EverRude

Quick update. Dropped tank. Inspected inside. I am amazed how clean it is. VERY light surface "rust" in a few places I can see but otherwise very clean. However there is some kind of clear plastic floating around inside. Going to know clean it with a poiwer washer then flush it with some denatured alcohol or acetone and finally give everything a quick paint before I reinstall. Ofcourse I will be installing all new hoses. Two of the oriiginal vent hoses were cracked and the upper one was actually leaking and severely deteriorated. My guess is that the one that was dropping the black particulate I was finding in the fuel filter. The clear plastic however was the one truly causing the disruption in fuel flow. Here's some pics. One major benefit of having a primitively wired fuel pump. Easy to pump tank dry and filter the fuel with 2 filters so I can put it back once the tank is back in. One of the pics shows the clear plastic floating around inside tank. It is hard to see but hopefully it'll show for ya. But you can see the tank is very clean, It also has a baffle. Is that correct for an early 240 or is that from another year?

Ok while attempting to service differential I found my rearend clunk. One of the mustache bar bolts of diff was loose. Tightend it and now I can shift without hearing the clunk. However I didn't manage to get diff filler plug out. Will try again today perhaps with some heat and a much longer wrench. But I have another issue. She started not wanting to pull past 3500 rpm. At first I thinking timing. There's a bit of valvetrain noise as I approach that rpm but that isn't the only problem. Car does it siting still as well. Watched the fuel guage. It should read nearly 4 psi. But was reading less than 3. As I reved the motor I watched the fuel psi and it dropped. As it hits zero the motor starts missing. Pulled fuel filter installed on pump inlet. Sure enough there a bunch of gunk there. Not rust. Maybe a particle or two. But mostly something that looks like black rubber and I clear piece of plastic film. Someone dropped something in tank and it's clogging filters restricting fuel flow and not allowing enough fuel for upper rpm running. ofcourse it would built up and stop fuel flow entirely. Now I have to drain tank I just filled yesterday. Ofcourse I drained tank first thing but apparently this crap managed to stay inside but since I didn't find anything in the fuel I drain the first day I hoped it was a fairly clean tank. Pipe dream clearly. Now I have to do it all again. But hey. Atleast I found clunk.

OK new update. Managed to remove the taillight bypass the PO installed and get the normal brakelights and blinkers to function. The hazard switch I got from junk yard was broken. Missing internal pieces infact and I simply used it as a harness to create and plug-n-play bypass. So no 4 way flashers but atleast I have working blinkers and brakelights. Apparently while restoring the tail section harness to operation I managed to connect the sending unit plug and now that works. Works well too. I had maybe 3 gallons of gas in it from a jug and it read just above empty. Drove her to gas station and filled up (about 11 gallons) and she shows full. So that's good. Provided it keeps working I'll be set. Replaced tires. Unfortunately I ended up buying 195/70 14 for my 7 inch wide American Racing Vector wheels. Little narrow for my taste but the only things I could find locally in a wider usuable size was Goodyear T/A and while that would be fine I couldn't afford $120 per tire right now. For $397 installed I got General Altimax RT's. They get good reviews for wet and dry traction and for now that will be fine. Someday I may upgrade wheels and that'll be when I get tires more performance oriented. Last things I NEED to do is service the rearend and transmission. Transmission seems fine but there is a tailshaft output seal leak. I want to service it to buy myself some time before I install 5 speed. However the rearend is making a noise. After about 2 minutes of driving it starts humming. While coasting it's quiet but if I get on throttle even slightly there's a hum. Low on fluid? Going bad? Either way it also has a small leak on passenger side half shaft seal so it needs some servicing. Hope the fresh oil will eliminate the hum. Not holding my breath though. I hope to drive her daily to work for 2 weeks. Track any problems I have and calculate mileage. After that I will install 5 speed and possibly the 2.6 motor I have after I inspect it to ensure it's a good motor. Then track my mileage again to see how the other combo does compared to my first setup. Anyways I am happy with the progress. Just wish it hadn't cost so much. At this point I am nearly 4k into this car and I most certainly could have bought a better car to start with at that price. It's been fun though. I'll probably stop updating this thread after I actually manage to drive her to work for a day or 2.

As some 240's get restored to become more valuable more die to become parts cars or scrap or just rust away forgotten. As long as this continues the ratio of nice vs junk z's. Will dwindle. It'll be harder to find a beater z that worth restoring because parts and parts cars wont exist. Someone correctly mentioned that a mustang coupe and a 240 can be valued around the same in same condition. However the cost and headache to restore a mustang is far less due to the large aftermarket and resttoration part support the stang has. In 20 years with better aftermarket support it might be too expensive drive a 240 much less restore one for the common man. I think the buy it now is a little high but in 20 years with good care that could be one of the few 240's left.

Halfshafts installed yesterday. Didn't have time to do much else but decided to take her for a spin. She sputtered and lurched whenever I would take off. Severely. Once I was leveled out all was good again. But anytime I turned sharply and braked hard I was treated to some severe lurching. Really upset me. I took her home and parked her. Was too late to troubleshoot. So today I decided to sort out that issue. There were several issues I needed to sort out but doubtful they had caused the issue. The SU damper fluid was low. The cylinders would move atleast a quarter of an inch without any damping effect. I understand that could cause a fluttering and mess with venturi and fuel flow. Possible cause of the lurching but doubtful. Still I used a syringe and pulled the existing fluid out as best I could then used 20w 3in1 oil. I decided to try checking timing with a vacuum guage. If you've never done it, it's kinda cool. It does work better on V8's though. Put a vacuum guage on a balancing tube port and adjust timing to get the best vacuum possible with the least amount of needle bounce. The bounce is caused by the valves opening and closing. The smallest ammount of bounce will give you a nice smooth running motor. I set this with the disto vacuum disconnected btw. But I had to retard timing slightly because it was too much advance and cause a hard start. Trouble is without a timing light and not really knowing what disto I have (obviously a replacment) I don't know my total timing. Anyways I was hoping this would help a bit with the hesitation. Advancing the timing caused my idle to change. Jumped atleast 400 rpm. So I rebalanced carbs using Unisyn. Got idle back down to around 900 with a good balance between carbs. That's when she died. Seriously. Just quit. So I tried to start her back up. Nothing. She was plenty warm but I hit choke anyways. Nothing. WTF I asked myself. Several times. Then I noticed the fuel pump was louder. Hmmm. So I checked fuel pressure guage. Zero. Crap I say, using other words. Shut off pump and disconnected fuel pump outlet hose. Dry. Dang. So I disconnected inlet hose. Nada. Crap again. Then it hit me. Outta gas. No way. Seriously? Sonofa... So I figured out the lurching problem. Thinking back it was happening on sharp turns and hard braking and launching. The little fuel in the tank was sloshing away from the pickup tube and causing the pump to loose fuel causing the car to lurch as the fuel was shut off sporadically. Moral of the story? Fix the fuel guage.

Here's a scan from FSM I got from another thread. I needed to do this as well, when I replaced my master. Warning though. Don't pull on the rod to get ahold of it. You pull it out of the socket and cause the rubber reaction disk to fall out which will cuase the same pedal problem but much harder to fix. Have you friend press on pedal to get the rod out where you can get ahold of it for adjustment. Good luck.

It was both carbs. I may remove the bosses when I perform engine swap in a month or so. Today all I managed to do was get the half shaft ujoints replaced. They were a nightmare. They were aftermarket greasable ujoints installed already. Whoever installed them managed to mangle the shaft holes enough with a hammer that I was forced to use a dremel with a small cutting blade to remove the dented metal preventing the joints from separating. Not a fun job. 5 hours of work to replace 4 ujoints. The main drive shaft took maybe 45 min and that was spending some time cleaning the shaft. So tommorrow, if weather permits, I'll install half shafts. Hopefully have enough time to sort out why the fuel guage doesn't work and then repair the blinkers and brakelights to normal operation. Really hope to drive her to work sometime this week. Guys on my crew getting frustrated hearing about my new toy but not seeing it. But however frustrating it was I did make progress today and that's all that matters IMO.

She's running fairly well now. Here's the scoop. Picked up the 2.6 moto,r 5 speed tranny, and 3 screw carb assembly yesterday. After 13 hours of traveling I didn't feel like working on car so waited till today to start swapping. I am doubting the rebuilt motor at this point. But it was just icing on the cake. Cared more about carbs and tranny. Anyways decided to just try carbs first. So I installed them without doing anything. Shoulda checked float hieght but I'll be honest I suspected they were just as bad as my old ones after I got them removed from motor. Alot of play in shaft. I was sure they would leak. They didn't. Had to do floats at that point. Then balanced them. She idles at 800 and both carbs balanced easily. Unfortunately it didn't remove all the off idle hesitation completely but it certainly helped. A quick test drive revealed she still struggled under load a good bit but it was better. Stalled easily on take off. So I searched forum for answers to the stalling and hesitation. I found out the coil and condenser could cause those issues. So I replaced them both from parts from my 70 Mustang motor. Hesitation gone. Load stalling gone. She pulls easily without requiring tons of gas. Runs fairly smoothly in fact and the sputtering I had heard at idle was gone. I drove her around my small backyard in second gear at like 5 miles and hours in circles and she did it smoothly. Before she would stalled and died trying that. So all in all I'm happy. BTW 3 screw carbs suck. There's a boss on side of carb body that prevents the float bowl lid from coming off and being installed with the float attached. WTH is with that? The 4 screws have no such boss and the float lids lift straight up without a need to remove floats first. Anyways while I test drove her I noticed the clunking I had heard before. Now I have all 6 ujoints but I only installed the driveshaft joints before and not the half shafts. I decided to go ahead and do half shafts now that she runs nicely. Unfortunately those are more corroded and caked with grease than the driveshaft so I cleaned then and soaked them with Liquid Wrench to finish tommorrow rather than fight them today. Again I think I did good. Might still get those ztherapy carbs just to get my 4 screws back. But I believe I may just be driving her to work someday this week. Yay.

What is so great about the aluminum drums? Pure originality or the low weight? If they were in good shape should I pull the new cast iron replacements off my car and use the aluminum instead?

You guys are surprising me with your answers. Did not expect door hardware and headlight assemblies. But this is why I asked. I have yet to run into some of these NLA parts.

Here's a list of relevant cars in a local junkyard. I'm wondering if there's anything I should really try to get while they are there. The yard is getting full and I have the feeling a mobile crusher will be coming soon. 1972 240z - Interior gone. SU's gone. Sheetmetal is not bad but as expected floors are shot as are frame rails. Doors fairly solid. Hatch rusted. Hood solid but dented. Fuse panel missing cover but in excellent shape. Has a rear sway bar gold colored so aftermarket. Front sway bar stolen already. BTW rear bumber of that car has overrider bar. Also has a 5speed tranny. I got console (complete it even had choke lever and solid choke cables.), antenna, hazard switch, blinker and headlight switch and a couple of doodads for $75. 1978 280z - Interior crap. Body rusted. Engine and 5 speed tranny in place and complete. There are also three 240sx's and two late 80's 300zx. Is there anything I should look for that is of real value on these cars? Here's the 240z there. Didn't think to take pics of the others.

Actually the $400 was minus carbs. Carbs and intake added another $250. Not worth it by a long shot. I decided to leave that car alone. However I am possibly getting the interior parts I need from it. There's a local junkyard with a 72 240z and I got a ton of parts from it I needed. Thinking about going back for dented bumbers and good looking radiator and shroud. OMW in the morning to pickup a rebuilt 260z motor and 5 speed trans from a hybridz guy that swapped it out with a v6 he installed for more fuel economy and power. He hung onto the engine tranny assembly for 3 years thinking he might get another Z to use it in and is finally selling to clear space in his garage. He swears the SU (3 screw) were perfect and he had recently rebuilt them with a ztherapy rebuild kit. For $450 for engine tranny and those SU's I'm willing to risk it.

I'll look. Thanks for tips. Have a bead on a 2.6 with 78 5 speed and 3 screw tops running and recently rebuilt for 450. Pulled for v6 t5 swap 3 years ago. Guy is clearing garage. Seems too good to be true. But worth risk I think.

Yes there's a local yard that has 2 zx's and 1 z. No 240z but he says they have no been piced over much. I have not managed to stop by yet. Plan to this afternoon.

It isn't just about mileage though. This is more of a "can I sell it" situation for Mrs Moneypenny... I could out and out lie. But haven't done that in 20 years about something I wanted. She's my partener and financial manager. I want her input but she needs facts to help me decide. So at 200 hwy miles a week. With current gas prices. It would take a year for the tranny to pay for itself on a purely economics footing. The other benefits also factor in. Quieter. Less wear on engine. Etc... Also I add the fact I would then have a spare transmission in the event of a failure of the 5 speed. S shaped. Posting pics Below. Think you may be right. Type B 4 speed?

I drive 200 miles a week highway averaging 70 mph. 70 miles or so a week city averaging maybe 25 mph. What other goal would having a 5 speed meet? They stronger? Or better ratios for shifting. Actually my car doesn't have original console and its tunnel has been cut with a torch on the front right area of the opening. Right where 5th gear would be. Actually wondering whether it had a 5 speed at some point.

My 71 still has original 2.4 4 speed. I have a Zcar friend that has a good 5 speed from a 78 280z he's doing a motor swap on. He'll sell it to me for 250. Will the fuel economy difference pay for itself on a daily driver z in say, 6 months? Or are there better places to spend money for economy. I'll have new carbs and all new stock ignition setup... plugs wires points etc...already.

There is a 73 240z close by with complete interior but its automatic. Rusted hull but complete with unmolested harness. 400 worth it ya think? Carbs are weber dgv so useless to me. Auto trans useless. Should I bother? I have space to store so not an issue there.

I know alot of people speak of how important it is to buy the best condition car you can afford. That a mechanically sound rust free car is a superior deal than a non-running rusty project. I agree with one caveat... An unmolested car with all original parts in place is a goldmine. Some might just use her for a parts car but she's still a goldmine. The very idea that the wiring schematics in the FSM actually still apply to your car in whole is very sweet. No hacked up wiring? No strange jumpers to no where? It's nirvana. No speaker holes cut into interior panels? No strange aftermarket parts bolted to her? Sweet. My car on the other hand. I will have alot more money into her than I ever intended just replacing missing interior parts. Sorting out strange wiring. Figuring out what all the PO's did to her over the years. You atleast don't apparently have all that to worry about. Good luck and have fun

Thanks bro. Wish I had waited a few more minutes for a response. Would have saved me 30 minutes of tweaking and frustration. Oh well. You guess was right. Time for new carbs.

Ok it's official. The off idle hesitation is caused by leaky throttle shafts on both carbs. Here's the story. I got rpm down a bit more but it was a rough idle there. So I kept it at 1000 for tuning purposes. Used unisyn and got equal flow to both carbs. I then used fast idle screw to set rpm and used balacing screw to equalize both carbs at 3000 rpm. She still would hesitate off idle. But I thought, what the heck. Quick test drive. Didn't even make it off the pad before she died trying to take off under load. Start it back up and tried to simply give it more gas before releasing clutch. Died again. OK. More gas or give up and keep tuning? I gave up put it in reverse and proceeded to attempt to back up 5 times before I finally had her back on her spot. Started her back up and let her idle. Yep balance good. Running rich though. Practically choking on the gas fumes. I figured she was running well enough now that perhaps I could use some silicone spray to test for vacuum leaks. Sprayed throttle shafts first. RPM went up everytime I sprayed shaft on both carbs. Both side of both carbs. So it's pulling air from shaft on both sides of each carb. Great. Just great. My guess is there are more leaks. I'll find those and fix them, but the throttle shaft leaks I can't fix. Guess it's a good thing wife had already approved funding for some new carbs. Hey Bruce. We need to talk again

Just thinking, was 15mm too much? Or too little rather. Meaning is my fuel level too low in the bowl and now it won't idle properly because of it. Would also explain the off idle hesitation. But not sure it would explain the high rpm. Or maybe my butterfly is open too much at idle. Requiring more fuel at the nozzle (too many turns). This would also explain the off idle hesitation if I am thinking correctly. The burst of fuel needed to come off idle (vacuum drop) should come from the nozzle pool. But that is being used up faster than it can be maintained due to the excessive idle speed caused by the butterfly being too open. I believe I understand this carb fairly well. The process it using to provide fuel and air at the correct rates. The trouble is decided what part needs tweaking to supply it in the right ratios. Think it's the butterfly. Too much air right now. Gonna go test. I'll post back the results

Ok figured out the problem. Turns out after a bit of research I realized I need to set the float levels hanging correctly. Flipping it upside down and setting them was essentially shutting off the fuel completely. Used a 15mm diameter bolt and held the float assembly so the float hung properly. The set the float using the bolt as a go-no-go guage. I also use a pice of tube and blew into the fuel inlet and confirmed fuel shut off just when the float contacted the bolt. After that I reinstalled everything and she fired right up. I managed to set the idle down some to just below 1000 but can't seem to get lower without the engine dying. I set the air balance at that rpm using the unisyn. Then started tweaking the nozzle. I had it initially set at 2.5 turns out. Minor tweaking seems to have no noticeable effect. However making several turns one way or the other does. Raising the cylnder slightly by hand on front carb killed the engine. Didn't try the back yet. Cause now it won't idle without the choke on. There was also a hesitation when I accelerated. If I did it to quickly it wanted to die. Sometimes did die. So looks like I have some more tweaking to do. The off idle hesitation. The high RPM. And the current refusal to idle without choke. BTW Bruce Palmer called me out of the blue when he read my previous post to tell me about the upside down float issue. I had it sorted by then but it was very great of him to call and try to keep me from taking a sledge to my carbs. That is some serious customer service and I appreciate it very much Bruce. Thanks again.

I can't crank her now. I had been attempting to equalize carbs and she died mid tweak. Now I cannot restart. I started trying to set it back where it had been. Still no go. Sure she fires a second then dies. Choke on or off seems to have no effect. Getting fuel because I see the guage pressure and I pulled the hose at carb and let fuel run out. While tweaking I noticed as before the aft carb was doing all the work. The front carb seemed to have no effect. I pull the forward float. Dry. Apparently the float adjustment I made is a bit excessive for that float. It shuts off the needle valve and allows no fuel in. Is the float hieght the same for the original needles and his ball valve or are the needles set at a different height? Anyways just posting to update status. SU's suck.... but I'm getting it. Bet once I figure this out I'll sing praises of SU. Right now though. I want a 10 pound sledge and no regrets.

I'll come up with a switch. Prefer to have my blinkers but I can get by without them for awhile. Atleast brake lights work but I will repair a few of the "twist-n-tape" connections made in that splice for now. The more I look at this wiring harness the more I can see that someone, for some time, spent effort to keep it somewhat right. Some PO went through enormous effort to splice an entirely different fuse panel to the existing harness (presumably when the old fuse panel fried). Ofcourse I sure wish they had saved themselves all that work and simply gotten another fuse panel from the same year car or the MSA panel. But nope. They cut harness connectors to fuse panel then proceeded to connect wires using butt splices. The new panel is larger but still has glass tubes. Betting it's from a later year Z. Still a completely different fuse panel spliced in, wire by wire, and the only thing (aside from this missing flasher switch) that doesn't work is the fuel guage. All guages and guage lights work. Even the brake pressure switch light works. Back up lights work. Alt works. Overall I think someone did a good job. The potential was there for many more issues. This brake light splice, and 4 way flasher switch thing, is clearly someone else's last minute hack job. Well. Actually all of it was a hack job. But some was better performed than others.