Very nice list.  Somewhat vague.  Missing many things like brake rotors and front brake dust shields.  Clear hatch glass without demister lines.  I must have a Series 0, then.

Didn't the rear window defroster lines change from vertical to horizontal too? 

28 minutes ago, w3wilkes said:

Didn't the rear window defroster lines change from vertical to horizontal too? 

They went from none to vertical to horizontal.

Chuck

 

Ok, here we go...

Antenna wire through the chassis was a smaller diameter on Z's up to (2744 and 3798 are my samples) than I've seen in later cars

Front bumper on 2744 mounts with a single M10 stud on each side, rather than the two on later 240's. The mount brackets are correspondingly different and made of lighter gauge steel than the later ones.

240 Gas tanks on the Canadian UA models have only two vent lines. The floor of the hatch then does not have a steel pass through tube for the left side, just a rubber plub. They also have no evap tank, hard vent line to the front, no "flow guide valve". Which also means the block vent tube does not have the little extra knipple, and the big end of the PVC hose is unique too.  And the air cleaner may not have the nipple that attaches to the flow guide valve outlet. Not sure about that one, I don't have the original box on 2744 or 3798. 

Horn mounts. One 3798, there is a 3 sided retangular bracket welded to the lower rad support that sticks out about 3/4 inch that both horns mount to. On 2744, these brackets are absent and you have the usual (in my experience) two M8 bolts that go directly into the lower rad support through the two horn bracket holes. Never seen these sticking out - brackets before. They are factory. As if there was something behind them that had to get clearance. Factory turbo intercooler?   The car was not an automatic.

The change of where the rear brake proportion valve is located and all the tubing and tubing support bracket changes that go along with that

Gas caps

Brake master cylinders. Early had the Front reservoir in the front, with associated changes to the hard lines below.

Gas pedal rod in foot well with extra clevis-y thing on top for throttle control cable found on early ones.

Different style J-hook on the throttle actuation mechanism.

Different bell crank design early to late

Hoods. Early one with no holes either side of the latch. Also difference in how hood skin is wrapped around the top corners.

Inspection lid catch changes

someone else take over, I'm tired....

 

Ha!  Zkars has opened an entirely new can of worms, that being the really early Series 1 cars.  Shall we call them the Series 0.5 cars?  They deserve entirely separate consideration.  New levels of minutia beckon (and I have a list).

I know you're just pulling our leg, but please no more "series" designations. Considering the apparently endless list of ongoing changes throughout the entire S30 line, it is not wise to attempt to draw time lines that correspond to only certain changes. I think just using the break point where the vents moved to the sail panel from the hatch to delineate the "early" and 'late' is quite enough.

Series 1A, 1B, 2, 2A, 2B, 2B or not 2B? That is the question...

What was the last series? Because that's what my 77 is.

There were some minor changes between 77 and 78, but not enough to warrant a series change. However, with all the sheet metal redesign, there was clearly a series change between 76 and 77.

While we are on the topic of all things "early", I've noticed an interesting feature on the two early HLS30 UA's that I've had my hands on. The topic is a rear sway bar. 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I wasn't aware of a factory rear sway bars prior to the 260's. But on both 03798 and 02744 there is a rear sway bar. So what you say, after 40+ years, PO's will add all nature of performance crap, right? Well on 3798, the car had aftermarket front springs and a fatter than stock front sway bar, so I wasn't surprised to find a rear bar on it. Never gave it a second thought.

But when I peaked up the butt of 02744, and saw the EXACT same rear bar arrangement I started to wonder. What are the chances of this? Was Nissan Canada adding rear bars? 

These bars are the style where the bar mounts to the transverse link uprights behind the diff, rather than the stock 260 and later bars that mount ahead of the diff on a frame box member.

As you can see, this style requires that you replace the uprights with the wider ones with wings that accept the bar bushing mounts.

So my sample of two isn't exactly statistically re-assuring. But what I notice is that all the components have exactly the same age related corrosion and patina. That is, if these bars were added by owners, they were added very soon after purchase. 

Has anyone else seen this style of rear bar on Z with VIN's around the 1000-5000 mark, especially Canadian spec cars?

I just had a thought. When I get the rear suspension out today, I'm going to look at the nuts and bolts that mount those bushings. If they are factory, they will be quite recognizably metric and JIS standard. If they are SAE or metric but hardware store variety, then I have my answer. The style of the bushing cap can also be compared to the front sway bar caps to again compare to factory components.

16 minutes ago, zKars said:

While we are on the topic of all things "early", I've noticed an interesting feature on the two early HLS30 UA's that I've had my hands on. The topic is a rear sway bar. 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I wasn't aware of a factory rear sway bars prior to the 260's. But on both 03798 and 02744 there is a rear sway bar. So what you say, after 40+ years, PO's will add all nature of performance crap, right? Well on 3798, the car had aftermarket front springs and a fatter than stock front sway bar, so I wasn't surprised to find a rear bar on it. Never gave it a second thought.

But when I peaked up the butt of 02744, and saw the EXACT same rear bar arrangement I started to wonder. What are the chances of this? Was Nissan Canada adding rear bars?

That style of rear ARB/'Sway Bar' was nothing to do with Nissan. 

But of course, Nissan did design and engineer rear ARBs for S30-series Zs right from the beginning of production. They just were not fitted to cars sold in the North American market. 

It's yet another example of why the 'Series One' and 'Series Two' monikers are all but meaningless when it comes to detail differences on the S30-series Z. 

I know, I know, I'm just stirring the pot and making people think about crazy issues like this and how to work through them. 

Keep buggin' about the whole Series thing. We'll learn sooner or later.

Topic:  Relevance and usage of 'Series 1' vs. 'Series 2' vs. 'Series 3' definitions  --- Jaguar E-Type vs. Nissan/Datsun S30.  Discuss.

I have a series 2, 280z (early 76)