Mikes Z car

Broke for me too but it looks like it shows up if a search is done on ebay for: 1978 DATSUN 280Z - PEARL BLACK SPECIAL EDITION 240z 260z nissan 350z s30

GeoJoe, Probably not a coincidence. motorman7, How did you, er, convince the aliens to abduct her? Do they take bribes?

That may not be a problem Cap'n, 240Ziggy might want to mail you the window for repair. heh heh. I wonder if you took some nylon washers and cutout one side to fit over the axle, then melted the washers together so the cutouts don't line up. Then melt the cutout part back on. Maybe some work before install with a bench grinder to bevel the edge of the washers to shape them like the original was. My DD Toyota had a couple of washers in the wiper motor mechanism that came apart. They had apparently been ultrasonically welded together. I melted them back together with a wood burning tip on a soldering iron, that was 20 years ago, repair still good.

I truly admire creative repair with enthusiasm!

I would have stayed with the aftermarket mirrors on my car if they would have worked at all. They kept flopping around so I couldn't see anything with them and the rubber boot kept popping off. I have holes from the old mirrors, may glue a metal disk on the back of the hole and daub a tiny spot of bondo topped with matching color to hide the hole. Hope that works.

I have two OEM mirrors on my 70Z to replace afte rmarket mirrors that were on my car when I got it but I don't have the angle right on the passenger side yet; the mirror on that side drops down too far which is the standard problem as I understand it when using the driver's side (USA) mirror on the passenger side. I have read of installing an angled wedge shaped piece of metal (aluminum?) on the bottom side of the pas senger side mi rror under the base to push the bottom up so the mirror stalk is the same angle as the driver's side and also saw a thread that mentioned grinding down the top part of the base of the pas senger side mir ror as another solution. There may be better ideas and/or further info. In the picture below the mir ror on the left is the pas senger side mir ror but was a mirror intended by Nissan to be installed on the drivers side.

Herman, Thanks for the pictures. I have always wanted to try fixing my dash but am leery of messing it up. I have a fairly early VIN and an appreciation for originality. It has a half cap on it and I can see the outline of the zig zag marks from the glue used to attach it. The sun must have melted it a bit. You will put the vinyl patches over the bondo areas?

I can't believe reading that book affected met the way it did, damn near cried. I converted the whole thing into a 28MB PDF. Anyone into parallel timelines? I think I had something to do with manufacturing the Z in another timeline.

I am actually thinking that the volume behind the speakers on the back deck is too small and flat but that is no help and assumes the radio itself is fine for bass. How can it be made better? I want something in my car that sounds good (good bass) and keep hoping a solution will show up. Cap'n if you solve the search for good bass please post it here. Would it help to have an event at various meets where sound systems could be evaluated by everyone? Just ideas. When I got my Z the sound system I thought sounded wonderful but to make the bass there was a large radio shack speaker box system with two 8" speakers and tweeters. I felt that it invited someone to break a window and swipe it so I gave it away (literally). Stealth is good?

An experiment might be to temporarily run wires to move the speakers to a different enclosure like an el cheapo large cardboard box or something more substantial (or headphones?). I noticed when I experimented with speakers many years back that it was critical for good bass for the front and back of the speaker to be isolated acoustically from each other (I think bass reflex ports work in spite of this) so that air flow coming out the front could not easily flow around the edge of the speaker to behind the speaker. I think this is one of the reasons the stock Z speaker has no bass, it doesn't have any material around the edge of the speaker to seal it up against the finisher on the inside of the car, hope that made sense. Take an old 2" speaker, connect it to a decent audio source with bass and cup your hands around it and use your knees to help it sound better. I notice Bose uses a long tube behind some of their speakers that zig zags back and forth to make the tube longer (can that idea be put in a Z?). Might try reversing the polarity of one of the speakers since they feed to a common volume, audiophiles wouldn't necessarily approve but I had that work well with two 6X9 speakers in the tail light finisher of a GT6 I once had to boost the bass, the finisher was similar to the finisher in the early Z cars.

Dare I ask? What wilder dreams?

That is interesting Walter thanks for sharing that. It might be a heretical idea but I have always wondered what would happen if a Z ran on only one carb with the other carb blocked off so the other three cylinders would be fed by the balance tube only. Would it run at all and if so would it affect gas mileage?

The ad reads it needs minor repair so I imagine something has broken in the engine to give 40 MPG.

Someone should record Bitching Betty with all the things she says for posterity unless one of them is "you just crashed". The 85 ZX I had talked too. Her favorite was "fuel level is low". Even though it would not be period correct I have thought of hiding a Bitching someone or other who would play that "ahh" sound a Mac computer makes when it is booting up when I open the car door. Or maybe there are other possibly humorous possibilities?

Not sure this would help or would work with PMs but if you click on my profile in the upper right of the screen, then click on settings at the upper right, then click on edit ignore list which is on the far left of the screen fairly far down you should be able to add a user to the ignore list. I always had assumed it just blocked their posts but maybe it works on PMs too. FWIW.

The choke grommet on my car (MFR 1/1970) is a bit deteriorated making me a possible future customer. The length measures 15 MM however due to deterioration I can't tell if it was ever at an angle. Someone with a grommet in better condition could give a better read.

I personally have had the shoe issue, especially when I first bought my car. Someone had put those oversize metal racing pedals on. With those, any pedal could be the right pedal, just like the red green philosophy about tools. I wonder if the linkage is binding at the firewall, maybe with more friction in the linkage than usual? That is my wild arse guess. I was thinking the engine torque might have turned the engine a bit in its mounts changing the position of the carb linkage in the area of the firewall.

Other Z parts and Z parts cars available in Boise now on Craigslist but here is an unusual item, an LS1 engine and a T56 tranny. Wonder how fast a z car would go if these dudes were installed? Garden City where this is located is near the Boise city center. LS1 Engine with T56 Trany

Don't know if this is worth mentioning but I bought two Nissan driver's side mirrors for my car and have noticed since I installed them that the driver's mirror is fine but the passenger side is wavy enough to be obvious though it is still usable. Both came in boxes that looked the same that said Nissan all over them.

This wouldn't help a cat issue but back in the old days when I lived in Californy I used "Guaranteed to Pass" a can of which was put in the tank before a smog test. Various cars had that stuff put in the tank and they always passed though I didn't always know how bad they were to begin with.

I am over 6 hours away however is there any information on the specifics of the problem? Anything unusual seen before it quit working?

Generally output stages that aren't transformer isolated use an electrolytic capacitor to do the isolation. I have never seen a car radio that used a transformer, all I have seen use an electrolytic capacitor. Is the impedance of the power amplifier on the connection that would go to the radio very low, like below 8 ohms? KM-1520 Car Radio Hitachi Ltd.; Tokyo, build 1973, 4 picture

What is wrong with the radio?

I love Dave's headlight harness that I put on my car.

This steering wheel is available for shipping costs. The weight for shipping will be 39 lbs plus at least 5 lbs for the box, figure a total of 45 lbs to be on the safe side. It was on my car when I bought it and did work until the horn button rubber deteriorated. I put an original steering wheel on the car. The Nissan emblem was in the middle of the rubber that deteriorated. Front View:_____________________Back View closeup: Back View:______________________Nissan Ornament: