HizAndHerz

Maybe someone should cash in and make some Bob Sharp replica valve covers

Just a heads up, but there may be an issue with driving the stock fuel pump relay from MS, at least on a 78'z. I know that at least a couple of folks are driving the stock relay from the FPUMP# signal. After just a couple of weeks of driving with MS-II v3.0, the car would start and die within a minute. If left alone for at least 5 minutes, it would start just fine, then die within a minute again. I logged the failure and saw the NB O2 voltage dropped just before the MAP, pulse width or RPM changed. Fuel was being cut even though MS was driving the same pulse width. Figured it was either the injector drivers (probably not both at the same time) or the fuel pump relay driver. Removed the FPUMP# wire to the relay and put the old wire back. Ran fine. When I first installed MS, I was concerned about the fuel pump driver being able to drive sink enough current for the relay, but never measured the current through it. Should have checked that first. I'm going to replace the transistor on the MS board, but leave the wire to the relay disconnected for now. Soon, I'll be replacing the fuse links and relays with a power distribution box from a Dodge Neon. I've had a couple of the stock relays go out on me - time to get rid of those 30 year old parts.

Electrical diagrams can be found here: http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/electrical.htm. I downloaded the 77 color schematic from Blue's site and printed a huge version that's like 3ft by 6ft and put it under thin plexiglass on the wall on my garage. I use a grease pencil to make notes on it. Much more readable schematics are online for free at Autozone.com, but theirs are similar to Haynes or Chiltons and leave a lot of details out, like routing, connectors, regional options, etc. And, yeah, check eBay. I got a 1976 280z FSM on CD for ~$10, a L4N71B transmission manual on cd for ~$10, and both the 1978 and 1975 FSM's in good condition for $15 a piece.

A 12mm x 1.25 die is great to have for wheel studs and spindle pins but are hard to find. An Ace Hardware opened up around the corner this past week, and poof!, they had 12x1.25 and 12x1.5 taps and dies for around $8 each. I like Ace.

My local O'Reilly's had AGS hard brake lines with the correct fittings on each end. Tey are easily bent with a cheap tube bender. When I put Toyota 4x4 calipers on I used part number BLJ-308 left (8-inch line) and BLJ-312 right (12-inch line). The lines where about $5 each.

Classic Zcars: Water leakage problem Lots of info there.

There's also a bias resistor on the MS board. If you find that the sensor measures the correct resistance when disconnected and the ground connection is good, you may want to check to make sure the bias resistor has been stuffed correctly.

A little research shows that it has been recycled a few times and it goes back to 1946! Wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turboencabulator

I had one driveshaft done at a local driveshaft shop some 10 years ago. Still holding up with the occasional squirt of grease. Recently, the same shop quoted $100 to have the proceedure done for one of my other Z's. A local Nissan tech told me that the conversion is not always successful resulting in a noisy driveshaft.

I guess I'm just weird enough to attempt to transcribe it: Here at Rockwell Automation’s world headquarters, research has been preceding to develop a line of automation products that establishes new standards for quality, technological leadership and operating excellence. With customer success as our primary focus, work has been proceeding on the crudely conceived idea of an instrument that would not only provide inverse-reactive current for use in unilateral phase detractors, but would also be capable of automatically synchronizing cardinal gram meters. Such an instrument comprised of Dodge Gears and Bearings, Reliance Electric Motors, Allen-Bradley controls, and all monitored by Rockwell Software is: Rockwell Automation’s Retro-Encabulator. Now, basically the only new principal involved is that instead of power being generated by the relative motion of conductors and fluxes, it is produced by the modial interaction of magneto-reluctance and capacitive-deractance. The original machine had a baseplate of pre-famulated Amulite surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two spirving-bearings were in a direct line with the panametric pham. The line up consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marsal vanes so fitted to the ambifacient lunar vane-shaft, that side fumbling was effectively prevented. The main winding was of the normal Lotus-o-Deltoid type, placed in panendermic semi-bolloid slots of the stator. Every seventh conductor being connected by a non-reversible tremi-pipe to the differential girdle-spring on the upbend of the gram meters. Moreover, whenever florescent score-motion is required, it may also be employed in conjunction with a drawn reciprocation dingle-arm to reduce sinusoidal deplaneration. The Retro-Encabulator has reached a high level of development and its being successfully used in the operation of milfor-traniens. It is available soon, wherever Rockwell Automation products are sold.

EDIT: I posted this before I read that you already have looked at BRAAP's posts. Here's some good pictures that BRAAP posted a while back. Take a look at his post: http://forums.hybridz.org/showpost.php?p=633690&postcount=10 Roughed-in Maxima N-47 chamber shows were material was removed: Roughed-in N-42 chamber:

So, when the alternator's main output is hooked up, what happens? You say the output is 18V? Does the fuse blow each time you hook it up? There are two signals on the 2-pin connector: Field and Sense. Feild serves as a method to "bootstrap" the alternator when the engine is started and is also connected to the warning light. For the alternator to start up, there must be voltage on the Field terminal. That voltage is provided through the warning light snice the other side is connected to the battery through a fuse. If the Field terminal is shorted to ground, the alternator should never turn on and the warning light will be on. The Sense pin provides feedback to the alternator's voltage regulator. If this pin is grounded or disconnected, the voltage regualtor won't be able to do its job and the output voltage may go way up. Check the voltages at the all three of the alternator's connections. You should see between 13 and 14 volts at the main output and the Sense terminal. Also use the ohm meter to check to sure you have a good connection between the alternators ground terminal and the negative battery terminal. Again, good luck.

I would think there would need to be a major load on the alternator output to cause the fuse to blow. Any chance the + battery terminal or cable shorted to ground? Could the back of the Maxi-fuse holder have shorted to ground? I had to put an insulation layer behind the cheap Walmart fuse blocks I used. You might want to check the condition of your harness. Two of my Z's had fried wiring harnesses when I bought them, probably due to the battery not being tied down or the battery being hooked up backwards at some point. I had all sorts or weird problems (car died with healdights or AC compressor on) until I ripped the harness apart and found that the ground and alternator output wires were partially melted. I ended up running new 10gage wires for +12 and ground to the alternator. Is yours a single wire or are you using the F/S plug? Some alternators behave badly if the Sense wire loses connection. BTW, I've got three 280z's with rebuilt 93amp 12si alternators (Duralast Gold from Autozone) and have no trouble with them. I'm a big fan of this swap. Good luck, and let us know if you find anything.

Just need to wait until Harbor Freight starts selling a "Made in China" copy of that tool for $399

Matt, I'm working on getting the EDIS wheel from a 3.0L Taurus mounted on the back side of the damper. That way it could be used with any of the stock dampers without having to give up AC or power steering. The Taurus EDIS wheel is thinner than the version for the 4-cyl Fords. The center hole is smaller than the front engine seal and just needs to be enlarged to clear the part of the front cover that sticks out to hold the seal. The wheel can then be mounted to the center portion of the damper. I'm fairly sure that this can be done but I haven't scoped out how the pickup could be mounted. I'll try to take some pictures tonight. So, Paul, do you have an opinion on this option? Anyone else looked at this?

You can take a gander at the technical articles section at www.carcraft.com. I had an issue sitting around with "How to Paint Your Own Car for $1016.00" on the front. Pretty good article with lot of recommendations on supplies.

An AFM boot with a hidden tear between the folds will do that. Often they will only leak a significant amount of air when you stomp on the gas. Very common problem! Look for other sources of vacuum leaks, but most will cause the engine to idle poorly. A bad diaphram in the brake booster might also cause intermittant vacuum leaks. Also, this might be an ignition problem. Sometimes, a flaky ignition module will drop out at high RPMs. The reg and green VR sensor wires in the distributor sometimes go bad since they get flexed when accelerating due to mechanical and vacuum advance kicking in. Check rotor, cap and ignition wires.

s130z, you don't say if the car keeps running. If so, MS is not locking up, just the commnucations with the PC. Are you using the computer's built-in serial port or a USB-to-serial adapter? USB adapters sometimes have a hard time keeping up with large amounts of data. You may need to change the communications parameters (writeBlocks and interWriteDelay). Take a look at the MS communications troubleshooting guide at http://www.megamanual.com/connect.htm.

All the FS5W71B transmissions I've had in my cars have whined a little bit in 3rd gear, before and after I rebuilt them. The latest rebuild has an irritating high pitched whine in 5th too. I never ran it before the rebuild to know if the problem was due to a mistake I made or if the problem was there before I started. From what I "think" I understand, high pitched whine is usually caused by improper meshing of the gears. Gear lash refers to the play between the gear teeth and is usually adjusted using different size shims. I followed the FSM for measuring everything and didn't find anything out of spec. The ZX FSM is fairly decent at describing how to tear down, inspect and assemble the tranny, but I sure would like more detailed info on on how to ensure the thing is going to work flawlessly. Any more suggestions on what to check for?

I've thought about adapting the motor brackets and/or crossmember for one of Energy Suspension's "universal" mounts, but have never got around to it. It might require very little modification and would probably be more feasable than having a custom urethane engine mount manufactured. Here's ES's page of universal mounts: http://energysuspension.com/pages/univ3.html BTW, I've used ES's GM-style transmission mount when I put a 4-speed OD auto transmission in my wife's 280z. A captured mount seemed to be the way to go.

Actually, when I ran into trouble, searching the forum led me to your post - thanks. I told the customer service guy that there was at least one other person that got a kit with the wrong mustache bar bushings. He said that he hadn't heard of such a thing and that my kit must have been tampered with. I told him that everything was sealed with the correct parts list but the wrong parts. The replacements came in today.

FYI... After searching the JY several times for the EDIS wheel that Nish described at the top of the post, I finally found them on the 1998 Sable and Taurus with the 3.0L engine (not the 3.8L). My trouble was that I was looking at the Fords in the older model section (up to 1995) where it seems only the 4-cylinder engines (Escort) had the EDIS wheel.

I just put an Energy Suspension kit on our third car and found that a hole saw worked great for getting the control arm bushings out. Then a wire wheel to get the remains. The suckers that were the worst trouble to get in were the bushings that go in the sway bar brackets. It took an hour to get the first one in. In the end I found that the tab on the clamp that goes across the bottom of the bracket has to go in first. The bushing won't squeeze in unless it is slathered with grease. To keep from using too much of their "special" grease, I used some silicone di-electric grease I had laying around. The kit I got had the wrong mustache bar bushings - way too big. I wrestled with those for a while before I finally read the packing list and found they had the wrong number on them. The CS rep from Energy Suspension was great about sending me new ones but they're coming UPS ground. I didn't want me car to sit for a week, so I used a hole saw to cut the diameter down to the correct size. About 2 hours of extra work, but at least the car is going down the road.

The trouble I've had with the AC in 74-78 Z's is the expansion valve. I've got 2 that are shot and I haven't been able to find replacements. A substitute isn't easy since the factory valve has 3 or 4 ports. A replacement evaporator with expansion valve would be awesome considering I have 4 newly rebuilt compressors and new dryers. Karl, definately let us know how this turns out!

If you don't any more power that the stock alternator can handle, I think that the easiest upgrade is going with an internally regulated alternator from a 1978 Z to 1983 ZX. The electrical mods are simple and are detail here: http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/alternatorswap/index.html There are several options if you want a higher-rated alternator. I chose to go with the Delco-Remy 12si on all three of our Z's because of the higher output capabilty, availabilty and low cost. Here's the link to the article I wrote about swapping in a GM alternator: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=115550