Zed Head

Probably not a "requirement". Dave WM rebuilt one with completely destroyed adapter plate bearings (the center plate) and it worked fine when finished. It was still working even with the bad bearings. The parts seem to be very durable and able to take lots of abuse. Dave's thread might also be pretty descriptive as far as rebuilding. @Dave WM Otherwise, hate to do it to you but ... the FSM has a very thorough rebuild procedure laid out.

I think that the shift lever issue is a 240Z thing. I had a 78, 81, and 83 5 speed in my 76 at various times. All used the original 4 speed shifter with no problems. Also, I think that Dave WM is talkng about the 225mm versus the 240mm clutches. Different bolt patterns. The clutch collar needs to match the pressure plate height. 92mm. The fork pivot is in the same position on all except the very early 4 speeds.

Isn't this question self-answered? If you're looking and you can't see them then it's hard. There's only eight small screws holding the valve cover on. It would be a good idea to see how things look anyway considering the rest of the engine bay. Take the cover off. Pour some oil on the camshaft lobes. https://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/cam/index.htm

There is no how-to guide on blocking coolant lines. Mechanic's ingenuity is required. The piece of hose and a bolt is a roadside fix. Temporary and unreliable. (Oops, site posted at the same time. No offense intended Cliff! Double oops. Cliff fixed it at the end (I don't read good). We are in agreement.) Follow whatever line you're trying to block back to its source. Choose the approariate blockage method. Here are some samples. These are pretty good. You'll need to measure. https://www.mcmaster.com/products/compression-fittings/shape~cap-and-plug/ These are good if there's a fitting. BSPT is the thread type. https://www.mcmaster.com/products/plugs/pipe-plugs~/?s=brass+plugs+bspt For the carb lines you could just bypass the carbs. Just connect the two ends together. You'll lose some cooling power since the fluid won't be passing through the radiator. I'm not 100% on inlet and outlet but I think that it's these two ends. Maybe somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.

You can block eveything except the big hoses.

The cooling system seems to be in decent shape though. That's a good sign. Fresh coolant.

"Driving" will require a working clutch and brakes. They take a lot of work once they get corroded and crusty. That car has obviously been sitting for many many years. You might eventually get to hear the engine run but it will probably take much more time and effort before you feel it moving under its own power. Have you pushed the clutch pedal down yet? I'm assuming it's not an automatic. Besides that, you'll probably want a gas tank that holds fuel and a pump that pumps it. Have you looked inside the tank yet?

Actually you removed the carbs and intake manifolds. Maybe that's where the earlier confusion came from. In the picture I posted above it showed the intake manifolds still attached to the engine. Yes, the nuts underneath the manifolds are hard to get to. The more pictures you post the nastier the whole situation looks. What is your end goal? You have a ton of work ahead of you if you want to drive it.

Here's some stuff that might be helpful/inflammatory. https://www.ztherapy.com/technical_stuff/spotterguides/zcar/240spotter.htm "When installing or removing the carbs from your manifold, all the nuts need to be loosened up before trying to remove them. There is no clearance on the bottom of the carb to remove one of the nuts. Sliding the body out a bit will allow the nuts to be removed. "

Yo yo yo dude, the mounting holes are in the same spot on the manifold. Nut on a stud, hex head screw, whatever. Put an open end wrench on it and turn it. Counterclockwise. Just like the guy in the video. Word.

Actually he does show nut removal later. Not much to it though. A wrench, some contortions.

Are you asking how to use a socket on an extension, or a wrench? That's what mechanicing is all about, choosing the tools to get the job done. This guy put a whole Youtube video guide together and apparently the nuts are so easy to remove it's not worth showing. 7:45 they're there, 7:50 they're not.

Most likely a 1975 or 1976 280Z engine. Originally an EFI engine. 5521 is pretty low, I'm going to guess 1975. People often swap the carbs over and install them in their 240Z's. Sometimes they use the 280Z tranmsission and differential also. What type of carburetors does it have? You'll be competing with Shawninvancouver for carb advice. 25-30 years means the gas tank and fuel system are probably rusted and gunked up. Some work involved there. Somewhere here on the forum or out on the internet there is a basic guide for getting an old car back on the road. Can't remember the title of the thread. Ways to prepare the engine to get the most life out of it after it runs again. The cylinders tend to rust even sitting inside, just due to condensation. Check out the Resources area - https://www.classiczcars.com/files/

Looks like I was wrong. It's on the side. Probably down by the bottom. So it will work correctly. After the old gas is drained, what next?

The law of gravity suggests that any opening on the bottom will drain the bowls. Also known as chambers. Look underneath.

Weird how I have the urge to post. But then change my mind. So far, the car has only made a few sparks. Carb swapping is far in the future. This is unknown -

Unlikely. No offense intended. Electrical connections, firing order, and timing apply to electronic distributors too.

Other stuff can make noise up there. Worth checking before you start breaking bolts.

In Post #15 on the second page you said that you tried "3 distributors". Seems unlikely that all 3 would have bad points and/or a "dead wire". I think that the "hot wire", the sidenote, was probably the solution. Just posting for the record.

The contacts inside the high/low switch at the base of the turn signal stalk get gummed up or corroded. Some people take them apart and clean up the contacts, some just squirt a bunch of contact cleaner in and give it a good workout. The combination switch supplies power to both the high and low beams. But the grounding in the switch at the signal stalk determines which beam lights.

Looks like an interesting experiment. There is a ton of different grades of TPU out there. The Overture site does not tell much. I linked to one of the big TPU suppliers for example, at the bottom. Click the Products heading to see more. Still weird that the guy made it look like a Nissan product, even down to the Japanese text. Almost like it's not meant for actual use. Good luck! https://overture3d.com/blogs/news/tds-overture https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0207/3624/5824/files/OVERTURE_TPU_TDS_EN.pdf?v=1706141279 https://overture3d.com/blogs/news/sds-1 https://www.lubrizol.com/Engineered-Polymers/Products/Estane-TPU https://www.lubrizol.com/Engineered-Polymers/About/What-is-TPU

CO had a good suggestion here. Stop messing around with that spaghetti-nest of wires. Confirm that you will be able to create spark with just the coil and distributor and coil and plug wires that you have. Disconnect ALL of the harness power wires to the coil. Let them hang, with the ends protected so that you don't have a short circuit. Start with a bare coil, no power or ground wires attached. Run a long wire from the battery positive to the coil positive post. Connect the wire from the distributor (the points inside the cap) to the coil negative post. Crank the engine over using the key or using a remote starter. You'll be doing what old-time car thieves do. Mess around with this setup until you get spark. The pictures of those nasty crusty wires and connections aren't helping at all. Simpify things down to the bare essentials. If you can't get spark with a single hot wire from the battery you'll never get it from any of those in that pile of wires.

Everything in this thread has been about that. The spark at the points is what causes the spark from the coil.

240dkw's comments raise a good point, which might/probably have also been raised by others (and which I missed) - you could see power at the coil with the key at On/Run, but then see no pwer at the coil with the key at Start. The Start circuit is different than the On/Run circuit. CO's "hot-wire" suggestion would have shown that. But another way to test it is to measure voltage at the coil posts with the key at Start. You'll need a friend or to set the meter up where you can see it.

Here's another thing that I had thought about earlier - is the distributor rotor turning when the engine is turning? Might be that all of the wiring is just fine but the points never open and close because the distributor isn't turning. You can check that by eye. You can also leave the distributor cap off while turning the engine and watch for spark across the points themselves. Maybe the coil is bad.