pparaska

I'm going to counter something Mike said based on an experience I had in a JTR'd 240Z. The car had (get this) cut down 240Z springs (lowered an inch or so), KYB's, and only a front stock 280Z bar (7/8ths?). Not totally germane to the discussion is that the car had the JTR recommended front control arm inner pivot relocation. It also had a 350 with AL heads, WP, intake, and a T5. All stock steel body parts. Nothing fancy here, huh? Well I was really surprised that it was pretty flat around the exit ramps, etc. at speed. The car had some big tires on it and was by no means a 1.0g ride, but was respectable. If I had to guess, it was pulling high .8gs, maybe very low .9s. (Mike, this was Glen McCoy's old 240Z that he sold a few months before you met him.) Glen had a rear bar on the car previously and was telling me how much he liked the car at that point without the rear bar (not sure how thick it was). Anyway, just a data point, and an subjective one at that. I wonder how much the lowering of the CG and the raising of the roll center (from the raising of the CA inner pivots) had to do with the flat handling of that car. It did lean, but not by much! The really nice thing was that this car drove and road very nicely. Not harsh in any way. And I felt it handled darned nicely as well. I've been through the stiff strut/shock/swaybar thing, and it can be like on rails, but very rough. Anyway, I have a 7/8ths front bar (with urethane bar and link bushings) and presently no rear bar. I'm going to start with that. I also have a 1-1/8" front bar if I feel the need to go stiffer (although that's a huge jump in stiffness). If I do a rear bar, I'm going to have to be careful, as the Suspension Techniques one hits the CV shafts, I've been told. Sounds like time to do a junkyard dance and find one out of another car, a la blueovalz .

Here's my take on it, surely not everyone will agree, just the way I see street carb usage: I'd do a Holley, since that's what everyone seems to know and have parts for. The Quadrajet and Carter are great, but tuning is different, and less well known to many and they're parts aren't as prevalent. On the street, with a less than huge cam, I think vac secondaries is the ONLY way to go. If you're building it for stoplight or strip racing, double pumpers are probably (not always) better. For that reason, I think a 750 vac secondary is fine - you're only running on half of it until the diaphram/spring lets the other barrels open, so "Too Big" really doesn't apply, as the flow through the two primary bores is plenty to get a good signal to the venturis. The 3310 model (750 vac secondary) is very well known and there are dozens of articles on how to tune them. The Avenger is based on the 3310. Double Pumpers are really not very appropriate for around town driving. Bog is a concern if you put the foot into it too far (although this is somewhat adjustable with linkage). The Vac secondaries take care of the Bog factor, once the right spring is installed (get a spring assortment and a quick change cover - the Avenger has it already). Well those are my opinions anyway. Someday this will all be for naught and I'll have EFI installed. I drool over the Commander 950 ad everytime I flip past it in the catalogs!

Curtis, you pretty much described the major factor in how my "put some framerails and a V8 in the car" project turned into a huge "snowball". No worry, it was a fun and satisfying process. Hopefully, you have more time and are more efficient that I was in getting it done! As for H2O injection, it might be nice to be able to turn it on from time to time to clean the combustion chambers . Boost + carbon_deposits = detonation

Jim, I rewired the headlight circuit, so I had to rewired the high beam indicator. If you've not rewired the under the dash stuff for the lights, then the only way around it I can see is with a relay, maybe an SCR. Get a small 12VDC relay from radioshack. Wire the relay coil across the wires in the OE harness to the high beam indicator socket. This way the relay will only be energized when the high beams are on. On side of the coil will then have full time 12 volts to it (the side of the OE high beam socket that has the 12V from the headlight fuse). Connect that to the arm of the relay. The NO contact on the relay can then power the 12V resistor/LED circuit you have for the high beam indicator.

The 260Z has a shunt under the hood for the AMP meter. This way, they didn't have to have full alternator current going in to the dash. Not sure if the 280Z had that or not. The 240Z has the shunt inside the case for the AMP meter - stupid design, IMO. [ May 24, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

Jim, the High/low beam switch arm is connected to ground. It grounds the high or low beam filament in the headlight (in the OE system - it grounds the high or low beam relay coils in your arrangement, I'd imagine). As for a light bulb disabling the car, I guess that'd be possible if some circuit like the starter solenoid or ignition got +voltage from a bulb through a sneak circuit if it's regular source was out of commission.

I'll tell you what made SU+cold=sucks for me - low compression! The head gasket was leaking and trying to start that POS in the cold was incredible. I even engineered a tube to squirt starter fluid into to crank that beatch in the Winter when it was my daily driver.

If it's like my 73 240Z, I know why they used two wires on the high beam indicator - it's not wired like you might think it would be. Remember the person who designed the wiring on the 240Z was an idiot! Teh headlight circuit is a JOKE! In the stock configuration, one side of the high beam indicator bulb gets power from the left side of the right headlight fuse (the 2nd one down on the right) and the other side gets "grounded" by the high beam switch. That's why neither side can be grounded and work, like the illumination bulbs. I'm not real sure how the brake indicator is wired up.

I just mail order it. But I've heard that some boat supply places stock it. P.S. Get a supply of disposable rubber gloves, like the painters use .

quote: Originally posted by Ruben: The proportioning valve on a 240Z is in the rear toward the passenger side above the diff. Ruben '72 240Z That's not completely true. I have a 73 240Z that has the prop valve on the firewall near the tunnel opening. I believe the earlier 240Z had it near the diff.

Owen, for the 73 240Z (not sure when it changed before or after) the wiring is documented at my site: http://members.home.net/pparaska/turnsgn2.htm An excerpt is: Green-Black stripe (GBL) : Right front turn signal & dash indicator bulbs Green-Red stripe (GR) : Left front turn signal & dash indicator bulbs White-Black stripe (WBL) : Left rear turn signal bulb White-Red stripe (WR) : Right rear turn signal bulb Green (no stripe) (G) : Flasher output (other side of flasher is +12V) Green-Yellow stripe (GY) : Brake switch (closed when brake pedal is up) Note I put relays in since the switch contacts kept getting corroded, etc.

Heh, the software didn't seem to like that word "kockpit" starting with a "c" On my 73 240Z, the thing on the firewall near the tunnel opening is the prop valve. At the rear of the 73 is a simple T block or splitter, no restriction that I could see.

Yeah, check the turn signal switch. It's a funky switch that interrupts the brake light on the side that is being flashed. This all happens in that little switch on the 240Z. Check out my site and look at the Turn Signal Mod page for an explanation of the switch circuit and how I added relays to keep this from happening. It also could be the hazard switch, since that also feed the TS circuit.

Mine's a 9/72 "73" also. Yeah, you could gut it, but I had two couplers handy and it was easy to mount them with rubber insulated clamps with the OE bolt for the prop valve.

It can be used and a hydraulic clutch can be done a few ways, either with a slave cylinder from a camaro, etc., or with a hydraulic throw out bearing. But the thing to consider is the issue of engine speed during cruise. If you plan on much highway use, the 1:1 top gear, coupled with the gears available for the diffs (3.36:1 being the lowest numerical available) and the short tires that fit in the Z mean that you'll be closer to 3000 rpm at 65 than 2000 rpm. Not a lot of fun for long on the highway with a V8.

Andy - I got that cute little sentence off one of those pages I referenced - I'd never heard it either. I used to know the color code by heart (I was a little electronics geek as a kid). Oh yeah, please email me who designs auto electronics with HOT resistor design - love to hear about that! Jim, To figure out the anode/ cathode thing, use and ohm meter. If it's a FLUKE or something, it will have a diode test function. Anyway, you could put the required voltage across the diode both ways to snoop out the anode, it won't hurt it. Oh, the LED for auto/motorcycle places on the web (don't have any URLs handy, but search the LED tail light threads here) have special blinker modules that don't depend on current draw for the flasher to work for just this reason (LEDs).

Jim, that's the box I used too - pricey though. My dad bought it as a B'day present . I also ran a delco battery that had vent ports on the sides of the caps. I ran Tygon tubing from the ports to a tee, then a hose from the tee to the port on the box interior (that I screwed a fitting into). Then tubing from the box to the inner fender, sealed with a grommet and some really good RTV. So I shouldn't even have battery fumes in the inside of the box. I also sprayed clear on the inside of the box, to keep any corrosion at a minimum.

Lone, yeah, the $100 plus shipping made me go for the metal one I had too. BLKMGK, yeah, I'd only do the tube in the bumper thing if I made new and better brackets. Does the glass rear bumper have different brackets or does it bolt to the OE u shaped bracket?

If it bolts to the wheel houses only, forget it. Those are like paper and unsupported in that area. Go with a S&W or Allison kit.

Yeah, the stock 240Z bumper is very close usually 1/8" to 1/4" from what I've seen. Since grinding chrome off is SUCH a PITA, and I couldn't find a place to get it stripped off electro-chemically, and my attempts at electro-chem stripping were horrible, I really wished I'd gone the fiber glass route. Trimming the depth down would be easy as well. One thing I thought about doing was to weld a tube inside the bumper to add to its strength and stiffness. You could incorporate it into new brackets on the fiberglass bumper.

If you do this right and use a shock with the shaft attached to the arm at the top of the strut tower (as shown), you could lower the unsprung weight. That is IF you have the struts empty, and use a tube welded to the top of the strut tube to the rocker arm. I doubt you'd get much more tire under the back of the Z - with coilovers and the perch above the wheel, etc. the tire is getting pretty close to the inner side of the wheel hose. You could put mini-tubs in of course.

I had a bud in high school who went through 3 shifter cables in his Grand Prix (73) before the parts guy told him to check the engine/body ground strap - turns out he'd left it out when he rebuilt the engine. Live and learn!

Jim, I'm going to start charging you a consulting fee - this is the 3rd question in 20 minutes . Just kidding! I just didn't use the stock prop valve. I used a couple of unions in the stock position, but you could just leave them out if you're doing new hard lines. The older 240's did have a valve back there instead of the one on the firewall, I think. [ May 21, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

I suggest you read: http://webhome.idirect.com/~jadams/electronics/faq.htm#volt_drop You need to know what current it draws, then us ohms law to find the resistance you need. It can be done, but voltage regulator chips are cheap and easy to use. BTW, Radio Shack sells LEDs with dropping resistors embedded. The color codes, etc. are explained here: http://webhome.idirect.com/~jadams/electronics/resistor_codes.htm Or you could try to remember this sentence and what it really stands for to give you the color codes . Big Brown Rabbits Often Yield Great Big Vocal Groans When Gingerly Slapped

Jim Biondo sold me the radiator, that top AL mount and two bottom mounts with GM rubber recievers for $50. The rad only had a few miles on it. He went to a larger AL rad because that rad and the Flexlite 150 fan wouldn't do the job for him. He said he thought that the issue was that the fan wasn't pulling enough and turned me on the the Mustang GT fan. I know Ross thinks this is back asswards, and I agree - the rad should be oversized, not the fan. But I couldn't pass up that deal at that price. Plus having a fan to handle lots o' heat, hot days, A/C, etc. made sense. Anyway, the top AL think is two pieces of AL plate, about 1/16" thick, in an L shaped cross section. TIG welded at the corner of the L, and ground down smooth. I added the brushed finish with some sand paper on an L shaped block to keep it straight. Jim had the two AL tabs that hung down from it behind the core for mounting the Flex-lite fan. I extended those with steel brakets that I bolted and epoxied to the Mustang fan housing (after cutting off the plastic parts that extend from the shroud). They're painted with your favorite gloss black paint (POR-15).