2ManyZs

If he hasn't replaced it already I think I would start by trying a different coil. It sounds like something between the coil and distributor if it isn't the bad ground. Either that or it's in the wiring (corroded or loose) connections on the coil or on the distributor itself. Just a couple more ideas to check out.

Hmm, well, if all you want to do is take the spring and strut off this one to put on yours I'd say take the spring and strut and forget the spindle for now. If it has the blue springs, they are a bit shorter than stock, but it still would be a good idea to use a spring compressor as they are stiffer. If you don't have a spring compressor, try this little trick I have used. Get 3 large diameter hose clamps, about 2 1/2 or 3 inches, and loop them around at least 3 coils of the spring and space them out evenly around the spring. You should be able to tighten them enough to take most of the pressure of the spring off the upper mount, then just use a 14mm socket to take of the nut off the top of the strut. Then to get the collar off the strut you will need a good sized set of slip joint pliers. They can be a PITA to get off at times, but it will be a lot simpler to do this than to fight the spindle.

To those of you who have used the POR-15 I have a couple questions. 1. Did you spray it or did you brush it on. 2. If you did spray it, did it need to be thinned or was it OK out of the can. 3. I am wondering if this stuff is going to be impossible to clean out of the threads of the body mounting nuts if it is sprayed in there. As hard and permanent as they say it is I am wondering if it will be hard to chase the threads with a tap if it were to get into the threads. Just wondering, since I have never used the POR-15 I don't want to find out the hard way. I guess I really haven't decided to use it on my 71, or save it for another job.

Luckily my 71 was a garage queen for most of its life, so that probably helped make mine easier, and it was the first time I had done the job so I guess I got lucky. You could try using an impact gun to turn the spindle if you have one. The problem is in the bushing sleeves, that is where the spindle will be rusted or corroded, there is very little clearance between the spindle and the sleeve so let it soak for a while, sooner or later it will break loose.

Well, mine came out of my 71 pretty easily (?) so maybe I can give you a couple hints. Before I started trying to take mine out I sprayed the pin with WD-40 and let it soak in for an hour, spray it into the wedge bolt hole too. I then double nutted one end of the pin and used a wrench to turn the pin to make sure it was loose, they usually are corroded inside the bushing sleeves. Then I took a ball peen hammer and a punch and punched it out. If it is very stubborn try not to hammer on the end of the pin (even with a nut on it) or you'll end up mushrooming the end of the pin and also ruin the nut. I used a small brass drift I had that was a little smaller than the end of the pin and tapped it out. Once it moved it slid right out. If you have new pins to put in you don't have to be quite so careful beating the old one out, but if you mushroom the end too much it won't slide thru the bushing sleeve. Try soaking and turning the pin, if it won't turn it isn't going to slide out. When you put it back together be sure to lube the pin as well as the bushings, this will prevent any squeeks and it will make it a whole lot easier if it needs to be taken apart in the future.

I was thinking about something else and this popped into my mind. A lot of people just bolt on a header without thinking and then after a while it starts to leak or the header flange warps a little and they blame the header. Well, it may be the header and it may well have been prevented. To those of us who have taken the intake and exhaust off a Z know that the studs and the cone shaped "washers" under them don't seem to be the best way to secure two separate manifolds to the head. One thing to check when installing a header is to check the thickness of the header flange as compared to the intake flange. If the header flange is even a little bit thinner than the mount on the intake you will not get the same amount of torque on both when you tighten the mounting nuts. If the header flange is thinner try a flat washer ( a little grinding might be necessary to clear the intake flange) under the cone so that when you torque the nut you will be applying the same ( or close to the same) torque to the header and the intake. A properly torqued header with a good quality gasket should not warp or leak, so take a couple extra minutes to check, you might save yourself a little grief later down the road. And before you slap that header on take a minute with a wide flat file to make sure those ports are flat and have no welding slag hanging off them to ruin the gasket. Just a light touch is all that is necessary, if you file too much you will end up with one port lower than the other and then you will have a leak for certain.

Since there have been numerous questions on the subject I thought this would be a big help to anyone planning on swapping transmissions or rear ends in the future. This is an excerpt from an answer to a tech question from the old Z Car magazine. If anyone has the magazines it is in the Nov/Dec 1997 issue on page 10 and 11. The stock transmission gears are as follows: 240Z 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 4 speed type A 3.549 2.197 1.420 1.00 4 speed type B 3.592 2.246 1.415 1.00 280Z 5 speed 3.321 2.077 1.308 1.00 .864 280ZX 5 speed 1980 3.062 1.858 1.308 1.00 .773 1981-on 3.062 1.858 1.308 1.00 .745 Now the author went on to compare the final drive ratios with different ring and pinion combinations as a way to compare the 280 5 speed to the 280 Zx 5 speed. This is the overall drive ratio, which is the combined mutiplication of the transmission and the rear end gear. Recommended rear diff ratios for the early 280 (77-78) 5 speed: Either a 3.70 or 3.90 5 speed w/3.70 12.29 7.68 4.84 3.70 3.20 5 speed w/3.90 12.95 8.10 5.10 3.90 3.37 Recommended rear diff ratios for the 280 Zx 5 speed: Either a 3.90 or a 4.11 5 speed w/3.90 11.94 7.25 5.10 3.90 3.01 5 speed w/4.11 12.58 7.64 5.38 4.11 3.18 Now if you are running the later ZX 5 speed 81-on the first four ratios are the same but the overdrive 5th will give you a final drive of 2.90 with the 3.90 rear, and it will be 3.06 with the 4.11 Take note that by running a 5 speed of any type, if you don't change the rear end gear you will really have a tall overdrive, notice that all the 5th gear final drive ratios are all under 3.36 except for one. Which means that you will turn less RPM's on the highway while cruising but you will substantially increase your acceleration in the lower 4 gears. IMO with the later ZX 5 speed you could also go to a 4.38 ratio in the rear and you will still not see an increase in the highway RPM's and you will gain a slight improvement in the lower gears as well. Remember, if you change the rear end ratio you will need to re-calibrate the speedometer drive pinion whether you change transmissions or not. The drive pinion is based on the rear end ratio, regardless of what transmission you have in the car. You will need the following pinions to calibrate your speedometer: Yellow, 16 tooth for the 3.36 ratio Black, 17 tooth for the 3.54 Blue, 18 tooth for the 3.70 White, 19 tooth for the 3.90 Red, 20 tooth for the 4.11 Purple, 21 tooth for the 4.38

Well, my 280 IT car has an MSA header on it with 2 1/2 inch straight pipe. Oh, it's not street legal, sorry. BTW, the Motorsport header has been on the car since 1989 and it does not leak, never has. So not all headers leak. I took a flat file and filed the ports to make sure they were flat, and used one of MSA's header gaskets. My 71 will be getting a header with the Jet-Hot coating made by Pacesetter ( nice thick flanges) and a 2 1/2 inch pipe with either a Flowmaster or Borla turbo muffler. How does it sound? I'll tell ya as soon as the engine is back where it belongs.

No offense Neal, but with the your asking price you should give more specific info on the cars history, modifications (if any), etc.

I found the ,agazine it was in, it's the old Z Car magazine, Nov/Dec issue 1997. It is in the Ask Mr. Goodtech section, I will post the gear ratios in the Tech forum later today. This will give everyone a chance to look at it and perhaps answer a few questions for future users. It list all the gear ratios for all the different transmissions, plus the overall gear ratios comparing a 280 5 speed with the Zx 5 speed.

Ben, I think you will find the R-180 won't hold up to 400hp. Up to 300 is about the limit from all that I have read. Anything above 300 and you are risking a failure. Especially if you put the extra strain on the stub axles with the Quaiffe. I don't think the ring or the pinion will take that amount of hp for very long. Check out the hybridz web site, I believe they have the most experience with Z's with that much hp and I think they will agree that 400 is too much for the R-180. dhayes5, the 720 4x4 truck from 1/83 to 6/83 have the R-180 3:90 front diff. The 720 4x4 from 6/83 to 12/85 had a 4:11 as did the 200SX non turbo from 84-88. The 720 4x4 also had a 4:37 from 6/79 to 12/82 and a Long Bed 6/79 to 6/80 had a 4:62 fron diff. IMO, if you are putting a ZX 5 speed in if you can get a 4:11 or 4:37 you may be more pleased with the rpms in overdrive on the highway while substantially increasing your acceleration in the lower gears. I believe I read somewhere that with the 5 speed and a 4:11 the overall gearing in overdrive is below 3:36 which is the stock diff. ratio. I can look for the write up if you need more info, I can't remember which magazine I read it in.

I think you are on the right track, the dimmer switch sounds like the culprit. It isn't too hard to get too, and it's a lot easier to take apart to clean than the headlight switch assembly. If it still doesn't work, mperdue is parting out his 73 so if you act fast he may have a switch you can replace it with. He just posted it. Just be careful, if I remember right there are some small pins and springs in there you will not want to lose. It's been years since I took one off, so I can't remember exactly what is in there.

Since Royce mentioned 260's, I'm not sure but it would seem logical that the early 260's would not have the door beam, but the late 260 probably would. Since they had to use the government mandated larger bumpers I think it's quite possible a late 260 door would be the same a a 280. The door bar probably makes the 280 door a few pounds heavier than the 240 door, maybe 2-4 pounds. I haven't taken a door bar out but it looks to be quite stout. I have heard that it is possible to take it out, you need to grind off the panel near the door seam on both ends and then hammer it out so that you can grab it with vise grips and work it out. Then you'll need to weld the seam back up on both sides of the door.

The way to distinguish the progressive rate spring by looking at them is this. If you jack up the front end to take the weight off the suspension the coils will be spaced much further apart at the top of the spring than at the bottom. The more suspension travel you use (in cornering) the stiffer they will get. The stock or lowering springs of any type will have evenly spaced coils. Some progressive rate spring also may have slightly thicker diameter wire at the bottom, depending on how much progression the rate has.

Gross hp ratings are 150 for the L-24, 162 for the L-26 and 170 for the L-28. These are factory advertised gross hp ratings. The net is what you can expect in the real world. A lot of manufacturers would advertise gross hp ratings that were unrealistically inflated to sell cars, then left it to the buyers to find out they didn't get what they paid for. That is the main reason all hp ratings are now given in net hp ratings. It is a more realistic rating of the true hp of the engine. Net hp ratings are more along the lines of what you could expect the engine to produce on a dyno at the crankshaft, not the rear wheels. A manufacturer might take a test group from the production line and dyno them, then publish the results. So if the net hp rating of an L-26 is 139, then the L-24 would be about 127 and the L-28 nearer to 147. Not sure of the exact numbers. The only correct way to judge an engines true output is to build it and dyno it. No matter what, one engine will not be the exact same as another especially if it was built in a mass production. Hand built engines of equal parts may produce equal results but even then you will slight variations.

Of course the one thing a lot of people overlook is bleeding the master cylinder first. It will not only get rid of the old fluid out of the master cylinder easily, but if there is any air in the cylinder you will be bleeding at the calipers all day to remove any air that might have been trapped at the master cylinder. Sounds like a good idea for bleeding the front calipers. Guess I'll have to try it. Never thought much about having air trapped in the piston like that.

Just as a side note, my ITS 280 with 14x7 zero offset wheels and 225/60's measure about 65 1/2 inches to the outside of the tires, so you will be close. My trailer has 78 inches between the fenders(old homemade trailer) so I never had a problem there, but it was close on the inside width between the rails.

Most people have reported having to slam their doors after replacing the door seals. The old seals were worn out, someone may have re-adjusted the door at one time or another and with the added thickness of having new seals it may not let the door latch properly. Try adjusting the striker plate on the door jamb. It may take a while for the new seals to "seat" or conform to the door opening. It's possible it may take a couple adjustments to get it right, and may have to be done again after you have used the car for a while.

Timberwolf, I had the twice pipes on my first car. Yes, they sounded good, that is, until the glass packs burned out. Then it drove me and the neighbors nuts! In a very short time you will have nothing more than a straight exhaust. I hope you can deal with it better than I did. I hate to rain on anyones parade, but let me know how you like it after about a month or two.

My 280 IT car is approx. 56 inches measured at the center of the tires. 240 should be the same but the tire width will differ. I could measure the distance between the rail of my trailer, but it will have to wait till daylight. Or do you want the overall width?

Don't forget to clean and lube the "bellcrank" on the firewall. This has been one of the places I have had the most trouble with sticking linkages, it comes off very easily. Just pop off the linkages and then remove the snap ring on top, and pull it up off the pivot. Clean it up and grease it like the rest of the linkage. I have found all sorts of junk and even some rust on there in different cars.

Yes, more compression will give you more hp. How much will depend on the displacement increase along with the compression increase. IMO a compression ratio of 10.5:1 would be about the max on todays pump gas, even at that you would need to use the highest octane available to ensure that you won't get any detonation. Most high performance cars today run about 10:1 to 10.5:1 but as you know the ignition systems in those cars make a Z look pretty archaic. You would probably need to upgrade your ignition system as well. At the very least you would need to upgrade to a hotter coil, with some of the better plug wires. The E-31 head is one of the better heads that came on an L series engine, but they will not breathe as well as some of the later heads since they and the E-88 have smaller valves. Luckily you can swap in the larger 280 valves easily, most any machine shop should be able to do it for a minimal cost.

Check all the wires between the coil and the distributor. Check for loose connections and any corrosion. But since you say you left the ignition on and killed the battery you might want to check the condition of the points while you are in there, they may be pitted or burned up. Post an update and we'll try to get a few more opinions to get you going again.

Well, ya got me. The closest thing I can think of would be the old Western Turbine wheels or maybe another brands copy of the same design. Now that I think about it could it be she was referring to Keystone wheels? I think they were bought out years ago, so that would make them no longer available. I have a set that are similar except mine have more spokes. I believe mine are by Western wheels. I'm not even sure if Western is still in business or maybe they got bought out by someone else too.

The two main causes for "dieseling" are idle speed set too high and timing that is too far advanced. Since you say the timing is set according to factory spec we can assume that isn't the problem. You did not say however, what your idle speed is. It should be between 700 and 800 rpm with the accepted 750 as the norm. The gas issue shouldn't be a major cause as the timing also plays a factor in that. That is the main reason I suggested it is an electrical problem associated with a worn out ignition switch. It is possible the switch is shorting out the contacts and it could be only giving partial voltage to the ignition, thereby giving you the sensation of "dieseling". With all the new parts you have installed if it isn't the idle speed it could certainly point to the ignition. Let us know if you find the problem, or if you need more options we will be glad to come up with some.