If your aluminum wheels have a thick enough flange due to their offset and if your lugs are closed on one end, you could potentially bottom out the lug nut on the stud. My advice, take ten minutes, remove a wheel and find out for sure.

 

Some google searching and looking in the owner's manual answered my question. I will need to get a different style lug nut for the steel wheel, or find an alloy wheel to use as my spare (preferred).

 

Factory Service Manual for the 75/76 car will tell you exactly what lugnuts to use with what wheel (in the general maintenance section)
download for free at www.xenonzcar.com

 

No!

The JY Spare being a stamped Steel Rim, the Lug Nuts are different from the ones used for the OEM Slotted Aluminum “Indy Mag” Wheels. Your Wheels may be different if Aftermarket or later OEM’s.

The information or answer you are seeking is your 76 FSM Section W/T or the Owner Manual. Ref., the same content of the 77 FSM for the basic W/T Lug Nuts to use.

The Black Pleather Tool Bag is where the Spare Lug Nuts are or were at. If the JY Spare appears to have never been installed it’s highly probable that the Tool Bag is still there! I’d say have a look around for it and see if you can recover the Lug Nuts you need to store with the single Steel Spare

Otherwise you will need to source (4) new M12x1.25 “Acorn” type Lug Nuts similar to the one shown below for the Steel Spare.

👉Notice the beveled or cone shaped mating surface for the Steel Wheel as opposed to the shouldered head coinciding to the Wheel counter-bores. The Rims are concentric to the Studs, not the hubs or axles ICBWT

 

Also it is very important that you jack up the car in the correct place. That "frame" you see under the car is NOT a frame it is a floor support. If it isn't damaged from PO jacking it there it will be if you do it. The FSM will tell you where to put the jack. If you are using a floor jack then put it under the ENGINE crossmember, not the radiator support! Pay attention and you wont damage anything.
Take the time to do a dry run and put the spare on your car so yo know how to do it before you need to do it. You can always get new lugs from your auto parts store.

 

Also it is very important that you jack up the car in the correct place. That "frame" you see under the car is NOT a frame it is a floor support. If it isn't damaged from PO jacking it there it will be if you do it. The FSM will tell you where to put the jack. If you are using a floor jack then put it under the ENGINE crossmember, not the radiator support! Pay attention and you wont damage anything.
Take the time to do a dry run and put the spare on your car so yo know how to do it before you need to do it. You can always get new lugs from your auto parts store.

This is critical info! ^^^ More Z floors have been damaged by a mis-aimed floor jack than you can believe. The engine crossmember is rather far back, but it's solid and safe to use.

If you want to lift from the side, get a correct "puck" to use on the floor jack which will not bend the factory weld line on the underside of the rockers.

 

Yup. It is really important to pay attention to the jacking lift points. most cars I have seen have had severe damage to the rails and pinch welds because of d*ckheads and shops jacking up the cars with little or no care in the process. If your pinch welds are good, you can still use the factory scissors jack safely if you just want to do the tire. It's always good to pull that out every once in a while and use it from time to time. And like what Pil and Kick have already said, its good to use other solid jacking points (front cross-member, rear crossmember, control arms) I prefer to use the rear diff whenever possible. When you put jack stands up under there, be sure to put them at the 4 points on the rails (by the book) and use small wood 2x4 blocks of wood that can sit under the rails flat.

something I just came across on youtube from Harbor Freight, is a jack set for use on the pinch welds. they have three wheeled legs on them and they have the same slotted contact point that your scissors jack has, so they will work the same as that and be able to safely lift your car at the pinch welds without damaging them. and you can roll the car around on them as they have a pretty good weight limit. I saw a pretty good video on youtube about them and they seem like something worth buying. I am thinking about getting a set.

Whatever you do, take your time and plan out how you're going to run your jacking procedure. You and your car's safety are priority in these scenarios. I worked with a guy at a Ford Dealership (he was a 30-year certified Tech) and one day he got crushed by his own car at his house...Killed him. What a terrible way to go. Even those with high experience make mistakes -- RIP Daly

Also, if you don't have the proper "Acorn" lugnuts for the steel spare wheel, I might have an extra set that you can have. I'm always pulling these out of salvaged yard Z cars.

 

Hey @bonfire79, I went looking since you note sounded interesting.

I think I found what you mentioned: three-wheeled dollies. These must be what you mentioned: https://www.harborfreight.com/3600-lb-pinch-weld-vehicle-dollies-2-pack-58986.html

They're spec'd to hold 3600 pounds, and max height is 14 inches, so they'd be more for storage or changing tires than for getting a car high enough to work under it. I'm not sure they'd get the front end high enough to remove a tire given the suspension travel.

 

Hey @bonfire79, I went looking since you note sounded interesting.

I think I found what you mentioned: three-wheeled dollies. These must be what you mentioned: https://www.harborfreight.com/3600-lb-pinch-weld-vehicle-dollies-2-pack-58986.html

They're spec'd to hold 3600 pounds, and max height is 14 inches, so they'd be more for storage or changing tires than for getting a car high enough to work under it. I'm not sure they'd get the front end high enough to remove a tire given the suspension travel.

Yes sir, Pilgrim. That's exactly what I'm talking about! They seem like something really good to have around. The video that I saw showed a guy using them on his old classic ford... he put four of these under neath it and was rolling it around his garage. The engine was out of the car, but still.
Yeah, you're right about the height. The downside that I saw was that they don't jack up very high (not high enough for you to get under neath and work) but definitely high enough for tire changes, rotations, maybe oil changes, and moving the car around with ease. They're not really that expensive either.... not like the daytona go-jacks.

 

This is what a crushed "frame rail" actually a floor support looks like I just spent the last month rebuilding the floor supports in my Gold 83. The floor supports are NLA so I had to make my own repair panels. Shout out to Cut and Fab in Mandan for helping me with the bending. You can also see what brake fluid does to undercoat.

 

Great note about the brake fluid. I never thought about it getting on the undercoat. But usually when doing brakes, I'm pretty anal about cleaning up every drop and being overly careful with Dot 3

 

Since brake fluid eats paint (and clearly eats undercoat, based on the photos) but is water soluble, it's a good idea to wash it off immediately any time it gets spilled or sprayed on the car. The photos reinforce the lesson.

Hey - I just found a couple of different split jacking pucks at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/PLANGER®-Trolley-Universal-Protects-Vehicles/dp/B01MS1TO1P/ref=asc_df_B01MS1TO1P?mcid=948f786c4afe3a90acfabb2c0bf9ae08&hvocijid=3574610499525032289-B01MS1TO1P-&hvexpln=73&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=721245378154&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3574610499525032289&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9028895&hvtargid=pla-2281435178578&th=1

And...

Amazon.com

I just ordered the second one.

 

Yes.... I just went through some youtube videos about them. pretty good stuff. also they have rubber attachments for jack stands that work well too. I'm going to get some!

 

Here's an update. I ordered the pucks referenced two posts up, and they're not a good fit for the Z/ZX. Here are photos:

The top photo shows the underside, the bottom shows the top side.

They do not have grooves deep enough to use with the Z-series. The grooves are only about 1/4" deep, and the pinch weld on my 83 ZX is nearly 1 inch tall. The pucks in question are 5" across, and about 1/2" deep on the underside. They will fit over the lifting saddle on one of my floor jacks, but not over the other. I may keep them as general purpose pads for listing, but they don't work on the pinch welds on the Z series. The grooves are not deep enough.

 

Great discussion here. I wasn't getting notifications about new posts in this thread, so I hadn't checked on it in a few days.

I will order some appropriate lug nuts for the spare wheel and keep them with my tire change jack and tools. I'm also going to keep an eye out for an orphan alloy wheel to use instead of the steel spare I picked up at the junkyard.

 

I will order some appropriate lug nuts for the spare wheel and keep them with my tire change jack and tools. I'm also going to keep an eye out for an orphan alloy wheel to use instead of the steel spare I picked up at the junkyard.

Just take note of the size of the spare compartment. I have a '77 which I believe has the smaller of the two spare options, no way a regular, alloy spare is fitting in mine.

 

Correct lug nuts for steel OE spare are conical seat 12mmx1.25 pitch right hand. DO NOT USE shouldered lug nuts (not safe and will potentially damage wheel and lug nut). There would have originally been a clear pouch with 4 correct lug nuts in black bag with lug wrench, jack crank, and wheel chocks. OE tire would have been Bridgestone or Toyo 195/70HR14. Check manufacture date code - if 3 digits between 501 and 552 its original - not safe for speed - replace but safe or sell on ebay for display only.

 

What if a guy were to take the appropriately sized sq. tube with sufficient wall thickness (0.188"), 4" long to mimic the receiver on the factory scissor Jack. Cut a slot on one side of the tube wide enough to accept the lwr pinch weld at the jacking points shown per FSM. Then either drill a hole through the other side to attach a harvested stem caster bearing for swivel support or just tacking in (4) plcs. and or mounting to a piece of round plate to sized to accommodate the size of your floor-Jack Pad, then bonding 1/4 in thick rubber to the top to protect the contact patch on the body???


The homemade version is for lifting the body to facilitate changing a tire and does not replace the factory field scissor type jack. For heavier maintenance aka….brake and suspension work the Engine K-Member and Differential are the best options for a jacking points per the applicable FSM, but as stated above unfortunately all the D-Bags out there have been lifting Z/ZX’s breaking & bending the frame and floors for years.