Is there anything more satisfying...

[Wade Nelson]

... than a successful trip to the salvage yard?

The owner helped me remove (without damaging!) the chrome windshield trim off the lone Z he has. Mine's in not so good shape, and since my windshield is pitted beyond visibility ...

Here's the trick, you have to remove the INTERIOR trim just aft of the doors to get at the 10MM stud holding the exterior chrome trim pieces on BEHIND the ZX's doors, which THEN lets you access the screw holding the chrome strip over the door, and THEN you work your way forward to the actual windshield pieces.

Tip: Pay a glass guy with experience and the right tools to do your trim removal/install.

Next I went after the vacuum "motors" which operate the HVAC blend / vent doors. Did you know all three are different, and operate differently? Or so it appears. Can anyone with access to Nissan's part database confirm three different part #'s? Two had part # stickers which were different, (C3378 and C3379) the third, the fresh air vent control, had no sticker. Sucking on the various ports revealed subtle differences in operation -- assuming they're all working as designed...

After that I pulled off the throttle body, not for purchase, but just to take pictures of the BCCD plumbing. I'm STILL working to get all my vacuum lines correct.

From there I pulled out the HVAC head, and took out the little rotating disk that distributes vacuum to the different blend doors, etc. I wanted a picture of it to accompany an article here, and also to play with, for curiosity sake. (An earlier thread I posted mentioned how mine SOMEHOW got mis-aligned, so air was coming out the wrong vents --- although that was just PART of the problem). I'll wonder till my dying day how that disk could have gotten mis-aligned, unless someone REPLACED it (or the entire control head) and didn't line it up on install....

The thing I realized the other day is if you have a vacuum leak @ one of the vacuum motors, NOT ONLY does that motor not operate, the loss of vacuum will disable the OTHER motors that are ALSO supposed to operate at the same time..... I know, well DUH!, but....

Perhaps because I NEVER show up at the salvage yard without donuts, breakfast burritos, or beer, the owner sent me on my way for $40. Can you believe that? Wow.

A blowjob and a beer and this will have been an absolutely PERFECT day!

[johnny haywire]

Nice scores!

I'm not sure I'd have the same luck here in Illinois, but I keep meaning to stop in the yards out in the burbs that I used to visit when I was a Camaro guy, just to see if they have any Zs left. Since I've had my Z, I've only seen two others on the road in Chicago - and I've been keeping an eye out!

[grantf]

Good job. The rare times I do find a Z in the bone yards I always find at least some little piece, if not nuts and bolts. Some times you have to look hard.

[Wade Nelson]

Ok, I've got a CORRECTION. All three HVAC door vacuum motors operate identically. The difference between the C3378 and C3379 models lies in the location of their mounting tabs. There appears to only be TWO models of motor.

There appears to be two of the C3379 motors; one is used to control the fresh air vent door. (The one behind the glove box) and one on the driver's side. If you have the side vacuum hose barb pointing UP, the mounting tabs are on the left and right of the C3379.

On the C3378, if the side port is pointing up, the mounting tabs are top and bottom, in line with that port.

I don't know which is which on the driver's side, but at least ONE of them is swappable for the fresh air vent door motor.

I cut my old one apart. What's inside are two, u-shaped rubber diaphragms, arranged like two coffee cups, lip-to-lip, separated and attached to the metal plate that pulls on the lever. The one closest to the actuating lever connects to the side vacuum port, and only pulls the lever half way, for half-door operation. The one in the rear (u-facing the other way), connected to the vacuum port on the rear of the motor will pull the lever full travel. Or if you apply vacuum to both, you still get full travel.

The side vent port can only deflate ONE of the u-shaped diaphragms, that's why.

The little rubber diaphram tears, or becomes disconnected from the plastic body of the motor, and then no longer seals, and doesn't work anymore. The one off the donor car was also failed, which is why I THOUGHT the different motors OPERATED differently. They don't. But I can swap the C3379 from the driver's side.

Most of this is trivia you will NEVER need to know unless you own a ZX and have one fail at some point in time. When that occurs you owe me a cold beer.

Edited July 24, 2012 by Wade Nelson

[Wade Nelson]

OK, I was WRONG ONCE AGAIN.

The fresh air motor is different in one very subtle way. The lever the motor pulls is 90 degrees offset from the C3379 motor. Not only that, but a third, even more careful comparison revealed the REAR vacuum port faces the other direction.

So three distinct vacuum motors, completely non-interchangeable. There are even differences between California and Federal models. I mean REALLY Nissan, you had to alter the vent door motor for EVEN more incompatibility issues???

Fortunately nissanpartszone.com has them for a "mere" $58.

http://www.nissanpartszone.com/components/1981-nissan-280zx_nozzle-duct-273-1388_2.html