Just Bought a 240z. No clue where to begin.

[Gary in NJ]

Looks like a good find and a solid car. Enjoy the ride.

[cygnusx1]

Hmm, interesting. Your passengers side door is a 77 or 78 and the latch has been converted too!

[ajmcforester]

Nice find for out east. I'm a little concern about someone with little mechanical experience using a nearly 40 year car as a daily driver.

I'd recommend getting to know the car, do some basic maintenance till you get familiar with the car. Also get the factory service manual, it will be a big help and start reading, if it is in that book it probably needed to be done in the last 40 years. Also have fun with the car these old car arn't worth it otherwise, working on the car should be enjoying not a chore.

[Travel'n Man]

Welcome and get ready for a great ride!

[Healey Z]

Very nice find. Get it running good and leave that thing stock!

[Zed Head]

Here is a link for the Factory Service Manuals, plus some useful tips - http://www.xenons30.com/reference.html

Bear, maybe - bare?, not today. (Obscure Post #1 reference, couldn't resist).

[zild1221]

Woops. Most of my posts are from my phone so I don't catch it sometimes. The seller threw in the factory service manual so that is a plus. Again, too hot out today to get anything done. 100+ heat is not fun at all.

[Travel'n Man]

Is the car running? Have you driven the car? Did you check the compression of each cylinder?

I know the brakes are not up to par but you really may want to consider draining the fuel out of the tank (filter the drained fuel through a cheesecloth). That drained tank can help avoid tons of challenges down the road with your carbs. If the drained fuel is discolored or has junk in it go ahead a pull the tank and have it sealed. While you are at it the fuel filter can hold some secrets as well with the condition of the tank. If the tank has junk and the filter has junk odds are the filters in your carbs have junk as well. While you are under there go ahead and inspect your rear hatch and underbody fuel lines - you don't want to develop a fuel leak due to old brittle fuel lines that have been in the car since 1973. This will help with the fuel smell in the interior as well - these cars are famous for that.

You can only expect what you inspect!

A couple of hours making sure you fuel moves correctly will avoid tons of problems down the road. Get the DVD from www.ztherapy.com. It's just as important as any tool in your tool box to working on your carbs. After watching the DVD those "hard to understand carbs" make total sense. Before opening your carbs get from Nissan or ZTherapy some float bowl gaskets - once these things get a little age (and they have some fuel on them) they end up looking like Pringle potato chips. They are inexpensive and you might as well get a few extra while you are at it (odds are you will need them sooner or later). Be sure to inspect the fuel line from the float bowl to the bottom of each carb - if they are original you may want to go ahead and replace them as well - they are a little expensive for fuel line - don't get cheap here - buy the correct items.

You may want to pull the radiator and have it rodded and checked for proper flow - the cost for mine was about $45 several years ago -anything you can do to make sure your engine is running, breathing, and staying cool should be tops on your to do list.

So, if you have good brakes - got good fuel quality going to the balance carbs - proper cooling - and good compression for the engine - new plugs, points, that bad boy should run like a dream.................keep us up to date and............. ENJOY THE RIDE!!

http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/60-9976

Edited July 24, 2011 by Travel'n Man

[zild1221]

Thanks for the in depth post Travel'n. The car runs. It starts right up just fine and drives with no (apparent) problems. The previous owner threw on a new fuel filter before we test drove it. It is pretty much running on fumes so I will go ahead and drain the tank. Also, no I have not checked the compression of the cylinders. I have never, but am reading up on how to do so. Have to learn and start somewhere, right? =]

Also, if anyone is interested, here is the first start video I took from my phone. Nothing fancy and you have to crank up your volume to hear anything. Also note that the RPM gauge is screwed.

Next thing is getting that video and learning about the carbs. So much to learn!

[Billmadson]

Hi guy's yeh this is my son. His first car. We should have some fun with this. Any one out there have a rust free passenger side door for this car. I would prefer to have the correct year ( 73 ) that way there the door latch will be the same. We will need the catch on the body as well. I will be willing to trade with someone. this is a rust free door, but the catch is a newer style.

We have made our list ,so we will be looking for quite a few different parts. I saw someone with carpets that had the Z logo embroidered into it. Does anyone know where those come from? e-mail : burlpainthardware@sbcglobal.net

thanks

[LeonV]

Door latches are the same '70-'76, with the only difference between those years being an extra reinforcement beam inside the door. So your passenger door locks but it has the updated latches, if I understand correctly? If it's rust-free and works, I would not change anything.

Follow what others suggest, and do the more important things first (like fixing the brakes).

[Travel'n Man]

Hi guy's yeh this is my son. His first car. We should have some fun with this. Any one out there have a rust free passenger side door for this car. I would prefer to have the correct year ( 73 ) that way there the door latch will be the same. We will need the catch on the body as well. I will be willing to trade with someone. this is a rust free door, but the catch is a newer style.

We have made our list ,so we will be looking for quite a few different parts. I saw someone with carpets that had the Z logo embroidered into it. Does anyone know where those come from? e-mail : burlpainthardware@sbcglobal.net

thanks

See if you can get intouch with The ZBarn - Roger has almost every part you could ever want - Rogers family has suffered a loss with his wife so if you do reach out to him it may take a while for him to get back in touch with you. Best of luck with your project!

http://www.zbarn.com/