2ManyZs

You might want to check the width across the bolsters on the backrest. They might come a little close to the door or door frame, other than that they look great. All you should need to do is to make the slider bolt up. They should look great in a Z. The overall width of the bolsters on the back rest and maybe the seat bottom is the only place I think you may find any problem. The stock seat is so close to the transmission tunnel you need to check the overall width of the seat to be sure. The way the tunnel narrows in at the bottom causes most of the problems, the hardware might fit, but the cushion won't or at least that is what I have found.

Good tip. Just for everyone's information, Eastwoods has a small kit they sell for touching up paint chips with small pieces of ultra-fine paper and the polish to go over the repair. I believe their kit has small foam blocks for sanding, but you could always use a small block of wood instead as I think the sandpaper has an adhesive backing.

Daniel, you are correct except for one small point. It's not the just the 260 that is different, it's all the cars after the 72 model year. My 71 has the large reservoir on the front yet both my 72's have it to the rear. Don't ask me why they changed it, they just did. BTW, I had to run out to the garage because after reading your post I got confused since I knew I had seen them both ways. Just had to double check myself. The series 1 has the large one in the front and both my 72's and my 75 280 have it on the rear. Darn it was cold out there......:mad: Daniel is right, you have to have the one for a 70 or 71. Want the bad news?? MSA's price is 50 bucks more for the 70-71 master cylinder over the 72-76 master cylinder, and VB's price difference is 90 dollars!:tapemouth I know what you are thinking since I really should replace the one on my 71, but I think I might wait till I really have to!:eek:

Yes, it is possible to have your bumper re-plated. If the metal is still in good condition it would be possible to do it. How much is the next question. I have no idea what a plating shop would charge. You should check around your area and find out then decide if another used one is going to save you a considerable amount of money. New bumpers definately not cheap so if you want nice bumpers you should do a little research and find out what it would cost to re-plate yours, it may even be a little cheaper to have both done instead of buying one replacement.

XYZ, please don't take this wrong, but I believe someone has re-painted your car at some time or another and has put the wrong sticker on it for whatever reason they may have had. Why do I think this? In the almost 20 years I have been tinkering on Z-cars I have never seen the paint code label on the passenger side of the core support. They have always been on the drivers side on all the cars I have ever seen and yours is up-side down compared to the factory ones I have seen. Every one I have seen is put on so you read it from the front of the car. I may be wrong, if I am you can call me an idiot. The color on your car does look to me like the 918 orange, however, looking down near the frame rail in front of the core support it almost looks like your car may have been red at one time. Perhaps it may have been the 110 red from the factory and someone re-painted it 918 orange?? I have had three 240's that were 918 orange and I can pretty much assure you that daisensei's car is 918 orange.

I don't know, but the 110 red cars I have seen don't look orange at all. The 110 is a little darker than the 905 to the point it is almost a maroon color and not a bright red. If you look in the Members Rides section daisenei has a pic of his 73 and it is definately 918 orange.

If'n there were two vapor tanks used on the later cars and you figure out which one he needs let me know and I'll check my parts car to see which one it has. I know where two more parts cars are here in town so maybe I can find the right one.

As a daily driver 45 ft/lb's should be OK. The main reason for increasing the breakaway torque is when the car is used for racing it limits the amount of slippage. Less slippage means less heat and wear, so unless you plan on doing a lot of autocrossing or road racing I believe it would be better to stay with the stock setting. On a daily driven street car you would want the slippage for easier handling in turns, too little slippage and you would basically end up with what amounts to a "locked" rear. No fun in a tight parking lot. Not only that but you will increase the understeer (plowing) as you increase the breakaway torque. Less breakaway promotes oversteer. So you would have to adjust your driving style or suspension settings to overcome any increase. Just as an FYI some of the old racing teams shimmed theirs anywhere from 180 to 350 pounds. Most just welded the spider gears and ran a locked rear. If you were to tighten it I would resist going over 100ft/lbs, especially if you plan on driving this car on the street only. Just my two cents........

Well, I can answer the first part of the question right from my Weber book. The prefix numbers always indicate the size of the throttle plate. The letters refer to the general type of carb (downdraft, double throat, sidedraft, although the I in IDA means inverted and they aren't inverted just downdraft). The suffix (last) set of numbers are the variation of the type or family of carbs. The book also states the Weber carburetor nomenclature is chaos!! Just as an example the book states there are 10 different variations of the 45 DCOE9. I am just guessing but I would think the reason for the cross-flow head having the carbs mounted like that would be because of the length of the intake runners inside the head. To tell the truth I never really thought about it, so it's quite possible I don't know what I'm talking about.

I'm just thinking out loud here, but I wonder if you could use a radiator overflow tank such as you see on race cars and some production cars. Seems like I have seen them square or rectangular as well as round. Instead of mounting it where the stock vapor tank was there ought to be just about enough room to mount it beside the filler. If you drilled and tapped it for the extra lines ( I have a thick plastic one on my race car) and made some sort of mounting bracket it should work as long as you had it at or above the plane of the filler. Seems like you should be able to find one that is approximately the same diameter as the filler (3 or 4 inch but I'd have to go measure mine) so that you would be able to mount it next to the filler without it being in the way. Let me look through some of my catalog collection and I'll see if I can find something that might work. OK, I looked in Summit Racings' catalog and found a round aluminum overflow tank for $45.50 (older catalog though) that holds one quart of liquid. It has a petcock on the bottom you could take out and put a T fitting in for barbed hose nipples and one on top you could do the same in. It doesn't give the dimensions but if you measure the space right in front of the filler and find out exactly how much space is there you might be able to squeeze something like this in. You have four lines to connect to it, 3 come from the tank and 1 goes to the filler. Pegasus racing had a radiator overflow tank that was probably even better due to its size but you would need to cap it off with something other than a radiator cap or fumes would leak into the car. Hope that gives you some ideas.

I think 918 is the one you are looking for.

I have been using Red Line MTF (manual transmission fluid) for quite a few years. I don't know that it's any better than regular 85w-140w but it seems that the transmission does shift a little easier. It is a little more expensive but you only need 1.6 quarts to fill the transmission. I've also been using their lube in the rear as well.

The little bit of chrome polishing I have done I have usually used Duponts Chrome polish paste with a soft buffing wheel or a rag. I think the steel wool would be a little too much like using sandpaper and leave a lot of fine scratches. There are a lot of chrome cleaners and polishes on the market, just about everyone markets one, so you could try one or two to see which gives the best result. A lot of it depends on the condition of the chrome you are working on.

Yes, it was the Fall 2001 issue. I'm not sure they will mail overseas though. I know they take subscriptions from the US and Canada but you might want to visit their site to see if you can get them sent to you.

Not sure about the second condensor, it is possible the previous owner put a distributor from an automatic in. If you are running dual points you will need the second one, if you are only running a single point set you should be able to do without it. It definately sounds like it is electrical, something you said about the car not re-starting until you turn off the key has me wondering if it might not be in the ignition switch or relay. I guess when you get back and put the parts in, if the problem persists we'll have to get some more people on this to get their input. Let us know what happens and we'll go from there.

Well, since you say the points are pitted the first thing I would suggest would be a complete ignition tune-up. Points, condensor, cap, rotor, plugs, ballast resistor, and possibly a set of wires. That should cover the obvious things that may be causing a problem. If after that it still does it I would say to go over the wiring to and from the coil, distributor, and ballast resistor to see if any are corroded or loose. If after all that you may want to try a different coil and perhaps even check your ignition switch. This should give you a pretty good start towards curing the problem. It could be something simple or it could be something that is hard to find and diagnose. The main thing I can say is start from what it most likely is and then work towards the less obvious. I have seen some cars have a problem that took a long time to fix because it was something you would never expect. You could also check the ground wires on the wiring harness, check your alternator output and battery condition, there are actually too many things that could affect your ignition to diagnose the problem with any certainty. Sorry, you'll have to pick a starting point and go from there, hopefully it will be taken care of when you do the tune-up. If not, let us know and we'll get some more opinions to help you out.

Yes, it may seem like a lot of work, but having the rust go on eating away at your car will cause even more work sooner or later. Much better to do a little work now than to do a lot of work later, or in the worst case, end up sending the car to a junkyard when it could have been prevented. I had a 72 not long ago that didn't look too bad on first look, but when I took off the fender and started poking around large pieces disappeared. When it was done all the inner fender under the battery tray was gone the width of the tray from the frame rail all the way up the under the tray, plus a piece was gone in the firewall. After one afternoon of poking around the car was beyond hope, and I ended up parting it out and sent the chassis to the crusher. The battery tray I believe is actually made of a slightly thicker gauge steel than the fender so it may not be past hope yet. You'll have to decide when you clean it up. BTW, you should check the frame rail area carefully above the t/c rod mount too. If acid has run down the inner fender it is possible it has run down into the frame rail as the weld seam is not sealed, and the frame rail is starting to rust out from the inside out. When you are finished with your repair I suggest using a seam sealer to seal the top weld flange on the frame rail all the way to the radiator support to prvent any more water etc. from getting down into the frame rail itself. Anywhere there are gaps in a seam is a point where water can get in and if the drain holes are plugged it will never come out, at least till it rusts out.

Alphadog, do you have the production date? This should tell you if you have a series 1 or 2. Also an easy way to tell is the hatch vents, on the hatch is a series 1, no vents on hatch but ones on the c-pillar is a series 2. There are many other little variations but that is the most noticeable. There is a thread here, I believe it is "what year do I have, and which emblems do I need" that list most if not all the differences. I believe it is under Help Me.

My suggestion would be to take the battery tray out. You can get a spot weld cutter from Eastwoods for a reasonable price or get one locally. Drill out the spot welds until the tray comes loose, some may be impossible to get to, these you may end up using using a regular drill to remove. When you are done you could re-weld or bolt the tray back in. This is the only way to get at the rust that you really need to get to. If you don't get it taken care of the next thing you know you will have a large hole there, and then it can be hard to replace. Clean out the rust any way you can, wire brush, sandblasting, putty knife, sandpaper etc. If it is bad under there when you get done you may find you do have a hole that needs a patch panel. This is in a important place so take your time and do the best you can, as it is a seam that attaches the inner fender to the firewall. When you are done I would say to use a self etching primer on the bare metal (Eastwoods has an aerosol) and use a good paint to finish. Or you could use Por-15 or the Corroless from Eastwoods if you prefer, they will seal the area to prevent any further rust. The main thing is get the tray out of the way and get it as clean as possible under there, any rust you leave will continue to eat away the metal, if you can't reach it, you can't take care of it. One idea I have is after painting the engine compartment in my car, I think I may get a aerosol or roll-on pickup bed liner material and cover the area under the battery tray down to the top of the frame rail. This way any future spills (if there are any) hopefully will not get to any metal. Maybe it will work, maybe not, but it can't hurt to try. Use a good battery tray or mat under the battery when you are finished to prevent any more small spills.

It isn't not too bad if you drool on the guy's car, just don't drool on his car while looking at his wife/girlfriend!! By the way, wouldn't that fall into the category, "If you have to ask, you can't afford it"??

I don't have it any manuals and can't seem to find it anywhere else. I'm thinking I may have guessed a little high, it's probably closer to the 150 psi range. If you have more than 10 pounds variance between cylinders it's time to start taking it apart to find the cause. If there are all within 10 pounds you can safely say the rings are in pretty good shape. If you do a leak down test and prssurize the cylinders with 100-120 psi of air pressure and can hear air leaking out of the intake manifold or carbs the problem is most likely worn valves or seats. If you open the oil fill on the valve cover and hear air the problem is in the rings, or cylinder walls or both. No, like Royce said you still won't know how the main and rod bearings are but to be safe you should hook up a mechanical oil pressure gauge to the stock sending unit location and check the pressure, better to do it wiht a mechanicla gauge and get an accurate reading than to trust the electric stock gauge.If you are going to pull the pan to check the mains you are half way to a rebuild so it might pay to check the pressure correctly and get a good reading.

Unless they have come out with something new these are probably the aluminum adjustable camber bushings. Notice I said aluminum, the ones I have in my 280 have no urethane or rubber, they are solid aluminum. Yes, they will work, and they should give you plenty of camber adjustment to compensate for a 1 inch drop, but they will wear out quite quickly, unless you want to keep pulling them out and lubing them. Maybe they have a different style out now that I'm not aware of. You might be better off to go ahead and drop your car, and then see what the camber change is. You might be able to get away with not having them depending on your tire and wheel combination, and of course every set of springs is not exactly equal either. So depending on the brand of spring you may only get 1 inch or you may end up with more. I don't know if any one still makes them but there used to be camber plates that went on the top of the strut in place of the stock insulator that required no cutting. But that was many years ago, a friend of mine has a set on his IT car, but he built that back in the early 80's.

I wouldn't attempt anything like that, about the only way possible way to use the stock springs and lower your ride height would be to lower the bottom spring seat on the strut. But you would lose a lot of your suspension travel (not good when using the stock springs). You would run into hood interference if you attempted to raise the strut tower height and if it weren't done correctly you would run the risk of a catastrophic failure. A better idea would be too use the progressive rate springs from Eibach, it would lower your ride height about an inch and still give you a decent highway ride. This would be your best alternative.

Ahh geez, now you went and done it, now I gotta have one too!

I believe by the pictures I have seen the urethane underskirts will come up as high as what you have. I don't know exactly how they attach but I would guess they stick on at the top edge with double sided tape. Kinda like most factory fender flares do on new vehicles. I think it would be possible to drill some drain holes in them from the bottom so they wouldn't be noticeable to let any water that does get under them to drain out. At least with an air space in under them it would be better than the aluminum ones that would trap it against the metal. Of course someone who has a set could tell you better, as I have not gotten a set yet.