Has your Z/Zed ever left you stranded?

[texasz]

Kinda, my car has terrible blow by on one cyl. (the compression in this one is 40) and the carbs are in desperate need of rebuilding so it does not run very well. I discovered just how bad one day a few years ago when I was kickin' around town and it started sputtering and loosing power. I managed to get her in to a parking lot on the side of the road and began tinkering to see what was up. After pulling a plug or two I found that they were VERY fouled. As luck would have it there was an O'Rileys walking distance, maybe 1/2 mile down the road, so I went and bought new plugs.

I replaced them and headed straight home...well wouldn't you know it, before getting home it started doing the same thing again about 20 minutes in to my trip, fortunately at that point I was only about 5-10 minutes from home and managed to make it by playing with the choke and gas pedal a bit.

Now at home I pulled the plugs and found them to be in the same fouled condition as the ones I had just replaced. It was at this point that I discovered the benefit of having a blast cabinet with glass beads, cleaned up one of the sets and put them back in the car and it ran fine. I then cleaned up the other set and put them back in the boxes and kept them as spares.

This little experience showed me that my car will not run for more than about 20 minutes before needing the plugs changed. So I quite driving her at all and allowed all the registrations to expire and removed the insurance. Since then life has been in the way until late this year when I have become serious about getting her back on the road with a rebuilt engine and carbs (not started yet, saving the money for it though and will be starting soon).

I have started her from time to time to keep things moving though and have gone through the remove, replace, clean the plugs routine a few times.

[EScanlon]

First instance with a tire:

A few years ago, on the way to a Dentist appointment, my car had a little of what seemed to be a slight wheel inbalance. Just a bit of vibration at slower speeds that seemed to go away at higher speeds.

Driving along on I-205 at about 60mph or so, I heard a loud BANG... followed by my left rear tire passing me and proceeding down the road. I quickly slammed on my brakes and was able to keep the back end up enough that only in the last 30 feet or so did the brake drum hit the ground. No body damage thankfully, but I did have to be towed home as I had lost ALL the lug nuts and wasn't sure that I hadn't damaged the axle, brake etc. Figured it was safer to be towed home and fix there than swiping one each from the remaining wheels.

Problem turned out to be a bad u-joint on the half shaft that finally vibrated the heck out of the wheel and caused the lug nuts to fly off.

Second instance with a tire:

On my way to the Blue Lake 2009 car show in my 67 Roadster with my wife, as I approached the Stop sign just down the road from me (bottom of my street hill has a Yield), I pressed the brake and it gave off a loud BANG! Pressed on the brake again, steering wheel lurches viciously to the right and the left front tire continues on down the street plowing through a neighbor's flower garden. (It missed the flowers but left a single tire track, which I'm sure caused that neighbor to think... WTF?) Good thing I don't normally drive with my fingers inserted into the holes on the spokes of the steering wheel, or I might have broken a finger.

Car was only going 5-10mph at the time, and I was talking to another Roadster owner I was due to meet with on the cell phone. When I commented that I had just lost a wheel and was grinding to a stop, he calmly asked if we were ok. We were, and I mentioned that I probably wasn't going to make it on time and gave him directions on how to get to the show.

Retrieved the wheel, checked the knock-off spline, saw that the threads had been bunged up a bit, but was able to mount the wheel and limp home at a slow speed. Removed the wheel, dressed the threads, straightened the brake shield while my wife cleaned the tire and removed the dirt scuff marks and then replaced everything. Left for the show about 40 minutes after it happened (changed clothes) and took Best Roadster at the show.

Best guess as to what went wrong, is that the knock off wheel had gotten aligned tooth on tooth when I had remounted them the day before and tightened them down. Then when I slowed for the yield, and followed it up with the stop, the wheel then lined up properly and slammed into it's groove which allowed the knock-off to have about 1/4" of play... when I braked.... ZING...off it came.

So I can honestly say that I've lost tires in both the Z and the Roadster.

A second incident with the Z was at the 2008 Canby show.

Just as I arrived at the entrance to the show, and was in the process of paying the entry fee, the car died. Asked my wife if she had shut it off (sometimes the echo of the exhaust can make it hard to hear at drive-up windows), she had not. Tried to start the car.... and nothing.

Luckily Arne had a spare E12-80 module and after replacing it, everything was up and running. Thanks again Arne. Interestingly, nobody had a screwdriver and we had to make do with the spade connector from some left over wiring that Beandip had.

Those are mine.

E

Edited October 8, 2009 by EScanlon

[psdenno]

Three times in 38 years.

The First (1977): Fan belt broke about 10 miles from home. I limped home by driving until the temp needle climbed to the danger zone, turned off Z, waited for it to cool, repeat.

The Second (1978): Fan through the radiator a couple miles from home. Towed home by a friend.

The Third (1983): Main pulley detached from engine and rolled into an empty field on the way to work. Fifty miles from home, recovered pulley, walked to nearest house to call AAA, towed to a shop that made it all better, tow truck driver took me to work, picked up Z at the end of the day.

Dennis

[240ZX]

Only been stranded two times and for the same reason! Just so you'll understand the situation, I only run an electric fuel pump located near the fuel tank. And by the way, the fuel pump is manufactured by Mallory and is of the gyroller type. Anyway, while out having the usual fun, working the tires and suspension on SoCal canyon roads, the 240 just starts petering out like it was running out of fuel!? Interesting because I can still hear that the pump is working.....so I thought. To make a long and boring story shorter and after wait for a tilt bed tow truck to show up (it's now dark, cold, and getting late), the guy shows up and we get my baby loaded without any issues. Mind you, my 240 only has about 4" ground clearance. The tow truck guy did such a nice job and took great care not to dork up my Z that I gave him a really nice tip ($). So, what was the real problem....obviously, it was a fuel delivery issue! After removing the pump, test it for pressure (which was almost zero even though it sounded just fine), what I discovered was that the carbon that comes off the brushes had built up enough, within the pump, that it slowly created a bigger and bigger resistance and consequently reduced the pump output. After cleaning out the carbon, turning the armature, and installing new brushes, I was good to go again. Moral of the story......if you run a Mallory gyroller type pump, one needs to inspect and service the brushes after about 500 hours of operation. Fortunitly, actually removing and repairing the pump is quite simple. As they say (who ever THEY are), hind sight is always 20-20!!!

Tom

Edited October 8, 2009 by 240ZX

[Mikes Z car]

Back around 1980 with the 71 240 I had then I was driving through Phoenix and the points quit. I was towed a short distance to a shop where they put new ones in. Another time in Texas I ran out of water and parked on the side of the freeway and hiked a half mile to a farm house and got some more water in a container I carried due to leak worries.

Mike

[d240zx2]

1970, back when I had no knowledge of the dangers of over-revving a 5 CW crank, and little sense, I doubled up on the points spring to "keep it against the cam" on the distributor shaft for those rare forays into 7500 rpm land. On a trip from Lubbock to Midland, Texas (about 120 miles) on a Saturday, the springs sproinged. Broke completely. Isolated 20 miles from our destination, we flagged down a motorist and asked him to contact a friend in Midland and have him go to Dotson Datsun (yes, that was the name of the Datsun dealer in Midland, Texas back then) and get a set of points and bring 'em out to us. A couple of hours in the HOT West Texas sun later, here comes Oren in his 'Cuda with the points.

Other than that, the Z has ALWAYS gotten me to and fro.

Ignorance is curable, Stupid is forever.

[Pat Carr]

One January day in the early 80's I was in a meeting at work when a fellow worker knocks on the conference room door. "I didn't want to bother you, but I thought you should know your car is smoking." I ran to the car and popped the hood to find the wiring harness smoldering. I disconnected the battery and arranged for a tow truck to meet me after work.

This was before Al Gore invented the internet and sites like this one existed, so I didn't know this was probably caused by the fuse box. Took me 6 months to finally reconnect everything one wire at a time. In 31 years of ownership, that was the only time I needed a tow.

Pat

[zcar70]

Just once did my 240 fail me. Back in the late 1970s the small, curved manifold coolant hose split and sprayed coolant directly onto the distributor, got under the cap and that was that.

Lots of you have mentioned points problems. I was NEVER a big fan of points on my 240Z and switched to a Petronix setup a few years ago. What a difference! Smoother idle, smoother rpms, no maintenance.

[Murf300]

Back in the 70's my 260z stranded me three times. Twice, I had the spring in the button on the inside of the distributor cap fail, and lost ignition. The first time I had to walk (it was before cell phones). The second time I had a spare in the car just in case.

The other was when a resistor inside of the "interlock" module (which had to do with the seatbelt or something being tied in with the electronics) blew. Killed the ignition. I had to have it towed and found a replacement part in a junk yard.

Those were the good old days!

Pat

[C Gra Z]

In the 23 years I've owned my 280z, it's never left me stranded. I did however back into a flower bed in a parking lot and get stuck once. I put in a call to AAA and while I was waiting with my son, who was about 9, a girl came up and started yelling to all the guys in the parking lot and they all came over and lifted my car enough so I could pull out. We were all so pleased and excited, then the tow truck showed up.