That's nuts! (Pun intended)

Finally took this thing out. It was in the drivers knee area, below the steering wheel. It went through the firewall and up near the intake plenum. It must have been some anti theft system back in the day. But it was pretty obvious that it wasn't doing anything now.



Sidenote:

Dad has been driving my Z to and from work this week, as I get use to my new commute...he came home today and told me how he creamed someone who was trying to cut him off.

"I was in third, I gassed it, and then it was like VROOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM"

Take note people, this man now has the "Z bug".

Maybe he would like that one . . . . . sell it to him and start over . . . I think the bug has bitten you and him.

_________________
W.Karl Walton
Somers CT



75' - 280Z - HLS30203249 - #304 Gold Metallic (stockish)
96' - 300zx TT - JN1CZ24d3TX960293 - Black on Black (enhanced)

Not a chance in he*l. This car will be a part of my wedding at this rate...thinking about leaving the church in a cloud of white smoke...

who needs limos, am I right?

Since nobody else has offered an identification for that mystery rod, I'm going to take a chance and suggest it was, in deed, part of a security system.
I'm no expert on ZX cars but years ago one of our members moved out West and left us her 300ZX as a parts car. The caveat was that she had lost the keys and the security system had the clutch pedal physically locked in place via a rod under the dashboard, near the driver's knees. The car was in gear, so it wouldn't roll and couldn't be moved with the clutch pedal locked. And I mean LOCKED ~ two men and a strong boy couldn't depress it using 6 feet.
Paul drove his little Nissan ("Mighty Max") pickup truck in from Rhode Island with a tow dolly. Together we spent hours doing "something" to disable the system and make the car roll but he did most of the work and it's been so long now, I don't recall what we did to defeat it. Maybe drain the clutch? We also had to drain the brakelines to let the wheels roll (or something). Eventually we got it to roll up onto the tow dolly and Paul hauled it back to RI to strip it for parts.
Anyway, that was the first time I'd ever heard of such a security system and I could readily see why it would have been very unpopular with both thieves AND the ZX owners. It was apparently an option, since several other ZX owners at the time denied having that feature on their personal cars and had never heard of it.
Maybe that's what this rod was for?
On the other hand, it might be a kick-down lever for an automatic transmission car, or even a control rod for a cruise control device (ASCD). What was the internal end connected to?

Frank

_________________
1970 240Z

Interesting. The other end wasn't connected to anything, thus making it useless, thus why I pulled it! haha.

I'll see if I can get some pics of the other side.

Got my turbo back exhaust setup installed! There are a couple things that I'm not to happy with (like the fact that the shop had to cut and reweld the flange back on), so I will be changing it up soon. For now, here is my set up:

3" Mandrel Bent Stainless Steel Downpipe
Stock Cat
3" Stainless Steel Magnaflow Catback (Single tip)

I prefer the look of twin tips on an 80s car, but the price of the setup was too low to say no.

What was wrong with the flange, that made them cut/reweld it?

_________________
1970 240Z

Original fabricator welded the flange on crooked, so the end of the cat sat far too low to be able to connect the cat-back.

Uh, huh........and that was made by who???

(Disregard ~ I'll just wait and read all about it in your VENDOR GRIPES post).

F

_________________
1970 240Z

CM Performance in Florida. They're sending me a new one. for free.

There are a couple of updates that I have to post. But until I can get to those, here's this:

Today, on my way home, I was at a light at the edge of the onramp to the highway. There's a homeless man that stands there every afternoon. It just so happens that I had my window down, music playing, and was first in line. He starts moving to the music, then shouts to me. "That's a beautiful car man. I use to have one back in the day too!" (In my head, I'm like, "yeah, ok, whatever you say.")

Then he goes on to guess the year, he asks "86? 87? 88?" So I told him it was an 84. He replied, "Nissan 300zx, right?" Me: "Yessir." Right as the light turns green, he tells me to be safe driving, and take care of it, telling me that his was stolen. Can't help but feel for the man.

My Z heart tells me to give this dude a free ride just to brighten up his day, but society has told me not to trust his "type". Ain't that something. For starters, I'll make sure I go that route more often now.

Hey Philipe, I'm sure you did brighten his day. For starters he interacted with another human being, and had some good memories of when life treated him better. I'm sure he will look forward to seeing you whenever you go by especially if you give him updates

I used to have a 1936 Chevy pickup with 17" spoke wheels, a bronzy gold color, just like in a Norman Rockwell print. My fondest memory of that truck (other than leaving people in the dust- what was under the hood wasn't stock ) is when people would see the truck and just stop and get that faraway look in their eyes and smile. It was the coolest thing, gave me the warm fuzzies. So rock on giving the dude some warm fuzzies!

-Colette

Thanks Colette! Some cars just attract attention/bring back good memories. I'm glad I have one that does that!

Back in early October I went out to Prestige Auto in Seymour CT to meet with one of our newest members, Paulo Lopes. He is a co-owner of the shop and helped me diagnose a couple of things on my car. I learned that my vaccum pump is no longer functioning, and is why it is always on.

Edit: Went back there again this weekend, with a second pump. Trying to diagnose a potential vac leak has been a challenge, but we finally got it! I will post a how to video soon. My leak is somewhere on the cabin side of the cockpit, unfortunately.

The same day as my first trip to Paulo's shop, my window switch decided to go out as well. With the window slightly down of course. Took out the passenger switch. Cleaned it with some electric component cleaner. Didn’t work. Tried silicone lubricant. Didn’t work. Repeated it to the driver’s side minus the lubricant. Didn’t work. Sprayed wd 40 in both, now it works. NOTE: WD-40 is FLAMMABLE. I tried to put as little as possible. It works, just be careful.

Other tidbits: Got my cabin light to work, then go out again on me. :/
-Finally got my Oil Pressure Sender Unit changed. One less oil leak.
-On the way home out of the parking lot from the CTZCC Show, the glass from my passenger side mirror fell off. it chipped the corner, so I am using it until I can find a replacement. It must be a blue tinted defroster mirror.