Restoration of BringaTrailer 240z - HLS30-35883

[Captain Obvious]

Yeah, that thing about the clamps being asymmetric is really weird. But after seeing so many sets with the same shape, it's clear that it was done on purpose.  And I'm still not sure it really matters much.

But since I'm a stickler for details like that!   

[inline6]

I think I figured out what was up with the tie down hooks.  Speaking of which, don't you find it odd that these cars had these? I mean, it strikes me as a very unusual part to be on the car.  Did other cars (foreign or domestic) of the same vintage have these?

The one on the left of this picture, I put on the front of the car.  It is actually for the left rear.  Note that the middle one appears to be larger than the other two, with the hook part being more "open".  Well, that it because it has been forced open.  Perhaps this occurred at some point in the car's time on the road - someone pulled the car out of a situation... using this hook, and that bent it.  I squeezed it in my vise to close the hook opening, and used my hydraulic press to correct the "bend angle".  This worked very well to put it back the way it was originally.  I'll add a pic later, but it looks just like the one on the right of this picture now.  Either of these two can be used for the right rear, or the right front.  I believe they are the same part.

 

Left rear hook on the front right of the car.  Hook portion should point the other way.  I will need to replace this hook with either the middle of the right one above.

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by inline6

[Patcon]

I was under the impression that these hooks were used for tying the cars down on the voyage to their destination...?

[dutchzcarguy]

They were for tying the cars down and the dealers were supposed to take them off before delivery to the customer, but as they were a bit lazy..  they were left on.

[inline6]

The hook on the right in the first pic was the malformed one.  Now, it has been squished back into its original shape.  Paint chips (of course) resulted from the work done to it in the vise and the hydraulic press.  These particular hooks were used on both the front right and back right of the car.  

  

 

The left rear hook (on the left) is not quite symmetrical.  Notably, the angle of protrusion from the body is greater.  Looking at pictures of other 240z's rear hooks, I believe this is correct, and could have been intentional because of the exhaust system. 

  

 

Note the hooks on the Franklin Mint 240z which appear, to my eye, to be at different angles like mine:

 

I didn't take detailed pictures of the engine compartment light rebuild.  However, for this original light, I had to remove the original wiring by undoing the solder connections, glass bead blasting, plating, etc. and I had to buy a toggle switch (off eBay) to replace the original, broken one.  I also purchased a replacement lens and gasket from 240zrubberparts.com. 

    

    

 

Front struts - nuts have "9" on them:

    

 

I was missing one of the compression rod sleeves.  Discontinued from Nissan, I found that Zcardepot.com had an OEM one for about 9 bucks.  But having to wait for that stopped my suspension assembly progress for now.  

    

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by inline6

[Patcon]

I love the hardware documentation!! That Is so helpful!

[inline6]

Yep, I figure it only takes about a minute to document those before I bolt a part on and it can be a reference for others!

I have continued with assembly in various areas on the car.  I received the NOS brakes shoes, so I went about putting those on today.  I found that I installed the levers for the handbrake functionality incorrectly, and had to take the wheel cylinders back off to swap the levers to the opposite sides.  Would have been nice if instead of both having "R" on them, one had an "L" instead.  I would not have mixed them up if that had been the case.

    

 

Re-plated brake hardware, and new brake hoses:

    

 

I find that putting silicone rubber around the circumference of the hub where the drum indexes is effective at keeping any water from finding its way into the rear brakes.  Doing this is effective at stopping rust from seizing the drum to the hub "ring" and hub surface.

    

 

I could use some help with a couple of questions I have about my alternator.  First, I am nearly certain that these bolts are not the original alternator hardware.  Does anyone have info on the original bolts and washers?  

    

 

Secondly, this was one of the first parts I think I acquired after getting the car.  It was only $39, and I thought, "what a deal!"  I went to mount it on the engine today and I noticed that, although the bolts are the right size for the alternator bracket, the lower holes in the alternator case are much bigger in diameter than the bolts.  I believe there are some sleeves which are typically pressed into place and they are perhaps missing?  Also, I kind of doubt this rebuild is high quality, but I couldn't find a "grapefruit" alternator... and don't know if my VIN should have one for sure either.  So, this one will have to do for now.

    

For the cooling fan, I was successful in obtaining an early metal type with original clutch assembly in good condition.  However, I will be installing a plastic fan instead.  I purchased an Aisin clutch and installed that and the pulley today.
 

    

 

I also installed the first of the cloth braided hoses today.  I think it was almost $900 for 11 hoses.  I sent off many original hose clamps to be re-plated.  Hopefully, I have all the ones that I need for the whole car.  

    

 

Oh, I wanted to mention... if any of you see that I have assembled something incorrectly, or am using the incorrect part for a 6/71 240z, or anything is "off" from what you believe to be original, please say something.  I'd rather know about it than not.

G

 

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by inline6

[Yarb]

Incredible work friend 

[emccallum]

I have this alternator that I believe is original from a 2/71 my note says bad diodes. It has a little sleeve that I zip tied to it. If you are interested in the sleeve or the whole alternator let me know. I dont see me ever needing it. 

 

 

 

 

[inline6]

22 hours ago, Yarb said:

Incredible work friend 

Thank you!

6 hours ago, emccallum said:

I have this alternator that I believe is original from a 2/71 my note says bad diodes. It has a little sleeve that I zip tied to it. If you are interested in the sleeve or the whole alternator let me know. I don't see me ever needing it. 

Wow.  My car came with an alternator just like that one!  The part number on it is 23100-U5810.  Do you have just one sleeve, or do you have one for each of the lower mounting holes?   The hole in the lower mount on mine is a bit smaller diameter than my other alternator, I think.  I will have to measure.
 

  

 

Is there a chance that this one is original to my 6/71 car?  According to the microfiche, this one is original:

 

And that is the rather hard to find "grapefruit" alternator.  The one I bought for $39 is part number 23100-U5800.   It seems there are a lot of Nissan alternator part numbers.

I continued today with some more assembly.  Little things here and there, and I assembled the wiper "transmission".  

    

    

    

Note that one of the bolts for attaching the transmission to the body was a pan head instead of hex.  I came across a thread one time that pointed out the same for another.  It is possible that this bolt has a slightly smaller head to keep from hitting on the cow panel.  

The finished product:

 

Note that the hood stop bolts have a very unusual thread pitch.  New replacements are still available from Nissan at this time, however the bolts have the wrong thread pitch for the 240Z.  I purchased new ones from Nissan and swapped the rubber portion over to the original, re-plated bolts.  

    

 

Also, sadly... I over torqued and stripped the threads on one of the front Koni strut inserts.  I don't know what happened.  I was being extremely careful.  For each of the struts, I secured the assembled strut to the chassis.  For the rears, there was not problem.  I set my new(ish) electronic torque wrench to 37.5 ft-lbs.  I went slowly and did not have issues.  When the modified by Motorsport gland nuts were delivered a week or so ago, I assembled the front struts, and bolted them to the chassis as I did for the rears.  

When I went to torque the top nut on the driver side, my belief is that the torque wrench malfunctioned.  As I was tightening, the nut got tighter, but the wrench did not make an audible, or vibrate (which it does as it gets closer to the specified torque setting).  At one point, feeling that it was notably tight, I removed the torque wrench and checked the setting on the display.  Still 37.5.  Then attempted to tighten one more time.  At that point the nut started feeling funny - like I had stripped the threads.  

So, I tried to remove the nut, but then the strut shaft started spinning round and round.  The flat part or "D" of the upper strut isolater stopped keeping the strut shaft from spinning.  FFFFFFFFFF*****************!    I stopped and did something else because I wasn't mentally prepared to continue with the situation.  

Only a few days ago did I remove the strut from the car, put it on the bench and proceed to spend many hours trying all manner of ways to clamp the strut shaft to keep it from spinning as I attempted to remove the shaft nut.  What a pain!  Anyway, the ONLY way to get the nut off was to make some wood board/strips, bore a hole with a hole saw (half of the hole on one and half on the other) in them to match the diameter of the shaft, and clamp the wood around a rubber sheet which gripped to the shaft.  I had to use a C clamp to squeeze all that together to get sufficient grip on the shaft.  Sorry, I don't have pics.  AND, I had to use an impact gun to back the nut off, as using a socket wrench by hand, I could not keep the strut shaft from turning  I'd still be at it if I didn't resort to an impact gun.  

Anyway, I am fairly screwed with this one shock.  I have about 4 to 5 threads that are good - at the very top of the threaded portion.   I will take pics and share them.  In the meantime, I have a M12 X 1.25 die coming.  I am going to chase the threads and see what I have.  I have a little hope that I can salvage the situation.  If the threads clean up a bit, and I can effectively utilize something called a coupling nut, which is essentially very tall nut that can engage the good threads at the top, I may be able to avoid having to buy another strut insert.  

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by inline6

[emccallum]

For nice looking wiper system. I just cleaned mine up and greased it. I do remember having one fastener different! I thought the plater mixed them up and sourced a matching hex bolt!

I only had one sleeve on the altenator. 

The strut insert usually has a place for an allen wrench at the top to hold the insert from turning. You need a special "cutout" socket to tighten as you hold the insert. I would be impressed if you actually stripped the threads on the insert as the nut is usually a softer metal and you may be seeing the remnants of the nut on the threads. Oil and chase it and try a new nut. At this point it isn't that much effort to remove the strut. Lately, I have become very good at doing stuff multiple times 🙂

 

This is what the sockets look like, just make sure the insert doesnt require some funky tool. They make a set that has all the various types for the insert too:

https://www.amazon.com/DPTOOL-Socket-Suspension-Spreader-Absorber/dp/B09QLZJWNF/ref=asc_df_B09QLZJWNF/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=647755312451&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16445937037883011191&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1025566&hvtargid=pla-1966980073382&mcid=e98a1b3594b9387ebc33b5bd169ab619&th=1

 

 

[inline6]

14 hours ago, emccallum said:

For nice looking wiper system. I just cleaned mine up and greased it. I do remember having one fastener different! I thought the plater mixed them up and sourced a matching hex bolt!

I only had one sleeve on the alternator. 

The strut insert usually has a place for an allen wrench at the top to hold the insert from turning. You need a special "cutout" socket to tighten as you hold the insert. I would be impressed if you actually stripped the threads on the insert as the nut is usually a softer metal and you may be seeing the remnants of the nut on the threads. Oil and chase it and try a new nut. At this point it isn't that much effort to remove the strut. Lately, I have become very good at doing stuff multiple times 🙂

This is what the sockets look like, just make sure the insert doesnt require some funky tool. They make a set that has all the various types for the insert too:

https://www.amazon.com/DPTOOL-Socket-Suspension-Spreader-Absorber/dp/B09QLZJWNF/ref=asc_df_B09QLZJWNF/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=647755312451&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16445937037883011191&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1025566&hvtargid=pla-1966980073382&mcid=e98a1b3594b9387ebc33b5bd169ab619&th=1

 

 

Unfortunately in this instance, the Koni struts I am using have their adjustment done by a nipple at the top of the strut shaft, so no place for an allen wrench there.  

I get sick when I look at these pictures, but here we go: 

  

With this close up, they all look like garbage to me other than the few at the bottom which are not accessed because of the material thickness of the spacer, upper spring perch and upper strut mounts respectively.  Come to think of it, I might be able to machine a bit off the spacer to raise the shaft a bit (looks like a quarter inch, to access those good threads at the bottom.  If the coupler nut can access all of those, and the garbage ones in the middle, along with the "somewhat still there" at the top, then I might be able to salvage this debacle.

The nut doesn't look great, but threads are still mostly there.  I have already chase this with a 12M X1.25 tap because I have one.  I am waiting on the die to arrive to chase the threads for the shaft.

  

 

In other news, I gave some attention to the wiper motor, motor mounting bracket, and motor harness tonight.  Two of the grommets from 240zrubberparts.com were not as thick as the originals.  I chose to use the old ones (just two of four) because there are metal sleeves that go in the center of them.  I could have ground the metal sleeves down to match the thickness of the new ones, but my original rubber grommets were in fair condition.  So, I used them instead.  

  

  

 

The original plastic connector was yellowed with age and brittle.  So I replaced that.  While doing so, I put on the new rubber grommet for the wiring from 240zrubberparts.com 

    

 

I was a bit surprised when I opened up the cover for the wiper motor - It was very clean inside.  Being a car from Arizona, and off the road/stored for 28 years in Colorado, I think the motor has seen little use.  As I found it:
    

I cleaned the main gear shaft with #000 stainless steel wool, and then lubed the shaft.  I probably should do the Honda wiper motor upgrade, but I will see how a fully rebuilt wiper transmission and this motor (with little use) work out first.