seattlejester

Looks like I will be turning 25 soon, so in order to take advantage of the lower risk rating, I was wondering who everyone is insuring their cars with. What I am looking for. Insuring my daily driver 2006 acura rsx Insuring my 1971 datsun 240z with an agreed value policy ~15,000 Preferably the same insurer would be great, although for a better policy/deal I don't mind splitting up the policy between different insurers Currently I am with Liberty Mutual, and they are gouging me at 1400 a year (that's with a work discount!) for just the Datsun. If it is not too personal I would love to hear some advice on where people are shopping/have their policies. I have contacted some companies, but they are informing me that they can't generate a quote until I physically turn 25, so if any kind folks wouldn't mind giving a rough number with location, age, and yearly costs I would be greatly appreciative! Companies I am looking at are: Haggerty Grundy State Farm?

Some more progress, had a brand new driveshaft made for ~300, fitting it was a breeze with the loose motor mounts and no transmission mount Finished the transmission mount, I wanted to copy someone else's mount (the name escapes me), but my welder doesn't like laying the best beads out of position. For now it is a 3/8 steel plate welded onto the transmission tunnel with a 3/8th plate sticking out of it. Unfortunately it will be something to visit at a later date. Routed the intercooler, I would have like to route it in the middle holes so to keep the fresh air scoops, but it just makes it so much easier to route them through the top vents. I will have to figure out someway to keep positive pressure for the fresh air scoops. After routing the intercooler I realized that I should sort the wiring and the ecu before I block access to the harness. Megasquirt 2 pcb 3.57 with 3 ignition drivers and boost controller is on my way. For gauges (speedo, tach, boost, etc), I'm hoping to save some money by running an android tablet displaying tunerstudio gauges via shadow dash via bluetooth to replace my now defunct gauges. Should be a fun little project. In addition, now comes the fun part of matching up the existing harness to the new harness. I have to wire the gm 1 wire alternator and 7m starter to the stock harness as well as start laying out the wiring for megasquirt itself. Wish me luck! Total hours spent 80 hours And if anyone has experience with the 1 wire alternator let me know .

Hmm, I remember a staked lock nut that came with mine, maybe they changed something at some point. I followed this link when I did mine. http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/suspension/comprod/ball&socket/index.htm I used a hairdryer to heat mine up before folding it over the lip. I had to bring it closer than I thought was necessary before folding to get the whole boot around the lip since it sat at an angle.

I am almost positive that you only use a singular supplied locking nut. You compress the bushing until it is the recommended size using the gapping tool and then you roll the sleeve over the other side over the teflon ball and socket. I will have to go check my car, but I don't remember stacking the nuts like that.

If you really don't know how carbs work, it is a good idea to find someone who does, their pretty simple and I'm sure you can find someone local. As much as I am for learning on your own, the way the carbs are setup on a Z it can turn into a fire hazard pretty quickly if you don't know how things work. With that said, the FSM is decent for a lot of problems, but I've found British car forums a better help regarding the SU carbs. Is it the stock carb that came on the car? Does it have a flat top on the "bells" of the carb? If so you are dealing with a later set of carbs, which can be a little more difficult to diagnose. If you have checked that fuel is getting to the carb, then you are at a good start. If spraying starter fluid also keeps the car going that means the timing and spark is decent. When the first carbs overflowed, it was most likely a sticking valve. A tap with a blunt instrument should dislodge the valve. Other than that, you would have to disassemble the carb body and find the needle seat and reseat it after cleaning it out. Yes the large metal piece inside the carb that lifts up is the suction piston. It should sit in the housing fairly tightly, but not seized. You should be able to lift it with your pinky with very slight resistance. There is a cap on the top of the carb to add oil to seal the piston and add viscosity to it's movement. For idle adjustment adjust the screws maybe about 1/2 way in, this will get the car started, and looking at the tachometer, lower the screws until it settles at a nice rpm for idle. You will need to pickup a syncrometer or rig a vacuum measurement device via some tubing and balls to sync the carbs together. Fuel pressure should be at 2.5psi I believe, I had a low pressure 4 psi electrical pump and that seemed to work fine. Other than that is the mixture screws, I can't recall on the later carbs, but on the earlier cars I want to say turn them all the way counter clockwise until they seat against the main body and then back out 3 full turns and start from there, sorry please don't quote me on that. You will need a way to test far to determine if you are in the right area with that adjustment either via load testing, an AFR gauge, or the lift the piston while monitoring revs technique. Good luck!

Congrats!

Tony's actually right about the behind the wheel well area, now that I think about it that area gets awfully squished. I was using a skbt20, on my L-motor. It was 90$, it's 7x6x3, runs my electric fans, hid headlights, fuel pump, wipers, and all that with my zx alternator and actually has really decent cranking power. The way I figured it I could just have a battery installed + a spare battery instead of buying a braille battery. That way if somehow the battery fully discharges or something unfortunate, I have a spare one in my behind the seat bin. Instead of trying to figure out how to reorganize my battery tray area, just swap and go.

As far as lubricants go, when I installed the sway bar I had really bad squeaking, the end all solution was to use teflon tape to wrap the sway bar where the bushings went, no problem after that. I don't think sanding the bushings was the right choice, the extra movement can add to the squeaking. Making sure to grease one of the contact points is also an overlooked spot, the bushing essentially stays still while the suspension piece moves in the inner tube or against the bushing, if that area isn't greased or wrapped or what not, you are going to get a very pleasant metal on metal screech. If the bushing in question is supplied with an inner tube that will be held in place, lube the outside of the tube before inserting into the polyurethane sleeve, (lubing the inside doesn't hurt either), if no inner tube is supplied grease the suspension piece that goes through it. During hard acceleration, the parts stressed starting with the suspension, is the strut top insulator, the spring seat, the spring, the bottom spring seat, the wheel bearing, the wheel hub, the wheel, the tire, the half shafts, the diff, the diff mount front and rear, the drive shaft angle changes a bit, the transmission mount, and the engine mounts. I would check the strut top insulators see if they are intact, make sure the spring is seated in the perches top and bottom, take a look at the e-brake routing, inspect the rear wheel bearings, liberally grease up the bushings, and tighten down the LCA captive bolts (the giant bolt front and back on the inner side of the LCA). Granted I really think liberal application of grease is the answer. Regarding the preload thing, I've been told opposite, that you shouldn't pre-stress the bushings until they are compressed and supporting the car, or else you risk mushrooming the bushing or worse bending/stressing a suspension component, end links, etc etc. I make sure the pieces are all in their correct spots, hand tighten, or take up slack on the lock washers, lower the car onto blocks or ramps, compress suspension and then torque the bolts.

I think I ran a 40 amp without any problems, just because I couldn't find a higher amp fuse locally at the time. It depends on what you want. That wire, if it is the one I am thinking of, takes quite a bit of amps as it turns the motor over. The lower your fuse the more likely the chance that it may blow given a little strain, as long as you don't try to start the car in gear from a stand still, I think you are pretty safe, just keep spares in case you accidentally do. A higher rated fuse wouldn't hurt, but finding them when you need it might be a real difficulty. Granted if you are blowing an 80amp fuse you probably are doing something wrong.

I don't think the alternator upgrade and the voltage regulator delete would cause problems since they are plug and play and are direct replacements. Easiest thing would be to pop out one of the gauges that are not lighting up and seeing if the bulb is getting any power by putting one lead on the wire and the other lead of the multimeter to a chassis ground. If it doesn't supply voltage you will have to trace where it gets power from and see why that isn't working. To my recollection the dash lights go through the rheostat and are triggered by the headlight switch. A lot of power goes through that stalk, and may have burned out the contact for triggering the dash lights, but if you say only some of them aren't working I would think it is more likely that individual bulbs either have bad grounds or are not getting power from the harness. If you painted the interior or the dash chassis, the gauges might be having a hard time grounding the the paint or the rust. Other than that I'm pretty plum tuckered out on suggestions. You might have to plug in the headlights and brake lights to complete a circuit, but I really don't think you will have to. It should be safe if they are connected since the kit should be fused.

I am not sure if the later cars have them, but in the earlier Z's in the trunk area right behind the wheel well there is quite a bit of space. On the passenger side it has the evap tank and fuel filler, but on the driver side it is fairly empty except for the antenna. You could also throw it behind the dash or in the passenger foot well enclosed in a box and bolted down. Would make the wiring changes very minimal. And as long as it's enclosed I think it meets safety requirements. My small cell takes up about 1/3 of the space of a traditional battery. if you mount it front to back on the battery tray you can get quite a bit of room without having to deal with alternative stashing.

Pre-AFR I would check the sockets on the front turn signals, use the multimeter to check for either continuity from the harness to where the bulb plugs in or with the battery connected check for voltage when supplying the correct turn signal. The connection have been shown to come detached from the socket which will need re-soldering (it will be under the plastic if memory serves). Taking a look at the signaling stalk and the flashing solenoid is a good idea while you are at it. If memory serves the front one is difficultly located on the steering column box while the rear one or maybe the hazard blinker is easily accessible from the passenger side. Regarding the dash lights, the solution is surprisingly ancient, but if you tap around the gauges lights/turn them on off, you may find some of the dash lights back on. A lot of dust accumulates back there, and can cause a faulty ground. It is a 1 wire setup for the dash light bulbs, basically power goes to the bulb and the bulb grounds through the body of the gauge it is on which grounds through the metal chassis of the dash. Be very careful if you try to remove the bulbs for replacement, turn and supply the correct pressure or you may find yourself detaching the entire bulb socket which is plastic riveted or glued or something of that nature to the body of the gauge, facilitating a lengthy dash removal and reattachment of the sockets. For replacements (shameless plug for a local supplier ahead) don't be tempted with LED replacements as you need the incandescent light to light up the light rings inside the gauges, if looking for replacements you want to find something that takes a similar voltage but supplies more wattage, Oliver from Z specialties was absolutely beaming about the lights he found. Made me excited, but as I only have the speedo and the oil/water gauge left it did not apply to me as much. http://www.datsunstore.com/dash-light-bulb-7078-watts-p-1703.html Now that you have experience tracking the electrical gremlins I hope everything will be working in short order . Good luck.

Congrats! And I have to say kudos for being a a real go getter about tracing the wiring harness instead of throwing in the towel, I know I have been down the towel throwing road before. I believe the later model cars 280z's (maybe 260z?) came with volt meters which should go in the same spot and have very similar wiring, an easy way to check would be to look up a wiring diagram available also at atlanticz.ca and see if the same terminals get power/signal from the same locations although it will look a little out of place (different height and different font) if that bothers you. I bought a little voltmeter used for aquariums and added another ring terminal to the bridged wires that went to the ammeter to take a strong power reading from the battery. It feeds my little cabin display with time, cabin temperature, and voltage (clock replaced with LC-1 AFR gauge, ammeter replaced with fuel gauge).

So to get this straight, you unplugged the body wiring harness and no short? That's somewhat good news. It means the short is limited to the main power wires which you are doing a good job of tracking down. You unplugged the body harness, then checked the continuity of the white wire that feeds the + side of the ammeter to where it plugs in to the engine bay harness, proving continuity in that power wire. Good so we are now at the ammeter. From this point, I am not sure what exactly you did, I am having a hard time imagining precisely, your language is clear but my head is a bit foggy. This is where pictures would help greatly. Let me try to explain some of my confusion below. When you bridge the two wires that go to the ammeter, by connecting the two circle terminals together (removing the ammeter from the equation) you do not get continuity when you test? Or by removal do you mean when you pull the ammeter out of the dash? If you mean the later, continuity to the body means the ammeter is grounding through the ammeter body, which means it is some kind of strange internal short and it is grounding where the ammeter mounts. Either replace the ammeter, or bridge the wires that go to the terminals with a bolt and remove the ammeter and use a voltmeter (which is better) somewhere down range. For the purpose of the show you can keep the ammeter in, and have the two terminals that go to it attached to each other via bolt as described and completely isolated (heat shrink, electrical tape, something to keep it from shorting) if you want to maintain stock instrumentation. Just for future reference, careful inspection of the externals of a wiring harness can still be insufficient at times, I once had a wire that was pinched and was cut under the electrical tape (old wires are brittle) externally harness looked fine, internally it was shorting on a separate wire. The first step to trouble shooting is to look at what was replaced exactly/never rule out anything, but you did a good job chasing the short. Hope this helps if not, come back and we can keep chasing it down. I think you do have the skill set now to keep going on your own though. Let us know how it turns out.

Basically there is one wire/path that is instantly connecting the battery to a ground. Having the fuse disconnected and checking the voltage from one end to a ground using your multimeter will tell you which wires are energized. Continuity check is a good way to check without having the battery wired up. I would start on the other side of the fuse that keeps popping and test continuity and see if something is grounding without going through an accessory/power drawing unit. With such an old car I can only think of a few items that it could be. Illustration of the light bulb trick: http://www.crookedriverwriter.com/index.php?/Automotive-Topics/the-old-headlight-trick.html basically the filament acts as a fuse, if you ever look at a fuse and see how it heats up before it pops, it basically does the same thing, except a light bulb is designed to stay hot. Wire it in line, with the popping fuse and note when the light turns off. Whatever you just unplugged is your short.

Here's the wiring diagram I like to use. http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/wiringdiagrams/240z/1972_240z.gif My similar problem came from shorting the white/red wire going to the fuse box directly onto the chassis, it sounds like you have that one connected correctly, bolted onto the back of the fuse box. Another common short is a dirty or loose connection to the starter/bell housing area. Make sure the ground cable and the main power cable are firmly attached, with the ground cable cleanly connected on top of the starter (bolt head, then locking washer, then circle terminal, then starter, the transmission cover, then bell housing). Taking this terminal off and checking would test whether it is a fault with the starter. z240 is right on the multimeter front, having one is a great boon, not having it will only leave guessing and checking and more frustration. Picking up a set of alligator clips will also be really helpful in finding the short. Pictures of the main problem areas (battery, alternator, starter, fuse) may be helpful if possible. Basically you are putting too many amps down the wrong path, the power has found a much easier ground than going through all of the wiring harness and has decided to ground through that path, causing the fuse to melt from the large amperage trying to travel the path. Is the fuse popping with the body harness unplugged? It sounds like it is limited to the engine bay. If you have tried with the alternator unplugged and the key in the off position it is limited to a short in the body under the dash (ammeter, fuse box, fire wall) or the starter. If the wiring harness is unmodified or undamaged going into the body then it more so points towards ammeter, fuse box (both white and white red), or it is reserved in the engine bay, pointing towards the starter or a misgrounded wire. Well lit, high quality pictures with labels will help visually, voltage readings of the wires will help as well.

From what I recall when I did my rebuild: Three types of rings Cast was preferred for a street rebuild, in addition it is cheap, regular hone, etc Moly was preferred for high speeds, better oil retention, requires a smoother hone but traded off with longevity, a littler harder and causes the cylinder walls to wear at a slightly faster rate. Chrome will wear the cylinder walls down since they are much harder, takes a lot longer to break in, requires a really smooth hone so it doesn't catch on the walls. I think my block still had the stock cross hatching when I took it apart, I would go for cast if available. I think they were 40$ for a set when I bought mine.

Congratulations! Seeing this made me all giddy at work.

Sorry for the confusion, I meant a 3/8th drive metric allen set* http://www.harborfreight.com/9-piece-38-and-12-drive-metric-hex-bit-socket-set-67880-html.html

Or try another battery if it's old, you would be surprised how fast a battery looses charge if it's been cycled all the way down too many times.

Worse case, blown head gasket. Middle case leaking gasket via the same reasoning as above, if the motor was rebuilt recently or neglected for a while, it may need a retorque to take up the slack. Best case, worn coolant pipe seeping ever so slightly and running a ring around the seam. Check the heater hoses and the carb heating lines. Keep in mind you will need a torque wrench and a 3/8th drive allen set to retorque the head, can be had for ~20$ for both at harbor freight I believe. If it is a blown head gasket don't fret too much, you can still do the head gasket job in a day. The worst bit will be taking the manifolds off and making sure you have the chain tensioner installed correctly.

So finished the motor up. The essentials torqued to spec, still need to double check the water outlet etc. I think it looks a lot better than before Took the Z up for the start of the transplant, finally found out the source of all my problems (motor wise), a poorly crimped spade connector! With that remedied, the car absolutely flies, I even had a moment of regret about taking out a perfectly healthy transplant, but I suppose that is progress. And I think I figured out some essential things in life (at least car life). When putting an engine and transmission together, I found that hugging the two pieces, grabbing the out put shaft and the motor (roughly lined up) and twisting a little bit helps line up the input shaft in a breeze, compared to turning the input shaft after lining up the bell housing bolts. Second, making sure the adjustable leveler has the handle facing toward the front of the motor makes the whole task substantially easier, as does lubing the threads. So after a few moments of sorrowful goodbyes we moved on to the task at hand. Wait if this is out here.... then that means, this is empty... means that this can go in... and hey look it does! Still have a bit of work ahead of us, transmission mount, fuel line routing, hydraulic brake install, drive shaft, and electrical. The electrical will be handled by a local megasquirt specialty shop, a friend's shop is nearby there so I may just drop the car off there for the tune and final tweaking when the time comes. As long as finances hold steady and timelines are roughly met, we are looking at a first drive in early October Total hours spent 60 hours. Also, if anyone knows someone or themselves needs a rebuilt motor and a 5-speed transmission please send them my way via PM!

To continue from yesterday. Bolt on the plates, and weld in the cross pieces knowing the spacing is exact . And pop the mount out, now you have a perfectly spaced mount. Substantially less material than the original mount, and the ability to use more readily available large head bolts (doesn't sit as close to the cross brace) Tomorrow will be buttoning up the engine and finishing the driver side mount.

So the benefit of this install was that it came with mounts, but anal as I am regarding stuff, I just wanted it to be a a little more rigid and friendlier to install the bolts and such. I definitely plan on copying ARZ's mount design. It's simple, much smaller and substantially prettier. Since I liked how the mounts centered the car, and I didn't want to dick around with trying to weld mounts on the car with the engine in the air, I built a jig off of the previous mounts. Here's the jig without the piece. Plan is to finish up the final pieces tomorrow. Total time spent 18 hours.

Put the head on, realized I missed a sealing spot, for some reason toyota wants you to use a little silicone on top of the head gasket towards the front timing cover O.o, so had to take it off again. After thinking for a while and coming to the conclusion that I would not be running a heater on this motor as well, although a second radiator did come to mind, I decided I was going to remove the water fitting. On the 7mgte the fitting is on the back and uses an absolutely massive banjo fitting. I took the banjo bolt with me thinking about how irritating it was going to be to try and find a fine metric threaded bolt that was that massive, when I stumbled upon the bolt for the rear lower control arm (I had extras from my junkyard trip to find myself an R200). Low and behold the correct size . Using the 1/2 moly 1/2 motor oil mix we lubed up the cam cap bolts and slipped the valve covers on for the time being. Had to also see how the engine would look with my snazzy intake manifold. Ordered a clutch bolt kit, bolt lock ring, and a transmission clutch hub, as my transmission came naked. Plan is to piece the rest of the motor together, paint/clean as necessary, weld up the new mounts, and mate the transmission and engine next week. Figure out the driveshaft to differential connection and head off to spitfireEFI to have them install megasquirt with a wiring harness. I have a bit of vacation time coming up, so I plan to use that the week after next to get as far as I can. Hell or high water the driveline from my datsun will be out and the new driveline should be in place by week after next week, very unrealistically it might even be running (a pipe dream). Total time spent 16 hours.