Dragonfly

Did you notice the fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror? That poor car looks like it fell into a rice field and hit every grain of rice on its way out. Dragonfly

Hey Tim that Summit kit you have pictured is the kit that I used to relocate my battery into the spare tire well on my 72'. I have not had any problems with the gage of the wire they sent me, my car cranks over immidiately all my accesories power up just fine and I have not found any indication of the wire getting hot or over loaded. Dragonfly

My 72' is like Mike C's in that it has a captive nut rather than the ears for the mount. I had to make a mount for mine but it was very easy and inexpensive. I used 2 pieces of 6" long 2"x2" angle iron (3/8" thick), I put the tranny in place Marked where the holes needed to be and then drilled the holes in the angle iron. There are no isolation options like this and it is a bit noisier but that doesn't bother me. BTW Bob I used your info on building your stroker as a referance and guide for building mine, thanks for being so detailed. Dragonfly

Consider this an informed comment, the new skylines will no longer be running the rb motor. The power plant for the newest generation of skylines will be a twin turboed version of the 3.5L v6 that is in the 350Z. Dragonfly

Don't bypass the valve it will cause you problems. The early Z's do have the valve also but instead of being on the fire wall it is in the back of the car just forward of the fuel tank. Since you dont seem to mind opening the brake system go ahead and pull the proportioning valve and take it apart, you will be blown away by the amount of gunk and crud built up in it. Clean it up and put it back together and do the same thing with the brake light switch (the valve with the wire going into the top). You will find it makes a world of differance. P.S. while you are at it flush that 20+ year old fluid out and replace it, you should flush your brake system about every two years plus or minus depending on your driving and the general environment you drive in. Dragonfly

As a very general statement there are two types of drivers idiots and morons. Morons - people who are driving slower than you are ie as you pass them you say "look at that moron". Idiots - people who drive faster than you ie as they pass you you say "did you just see that idiot". Yes I am an idiot and I am forced to share the roads with morons. BTW I agree with all the previos post whole heartedly. Dragonfly

Hey, I like the new car, it's to bad about the 280z but that is all part of life I guess. As for the discount you recive at the local Nissan delearships when you are a club member it is 20%, you also get 10% discounts at several shops and parts stores around town. The Z Club would still love to have you as a member if you are interested feel free to send me an email, give me a call, or just show up at our next meeting. Our next meeting will be Sept. 3rd at 6:30pm at the Nissan Design center located at 9800 Campus Point Drive, La Jolla. Dragonfly (619) 589-6023

I know that I have been waiting a long time to get some real numbers on my car and I believe a couple of people on here have been waiting as well. The dyno informed me that I have a peak hp of 166.6 and a peak tq. of 169.2, since I don't have the chart in front of me I don't recall the rpms for the above numbers but what I do remember is that my torque was 157 at 2k rpm and climbed to 169 in the 6k rpm range. The numbers where a little lower than I had hoped for but the owner of the dyno shop was blown away by my torque curve and my surprisingly flat hp curve. I also raced my car in the 1/8 on Friday night (dyno was Sat. morning) and my best time of the night was 9.42 with a 2.1 sec 60'. I think I may have to go to a taller rear diff because I just can not get traction of the line, most of my 60' times are in the 2.3 to 2.4 second range. On the plus side of everything I learned that many of the spectators think my car is a V8 and I am starting to gain a reputation as someone to look out for. I would realy appreciate some comments suggestions etc. from the others on here with regaurds to what I have and what can be done to improve my times. Thanks Dragonfly

Yes you can bypass it, but I would recomend that in doing so you use the fuel vent system from the early 240Z's. The charcoal canister is a vent system for fuel vapors and is associated with fuel tank venting. On the early 240Z's they used a small and simple valve system that runs the vapors together with the block vent vapors and into the air filter box. If you bypass it all together without using some other system you will end up with a raw fuel smell under the hood or vapor lock problems depending on how you bypass it. Dragonfly

I just put a T5 in my 72' 240 (about 2 weeks ago) and what I found is that no two cars are quite the same dimensionaly. What that means to you is that you are going to be without your car an extra day because you need to install the tranny put the drive shaft in then measure the distance from the u-joint to the face of the "turbo flange" on the diff. if the driveshaft is pushed all the way into the tranny subtract 3/4" from your measurement and make sure the driveshaft shop knows what referance points you used for measuring. With mine I only needed it shortened by 1" so I was able to have the turbo drivshaft shortened and re-balanced. I also run the 3.9 rear diff. and although I have not run the car in the quarter I have pulled a 9.4 second 1/8 mile run with tires smoking through first. Dragonfly

I just ran across your post and if you have not taken your car somewhere yet I personaly would recomend Pacific Nissan (I have never had to use any of these places thank goodness). The reason for this recomendation is because Pacific Nissan is on very good terms with the Z club of San Diego and if you happen to be a member of the club you can also get a discount. I wish you the best on this. Dragonfly (Vice President Z club of San Diego)

Last night I spent some time going through the FSM and I found the switch mentioned twice, once in an exploded view of the transmission with no info and again on the very last page of the body electrical section. In the body electrical section it did not tell you the location of the switch but it did tell you what color the wires are and how to test the switch for continuity. Sometime in the next day or so I will have to put the car up on jack stands and see if I can find the elusive switch. Tim... I'm back but I don't know how often I will be able to post. I have all kinds of stuff to say and talk about but I can only get away with the time on things that are more pertinant than the stuff I like to post in the "I'm tellin ya" section. BTW it makes me feel good to know that I was missed. Dragonfly

Pete, I have been all over the car looking for the wires and or switch in which you describe and I have not found it, after re reading your post about 6 times I remembered that I have an FSM so when I get home I am going to crack that thing open and see what it says. If I can't make any headway from the FSM I will be hitting you guys up tommorow for ideas about how to wire in a starter interupt switch for the clutch. Thanks Dragonfly

I wish you were correct but it is a manual transmission, the tech inspector had me turn the key with the car in gear and without the clutch engaged, the car of course lurched forward and that was when he had to go to someone else who had the authority to sign off my tech sheet whith this discrepancy. They refered to it as a nuteral safety switch because they probably (like myself) did not know what else to call it. I would expect that a factory switch for something like that would either be on the clutch pedal (like the brake light switch on the brake pedal) or somewhere on the transmission and the only wires on the tranny are for the reverse lights and I have not seen any kind of switch etc. around the clutch pedal. I guess what I would like to know is if anyone else who is running an L series engine with a manual Z tranny is able to engage the starter without depressing the clutch. Thanks Dragonfly

Do the early z cars have a nuteral safety switch? My car (72' 240) does not have one and I do not recall ever seeing an early z with one. I was told during a tech inspection that they will let me slide this time but next time I will be failed. If anyone knows how to retro fit one please let me know. Dragonfly

I found a good link for T5 info for anyone else who may be working on or messing with a T5. http://www.geocities.com/zgarage2001/borg.html I am still open to comments suggestions and advice for anyone who feels like handing some out. Dragonfly

I saw a zxt with an auto the other day in the wrecking yard so I will go out and take another look tommorow and see if its crossmember will help me. Dragonfly

I've got a 72' 240z and I just picked up a BW T5 transmision for it, when I went to put it in I found that the mount on the transmission is about 1 inch further back than the bracket in the tunnel. I compared the mount that was on the tranny with the mount that I had on my previous tranny and there is about 1 inch offset between them, I am not able to use the one that came with the T5 as the bracket in my transmission tunnel is different. I know I am not the first one to have this problem so if someone else who has gone through this before can let me know what you did I will be grateful. Thanks Dragonfly

Here is the trick I use: I have several 9/16" wrenches so I took two of them and ground the wall of the box side down just enough to fit over the bolt on one side and the nut on the other. I put the wrenches on so that the angle of the wrenches cause them to cross over (I know it is hard to picture what I am talking about) then I use a large screw driver as a pry bar between the wrenches to break the bolt loose, doing this I can pull all four bolts out in under 5 minutes. Dragonfly

Gage accuracy 101: Nearly every gage that has a 2.5" face or smaller has an accuracy of + or - 6% full scale (ie 100psi = + or - 6psi), if the gage is larger than 2.5" your accuracy is + or - 4% full scale. When using a compound gage (vacuum and pressure on same gage) the vacuum side is + or - 8% to 10% and the pressure side is as stated above. There are mechanical gages more accurite than that but they are not generaly durable enough to be used in a car. The electrical gages work in a different manner using a diaphram connected to a rheostat (simplest example - they are not all like that), because of the way they are made the electrical gages usualy have an accuracy of 2% to 4% indicated value (ie 10psi is + or - .2psi, and 20psi is + or - .4psi). With that said I can tell you that the more accurite reading is coming from the electrical gage, so your next concern is the source for your signal as said in a previous post. If you have concerns about the accuracy of your gages check your phone book for metrology labs, these are calibration labs and they can tell you exactly what your gage is reading at any given pressure. Dragonfly 13 years mechanical and dimensional calibration tech.

When I got mine I took them out of the box to exam them and I found that each threaded sleave had a small diameter rubber ring taped to the inside. I looked in all the instructions and pictures and did not see anything about this rubber ring so I called ground control and was told to put the rubber ring over the strut tube at the top then put the threaded sleave over the ring/tube and push the sleave down to the welded on stop ring. When I did this it took some force to push the sleave down but it keeps the sleave from rotating when you adjust the collar and it also keeps the sleave from moving if you fully unload the suspension. If you did not get the rubber ring (O-ring) call ground control and ask them about it I am sure they will take care of you as they are very reputable. Dragonfly

OK 2 things come to my mind (if these are ground control) did you fully loosen the allen head set screw on the coller? When you put everyting together initially did you put the rubber ring over the strut tube and slide the threaded coller over the rubber ring? Dragonfly

Why is that things like that always seem to be in the speed range that you have to drive in when there is a cop around Just my suspesions here but is it possible that you have a small amount of play in your steering rack that allows you to feel an amplified resonance. There is a chance that your rims, rotor, or hub could have a certain rpm range that causes them to go into a harmonic resonance creating your vibration and as soon as you get past that rpm range (wheel rpm) it goes away. A good way to test this is to see if it starts at exactly 65 when slowing down then ends at 55, if it starts and stops at the exact same rpm range in both directions that could be your source. Dragonfly

First I would like to commend Pete for doing such a good job with his son. the one and only time I watched someone door ding my car: My wife and I went to Marrie Callenders to pick up a pie, when we pulled into the parking lot there were only 2 spaces open so I pulled into one of them and got the car centered perfectly in the space (small spaces), just as I was opening my door another car pulled into the space beside me so when he shut off his engine I finished getting out while holding my hand over the edge of my door so as not to have my door hit their car. When we stepped into the resteraunt I looked back into the parking lot and watched the lady (passenger) fling her door open with as much force as she could muster, then she did it again, after getting out of her car she slammed her big ass into her door to add to the crease now in my door. I came unglued and my wife would not let me confront them for fear of me being arrested. After we got our pie and the moron couple had come in to eat I pulled my car out of the parking space got out and kicked the entire passenger side door in on thier car, made me feel better but I was still pissed. Dragonfly That was my 260Z.

You have run across a great piece of information there. Not only have I read it I printed it out and put it into its own section of my "Z notes" and I still referance it on a pretty regular basis. Bob also has some great info on heads for the L-series engines. Dragonfly