.

Well, I guess it could have been worse. It could have been Skyline being whispered about, in which case I would have another name for him.:eek:

Sounds like someone used ATF since the oil is red. If you put 20w I would try to get all the ATF out or just use ATF. It probably would be better to not mix them.

You might need to post a pic of the front one, I believe there were a couple different styles from the diffrent year cars. The only front one I can remember is the one that connects the bumper guards. I think I have two out in the garage somewhere and I think they are both different. The rear one should have the end mounts that go directly to the bumper, right? You should be able to find carriage bolts that will fit the mounts, but if possible you should try to find stainless or chromed ones to prevent them from rusting and being noticeable.

Now that you mention it, I haven't seen the Koni's advertised in a while. I think they only had 3 position adjustment where the Tokico's have 5 adjustment settings. About the only ones I see advertised anymore are the KYB gas, the Tokico gas, and the Tokico Illumina adjustables. Maybe someone else knows if there are any more on the market than that.

Regarding your question about the Toyos versus the Kumho's. I think Grassrootsd Motorsports did a comparison test no too long ago with the Toyos, Kumhos, and the Hoosiers. I like the looks of the new Kumho, seems like they would make a pretty decent rain tire if left full tread. And the price is a LOT less than the Hoosiers that only last a weekend or two.

I have the Ground Control set up under my old 280 IT car. It's great for a race car, but for a street car I would suggest not spending the money on the coil overs unless you plan on doing a lot of autocrosses or the like. It's a lot of money, it's a lot of work and it needs to be done properly for it to work. You will need to cut the strut housing and use shorter strut inserts so the choice of struts will be limited. Then you would need to decide on a spring rate so that the car would be give a decent ride. They could make suggestions for the spring rates and struts when or if you decide to order. If you do use the Ground Control system you will need to address the camber changes from shortening the housing, use strut spacers to get the roll center back where it belongs and then you will have the issue of what swaybars to use. The one advantage to the coil overs is the selection of spring rates available, one thing you can't di if you use the lowering springs where you have to take what they offer. I'd just use a good quality set of lowering springs ( Eibach progressive rates would be my choice) and adjustable struts and use the leftover money for something else. You will likely save over a thousand bucks if you don't go with the coil overs, there are a lot of things you can do to a Z to improve the performance with a extra grand in your pocket.

I've used the KYB gas struts years ago with good results. Of course back then there was no such thing as an adjustable on the market from Koni or anyone else. If you are on a budget they are fine, but if you have the money I think the adjustables would be well worth the money for the simple reason, you never know how the ride is affected when you change springs for lowering. If you have the adjustables you will be able to change them to improve your highway ride and then stiffen them if you decide to run an autocross for fun some weekend or do an open track day.

Sorry, but it sounds like the switch may be the problem. If you can, try one out of a parts car to be sure before you spend the big bucks on a new one. Sounds like the barrel assembly may be so loose it is not making contact inside.

Before you pull the wiper motor do a check on the wiper switch. They are prone to corrosion in the switch if left for a long period of time. My 71 has this problem with the headlight switch. If I left the car in the garage for a few months the lights wouldn't work until I had turned the switch off and on a few times. The wiper switch can and probably will do the same thing. If you have checked for current going to the switch and checked the fuse panel, check for current going out of the switch before going to the wiper motor. You might be able to spray some electrical contact cleaner into the switch and see if that helps.

Well, this may sound like a stupid question but it has happened before. Is the belt in the right groove on the crank pulley? Or it could be the pulley's aren't lined up properly. Only other thing I can think of is try a little belt dressing on it or try another type of belt. I prefer the belts with the grooved V instead of the full V belt. Could be the bearings in the alternator are giving up and letting the pulley "wobble". Perhaps if you have had the alternator bracket off recently the spacers weren't put back in the proper place. I'd try a little dressing first, if you can find it try the solid dressing, not the aerosol kind. It comes in a stick and you just rub it against the belt. If that doesn't help it's time to start looking for another cause.