1973 Rebuild

[Matthew Abate]

Okay. Big flurry of activity this week.

As I mentioned, the SU intake system isn’t going to fit. I think I could make it fit with an aluminum spacer about a centimeter thick, but I’m not going to (or at least I’m not going to right now. I might do this as a personal project down the road.).

I picked up some Mikuni N44PHH carburetors already mounted to an older style Harada manifold from Yahoo Japan, as well as a Mikuni Short-Runner intake manifold with ports on each of the six runners from a guy on the Mikuni Facebook group.

After I get the carbs rebuilt and new linkage set up on the Mikuni manifold by Kyushu House (Dave Premo wasn’t available), I should be 75% to where I thought I was with the SUs. There are the questions of how I want to make the balance tube and what sort of filtration I want. I picked up the air box from the Z Club in the UK, so we’ll see how that works out.

In other news, I installed my five speed!

If you remember, this is a #1 case five speed out of a 1980 720 truck. I got it years ago from a yard in Idaho who pulled it back in 1983. When the transmission shop opened it up this summer they said it was nearly pristine, but I had them replace all the bearings and seals and springs anyway.

I got that back at the end of October and refurbished crossmember, got a new mount and all the random bits, and installed a 280zx clutch release sleeve and the pinion for my 3.54 rear end.

👆🏻 That’s a delete for the Top sensor.

👆🏻 Output shaft plug until I put the driveshaft in.

👆🏻 240z vs 280zx clutch release sleeves.

👇🏻Installation with the wrong kind of jack.

Yes I pulled the header to get the transmission in… at the last minute.

And there’s the starter with a fuzzy photo of it installed.

So now back to the electrical while I wait for the Mikuni stuff.

Edited December 4, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[Zed Head]

Shiny and clean.

Looks like you have an F54 block with the holes for the engine-transmission gusset.  Designed to reduce NVH.  I can't remember how the holes in the transmission case look though.  Might not fit your setup.

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by Zed Head
-s

[Matthew Abate]

Oh, thanks. I had assumed those were for the power steering stuff that swoops under the engine, but I’ll check those out and see if they can attach to the transmission. There are a few holes that aren’t for the plate that is sandwiched between the transmission and the block.

[Matthew Abate]

So the 280zx gussets don’t mate to the 720 bell housing. The transmission isn’t drilled at the points where they would connect. I could drill it out, but really don’t want to. I’m going to look into whether the 720 had similar reinforcing parts.

Kameari makes a reinforcement, but it’s $200 and might have the same problem, plus it attaches at the oil pan, not the hard points Zed Head pointed out.

I think what will probably end up happening is I’ll live without it for now and fabricate one out of bent steel in the future. Given the transmission and engine are only connected by four bolts, I’ll definitely be doing something.

Edited December 10, 2022 by Matthew Abate

[Matthew Abate]

Question for the room: is it better to put the windshield in before or after other things? I feel like I could put my windshield in now, but I have this hazy feeling that some thing’s might be easier to instal with it out. Conversely, I feel like installing the windshield with other things in the car (dashboard) might make it harder.

[Patcon]

If it was me, I would put it in after the interior roof trim was in and before anything else. The extra room to move around will make it easier

[Matthew Abate]

On 1/24/2023 at 7:37 PM, Patcon said:

If it was me, I would put it in after the interior roof trim was in and before anything else. The extra room to move around will make it easier

Cool. Thanks for the tip.

[german240]

On 12/4/2022 at 8:41 PM, Matthew Abate said:

Okay. Big flurry of activity this week.

As I mentioned, the SU intake system isn’t going to fit. I think I could make it fit with an aluminum spacer about a centimeter thick, but I’m not going to (or at least I’m not going to right now. I might do this as a personal project down the road.).

I picked up some Mikuni N44PHH carburetors already mounted to an older style Harada manifold from Yahoo Japan, as well as a Mikuni Short-Runner intake manifold with ports on each of the six runners from a guy on the Mikuni Facebook group.

After I get the carbs rebuilt and new linkage set up on the Mikuni manifold by Kyushu House (Dave Premo wasn’t available), I should be 75% to where I thought I was with the SUs. There are the questions of how I want to make the balance tube and what sort of filtration I want. I picked up the air box from the Z Club in the UK, so we’ll see how that works out.

In other news, I installed my five speed!

If you remember, this is a #1 case five speed out of a 1980 720 truck. I got it years ago from a yard in Idaho who pulled it back in 1983. When the transmission shop opened it up this summer they said it was nearly pristine, but I had them replace all the bearings and seals and springs anyway.

I got that back at the end of October and refurbished crossmember, got a new mount and all the random bits, and installed a 280zx clutch release sleeve and the pinion for my 3.54 rear end.

👆🏻 That’s a delete for the Top sensor.

👆🏻 Output shaft plug until I put the driveshaft in.

 

👆🏻

👇🏻

Would you mind sharing the stl file of the output shaft plug? 

[Matthew Abate]

3 hours ago, german240 said:

Would you mind sharing the stl file of the output shaft plug? 

I can’t because I bought it from Z Car Depot.

[Matthew Abate]

New treasure!

3 Mikuni 44 PHHs. I bought these on Yahoo! Japan back in December. Jesse Streeter helped me get them Stateside and I had them rebuilt by Taka at Kyushu House, who moved to Houston in the middle of the rebuild, hence the delay.

They look fantastic. The manifold also looks pretty good considering it was pretty beet up when I bought it. It had no linkage and needed to be vapor blasted, but there are very few imperfections. Just some putting on the surface that mates to the header gasket.

Can’t wait to get them running.

[Yarb]

What can you tell us about the engine you will be pairing this to.

[Matthew Abate]

1983 280ZX with P90 head, custom 87mm domed and relieved pistons on L24 rods (9.8 compression), 45mm headers from Spirit garage in Japan (not Datsun Spirit).