Weasel73240Z

Well put Stephen.

The car is in New Hampshire. Way up north in New Hampshire about 3-1/2 hours from me. The owner just emailed me again, says the car is solid and intact. No major rust or even bubbles (according to him). Some "stress cracks" in the trunk that he says are from the fuel tank mounting straps (sound right?). From the pics, it looks like a lot of the chrome has surface rust, but its all there. He sent me this pic of the engine compartment, but thats about it for now.

I just heard back from the guy w/ the Roadster. He's interested in the trade, so I asked for more pics/info about the Datsun. I only have about $1,300 into the Triumph, so that's what I would be "paying" if I were to swap straight up. I would guess $1,300 is a pretty good price if the Roadster isn't a basket-case. When I hear back with more info and pics, I'll update you guys to get your opinions. Thanks.

I've located a 1968 Datsun SPL311 Roadster about 200 miles from me, and I'm thinking about buying it. Actually, I'm trying to put together a trade for a 1974 Triumph Bonneville 750 that I have. The guy with the Datsun seems interested so far. My question is, what are these cars worth? Its running, but overheats. It needs some body work, and the interior is a bit dirty, but overall based on pics only, it looks like a pretty solid little car to start my next project. Also, are parts still available for them? Thanks.

I guess he's given up...over on zcar.com...he's talking about turning his Z into a 4 x 4????? :sick:

Walter...that is awesome info, and I think I just confirmed that I'm not getting enough total advance with my dizzy. That may explain my hesitation. According to your info, I should get about 37 degrees of advance (17 mech and 20 vac.), and I'm only getting about 23 - 25 total. I think the answer is a lighter spring in my advance mechanism. I bought the new advance unit from a local Nissan dealer, along with the new breaker plate, but its not a Nissan part (I think its a Beck/Arnley). Is it easy (and possible) to change the spring in the advance unit?

Also, spend the money on the brass shifter bushings..well worth the extra $$. Hope this advice ain't too late....

Yup...it did. I guess I'll try a bit more with the fuel/timing before I go replacing anything. And yes, all connections were cleaned, or in most cases replaced with new gold-plated terminals. And I believe they're all tight, but it couldn't hurt to check again.:paranoid:

Thanks, I'll try dropping the timing back, but I remember it doing the same thing when it was at factory spec (7 degrees). Also, pardon my ignorance, but what is the significance of the lower ohm rating for the Blaster coil? I have just enough electrical smarts to be dangerous.... :laugh: Just curious if the difference in ohm rating means that I may be best off going to the stock 280ZX coil, instead of the MSD.

OK, now that I have the tranny taken care of, its time to work out this minor hesitation that I'm getting at around 3,500 or 3,800 rpms. I'm almost scared to get it running too well, the 4.11/4-speed combo is a real screamer, I almost lost the car sideways shifting from 1st to 2nd at 4,200 rpm's, pulling onto Route 44 today. Background....stock L24, new ZTherapy carbs at about 3.5 turns out, (rebuilt) 280ZX dizzy with new vaccuum advance unit and new breaker plate (E12-80 unit is old - is this possibly a problem?), new MSD Blaster 2 coil. Dizzy has 8.5 degrees of mechanical advance (17 total) and vacuum advance works. I get about 25 degrees of total advance. Have initial timing set at about 12 or 13 BTDC. New NGK plugs (.025 gap), plug wires (8 mm NGK), rotor, cap. When I removed the plugs to inspect, I noticed the #4 plug was wet and fouled, the others were a nice white/brown color and dry...possible valve adjustment needed? I'm still getting a slight hesitation when I accelerate hard at around 3,500 - 3,800 but it goes away when I get past 4,000 or so. Also, it seems like the hesitation is most notable in 1st gear, and less severe if I'm in higher gears. I tried pulling the choke levers up to richen the A/F mixture, no change. The problems happens at all temperature ranges. I don't remember getting this hesitation with the old points set-up. I'm beginning to suspect that the alternator (original 40 AMP) isn't getting me adequate juice to fire the MSD coil at 3,500 - 4,000 rpm's, and I'm thinking about the 60 AMP upgrade that they sell at MSA. Any ideas before I drop the $120 on the alternator upgrade. Am I totally off the mark thinking the alternator could be the problem? Also, if anyone has a good E12-80 module for sale, I'd love to carry a backup. They are tough to find in the boneyards up here in New England. Thanks.

I 2nd Steve's advice. Stick with the L6, its a great motor and was designed to be in your Z. If you do the V8 swap, there are plenty of hurdles to deal with, the cost of the motor and tranny, and motor mounts, the tranny mount, and new driveshaft, plus you would likely have to reinforce the body to handle the extra torque. You could kill you rear differential with a V8 swap also. Diagnose your wiring, starting from the key all the way to the injectors, I would guess that thats where the problem is. Get a decent multimeter, and learn basic auto electrical repair. Once you learn how to use a multimeter, its not that hard.

Sorry this took so long, forgot about you. It doesn't look like a sticker at all, it looks like the letters "CHOKE" are etched right into the plastic. Hope these help.

Just to close out the thread, I re-installed the 4 speed this morning. The 5 speed is going out to be rebuilt soon. I probably should have had it rebuilt before I installed it this Winter, but I was counting on it being fine. Live and learn. The 4 speed is smooth as silk, but the car is gonna be limited to side roads until the 5 speed is done. 4 speed, 4.11's and 14" tires, taching at about 3,800 to do 60 mph!

Not looking to be the board police, and I know you're only 16, but I can't help at all, because I can't understand what you're writing. :stupid: You may have limited mechanical knowledge, which is fine, and that's why these guys are great, they can help. But try throwing in a period, some punctuation, form a sentence, and you'll get more help. I know you're writing in txt spk, but I think most of the people on this board are a little older, and speak actual English. Sorry if I'm preaching. Going out to the garage to swap my 4 speed back in today.

I like the car, don't love it, and John just made me realize why. Its those headlights.

Nothing is blocking the movement of the gear shift. It slips into 5th gear if the engine isn't running, but also pops back out real easily if I spin one of the tires when its in 5th. It goes into reverse without grinding, just kind of takes a bit more effort than it should. I definitely just used the 240 TO and collar, and didn't press on any different bearing. So it sound like I need to order the correct ZX collar to start.

I just thought of something else which may indicate the wrong throwout bearing being my issue. I took off the slave cylinder (didn't disconnect) from the side of the tranny, and I noticed that there was quite a bit of play in the clutch fork. I probably had to move the fork backward about 1/2" -3/4" before I felt it make contact with the springs on the pressure plate. I know the hydraulic action of the non-adjustable slave compensates for that when the slave is installed. But shouldn't the TO bearing be just about in contact with the pressure plate even with no clutch at all. I only get about 1/2" of shaft movement at the slave when I depress the clutch pedal. Is some of the stroke being used up to compensate for a TO that's too small/short? Thanks again for all the help.

Marty, I used the 240Z (4 speed) throwout bearing, because it was new only 2K miles ago....the one with the ZX tranny was junk. I thought that could be it once I looked in the BD catalog and saw they were different part #'s. Any one want to second that before I go to the expense of rebuilding the tranny? Anybody else had this issue using the wrong throwout bearing causing this issue only in 5th and reverse? Either way, the 5 speeds coming out the next few days, I'd just rather save the $300(?) that it'll cost to rebuild it, if possible. The only reason I was thinking bad tranny was that the problem is only in 5th gear, although its a little tough downshifting also. I bled the slave yesterday, and re-checked all pedal adjustments, everything looks good.

Starting to think thats where I'm going. Trying to bleed and adjust more today, then if that doesn't work, the 4 speed goes back in....4,000 rpms to do 60??? :ogre:

New front and rear tranny seal, new fluid. But I didn't rebuild it, just swapped it in.

Sorry to anyone who read my post in "Open Z Car Discussion"....just hoping for an answer if I put it here. The car is a 1973 240Z, and I installed a 280 ZX 5 speed/R-180 (4.11) combo this Winter. Everything seemed OK, until I got the car on the highway for a shake down run. Car is a little tough downshifting from 2nd to 1st, not that unusual in my experience. But the car will not go into 5th gear at all. Just wants to grind, and I was afraid to force it. Its also a little tough getting in into reverse, but does go in with a little effort. I didn't cut the tranny tunnel, the car was built in 10/72, so I don't think I needed to cut it. The clutch/pressure plate/release bearing/slave cylinder and hoses are all new and worked great with the 4 speed. Clutch master cylinder isn't new, but it worked fine with the 4 speed, so I think its good. Does this sound like adjusting/bleeding is needed, or does is sound like my 5 speed needs a rebuild. I would guess that if it was adjusting/bleeding, I'd have trouble in all gears, not just 5th. I noticed that the 75 - 83 used a sleeve/bearing that appears to be different from whats in a 240. Could this be my problem? The 280ZX it came out of only had about 65K on it, but sat for about 10 years before I bought the tranny. Any help would be great, thanks.

So I went home and played with the Z for a couple hours yesterday. After getting the car warm, I brought the initial timing up to about 15 BDTC. Vacuum advance is working. Much better....although there is still a little lag at around 3,800 or so, but its much better than before, and with some more fine tuning/tweaking, I'm sure I'll have it running like a Z again. If my new neighbor didn't come over with a 6 pack, I would've gotten more done.:laugh: But like so much good news, there was some bad. The car ran well enough that I took it to the highway, so I could check out my new 5 speed/4.11 combo at highway speed. Got it up through the gears, until 5th....it wouldn't go into 5th.:mad: The car is also a little tough to get into reverse sometimes, but it always goes. Reminder..it's 1979 280ZX 5-speed with my original L24, same clutch/pressure plate/throwout bearing/master cylinder/slave cylinder as I used with the 4 speed (under 2,000 miles on all). Flywheel re-surfaced in Jan. 2008. The 4 speed always shifted fine into all gears and reverse. The only old part, is the clutch fork (its from the 4 speed). I'm pretty handy around the garage, but other than taking them out, and putting them back in, I have no idea how tranny's work. I though I had bled the slave cylinder properly, but I'm going to try again. I did have the whole system disconnected for the tranny swap (I never took the clutch cylinder off the firewall - adjustment is the same as it was w/ the 4 speed), and I did bleed it once. But I don't remember any air coming out (which I though was weird), and I only had the wife pump the pedal a couple times. I'm not sure whats the best way to bleed it, because theres no "pressure point" like when you bleed brakes. Any tips would be great. I'm going to re-check the pedal adjustments, but I though that since I didn't remove the master cylinder, and it worked well before, it should be good. Maybe that was my problem. Now I'm wondering if, even though its a bolt-up swap, do I need to do some toying with adjustments to get it working because theres a mix of 4 speed (clutch assembly and non-adjustable slave cylinder) and 5 speed parts, or does it sound like the 5 speed I bought needs to be re-built? If I have to get the 5 speed rebuilt, I can throw the original 4 speed back in for now. But the car will be almost un-driveable on the highway with a 4 speed and 4.11's. :tapemouth

Nothing sexual about that? Even if it was 1944, I still found it plenty sexual. No way you can watch 3 young women doing that and not finding something sexual in it.

Thats what I was thinking...but why does everyone seem to agree that 7 degrees BTDC is correct? And why the vac advance isn't working is a mystery to me, since the vacuum unit and the breaker plate are both brand new. With the suck test (yes..me sucking on the tube) it moves easily. I'm gonna bring home a manometer from work so I can measure the actual amount of vacuum I'm getting at the ported tap, as well as at the balance tube. Maybe I'm just not getting enough "suck" to make the advance work. I'll report the results.

I took the car out for another shake down run, and found that the grinding noise I was hearing in the rear end has been solved. It was the brake drums rubbing against the backer plates....:stupid:. Now, I have a problem that feels like timing to me, but I've searched alot and can't find what I'm looking. I'm hoping for some direction before I start messing around too much. Heres the deal...bone stock L24 with 28K miles, new ZTherapy SU's and a 1979 E12-80 ZX dizzy (installed last Fall) with a MSD Blaster 2 coil. The dizzy was not rebuilt, but it came out of a 79 280ZX (5Speed) with only 60K on it. It seemed to be an improvement when I installed it last year over the original points set-up. I have tuned and balanced the SU's, and they seem to be dialed in right. It idles steady at 800 RM's. I'm about 3 turns out on the needles, and the car revs right up past 5,000 RPM's (if its in the garage in neutral). When I drive it, the powerband seems to run out at about 3,800 - 4,000 RPM's. Initial timing is set at 7 degrees (without the vaccuum attached). The dizzy is stamped 8.5, so I believe it should give about 17 degrees total advance. When I hit it with my timing light, it jumps from about 7 degrees to about 25 degrees, its tough to say exactly because my crank pulley only has 5 marks (TDC through 25 degrees BTDC, I believe). I get the exact same amount of advance with or without the vaccuum source attached. The dizzy has a new breaker plate, and new vaccuum unit. I'm pulling my vaccuum from the ported source behind the front carb. The only other change that I made was changing from the Longflo filter to the stock air cleaner box (with a K & N filter). It should be getting plenty of air, right? My question is...shouldn't I be getting more than 17 degrees total advance if the dizzy is stamped 8.5 and I'm using the vaccuum advance? I'm thinking I'll trying moving initial timing up to about 10 or 12, and see what happens. At least then I would get up to about 29 degrees total with just the mechanical advance. This is so frustrating, because the car seems like it ran better with the old points set-up than it does now.:mad: Could it be that I'm missing something really obvious? Could the carbs be running lean? I left the carbs right about where they were dialed in to when they arrived from ZTherapy, and they seemed great last year, so I don't think they're a problem now. I turned them out to about 4 turns to richen the mixture, and felt no difference. It feels like timing, but not initial timing...just when accelerating.