Onion

Purchased two, thanks everyone.

Just put in some 87 (so glad my car runs fine on regular, I get 11 mpg...) today at UGAS (not very good gas) and it cost me $3.60 a gallon. Not too high, not too low. Gets kind of pricey at 11 mpg though.

Thanks for the replies. Seeing as how my Z is my daily driver, I'm gonna need a switch as soon as possible. z240, I'm sending you an email about the switch and the cost. I also found a guy selling a switch for $30 pretty close to my house, so I'm gonna buy that as well and keep it for parts. Even if its junk, its not much out of pocket.

Looking for a headlight/wiper switch for my 1973 240Z. Looking for a good condition one that'll last a while. Located in Miami, FL (33157). Thanks.

Darn, that's a problem. New? Where can I find a new one? I thought the best we could get was remanufactured?

A couple weeks ago, I started having issues with my headlights. The wouldn't turn on every time, and each time I tried, there was a higher chance they wouldn't turn on. This gradually kept on going until they stopped working altogether. I took apart my steering column and saw the white wire with the red stripe came unsoldered from the switch, so I soldered it back in place. This fix worked for a couple days, and then the same thing happened again, they wouldn't turn on every time, and gradually turned on less and less until they just wouldn't turn on at all. I took the switch out of the car again, and disassembled it (following a 240Z combo switch rebuild PDF I found). It turns out that the two plastic pieces that rub against the two metal plates are bad. One is a bit worn and cracked, and the other is annihilated (photo attached). Can I find a replacement for those two pieces, or do I need to drop $250 on a switch?

I need to stop touching things. I messed with the antenna on the rear left quarter panel, and dropped the whole darn thing down the hole! I managed to fix it out after lots of cursing and furious pacing. I also managed to reassemble the whole thing, but I can't get it to screw in tight again, so it kind of just flops around on the hole. My car doesn't have a radio or speakers, and I don't plan on having either. Is it a tough job to get rid of the antenna entirely and plug the hole? I'm not very good at body work, so I'm not really sure how to plug it. Or could I just tighten the antenna down again so its like it used to be? The car is a 1973 240Z.

Anything from the west coast will be good, just avoid the northern states. The salt on the roads ruins the metal. I bought a California car and shipped it all the way over to California, and it has absolutely no rust.

Closed, fixed the switch myself.

The headlight knob on my 1973 240Z is acting up and rarely ever turns on the headlights anymore. I'm looking for one that works. Let me know how much you want for it. Located in South Florida.

Just thinking about autocross. I almost started racing with my previous car (2000 Mustang GT), but it wasn't suited for autocross at all, so I never did. Closest thing to racing that I've done in this car is driving like an idiot in empty parking lots. Good info right there.

Thanks! Unfortunately, Florida is so flat you'd think it was man-made. That's why I'm looking at a motor swap - I'd end up with roughly the same weight (probably going RB and turbo) and a whole lot more power.

My big thing is showing the arrogant miata drivers that a 40 year old car can lead the way around a track for them. The best way to do that, in my opinion, is to beat them at their own game and improve the way our cars corner. I've done a lot of reading about suspension etc lately, and since there wasn't a list of everything you can do to correct oversteer and understeer, I put one together to make it a bit easier for beginners like myself to find the info they need. I'm not saying you have to do all that to correct understeer or oversteer but it's handy to know if your front toe is too far in, then you should dial some out to correct the issue.

Correcting Understeer Raise front tire pressure. Lower rear tire pressure. Soften front shocks. Soften front springs. Stiffen rear shocks. Stiffen rear springs. Stiffen bump. Lower front end. Raise rear end. Widen front track. Install shorter front tires. Install taller rear tires. Install wider front tires. Install narrower rear tires. Soften front anti-roll bar. Stiffen rear anti-roll bar. Increase front toe out. Decrease rear toe in. Increase negative front camber. Increase positive caster. Increase front suspension travel. Decrease front end weight. Increase rear end weight. Correcting Oversteer Lower front tire pressure. Raise rear tire pressure. Stiffen front shocks. Stiffen front springs. Soften rear shocks. Soften rear springs. Stiffen bump. Raiser front end. Lower rear end. Narrow rear track. Install taller front tires. Install shorter rear tires. Install wider rear tires. Install narrower front tires. Stiffen front anti-roll bar. Soften rear anti-roll bar. Increase front toe in. Increase rear toe in. Decrease negative front camber. Reduce positive caster. Increase rear suspension travel. Increase front end weight. Decrease rear end weight.

I'd say your best bet on that one would be to call up a dealership that has the GT-86, BRZ, or FRS in stock (all have the same seats, I've driven all three cars) and just have a salesman measure them for you.

That's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Absolutely sublime work, great job! Love the car.

Car owner for driving on a bad ball joint.

Here's the story behind it. The car belongs to a lady who broke one of the ball joints. She brought it to the mechanic to get fixed. The two guys that were in the car were test driving it to make sure it was okay. They give it some gas once, the transmission shifts real hard, and then the wheels blows off the car. The lady driving on a broken ball joint resulted in the weakening of all of the other suspension components, which all just failed at the same time.

Driving along about 5-6 car lengths behind someone, when out of nowhere, their front right wheel just EXPLODES out of where its supposed to be. Both ball joints exploded, steering rack sheared, and the brake line tore. Here's the results... That wheel with all the suspension attached to it would be quite the thing to just hang up on a garage wall, lol.

Only comes in a pint/quart, apparently. I don't have the skills or tools to brush on paint, I've always done rattle can work and gotten decent at it over time. That's a good idea, though, when I get the car repainted, I'll do the POR 15 tie-coat primer.

Thanks for the help guys. I'm gonna go for the paint matching route, the bare metal spot is a real eye sore and bugs the hell out of me. I just got back from the store, and picked up an angle grinder (needed one anyways, now I had a good excuse to buy one). What kind of primer is generally recommended for these cars? I've heard good things about rustoleum primer, but I'd rather double check before making a mistake. And for Andrea, its not so bad. I'm currently in Miami, although I live in Jacksonville most of the year. All we got here was a lot of rain, and since I just redid most of the weatherstripping on the car, I didn't worry about it too much. Not a single drop now that the rain has finally stopped. It used to leak pretty bad in the trunk, so I'm glad that's taken care of.

That's a pretty sweet trophy you have there.

I had a racing stripe sticker on my car along the bottom of the front fender which went across the door all the way to the rear fender (wasn't installed by me, was done by PO). I decided to peel it off two days ago, and found out that the PO had the paint job done on the cheap. A one inch long piece of paint ripped off my door when I peeled the sticker, exposing bare metal. At first glance, it doesn't look like there were many coats of primer or actual paint. My question is, what can I do? I know I'm supposed to sand the area down and prime it, but that's incredibly ugly. If I take it to a shop, can they just repaint that spot, or does it have to be my entire door? What temporary alternatives are there that won't look hideous? I'd respray the entire car, but I really don't have the money for that at the moment. The car has been sitting outside for the past two days (I DD it), and that spot has already started to rust because of the rain. Its in great condition with no rust anywhere else, so I'd really like to take care of this correctly before it becomes a problem. I don't have a photo of the damage as my old phone with the photo on it died yesterday. Car is a 1973 240Z. I kept on doing research and remembered something. My paint is from a Mercedes SLK, and I know the paint code for it. If I were to find a spray can of that paint, or something really similar, could I just sand the area down to the metal, prime it, and then paint and have it match almost perfectly? It'd look a lot better than just bare primer, which was what I was considering until I got a respray.

Slightly overpriced, no?

Got home today. Fixed the throttle cable, changed the oil and filter, and changed the coolant.