Tj's '77 260Z 2+2

You park the car at maccas, get your friend to get out and twist, slide in the mirror cups until you can see the golden arches

Adjusting them is a bit of a stuff around. There's a screw in the back of them that you loosen that let's the mirror itself move kinda like a knuckle joint inside the mirror stalk. You loosen it, aim it roughly where you think it should be, get in the car and have a look, get back out and adjust it again, get back in the car, wash rinse repeat.

Once you tighten the screw back up it should be pretty difficult for the mirror to be accidentally knocked out of whack, someone would need to deliberately stuff about with them.

Once I had it right I took it for a drive up the freeway just to make sure and then made a few more adjustments but they're spot on now. They look straight down the sides of the car (i can actually see the guards in them) so I can see a long way behind. Just as a car passes me on either side and becomes out of view of the rear view mirror they're already in the fender mirrors and then they're in my peripheral vision before they're out of the fender mirrors. I actually took it up Parramatta Rd into the city this weekend (THE worst road in Sydney for those that don't know. Narrow and overcrowded) and I thought it would be a hassle but it was actually great. The mirrors are always in your line of sight so you're not taking your eyes off the road.

It does take a bit or relearning how to use mirrors but I think they're great.

Aww man, it's all just gone to shiver now.

First off, it's developed a slightly different type of incontinence to what it normally has. It's losing coolant but I can't quite tell where from. Did a compression test as well as pressure tested the cooling system (dad's got an old proper radiator pressure testing pump from his mobile mechanic days) and all came up OK. I'm thinking it might just be the radiator cap so I'll replace that shortly.

Most recently it's started running like death between two bumper bars  :-\

it wont idle on it's own and hesitates very very badly when trying to accelerate. It pops back through the carbs when trying to accelerate and pops out the exhaust when lifting off the throttle. Just yesterday I replaced the plug leads with no improvement. The old ones had been rubbing on the bonnet so they needed to be replaced anyway. It did seem to make an improvement on the way home but was back to normal (read; crook as a dog)  on the way to work this morning.

The internals of the electronic dizzy are all new as is the coil and cap. My alternator has been charging a little funny (sometimes high, sometimes low) but it's been doing that forever. Also, whilst stuffing about with it today I noticed that the wire to the capacitor/condenser (can't remember the correct name) on the alternator had broken off. I twitched the wires together and taped it up to get it home but while dropping into the parts place on my way home I discovered they'd closed down 

Also, the ignition switch has crapped itself. One of the brass tangs where the wiring loom plugs into it had broken off. This explains why the car all of a sudden switches itself off. In peak hour traffic. On the M4. In the right lane doing 110km/h 

This has also been bodgily soldered together while I source a new one and it seems to be holding.

I'm fairly confident that it's not an ignition issue so I'm now looking at the fuel system. The filter is ok (I blew through it with no restriction) so I'm going to check the pump. I'm running a fairly new Carter 4070 with a Malpassi pressure regulator that is also less than nine months old.

I'm hoping that it's not an obstruction in the carbs as I don't really want to pull them apart. Plus they were cleaned up and re-jetted (badly) less than nine months ago too.

Where else should I be looking? 

Oh and I forgot to mention its off to Outer West Customs in Penrith to get the front air dam, flares and hopefully new front bumper painted and fitted this Monday (if it makes it that far  )

So there's that to look forward to I guess.

Try checking voltage at the coil while running if you can.

Can do, what should it be? 12V or 14.4V or what ever the alternator should be putting out.

Also pull the top covers off the carbs, take the jets out and blow some air through them. You might have a blocked jet somewhere in there.

Try the fusible Link wires mine deteriorated and the car would completely lose power. Lynton

Thanks for the leads guys. My fusible link looks pretty shabby so I might start there. I was thinking the jets in the carbs also so they'll be next.

Yes what Dimitri said  /\

No dice.

One of the wires on one of the fusible links was a bit stuffed so I cut it, striped it back and re-soldered it back together. Don't know how long it will hold but it's solid for now.

Pulled the tops off the carbs and gave it a good check over and everything was pretty clean except for the pump jets in the front carb. they were a little black on the ends so I cleaned them up. While I was in there I wrote down all the jet sizes just out of curiosity. Only things I couldn't get out were the starter jets (last time I did it I tipped the whole lot upside down on the bench) and the little valve in the bottom of the float chambers but they looked clean. Interestingly I noticed that the idle jets had different numbers stamped into them. Now i said different numbers rather than saying they were different idle jets as there may be something I don't know about going on there. They were marked as follows arranged by cylinder number;

1) 50F6

2) F640

3) F640

4) 6 50 (the number six was stamped above the number fifty with no letter)

5) 50F6

6) F640

Now I know thats not the cause of my issue but it is interesting, could it be the reason why it's always run rich?

I started looking at the coil and the distributor after I put the carbs back together. I wasn't able to get a reading with a multimeter from the coil. I couldn't get the probes to stay in the connectors and get the car started and keep it running all at the same time.

I looked at the module but theres nothing I could see (cracks or broken wires) but who knows, it's not more than 9 months old so it's not likely.

however to check the ign module I took the dizzy cap and rotor button off to get a better view and thats when I noticed that the distributor shaft doesn't feel quite right.

I can turn it a few degrees by hand, and it will stay where its turned to. Also, it sounds like its catching on something. Could it have skipped or broken a tooth on the shaft?

I don't have a timing light here at home so I don't want to pull the distributor out just yet. I'll have to borrow dads on the weekend.

Fingers crossed I've still got my points distributor at mum and dads with my pile of parts.

Quick question though, can you get the shaft out of the engine while it's still in the car by removing the slash guard and swaybar?? I don't feel like pulling the motor this weekend if I can avoid it  :-\

You can rotate the oil pump once unbolted to remove it, no need to take off the sway bar!

This one's really throwing me a curve ball.

So far I've;

• Changed plug leads (and plugs)
  
• Removed all the jets in the carbs and cleaned them
  
• Checked fuel pump, filter and pressure regulator made sure they're flowing
  
• Replaced coil (with new Bosch HEC 716)
  
• Checked Mechanical advance in distributor to make sure it's moving freely (it is)
  
• Repaired broken contact on back of ignition switch
  
• Hotwired ignition switch bypassing the mechanical operation of the switch itself
  
• Sworn at it (sometimes works, worth a try)
  

And it still wont run.

The only issues that leaves me with that I can think of is either the ignition module on the distributor has packed it in or the distributor drive shaft has jumped a tooth. Neither of which I'm feeling good about addressing as the former is more $$$ and the latter is work I dread having to do.

I might just try and dig out my old points system and see if it'll run then, that way I'll be sure its the ign module before forking out the dollars for a new one.

Optimus Prime face-palm does not do this justice.

Ok, bright and early Sunday morning complete with hangover, lack of sleep and stiff and sore muscles from playing a show with my band the night before and getting home at about 2am, I went and picked up my old points distributor from my parents place (I don't have a shed. At all. All my parts are still in Dad's garage) and set about swapping out my electronic dizzy for the old points one to try and prove that the ignition module had failed.

(thankfully) before I removed the electronic dizzy I tried to wind the motor around to #1 top dead centre to make it a little easier to set base timing with the other distributor and that's when I noticed it. I was fumbling around trying to get a socket to the bolt on the harmonic balance wheel (not made any easier by the fact that its a massive BMW unit, for some reason. Whoever built the motor put it on) and I was positive that I had the right size socket seated on the head of the bolt but I wasn't getting any resistance.

The bloody thing was lose. Like, two or three full turns before the slack took up.

I asked my partner to put her foot on the brake while I tightened it up so the car didn't rock as much and she jokingly said "wouldn't it be funny if this was the problem all along?" to which I replied "stupider things have happened, I'll try fire it up." just to entertain the idea.

The bastard started. And idled. And revved freely.

In fact, after a run around the block I felt that it ran better than it's run in months (probably down to the new coil, I don't think the other one was right)

So it's now at the panel shop getting the new flares and front apron painted and fitted which I'm really looking forward to, as well as getting the new front bumper painted and bolted on.

Of course I'm not letting if off the hook just yet. The timing is a little off still, not surprising considering I did pull all the guts out of the distributor. It's beautiful to get off the mark as it doesn't stammer and flat spot off the line anymore but if you plant it it goes a bit fluffy so I think the mechanical advance is going a little far. I'll stick the timing light on it when I get it back from the panel shop.

Slightly off topic but is there a way to set up vacuum advance with webers?

Ok quick update.

There was a bit of an issue getting the flares on so they've been put on hold for a little while however they were able to paint and fit the airdam which i think came up real nice 

Only crappy phone photos at the moment. The fit and finish is real nice. I took a punt on a piece on ebay from a seller called "mybodykits" and I'm pretty impressed. It feels nice and sturdy too. It seems to take the attention away from my bent front bar too which is a good thing.

Hopefully the flares will get done soon (it was more of a time issue really) so I can get rid of these fugly wheels.

Oh and if you're wondering what the chrome disc on the grille is, my JAF badge fell off  :-\ Luckily I found it a few days later on the lawn

Looks great TJ  I like the color choice, it'll tie in nicely with the flairs and breaks up the color on the car.

Thanks Gareth. Now the Jury's out on whether or not I still want to paint the bumpers black too. 

I'm thinking that they'll need to break up the black a little by being chrome

Hmm...

+1 for chrome  can't beat good chrome bumpers, stainless are the ultimate if you have the cash.

You could try black on a spare bumper if you have one, it could look great too.

Yeah I figured I'd rattle can it just to see how it looks.

Pro Tip:

Dont stick your arm across the poorly insulated out put on your new high energy coil while your car's running. Not unless you want your neighbours to think that someone is being brutally beaten in your garage 

BULK PHOTO DUMP

(In case you were wondering why your computer just started swearing at you  )

SO after a bit of a wait my wheel nuts finally arrived. The cruddy wheels I have at the moment have gawd-awful shank style nuts whereas the new Rotas use acorn nuts so I had to wait for the set I ordered to arrive (Side note: has anyone else had similar problems dealing with VisionR in Perth?, I mean, I don't want to write them off but there was a hold up both times I've ordered from them. First the wheels took a few weeks longer to an email blunder and now the nuts took a few weeks extra because their web store filled its shorts  :-\ )

I took a few shots with and without the flares bodgily taped to the car.

Now, does anyone think my Castor is out in this photo? Have a good look at that front wheel, I think it's way too far forward. I noticed this back when I replaced the shocks and redid all the bushes. Is it possible that the poly bushes I put on the castor rods is too thick and its pushing the whole lot forward?

It's actually making the fronts foul on the bottom (front) corner of the guard where the apron meets it. The bushes that were in there were already poly but they were much softer so I swapped them out anyway, I think I still have them so I might swap them back.

I got a little concerned at this point. The wheels were sitting too far outside the guards to not run flares, but I didn't think they sat out far enough to fill flares. But I needn't have worried, they sit real nice with the flares, not flush with the edge of them but I don't mind  (oh and I will be painting those drums black too when these wheels go on)

And one more shot just for poser-points 

Sorry for the swarm of photos but I'm really excited about how it looks and I can't wait to get it all finalised and get these flares on properly.

Still can't make up my mind about bumpers though, can't decide between chrome or black.... I've got some photoshopping to do.

I would leave the bumpers till you paint the flares, black I presume, it will make a difference to the overall appearance.

Damn I been looking everywhere for my phone   Good work!!

Oh, I forgot that I took a few more photos.

For those of you curious about strut perch clearance here's the front:

And rear:

Heaps of room.

To recap, the wheels are Rota RB-X, fronts = 17x9 -13 offset, rears = 17x9.5 -19 offset.

Heres another shot of that front wheel. Again, not quite square on and the wheel is tuned slightly but it does show where it's fouling on the guard:

The front clearance problem is common with bigger wheels. Shave a tiny bit off the inner edge of the spoiler and you should be ok. Looks great, blacks wheels make the red really pop.

Where'd you get the flares from?