Livin' Z Life - Historical Archive

[Arne]

3 Sep 2007 - Inside the Gears

Now, I'll be the first to admit that there are people out there who might not consider this kind of work to be relaxing or recreational. But I actually do enjoy it. I'd probably almost rather rebuild a transmission than an engine.

The results upon teardown were about what I'd expected. The rear countershaft bearing is rough, and is undoubtedly where the whining noise was coming from. There is a considerable amount of play in both the mainshaft and input shaft bearings, and the needle bearings between the two shafts are very sloppy. The synchros look OK, but since the second gear synchro has been slow, I'll replace them all while I have it apart.

The clunking was apparently the mainshaft moving sideways under load, due to slop in the bad needle and mainshaft bearings.

I also found one slightly chipped tooth on the reverse idler gear. Probably not bad enough to warrant replacement, but I may do it anyway. But I'd almost bet that the fragments from that chip were the cause of the bad countershaft and mainshaft bearings, they're in about the same area of the transmission.

I'll also replace the clutch disk and release bearing while I'm at it, just to prevent having to drop the transmission again in the near future.

I'll begin pricing and ordering parts on Tuesday.

[Arne]

17 Sep 2007 - Busy Weekend

Lots to report from this past weekend. I got all the parts for the transmission (save one gasket) earlier in the past week, and thought I might have time to begin reassembly on that, after a few other things got handled.

The first of those other things on Saturday morning was to mount the brand new front spoiler that also arrived last week. This was something I've been wanting for a while, as they really help stability in crosswinds at highway speeds. And the BRE style spoilers are the ones that look the most correct on a 240Z to me, they've been making this style since 1970.

As always, that task took longer than I had expected, but not too much longer. After that, I adjusted the valves. I thought I had heard one tapping the other day, and I hadn't yet done this myself. That went fairly smoothly, no real issues there.

After completing a couple of non-Z jobs, I did a little vacuuming of the interior. Finally I got to the transmission, but late enough in the day that the progress was not all that significant.

Sunday was much more fun. Deanna and I met five other Z drivers here in Springfield in the morning, and we drove East into the Cascades. Had a great drive through the mountains, and met yet another Z owner for lunch in the small town of Sisters, OR. Checked out some scenery, had fun visiting with others, and had a great drive in the cars.

Next weekend, back to the transmission. Unless I get tempted by yet another Datsun club's gathering...

[Arne]

23 Sep 2007 - Back to Square One

There was another Datsun drive and gathering yesterday near Corvallis. I didn't make it to this one.

Instead, I added yet another chapter to my red car's clunking saga.

Saturday morning after a few errands and such, I finished reassembling the red car's transmission. All new bearings, seals and synchros. Went together very nicely. After lunch, I put the red car back up in the air, and swapped the transmission again. I also replaced the clutch disk and throw-out bearing while I had it apart. I didn't really know how good (or bad) the clutch in the car was, but figured I'd do it anyway. Turns out that was a good call, the disk was on its last legs and was due for replacement.

At 5:00 I went for a drive. New clutch works great. Shifts into second gear really nice (had worn synchro on second before). While all the early 4 speeds tend to be a bit noisy, it was definitely quieter than before.

And after it warmed up - the clunk returned.

For a while after I got back home, I just sat there and stared at the yellow car's transmission sitting there on the garage floor. Trying to imagine what could possibly still be wrong with the one in the red car. Then I stared at the pictures and cutaways in the service manual.

In hindsight, my thought that the clunk was the mainshaft shifting under load due to sloppy bearings was hogwash. Now that I have had it all apart and in my hands, I can see that the mainshaft couldn't really do that even if the bearings were far worse than they were.

After thinking it over I wondered if one of the "fixed" gears on the countershaft or the "fixed" syncho hubs on the mainshaft are actually moving on its shaft. There are only four suspect pieces, and two of them are eliminated because they aren't under load in first or second gear, which is where it clunks the worst. So it would have to be either the primary drive gear on the countershaft, or the 1st-2nd gear synchro hub.

Here's where I wish I hadn't sold that 'then-surplus' early four speed. If I still had that transmission, I'd have more options.

I drove it again today, and determined that I can make it clunk in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and reverse, but not 4th. This is pretty definitive. With those symptoms, it has to be in the countershaft somewhere. (Or layshaft, if you are used to British terminology.)

Best guess after talking to several more people (including my dad) is that the countershaft has too much end play, and it is moving back and forth under torque loads. It is also remotely possible that the woodruff keys that locate the primary drive gear on the countershaft might be worn. I'll replace them when I tear it back down, just in case.

As it is, it could be worse. Yes, I'll need to drop the transmission again. But once out, I won't have to tear it too far down to check into this. Not next weekend, we're going to be out of town. But possibly the following Saturday.

On a more positive note to end my weekend, today I swapped the springs in the red car (again). After comparing my red car to another 240Z on the drive last weekend, I realized just how tall it sits with the gas KYBs and stock springs. So I grabbed my spare set of repro Euro springs from under the workbench, cut them down a bit more than I had cut them for the old non-gas shocks, and put them in the car. The results were pretty good. The front sits just about where I want it, and the rear is close. Not truly lowered, just pretty much stock height. Next time I have the rear apart for something else, I may trim off another 1/4 coil or so. But it's not worth pulling it back apart for that now.

Edited July 15, 2020 by Arne

[Arne]

25 Sep 2007 - A Well Deserved 2nd Anniversary Present

Pity the poor yellow car. This past year has not seen much progress. The poor car has lent many of its parts to the red car for diagnostics. And here it sits today with no transmission, its own gearbox sitting in the garage waiting to make certain that the red car's transmission can be rebuilt successfully.

That doesn't mean that nothing has happened good to the yellow car these last 12 months, though. There's been some cleanup and reworking of the engine compartment, a bit of work in the interior, and it even got a new-old driver's side headlight bucket (fender extension). Plans have been made, and soon after the transmission is back in the car, I will begin to strip all the trim off the exterior and much of the interior in preparation for rust-repair and paint. Yes, the decision has been made, and I will finish the yellow car prior to selling it. It won't get finished to perhaps the same level as I had originally planned when I first bought it, but it will end up as a solid, good-looking 240Z suitable for daily or weekend fun.

And as another step toward that goal, I bought the car a present, one of the last major missing pieces, coincidentally arriving on the car's second anniversary. A used, but fairly nice rear bumper. Expect to see more progress on the yellow car over the next few months.

[Arne]

30 Sep 2007 - A Good First Year

After one year and a touch more than 3,000 miles, how do I feel about the red car? Pretty good, really. It turned out that there has been even more to do to the car than I had expected, and I made a few errors that have drawn a lot of this out much longer than I expected. Things like those Mulholland shocks, and my error in not checking all of the end play in the transmission shafts while I had it out the first time, to say nothing about all the hoops I jumped through on my way to pinning the clunking to the transmission. So this car has had its share of work this year, certainly.

But 3,300 miles also shows that it's been a fun addition, and I think the toughest parts might be behind me now. The latest batch of transmission parts (a selection of shims, mostly) should arrive shortly. Once the parts are all here, I'll pull the transmission back out and attempt to do it right this time. I should be able to do the whole thing in a weekend. (Then I can reassemble the yellow car, too.)

Coming up for this one? The big items on the list for sometime this winter will be reupholstering the seats, new carpet, and replacing all the heater and coolant hoses. At some point I'll want to replace the front suspension bushings, but that's actually a bit lower priority. Some of the better parts of the current seat upholstery will be used to refurbish the yellow car's seats, once the body and paint are done. So the seats are most likely the next item, although 'next' in this case doesn't necessarily mean 'soon'.

Of course, that's all dependent on nailing down this transmission project first. More on that soon...

[Arne]

14 Oct 2007 - Clunks Banished

This weekend was round two on the red car's transmission, and I won this time. Which means that the clunk-hunt which began in ernest way back in late March is finally done.

What I did on Saturday after dropping and disassembling the transmission (again) was to check the end play on any shaft, gear or bearing for which Nissan gave specs. There are three major points of note for this, and I ordered one of every thickness of shim and snap ring that Nissan still had available, just so that I'd have all the possibilities on hand. I also ordered (and replaced) the woodruff keys for the front-most gears on the countershaft, as well as another front countershaft bearing (since I was going to have to use a puller on it to get to the woodruff keys). Those parts and a couple new gaskets set me back about $30. I only used a couple of the new shims and snap rings, but I'd rather have them here to choose the best fit, than have to order the singles and wait.

Started the project at 9:30, finished and went on a test drive at 4:30. All went smoothly. And it no longer clunks!! Now I can finally put this behind me and get on to other things.

Today (Sunday) I put the yellow car's transmission back into the yellow car. So it also will move under its own power (again). Which will allow me to resume working on it. Soon, I hope.

[Arne]

4 Nov 2007 - Rust Claims Another Victim

If you have read this far, you are aware that recently I have been stripping the yellow car in preparation for rust repair and paint. This weekend that process came to an abrupt halt. Friday morning I found that the passenger floor and associated frame rail is much worse than I had thought. After taking the car to the shop where I was going to have the work done for further consultation, the body man 'thinks' that he could still patch the floor pan, if I supplied replacement frame rails. More labor, of course. (Totally understandable, and I expected that.) It still might need a replacement pan though, he won't know for certain until he starts cutting.

Sigh...

This is the rusty straw that broke the car's unibody. Sadly, I must admit that it's just not worth it.

Here's my dilemma. Let's ignore all the costs I have into the yellow car up to this point. Chalk it all up as learning and help with debugging the red car. So starting from zero now, the reality is that it's going to cost $5000 at least to get the car reasonably rust-free, presentable and reassembled. Maybe as much as $6000. After that investment, it would be a running, driving, clean and mostly de-rusted 240Z with a straight and freshly painted body. But it won't have the original engine, the interior would be intact but aged, bumpers would be there but would need re-chromed to be up to the quality of the rest of the paint, mis-matched wheels, soft suspension, old paint under the hood, etc., etc., etc...

In that condition, could I expect to break even on the body and paint? Say I finish it for $5500, could I sell it for that? And the honest answer for here in the Pacific NW and with the recently faltering economy is probably, no. Dump that $5-6000 on it and it's probably still only a $4000 car in today's market. And since I don't want to keep it for several years until things improve, it doesn't pencil out.

On the other hand, instead of dumping a bunch more on it only to go further in the hole, I can part it out and cut my losses significantly. The thought of parting it pains me a bit, but it's time to get real. While the rust makes it a poor restoration prospect now, it is still mostly complete and has a lot of parts with value. A fair number of those parts are hard-to-find Series 1 parts, which shouldn't be too hard to sell off, either.

So instead of going farther in the hole, it seems to make more sense to stop the bleeding and sell off parts to re-coup some of my investment. I can save the proceeds for painting the red car instead. And if I hang on the the shell of the yellow car, I've got a nice roof for the red car should I decide to get rid of the sunroof. (And I'm leaning that way right now.)

So I spent the rest of the weekend assessing what I have of value, and beginning the parting process.

[Arne]

4 Dec 2007 - Winter Lull Begins

Just as in prior years, the stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas is pretty quiet round here, or at least in regards to Datsun news it is. I've been driving the red car once or twice a week, while slowly disassembling the yellow car and selling off its parts. I've shipped off a couple of small orders so far, with a couple more pending. I probably won't get too deep into this until after the first of the year.

In the mean time, I've been laying a few plans for the red car. As I do plan to drive it regularly, there are a few more modifications I want to make to it. Nothing that can't be easily reversed, but things that will make it into a better daily use car.

The front spoiler was the first of these changes or additions, and is also the least reversible as I had to drill several holes in the lower valance panels to mount it. But there was never any question that I would do that, as I have always liked that style spoiler on early Zs, and it just looks right to me.

A few weeks back I had Dave Irwin build me a pair of wiring adapters to make the front side marker lights also function as turn signals. This adds a bit of extra visibility to the car, which is always a good thing. They simply plug in with no permanent change to the car, so I can easily revert to stock if I want. (Dave has added these to his line of 240Z wiring parts, here is the info page link - SCP Info.)

In the near future, I plan to install the 60 amp 280ZX alternator from the yellow car using the ZX Alternator Adapterthat Dave and I came up with. This will give more output, and also much more stable regulation with the electronic regulator of the ZX as opposed to the points-type regulator of the 240Z. Again, this is another thing that I can simply bolt in with no permanent changes.

Last (for now), I'm giving some thought to replacing the original AM radio with that vintage Pioneer Supertuner AM/FM/Cassette deck I bought a while back for the yellow car. This will require a new and different antenna, and a bit of wire routing, but should make for a more pleasant daily drive. (AM radio around here is NOT entertaining.)

[Arne]

16 Dec 2007 - A Few Small Changes

Since the last update, I finally installed the ZX alternator in the red car last weekend. Later in the week, I drove the Z to work, and it appears to be a worthwhile addition. The ammeter is far more steady with the modern electronic regulator. Changing the load in any way causes a much smaller jump of the needle, and it stabilizes much quicker. In addition, sitting at a traffic light idling I notice that my headlights don't noticeably dim, nor do the turn signals slow down, even with the brake lights and heater blower running as well. Seems to be a positive addition in all ways so far.

Today I installed a parking light relay kit (again from Dave Irwin). A very nice piece of work. I wanted to get one before they are gone, as the supplier he gets his OE-style plastic connectors from is dropping one of the parts this kit requires.

The goal of the relay kit is twofold. One is to reduce the voltage drop of the current to the parking and dash lights by not routing it through the 35 year old fuse box and headlight switch contacts - therefore giving brighter parking and dash lights. The other is that by not running all the current through the fuse box and switch we can avoid the typical 240Z melting fuse box problem (as suffered by my yellow car, among many others).

The relay kit works perfectly, no surprises there. I'm not certain if my lights are really all that much brighter or not, as the wiring in the red car is so good that I don't think my voltage drop was all that bad. But my goal for this (and the headlight relay kit I plan to get after the first of the year) is to KEEP the wiring in great shape. So the more current I can move out of the factory fusebox and switches the better, in my opinion.

I also pulled the original metal cooling fan off the red car and replaced it with a plastic fan and clutch from a 260Z. Eight blades instead of seven, and about 3/4" larger in diameter. Still fits fine under the little guard on the top tank of the factory radiator. The original metal fans were only used for the first two years of production, until Nissan found out that the weight of the fan was too hard on water pump bearings and caused premature failure. So this plastic fan should help prolong the life of water pumps, and perhaps save the radiator from fan damage someday.

Haven't started the radio project yet, but should get to that soon.

[Arne]

31 Dec 2007 - Happy New Radio!

Finished installing the 'new' Pioneer Supertuner radio in the Z today. As with all the other mods to the car (other than the sunroof and the BRE spoiler), I installed it with nothing permanent done to the car. No holes drilled, no wires cut or tapped. The antenna is a full-auto Harada aftermarket unit that fits well, and still has a stainless shaft. The sound is lacking treble with the speakers mounted under the seats, but other than that, it is all good.

 

Eventually I will probably mount a pair of speakers in the rear, I've already done some experimenting with making a right side mounting bracket. But for now, I'm using a pair of speakers that I already own. Total investment so far is $55 -- $22 for the radio (off craigslist) and $33 for the antenna at a local clearance place.

The original radio and antenna will be packed away to join the original Koito headlights, dated plug wires, etc. in storage.

[Arne]

20 Jan 2008 - Mostly Electrical

Since the last update, I've actually been driving the Z more than working on it. A pleasant experience. But that doesn't mean I haven't done anything to it. Far from it, actually, so this update will be longer than average.

Shortly after the first of the year I replaced the left rear wheel bearing. No particular stories to impart on that job. The previous bearing was making a bit of noise and had a bit of play, so its time had come. The job went about as I expected, took about 3 hours.

I can't recall if I posted that I had tried the ZX electronic ignition in the red car a short while back, but went back to the points ignition when I found that the engine wouldn't rev past 4000 RPM with the ZX ignition installed. Today I re-installed the ZX ignition, on the (somewhat unlikely sounding) theory that the problem I had with it before was due to a lack of amps to drive it above 4000 RPM. Now that I have the 60 amp ZX alternator installed, I figured it was worth giving it another shot. So I did the bare minimum--I installed the ZX dizzy and by-passed the ballast resistor. That was all, didn't even change out the original 36 year old 240Z coil, or go to the wide-gap plugs.

Works perfectly. Revs cleanly all the way to 6000+ RPM. No glitches at all.

So the answer is one of two things: either the original 240Z alternator could not keep up with the ZX ignition at 4000 RPM; or the new OE-type 280ZX coil I have is bad. I don't think it is the latter, as I'm pretty certain that I have--at some point in the process--run the new ZX coil with points. So perhaps the problem was the alternator. Seems a touch odd, but there it is.

So now that it works, it's fine and I'll keep it on the car. I put a spare ignition module for it in the tool bin. I've noticed no real difference in how the car runs with it yet. I will go ahead and change the coil and plugs eventually. But I still don't really expect any quantifiable improvements in how the car runs. I guess needing less choke (a common report with electronic ignition conversions) would be nice, but we'll see if that really happens. But the reality is that I was happy with how the car ran on points. My goal in this change is not so much performance, but in saving wear on the original, low-miles distributor. Yet another part to pack away in a box somewhere.

Last weekend I installed one of Dave Irwin's famous 240Z headlight relay kits. This highly regarded and recommended item prevents some very common 240Z problems by reducing the current flowing through the original wiring, switches and fusebox. Like Dave's other products I've installed, this relay kit is incredibly well designed, and very well built. It took me all of 25 minutes to install it.

I've also done a little experimenting with re-wiring the rear brake lights, in hopes of being more noticeable to drivers behind me. Not sure that I've finalized this yet, so no details to share until I'm sure I've figured it out.

The other Z-related activity for me of late has been packing and shipping parts from the yellow car. I've actually had a pretty good response to my parts offerings so far, and have shipped a fair number of parts.

[Arne]

25 Feb 2008 - Still Here

Yes, it's been quite a while since the last update. Between one thing and another, there just didn't seem like a good time to sit down and type anything out.

Status of the red car is mostly unchanged. Driving it a bit here and there, and laying some plans for the future, mostly. I did change the headlights again just the other day, as I acquired a nice set of true vintage Cibie halogen lights to replace the modern vintage-looking lights I bought last year. I'm very pleased with the Cibie lights, both in their output and the period-correct looks.

I also discussed having the roof panel replaced with a bodyman who has done this on several Zs in the past few years. I'm seriously thinking of having this done when I have the car painted. More on this topic when it gets closer.

The car itself is running fine, and is very pleasant to drive. I finally replaced all the 36 year old cooling hoses on it recently, as well as installing a new Nissan thermostat. That was a little more work than I had anticipated due to corroded bolts in the thermostat housing, but worked out fine since I had the new housing and parts I had previously installed on the yellow car. After changing the thermostat, now my heater works the way it should.

The car has developed some sort of leak in the front of the transmission, apparently the front seal. Will have to look into this soon.

Still selling off parts from the yellow car. This has actually gone much better than I had expected, and in retrospect was absolutely the correct choice financially. Still a few good parts to go...