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PeterZ

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About PeterZ

  • Birthday 06/07/1960

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    San Jose, CA
  • Interests
    Fabrication, racing.

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  2. That kind of stuff usually only happens when someone accidentally reverses the positive and negative cables during the jump. Only one touch is enough to fry the alternator diodes. Voltage spikes during cable disconnecting is also a problem on computer cars. It helps to have the headlights on for any kind of jump start. The lights give any voltage spikes a place to go other than the computers. BMW requires a certain fuse, #21 I believe, to be removed before jumping.
  3. Putting a prop valve in the front brakes is somewhat verboten Peter. I'm surprised that worked at all, for the same reason as stated above. The harder you step on the pedal the less pressure gets there (proportionally). Well said, Jon. I like the solutions listed above such as overdoing the rears and bringing it back with the adjustable valve. The Maxima rear kit was smallish anyway. Thanks. The tandem master set-up works well for my DSR chassis; excellent work on the mounting.
  4. Normal? no. Dim the lights at idle? possibly. If a common test light (remember those) in series between the disconnected battery cable and the related battery post lights the test light you have a problem. You won't know how big. Most test light bulbs will glow dimly with 0.1 amp current and are bright by 1 amp. 1/10 amp is enough to drain your aberage sized battery in a few days. If you have a spark at the post you may several amps. Use a good ammeter in series with the disconnected cable. Start with a high amperage meter (10A scale) first or you might blow the internal meter fuse. Go to smaller scale on meter to get a good reading. The amount of drain can help you figure where to look. (I.E. A reading of 3 amps could be an internal problem with the alternator) Disconnect fuses and observe the meter. If all the fuses are gone and you still have a drain the fun begins. You have to look for what is powered and not fused. Starter, ammeter, etc. (book time) good luck. PS you may have 2 problems. A drain and something wrong with your charging system/wiring. What are the voltages at the alt. pos. post and at the battery during idle and 1500 RPM? The change in brightness is obviously not right. P.S.P.S. NEO997X bring up a good point. Check the belt tension. Rev the engine until the voltage jumps up had keep it there for a few seconds. A slipping belt may not make noise but a slipping pulley will eaasily burn your hand. Use a wet rag to test for heat on the pulleys.
  5. Good article. I was taught the valve tapers off the rear brake pressure under hard braking to reduce rear whell lock-up due to weight transfer. I need to do some work on my car as I still have front wheel lock-up. I like the height adjusting valves (Toyota Truck) because they compensate some for additional weight in the bed. On my old BMW 2002 ITB cars we had to put an adjustable valve in the front brakes. Not fun as the calipers each had two brake lines. (The master cylinder had 5 lines-4 to the front calipers)
  6. I have the vented 300ZX rotors 4x4 calipers and R4S pads up front and stock pad 85 Maxima calipers and mounts on 280 rear rotors on the back. No, they didn't just fall right in but I'm stubborn and had to make it that way. I liked the parking brake setup too. The searches may list the wrong or misleading info by the way. One recommends 83 maxima mounts and another recommends 85 mounts. The 85 mounts needed a little fab work but it wasn't too bad. The car still had no rear brakes while the fronts kept locking up. Removing the proportioning valve helped. I certainly don't need to add a valve in the rear. I don't yet see the need for another master cylinder either; there's only slightly more pedal travel now but at least it stops better. The 300 ZX rear rotor has a larger diameter than the 280 though I don't think a 1 inch diameter change is enough to balance my brakes. Did I miss something like some rear calipers have larger pistons? The surface areas all seem to be the same for that style pad.
  7. PS when performing your piston drop test try to measure the rate of piston rise. The two suction pistons must rise at the same rate. You don't need calibrated fingers; you can tell if there's a problem with one of the dampers.
  8. Were they overfilled? There's a mark on the plunger. Monitor the rate of oil loss, maybe diligent maintenance will keep them full. Low oil will make for lean running off idle. I recommend using whatever oil you use in the engine and tune accordingly. That way you'll never run out of or have to carry "special" oil.
  9. At least he has access to a computer and uses fairly good grammar. I'm envisioning a bunch of well to do people sitting in their mansions typing that string back and forth to each other. All of them sitting in the darkness wearing Lord of the Rings capes and Bukakke shields pulled down tightly to shield them from the light of their computer screens.
  10. Use relays! I'm finishing mine hopefully tomorrow. (Replacement connectors on order for the JY relay holders.) Each headlight on my 240 uses a single wire to power the light (each light on a seperate wire/fuse) and two grounds - one for low, the other for high. The ground is in the stupid lever on the column. Didn't combine lo/hi for high beam though, good idea.
  11. I just started the conversion for putting my headlights on relays so I can reduce the amount of resistance in the system. They are pretty bad right now. I verified the operation of my mock-up last night. I need to tidy the harness and mount the relays into a spiffy relay mount.
  12. Wow, I's been a long weekend. I have been helping Kyle with this problem. Jmortensen, congratulations on your PT contest. I won that contest in Calif. 1978. We took second place at the National level because I missed one item on my mental checklist. We lost by 7 minutes because I had to diagnose something I had initially overlooked. Darned if J.G. Moore didn't somehow know what I'd forget to check. I have been helping Kyle with his diagnosis for a few weeks now. The basis have been covered as well as we can do without me actually being there. His carbs are wrong in my opinion and he has listened to our comments. I understand he wanted to verify the carbs were actually too lean (pulling the choke made the car run better) and to find out at what RPM so we could get to the jetting or go back to his old round top SUs. The exhaust analyzer is a very good tool for setting up carbs. I wish I had access to one again. I know very well how to set up the SU mixture ranges by shaping the needles. Even those funky later ones on the 260. Kyle, I'm still willing if you haven't burned the car.
  13. You probably have worn contacts on the turn signal switch. You can verify that by the visible smoke that comes up from the steering column while sitting in the left turn lane waiting for the light to change. Somebody recommended to apply pressure on the back of the switch contacts to make better contact. Try that to verify the condition. I put my rear lights on realys to reduce the amount of current passing through the turn signal switch contacts. The front lights are used with the flasher unit to control the relays. Works very well.
  14. The valve flows in the direction of the valve cover to the intake manifold and is shut by manifold vacuum. High vacuum, low blow-by condition (idle) the valve is closed. Low vacuum, high blow-by condition (WOT) an internal spring opens the valve to allow more venting to the intake. The valve will flow easily on only one direction (to the intake). It also serves as an anti-backfire valve so the intake flame doesn't go the wrong direction into the crankcase blowing out all your seals and making interesting shapes out of sheetmetal valve covers. No PCV on the car makes for more frequent oil changes as the nasty exhaust gasses that blow past the rings are not evacuated and your oil gets contaminated faster with poo-poo. The additional hose to the air cleaner is to allow for proper venting should the amount of blow-by exceed the ability of your PCV hose for the conditions. (such as prolonged full throttle runs) Pressure in the crankcase means more oil leaks too. I suggest run the PCV and additional hose. It may clutter the looks but it is one "smog" device that is actually good for your engine.
  15. Mwahahahaha. I love it...Years ago I did my first Hybrid wiring (toyota V8 all with one color wire. I don't recommend it.
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