JimmyZ

With the engine and tranny and front suspension out the car becomes VERY light. My car stayed straight and showed no signs of deformation. (diagonal measurements) Just be sure to support the front end evenly. Use weldable primer for your plug welds. Enjoy Jim

I wonder how the factory applied the original stuff. It looks kind of lumpy to me much like a powder mixed with some sort of adhesive. I'd love to get my rear defrost back. Mine fizzled out 18 years ago.

That's funny! Makes one wonder how many beers does it take to forget leaving something like that in the engine. Wonder how bad the guide got bent or if it snapped any mounting bolts. I've heard that the newer timing guides aren't as wide. My friend Norm mentioned that he had heard of trouble with new production guides. Maybe this is some example of a "genius" redneck enginneer creating a new anti chain flopping device.

Here's a page I made about fixing a gas tank. http://warbuddies.homestead.com/gastank.html Some of the pictures at the bottom may be of help. You should be able to remove the filler neck and/or the sending unit and use a flashlight and mirror to sort it out. Try removing the filler plug and blow air through the tubes. You may be able to hear it coming from the end of the tube. Cheers Jim

That's a VERY cool find! Wonder what persuaded them to do a Z theme?

Here's a page I made for stuff like that.. Hope it helps. http://warbuddies.homestead.com/restohelp.html

Mine was lime but I painted it red because the wife said she hated the color. I think lime is a PERFECT color for the car. It fits the era and look of the car very well. Next time I repaint it's going back to lime.

Thank God only one person was hurt. That in itself is pretty amazing. Good to hear that your Z made it through. Natural disasters suck.

What steps have you taken to isolate whether it's a fuel or ignition problem?

I'm assuming you don't have welding equipment... You can aquire a used 110V MIG welder for a $100-150. Buy a 40cuft Argon/CO2 cylinder for a couple hundred with contents. (grab a spool of .023 wire too) It's easy to learn MIG. IMHO if you get a Z... especially one like that you'll need to do some welding. Perhaps you meant that you didnt want to do major structural repair. (frame rails etc) I was astonished to see a friends fathers five year old truck almost completely rusted away from northern driving. Poor guy had already replaced his brake lines and the his oil pan developed a rust hole! The $1500 Z's floor pans are toast BTW. I'd offer him $250 and use it soley for parts. 2c

Beautiful Z! Awesome find! You really saved yourself some effort in finding such a complete and well tended car. Did anyone else mention checking the gas tank for rust or giant varnish deposits? No telling what's happened inside the tank.

Do a search on this site. The gas tank issues have come up many times. Dropping the tank is easy. Putting it back in can be frustrating. The main hassle is getting the filler neck back on. Many posts on that too.

I was around 8 when I saw my first Z and remember thinking "now there's a COOL car"! Saved up my pennies and when I was 19 bought the car I was destined for. It was such a hard road getting to the goal of owning a 240 I cried in sheer happiness driving it home. I think the guy that owned it cried a bit too... he just had to have a better race trailer though. The car has a oneness with the road and communicates so well in so many ways. I'm at a loss as to how anyone can drive it and not realize the Z experience is very special. Mine takes me to and from work 80 miles every day and I still choose to turn down offers of a company vehicle in favor of the Z. Driving it is that much fun! In 22 years of ownership I can count on one hand the number of times the car has let me down... Only two times has it stranded me and required a tow. What more can be asked? It is and was a near perfectly designed/built car. Like Heston said, they'll have to pry my cold dead hands...

Ditto what Arne said... Gotta have a flowmeter. You'll be surprised how fine an adjustment it takes to sync the carbs. (fractions of a turn) You can adjust mixture without synchronizing but it's not the proper thing to do. You'll have three cylinders using a different volume of air than the other three. Without the carbs sync'd the usual "raise a carb piston" while running method won't work well. I suppose in a pinch you could make a flowmeter with the proper tools. It's much cheaper to buy one. I have often thought how nice it would be if our Z's had vaccum nipples like motorcycles. Then synchronizing would be as easy as hooking up a set of mercury gauges and would be much more accurate. A mercury gauge set is much more expensive than a flowmeter. As far as making the mixture richer there are several things affecting mixture when it comes to SU's. Assuming the fuel system is delivering properly to the bowls,the carb parts are within tolerances and the float level is right there are two things determining overall mixture... The nozzle adjustment and the needle. As you lower the nozzle by turning the adjusting wheel more fuel is administered. This is because the needle is tapered towards the base and is now permitting more fuel to pass. If you have completely bottomed the nozzle adjustment and the car is still running lean then you have other problems. Keep trying! You'll find it's a easy/fun car to maintain once you're familiar with it and have a few essential tools. There's a certain pride/feeling of accomplishment in owning a Z. The Z will teach you a LOT as well. It's changed my life for the better and I'm not the only one.

I'll echo a lot of what Dave said and add a little. If it were me I'd do it in a certain order. As far as the throttle sticking the linkage has a few places it can stick. If you remove the linkage from the carbs do the throttle plates move freely? Isolate the linkage or the carbs as the culprit. Rule out the ignition completely before tinkering much with the carbs. Verify that the plugs are clean and the points are new and set to the right gap. Use a dwell meter as a final check of your points setting. A dwell check can also show how much slop there is in the distributor bushings. When checking dwell verify that the rpms are correct otherwise the reading will be different from specs. Be sure the condenser is new as well. Doesn't hurt to have a new cap and rotor either. Supposing that the ignition system is good... If you DON'T have round top SU's ignore the rest of this post. I'm assuimg that since it's a 72 it does have what came with it. (Round T's) Flat tops are a different creature. With a proper ignition hard starting either warm or cold indicates inadequate fuel supply. (This gets deep sorry) After installing a new fuel filter do your normal SU carb maintenance. Clean the domes and pistons and verify free travel once all the screws are tightened. For the float bowls verify that the bowls are clean and that the needles/nozzles are clean and move freely. Do a search here for setting float height. There have been some really neat tricks and specs posted. One thing that caught my attention was a 70's dealer update to the factory specs of float height regarding differing heights of front and rear floats. (I think geezer posted that one) Here is one site with a different method for setting up carbs than I've been taught. Might be worth a try... http://datsunzgarage.com/engine/index.htm After the carbs have been cleaned and inspected and the floats set, do the usual mixture adjustment outlined in haynes and other manuals. If the hard starting still occurs then your fuel rail could be suspect. Don't enlarge the restrictive orifice at the discharge end when cleaning. It maintains your fuel pressure. Remove the rail from the car fill the rail with laquer thinner and blow with compressed air. Pay special attention to what comes out of the discharge end. If anything comes out at all clean the crap out of it. If the rail won't pass fuel then no amount of tinkering with the carbs will solve anything.

WOW!!! Very nice! Did you do the soda blasting yourself or have someone visit with a rig. Looks like a very thorough job whoever did it. Nice!

Bummer to hear about the extra damage Dave. Isnt there a freeze plug or two (coolant related) underneath the front cover? (It's been a while since I had one apart) I installed all new (steel plated) freeze plugs three years ago and am already having to replace them. Guess the plating on the steel freeze plugs isn't what it used to be. The last set of steel plugs lasted 15 years. A friend of mine had a Ford Taurus that had all his plugs go from rusting through. He was in a tight spot finacially so I helped him replace them. When the plugs inside the bellhousing/behind the flywheel let go I told him to get another car. Next time I rebuild I'm definitely using BRASS plugs.

With your battery hooked up to a load are you still getting decent voltage? How was the battery tested? If you try a new battery or simply hook some jumper cables I'd try testing the main supply wire for the harness. (White wire with red stripe) The large white wire with the red stripe provides your entire electrical system it's "+" side. (except starter high amp cable of course). This white/red stripe runs through your ammeter gauge and down to the fuse panel. Use a voltmeter to check this wire starting at the starter terminal where it originates working back through the dash. Hook the negative lead of your tester to batt ground and use the positive pointed tip to pierce the insulation at various points. It will help to have a load on the wire so have your headlamps ON during the test. This way if you had poor contact somewhere you would clearly see the voltage drop. The three most likely areas to have trouble are down by the starter, on the back side of the ammeter or the harness connection to the fusebox. (which is behind the heater panel) On my car I had a bad crimp connection give me intermittent power loss much like you have just had. Mine was a bad crimp where the short starter line plugged into the main harness white/red wire. BTW it is not uncommon to have things get baked in the vicinity of the ammeter also. When I had my dash out I found a few wires with melted insulation around the ammeter. Fixed 'em of course. Hope this helps.

Wow! I thought that the only way to go was to get a new master cylinder. (Which I did from Nissan for $300) It looks like Bendix churned a few more kits out because everyone was out of them a few years ago. Be completely certain that RockAuto is selling you a kit for the early MC. Ask what year ranges the kit covers and if there is a different part number for the post 8/71 cars. If I recall they didn't have the kits or were going to sell me the later style kit when I tried them years ago. 2c Jim

Zark Which pattern did you use and where can one get small quantities? The ashtray idea is intriguing. Someone might even create a custom heater panel.

If I recall the diameter is 8mm?? (Could be wrong) I used linear shafting rod and cut to size. The case hardness of the shaft is something like 64 Rockwell which is overkill. Use an air cutoff tool or a 4-1/2 grinder with cutting disc. A hacksaw won't begin to cut this stuff due to the hardened case. You can get linear shafting through MSC or McMaster Carr. FWIW, 2c etc Jim

Silly question but did you pull and check the plugs? A friend of mine with a 280Z had a similar problem. I asked him if his plugs were fouled and he said they were fine. He NEVER actually checked them! (Since he had JUST replaced them he "ASSumed" ) After driving 100+ miles to visit and assist the first thing I did was to check the plugs. (Black/fluffy RICH) It turned out his ECU was bad and somehow causing the car to run super rich. Things were so bad a set of fresh plugs was fouled in less than 5 minutes.

Looks like you were lucky. My 2/71 Z wasn't. IIRC I got mine at Black Dragon. From what I've read it's the same supplier that MSA uses. (Precision RP) The hard closing issue has come up in a few posts. (Nice to know I'm not crazy) My door seals from precision were large enough to make opening the door difficult and closing took a healthy slam. Trying different adjusments on the door hinges, etc was no help. Things were so bad I actually broke a door handle. The door seal in question had the pinch strip integral with the rubber. Other that the door seals I was very happy with the rest of the kit. It's a real bargain if only for the windshield and hatch rubbers. Darrel. Good to hear that it's working for you! I don't think that the picture you posted is of a stock "early" Z weather strip. I believe that the early Z's used a pinch strip separate from the rubber. I really excited at the possibility of finding an affordable wx strip. I did save the article info about using JC Whitney strip but have put it off. Jim

Curious. Will these work on 240's made before 8-71? I thought there was a difference. For instance, the "all in one w/strip kit that you can buy from MSA/Black Dragon has door seals that don't work on my early Z. From what I've read they do OK on 72-78 Z's though.

I thought someone in the group was playing with this idea already. You did mean interior door panel right? If you made something that Les Cannaday could work with then I'd be game. (Les' recovering service)