Restoration of BringaTrailer 240z - HLS30-35883

[Captain Obvious]

Man. I feel for ya. I think we've all had days like that.  

[dutchzcarguy]

Yeah, don't worry, there will be a next Z-con!  My 280zx resto started in 2014! And it's still not done!  Be glad you CAN work on your eye-apple..

It doesn't really matter how long the journey takes to the finish as long you enjoy the ride!  Let go of the z-con date..  It's disturbing to much!

I'm sure you will have a EXCELLENT car in the end! 

 

DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY !! 

[Patcon]

I hate that about the glass trim. It is really frustrating to rip a gasket!

Maybe SteveJ or some one else close can lend a hand and make the difference??

[inline6]

I made some decent progress today.  I finished up the differential - here is the separate thread covering all the issues I had with it. 

I installed all of the oil seals and the rear cover.  From there, I retrieved my "stencil" which was the result of many hours of drawing pretty much entirely free hand.  I have a mustache bar with a portion of the letters and numbers in tact.  Interestingly, though I have found a few pictures on the web with this same part number, I cannot find the part number listed in the parts manual.  I am unsure what the difference is between 55450-E4101 and 55450-E4102.  However, I think my car came with the E4102.  So, I went with that number.  If anyone has information to share about these two, please enlighten me.  

    

 

As can be seen in these pictures, the paint was sprayed on:

    

    

 

I found a few things to correct on my stencil, so I did work on it some more before cutting the letters and numbers out.  After I was done with the cutting, I needed to rest my eyes a bit - it felt like I was going cross-eyed when I finished.  I made a test run on some scrap aluminum first.  Being pleased with that, I aligned the stencil on the bar.  On the old bar, the 4 and 1 were a bit too high for my liking, so I adjusted it so the letters and numbers would be a bit more centered.

    

    

While not perfect, I think it came out nicely.  Given the number of hours I have it, I am glad it turned out well.  From there, I was able to mount the differential in the car.

    

 

For the stub axles, I elected to glass bead them lightly and apply only some clear coat.  These were not painted from the factory, so I kept that look.  I found the stub axle retaining bolts to bottom out in the Quaife carrier.  Luckily, I was able to stack a couple of washers to resolve that without causing interference with the bolt heads when installing the axles.

    

    

From there, I grabbed the driveshaft to see if it would fit.  And... not even close.  I thought this was the "short" driveshaft, but it can't be.  The short one fits when installing the 240SX transmission, but this one is way too long.  It is the only one that came with the car (it was not in the car).  So, it looks like I am going to need a driveshaft.  I took several measurements.  From center of the front u joint to the center of the rear u joint.  It looks to me like it is in between 21 and 1/16 and 21 and an 1/8th.  Since it is metric, I am going to guess it is 536 mm (21.103").

    

 

From the back face of the shaft to the center of the back u joint, I show about 1 and 3/8ths.  Again, the closest metric measurement in mm is 35 mm (1.378").  For the front of the shaft, I measured two distances: from the tip of the input shaft to the front edge of the shield, and from the front edge of the shield to the base of the input shaft (inside the shield).  For those I got 2.450" and 1.775" respectively.  That totals 4.22 inches or 107.188 mm.  Call it 107 mm.  
 

With these measurements, I should be able to get a custom driveshaft made that will fit nicely.  I am not going to mess with sourcing a stock early one and rebuilding it with new joints, etc.  I did that with the one I have and it was a lot of work to source new OEM joints, strip the paint from the driveshaft, install the u joints, and then paint the driveshaft.  And, I would want to send it off for balancing too.  

 

 

Edited September 9 by inline6

[Patcon]

Who will you get to build it?

[inline6]

I am thinking about using Inland Empire Driveline: https://www.iedls.com/

[emccallum]

I think there were several driveshafts in the parts car I gave to Patcon, one may have been from an early car that I converted to a five speed. If you dont have any luck with a shop, maybe reach out to him. 

[inline6]

Hmmm.  I am rethinking this.  The driveshaft shield on the yoke is bottoming out against the 240SX transmission.  And I measured the depth of that at 1.775".  Just removing that shield might give me enough.  I will need to have another, closer look.

 

[Patcon]

We also have a pretty good driveline shop in spartanburg. I'm am planning on taking them a driveshaft soon

[inline6]

7 hours ago, Patcon said:

We also have a pretty good driveline shop in Spartanburg. I'm am planning on taking them a driveshaft soon

Yes, I think I will send my propeller shaft there (https://carolinadriveline.com/) as I had planned, but now it needs to be shortened in addition to getting it balanced. 

I just very carefully measured my center to center distance again.  I got 21 and 1/8".  Looking very closely, I think it is maybe .010 more than that.  That is 536.829" mm.  The factory shop manual says the length from center to center of the u-joints is 540 mm.  There is no way this propeller shaft is that long between the centerline of u joints.  Perhaps because there is a slip yoke, factory tolerance of propeller shaft length was not strictly held.  

After measuring carefully, I will be removing 2 inches from the propeller shaft.  I suppose if I had the pieces in the car to move the differential back to align the drive shafts, this propeller shaft might fit as is.  I seem to recall coming across that before in my internet travels.  I could search to confirm, but it is a waste of my time as I won't be swapping in those pieces from a later car.  If the drive shaft angularity causes issues on this car, I'll swap in some CV axles.

 

 

Edited September 9 by inline6

[inline6]

Today, I took a 1/2 day off from work and worked on the car.  I was able to get the driveshaft measured properly.  I will be sending it off tomorrow for shortening and balancing.  

I installed the Pertronix electronic ignition.  I didn't take pictures, but I ended up modifying the distributor cap a bit to allow the wires to exit the distributor.  I just drilled a hole and used a dremel a bit to get the boot that came with the kit to fit snugly.

  

 

Next, I did a modification to the new interior panels I bought.  I purchased the whole set of new, black panels (roof bar, quarter window, rear hatch, and tail light) from Z Car Depot.  I also was able to source new SU nozzles from them.  

First, a comparison of the grain finish:

Original and reproduction, in that order:

  

 

The reproduction panels are nice.  They are thicker and heavier than the originals.  Instead of the hard plastic they seem to be made out of a slightly softer material.  They only come in the early 1970/71 configuration.  So, I drilled holes for the side pillar vent.  

New reproduction panel as received -- factory original panel -- and reproduction panel with holes drilled.  I was able to clamp the original on top of the reproduction panel and use the original holes as a template.

    

It came out nicely:

 

Lastly today, I swapped out the new SU nozzles.  While I was there I checked proper throttle plate opening when using the starter lever.  When you pull the starter lever all the way open, the throttle plate to carb body clearance should be about .023" to .027".  I also made sure to secure the cables at precise locations so that the nozzles both activate and move the same distance when the starter lever is pulled.  

I am getting closer to being able to start it up.  

 

[dutchzcarguy]

9 hours ago, inline6 said:

I swapped out the new SU nozzles. 

You mean... the new Hitachi nozzles.. 😉