Zedyone_kenobi

Arne!! Man good to hear from you. Stop by more often. I would love updates of the P car. WE have dearly missed you man.

congrats bud...Take the time to nurse back to health slowly. I worked with Eiji at Datsun Spirit and he is a good guy. Very honest and considerate of what YOU want. Not what HE wants to sell you.

Bravo man..Good news for sure!

I have always loved white Z's

Bravo, if you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask your brethren here... I am always wiling to help out a fellow south Louisiana buddy.

If I may be so bold. Go to any autoshow and walk around. There is nothing, I mean nothing, you can do to a small block chevy that will shock or surprise anybody anywhere. It has been done, and you will probably see 3 just like yours no matter where you go. They are the ubiquitous build up engine. They are more common than lying politicians. But you show them a built and tuned L28 and the sights and the sounds will amaze them. I present my humble engine, not even close to some of the best ones on this board. But there is a never ending line of people who what to talk about my Z at any car show. They walk by the 256 different classic mustangs to come talk to the only Z there. Keep it a Datsun engine, and your dedication will be rewarded 10 fold.

8500 is plenty of money for an entire drivetrain, but you have not clearly answered the question, what are you going to use the car for? This is critical. It is FAR better to have an engine that has a good easy to obtain smooth idle and great reliability that can take 91 pump gas with zero issues, than to have a ultra high strung 'race' engine that is always requireing maintanence, tuning, timing, etc. Having a car that will start EVERY single time is far more fun than having an unreliable mess. Do not go chasing HP numbers either. It will lead you to spend money on parts you do not need, AND it will inflate the bill fo the rest of the car. Building an Uber high HP car with OEM brakes/tires/suspension is a recipe for an unhappy ownership experience. Keep your expectations mild. Keep you build mosty OEM. Concentrate on quality OEM parts that have been checked and cleaned like they were going into a sterile environment. The more stock the car is, the easier it will be to reference parts, troubleshoot later, and set things correctly. I concur with the Ztherapy recommendation. They build an amazing product. And back it with fantastic customer service. Keeping things mostly OEM should also put more change back in your pocket, as body work costs can dwarf engine building costs. YOu may need that money elsewhere. At the end of the day it is better to have a complete car you can drive and enjoy than a killer engine on a stand while you save up for the body work to be completed. by the way, I went to school at USL near rayne. Frog capital of the world! Tell us about more about your use of the car.

I can recommend the STI R180 swap. It is quite easy, but not really that cheap.

Check with courtesy nissan

Well if there was any doubt, I finished my transmission swap out Friday and went to the track Saturday! Car ran flawlessly. This is the best sounding and feeling transmission I have ever had in the car. Smooth in every gear, no whine in any gear accelerating or decelerating. Car is just quiet and smooth. I finally got to feel what my L28 feels like with 3.90 gears when driven in anger. My gosh that car flat out hustles. The mid and upper rpm torque is just nuts. I had some sticky throttle issues toward the end of each run, so I am going to design my own throttle linkage and have it machined. Enough nonsense. I will fix this forever.

You may as well add remove front bumper. You WILL need room.

I am starting to come around on the 16's. Very nice look you have going on there.

You are done a wonderful job of explaining things. The diffs are something I have never had the guts to tackle. The amount of spare parts and shims are just to hard to come by. I have been amassing spare diffs over the past 6 years, I am up to three. My OEM diff. Another 71 diff I bougth but never used, and the 2004 STI diff I am currently using in my car. I would love to find a 3:54 diff from an automatic Z. It would be darn near perfect. However, I am also amassing transmissions. I am about to pay a buddy for his 5 speed. Back to your question. I have always consdered the rear diff to be a LRU (line replaceable unit). I do not pretend to have the knowledge base or time to tackle a proper rebuild. My advice would be to pick up a used diff first and then try. so you have a back up.

According to the guy who rebuilt it, the shaft that 4th gear rides on moved radially too much. 4th gear itself had something hard embedded into the root of one of the gear teeth that was causing a sticking point and that is what probably wore out the shaft. The other shaft apparently was shimmed incorrectly. I will contact them shortly. On a happy note, I was able to get the re-rebuilt transmission instaled in 41 minutes from when I started. It just sort of plopped on. I could not believe how easy it was. The last one I tried for hours with no avail. Then had to pull the engine to do it. Man, that feeling of 'clunk' when it just falls in place was as sweet as hearing my baby laugh for the first time!

My rebuilt transmission is back. But not from Zcarsource. I did not send it to them. I let Doug at Awesome Z here in Houston take it apart and rebuild it again. He found several things wrong. One of the teeth was damaged in 4th, and some shims were incorrectly placed and the 4th gear shaft had way too much radial movement. So it was not in good shape. Doug fixed me up and I am ready to attempt to install it again with the engine in the car. Not looking forward to this. I am wondering if I should even call zcarsource who was expecting me to ship it to them, on my dime, pay for them to fix it, and then pay to ship it back. They were nice enough, as they owe me nothing since it was out of warranty. I like zcarsource and will order form them again, but I am pleased with the service I got at Awesome Z.

did you slide the seat all the seat all the way forward or backward to give you better access?

HP? he keeps using that word, I do not think it means what he thinks it means.

I recommend getting rid of the strap on the harbor freight transmission jack ( I have two now, ) Since you tighted the strap you could be putting a downward/upward moment on the front of the transmission. Let the transmission just sit on the jack. It will not fall off, (probably). That way you can be assured you are not binding it at all. It does not take much. I just did the same procedure, with the floor jack under the engine and the trans jack under the transmission. I ended up jacking up the engine until I could see movement in the transmission and engine, then slowly let it down until only the engine moved. At that precise moment I knew the transmission was not being held. If you think this is hard, wait until you try to get them back together.

Love that interior!! I am so doing this after I get all this transmission nonsense straightened. I was looking for an excuse redo all the plastic in the rear of my car.

I am getting this one looked at by a professional Z mechanic well known in Houston. His prices are VERY reasonable. Basically cheaper than if I were to ship it back to Zcarsource and back. So I am giving him a try. I am feeling a bit shameful. I was going to install my Type A and then take my time and rebuild this one, but there is a track day on the 29th I am trying to get into. Since I sold my 2013 Golf R and bought a 2013 F150 King Ranch 4x4 this week, My Z is my only track toy. I just do not have time in the next 2 weeks to rebuild it. But my search for a 5 speed continues. MJR 45 I will give you a PM. I am interested in yours. I simply cannot find a 5 speed locally. But I end game plan is to snatch one up some day. They turn up when you are NOT looking for them.

Will do, Dropped it off at Awesome Z in Houston. Doug is going to take a look at it. He is probably one of if not the most knowledgeable guy in Houston on these cars.

I took a look at my old Type A transmission that ran quiet in reverse and every other gear except for a whine in 3rd, which I think all of these things do. The output shaft splines of that one (71k miles) moved far more than the one I just took out. So I think some movement is normal. With the driveshaft yoke inserted it moves much less. With that being said, I found a local Z specialty shop in Houston that has lots of experience with these transmissions. He is going to look at it and give me a final diagnosis on reverse and every other gear. I am happy to report that, as all the guys in the local Z club give this company very high marks. So hopefully within a week I will get an answer.

I recently purchased a 'new' 71 center console from MSA as mine had a small crack in it and I wanted to see if it was as they described. this is the add A damaged or aged center console can take a lot away from your interior. Fortunately, we were able to get the 70-71 version repoduced in fiberglass after Nissan discontinued the original 240Z center consoles. Note: This console can be modified to fit 70-71 models equipped with an automatic transmission. Please call for details. Now what this does not tell you is that the openings for the choke cables and defroster button were cut by hand, NOT a machine as none of the edges are straight and none of the corners sharp, but rather an uneven rounded shape. now things may still fit, but you will be required to do some sanding and grinding. The shape seems close, which is good, and they even made it so the damned fusebox STILL will not easily go through the metal support and the fiberglass top on the front, just like the OEM console. I mean really you could have improved this!!! The biggest complaint is the texture, or lack of. This pitted and semi smooth fiberglass, it has NO texturing at all, and it must be painted to be black, as it is more grey. so with that being said, is there a good way to get some kind of texture on this thing with a spray can? I will dig through the dashboard restoration threads for any clues, but this may be good enough for a dedicated thread. Pics to follow.

Sound advice that I will start to use more often. Looks like I will be doing some phone shopping soon at the local pic and pull.

Wow, that is a lot to digest, but it made sense, thanks for the education sir. This will be my first trip into manual transmissoin land. I have always treated transmissions like total replaceable units, so I am kind of looking forward to messing with one. What I meant by calling it a transmission output flange is the input flange from the drive shaft into the rear of the transmission. I can move that up and down.