zKars

The more I stare at these ratio's the more I want to try case 3! Case 4 is also a winner if you like the .745 OD and gives you much more reasonable 1st over the stump puller truck ratio

Alas, I am but a dreaming fool. My plan above to use my .754 gear set will actually make the 5th ratio a stupid 0.900. You have to account for the 4th gear main/counter gear ratio to correct the actual 1, 2, 3 and 5th gear tooth count ratio's to get the total drive ratio. With the close ratio, the 4th gear teeth are 23 vs 29 or 0.793 ratio, then apply that to that actual 5 gear tooth ratio, which are 26 and 44 = 0.593, / 0.793 = 0.745 actual 5th drive ratio. But do that with the truck 5 speed gears, 4th main and counter are 26 and 44, or 0.591. so with my 5 gear stuff. is 0.593 / .591 and you get a utterly heart breaking 0.90 5th ratio. Not doing that! But!!!!! As I'm typing I'm thinking more (haven't learned my lesson yet...), I could ALSO use the 4 main and counter gears from the close ratio in the truck trans (the only gear you can remove and replace on the counter shaft hahahah), which would give me the 0.745 5th, but wait, oh crap, it will also screw up all the other 1st and 2nd and 3rd ratio's as they are corrected by the 4 main/counter ratio. Let's see how bad is that.... So I have two sets of 5th gear gears, and two sets of 4th gear gears, so could build 4 different ratio sets. Let's be scientific and get Excel going. One of these combo's "might" be worth trying. 720_trans_ratio.xlsx

Back on topic Way in the back of the tranny garden (forest?) I remembered I have a 720 truck five speed! I've been ignoring it because it has a bell housing I can't use on a Z or 510, anything with a tilted L series. Outwardly it looks identical to any long eared one-muffler hanger FS5W71B except for a couple of key details. The wrong bell housing for one, and the fill plug is on the other side of the case. Look here to review the differences if you're not on top of that. https://ratsun.net/topic/74205-620-transmission-identification/ BUT this sad little truck trans IS a donor for my worn out 1/2 shift fork! They are identickle! Took it apart today, and it's in perfect shape. Gear ratio's are interesting. Being a truck, first is a bit of a stump puller. 1 3.592 2 2.246 3 1.415 4 1 5 0.813 Let me say here that I am actually not a fan of the much coveted "close ratio" 5 speeds. Gotta say I've had just about enough of the fawning and slobbering over their supposed greatness. The 2-3-4 ratios are nice and close, wonderful for road racing I suppose, but first is about 2.5 miles away from 2nd. I've always been a bit ticked about the huge gap between 1 and 2 in both my Z and now my 510. Not ideal at all for tight auto cross circuits. SO!!!! I going to hypothesize that I like the above truck ratios for 1-4. Now the Z close ratio 5 has that nice .745 overdrive, while the truck has a so-so .813, but I have a solution. I'm going to put the lovely .745 5th gear gear bits from my Z trans into the back side of this nice truck cluster. It's all separate gears behind the intermediate plate, just gotta take ALL the parts from one and stuff them in the other. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! THEN when I break it next I'll stuff the C type in there and live with it's ratio's. You know, a guy could get the bell housing machined for the 62 mm front counter shaft bearing, and strengthen up a B type pretty nice. It's the bearings that give out, never busted a fork or gear set. Who needs those fancy C types with their longer length, wider gears and skinny syncro's anyway? ( read that with a sneer pls).

If its failing that quickly it is likely a defect in the driveshaft surface that rides on the seal. You have four options 1 replace the seal again, but don’t put in in as far as last time. Ie put the seal lip at a different point on the driveshaft surface. 2. use a speedi-sleeve. Google it. 3. replace the driveshaft yoke so you get a fresh seal surface 4 polish the driveshaft sleeve to remove the defect.

This is indeed a problem. The Nissan alloy mags use a special nut as shown above and rely on a tight fit for wheel centering. The shank diameter is not easily available in aftermarket lug nuts of this type, they are all smaller. The Nissan part number is 40224-R4670 and they are over $6USD each! Fortunately Dorman makes a replacement that is more reasonably priced. https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=1848480&jsn=531 DORMAN 611241 Just a note on the amount of run-out I had that caused wheel shimmy. 0.050 on one and 0.030 on the other front. Measured on the side of the rim as the wheel was turned by hand.

I’ll look...

I'd suggest a run out check on the rims. Just put a dial guage on them and spin them and see how out-of-flat they are. I induced this problem with small cheap wheel spacers that were anything but flat. See the linked thread.

I have some used ones and a set of new reproductions if you can’t find any closer to you.

I found a picture of the hazard switch in HLS30 -03798, a 5/70 car. Double triangle.

Excellent advise Dave. When I read the descriptions of all the different gasket makers, adhesives, sealants etc, I find it all highly confusing. Just go read about these products on Permatex website. I guarantee you will be confused on what to use in what situation. Sealants can be gasket makers and sealants. Gasket makers don't seem to be great sealants. My favorite example is when I look at the gasket making products, and come across the category for Anaerobic gasket makers and sealants!!!! Even they can't keep the two apart. ANd then there is whole section on "Gasket Sealants". https://www.permatex.com/product-category/gasketing/gasket-sealants/ Arghhhhhh!!!! No wait. This stuff Permatex® High Tack™ Spray-A-Gasket™ Sealant, is actually an adhesive! It's for sticking gaskets on metal surfaces. Dear lord..... All I want is no leaks and to use fewer paper gaskets. Reading this tonight, it does clear up some of the areas that I have never seen clarified properly about proper use of sealants and gasket makers. Give it a read. Especially RTV gasket makers vs Anaerobic flange sealants. At least it makes it clear how to use each one properly. https://www.permatex.com/ten-common-gasketing-mistakes/ Oh, and the "right stuff" seems like magic.

Ok, pics of what I got from drivetrain.com, kit BK104WS Nicely organize, everything is there, and best of all, the bearings at least claim to be of Japanese origin! you only get the one needle bearing. It is for either the 5 gear or where the front cluster attaches to the main shaft. It's construction is definitely "different" than the originals, or the ones I got from Nissan. Doesn't mean its worse but the cage is definitely more coarse looking.

I'm watching Youtube again to watch how the three major rebuild videos are doing their reassembly again. Thought I'd list them here for reference in one place. All are good their own way, each is different. 1. Dave WM. Video's part 1 to 13. All are called " FS5W71B datsun 280zx transmission rebuild pt X" where X is 1 to 13 (1-13). Some use the word PART instead of pt. I am not putting the URL's for all 13 in here. Actually there is a 3.1, so there may be 14 parts officially. 2. Greg Oslund. Video's call "Datsun 280Z 5 Speed Transmission Rebuild". Single 1:43:00 video doing the whole thing end to end. The description gives a list of the topics covered in what time periods in the video to help you skip ahead to the parts you care about. 0:00 - 28:00 Disassembly 28:00 - 33:00 Intermediate Plate Assembly 33:00 - 45:00 2nd/3rd Gear Assembly 45:00 - 49:40 Press Mainshaft into Int. Plate 49:40 - 52:00 Countershaft into Int. Plate 52:00 - 59:00 4th Gear Mesh with Countershaft 59:00 - 1:02:00 5th and Reverse 1:02 - 1:10 Mainshaft Nut Torque 1:10 - 1:13 Countershaft Nut Torque 1:13 - 1:18 Tail Bearing and Speedo Gear 1:18 - 1:29 Install Shift Rods/Forks 1:29 - 1:30 Final Inspection 1:30 -1:34:30 Case Assembly 1:34:30 - 1:38 Countershaft Shim in Front Cover 1:38 - End Wrap Up/Lessons Learned 3. villageland. This is the silent asian gentleman showing how to tear down and re-assemble an FS5W71B. There are three parts.

Two bearing kits came in today. One from Nissan, one from drivetrain.com. One more to come from transmissionpartsdistributors.com/. They are taking their sweet time shipping. Someone made the label with USPS software, but so far nothing has gotten TO USPS to get on its way to me. Slackers. I will take the kits apart and compare for you at some point.

Dang fooled again! should have looked more closely at that single triangle. Thoughts of uber rare big money switches blinded me. PM me, we will chat switch sales.

Fascinating. Of course there would be a special tool for that. Beats using an awl or an open needle nose plier. Hate to have it slip and scratch the chrome. Given the crazy angles of these handles it's difficult to imagine that tool fitting over them. Is the cylinder of the tool open on one side? Any theories on the variable angle of the handles? I just want to believe they have been bent in use, but the construction makes it difficult to understand how. I've had several apart to clean the contacts but never paid any attention to the handle mechanism.

And is Motive Gear Products catalog pages for the kits and parts associated with the FS5W71* gear boxes Full catalog for everything they sell. https://www.carid.com/images/motive-gear/products/pdf/motive-gear-product-catalog.pdf My reduced pdf with just the Fs5W71 pages (136-138) motive-gear-product-Nissan.pdf

More great break down pictures, this time from AutoZone. What is unique is the text that describes every part. All of the Nissan parts catalog pages I've seen just show the reference numbers. https://www.autozone.com/repairguides/Nissan-Pick-ups-and-Pathfinder-1970-1988/MANUAL-TRANSMISSION/Transmission/_/P-0900c1528004f739 This page also gives you C type trans pictures and STEP by STEP instructions for break down and re-assembly.

Today there is a request for hazard switches in the classified forums which leads me to go to the stash and see what I have to help. Pawing through the group, I see plenty of differences. Of course this brings up more questions. We know about the change to the back lit, round pull knob style switch on the North American 240's in 73, and the shorter wires on the 72 switch (6 pin connector wires), but I was surprised by a couple of differences I didn't know about. The marking on the handles vary, and most surprisingly, as does the angle of the switch's bat style handle from one to the next in either position. All of these are the long lead variety, but there are at least three different marking styles. We likely discussed this before. I suspect the center is oldest, (one triangle), the right second oldest, and third, newest. All of the short lead switches I have share the markings of the switch on the left. All fancy and most clearly marked, must make things "better" don't we? But what surprised me the most was the difference in handle angles in the off and on positions, comparing across all three switches. The first pic has them all in the "ON" position, the second "OFF" Well the handles are simply bent you say from repeated use you'd likely say. I say NOT. Look at the thickness of the metal of the handle. It is both thick and oriented so that its rectangular cross section has the most bend resistant width in line with direction of motion. NO WAY you could bend that metal without doing damage to the switch mechanism. All switches click nicely into both on and off positions. Nothing wonky or loose inside. Let the speculation begin!

http://zhome.com/ZCMnL/tech/240SX5spd/Transmission2.htm Sure enough, its the 1-2 rod that's larger. 16mm vs 14mm But a little 1mm thick bushing could be used to make the C fork "fit" the B rod. Never say die!

And then you find things like this: and you begin to wonder just how similar the C type transmissions are inside. Especially since, as previously mentioned, you CAN get parts for THEM Oh look, there's a couple of "C" cores out on the grass.... (actually a snow bank at the moment). Guess I know what I'm doing this afternoon. Other than shoveling snow....

Now something VERY interesting. I have two 5 speeds and a 4 speed apart. I've been working on and showing pictures from the rusty one with the bad 1/2 fork. The OTHER one, now that I look at it's shift forks (the one with the totally gone counter shaft intermediate bearing) has, just as ZedHead had mentioned as a possibility, shift forks that are exactly like the ones in the 4 speed! Haven't put it on to prove it yet, tomorrow! Roll pin's in the same place by the looks of it, shape and orientation is the same, they are just steel in the 4 speed, aluminum in the 5. Well that doesn't solve my need to source a fork for the other 5 speed, its shifter rod has the dowel pin holes in different places, but you 'COULD' slide the 4 speed fork on and tack weld that sucker in place on the rod. Or drill and tap for a couple of set screws, etc etc. There is always a way! Now I'm cursing myself for all the 4 speeds I've recycled.... and those little balls for the rod detents that go astray, etc etc. Oh well. I also have to take apart a C type and see it THOSE shift forks adapt into the FS5WB.

Ok, stupid insulation is in place. Man I itch all over, but some antibiotics will cure that ? First pictures of the worn fork. Here is the "good" side of the fork so you can so the little plastic wear block with the two pins that hold it. Then the bad side. both tips have the wear block worn right off. The pins push through to the other side, so they stay in place, but look at the groove worn in the entire circumference of the fork from pushing against the selector. Here is the full shot of the bad side. Here is a repost of the shot that showed the groove and selector together so you get the full picture. You can even see the plastic pad pushed away from the fork with the pins keeping it in place. To think about a repair on this part, sure, you could weld up the new groove at the ends where the pads were (that's all that touches), and machine it back down to the right thickness, but very hard to come up with a new wear pad. How long would a newly welded bare aluminum pad last? As long as the shifting is easy and you keep your sticking mitts off the shifter when driving, maybe a long time!

I could clear this all up with a couple of pics. There is a step in the entire fork that was created after the plastic wear tip wore away. Must have been some heavy shifter leaning going on. I’m just engrossed in another shop improvement project (insulating my roof) while I wait for the trans rebuild kits to arrive. Nothing more fun than stuffing fibreglass bats between rafters 12 ft off the floor on a rikkety ladder.