zKars

The strut towers on the late 74-78 cars is quite a bit taller (closer to the ceiling) than the earlier ones. Since the struts are angled inward, I'de guess the tops of the struts are a bit closer together, so the 240 rear strut bar may have to be shortened some. May be enough length adjustment in some of the designes to make it work anyway. The seat belt retractor stuff on top sure gets in the way of all this for sure. Always wondered why they changed that strut height. Don't suppose it was the seat belts? To put a retractor style shoulder belt in, they had to move it from its earlier mounting point. Using the top of the shock tower made sense, but it was too low. So they raised it, and had to add that fat insulator on the strut to compensate. That's my guess. Someone needs to measure across of the center of the struts on a 280 and 240 and report the difference.

Weird indeed. Not the norm at all. I can't see battery size being the issue. Something in the atmosphere is electro-plating those terminals. I wondering if the battery doesn't have a leak. Sprinkle a bit of baking soda around the terminal and see if you get any sizzling...

Great point about the manual way to trigger a spark event with paper interrupting the light and sensor. Also don't forget that you take the whole dizzy out of the block and spin the base by hand to test and trigger spark events, you don't have to have the engine cranking or even running to turn it. Keeps things simpler, quicker to test and hopefull stress free! Good luck!

Notice which one is in front. No surprise!

Don't discount the ignition switch contacts going bad. The start position often becomes finicky. As a test, hook the +side of the coil directly to the battery + with some spare wire, and jump the starter spade terminal to the positive starter terminal to crank it. See if it starts and runs without dying. This totally bypasses the ign. switch. Worth a shot.

Diseazed, ya, I'll check that cam plug too, but I think its good. Thanks for the quick response. I guess I'm at the age that I need a check list rather than relying on my memory for stuff like this. Tough to admit. That's life.... Jim

Well thanks to you-all I have the solution. Just your virtual presence was enough. Actually I just had to write that out to get my thoughts in order. There are two oil gallery plugs, one in the back (I put that one in), and one in the front; which I didn't put back in.... Funny how that causes a short circuit for the oil pump right back to the pan. Easy enough to fix. I'll pretend I'm happy that it was the front one and not the back...... Much messier. And now we also get to find out just how good that Lubri-plate engine break in stuff is that I used....

Gang: Time to call on the engine building experts Finally got to the stage of starting the L28 in a very long term restoration project today. 71 240. Well it runs great, but with just about no oil pressure. oh god, what have i done.... So, the facts: Engine Fresh rebuild, top and bottom. Fresh everything. Including new oil pump. L28 flat tops, F54 block. E31 head, larger valves, stage 3'ish cam, nothing radical. Engine was assembled on stand 15 months ago, and oil pump run with drill and shaft to confirm prime and oil to the head. Everything is great. Engine put in car, but never started until today. Problem: Runs great, but oil pressure on stock gauge was observed just above 0. Changed sender. Same thing. Screwed mechanical gauge in engine port. Same.... Barely moves if at all. Think.. What did you do idiot... Change out new oil pump for used oil pump. Same problem. Oil pump full of oil when removed. It is primed. Remove cam cover, remove dizzy drive and use drill with shaft into oil pump. CCW rotation, 400 rpm drill. Cam is seeing oil at all holes (internal oiled cam, towers have block off plates), but its just dribbling out of the holes. Pump is turning real easy... Oil filter is full. oil dribbles out of engine port when I remove the sender or mech. gauge. Did compression test, 150 psi across the board. Engine ran all of 5 minutes initially before decided to shut it off due to the oil pressure. Block history. F54 block was taken from junkyard zx to machine shop (7+ years ago). Everything was bad. Crank crooked, bores crooked. All was fixed, bored 040 I think, new pistons, rings, crank turned down some, rods sized, undersized bearings supplied. Everything sat disassembled waiting for a car to put it in. I assembled engine 15 months ago for this project car. Checked ring gaps, and a couple of bearing main and rod clearances with plasti-gauge. What I checked looked great. No I didn't check all the bearings, maybe I should have... My bad. So, other than the first thing that comes to mind, like HUGE bearing clearances, what other stuff may I have forgotten that would cause this type of issue? Ideas please!

Spray glue some 120 grit sandpaper to a flat wooden stick, about 3/4" square by about 8 inch long. Use this to remove the gasket material and to keep the surfaces flat as you do it. Do each section between the alignment pins. Only use sandpaper for the last very thin bits, use a single edge razor blade for the rest. Aluminum nicks easy. Go slow. Patience grasshopper.

Clearly its not the pump if the switch made no change. Sorry for jumping to conclusions. Very suspicious that it stays at perfect 70.

Suspect the pres. regulator in the oil pump. Take it apart and clean/inspect.

"The rod is at the machine shop being shortened..." Lose your hacksaw? or did you decide to shorten the end with the clevis?

If it ; Looks like a duck; That “we all fell in love with it the first time we saw it” look, the face with little or no makeup, long lovely body lines and unmistakable rear end.. Smells like a duck; Subtle “odour” of exhaust, and/or raw gas, that blast of Japanese plastic when you first get in... Quacks like a duck; The sweet song of the in-line 6 from behind, and if you’re lucky, triples breathing from the front at the same time... Then it’s a duck...

Comparing the electrical sections of two FSM's will yield more accurate comparisons I think. xenons30.com reference section will help with that. The Fuel injection schematics for the 78 show three separate relays instead of the "pair" that Zedhead refers to that exist in the earlier 280's. There is an EFI relay, a Fuel pump relay and a Fuel pump control relay on a 78, all related to the loss of the AFM fuel pump contacts replaced by an oil pressure switch system. The FP control Relay and FP relay are in the engine bay on the bracket with all teh other relays and V. Reg instead under the dash. Long story short, there may be some "challenges" in putting a 78 harness in your 77....

Aha! Details do matter indeed. Should add your car details to your sgnature. I have a couple of 77 doors by chance at the moment, I can check for spacers at the mounting points, but I don't remember any. new 1/4 window rubber is a real pain. See if the four 3mm bolts that attach it to the body window frame are extra long indicating the window is not sucked into its correct resting spot. There should one be about 1/8" max (or less) between the tab the bolt threads into on the window and the body tab the bolt passes through. If its tight, then its in the right spot and the frame is out of whack. Door games and the hardware are all fresh in my memory from several door related assembly and adjustment chores I've had to do this year. I no longer fear removing and replacing the glass for example. I'll do it on a whim to get better access to swap door handles just for the fun of it now! Those 77-78 doors are SO much better than the early ones, though there are more adjustments....

I have one of the cross members you show in post #1. Its yours for $10 + shipping. Drop me a line to z240@shaw.ca. Glad to get rid of it. The auto/manual labelling on that shot is incorrect. The series 1 z's have a different trans body mount system, where you put the cross member in with two 8mm vertical bolts (which requires the style in-correctly labelled as Auto and the style in post #1), all other s30's use the type with pair of 12mm horizontal bolts, using the crossmember style labelled as manual. I've always wondered about the mount in post #1, ie which came first, it or the one mis-labelled as auto, and if so, what is the VIN break point for their use? Is it an A vs B type trans mount selection for early cars, ie some kind of cross over point where the trans went to the B type, by the trans x-member mounts on the car were still the vertical bolt type? I'm sure someone will chime in with details.

Carl Can't resist a good hunt. http://www.kyb.com/service/installationtips/installationtip08.php "When installing a KYB strut cartridge do not put any water, oil or any other liquids inside of the strut housing. Any existing fluid should be removed from the housing before installing the new cartridge. KYB cartridges are designed and engineered to operate without any additional liquids." Dang, I was planning on smuggling scotch inside my strut tubes... So much for that plan....

Remember that most of what the rebuilder charges for is work you CANNOT do at home. High precision measuring to determine what NEEDS to be done, then if needed, boring, sizing, straightening, etc. Yes you can re-assemble it instead of the shop to save money, but that's not much % of the total cost. You cannot not just replace rings and bearings with stock sizes, run a hone in it, and clean things up to re-assemble and cross your fingers. Waste of time and energy. The engine is in better shape than that right now probably. You MUST pay the shop to at least evaluate things and let you know what NEEDS to be done. Then you can decide what to do from there. The disappointment of the loss of your friends help cannot overshadow the reality of the what it costs to do the motor right. just trying to keep you from a bigger disappointment of the risk of your rebuild turning out worse than it was before for the sake of a few $$. Just keeping it real.

Coming for ZCON then doing the Datsun Classic on the way home! What could be better! Thanks! "Dear Boss: Remember that vacation I booked for Sept 18-23? Well tack on a couple of weeks please. Won't be back until middle of October! Zee ya! "

Wrong link! Nice truck but not 127! http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/rds/cto/3126216840.html

1) For 240 and 280 to end of 76, the sash is held to the door by eight 6mmx1.0 bolts, all about 15-20mm long with a trapped flat washer. There are three at the back edge of the door (exposed), one top rear corner (under door panel just behind the lock pull button)), two front under the door panel, and two more on the angled exposed door edge in front of the window. The 240 and 280 sashes are very similiar, but are not the same, and are difficult to bolt up to each others doors. 280 sashes are easy to spot as they have the groove in the top to hold a piece of weatherstrip. The groove thing I believe didn't start with the first 280's. I've tried to use a 280 sash on my 240 doors to take avantage of that weatherstrip as another wind seal, but no luck getting it to fit. So close... The 77-78 sashes are totally different again. 2) No spacers. 3) It had a break. It was under the tin black vinyl covered rub strip at the bottom of the door. The Kia WS have a natural bend at one spot that I position at the 90deg corner of our doors, then let the break fall where it may. Somewhere near the pin switch I think. Never had a problem with water encroachment. Ain't doors fun?

You have been fooled by a common problem. The 280 rack has a wider spacing on the drivers side bushing flanges, and requires a wider bushing. the poly kits are different for 280 and 240, and the only difference (just about) is that one bushing. Seems like you got the 240 bush in a 280 rack. I see Chuck beat me to it, Thanks!

I have some spares. Drop me a note to z240@shaw.ca and we'll take it from there. The turbo AFM has larger inlet and outlet diameters, your 280 boots wouldn't fit.

looks like the O2 sensor wire.

I feel your pain. Support the diff with a jack and remove the front diff cross member. One 14 mm nut in the center (diff insulator), then four 14 mm bolts that hold the crossmember to the car. The suspension/control arms that it traps will be fine. Hopefully the exhaust lets you have room to wiggle the x-member out. Then it gets easy (er) to get to those drive shaft bolts. The drive shaft bolts have a flat spot on the head that sit in the driveshaft side of the ujoint body, that prevents them turning and must in inserted as you see them, ie nuts to the rear. Good luck. If on the other hand, you are doing this as part of a engine/trans removal, just leave the drive shaft in place and pull the trans/engine out. It will slip right off. I started doing it that way after I got sick of fighting with these drive shaft bolts too.... I just guide the DS back in to the trans as I put the engine/trans back in too. Not that hard.