waynekarnes

while looking for a pre 71 ghia for my son, one of the guys selling a ghia is from taiwan. he bought it, then came across a nicer one for less money. he's in his late 30's. in his heart, he's a car guy. was quizzing me about mustangs, challengers, and why the 240z is so popular. tells me, he and his brother are buying the older vw karmann ghias and shipping em to taiwan. they shipped 4 of em 3 weeks ago, he's leaving on friday from san jose ca. to meet the boat in taiwan. lives in a 800k town house, no on street parking, so is selling the one that they had to leave behind. his daily driver is a newer or new bmw 850 V12. when the ghia ran out of gas, while i was test driving it, a block from his home. he grabbed a gas can, tossed it in the trunk of the 850 and off we went to the gas station. after gas can refill of the ghia, batt went dead getting gas to carbs. he whipped the 850 around, opened the trunk, pulled some cables as if he were in an old chevy, jumped the ghia. offered to let me drive either the ghia or the 850 back to his home. i drove the ghia. anyway, he says that the vw ghias are the hot car for the in crowd in taiwan, he and other nationals are scooping em up and shipping em out. he tells me that they are also looking into mustangs and such. says he has noticed a lot of older japanese cars there as well. says quite a few datsun 510's and more z cars. he tells me that there are several people he knows of in california buying up ghias and they are looking for the next hit car. he thinks it is going to be the 510's and the z series. he likes the american cars, but they are a bit too large for tossing around on the roads in taiwan.

they take a pix of lic plate and the car. the dmv records are available to the smog sniffer, same as the red light cameras and photo radar. if your vehicle is registered as 76 and older, shouldn't be an issue. don't know about the gross polluter issue. yes, a 20 foot exhaust tip would not only stop fumes from coming in the cabin, but should put one way past the sniffer/camera. will be all the rage with the untuned crowd, especially if the gov decides to do away with smog tests and rely strictly on sniffers. almost sounds like the gas tax per gallon used by the mile deal. the less gas mileage the more tax. the more one drives per year, the more gas tax.

snip snip from the article in the paper says that 76 and older cars will be exempt from getting a letter. if true, that means no 240z would get a letter. back when this experiment was going on, the rolling smog exemption was the law. all cars 25 years and older were exempt from smog tests. as a car became 25 years old, no more smog tests. working with legislator from modesto and san jose ca. that law was struck down, even though was supposed to be the permanent rule. currently the permanent rule is 76 and older are exempt from smog checks at time of registration and transfer of title ( change of ownership ). though when quizzed, the authors of the current rule, verbally say that all 76 and older cars are exempt from smog tests or equipment, that is not what the written rule says. the same guy, doing the testing with the sniffer also told my old neighbor, that if they can catch a polluter in the rolling 25 year exemption, they would do what they could to nail them as gross polluters. if they were able to prove a large percentage of gross polluters in that rolling exemption, they would do what they could to get rid of it. the rolling 25 yr old exemption is long gone. had nothing to do with the sniffer, just politicians. so, for now, as long as your vehicle is not a gross polluter, you should be fine. but if the carb can show an unacceptable amount of pollution from the exempted vehicles, i am sure they will waive that exemption for smog tickets resulting from the sniffer. they already did way with the rolling 25. it won't be much for them to get the same legislators to do way with or modify the current smog exemption rule. again, write your reps, write sema, let em know how you feel. if they only hear from people who hate cars, that's who they listen to. i am not in favor of pollution !!! i back up to a busy street and everytime some p.o.s. goes by i have to close my windows. just like the rest of you, i want clean air. i am in big favor of getting true polluters off the road. 99% of us have cars that will pass the smog test standards set for the year of the car we drive ( as long as the hood isn't lifted ). so, it appears at this time, what we have to fear is not knowing at what level pollutants the sniffer is set at as acceptable and whether or not those that hate our hobby are able to once again influence those who make the rules. worried ??? write and take it easy on the freeway on ramps.

this has been coming for over 15 years. my old neighbor ( CBAR official ) had a friend years back, over at CARB (calif air resources bureau ), that was setting up infared gas detector devices at the freeway on ramps and busy intersections to see if this was feasible. they want to put them in areas where they can get the most amount of gas into the air. this would include on ramps, and really busy stop and go intersections, areas where a hi po engine will load up with fuel. this isn't just a california thing this group took their show on the road. they were in denver co. arizona pennsylvania toronto canada and a few others i can't recall. this is a passive aggressive way for the states to make money. as well as help car dealers sell more cars. this idea works great in japan. what is it, 50k on an engine and junk it ??? it is planned to operate very much the same way as the red light and photo radar set ups. they mail you a pollution ticket, with a fine and so many days to correct the problem. after that time period, the offending vehicle will not be allowed on public highways until it is corrected. should one choose to ignore the ticket, vehicle will be impounded. pay a fine, must be towed home or to state smog station for repairs and inspection at reg's owner's costs. we all hope that you have all the correct smog components under the hood. regardless of whether the smog station sniffer passes the vehicle,all the components must be there. there is no $$$ amount limit for repairs if smog has been tampered with. nor will they offer to buy the offender from you. from what my old neighbor had heard, in ca. you would be allowed to drive the vehicle home for repairs and attempt another test. you must get a driving pass from DMV to pilot your vehicle to the smog station ( you must have that shop's address on the pass ) and back home. once you pass, you get a sticker that says you are okay, computer uploads to the state. you get to have an annual smog check to make sure is within specs. should vehicle not pass, you get to take it home and try again .. repeat the cycle. if one is caught driving an offending vehicle, after not passing at a smog station and no moving papers in the vehicle, the original plan was to impound and destroy. some camps feel that is too harsh, rather than destroy, give owner the option of paying a state certified smog station to bring the vehicle into specs or, sell the vehicle to the state for a nominal fee of $1000 or there abouts ( again if tampered with no money for you ). they impound and keep drug offender's cars, meth, jack daniel's, budweiser, cocaine, weed, or any other mind altering drug. as far as impounding goes, no big deal to the state. too bad you loose. if you don't want it, write to the proper authorities

buy the lotus ... you can't have too many projects ... as was suggested ... if you have the time and the space ... you may eventually get to the lotus ... if not ... sell it or give ut away some where down the road ... you will know the fork in the road when you see it ... it will be the exact spot you would be standing at and kicking yourself for not buying the lotus today if you pass this deal by ... i've been at that fork many a time ...

a little hi ku for u knocked on the door ... life opened up, handed me my *** ... then stumbled away, slamming the door in my face ... only to fall asleep on the couch, while watching judge judy ... i stood there, on the front porch, *** in my hands ... shouted out loud, life just isn't fair ... a grunt from inside, a beer can out the window upside my head ... daily news tossed at my feet, paper boy on his bicycle ... laughs and shakes his head, get over it pal ... that's all he said ...

i was reading at the site Pete recommended .. about chevrolet's engineers and how it was recommended using 4 ga. wiring ... but due to the way they ran the wiring, various voltage drops lowered the amperage and current, yet left enough to get the job done on the smaller ga wire without toasting it. suggested leaving original wiring in place and adding a heavier ga wire along side it from alt to batt or junction point. electricity will follow the thicker wire, easier path. very interesting read ... i think i am going to get the 3 wire 100 amp alt. seller on ebay ... a-1truck@sbcglobal.net sent me this message ... wayne we carry a 100 amp 3 wire alternator with a special turbo fan for added cooling.either natural or chrome.the natural is 95.00 and the chrome is 135.00 plus 16.00 shipping. thanks john his ebay ad says new, not rebuilt ... he doesn't mention here if new or rebuilt ... if on his site is new, this may be as well ... pay some bills and such, see if anything left over ... i think that this is something i am going to need ...

The cops are 'cracking down' on us the same way and here, and it IS at the officers discresion to say how loud 'too loud' is. was that way here in california as well. through petitioning and the automotive parts industries getting on board, our legislators got together with enthusiasts and suppliers and came up with a noise standard, so that way it wasn't up to guy behind a badge to bully some guy with loud pipes. this was about 5 years ago. there is a customizer here called california concepts. they modify brand new cars and trucks for chevy, chrysler, ford and a few others. customers were getting tickets pulling off the lots in their brand new trucks and cars. back to the dealerships to complain ... a friendly cop who liked cars would sign off the fix it ticket ... week or so later a non car type would write another fix it ticket ... dealerships had enough, banded with sema, car clubs, magazines ... helped to get the noise standards passed here in california ... you all may need to do the same ... light a fire under your reps ... get standards set , so it's not up to some bully with a badge to arbitrarily decide he's writing a ticket because some kid has a green mohawk and loud exhaust. i agree about the harleys ... motor on down the road causing windows to shake and yet, very few of them get a ticket ... years back, they would have... but with these wealthy yuppies running around on harleys, more of them than the traditional biker ... generally cops don't hassle people with money. contact your local and provincial reps ... see if you can get some standards set. then it's a fair and level playing field ... what's loud to me may not be to your neighbor.

In practice, "excessive exaust noise" tickets are the most common violation. California law does not require police to measure sound levels objectively. Instead, according to the California Highway Patrol, the "citation is based on officer's judgment." actually that statement is incorrect ... and exhaust is spelled wrong ... though i don't doubt that the pole lease are cracking down on the hondas and other rice rockets out there, my associates tell me it's a safety thing ... wild kids with less than 2000 hours of driving experience behind the wheel of a car capable of maiming and killing innocent motorists and pedestrians at speeds in excess of 72 mph. california has a noise law, officers are required to use a decibel meter at a prescribed distance measured in feet from the vehicle at idle and higher rpms. it is not at the discretion of the officer, though in some communtities officer barney fife may insist that it is and judge po dok may agree, the law says otherwise ... the laws regarding noise and other vehicle modifications, for various states can be found at sema.com specialty equipment manufactures association's web site ... with all the inaccuracies in that article, i suspect the author did very little research and shot from the hip with what he/she believed to be true. but, one thing is for sure ... the cops are looking to make quota and a few bucks for the city, while slowing down and thinning the herd of giant rear wing equipped, coffee can exhaust pipe tipped buzz bombs, pulling them over and passing out tickets is an easy way to do it.

can't call it a camaro anyway ... gm had contract with small canadian town that all camaros until i think it was 2020 will be built at that factory ... gm wanted to close that plant ... penalties for closing plant and moving production to mexico or china were too high ... too many legal problems ... too costly to modernize the canadian plant again ... so rather than rebuild the plant, after taking millions of dollars in canadian tax payer's money in the form or breaks and the canadians paying for some plant upgrades ( to keep the towns people and other canadians employed ), gm pulled the plug on the camaro. using the reasoning that there was no longer enough market for the camaro ... if gm builds the camaro before that contract runs out, they may be subject to millions of dollars in fines for breech of contract with the canadians. the cobalt will take the place of the camaro for a while ... guess they are hoping that square shaped station wagon mini surburban will make people forget the camaro ... gm announce that they have killed any plans for the rear drive platform with no anticipated date of resurrection. articles in the wall street journal as well as car and driver magazine incase anyone wishes to check on the canadian factory and contract as well as the rear wheel drive being dead for now. i prefer the orange z/28 that looks like a modern version of the 69 camaro as opposed to the 2000 camaro's modern version of the 1980's mazda rx7 ... funny how since the mid 70's gm is almost always 12 years behind the design curve with everything except maybe the vette. be nice to see a fresh design from them on their bread butter cars and trucks ... that said, most of the cars i have owned ( over 40 ) since 1973 have been either nissan or GM products, mostly chevy muscle cars ...

i just saw that jc whitney sells Zero Rust ... 24 bucks a quart ... 54 a gallon ... the por 15 needs to have a top coating over it ... they call it a tie coating ... before you can paint over it ... the zero rust and rust bullet can be painted over with regular primers and paints ... if you use a rust neutralizer/cleaner such as por 15 metal prep or any other acid based product , be sure to get it all off before you use any rust covering product ... if there is any rust, surface or otherwise, it would be best to use the zero rust or rust bullet to to stop and convert the rust to something that can be painted over. other wise your primer may end up flaking off, taking the top coat with it. i have also seen rust bleed through the primer and top coat. rust bullet has a special body filler one may use to fill in the rough spots ... smooth the frame, then spray it with either rust bulet or the zero rust ... por 15 needs special thinner to be sprayed ... and again a tie coat to before it can be top coated with your color of choice. i'd stick with the zero rust or rust bullet ... i haven't used zero rust. i have used both the rust bullet and the por 15. rust bullet is a whole lot easier and cheaper to use than the por 15. you don't need all the special prepping and cleaners one needs with the por 15 to apply the rust bullet. independent testing results show that rust bullet and zero rust are as good or better than the paint over rust 15. which ever product you decide to use, i would coat the frame with one of those products before you primer and paint ... if there are any screw or bolt holes, see if you can get some sort of sprayer that will allow you to spray what you can inside the frame rails as well ... they usually rust from the inside out ... good luck, wayne wayne

thanks Pop N Wood. i've been getting mixed messages regarding whether i need to upgrade the alternator or not ... most are suggesting the stock alt is fine. i don't want to be running the batt down every time that fan comes on. from what i read the one wire over charges the batt and the voltage drop is so high that with the taurus fan's amp draw the 3 wire 80 or 100 amp alt is the way to go. Mike, i had looked at the circle track alt in the summit catalog. saw that alt and wondered if it might work took me a while to get the mounting figured out to keep the alt on the passenger side with the short water pump. does yours mount up to the stock chevy mounts ? i'm hoping to find something that is plug and play ... not have to cut up the existing wiring to the stock 1971 internal regulated 3 wire plug that probably won't happen, but i'm hoping ... thanks again, wayne

http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/onewire-threewire.shtml anyone seen this article before ? i am thinking of upgrading my alternator to 100 amp, to go along with the taurus electric fan on the scarab. appears can get a 3 wire hi- amp alt from here http://www.powermastermotorsports.com/gm.html those prices look fair ? any thoughts ? thanks

old valve cover, top cut off ... or if you just want to make a mess .. .no valve cover ... use a heavy wooden dowel ( broom stick cut down will work ) ... engine running, at idle ... push down on the push rod side of the rocker arm with the dowel ... be careful ... hair back, short sleeve shirt .. watch and all rings, chains removed ... push hard ... if noise goes away ... lifter, push rod, worn or badly adjusted rocker arm ... same thing ... put dowel to the top of the stud holding the rocker arm ... be careful ... put your head down to dowel .. if you are daring ... put the dowel to the part of your face about 3 fingers out from your ear ... ( i use a towel or rag for cushion, when i was younger i just used my hand ) rest your head on the dowel ... move from rocker stud to rocker stud until you determine the knocker .. you might also want to pull off a spark plug wire, one at a time, put it back on, and move through all 8 of em, see if that makes a difference ... sometime when there is no fire in the hole, the ticking goes away ... when i got my z, was already a V8 ( it's a scarab ), engine was knocking and clicking ... did all that stuff ... eventually found it had a cracked head engine was full of carbon ... i shoveled it into a half gallon milk carton ... filled it a little over half way ... sounded and acted just like a collapsed lifter or bent push rod ... good luck ..

from Larry, cozyz The two diagrams above show how to build and wire an auto relay switched 2-speed FORD TAURUS fan. Parts needed......10 guage wire for the power circuit. 18 guage wire for the control cicuit. Three relays..... 1) High speed relay, Tyco VF7-12V,70amps 2)Low speed relay and Aux relay, standard BOSCH relays Two switches,,,,.1)Low speed temp. switch- Adj. Flexilite, FLX-31147 from SUMMIT. 2)High speed temp. switch from Standard Motor Products, TS-158 or TS-392. I put the adj. low speed switch and the three relays in seperate relay boxes and mounted them in the engine comp. The high speed temp switch I mounted where one of the heater hoses went. Est. cost of parts, less the fan, is $50.00 . 10 guage wire is used in the power circuit and 18 guage in the control circuit. The 12V switched control circuit can be connected to any live connection with ignition on. The control circuit shown is as follows..... When the temp. reaches your set low speed figure, let's say 190 deg.the low speed relay is energized thru pin 86, 85 connects to 87A of the AUX relay and pulls 30 of that relay, 87 of the low speed relay and 30 are closed sending power to the fan to run at low speed. When the temp. reaches your high speed switch figure, let's say 210 deg. pin 86 of the AUX. relay energizes thru 85 and 30 releases from 87A of the low speed relay and connects with 85 of the high speed relay which thru 87 of that relay powers the fan to run at high speed. ARE we confused yet????? When the temp falls below the high speed swich figure the AUX relay will switch back to the low speed relay. Therfore low and high speeds will never be on at the same time and you will have the following conditions... 1) No fan on. 2) Low speed on. 3) High speed on. This set-up has worked great since installation of it and I fought heat problems for a year because of my blower set-up before this change and NO in dash switches......... for some reason i can't post the pix of his set up ... he credited his partner with the wiring and schematic ... email me and i can send you the whole thing ... wkarnesATpacbell.net wayne

on craigs list ... http://www.craigslist.org/sfc/pts/87815177.html VW MK1 GTI body kit, w/ euro bumpers - $300 (potrero hill) Reply to: anon-87815177@craigslist.org Date: 2005-07-29, 6:48PM PDT 1- BBS front spoiler ,2- Zender sideskirts, 4 OEM fender flares, 2 euro bumpers front and rear no turn signals kit is a complete package

last year i went to a truck wrecking yard ... where they pull the parts ... told em what i was looking for man at the counter asks for what year toyota ... tell him 72 datsun 240z, he replies, very popular upgrade, used to have a 240z. he calls the mechanic ... tells him to pull the calipers off the four runner, bring the pads, bolts everything ... they bring em to the counter, writes a receipt for 84 toyota calipers. the hand written warranty said two four runner calipers, 90 days exchange. i agree with you they are not the big calipers, i think they are off the truck. i asked about a part for my friend's chevy truck, for some reason they felt okay taking me into the yard, showed me around ... took me to a four runner and said he took the brakes off that one, did i want any other parts off it ... you got me ... i have seen pix and these are the smaller toyota calipers, the ones from the toyota 4x4 truck. after cutting the backing plate, they bolted right on, no spacers, no additional parts. anyway, the smaller toyota calipers from 84 fit fine with the 14x7 rewinds . sorry if i confused anyone

i have the 14 x 7 rewinds. the toyota calipers work just fine ... 1984 toyota four runner calipers.

a little late in chiming in ... you might want to see if it's too large and heavy for greyhound ... the bus line ... they are fairly inexpensive when shipping large bulky items.

your best bet may be to drop Mike and Greg ( jtr ) an email or call them ... as far as i know, most of what they have is geared at the 240z ... you've probably already seen this website ... http://www.datsun-280zx-lt1.com/ as well as this one ... http://home.earthlink.net/~dvgreimann/index.html Ross had a V8 zx car, was stolen ... you may want to contact him as well sorry i can't offer more than that ... wayne

a while back i questioned whether it was possible to keep the alt on the passenger side of a small block chevy when using a short water pump . mine is an older scarab swap. if i was running headers would have been a piece of cake ... using the rams horn exhaust made it a bit more difficult ... well, at 1st ... it is actually a bolt in operation, just a pain gathering the correct parts. the 63 to 65 vettes had an option that put the alt on the passenger side ... i knew this, but had forgotten how it was done ... the factory manifolds come in 2 inch and 2 1/2 inch dumps. for clearance most z swaps use the 2 inch ... for what we want, the 2 inch are a bit harder to find than the 2 1/2 inch. the rams horn exhaust on the passenger side has a horn, or triangle sticking out , towards the radiator ( the front ) ... there are 2 holes in that horn. you need the corvette alternator bracket ( 1963 to 65 RH ). a yr ago the cost for the bracket was 60 bucks. it's just flat stock, one end bent over ( the front ) 90 degrees with a hole in the tab for the bolt that holds the alt to pass through. at the rear a second piece of flat stock is welded on to the 1st piece. that piece is bent 90 degrees to match the front tab. a whole is drilled through the rear tab, and a bushing is inserted in the hole .. when tha bolt that holds the alt in place is pushed through and tightened, the bushing moves up and holds the alt in place. getting ahead of myself ... that bracket has 2 holes drilled in it ... matching the 7/16 coarse thread holes in the corvette exhaust manifold ... bolt the bracket to the manifold, the alt to that bracket. you can buy the upper 1963 to 1965 RH alt bracket for 25 bucks. it goes from the upper mounting hole or support bolt on the water pump. for hi po applications, chevy made a double bracket. if you are so inclined one could probably make that bracket as well ... but, i think it is probably cheaper and easier just to buy the bracket. the exhaust manifolds were also available on some chevy trucks ... the vettes all had short pumps ... not so for all the trucks ( though i believe that if this style exhaust manifold was used on a truck, it was used with a short water pump ... i can't see GM making different right hand manifolds with alt mounts. i was told trucks with air got these manifolds ). the manifolds are unusual, but not rare ... i paid 125 for the one i bought, another 25 for brackets ( incase the vette bracket was wrong ) and 25 for shipping. e bay ... anyway, yes you can keep the alt on the passenger side when using a short water pump. for those that remember, this all started when i asked about installing the taurus 2 spd fan with the scarab V8. swapped to high volume nascar style short aluminum water pump ... still wasn't enough room ... bought the JTR radiator ... estimate ... enough room ... new pulleys, ect. then found issues getting the alt to stay on pass side. neighbor and i made funky bracket ... worked but meant removing it to get to spark plug ... arrgghhh ... my buddy used to have a fuelie 65 vette, all stock, alt on passenger side, couldn't remember how it was done ... finally i remembered the trick was the manifold.

hello, i can't help you with the swap ... but if you are looking for a knowledgeable shop to give you an estimate ... stop by corvette center at the corner of reed and lafeyette in santa clara. shop is on right side about a mile past the university of santa clara ... i have known max for around 18 years ... pat patterson trusts him with his original 64 corvette grand sport ... i think there are only 7 of em in the world. last i heard, appraised at over 250,000 dollars, american ... he's honest and straight up ... during el nino, roughly 1983-84 , i was working 10 to 12 hr days 7 days a week, for around 39 days. my vette broke down. no garage and no time. i called max, he arranged a tow truck, got it to his shop. big block oil pump in small block chevy ( prev owner ) ... bolts were too short, came loose. broke off a chunk of the block, dropped pump into the pan. being as this was a factory number matching LT-1/ZR-1 he took it upon himself to save the block and the value of my vette. 4 or 5 experts had told him to forget it, block was toast. he was able to fix it. years back he dropped a smog legal turbo charged big block chevy into a 7 series bmw. looked like the factory installed it. 3 days after its maiden voyage, while showing off to a man driving a porsche, the owner stood on it and breaking the tires loose at 120 mph on 280 near hiway 92, ending up sideways .. he was able to collect it ... other than a stain in his brooks brothers slacks no harm done. week later, bmw was back in max's shop for a detuning ... anyway ... give max a call, tell him wayne the phone man said to call ... see if he can't help you ... go north on laffeyette ... cross over el camino, go under railroad tracks, start looking for all the vettes on your right side ...

my son is off playing war hammer ... tells me that the denny's next to the game store, on bascom in campbell is selling fresh white castles ... never mind those wheels .... grey hound has a 39 dollar special running ... LOL ... glad you liked the post ... if you can't find what you need out there in TX ... let me know ...

you could then make a fortune writing your story about the trip home, maybe make it a movie of the week ... get brad pitt to play you ... sean connery could play my part ... pauli shores could play the snake you imagine yourself having a conversation with on the side of the road, some where just outside vegas ...gilbert godfrey could be the tow truck driver ... who's the guy that plays freddie kruger ??? he could be the friendly mechanic that takes you under his wing, when you decide to move to their small town, when you fall in love with the sherriff's daughter, maybe kate hudson ??? i was leaning towards the gal pal in spider man ... but now, kate hudson ... see ... an adventure and a whole new life awaits you ... take the plunge ... i have white castle burgers in the freezer how can you pass up a GTI, white castle burgers, a chance to sleep on my couch and a whole new life ????

49 bucks ... greyhound it out to san jose ... sleep on my couch, change the wheel bearing in my driveway, recharge the air conditioning and a 3 day road trip back to texas ... wayne