spotfitz

BLOZ UP, I noticed that you have moved to Arlington. Once you get settled in I would love to meet up and see the progress on your Z.

I would help, but its alittle far for me. I'm sure someone in the Austin area could help you out though. We also have a Kileen member on here.

HybridZ has never been like other enthusiast forums. With that said, I can also appreciate the effort involved. I agree with Pop N Wood, it's the perfect box to start with. With the price of gas constantly rising I have considered getting a gas sipper of some sort, but then again I live within 5 miles of work or almost any other place I want to go. Thats one of the reasons I bought a house where I did. I wonder how much better mpg I could get modifying my pathfinder? It did average 24mpg over a 1200 mile trip, fully loaded. I'll pass.....

Yep Alan, I got tagged on that one. I did actually research it after the fact and found I was actually slightly off from what I remember, but I could be wrong. It has happened before and it probably won't be the last time. And that is what I found. Maybe thats why I love drinking.

Is it bad to quote yourself? LOL I have had several people over the years ask me for my humble little write-up. I just recently had yet another person ask about receiving it. Unfortunately I lost it in a PC crash. Can the few I sent it to get in contact with me? I would like to get it back so I can continue to send it to other people in need.

Alittle hard to make-out, but... Hope it helps. http://www.autozone.com/images/cds/gif/large/0900823d801d1cef.gif

Glad you found it and more so that your alright. I had just come back from a 2 hour highway drive and turned right into town. About a block later the 30mph road curved to the left and then straightened out. I curved left as usually and ended up crossing traffic and stopping in a church parking lot. Luckily noone was coming at me at the time. Come to find out the clamp on the u-joint had come loose and I had no steering at all. To think what could have happened on the highway at speed with the same problem makes me shiver to this day.

My wife had 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her face and used silvadine cream religously and now you can't see ANY scars.

The bolt IS welded, it's the nut on the back side you have to remove to get the bracket off.

The outside door handle rod pushes down on the bracket that also connects the inside door handle. That bracket is attached to the main shaft. The lock rod connects to another bracket that just allows the first bracket to pivot. You could try to spray some P.B.Blaster at the back of the latch mechanism and it may free it up. Are you positive the lock rod is actually turning it's bracket to unlock the other bracket? I still believe it's a gum up issue, but the gum up could be keeping the lock bracket from allowing the main shaft to turn.

You probably have their catalogue, but this may help. http://www.blackdragonauto.com/icatalog/z/0017.asp I would be willing to bet it's the actual latch mechanism seized up. You should be able to get a pair of pliers on the turning shaft. Once open, p.b. blast the thing and then lube it.

The right size screw driver handle works good aswell. Pulling it back out with some needle nose pliers is alittle challenging, but still easy.

I bought a '77 about 4 years ago now for $200. It wasn't pretty. It had alot of rust and most of the passenger side floor board was gone. I bled the brakes and put a battery in it and drove the 5 miles to my house. I replaced the rubber brake lines, flushed the system, did a tune-up, bought new tires, got it legal within the next week and that was it. I drove it for about a month like that, but the motor smoked pretty bad. I swapped out the block over the weekend with a used one I had bought from years ago and painted the engine bay while the motor was out. I DD it for almost 2 years with no problems at all. It was my only running car since I got rid of my blazer. I took it on club cruises and drove it anywhere/everywhere. I even won a"Not So Best In Show" trophy with it at a Nissan dealership Zcar show. That should give you an idea of what it looked like. I eventually bought a Pathfinder and stopped using it as a DD, but still drove it atleast 4 times a week. I eventually sold it to my step son and he has had it for about a year now. He drove it around here for about a year and then drove it from DFW to Ft. Bragg NC without an issue. That was about 8 months ago and he is still using it for a DD. Well worth the $400 I had in it.

For $100 it would be worth it. The parts you could sell would more then pay for it. If you need help picking it up or access to a trailer let me know. I might be interested in the rear bumper off it, depending on the condition. BTW, I may have another free 280Z coming my way....

No prob. My SS lines where originally for the drum brakes, which is why they may be shorter. I took a bolt, cut the head off and tapered the ends to the right pitch after drilling a hole down the center to adapt these lines to the calipers. I used the original bracket that bolted to the stub axle housing for the hard lines to replace the frame bracket after they got fubar'ed. Full suspension travel with no rubs with the SS lines. My ebrake bracket does come in contact where the bracket use to be, if I hit a speed bump to hard.

No need to pull a wheel off. I uploaded a pic. I had to do the same thing. You can see just to the left of where the bracket is located the spot in which it was hitting.

CRAP!!!! Figures these would come up now that I'm broke. I'll be watching them, even though they are already powder coated. Thanks for posting them.

Thanks. I'm getting there. I think I'm starting to catch up to Pete for the longest project! That is about the only site I have seen them on before and I missed out on them. There was a set on Ebay awhile back, which is where I got my pic from, but they had been restored and he wanted way to much for them. I don't think they sold. I could have bought sportmax cheaper! I actually could have bought a whole other Z for the price. Really 3 considering my last purchase. Thanks for the help. Keep me posted if you find some.

There you go.

I now need atleast 2 of these (7X14, 0 offset): http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=17064&cat=500 I'm located in the DFW area, for shipment purposes. They do not have to be in perfect condition, but I'm open to anything at this point. If I can get the same look with a bigger size, that would be great! From my understanding these were a dealer option for the early 260Z only. Apparently they were not that popular, except with the VW guys.

After receiving a free '78 without a title and finding some rather interesting parts within it, I stripped what I wanted and scrapped the rest to fund my continuing project. It's been awhile since any progress, but I have driven her some. I took her for a tuning drive about a month ago and thanks to some A-hole running a stop sign I got to climb a curb, blow out both right tires and chip my front right rim. The same rims I have been trying to find an extra for since 2001! Anyone got these? After acouple weeks of madness I finally got back in the garage to check the complete damage. Bent horns, raped air dam and I thin my front right strut is blown but no underbody damage. I put some extra tires on the right side and took her for some more tuning runs. The next thing I know I have a lack of power and she wants to die. By the time I got pulled over there was white smoke pouring out from under the hood. I knew I should have replaced that water temp sender that wasn't working. Either the mechanical fan went into the radiator on the curb excursion and I didn't spot it or I don't know what. Just one blade of the fan was stuck in the radiator at a 90* angle about 2" from the tip. Now she won't start. I just got a tow home and parked her again. I'm going to see whats going on with her now and see if the rebuilt motor is trash. Oh the joy of owning old Z cars!

Steve, while I did go through this afew years ago I have acouple of questions about this bracket and your experience with it. I looked localling for the bracket some considered made of unobtanium (44155-04S10) and finally had some '88 Maxima rear caliper brackets modified to work with the '82-'83 caliper(simple offset welding). When I did this modification I found the outer Z hub diameter was the same size as the inner bracket diameter, but I guess due to it being a cast part and/or the outer hub of the Maxima being smaller, the cast part wouldn't bolt up to my early '74 without enlarging the brackets I.D. Was this the case using 44155-N3202 bracket or was it a bolt on affair? I have considered switching to either the 240SX caliper for it's newer availability or the '79-'81 280ZX caliper for it's less complicated and hassle free design.

Where is the meeting taking place this week? Tony's off Little Rd.? I nolonger receive emails at the address the club has. I keep giving the new one, but no one ever updates it.