datsunlover

Ahh.. I hadn't thought of that..

If you have/get a ZX dizzy (black module on the side) you can hook the MSD up directly to it and it works great. I hooked mine up yesterday and have noticed quite an improvment over the stock zx dizzy. (I ran the stock zx dizzy in my 75 280z last year, right up until yesterday.. it works well, just not a very powerfull spark and seamed to have trouble 'keeping up after' 5000 RPM) I have the wiring instructions somewhere if you need them..

I mounted CRX Si seats in my Z, and had the same problem. Ended up cutting 1.5" out of the factory seat brackets/bracing on the floor and re-welded it in lower. The stock Z seats are quite thin, and I can't see any way of getting around this issue other than choping some metal out.. almost any newer seats (aftermarket or otherwise) are going to be thicker.

I'm sure this is old news to some, but I am very impressed.. The local dealership just got a few new Chargers in, and OMFG!!! I think there's something wrong with me... I pulled in and stared like a little kid for about 5 minits. I love the look of these cars from every angle... It's just.. MEAN!! A friend of mine has an '04 ram reg cab/short box with the Hemi and it moves really good.. I can just imagine it in a SEDAN with the 5 speed auto.. big 5 spoke rims, dual exhast, leather interior... Jeah... I'm really amazed with dodge this time.. they got 'the lines' in the roof/rear pilar/window area just right, and I had to do a double take before I realized its an 05, not a 65! MHO anyway..

Don't the 300zx front hubs just slide on to the 260 spindle?!? (requiring bearing swaping iirc) From what I've come across, this is true, but if I'm wrong I hope someone will correct me.. but if so, why bother with custom $600 hubs, or re-drilling stock 4 lug hubs? Am I missing something here? Maybe.. I'm a few beers into the evning...

I say git' the cash... parts are good and all, but like has been said, there is a tendancy to use them if you have them.. I know I do.. Besides, there is the time it will take you to sell off something that you take in trade (that you don't particularly need) and an unknown dollar amount.. sure, you may get your $500 out of it, but what if you don't? Then your no further ahead, you know?

Well, It seams to be better now.. I played with it some more today, adjusted evrything again and found that I had the needles poorly aligned for one thing... (front carb was too high in the piston, rear carb needle was low) also, as the day went on and I did test runs (low rpms and high rpm blasts..) I started to question my ignition... So once I had the carbs set as good as they'd get, I instaled my MSD box that's been collecting dust on a shelf for a year. It's got a 'soft touch' rev limiter with a 6000 chip.... Looks like I'll need to pick up a 6500-7000 chip now, as I can run the thing right up and 'hit' the 6k limiter. Still a bit week feeling after 5500, but I think some needle sanding will help that. As for ignition, my zx dizzy has a bum vac-advance, so I'm just running more initial advance. (worked well last year, still working great..) And at this point, I still have adjustment on the idle. IE, I can back it down to the point where it wants to stall, so I figure I can put some more initial advance in (bringing the idle up obviously) and get a bit more 'go' out of her. I had a 'rolling start' race with a friend of mine tonite (here it comes... ) 98 civic; header/exhast, intake, decent suspension/tires. From 2nd gear (about 20 mph) we went, and it was pretty close at first.. but as he shifted to 4th, I was only at 4500 in 3rd. muhahaha.. so I finally put it fully to the rug.. I looked over at him and waved as I pulled away. I know, big deal, I killed a civic. but two weeks ago, I had to give her all she had JUST to keep up to this guy down a back road! I feel pretty good about it now, and I think I'll let it be... see how it goes for the next few weeks, when the hot weather returns. I'm gona add an electric fan sometime soon.. (still runs too hot for my liking) Thank you guys for all your help. Matt

Yup, quite a few of those are ont he list I read. I particularly like the engine hoist description.. you'd be suprised how strong the clutch slave line is..

Well the sputter and pop on decel is minimal, and I can live with that.. (actually, I kind of like it ) but this pop out the exhast is just after I turn the key off. Engine stops, and seams to 'want' to diesel for a moment but doesn't. Then, about 1 second later it farts out the tail pipe. Oil in the carbs is 20w motor oil. My next thing is to go to ATF and see if it helps out. Now.. how high should the pistons be lifting on light throttle 'blips'? I'm talking from idle up to about 2000rpm. Right now they're lifting about .5" or so.. If I momentarily block the carb mouth with my fingers, it does not get happy either.. it idles down, and wantes to stall.. And the lean pop theory sounds right, but if that's the issue, then why are my old plugs blackened, indicating too rich on fuel?!?! I'm scratching my head on this one.. starting to think about going back to FI.. well, some sort of FI. Maybe rig a 300zx harnes/ecu to my original fi intake.

Ah.. You know I have to ask.. um, what? Oh Glen, you have to watch the pipe wrench's.. no really a big blood drawing tool so much as a 'blunt force trauma' inducing.. ussually when they slip, you get that nice crushed fingers thing.. ask me how I know..

MAN am I pissed off now.. I spent the last few days going over evrything, changed to new bpr6ey plugs, cleaned the carbs up, set floats as best I can, got both needles set right now, and it does run better.. BUT (theres always a but you know..) it still pops out of the carbs ocasianaly, which seams to be more when it's really hot.. AND it has a new trick; On shut down, it doesn't really diesel anymore, instead it pu-pops out the exhast now.. Not a backfire really, sounds more like a loud wet fart. pardon the vulgarity..

I was fliping through an old performance book (local speed shop sends them out evry few months) and came acrosse something really funny.. It was a list of tools, and beside each one a little blurb on what they are used for, how they work, ect. Thing is, as silly as they are, I have to agree with most of them. Heres a few.. Hammer; Used for finding and destroying (with deadly accuracy) tiny little parts, ussually expensive ones. adjustable wrench; the original tool designed to round off nuts/bolts and slip causing blood loss. Slowly being phased out... Vice Grips; A great tool for rounding off nuts/bolts, much quicker that the old wrenches, allowes MUCH more force to be aplied before slipping, causing even greater blood and skin loss. Flat/standard screwdriver; Not ussualy used to drive screws (as the name implies) but great for prying, hammering on, and stabbing things. Also known to draw blood.. Drill press; An amazing tool that when drilling a hole, will grab flat bar right out of your hand, spin it around (posibly hitting you several times) and fling it across the shop into oblivion.. I'm sure we can all think of many more..

Dang.. after droping my tensioner (re-building the re-build.. long story) for the THIRD time, I started to think about actually building something like this.. would make things a lot easier, and I'm sure it would work quite well.. but for $400 I think I'll pass, or build my own eventually. Heck, if there were a bunch of people interested, I'd look into it further to see what costs would come out to...

OOOHHH!!! Well, it MUST be absolutly correct and infalible information then..

You're kiding... they'll tell you you're no good for wall thickness under by TWO THOU?!?!? That is insane.. Working in the machine trade, I'm curious HOW they actually measure that too.. An average digital vernier is only acurate to a few thou.. and hell, thats assuming the operator can use it properly. Either way, that .002 thou is not going to make any diffrence in the strength of a cage IMO...

To add to that; I DID work! Bought a push button switch today and wired it up. Just ran power to it, and cut into the factory wire behind the key.. amazing how easy it would be to 'hotwire' one of these old z's.. On the plus side, even IF some a$$ breaks in and turns over the ignition with a screwdriver, there is no longer ANY way to engage the starter with the key. It's ment for marine applications so it has a rubber cover over the actuall button, (actually resembles the primer on my lawnmower..)attached to the hold down nut.. A little odd looking by itself, but mounted in the dash in place of the ciggarette lighter, you can't even tell anything's diffrent! (aside from it not having a smoking symbol on it.. I'm thinking about getting a small sticker made.. heh heh..) Anyone who has ever been in my car knows the lighter didn't work anyway, so no wories about someone doing something stupid while driving. For now it's just hardwired to the battery with an inline fuse.. I wanted to see if it was going to work first. Tomorrow I'll find a 12V+ that's only powered with the key in the "on" possition.

wow... I think it's probly a little unhealthy how aroused I just got...

Thanks for the links Thumper, I've bookmarked them. After reading through the second link you posted, I'm almost tempted to modify my springs now.. I have two sets (actually, two complete sets of carbs, one 4 screw and one 3 screw) and from what I can tell, the springs are the same so if I mess a couple up, no big deal. I'm a little fuzzy on using clear gas line to set the floats though.. I had set mine so the tops of the floats were just about 1" from the upper edge of the bowl (can't remember where I got that number) and it seamed to work, but now I'm not sure thats right.. Mark a line on the sides of your float bowls that is 23mm from the top lip of the bowls. Attach a length of clear plastic tubing (ala fish tank stuff) to the outlet on the bottom of the float bowl. Be careful, you're dealing with gas! If you have a mechanical fuel pump, disconnect the coil. Electric pump guys can never mind. To make it easier on your starter, you should also remove the spark plugs. Make sure your car is out of gear and the parking brake is on. Turn over your motor (key to "ON" for elec. pump guys) until the fuel in the plastic line stabilizes. Compare this to the mark you made on the float bowl. Adjust your float lever until the fuel in the line matches up with the mark on the float bowl. Lather, rinse, repeat. Now go and reset the throttle balance, sync the carbs, set the mixture, and you're off!! Simple... In particular, (underlined text) how do you do this? Hold the line up beside the float bowl? I feel like a bit of a dumba$$ now but I'm not understanding this..

Yup.. I got a 507.. took 20 tries..

You're probly gona spin anything you put on there, aside from drag radials maybe.. I'd try to get a 225/60/14 on there.. I think most manufacturers still make that size. I had brigestones this size a few years back on an 85 200sx, running zx 14" rims, and really liked them. Even getting bald, they were still sticky and held pretty good.

You don't say... Well thats something to check for sure, cause I remember wondering about that, but not knowing for sure I guessed and put them back where they originaly were, flush in the groove. Funny thing is, from what I was aware of, I had them set prety close.. I'd push up on the piston lifter pin, and the rpm would go up slightly then fall back down. And I could try my old needles, but one is bent pretty bad and gave me tyrouble last year whenever I used the choke (would stick) BTW, I have no idea what the original needles were.. the ones in there now say "27" on them.. ?? As for the floats, I thought I had them set prety good too, but again, maybe I'm doing something wrong. I used to have a link to a good SU page, that gave a rundown on seting floats/tuning them but I can't find it. (girlfriends computer, she cleans house sometimes and some of my stuff gets thrown out.. ) Anyone have a link? Or a quick rundown on how THEY set their floats?

See, that just sucks.. I have no respect for.. well, most of the general public anymore. Either they don't pay attention and mess your $hit up, or they do it purposly just to be dicks.. There is a reason I have a beat up 93 king cab for a daily driver. AND, if I return to my truck and some moron has wacked my truck with his door, I just smile. And open my door REALLY FAST! Sometimes I do it 2 or 3 times.. Then I drive away. When I drive the Z, I park way far away all alone, or next to something nice.. BMW's, Audi's, corvettes, ect. If I come back and theres a car beside the Z, I walk around and check for damage.. and prepare to leave my shoe imprint on all their doors if nessasary.

Looking for advice here.. am I missing something? I must be.. 1975 280z, 2.8l fresh rebuild, slight bump in C/R over stock, .510 / 280* cam, 2.25" exhast, 'cherry bomb' glas pack. Cam 'should' make power up to 6500, but about 5000 it's falling on it's face. 280zx dizzy, bpr5ey plugs, 72 SUs, good shape, worked well last summer. The needles (in them now) were from an old hot rod'd 240 with cam/header so I figured they'd be close to what I need.. Carbs are poping/backfiring like crazy. Idles lumpy, but ok.. and takes off good if I tip in slow. Quick 'bilp' into the throttle though, and "pa POW" out the carbs. Yes, the carbs are synced properly. I've adjusted the carbs lean, rich, advanced timing, retard it, and NOTHING does any good. (I've tried all difrent combos here, and get pretty much the same results. More advance has a bit more "umph" but it runs hotter and pops a little more.. and richer just stinks a bit more) Last year it would run like this for about 2 minits after startup and after that, (once it was warm) it was perfect... ALSO, just about EVERY time I shut it off, the stinking thing diesels! My idle's set about 750-800, I've backed timing off, and STILL it wants to keep going! This is really pissing me off, as it had no problems like this last year.. and I can't understand what I'm doing wrong here... Could it be that the SU's just arn't up to the task of feeding this motor anymore? It's bee quite hot/humid here the past few weeks too.. I'm sure thats not helping things.. I'm running 190 to 200* acording to the aftermarket temp guage.. On top of this, it now wants to stall sometimes.. Idling ok around 800, and it will slowly drop as if you're letting the clutch out in gear while holding the brakes.. I think this may be an ignition issue though.. planing to install my MSD box this week. Any ideas?

Funny the things you notice when you are having probems... My ignition is shot, and tonite I was left stranded for a little while.. this is not good. The wheel lock works fine, and when in the "ON" position, evrything is perfect.... but when cranking (start) bad things happen. After some checking, I have discovered that the 12 volts to the coil DIES as soon as I crank the motor over. I'm almost positive it is a bad conection in the key switch.. It would seam that if I hold my face just right, and a planetary alignment hapens just at the right time, it works.. but ussually I have to give it 3 or 4 tries and then "BANG clatter grind.." it starts suddenly with the starter still out (Brand new starter too.. yearg...) so... Would this work if I just ran a hot wire from the batery to an "engine start" switch (I'm thinknig marine style button here) and then directly to the solenoid? I'm thinking I could just leave the key as is, so I'd still have to turn it to the "ON" position for power..