Ol' Purp II, electric boogaloo

[Fuzzydicerule]

Hey guys, I finally succumbed to my problem, and i picked up another 240z.

 

The name comes from an old joke with my parents, my dads old 280z was Maroon, and they refer to it as "old purp" and when i got this one home, my dad mentioned that it was the same color, so i figured its fitting.

 

Ever since i got my green car running, ive realized im not really into that straight racecar thing, and the shitty ride nonexistant interior got old almost immediately. I decided i wanted to pick up a nicer shell than what i was dealing with. The main reasoning was some frame damage and the fact that its been punted a few times...

 

I found this car on zcar, actually it was up for an hour or so when i first saw it, and i was the first, and last emailer.

 

I bought it with the intention of porting my LS into it, since then, ive decided i dont really want to do that, so this car is probably going to end up with an RB25 or a 1JZ

 

Ill let the pics speak for themselves...

 

The first thing that i did was put some slot mags off my friends 240z on it, as the tires it had were dry rotted and had underinflation damage.

 

 

 

 

rear taillight surround is a bit rusty, im just going to put the good one off the other car.

 

Bone stock L24, it even has the smog pump belt on it, im surprised that still happens

 

 

 

Unfortunately, it is cursed with a porno red interior, that will change eventually, its only a minor speed bump.

 

It has some sort of foot rest bolted to the floor on the passenger side, not sure what thats about, but its kind of neat

 

 

 

 

It has a neat armrest i think im going to reupholster and use

 

Turns out the PO has an Original brochure

 

and a blue plate

 

and consistent service records from purchase in January of 1972, up until the sale to the guy i bought it from in 2005

 

 

I bought a large amount of tuneup crap on friday, work will commence tomorrow to try and get her running

 

My buddy gave me some TA27 Celica fender mirrors which will probably get installed tomorrow, painted duplicolor Stainless steel color

 

and his set of webers for his car, im planning on swapping this car soon, so this is basically me getting to set up his carbs for him.

[BluDestiny]

The only other time I've seen that footrest thing was in my friend 78 Fairlady s130. He said it was like an old JDM thing so passengers could rest their feet.

[Fuzzydicerule]

Its interesting, i think ill let it live for the time being, beats having holes in the floor.

 

Anywho, i got some work done today.

 

Today, like most of my days off, was started doing **** for someone else, we replaced the transmission in my buddies AE86. Once i got them started, i began work on the purp.

 

First things first was a desperate attempt to start it as is. No start, Prognosis: Coil dead. Quickly remedied by a trip to oreillys. However, after one little blast after replacing the coil, it stopped getting spark again. After trying (and failing, for that matter) to replace the points, cap and rotor (they are the wrong size, i think i have a later model dizzy) i found out that i have an HEI module, and i just needed to set the gap on the ignitor in the dizzy.

 

The next step was to get the 5 year old gas the hell out of there. Not sure if i can even call it gas, it was orange/yellow, and smelled like what it was, varnish. After draining it, replacing one of the vent lines that had disintegrated, i tried one more time, and after nursing it with some brake cleaner (starting fluid), the fuel pump finally pulled fuel into the filter and she started and maintained an idle. Not a good idle by any means, but an idle. All of my tinkering (to be fair, with absolutely ZERO knowledge of SU carburetors) i got it running well enough to move under its own power.

 

Heres a vid of the first start that i took to send to the PO

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v236/BANDGEEK234/?action=view&current=IMG_0328.mp4

 

The next step was to get The exhaust secured. Following the Tow truck home on saturday, it was obvious few to none of the exhaust hangers still existed, as the exhaust flopped to and fro on every bump. a couple of the generic hangers from the parts store solved that issue.

 

Heres what those dudes looked like.

 

After that, i drove her down the street a few times, Albeit with little power, and even worse brakes. I must say, this car rides VERY nice, i am impressed.

 

The next few hours were spend doing nothing with some buddies, but i got home around 11PM, and since the car was taking up garage space, decided to get some work done...

 

First things first, i got my TA27 mirrors mounted.

 

I also decided to test a proof of concept, and buff out the paint on the front of the fenders before hand. it actually looks like with a bit of TLC and some touch up paint, i may be able to get this thing looking pretty damn good.

(compare that to the rest of the exterior pics, it has absolutely no gloss whatsoever.

 

 

Thats it for today. like i said, if i can get up early (fricken insomnia...) im going to try to swap the webers on before work tomorrow, we will see though.

[Fuzzydicerule]

Small update. I got up early this morning and got my webers installed.

 

Small preface, i took this picture before i started, just a better pic with the fender mirrors.

 

 

Took me a bit to take a pic, Here is the main problem, sourced and removed

 

 

 

Right about this point, i realized that i should remove the exhaust and get rid of that god awful heat riser.

 

Exhaust off and heat riser removed

 

smog tubes out, turned out to be MUCH easier than i was expecting

 

Random engine block shot, deal with it.

 

Plugged, painted, and ready to go.

 

Installed

 

 

All done

 

And i hooked up fuel just to hear her purr.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v236/BANDGEEK234/?action=view&current=IMG_0352.mp4

 

 

Its running SOOOOOO much better, i havent had a chance to hook the throttle up and actually drive it, but i can tell by the way it revs that its a million times better....

[Fuzzydicerule]

Text only update

 

Got the throttle made and installed the other night, just cut 2.25 inches out of the stock shaft and welded it back together.

 

With my buddies help we then did a preliminary tune on the webers, We have it running well. But it seems the idle jets are a. Size or two too large, So I'll need to get another set of those. Otherwise it's running pretty well

 

I do need to get a mechanical advance dizzy and ditch the HEI bullshit.

 

 

After the tune, I replaced the booster and master cylinder with the known good units. Thought that was causing my issues, and bled the system, There was a piece f junk In my RR wheel cylinder, an it's leaking now for some reason, And the fronts aren't working at all, they're moving a bit of fluid but it's nothing substantial.

 

Anyways, regardless of the fact that my front brakes aren't working, I drove it around the block a few times to soak up the slowness. One quick shift into second that felt like i let the clutch out super slow let me know that there was one more thing that needs.

 

That prompted me to pick up some caliper kits and pull the brakes apart, turn the rotors and replace the pads...

 

I'm about half way done with that. Hopefully it fixes the issue and I can start driving this bish

[Fuzzydicerule]

Small update.

 

I was able to get the wheel cylinder to stop leaking, the brakes still suck, but they work, so im okay with it I also got a box of rear drum components for free, so i can replace whatever i need to to get this **** working.

 

 

Other update, is the car is registered.. Blue plate FTW

 

 

I also took the stupid spacers off the seat bolts to get it lower so i can actually fit in the car (im 6'6", so that 1-1.5 inches was murder)

 

Annoyingly, the car developed an incredibly strange, and hugely annoying misfire while getting it registered.

 

It reminded me greatly of when my other car would run out of fuel while driving, and after a few quick seated incarnations, it settled as a HUGE miss under 2k rpm. Over 2k, it worked just fine, but as soon as i got under that, it would damn near stall, then rev up, stall rev up, etc etc etc. unfortunately it kept doing this in traffic.

 

I assumed it had something to do with the HEI setup and the mag pickup dizzy. I replaced those with an E12-80 81Zx dizzy, as well as got replaced the alternator belt (was having belt slip issues, and i thought that may have been part of the issue.

 

This all took place in the dark, and luckily, it seems to be running GREAT now. Not bad for under 150 bucks for the dizzy,

 

Tomorrow im planning on doing a 280zx alternator conversion on my lunch break (i love working at an auto parts store) so that should about do it for any electrical issues ive had or will have

[Fuzzydicerule]

The alternator swap has been done, and although i dont notice a huge difference, its definitely better now.

 

I also lost brakes driving the other day, the wheel cylinder i -thought- i fixed ended up blowing out again, luckily, i got a box full of drum brake parts from a friend, so yesterday i was able to swap the shoes and wheel cylinders, and i installed new hardware and hoses, and the brakes FINALLY work properly, i may have a few small bubbles but they actually do something...

 

Today, i replaced my wheel bearings because i noticed a scratching sound when i would drive next to things, so i did it preemptively.

 

More importantly, i figured out why my car has been undriveable with these damn webers. after i did the distributor swap, (im sure it was an issue before that, i just didnt notice) i was having a HUGE rev hang issue. As in i would accelerate to 3k or so with as little gas as possible, and it would either hang at 3k for a few seconds, or rev as high as 5 k, and i would have to pull on the gas pedal with my foot to get it to come down. This made driving absolutely NO fun. after loostening and tightening all the linkages, adding ANOTHER return spring, i finally did what i should have done from the start, i took out the center support tower. I believe the difference in height was just large enough to cause a bind with the shaft, now that there is only two it is damn near impossible to have the same kind of bind in the system. my only concern doing so was that i may introduce play into the center carb, luckily however, the shaft appears to be plenty strong and has very little play, and the best thing is, NO MORE REV HANG!, i can finally drive my car and enjoy it...

 

except my clutch is slipping immensely, ugh, its always something. new(ish) clutch is going in next week, and from then on i should be good to go....

 

 

Also, a few misconceptions id like to clear up

 

I was informed (through the write up) that my stock 240z tach WOULD NOT work with the E12-80 ignition module. That was a lie, and it saved me from having to mangle my dash cover to get the tach out of there... It works great and is smooth as can be now.

 

I was also told the ammeter wouldnt work with the 280zx alt, it appears to work (although doesnt fluctuate so it may just be broken), either way it looks like its working...