rags

You don't need to ground the lights. I just went out to my car and unplugged one of the marker lihgts and all of the rest of them stayed on. I still think the problem has to be in the light switch or the fuse panel. Joe

Did you tape up the wires after removing the side marker lights? My guess is you grounded the feed to the lights and blew the fuse. One fuse feeds the dash lights, marker lights and tail lights. Joe

Who is this guy??! My super sleuth adj regulator is still working huh? That's cool, I have just the place for it! Welcome back man!

Excellent work! I can't wait for the pictures. I've been spending all morning looking on the web for a a place to purchase sheet aluminum to make the airdam to rad support "tray". Are we going to get a who's who from the first picture of attendees? Joe

This is my buddy's house. And his Explorer inside his garage! Joe

Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn! No response to email and now the website is empty. Oh well. Anyone have any other suggestions for a TEC II tuner in north Jersey? Joe

I'd look at the harmonic damper behind the lower pulley. Since the 400 is externally balanced, the damper will not be symetrical. It will look like there is a low spot that goes for 180 degrees at the engine side of the damper. Sort of making the damper only half thickness for half the circumference. It's kinda hard to explain but if it's a 400, you'll know what I mean when you see it. Joe

I know it's a strange request but it's my own fault. I got the intake manifold back from Jet Hot a while back and just got around to opening the box. To my surprise, it doesn't have the throttle body on it or any fittings for that matter and I don't know what I did with them. So..... if any one has a 78 smog manifold lying around I could use the EGR spacer and throttle body and any vacuum fittings that are on it. Thanks guys. Yeah I know this should be in the classifieds but figured I'd get more exposure here and if the mods delete the post I deserve it Joe

Oh please let that shop be in NJ. I'm too close to Rochelle Park and Lodi to let that tuning expertise slip by! Funny, when I was looking at the pictures of the car in the driveway I was thinking that it looked a lot like NJ but dismissed that thought when I saw the Florida plate. Although the naked trees did make me wonder. Joe

George, As someone suggested previously, this sounds like a crank positioning sensor problem. What year is the engine, 81 or 82/83? Joe

What I did was to tap down the hole with an awl and hammer. what this did was give me some area to fill up with the mig. When I didn't tap down the holes the fill would just fall off when it I ground it down smooth. I would have welded from the back but there were a lot of places on the doors and rear quarters that I couldn't get to. Joe

Can anyone tell me what markings are on the bolts that secure the pressure plate to the flywheel? I wouldn't want to use the wrong ones. Joe

George, Are you running the stock FI setup? If so, the PCV system is an integral part of the overall operation of the system and I do believe that removing it will cause a/f ratio problems. Something similar would be how a loose gas cap also effects how the engine will run. What I did with my car when I upgraded the turbo was to use 2 brass elbows and a 2 inch piece of pipe to relocate the PCV valve. Joe

It's got to be the turbo. I went through the same thing with my GN. I tore everything apart and rebuilt the entire motor because I was sure the turbo was good. Guess what? It wasn't. After throwing up my hands I brought the car to a GN specialist who took the downpipe off, shined a flashlight into the turbo, and showed me the oil residue in the turbo. I also had no sign of oil in the downpipe since the cast iron of the turbo would get hot enough to burn off the oil before there was enough to leak out. You also have to remember that the turbine is also trying to keep the liquid oil to the outside of the housing preventing it from leaking. Joe

Holy crap, he's baaaaaccckkkk! Good to see you back on the list man. When we gonna do another bench racing session? My garage is always open and I'm sure Len would say the same!

Mid 2000 for me. Looking at my post count I'm almost embarrassed to say I check in just about every day Joe

Speak of the man and the man surfaces! See Jersey's reply to Mus's post. We missed ya man! To throw something pertinent in to this thread, if you don't see oil residue in the intake tract, it has to be coming from the engine internally (guides or rings) or the exhaust side of the turbo. Spark plugs will tell you a lot. If there is no sign of oil on the plugs, it's the turbo. Pull off the downpipe, take a flashlight and look into the turbo. I'll bet you will see a nice coating of black shiny oil in the bottom of the turbine housing. Can anyone guess how I know this? Joe

Well it's back in Jersey now. Wow. The car looks great! I've been working on this car for a coworker for over a year now, and believe me, I took some ribbing for sending it 800 miles away to have someone paint it that I never met before. All I can say is John and his buddy Bryan are a class act. The car came back to me better than I could ever have imagined. The determination they showed was second to none. How many people do you know that would start over because they weren't happy with the way the car looked in bright sunlight? All for free?!? I can't thank these guys enough. Mus, as for the GN, you get it when you give me a number as a paying customer! I'd be glad to bring it down to you guys! It's too bad we live so far apart. If you guy's lived closer I could see the start of a new custom shop! I'll be posting pictures as the car goes back together. Thanks again guys. RacerX too, as I hear you did some phone support! Couldn't have done it without you. Joe

The side stub axles snap into the diff. There is no bolted on ring around the axle like on a R180. Joe

Going a ways back now, to the 70's movie SlapShot. You don't see the Z but there is a scene where the guys are watching a sopa opera and voice on the television says "You sold my 260Z?". Don't think it could mean anything else!

Car looks great man! Are you getting sick of hearing me say that yet? Maybe another payment for painting the black pearl would get you the paint for the SHO? Black huh? If I get the GN down there your gonna be sick of painting cars black! See ya in a couple of weeks, Mus. Joe

Thanks Don, I always wanted to know what my entire back yard would look like with a roof over it! Joe

Matt, Where did you order the 88SS axles from? Joe

It will fit, but as Jon states, the axle shaft is where the problem is. I have a short nosed VLSD in a long nose but don't have any halfshafts for it so this diff just sits in my garage. Hopefully someone will find the mystery halfshaft to use with this combo. Joe

Mus, Kill ya? Na. I really admire your determination! All the stuff you guys are talking about now is why I was so afraid to tackle the paint myself. Keep at it man, I'm sure it's gonna turn out perfect! Joe