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Update: SZR refunded a substantial part of my bill because of my dissatisfaction. I’m glad they did the right thing.

Hey guys and gals, I’m a new member but have grown up addicted to z cars. Thanks for the add, I look forward to having some great conversations. Here’s a picture of my ‘75 280z which I’m in the process of painting. Also tightening up some odds and ends I don’t want to say restoring because I drive it a few days out of the week and it’s in a lot better shape than any I’ve seen around me. But it’s my pride and joy! I also have another ‘75 Only a few vin numbers apart but it does in fact need a full restoration. So needless to say I’ve got my hands full! -please give my instagram page dedicated to my cars a follow! @jones30_ -also my personal Instagram page! @jonesyjdm The copper z is my main car the blue z is my project

Canadians...everyone likes Canadians. When on a military project in Peru, we would usually tell the locals we were Canadian if they asked where we were from. Seldom mentioned that we were USAF. All was good because everyone likes Canadians. Dennis

Made progress today... They forgot the sway-bar reinforcements, so they started that. Not pleased about the sequencing of this but they assured me it will be great in the end. ? I put the rear suspension in: I put the front suspension in: And it looks like a car again! No more spaceship z. Theres still a pile to do, including fixing some things they already sprayed, but it’s coming along. Panels and doors should be getting gapped shortly.

So I got sick and tired of using 2x4's tires and various things to keep my engines upright since the oil pans are off kilter.. Don't ask me why I even keep them but you never know when you might need something! So I put some painters plastic down on a harbor freight dollie and then wrapped the underside of the engine also. Got the engine so it was as vertical as possible then lowered it till it touched the lowest part of the dollie and then filled it in with spray foam.It worked great and saved space! It's nice and stable and I can wheel it around.I didn't need to use a strap but wanted extra security. Also when I do make use of the engines I can lift the engine out and take out the "mold" and use my dollie for other stuff if needed. Hope this helps for anyone that wants to store there engines also.

My driveway-to-street transition is a concern. My wife’s Volt is low and also has an air dam. We have to back out “just right” to avoid scraping. As for your exhaust pipe scraping, maybe our friends in Japan (see below ?) have the right answer. I guess the air dam and spoiler reduce lift / increase downforce at each end of the car. I’m not sure how much lift at each end of the car is inherent in the Z’s design. For fast highway cruising or canyon carving, I wonder if the basic Z design needs these aero bits. And, is added aero more important at one end or the other, or are both required for balancing the forces on the car?

My two biggest regrets: tattooing my ex-wife's first name on my bicep and installing a rear spoiler on my first 240Z ? Keep the back slick.

It was my honor to serve for 32 years. Now to start another life. Thanks

Not the air dam but I have that 2.5" performance exhaust from MSA. It scrapes though. I have to really aware of that too, my car is lowered and when I get on a "scrape" knowing I have to keep going draws my balls inside my body.

Hey Guys Thanks for all of your helpful comments. I managed to get it going and producing power nicely up to redline. I did end up replacing the module. I can't be certain which fix was actually causing my problem. I suspect that both conditions(mech advance springs & IM) were contributing but the IM was at greater fault. I've never known a timing advance issues to have a discreet cutoff point and pop and crack in the manifold with the throttle wide open just sitting in the driveway. Will take it in for smog tomorrow.

Well this EFI guy can tell you that by 1983, the ECU's WERE computer controlled. 6801 microcontroller running at 4MHz I don't know when the transition officially occurred, but by 83, they were programmed devices.

Hi Stick, not to worry you but, I've had 2 t-top cars.. if you put one front wheel on a wooden block about 6 inches high... with the hood open you'll never get it shut because of torsion of the whole chassis.. especially the T-bar cars are bad. The lock go's 2" out of line! (I had this when the car ( a 1980 280zx tbar 2+2) was only 11 year old and in perfect condition.) It's the reason that i'm now restoring a 280zx with slick top. Welcom here Stick, if you need answers, here is the place to go i think!!

This car is a huge project. The front frame and floors are gone but the rear is pretty good. Surprisingly with all the rot, you can jack up the car anywhere and no flex. No matter where you raise the car, the door gap doesn't change and they shut like a new car, and it's a t top car. After adding up everything engine wise I wanted to do isn't worth it to me, so I'm keeping the fuel injection for now. I'll start with replacing all the vacuum lines. The car instantly starts and idles, just won't rev. I'll post pictures later, has an inch of snow on it this morning. I have the garage tied up again, putting a big block in the car hauler, but I hope to get it done today then I'll bring the datsun in. I have bone spurs in my back and I don't know how much longer I can do this, so this datsun will be my last big project, my retirement car.

Sticking with paint removal for now, I found that one of the bigger jobs was removing paint from the exterior panels. Certain areas, I was ok with sandblasting after some testing. But for the large surfaces, I switched over to a high speed sander similar to this one, and some 36 grit paper with supporting, backing disc. Interestingly, the disc removed the one layer of repaint, the factory silver, and the factory top coat of primer (dark grey I think - I am colorblind) and left the red (oxide?) primer behind for the most part. I then used a DA sander and 80 grit paper to remove that. It was helpful the way it worked out because the red primer stayed where there were dings and dents. This gave me a visual aid for hammer and dolly work, and hammer and flat punch work. I found some of the dents were best handled by locating the flat punch on the inside of the panel and tapping with the hammer. Here are some representative pics of this work, done on the fenders:

Nice little treasure trove.

Thanks Cliff....it was a honor to serve but don’t what to go back! 24 yrs was enough. I’m enjoying my new found freedom being a civilian. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ignition module failing is possible. Or you might be losing connection of the blue wire from the coil negative to the EFI, module, and tach. Sudden dying usually means no spark. Losing tach is sometimes a sign of module problems. Check for loose wires first.

Seems like I remember pulling the CHTS connector off some time ago for some troubleshooting that I can't remember. It would idle, but as soon as I revved it, it would die. Sent from my Coolpad 3310A using Tapatalk

Thanks Dennis and Mark and all the other vets around here!

Oh, you just wanted us to do the legwork for you.

I love that the OP has never posted back to his thread and yet it's taken a life of it's own...

The "distance piece" AKA spacer, is meant to match the hub, not the axles. So, mixing up axles shouldn't matter. If you got 220 ft-lbs on the nut then there shouldn't be any axial play around the spacer, side-to-side, because you've clamped the spacer between the two inner races of the bearings. The bearings themselves are not high precision bearings. They're very tough ball bearings but can have some small amount of play of the balls in the races. I think if everybody went out and wiggled their rear wheels they'd find some play. If it rotates freely your bearings are probably fine.

One of the first things I heard when I got on these forums was that there are many mistakes in the documentation. Translation errors and such. The TSB and FSM descriptions of the processes seem to make it pretty clear though, don't they, that the washer in question goes outside of the distance piece area? The only questionable thing is the image with the part numbers. There are no words describing washers or shims between the bearing races. Just that one drawing. FSM's 1970-1978 all support no washers between the races. And describe measuring and verifying. Is that drawing from the microfiche CD, or is it from some other non-Nissan source?