Hs30-01415 - 904 White And Blue Interior - Auto - 71

[gav240z]

Thanks Mick, I didn't check as I was only 1 person and it's hard to crank and check at the same time. I will try next time, although I'm still not sure fuel is getting to the carbs yet. Just ran out of time really. It's amazing how easy it is to burn 4 hours and achieve very little!

[gav240z]

So I spoke to the previous owner last night (what a novel idea hey?)

 

I wanted to ask him about the alarm system and he told me there is a kill switch in the car, but in order to activate it you need to touch a specific wire while cranking the car. It was previously linked with a screw on the console and you would just touch that to complete the connection. So I will need to look for this wire and make sure to do that next time.

 

I also asked about the switch under the steering column (toggle switch, black) but he can't recall what it was for, thinks it was installed before his time, may have been a fog lamp switch (as Laurie had fog lamps hooked up) and they were removed. The switch on the dashboard we also think was some kind of defogger switch, but the defogger window was removed before Luke got the car. Good to know!

 

He told me he definitely had it running on "start ya bastard" sprayed down the throats, but not on the fuel in the car before he sold it. I told him the fuel pump felt warm to touch after ignition was on, but he said if it was working you would know because it made quite a bit of noise. It was dead quiet when I checked. I also noticed the fuel lines were completely dry.

 

I told him about the fuel looking at bit old and he said it would definitely be a good idea to drain it and replace with fresh fuel.

 

I asked him about the original owner, but he said he thought it was unlikely Laurie would still be around, said he was in his 80s when Luke bought the car and was selling the car because he couldn't get in and out of it anymore. He said it's possible he's still around and you never know but sadly he may not be here anymore. I told him I tried to look up his old business address and name, but couldn't come up with anything. Luke did tell me he thought he had quite a bit of cash, as the 240z was kept in a warehouse with E-types, Ferrari's etc.. and that Laurie had quite a collection!

 

We also chatted about the amp gauge, as this has been bypassed, the reason is because a friend was hooking up the battery on the 240z 1 day and reversed polarity by accident and it blew up the AMP gauge or at least Luke tells me he traced the fault to there. I have 2 spare 260z AMP gauges, which show different numbering (240z shows -45 -> + 45) where as the 260z ones show (-60 -> +60), but pulling it apart it appears to be pretty simple. So although the scale on them is different, I'd be surprised if they are mechanically much different.

[PB260Z]

 We also chatted about the amp gauge, as this has been bypassed, the reason is because a friend was hooking up the battery on the 240z 1 day and reversed polarity by accident and it blew up the AMP gauge or at least Luke tells me he traced the fault to there. I have 2 spare 260z AMP gauges, which show different numbering (240z shows -45 -> + 45) where as the 260z ones show (-60 -> +60), but pulling it apart it appears to be pretty simple. So although the scale on them is different, I'd be surprised if they are mechanically much different.

Not sure I agree with that.

The wiring inside the guage could be different, intended for a +/- 45 range.

Putting +/- 60A through it may not do it any favours.

 

Cheers

 

PB

[GongZ]

.... I have 2 spare 260z AMP gauges, which show different numbering (240z shows -45 -> + 45) where as the 260z ones show (-60 -> +60), but pulling it apart it appears to be pretty simple. So although the scale on them is different, I'd be surprised if they are mechanically much different.

 

According to this topic, 260Z ammeters use an external shunt instead of the 240Z's internal (to the ammeter) shunt.

 

https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/21463-what-is-a-shunt/

Edited June 8, 2018 by GongZ

[gav240z]

Ahh I recall something about that now. Think with 260z's it's in the engine bay.

 

I should have a spare 240z ammeter. I have just misplaced it.

[WA240Z]

Hi Gav,

 

When the fuel lines to the mechanical fuel pump are dry it is best to prime the pump. Get a small container of fuel with a short hose for the pump to suck from. Pull the spark plugs out as this will alow the engine to spin much quicker. Once you have fuel into the bowls put the plugs back in and try starting. Once it starts, stop it and connect fuel pump to fuel tank. Also check spark as Cozza suggested. There is really very little that stop these engines from starting with all the original parts.

 

Before all else drain the fuel and put new fuel in.

 

Make sure you use new fuel lines with good quality hose clamps tightened correctly. Dont want to hear about a fire. Check all hose clamps are tight before you start the engine.

 

Oh and one final thing, just incase you havnt checked, make sure you have a rotor button in the distributor. Maybe someone pulled it out as an old fasioned antie theft device and forgot to put it back in.

 

Good luck mate.

 

Billy.

Edited June 9, 2018 by WA240Z

[gav240z]

So I have this spare 240z Amp gauge.. it was left out in the weather along with a dashboard I got for free. But so far I've got lots of good bits and bobs off of it.

This gauge however has seen much better days.

This is what the shunt looks like.

It will need a good clean up but I don't think it's badly corroded. 

[gav240z]

Damn, I was going to have Barrel Bro's restore my wheels... now that MCM have done a segment they will be all booked out for months I suspect!

 

[OdinZ]

They said it took a couple of months to get done, and not a cheap process either, 6 plus hours spent on just the 4x lips. but you get what you pay for.

[gav240z]

Yep, I'd believe it. Good work always costs good money.

The Fuji Auto Cobra wheels on the car are super rare, I haven't seen another set anywhere! I have been trying to decide how best to restore them. I kind of wanted to black them out, since I like the contrast of black wheels on a white car. Then I thought about having the center section in a gunmetal grey with the polished outer lip. However now I'm thinking gold center's with polished lip on a white car and white letter tyres would be a great combo.

This might be a little too flamboyant..

Or perhaps a little more subtle like this.

[OdinZ]

Personally I dont think you should make the centres (stars) gold on these wheels, as the Stars extend onto the lip, and as mentioned in the video, i think a complete black wheel you will lose the detail. I like the idea of the gunmetal stars/centres & polished lips.
I am also a sucker for white writing on tyres!

[PB260Z]

On ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2018 at 9:01 PM, gav240z said:

Damn, I was going to have Barrel Bro's restore my wheels... now that MCM have done a segment they will be all booked out for months I suspect!

 

What he said ^, I am planning on getting the rears on the changed from 15X8 -0 to 15X8.5 -12.

Currently they need spacers to fill the guards and one of them has a very slight buckle in it.

 

[gav240z]

Ok so got down to Penrith late afternoon Friday to get this thing running and clean it up and see what's going on with it.

First thing I did was vacuum the interior, it's been an absolute mess of crap everywhere!

Next order of business was trying to sort the AMP gauge out, or confirm if what the previous owner told me was correct and that the fault was in the AMP gauge (which is why the interior was half apart (chasing an electrical issue), so after wrestling with the heater facia panel (which I've decided is easier to remove by undoing the cables under the dash and then pulling all the knobs and switches off it. I was able to get clear access to the area.

First thing I did was check to see if the clock was working, low and behold it was dead. However not all is as it seems, I installed 1 of my cleaned clocks that was working fine on my bench and it was ticking away, but I had an issue with the globe not working (replaced the bulb) it seemed to work, but later in the night I had intermittent bulb and clock working. Not sure if it's a wiring issue around the clock or something else? Bit odd, but it's been the lowest priority right now. I was originally going to slot in the Quartz conversion clock, but part of me wanted to ticking noise of the original.

But given how much of a pain the neck removing the heater facia on these cars is, I might opt for the Quartz clock and play around with the original clocks on my bench for a bit longer.

Next step was to pull the amp gauge which is a bit of a pain also given all the wires going to it and the fact that the main fuse box is wired via the amp gauge. Once I got it out, I had to swap the internals from a spare I had (because the faceplates changed over the years between 240z/260z amp gauges, some have a large typeface, some have a smaller, some show a range of -45 -> +45 and others show -60 -> + 60amp on them.

Here is a side on shot of a 240z amp gauge (not sure what year, but I am guessing late 72 -> 73?)...

NB: Note the soldered joint that the coloured (almost copper looking) wire is connected to?

At first I was like oh no! It's different to the early style 1, but after looking carefully I realised there was only 1 main difference. The magnet that sits in front of the needle. For some reason it appears early cars had the magnet and later ones didn't? The 260z ones were the same! I also found the internals of the 260z looked exactly the same, so maybe the shunt in the engine bay was only used in some years of 260z but not all?

My camera phone just wouldn't focus that well, but here is the amp gauge I pulled out of the car.

NB: That soldered joint is completely blown off and that nice copper looking wiring was all black! I stole the good faceplate though and kept the original fuel gauge as it would be calibrated correctly for this car, made that mistake before where I changed the complete gauge and found the fuel gauge was no longer well calibrated for my fuel tank sender..

Once that was all hooked up, I managed to get this video of it working!

 

The previous owner told me he managed to bypass the gauge, but I didn't see any evidence that he had actually modified the wiring going into the amp meter at all... So I'm not sure how he did this, since all the accessories were working fine previously. I will need to look more closely at what has been modified. So I was kind of surprised to see it register AMPs after the install.

The engine bay detailing is by no means finished (or even started really) but I degreased the valve cover and the SU carb domes as they were filthy and what do you know, semi-presentable alloy underneath. Will need to work on this more and I think "Septone ripper" might be good for degreasing the engine bay (painted areas) and under the bonnet which is filthy.

I forgot to bring the replacement switch for the inspection lamp, so didn't get to fix that yet.

I replaced all the fuel lines in the engine bay so far (except for the 1 going into the fuel filter) as it's not too hard, still pliable. The return line was so bad it cracked when moving it, so good to have supple hoses there. I am just using garden variety jubilee clips for now. The original clips look great, but once that rubber hardens they are a nightmare to remove with the rubbers too! They will need re-plating anyhow.

I replaced the battery, but it's a little short so the bracket doesn't hold it as nicely as I want. Anyone got suggestions for propping up the battery? Or making the sock bracket work better with a slightly smaller dimension battery?

I started to re-assemble the interior also, the rear 1/4 plastics are egg shell thin and I knew I'd crack them getting them in again. However I'd prefer cracked plastics to no plastics. So in they went. I honestly have no idea how to get that panel in without cracking it. Does anyone know the trick? I plan to replace the interior panels anyway, since these are more green than blue now and they are fragile from age / UV etc..

Also replaced the kick panel in the drivers footwell and the bonnet release cable (which was disconnected and hanging loose).

So I managed to get the car running despite the kill switch issues and the alarm triggering lol.. I poured fuel down the carbs via the breather hoses on the float chambers of the SUs. Youtube is being cranky with the upload so here is a link to it running.

 

 

I haven't drained the old fuel yet, but it seems to not be getting sucked up from the tank. I plan to drain the fuel tank and blow compressed air down the lines to clear any blockages that might be in there and put new fuel in (already done fuel filter).

I got it to run a couple of times and I figured it the fuel was coming up the turning over of the motor would have brought any fuel up and kept it running.

Anyway I know it runs at least and it sounds pretty solid/sweet, like the motor is still in great shape.

 

[RLY240]

Another one back from a long sleep, great to see!

With mine recently I hooked up an electric pump between the filter and the mechanical pump and let it run for a few minutes to fully prime the lines, pump and bowls.  Worked a treat and fired right up.

[PB260Z]

Hi Gav,

Well done on getting it running again, that is a really significant step (well it is to me)

re cracking the plastics : suspect that when they were new there was just enough flexibility to allow you to remove & install them without cracking, even in todays cars you need to bend them some somewhat when removing them.

cheers

PB

[gav240z]

Thanks Peter,

I was expecting to have to play with timing and the carbs to get it running, but to my surprise a bit of fuel in the chambers and bam she fired right up. I do think that speaking to the previous owner re: immobilizer helped because he told me you have to touch a certain wire to complete the circuit. Which I was not doing before, so I think might be why it didn't run. I think I'll remove the whole alarm system once it's back together and running correctly. Clearly there is still some fuel blockage or air pocket I need to sort, but before I do that I'll drain the old stuff out of the tank as it's gone quite a darkish yellow compared to fresh fuel which has a slight tint of yellow only.

With regard to the plastics, the rear hatch struct bar seems to be in the way of getting that plastic in and I felt around and cannot see a way of removing it (the metal bracket), I suspect they were spot welded on the body. Anyway like I say I plan to replace it anyway. The interior will look 100x better with fresh plastics in the correct hue and I am hoping to be lucky enough to find a blue seat base for the driver side (maybe out of a North American HLS30 - which would be passenger side seat) since my passenger seat is actually in great shape.

I'm really anxious to get down there again and complete putting the interior back together, get it running without stalling out and take it for a small drive to see how it goes. Last time I drove an auto S30Z was at least 15 years ago I'd say.

I recall you saying something about being careful with the auto gearbox, remind me again what I should do to prevent damage to it when first putting it in gear?

[gav240z]

More updates..

So I have a sore lower back today from playing human contortionist under the dashboard, man I hate removing the heater facia panel on a 240z. I know they made it a lot simpler on the 260z's. All those wires used to control the heater etc.. it would probably be easier to access everything if it wasn't for the A/C box under the passenger footwell too..

I certainly haven't detailed the interior but I have at least cleaned it up and put most it of back to where it should go.

Stuck a Capitol Motors dealer sticker on the rear window - thanks to member @specialp3 for printing those and sending me a couple.

The original clock I fixed on my bench did work, but I had to tap the lens to get it to tick again, so I decided I'd just put 1 of the Quartz conversion clocks in and forego the hassle of having to remove things again.

Getting the radio facia panel in etc.. without cracking it is a nerve wracking experience given the heater facia panel needs a bit of fettling to line up, same with the map lamp actually. You want to tighten the screws, but not overdo it and crack the plastics.

I also took a few more photos of the car, I am really anxious to detail and polish the car but just run out of time.

I think I spent 6 hours messing around with the dashboard trying to get everything back in place (and motivate myself in a cold garage).

I also drained all the old fuel out, and went and got about 20 litres of premium unleaded fuel.

I did something I don't recommend to draw the fuel up from the tank and that was syphon it up the line, got a mouth full of fuel (whoops!).

Here is the first video of it running (without stalling or running out of fuel).

I think the fact it was cold meant it was sort of hesitating when cold (probably needs choke adjustment etc..), also the rear muffler has a couple of rust holes in it, so it sounds a bit blow back like.. Which means it sounds like it's missing a bit, but once it warmed up it seems to have improved.

 And after warm up...

The video explains most of what's going on, I'll need to write down a list of a few things I need.

I did put it into gear and drive it backwards and forwards just a little. Next time I hope I can take it outside, wash it and then clean and detail / polish it up. The paint is far from perfect and has some light cracking in a couple of places I'll need to be careful of, but might be able to make it look a bit better.

[jeff43]

Well done Gav, the car sounds Horn! (i.e. good). This car is so good - I love it. I reckon Gold spokes and polished lip would look good, I like that combination on a white car. Enjoy!!!!!!!

[gav240z]

16 minutes ago, jeff43 said:

Well done Gav, the car sounds Horn! (i.e. good). This car is so good - I love it. I reckon Gold spokes and polished lip would look good, I like that combination on a white car. Enjoy!!!!!!!

Yeah I'm starting to fall in love with it also. I think it's been well kept most of it's life, that obvious. I don't think the heater facia panel was ever removed prior to me pulling it out (previous owner was half way there) but there was dirt and crud sitting on top of the stereo etc.. that indicated it had never been cleaned in there before.

I'm kind of leaning towards the gold centers on the wheels too, at first I wanted them all black for that Watanabe look, but I have the steelies for that look. Then I was thinking a dark gunmetal with polished lip, but now I think maybe the gold would be a good contrast to the polished alloy rims.

I'm looking forward to doing a bit of detailing work on it, I keep running out of time. It takes forever to pull the interior apart and then put it back together (carefully). I've also had a bad head cold for 2 weeks now probably working in a freezing garage doesn't help. Can't wait for the warmer weather to arrive soon!

I might get in contact with Barrel Bro's and get a quote on wheel restoration, they don't look damaged just cosmetically rough!

[George]

Good progress Gav. Must be hard with the car being so far from home.

Is the alarm hooked up to the horns? Wondering if they're busted (you did mention the horns aren't working) and that's why you're not hearing the alarm sound.

[gav240z]

You know what, the horns probably do work but were disabled because of the bloody alarm!

I really like doing work on my own cars, but I kind of feel like sending it to an auto electrician to remove the alarm completely and put it back to stock... I know I could probably do it myself, but as you say I'm about an hour away from it (each direction - more with traffic) and I think I'd have a lot more confidence in driving the car once it's sorted.

Anyone know a good / meticulous auto electrician in Sydney?

[George]

Not a fan of the electrikity in cars. Recently paid $80 to have an alarm removed from my MX5.  After seeing the amount of wiring that came out I would say it was the best $80 I spent.

[PB260Z]

22 hours ago, gav240z said:

 Anyone know a good / meticulous auto electrician in Sydney?

Hi

Deyan Barrie from Barrie Auto Elec in Waitara is good, not the cheapest though.

I have seen Z’s in his shop on more than one occassion.

He did the A/C on the Bus.

Cheers

PB

[gav240z]

Rocking Horse Manure...found some OEM covers (used) in good shape to replace my torn covers.

They are not perfect, but that's just the way I wanted them!

[PB260Z]

Where the heck did find those, and have they got Unicorn horns ?