Mikes Z car

Not having a soda blaster I used a wire wheel on a bench grinder followed by several applications of naval jelly which got a lot of the rust off and then I painted the horns with primer and then black. Would have painted drab green if I had known that was the original color. Had to have a shop weld on new nuts where the horns originally installed because I couldn't get the horn mounting bolts to go all the way into the rusty bolt holes. PO had removed horns. Lots of anti seize went on the relatively short new bolts to prevent corrosion of the new bolts.

motorman7, Thanks for the idea on the C clamps, I happened to have a couple of 6 inch C clamps and got that to work for me once I had the large steel 2 inch washers flipped the right way so that the smaller contact surface was toward the rubber. I used a spare bushing to keep one of the clamps from slipping off the steel washer. Attached are pictures of the position of the clamps and the position of the wheel end of the TC rod propped up with a 2nd spare bushing to maximize how much of the TC rod threads stuck out of the end with the clamps for the nut to grab onto in case that helps anyone else. I put POR 15 on any metal in contact with the rubber (2 inch steel washers, frame mount point and 2 inch metal cylinder bearing inside the bushings on the TC rod) and put grease on everything else. Mike

Nice ride! Great video! Nice shiny paint job too. Like being there for me, could feel the turns.

On my 70 240 there are two heavy gauge wires in that location above the passengers right knee. Can't remember if both are W/R but at least one of them is. On my car the vinyl boots covering the tab connectors for those two wires or whatever they are called have black marks (see pic) which seemed to indicate overheating. I don't know what the best procedure for correcting this is. I thought of soldering the wires together bypassing the conenctors or soldering the crimp but instead I scraped the flat connector with a knife to get all the corrosion off and plugged and unplugged the connector many times after using deoxit. Then I packed the connectors with dielectric grease. Replacing the connectors might be good though I could not seem to find any that would accept such large wire. Being an old duffer I wasn't sure I wanted to stand on my ear on the floor of the passenger compartment to solder the crimp with solder falling in my face.

Jeff, I saw ratchet straps in harbor freight today but the mechanical advantage of the strap I saw didn't seem powerful enough, the handle was only a few inches long and moved a lot of the strap for each pull. If you think of it could you describe the ratchet strap you used? Johhny'O and motorman7, I will try again with the C clamp, The one I have kept slipping off though I was trying to compress both bushings and might have better luck going from the TC mount to just one of the bushings instead of trying to compress both of them. Thanks everyone for the ideas. Mike

The local Z mechanic told me today that you can sometimes use wide opening channel locks to compress the TC rod bushings to get the nut started but said it is a lot easier if the car is up in the air. I assume he just meant jacked up and did not mean having the car on a lift. He also mentioned using a pry bar but I don't see how to do that.

motorman7, Thanks for the info. Your experience looks like what I am facing. I don't know if this would work but hearing about the jack idea I thought of driving halfway up one of those rounded curbs or on a steep ramp with the back wheels securely chocked to see if that forces the tension rod rubber into enough of a compression to get the nut on. I tried vice grips but couldn't get a toe hold on anything. As the car sits with the tension rod installed except for the back nut I can look down with the hood open but when I try to put the nut on I still can't though there might be some optimum angle for the tension rod obtained with a jack to allow the nut to get started. Mike

The two new tension rod rubber bushings I bought from the local Nissan dealer (and 4 from MSA) are thicker than the originals (see pic) and seem thicker than can be accounted for by the old ones being under compression for a long time. Is that because the new ones were made for people going to the one rubber, one polyurethane bushing install and not for people like me who want to use all rubber with no polyurethane bushings? I am installing these on a 240Z, MFR date 1/70. I wound up with 6 of these bushings because Nissan at first said they didn't have the part and then two showed up later even though I had ordered 4. Maybe I got the last two from somewhere? The Nissan dealer and the MSA part appear identical as far as I can see. Thanks for any info. Mike

Dave, I will try the jack idea, thanks. I just noticed the original bushings are thinner than the new ones I ordered even taking into account compression on the old ones due to time. Long story, I got two of them from Nissan and 4 from MSA and those 6 are all identical. I think I will start a new thread on this with a picture of the difference. A mechanic apparently recognized the seats as he told me what they cost, next time I see him I will ask him what they are but I don't know. I remember hearing about recaro seats but don't know if that is a generic term or if that might be what I have. They have a part of their frame that comes up on the sides that is supposed to hold you in when you are going around corners I guess. Sorry this isn't a better answer but i don't know much about seats. I plan on covering them with something to prevent wear to the fabric. I was hoping I could think of how to cover them in a way that would make them look more stock. Mike

Attempting to replace the tension rod bushings with the original rubber kind. So far I can't get the rubber to compress enough to get the nut started on the end of the tension rod. Before reassembly I put POR-15 on the parts the rubber stays in contact with and the areas that might be difficult to get at once the rod is back on. Put grease on the whole tension rod and the inside of the small cylinder that goes inside the rubber bushing. May have to get help from the local Z Doctor to compress the rubber.

Very nice looking Z.

EScanion, The 71 240 I had back then was stock, wish I still had it. The hood was up after the jump. I turned on the trouble light in anticipation I now remember as I was wondering if I could see the pulses and sure enough I could see them. When I revved it a bit from under the hood the pulses stopped. That 240 had an ammeter gauge like the 240 I have now. Mike

A battery lead on my first 240 (a 71) disconnected itself inside the battery one afternoon in the parking lot as I tried to go home from work so I had to have the car jumped to get it going. The car was stock electrically including the voltage regulator. I noticed the trouble light (not sure what light I was seeing- long time ago) was pulsing at a constant speed due to the rectified sine wave current at low RPM coming from the alternator with no battery to smooth the voltage out. Off idle the flickering stopped. I drove slowly and deliberately home to replace the battery as I did not want to kill the engine in traffic knowing I could not restart. Guess I was lucky in that situation as I made it home with no problem though my experience might not have been typical. Other cars like mine or other cars with different regulators might not have fared as well. That 240 never once let me down for getting me somewhere. Mike

Remember that scene in the movie Alice's Restaurant where the hero was sitting in jail on a bench and the other jailbirds on the bench asked him what he was in for and when he said "littering" they looked at each other, decided that was too lame of a reason to be in jail and moved away from him? I sorta feel like that sharing some of the work I am doing on my Z at least so far in comparison to some of the heroics others are involved with. Last weekend in preparation for taking the fenders off and doing anti rust work I started unbolting the bolts holding the fenders on and putting anti seize on them and putting them back in. I wanted to make it easy for myself when I do that work later and wanted to verify there were no rusted bolts that would prevent me from taking the fenders off easily. That was a problem I had to fix on my first 240. I am putting liberal anti seize on every bolt and screw I take off before I put it back on. So far, so good on the fender bolts. Mike

The sunroof you took off looks exactly like the leaky one on my car. If you just filled in the hole and not the whole roof I would love details on how you did that though someone else might want the whole roof details. Mike

The loudest I ever sang along with my 8 track was when I sang along with Elvis while he was singing Johnny B Good. He made a LOT more money than I did singing... Back then I had twin 8s in the back. The 8 track unit I had was fairly rare in that it played 4 and 8 track. The 4 track had a rubber wheel that popped up into the 4 track cassettes. Mike

Thanks for the information. I am aware of a donor roof in the area.

That sounds like the drive was a lot of fun and reminds me of some of the long drives I took with my first 240 from Maine to Louisiana. Here is a story. I was heading west in an orange 71 240Z around 1:00 AM and with no traffic briefly drove at 107. A few minutes later I got pulled over for speeding and he asked me did I know how fast I was going. I was sweating it but murphy's law was on the fritz that night as he said I clocked you at 77. I was greatly relieved and felt justified in not pointing out his radar gun was faulty. Mike

My 1970 240z, with a Jan 1970 production date has screws for the engine bay plate unless a PO took the rivets out but it doesn't look like that happened.

I have an old Toyota that had a front end shimmy for years when braking and there may be other solutions but I had the rotors replaced and the problem went away. Mike

I had a noisy 4 spd in a 71 240 and was told it was a spun bearing. I replaced all 4 bearings and the noise quit. I didn't think it hurt reliability though. Oddly when I got the old bearings out and spun them by hand I could not tell which one had caused the noise.

FastWoman, Thanks for reminding me about the rocker panel drain holes. I will use them too. My frame rails have no rust as far as anything visible. I'd like not to have to worry about them though. The guys at work told me about a local corrosion expert gentleman and I asked them does he help with the rust or does he get you to stop worrying about the rust? I was teasing them because they tease me about worrying about rust on my car. Interesting that Wikipedia says the military is quitting the use of Cosmoline because it is too hard to get off. That is likely a nice endorsement if the anti corrosion qualities are still there after it has been on long enough to be difficult to remove. At least it doesn't flake off like undercoating can. Cosmoline comes in spray form and in quarts (other sizes too) which makes me think it must be diluted for the spray cans as it is described as having the consistency of vaseline. Maybe squirting oil into cavities might get anti corrosion material into places the thicker Cosmoline might not get into and therefore be a good substance to use in conjunction with Cosmoline. The ACF-50 looks good too, maybe a little to spendy for this guy though. Mike

I am going to put holes in strategic locations in my 240 that are not easily observed where possible to squirt oil from an oil can periodically with the hole just large enough to allow the oil can nozzle to be aimed in different directions. The holes down the length of the frame rails maybe a foot apart or less might be be rubber stoppered or threaded for bolts (or some other idea) to keep water out but on the interior I was thinking of using a black plastic rivet looking thing for holding on interior panels with ribs on the shank that I picked up at Shuck's auto supply. Existing holes might serve double duty for this maybe? I also plan on putting holes in the rocker panels possibly under the Datsun sill plate or whatever it is called however there is some access already on the inside under the interior rocker flap cover thing (it could have holes put in it too). Anything that makes this more convenient would make it done more often I would think. Being able to squirt oil onto any surface seems a good idea if possible in this line of thinking. Maybe use a bent nozzle to accomplish this to be able to squirt in an up direction? Any place that is prone to rust would be a candidate in my thinking on this such as the doglegs or over the rear tire well. Maybe put oil on the inside of the rear of the front fenders which would be possible with a small hole on the interior footwells behind the rust prone area of the fender above and rearwards from the Datsun badge. These holes probably would not be normally visible. With my previous 240 I used to squirt oil after a rain at the the top of the wheel well toward the fender lip where the fender meets the hood because the bolts had rusted off of that car and I had to weld new nuts on the engine compartment metal right at the hood line. I used bolts to hold the nuts in place temporarily for welding. These nuts hold the fender on. I hope to put rust bullet in the rust areas except for the frame rails if I can figure out how to get access to these areas before oiling . May have to cut holes that are rewelded in or make new access hatches designed to not have structural impact? Need a mechanical engineer here. What is the class taught on this, strength of materials? Anyone have other ideas? Mike

I just checked that wire with this new info because I was wondering what it was for. On my 240 that wire agrees with Zs-ondabrain and is hot in ACC and ignition but only when the fan is on. I am trying to label all the wires under the dash as I have left overs from a POs wiring though everything seems to be working.

I remember noticing on a wiring diagram for the early 240s that the only fusing for the ignition wire going to the coil is the fusible link. I wonder if that is a standard procedure?