Alan Pugh

Definately sounds like the uni joint, but as 240ZX says check the diff mount as well. Before you drive too much further get underneath and check the drive shaft. On the first occasion it happened to me it was the front joint that let go completely and because the driveshaft was still connected by the rear uni the front fell to the road, bounced straight back up again and thru the floor. Not a pretty sight, either were my pants when I $^!# myself. Alan.

Alan, As far as I am aware the Australian cars did not have the engine numbers on the VIN tag, I know my 260 hasn't. The only way to find out if the original engine is in the car would be the original bill of sale or if someone bothered to fill out the page in the owners hand book or you could try and trace the original registration papers. Allthough all this proves I suppose is that the original engine block is in the car, nothing more. Alan P.

I would be doing everything at the one time. As far as the cam is concerned when you fit it to the engine make sure you cover the lobes with molybond, and also cover the contact patch on each rocker arm with the same. This ensures that there is plenty of lubrication to the contact surfaces of cam and rocker during the initial dry cranking of the engine. To further reduce the risk of damage from non circulation of oil during initial start up, first crank the engine over with no spark plugs in, and keep an eye on the oil pressure guage . You won't get full pressure but it should give you at least 8 to 10 psi and get the oil moving thru all the galleries. This cranking over also gives you a chance to check fuel flow and spark before you start. Good luck. Alan.

Quite often when the pinion bearing in the diff goes the noise from this is transmitted thru the driveshaft and you swear the trans has blown up. Drain the oil out of the diff and check for metalic residue. If the bands in the trans are that bad that they sqeal at 50 it would not change properly thru any of the gears. Alan.

This has happened to me twice before. Mainly happens on sealed for life universal joints, (no grease nipple) but can happen to any uni joint. Is the squeak present only driving forward or in reverse as well? If it is only in one direction check all the uni joints but the drive shaft uni's are the usuall suspect. Hope this helps. Alan.

Ok, got my dash back today from Dashboard Restorations. Cost: $390 (US$261.30) Colour: Black Vinyl pattern: Haircell Very very happy with the whole thing. Spoke to Jim Kirk on a few occasions and can't speak highly enough of the service offered and general good nature of the man. Jim used to restore Mercedes and got his dashboards restored at Dashboard Restorations. He is now semi retired and the owner of same, Works 4 days a week and from what I can tell over the phone loves what he is doing. For those that don't know the geography I am in Melbourne and Jim is in Brisbane some 2000 kms apart, so I couldn't drop in. I took some pictures at work today but the good camera was out on site so I do appologise for the quality. I have put them in my gallery. Being the never ending critic I am and having been ripped off in the past I marked the old foam in several places to make sure I got all new foam as advertised. I can assure everyone all the foam has been replaced with new, and I also marked the metal frame and that is mine aswell. My wife tells me i'm paranoid but you never know. The dash is covered in grey vinyl and then colour sprayed to the finished color. This surprised me at first but have been assured that the dyes used are of excellent quality and actually impregnate the vinyl surface not just sit on top. not one of the blokes at work picked this and all agree that the dash looks brand new. The whole experience has taken just over 2 weeks with 6 days of that being transport to and from. I am now in the process of repairing my console and am going to send that off as well. If anyone wants to know anything iv'e forgotten please let me know and I will try to answer it. Alan.

Steve, Don't drain the battery acid out and replace with distilled water, all this will do is render the battery useless. No acid no charge. It sounds to me like one or more of the cells in the battery have shorted out. Sediment sinks to the bottom and rises to a level where it joins the plates togther and renders the cell inactive, or it gets stuck between two plates of a cell and does the same thing. When you hook up the charger it goes straight to zero because the short circuit in the battery is telling the charger it is fully charged. Just a bit of information for everyone, the average life of a wet cell lead acid battery is 39 months, and extremes of weather either hot or cold are a batteries worst enemy. Adding anything other than pure distilled water to top up a battery will shorten its life quite dramatically. My Dad worked for Dunlop batteries for 25 years, so a little bit has rubbed off on me. Alan.

Ok, i'll wade in now and get wet, up to my neck if need be. Gav, I believe your right about the 260 2+2 being the most commonly seen of the Z's (240/260) on the roads here in Melbourne. Why, who really knows, is it sales figures or the fact that a lot of 2 seaters were written off in accidents? I am restoring my 260 2+2 from the ground up, keeping it as stock as possible with a few exceptions, front air dam, simmons wheels (if I ever get a fourth one) and some cloth inserts in the seats and door panels. As to whether it's worth a lot or a little in the end, or if it's rare as hens teeth or common as dog $^!#, I don't care. It's mine. I think sometimes we get a little lost in the who's got the rarest or the lowest VIN# or the whatever, that we forget why we enjoy these cars in the first place. Because we all like the Z car we've got or we wouldn't have it. Hope I haven't upset anyone. Oh, by the way i'm using my boat anchors too. Alan.

If it's a blown head gasket between one of the cylinders and the water jacket, it would have to be a fairly big leak to overheat the engine in 5 to 8 minutes and you would notice some rough idling. Remove all the spark plugs and check for the one that is either showing rust or is very clean. This is always a good sign (not a good thing) that water is getting into one cylinder, which in turn means you are virtually pumping the water out of the engine by displacing it with air. Another tell tale sign of this is to drain the block and radiator and collect the fluid in a bucket and check for rust granules. A bi-product of filling the cooling system with combustion gasses is rust. This rust circulating through the system then in turn reduces the impellor on the water pump to nothing but a flat disk. For a car to overheat so quickly is quite strange and I would be interested to find out the final cure. Alan.

Thanks guys that gives me 2 places I haven't tried yet. Alan.

halz, I think these are the wheels you're refering to. I believe these were standard fit to Aus delivered 260's, but don't quote me on that. Sorry I can't find the picture of the centre cap. Alan.

Well I've done things in my life that were pretty silly, and I thought I'd grown up a bit since then, but the little boy inside me has come to the top again. I need help from all the Aus members to find one Simmons F15 wheel. I bought three the other day from a bloke who was basically giving them away, $300. The blokes at work are calling me the three legged dog. A new wheel is $600 so if worst comes to worst I can get one but who wants to pay full price. Your help would be appreciated if anyone knows of someone or sees one in their local wreckers. 15x anything as I can get the rim sections changed, the centre with our 114.3 PCD is the important bit. I have attached an image of the wheel.

I've sent my 260 dash to Dashboard Restorations, should have it back in a week or so. It's being done in black haircell so I will post some pics when It gets back down here. Alan.

Hi all, Well i'm getting close to painting the car, and i'm getting close to picking a colour. Main question I still can't totally answer is what paint. 2 pack has great advantages, fantastic shine off the gun, good wear & tear, but from what I understand if it gets scratched you have to re-spray the whole panel. On the other hand acrylic lacquer or single pack, allthough it requires buffing to bring up that great shine is relatively easy to repair in the event of scatches or the like. I would appreciate your opinions on this as it is a big expense and something I would prefer to do right the first time. Alan.

Just got my ball ball joints and tie rod ends yesterday from Rare Spares here in Melbourne. They are Power Max brand and very good quality. Ball Joints: Early 240Z $45.93 ea Late 240Z & 260Z $43.92 ea Tie Rod Ends: 69-78 $52.68 ea These prices include GST. I always get on the rare spares web site before looking elsewhere, there not just for Holden and Ford anymore. Alan.

I think this is a bigger photo of the first one. Alan.

As Zedrally said if these carbs are re-built to manufacturers specs they will perform very well. As I understand it the mixture is changed by altering the float level and supplied in each re-build kit should be a small cardboard ruler for this very purpose. As far as disconnecting the water from the manifold and carbs goes there are benifets both ways. The carbs sit directly above the exhaust manifold, a great source of heat. Highway driving stops a lot of this heat soaking into the intake manifold and carbs and the water cooling tends to make the whole system run hotter, but get stuck in traffic and the soak time is greater and the water cooling actually woks to cool the whole system and prevent vapour lock. All great in theory. The water jacket in the intke manifold and base of carbs serves to keep the system at a constant opperating temp which in turn helps to keep the carbs opperating at a constant setting. Hope this helps and doesn't confuse. Alan.

In Aus wheel spacers are illegal in all states for road/street use and can only be used off road. I would imagine it would be the same in most if not all states in the US. There are also a lot of good reasons why they are illegal. Spacers move the wheel centre out on the hub which changes two main things, the steering geometry and increases loads on the bearings. I would never contemplate using spacers of any thickness let alone 1 1/4 inches. Obviously there will be people out there that will disagree with me and praise wheel spacers as the only way to solve this and that, but when it all comes down to it aren't there enough wheels out there for Z cars without having to resort to front wheel drive wheels. My 20 cents. Alan.

Gavin you sound like your as manic as myself when it comes to the finer details that a lot of people don't notice or it just gets too hard. Alan.

If memory serves correctly there was a post a while ago I think by Mike about Dashboard Restorations in Queensland, Australia, who were doing dashes for overseas clients for arround the US$450.00 mark. This included all shipping. They do a complete rebuild of the dash not just a recover, new foam as well. http://www.dashboardrestorations.com.au/index.htm Alan.