Arne and Stephen,

Thanks for the replies. The previous owner stated that the all power train compents were original and the numbers match on the engine and the stamped plate on the strut tower. Is it possible he replaced the slave with the wrong one with the spring?

Thanks again for any replies.

Is it possible he replaced the slave with the wrong one with the spring?

Most certainly.

I reacall those slaves with the spring being readily available years ago. The 510s also used them and it would have been easy to get that one instead of the later one because either would work and the average parts counter guy didn't know any more about Datsuns then than they do now.

Hi Arne,

I am going to install the new slave without the spring and see how I make out. I want to get it running by 6:00 PM to drive to the local cruise night. The first time I brought my car I could not beleive the reaction I got from so many people. There aren't too many decent early Z floating around New England so there was a definate rarity factor in play! They all remarked how they all remeber that car, so and so had one and boy was it fun to drive.

I was just checking out your blog. It looks great. I would love to start one on my car since I have only had her since May of this year. I had been searching for 8 or 9 years for this exact year, white, wine interior and 4 spd that was relatively stock. How do you create one and how does a blog differ from a full blown web site? Do you have to pay a fee to have someone host your blog on their server?

Thanks,

Marc

mgmoreau, Man, it's been a while since I posted in this thread!

I can say that, although the slave cylinder I installed was for a later transmission, the pilot hole mod worked out (and is still working) beautifully!

Good luck tonight!

Hey everyone, If your slave cylinder doesn't have the hole for the spring then it doesn't need it. I recently purchased a replacement slave from NAPA and it does not require the spring to return. I have a 72 with an adjustable slave as well. The new slave has pressure that pushes it back just as it should. One question though, Where should the slave be adjusted? I think that I have it pretty good, but I had to adjust my clutch all the way out and it seems like the clutch lets out twice. It lets out a little bit right off the floor and then again at like 3/4 from lifted.

Cutlass, I have the Type "A" 4 speed. The original slave had the hole, which I copied on the new slave. Type "A"s do need the return spring.

I wasn't interested in hunting all over creation for an early model slave. MSA had that one in stock...truthfully it was a gift. and it was physically the same, minus the spring hole.

My original slave had a hole and spring as well. However the new one I bought didn't have or need the spring. If I push the slave in by hand it pops right back to where it should. I'm not sure what type of tranny I have, but It came out of another 71-72 because the one in the car crapped out on me. I reinstalled everything, filled it with fluid but forgot to replace the little stop switch (or whatever its called..) so I was blowing fluid everywhere. I didn't realize I had forgotten anything so hopefully my tranny is still ok for having been ran without fluid for a little while..

My original slave had a hole and spring as well. However the new one I bought didn't have or need the spring. If I push the slave in by hand it pops right back to where it should. I'm not sure what type of tranny I have, but It came out of another 71-72 because the one in the car crapped out on me. I reinstalled everything, filled it with fluid but forgot to replace the little stop switch (or whatever its called..) so I was blowing fluid everywhere. I didn't realize I had forgotten anything so hopefully my tranny is still ok for having been ran without fluid for a little while..

It's a bit tough to find the manually adjustable slave, so what you can do is take the pin out of your manually adjusting slave and put it into an automatically adjusting slave. This is what Mat did, although I guess he had to drill a hole for the spring too. Sorry about that Mat, but I think they only sell the one slave anymore...

The bit that you're missing here Cutlass is that the throwout fork for the early cars has a hole in it. If you have the hole in the fork, then you should really use the manually adjusting slave. Reason? Well, the manually adjusting pin has a much larger pivot ball at the end. The automatically adjusting pin which fits the fork with no hole has a much smaller pin. I don't think it would take too many thousand miles before the small pin punched through the hole in the fork, especially with an aftermarket clutch.

And just because there has been some previous confusion regarding the adjustable parts, you CAN use the manual adjust fork/slave combo on a later transmission. I have used one with a ZX 5 speed for years, works fine, and adds a little bit more adjustability for those who would like to be able to more accurately adjust how high off the floor the clutch engages.

Edited August 22, 200816 yr by jmortensen

My pin is adjustable, it just doesn't have the hole for the spring from what I remember. I'm pretty sure the fork has a hole that the original spring was attached too, but i'm not positive. It had to attach somewhere..

So then basically you're using the manual slave and not adjusting it. I see no problem with that right off the top of my head.

I adjusted it, shouldn't it be like a few turns off from touching? The ball fits as it should as well. I just don't know exactly where it should be. The gears engage fine, but as stated before I had to adjust my clutch all the way out for it to work like that. I need to replace the fluid and go from there.