HS30-H

Kats, If this is for the L24 in your 240ZG, I would go with the later system. It seems to me that it is more appropriate for the later car. For my 432-R replica project car (1970 Fairlady Z-L based) I found a full 20010-E4201 and 20050-E4200 system. I am using an R192 diff in the stock, early, location. Pipe bending/shaping on the early system is very distinctive!

Hi Kats, My impression is that the white paint mark on the 'U' clamp corresponds with the rubber 'snubber' block. The thread on that side is longer, and corresponds with the snubber block. When fitting, you tighten the nut on the side with the shorter thread just to the point where it is snug, then you tighten the nut on the snubber side so that the snubber block is firmly against the crossmember. The longer thread on that side allows you to do that. That's the way I've fitted them before, and it seems to make sense to me.

Not with an HLS30-prefixed chassis number and that build year. 'European' mainland market would only be RLS30 ('260Z') and GRLS30 ('260Z 2+2') from late 1973 through 1978.

If the car has a "back seat" (ie, it's a 2+2) and it doesn't have a letter 'G' in the chassis prefix, then it's an impostor. And if it was indeed built in 1978, and was for the north American market, then it was never a '260Z' whether 2-seater or 2+2. You're not describing it very well, either way. Is it a 2-seater or a 2+2? All S30-series Zs are "2 dr". Does it have a North American market door jamb tag and dash tag, or not? When you mention "vin number", are you referring to the full number engraved on the firewall sheetmetal (have you checked it?) and not just the tag in the engine bay?

So what was the "low VIN club guys" comment all about then?

(my bold) What's the "..."not worthy" thing..." you are referring to? Have I missed some posts? With respect, I think you have to expect straight talk on a marque specialist forum. I'm not going to blow smoke up your rear end for you and if I see claims - no matter who they are attributed to - that I believe are mistaken, unlikely or just plain wrong then I'm going to speak up. I think it's fair to say that I know a little bit about the Japanese market models and I'm probably one of their most passionate advocates on this forum. I think I have a pretty good handle on what your car was and is, and if you put it in front of us on this forum I'm going to say it as I see it. As a car enthusiast, I can't believe you would honestly want to hear only *good stuff* or have people swallow every tenth-hand tale whole? If you acknowledge this forum's integrity - which I think you have done, by asking your questions here - then you have to accept that you might not necessarily be pleased by every response you get. Am I right? My feeling is that these cars can tell us a lot if we only learn to listen. Your Fairlady - even from the limited photos you have posted - says quite a lot about itself. I think the fact that the rear arches have not been cut, and that the trailing edges of the lower section on the G-nose have not been relieved says a lot, and it's likely that it has never been fitted with very wide wheels, as many were in-period. My personal view is that this is a good thing, both for the lower panel of the G-Nose (they are worth more if they have not been chopped) and the 'shell of the car, which is - in my opinion - better off in stock configuration. I've already stated that I think it very unlikely that this car was circuit raced in period (scrutineering for even the most basic clubmans races in Japan would require fuel and safety-related changes that would be difficult to erase completely) and I also think it much more likely the RHD to LHD conversion was done in USA than in Japan. Some deeper research would surely answer a lot of questions. You asked about value but - as has been pointed out - the photos are not enough to go on. In my first reply I asked about the firewall-engraved body number, but you have not answered that question. It's quite an important point for the destiny of the car, I think. So too are the details of the RHD to LHD conversion. From your description, it sounds as though this was not a whole firewall change and that the original RHD details were covered or patched? To my mind that makes it more viable to be reversed. As an early 1970 production car, it surely makes much more sense to turn it back to its original RHD layout - even if you are forced to use slightly later componentry (such as the dash, for instance) - as if it's kept in LHD configuration it is neither fish nor fowl. It doesn't need to be 100% stock. Some Japanese period-correct touches would not be frowned on, but I think it needs that RHD layout for it to actually mean something in the context of its true origin and its original market. The G-nose, to my mind, seems a little incongruous on an early 1970 car. Stock body would surely make more sense?

See that? Three sentences that make me think I've taken acid and accidentally wandered onto zcar.com. I mean really, WTF? LOL... If there was any low-VIN bingo going on I certainly didn't notice it. Shame I missed it if there was, as I would have enjoyed the delicious irony. Here's a heads-up for you; The car in question is (according to the engine bay identity tag) an S30-prefixed, early 1970 production dated 'Fairlady Z-L'. Harry Potter would struggle to make it a "240Z". Even Nissan Shatai would struggle with that one.

Sorry, but this is utter fantasy. Nissan were simply not in the business or habit of undertaking such modifications. The (road traffic ministry related) ramifications alone make it a bureaucratic nightmare. If said G.I. wanted an LHD car, why didn't he just buy one? I'm sorry, it's just nonsense. I can imagine a situation where a local privateer 'shop' may have undertaken such a task, but where did the donor LHD parts come from? The further you get away from 1970 the less likely it all becomes too. Tall stories tend to attach themselves to such cars, and get bigger with the telling. Usually doesn't take much to dismantle them. I'd class this with your "factory race seats" claim. Doesn't stand up to any level of serious scrutiny. It's a (roughly) period-modded early 1970 Fairlady Z-L. Cool in it's own right. I think exaggerated claims and unsubstantiated 'race history' don't really help us to understand or evaluate the car as it stands.

OK, so names, ranks and serial numbers please? These "well known people in the Z community" are whom? If the car has been raced, there will presumably be event names, dates and results to back that up? The "President of his local Z club" has a name, I presume? If you make the claims - even by proxy - they have to be backed up. Hearsay is not good enough. I don't want to break a butterfly on a wheel here, but I see little evidence of the car ever being scrutineered and raced in period. First of all, who raced a 2-litre L-gata engined car in period (yes, names ranks and serial numbers please) and where is the factor max that proved the fact on the car itself? I see bone stock road car with period 'street' mods, not period-modded race car. Fuel system? Suspension? Brakes? Safety? Where's the scars? This car just doesn't have any aura of period race car about it. Not even a sniff...

Whoa there! Who said it was raced "by the factory"...? It would be news to Nissan, since they never took the 2-litre L-gata engined cars racing or rallying. They had the 432, 432-R, HS30 and HLS30 for that... I honestly don't see anything about this car that would suggest it was a proper race car in period. Wannabe street racer maybe, but more likely a typical Japanese street custom of the period.

It's almost impossible to take a stab at value in current condition with so few photos to go on. From what I see so far, it's in a bit of a mess. The true extent of the corrosion is a worry, as is the nature of the 'LHD conversion'. From your photos so far it looks as though wiper configuration was included, so perhaps radical changes to sheetmetal under the cowl (what happened to the heater inlet duct 'chimney'?). To reverse all that might be difficult, requiring RHD parts to replace. Properly restored? I think it's a moot point. Again, from the limited photos I see a LOT of original parts missing. Rounding up the correct parts for an early production LHD car is hard enough, but you can multiply it by a factor of ten for early RHD. If you start writing out a list it gets long pretty quick, and long means expensive. Proper restoration costs would easily outstrip the value of the finished car in your market. This is a car that needs to find an owner who will do what it takes without paying too much attention to the bottom line.

Yes, hood hinge and front bumper look to be correct for genuine Nissan-supplied items. Hard to value with so few photos though. Condition is important.

Some observations; 'S30-01036' would indeed be an early 1970 production (probably January or early February) S30-S Standard model 'Fairlady Z' or S30 Deluxe model 'Fairlady Z-L'. A closer look at your remaining trim and accessories should tell you whether it was a Standard or Deluxe model, but it's more likely to be a Deluxe just based on the law of averages and the stainless trim that I can see. The G-Nose assembly, whether it indeed is a genuine factory item or an early aftermarket copy, would have been attached to the car after (probably quite a way after) October 1971. The original colour of the car looks to be #905 red, which would be correct for a 1970 production Fairlady Z or Z-L. The 'Grand Prix Red' choice on the Fairlady 240ZGs was actually #110, so a different shade. It's kind of a moot point anyway as your car clearly isn't a Fairlady 240ZG. I don't see anything specific that would point to circuit race use in-period. The seats are aftermarket sports seats and are certainly not factory race seats, the centre drop bar brackets for the roll hoop look to be an aftermarket copy of the Nissan Sports Option items (yours appear simplified in comparison to originals) and there's an awful lot of interior re-trim with non-standard materials evident, along with a later centre console. It looks like a fairly typical 70s/80s 'street tune' car to me. The photo of the left door interior looks - to me - to show it is a later replacement. Does the engine bay tag match up with the body serial number engraved on the firewall?

The whole point of the vernier adjustable cam sprocket is that you set the cam timing to the cam card, using a degree wheel and pointer on the crank and a DTI on the valve spring cap.

Recently manufactured garbage. Much discussed (with choice four-letter emphasis) when advertised on Farcebook. I thought you were against trash, or is it just the cheapo 'Made in China' type you don't like...?

The Japanese market got the choice of L24-engined S30-series Zs when they were added to the domestic lineup in late September 1971, installed in the HS30-S 'Fairlady 240Z', HS30 'Fairlady 240Z-L' and HS30-H 'Fairlady 240ZG'. They were discontinued in late 1973 following the effects of the Yom Kippur War, the OPEC oil embargo and the consequent 'Oil Shock' in Japan.

No. A 'Dead Cat Bounce' is a drop followed by a small revival (the bounce) immediately followed by the final drop to the bottom. The analogy being based on the fact that a living cat will (proverbially) land on its paws and not bounce. A dead cat on the other hand will hit the deck and bounce once, then hit the deck and stay there. Live cats don't bounce. The bounce is proof that the real trend is down.

If by "non-locking" you mean the same thing: It's simply a 60 degree tapered collar that is crimped (lightly) to the shank of the nut, allowing it to spin freely and independently of the nut. That 60 degree taper sits on a matching 60 degree taper in the wheel, allowing the nut to tighten up onto the wheel stud and spin on the flat side of the collar. It accurately centres the (stud centric) wheel on the wheel studs, and saves the nut from galling the wheel. Simple. It's a fancy washer, in essence. Small Fords of the 1970s had a similar design (although 1.5 pitch) and RS Watanabe's in-house nuts do too.

Forgive me for being blunt, but you seem to be trying to make the evidence fit the crime here. A lot of what you are saying seems to depend on both non flame-resistant/flammable and flame-resistant/non-flammable being in circulation/use at the same time (if not, then why the stickers to denote a difference?). Having two types in production does not make any sense from a manufacturing or legislation-compliance point of view. There were many examples of changes to detail, content and construction on these cars over the years. You seem to be quoting (USA specific) MVSS compliance as a single point of reference, but the S30-series was designed, manufactured and sold for many other markets too. One of them was Japan itself of course, which was fast tracking new safety and anti-pollution legislation for the auto industry during the period we are talking about. Nissan had to keep a weather eye on being compliant in its export markets of course, but the new Japanese regulations were some of the strictest in the world at that time and many updates were made to Japanese market cars during the production run. Proof of compliance was the burden of the manufacturer, and numbered classification of compliance was noted on each vehicle (quite literally, on the engine bay tag) and on paper by chassis number. On the north American market cars the main declaration of compliance is noted on the door jamb tag. There was no need to label every updated item on every car. So we know that the 'Nan' sticker is for internal - sub-contractor/manufacturer - use, affixed to interior plastic panels to denote some sort of distinction. Exactly what that distinction consisted of is still somewhat up for debate, but when we originally discussed this on the forum the concensus was that the stickers were a quality controller-applied inspection sticker denoting parts that needed a little extra fettling/trimming/touch-up and/or re-colouring. There is evidence of re-finishing and re-colouring on many of these panels. They are large panels of fairly complex shapes, but quite thin. There is a moulded-in texture on the outer face. The material is a styrene based plastic and rejects at certain points of production (tooling warm-up, replenishment of raw material, colour change, snag-ups, etc etc) would have been common (I used to work in the injection mould tooling industry, so I know a little about this). I think there would have been the need for good quality control on these parts. I think the 'Nan' stickers were part of that. About the language side of this: I think if you show the 'Nan' sticker to any native Japanese speaker you'll get pretty much the same reaction. They will read it as 'Nan', and *translate* that into English as meaning 'Difficult' or [a] 'Difficulty'. Which in itself shows that proper *translation* of Japanese to English requires a little more depth of focus. Here's an entry from my 1968-dated Kenkyusha Japanese-English dictionary, which I think is a good indicator of common-usage in the period concerned: You can pair the 'Nan' Kanji with many other syllables to modify and alter their meaning, but the sticker itself leaves us hanging by using the 'Nan' Kanji on its own and therefore being rather cryptic. I think all evidence clearly points to it meaning - literally - 'Defect' or 'Defective' to the people using it. I'm guessing that the factory workers didn't bother removing the stickers after any rectification was carried out, and that any ultimately rejected panels simply got thrown into a recycling cage or dumpster at the moulding shop. I simply don't buy the flame resistant theory as these panels - even with 'Nan' sticker applied - are certainly nowhere approaching fire safe. They melt-burn and the thick black smoke they give off in doing so will kill you in short order. I'm interested to hear what others think.

It's an interesting theory, but I'm not convinced. For one thing, the 'Nan' stickers appear on the reverse of many interior panels that date well before 1973 (I personally have them on two 1970 build cars) so why would they be putting them on panels that early before your 1973 FMVSS? I can also vouch for having a mixture of 'Nan' stickered plastic panels and non-stickered panels on my cars, which doesn't seem to make sense in the context of fire retardency. Those panels are made from a Styrene based material which burns good and smokes bad. It's horrible stuff. There's nothing much flame-resistant about it and there's nothing much safe about it in modern terms. I think the problem for us in trying to decipher the meaning of the 'Nan' sticker is that it was never meant for our understanding. They were internal, manufacturer-applied QC labels which we - as civilians - were not supposed to see let alone understand. The kanji character used is somewhat cryptic on its own and is open to wide interpretation, as we can see. It's certainly a negative, but meaning what? If the sticker signified a distinction in fire resistance of retardence, I'd expect to see something specifically referring to the subject of fire, and 'Funen sei' ('non-inflammable') would be more along the lines of common usage, perhaps abbreviated to 'Funen'. We had another thread on this topic in the past with much more input from individual members, but I can't find it. There was more discussion of the panels themselves, in terms of finish/re-finishing, colouring etc all coming at the subject with the idea that the 'Nan' sticker indicated a negative in quality control. There's certainly a lot of evidence that points towards quality control problems and that re-finishing/re-colouring was common. I still feel we are looking at a 'Defect' quality control sticker.

Jason, Yes, I have a set but you'll have to prise one out of my cold, dead hand. Originals are not replaceable! I've shown them to a few engineering shops, most of whom don't want to know. Apparently they'd need to make a special fixture to crimp the 60 degree collar onto the nut *just right* (so that it spins freely), and minimum 5,000 off. Nuts.

Well, I'm all ears. If PerTronix has any clear British DNA, then let's hear it. Where's the (roast) beef?

A better translation of the 'Nan' Kensa sticker in this particular situation would be 'Defect'.

LOL. Especially to you, it seems. From Per-Lux, through Grote International to PerTronix Inc, there's no "British Engineering" connection: http://www.pertronix.com/about/default.aspx http://www.grote.com/about/history/ Loving the Canadian connection in there. I guess for you irony is how you get those nice crisp folds in your shirt.