Greetings.
I just found a pretty good quality 1984 Z coupe non-turbo. White with Red interior...love it or the it...but as an early '80's teen I love the combo.
The car is in really nice condition.....a true survivor. Most everything works on the car and it's been well maintained, but I have a few questions as I get it 100% sorted.
1) The heater controls will not allow cool air into the vents. No matter the hot/cold selector position, it's hot air coming out of any vent. Could this be a vacuum line off? The AC does not work even though I was told the compressor is only a couple years old. Could it be a blocked expansion valve?
2) Buying new tires. 15" not as common as 20 years ago. My options are: TOYO Extensa, KUMHO Solus, Fuzion touring and Firestone Firehawk AS.
At my age I'm not hanging this thing out in the turns like I used to with my older Z's back in the day. I'm just looking for a decent tire for cruising around and the occasional spirited drive.
3) New shocks and struts from Rock Auto. Several to choose from. Given the description of my driving above, what are good replacements for the suspension?

Thanks...can't wait to get this thing fully completed. It's already fun with the crappy wheels and tires and tired, old suspension!
-Kevin

What HVAC system do you have, the electronic one or standard with levers. The automatic one (with digital controls) uses vacuum system to direct the airflow, can get stuck which often can be fixed easily by back-tracking the system. You'll need a mechanic that knows these older cars or get service manual if your a DIY'er.
The 15" tire select sucks. I have a 84' which I proudly ran the stock wheels on for a long time but the last tire replacement was the final straw, I bought a nice set of 16" Enkei wheels with Bridgestone Potenza RE-71 which was a huge upgrade and not very expensive. I would suggest doing this if you can afford it as HR tires are not what you want. If that isn't in the cards then I would just go Bridgestone or Michelin with best speed rating you can get. I used to run 225 50 15 instead of stock 215 60 15 but no much left in that size. Call Tire rack and get a pre-mounted shipped and balanced price on the Enkei's they have in the 16" size.
Suspension if you want to do the full nine yards I would go with Tokiko or KYB. The Bilstein's will probably be stiffer than you want. The springs are old and I would get a set of new springs as well at the same time, as well as replacing the bushings.
I have upgraded front and rears sway bars with urethan bushings which are nice, but the Cusco front brace bar made the biggest difference

Welcome, you will find this forum isn't super busy Z31performance.com gets a little more traffic, but I love NICO too.

Thanks.
I joined the other forum also.
It's the mechanical climate controller. It blows only hot air and the directed air only comes out on the windshield defrost regardless of the vent-button selected.
I took a $75 chance and bought another controller from 300ZXpartsforyou.com
It seems others have had very similar issues and if I took it to a dealership or a shop for troubleshooting it would be more than that.

-Kevin

Just in case anyone is following....
my $75 chance didn't pan out. Tried a replacement control box and nothing changed.
Air only Hot and only coming out windshield defrost location, regardless of what is selected on the control box.
I guess the positive piece is that the fan works and the fan speed controller also works. Which mens I can really blast that hot air into the car as I'm cruising around on those 90 degree days.......

You need to find an old school aftermarket mechanic that knows something about these cars. I take my old girl to Los Angeles from the Bay Area about every 3-5 years (moved here 20 years ago) to Z Expert in LA. He knows how to find all the gremlins.

Get in there and start chasing vacuum lines. You'll need to replace most of them, because despite the car being in good condition, it's likely you have some brittle old junk for lines. There's a vacuum controller behind the right headlight where several of the lines feeding the HVAC system route to, and in my experience, these are the ones that go bad first due to the heat extremes they're exposed to underhoood.

It took a while to sort the HVAC issues mine had but I eventually won.