RPMS

I think the most practical response is to have two computers - one connected to the net, and one "personal" machine. Maybe have one of those hard drive switches that physically cuts the "personal" hard drive out of the system when you're not using it.

Phyte, they're out there if you're willing to be industrious. Since AutoTrader now considers them "collectable" the owners are asking double what they did two years ago. They used to be old junkers, now they're potentially collectable. Go figure. The newspaper is one of your best sources, but since listings typically change every 3 days, you have to stay on top of it. Folks who don't know what they're worth typically post in the newspaper. I'm sure you've already pursued this avenue, though. Go IN PERSON to all the enthusiast shops in the area that do work on Z's. Chat up the owner/mechanics for five minutes, and if they're friendly bring them a dozen donuts for their trouble. They'll know where there are viable cars for sale. Become a member of the local Z club. Tell the whole group what you're interested in, and pass out cards with your numbers. Fanatics love nothing better than sucking another neophyte into the cult, and then you'll have dozens of folks looking in every nook and cranny for your car. Plus you'll meet some really neat folks in the process! Let your friends and family know you're looking. Tell your co-workers, church folks, people on the bus, etc. Go to tote-the-note lots in the bad parts of town. Find out when your local police department has a public auction. My car came to the previous owner through a police auction, and only cost her $200. I found the car on Zcar.com after about a month of casual looking. Trust me - Z's ARE out there, and you'll only see about 25% of them in the obvious places.

Very slick - hardly noticeable at all. When it gets to the point where the government is able to peek into my computer, I'll yank the cord and disconnect from the net. It's not like I have anything illegal on my computer, it's just the principle of the thing. I'm not three years old, and I refuse to be treated like a three year old.

Hey, BWD! I thought you already HAD an early Z? I feel your pain about the horizontal spread. I had to stop going to the gym about six months ago, and it's amazing how all that hard work will go straight to your... well, you know. All the bulk goes south. Sure, it's easy. Eat big, lift big, and sleep big. Drink lots of whole milk, and make plenty of trips to the buffet.

Phantom, I think you're missing what "rice" seems to be, to the people of this board. "Rice" does not infer any Japanese car, even though it started with that. "Rice" does not infer any particular modification to a car (although a nose-wing comes close...) "Rice" infers an attitude of the driver. It's little boys pretending to be big men. It's trying to impress people with who you wish you were, not who you really are. It's making your car LOOK fast, but not doing a darned thing to the internals to MAKE IT fast. Image is more important than reality to them, and that's what makes them repugnant to many of us. If you had told all your friends that you swapped your stock air cleaner with a performance item and beat dozens of Corvettes to 100 mph with it when in reality the stock airbox was firmly in place, THEN you'd have been rice. See what I'm getting at here? They're the poseurs of the automotive world. They want to look fast and sound fast, and they could care less about actually being fast as long as they can fool you for a few hours into thinking that they're authentic. That's a good word, come to think of it... Authentic. Ricers are not authentic. If you have a couple of thousand bucks to spend on your mom's old Accord and you elect to put in an airbox, an injection controller coilovers and urethane suspension bits, you're authentic. If you spend that same money on a wild body kit, big wheels, and color-shifting purple paint, and then tell people you run 9's, you're indisputably RICE. Myself, I have great respect for those folks who manage to wring performance out of late model Japanese iron (excuse me - aluminum). It's tough, and I admire when someone can do it and keep a car streetable. What gets my dander up is the blatancy with which some of them attack cosmetic modification. It's just plain vulgar, and I'm not that sort of "all show and no go" guy. As usual, just my $.02. Thank you for allowing me to get on my soapbox.

Man, I'll bet you felt like crap! I'm glad you're feeling better, though. About ten years ago, I had a radiator hose blow on the way to work the VERY FIRST DAY. I finally got there an hour late, dirty, disheveled, and stinking of antifreeze. After a quick "hello" and an explaination to my boss, I ran out the door to the nearest Wal Mart for new clothes and a box of wet-naps. I started the day late, but I think they admired my persevence! Come to think of it, that job ended up sucking big time. Maybe God is trying to tell you something?

I did just about the same thing when I bought my Z in Houston, and it brought me no end of troubles. It took over a year to get the title transferred into my name, and if I had it all to do over again, I wouldn't. Don't trust ANYONE when they tell you you won't need the current title in your hand and SIGNED by the person listed on the front. If the seller does not have a clear title, don't buy the car! If you're really desperate to own this car, give him earnest money. Write them a 30 day post-dated $100 check for the downpayment until they can deliver the title. Write in the 'note' area, "downpayment on (vin#), balance due $X. Delivery due by (date 30 days later)" If he deposits the check, it's a legal acceptance of the terms. If he doesn't cash it, he chickened out and the deal was shady. You might lose your $100 if he steals it and disappears, but in that case it was better than buying an entire stolen car, wasn't it? It's a gamble any way you look at it. Having title in hand is the only way to completely protect your interests. There are dozens of Z's in the Houston metropolitan area for sale. Is this one worth the risk? Good luck, and let us know what you decide.

Dave, I see where you're coming from. Your system only turns on the fan when the water reaches a certain temperature, and the driver has control over whether it runs at high or low speed. It's a good system. Dan, you're right. I didn't realize that the relays I had contained both NC and NO terminals. I'll use one of them to pull power away from the low speed when high speed is activated. Thanks!

That schematic is the one being widely distributed on the internet. Do a Google search for (taurus fan diagram) and you'll come up with several dozen links to it. Of course, just because it's on the net doesn't mean that it's right! I don't want to burn this puppy out, but at the same time I don't want to spend more than I have to out of ignorance. Nothing chaps my ass more than spending $40, only to find later that if I'd done my homework I could have spent $10. Does anyone on this list work with electric motors like this for a living? With 5000 members (100 of which regularly post) surely we must have an authority lurking around SOMEWHERE!

Dan Juday said in an earlier post that having both the low and high speed wires simultaneously energized would damage a Taurus fan. Every wiring diagram I'm seeing seems to fire both relays on high speed, energizing both the high and low speed windings. See this diagram... What do y'all think?

[quote="pparaskaAnd there's a problem with this? <BSEG> The problem isn't that they run for the hills. It's the mess they leave behind when they wet their pants in terror! I've been considering making a pair of slip-on reducers that go from 2 1/4 OD to 1 1/4 or so. That way I could burble my way out of the garage without offending the neighbors, and when I've made my escape I can jump out, toss the reducers in the hatch, and roar away in a cloud of hydrocarbon joy!

Thanks for the info, guys! I went out to the car and looked, and it appears that the "finger" is making good contact with the rear ring on the wheel. I got to looking at the wheel itself, and took it apart to see if there was something I was missing. There was! With the front contact ring removed from the wheel, I could see a hole that passed all the way through the wheel, and blocked by the rear contact ring. The perfect place for a spring to connect the front and rear contact rings! Did I have a spring? No. Can I make a spring? Yes. So I wound up a low tension spring, inserted it, and reassembled the wheel. I jammed the wheel back on the shaft, and sure enough, the horn started blaring away. (By the way - this is at 11:00 pm, and I'm sure my next door neighbor is about to shoot me.) I pulled the wheel back off, disassembled it AGAIN, and this time I put a piece of plastic tubing around the spring so it couldn't short out against the steering wheel frame. I disconnected the horns, reinstalled the wheel, and voila! Every time I push the horn button, I hear the relay click! So that's the story, gents. The rear contact ring is connected to the front contact via a spring that I've apparently been missing for these past four years! Thanks for all your help, and thanks especially for taking the trouble to post pictures!

That's the problem, though. There's nothing connecting the ring to the body of the wheel. It's insulated. Any ideas what's wrong?

Well, this morning I tried to record the exhaust on my laptop's built in microphone, and it completely overwhelmed the poor thing. Just left a mash of distorted sound that's pretty much incomprehensible. I'll try to find a microphone somewhere and get a slightly better sound. Scott

I've gotta chime in with those who advise standing there and watching the work be done. Even if you don't know exactly what they're doing, 1) you can learn from them, and 2) they don't know exactly what you do and don't know, so they're inclined to do a better job if someone is watching over their shoulder. I'm not suggesting you tell them how to do their job, but it prevents a lot of disputes if you're standing right there as they're about to cut the wrong half of the radiator support. (and by the way - they owe you a new support for that one, no questions asked. They cut your car where it wasn't supposed to be cut, and now they need to fix it.) There have been so many times that I've gotten a car back from a mechanic and found something wrong that I don't ever just LEAVE it anymore. If I can't do it myself, I'll schedule the operation at a time I can be there to "learn" with the mechanic. And if they don't permit me to watch them, I walk away. Period. There are too many shops that will let me watch to worry about one shopowner who wants to keep his secrets buried.

I think we're missing the big picture here, guys. Tomohawk, you left yourself vulnerable when you threw away your receipt. By doing that, you went out on the grid without a hard cup. Now you've been kicked in the nuts, and instead of being mad at the seller, you should be mad at yourself for losing your proof! Who knows what could have happened to your payment? It could be lost in the mail. It could be paper-clipped to the back of his electricity bill. It might have been picked up by his next door neighbor, for all we know. It might not be the seller's fault at all. I'm sorry you're having to go through all this, but remember that you don't have all the information, and you shouldn't decide whether you've been ripped off or not until you dig through the garbage and find your receipt. If the seller persists after receiving a xerox of your money order, THEN you've been ripped off. Right now you're just in the dispute resolution phase of a normal transaction. Good luck finding your paperwork, and wear rubber gloves while going through the trashcan so your fingers don't end up stinking like rotten cabbage.

Anyone want to turn your car into a commercial tire shredder?

Howdy, gents. I've been refurbishing my steering wheel, and now that it's all pretty and clean, I can't get the horn to work. It's always been hit or miss, and now it's missing 100%. I took a look at how the steering wheel was constructed, and I'm confused. The metal ring on the back of the steering wheel, the one that makes contact with the wire leading to the horn relay, has no electrical connection with the rest of the steering wheel. It sits inside a plastic insulator, isolating it. The way I see it, when the horn button is pushed in, power should flow through the steering column terminal, then through the conductive ring on the back of the steering wheel, then through the horn button contact, the horn button itself, and then it should ground out through the steering shaft, completing the circuit and sounding the horn. But there's a broken link in that chain - there's nothing to conduct electricity from the conductive ring to the horn button contact. Am I missing a spring or something? Thanks for any info you can give. Maybe somone can take apart an old wheel for me and tell me what's going on.

man, at this point, I don't really care if it cuts a bit into the performance! I know that sounds rather extreme position to take, but as it is I can't pull the car out at night for fear of waking up the neighbors! The car ain't no fun if I can't drive it! Pete, your system does sound like mine, except that you're using even larger pipe to plumb it. It's too bad we can't just shrink and grow the diameter of our exhaust plumbing so we can hear the difference diameter makes. Your description of your exhaust note sounds like just what the doctor ordered. Maybe I'll have to invest in some Dynomax mufflers when I have more cash to throw at the problem. Nic, SpinTech is an up and coming company who supplies a lot of racing organizations. I first heard them on a friend's Dodge R/T truck, and I thought they sounded great. Then he put a set on his Mustang GT, and again, the sound blew me away. The mufflers I got weren't the same as his, but I figured there would probably be some corporate identity to the sound (i.e. the "Flowmaster" sound) but apparently not. His cars burble menacingly, mine makes women and small children run for the hills shrieking in terror. Not quite the "low profile" sound I was looking for! I'm going to try to get a recording of my car tomorrow so you can see what I'm dealing with. It's the first time I've tried something like this, so wish me luck. I look forward to hearing y'alls cars, too! Scott

That's the one constant on this board - diversity of opinion!

Stop. Hold it. Woah. Let's look at things rationally here. As someone who has been fiddling with these cars for years, let me tell you right now that having a rust-free body is worth $500 right there. BUT. Assuming that the engine is in decent shape, let's look at what you'll spend to get this one in presentable shape: Rear glass plus install - $140. Junkyard Seats in OK condition - $100 Carpet and interior dye/paint/trim - $50 Dash cap - $120 Tires? Probably $350 or so Rims? Polish the ones on it. Brakes/hoses/belts - $200 4 generic struts - $200 Paint - $400 MINIMUM if you do the bodywork yourself and trailer it to Maaco Front end soft-parts rebuild - $150 (I'm pulling this figure straight out of my a$$) Other things like inoperative window regulators and stuck heater valves, the things that plague lots of old Z cars, can usually be FIXED rather than REPLACED. If you're thrifty, you can stay ahead of the curve, so that your car is always worth more than what you've invested in it. These are durable cars that are dirt simple and with a few notable exceptions, easily fixed. I probably wouldn't want this car as my only transportation right now, but if it IS rust free, it could one day be that way. The bottom line is this: If you want a car to learn on, this might be a good place to start.

Oh, LORD! I buttoned up my system this morning and took a test drive around the block. DRONE...Drone...drone. Idle is okay, if a bit louder than I wanted, but from idle to about 30 mph is punishing. It's resonating like crazy the whole way at about 80 hz or so. I haven't had a chance to test what it sounds like at WOT, but from 40-50 mph with moderate throttle opening, it sounds very nice and no-nonsense! I have no idea what it will sound like on the freeway. I'll find that out tomorrow I guess, when I debut the car 40 miles away. I wanted something a bit, well, crisper. Not like cornflake crispy, but more like "frozen pizza baked on the center rack" crispy. The way I have it set up is with the X-pipe halfway back to the mufflers, and the mufflers about 12" in front of the bumper. Would putting resonator tips behind the mufflers help cancel the drone?

What I WANT is a deep burble at idle, an even tone at cruise which is non-resonant and not fatiguing to the ear, and I want to sound like a Nascar racer at WOT! I know I can't have all three, but if I can have #1 and 2 I'll be happy. As a benchmark, the best exhaust note I've ever heard is on a GT40 replica I heard on some british motoring show once. It sounded much more like a Ferrari than the Chevy engine it was. Absolutely erotic. The link is worth downloading just to hear that sound. It's a funny video, too! http://www.racingflix.com/getvideo.asp?v=126&p=19 You need to register to download, but it's well worth the effort. Give it a listen and tell me what you think!