Walter Moore

I thought the thick end went towards the "Outside" edge of the car, but I am happy to have that confirmed. That is what I love about this site. You can always get an answer to any Z-car related question here. Sometimes you get several answers... one of them has to be correct!

Ok, I know this is a REALLY stupid question, but somone once was making fun of a car on Ebay because of this, so to keep the Z-police happy... What direction are the front side marker lights mounted? Specifically, is the thick end the front, or the back? (Yes, I know that the front fenders get the yellow ones...) Let the abuse begin, but please answer the question... eventually. I am trying to finally get this thing put back together, and I realized that I have never actually seen these mounted to the car, so I can't be sure which direction they are supposed to be mounted.

Unless there are parts available with this car that are not showing up in the pics, then you have a huge number of missing pieces. The one that is hardest to get up here in the rust belt has to be the gas tank. Don't worry too much about the fenders and hood. I just bought brand new ones from a Nissan Dealer. (Can you believe that?) As for rust, the worst rust will be on the floor boards (under the sound proofing which hides rust very well) the spare tire and rear deck area (which looks ok) and of course the frame rails, which hide rust better than any other part of the car. I have been working on my Z car for nearly 4 years. (Ignore the picture to the left, it is two years old...) Mine is nearly complete, and it is a good thing that I am so close or I would just give up. It seems like there is no end of silly little problems that constantly pop up to stop the whole show. The pictures you have linked to show a stripped frame that is in WAY better shape that what I started with, but it will take years and as 26th-Z said tens of thousands of dollars to re-build it correctly. I don't see any serious rust in the pictures, but beware that Z cars hide rust better than Jack Benny hid money. Mine will never be "restored", at best I will get the thing driveable. If I can't do that, then I will sell it piece by piece on Ebay... (the parts are worth way more than the whole...) If you do buy this car, the next thing you NEED to buy is the Z car parts micro-film CD that is available from this site. At least for the parts that Nissan still stocks it is worth its weight in gold... With it you can order parts from either your local dealer or http://www.courtesyparts.com/ directly from the part numbers on the CD with no hassles. The dealers will not do any research for you, that is certain.

I hear that a high percentage of car fires are electrical in origin. (Which is easy to understand if you are familar with how severly under-sized auto wiring is in general...) A friend of mine claims that he has "put out" several car fires with a pair of huge wire cutters, by just cutting the battery cable. (I am talking here about the large two handed cable cutters that are used for the big industrial 21 - 60 conductor cables, the ones that could cut off your hand...) Of course in any event, once the fuel line catches your only real option is to run away REALLY fast.

I used 36 - 50 grit sandpaper on a disk sander. I DO NOT recommend that method. The car is covered with small grind marks that I have been filling with bondo now that I am re-painting it. It has taken a really long time, and two cans of bondo so far. What a mess.

It looks like the car only failed on CO%, and that by just a little. Could it just need a tune up? Getting the engine hotter might bring the CO level down a little. But like Ed, I am no expert. No, I take that back. It was nearly twice the limit on the latest 15MPH test... Is the air injection pump for the converter working? (does it even have one of those? I have never looked at the emissions systems on a FI Z car.)

I hate to say it, but I bought one on Ebay... I still have a broken one, not that it would do you any good.

Just curous, have you actually verified that your speedometer is right? I assume that you have, but thought I should ask the question... As you pointed out, the 190/60 14" tires are 590mm OD vs the 620mm of the "stock" 190/70 14" tire, that would put the actual distance/speed at 95% of the registered speed (the speedometer would read fast). Since you quoted the gear ratios, I assume that you have changed the speedometer drive gear in your transmission, but if others didn't know to do that...

You notice that he still doesn't have the VIN plates?

I had that problem on my 87 Mercury Grand Marquis wagon. It had been parked outside for years, and water had accumulated at the bottom of the oil pan. Then it rusted out from the inside. (Water is denser than oil..) I repaired it on the car by gluing metal plates to the outside with JB Weld. It held up for about 5 years or so.. but kept leaking from new rust spots.... you know how rust is. Once it starts you just can't get rid of it. I think that JB Weld may have actually held water, and contributed to the problem. Personally, I would make real sure that the new pan is solid, and junk the old one... or at most have it repaired and keep it as a spare... I can't imagine that many people would be willing to buy it. But then some really bad deals get sold on E-bay... I guess if you were willing to get that reputation.....

It is called a throttle opener or something like that. It is a vacuum operated device that mounts on the intake balance tube and holds the throttle open supposedly for a short time when you shift gears. It looked bad on my engine so when I rebuilt everything I removed it and plugged the holes in the manifold. But since I haven't started my engine YET.... I have no idea if removing it is a good idea or a bad one. I think it was supposed to be an emission control device, or an anti-backfire thing or something. It has a linkage that connects to the throttles. You might try to just remove the interconnect linkage and see what happens. Assuming of course that Enigma and I are even on the right path. I can't speak for him, but I am mostly repeating things I have read in a manual somewhere.

I looked into MSA rebuilds, but didn't do it for two reasons: 1. My Z came with an E31 head, which MSA will do on an exchange basis only. (I am sure it would have been fine, but the wording in the catalog worried me.) 2. You have to pay shipping both ways. A cylinder head is heavy, and Indiana is a long way from california. But Oregon is a lot closer to California, so the shipping is less of an issue. I ended up by random chance finding a machine shop that specializes in aluminum heads. The first shop I took the whole engine to wouldn't touch the head because it was pitted, and they didn't know how to weld aluminum. (He was a SB Chevy guy. Nothing wrong with that, except the Z isn't a Chevy.) One hint on finding a non-performance shop that can do the work, is that the shop that I ended up using was full of motorcycle heads in process. Of course, I had already bought all the parts that he needed. I bought them a little at a time over a year or so while I was looking for a shop to do the work. Even with me providing all the parts, and telling him there was no hurry, it was over $300 for just the labor. (My cylinder head still had the original brass intake seats, which have to be cut out.) I guess you are the test case, let us all know how it turns out...

I just put my engine and transmission back in yesterday. I took them out as a unit and put them back in that way. I will confess that it was a pain to re-attach the transmission with the engine on a hoist and the transmission on my workbench, but with two people we got the job done. I really doubt that it would have been any easier to do that in the car. I had the intake and exaust header on when I put the engine back. I took it out with everything attached, but I haven't bought rebuilt carbs yet, so I put it back without them. When I took it out everything that was attached to the engine was pretty much worn out, so what I couldn't cut off with loping shears I used a sawsall on... It all looks so much better now. When I find my digital camera I will post pictures. The downside of taking out the transmission with the engine is that once you remove the drive shaft the nasty 90 weight gear oil inside will drip out everywhere as you manuver the thing out and then back in. The Hanes manual says to drain the trany first, but who reads directions?:nervous:

Actually, I live in Lebanon. My car has been in Indiana since at least 1983. (according to the title I got when I bought it) and it had the salt rot to prove it... That is mostly all gone now.

I have actually had these parts for a couple of weeks, but have been so buried that I didn't get around to celebrating their arrival. I spent all last summer trying to repair my old rusted out fenders with fiberglass and bondo to no avail. Now that I know the sheet metal is available from the dealer, I wonder why I bothered... I have checked inside, but keep wrapping them back up because I am terrified of scratching them BEFORE I install them. (what happens when I install them I know will be scary...) Check out the cool way that "Do not drop" got translated!

20 Years ago I had a fuel injected Volvo with a bad alternator that I drove for several days before I discovered it had a problem... So 10 or 20 miles should be fine if the battery is fully charged.

So if I put some form of mild soap in my anti-freeze would that be similar? (Not that I have any intention of doing that you understand...)

If you can get a tape measure under the car, check the diagonal measurements in addition to the wheelbase measurement of each side. If the car measures the same side to side and across both diagonals there isn't much chance that the frame is bent too badly. (Of course bent suspension parts can cause the measurements to be out of square, but you really want to know that those are ok as well.)

That is where I bought the "Shocks" (strut inserts) for my car. That was 2 1/2 years ago, but I had no problem with him.

Phred, So you try to get to zero imbalance? What is the resolution of your Stewart Warner balancer? Thanks for the lesson about balancers, but it wasn't needed. I design balancers for a living. No offense intended on my part. I didn't take any offence in your reply. I also know that there is no such thing as zero imbalance. There is just a level at which either the electronics can't detect the forces being generated, or some point at which it no longer makes any sense to try to correct what is left. For example, at a tire shop they add weights to your wheels until the balancer displays 0.0 oz required. But in point of fact all aftermarket tire and wheel balancers sold in North America display zero imbalance as soon as the residual imbalance is less than 3/8 oz per plane. The smallest weight sold for aftermarket use is 1/2 oz, and they aren't very accurate, so once the residual imbalance is less than 3/8 oz there is no point in trying to correct the part further. Thus for a tire and wheel assembly, 3/8 oz at the flange radius is the commonly agreed upon "Standard" for a properly balanced part. I just wanted to know what the comparable limit is for the flywheel/clutch assembly. If you always try to reach zero, then for you it is the resolution, or possibly the repeatability of your measurement system. It looks like the balance holes on the two flywheels that I own are at about a 128mm radius. I guess that I could calculate the mass removed by each of those holes based on the density of cast iron and have some close approximation of the limit. Again, thanks for all your help thus far. I do appreciate it, even if it seems like I am smarting off sometimes. I am sure that Nissan lists the imbalance limit of the flywheel on their part print, but I have no way to get a copy of the print. I doubt that it would be in the factory manuals for the car.

Is the tank on the post 9/74 260Z a different shape than the 240Z tank? That is the only reason that I can think of that would make the earlier sending unit not work. It is just a potentiometer... not rocket science. I doubt that the gage on the dash would know or care which sending unit was installed. But if the float arm is too long for the tank it would certainly cause a problem.

Yep, I confess. That is my car. One day it was sitting along Patterson St with a for sale sign, and idiot that I am, I bought it... for $250. :stupid: At least it has kept me busy and out of trouble for the past 3 1/2 years... Oh, and why yes, I do know Elm Swamp and Elizaville roads... Not as well as some others down by Zionsville, but I have been on them a couple of times.

Phred, What is the recommended allowable imbalance in the flywheel - pressure plate assembly? We don't have any small balancers in the shop at the moment, at least not that could be adapted to this purpose...:cheeky: Where would you recommend that I could get this done? (What sort of shop I mean...) I have had a lot of clutches replaced over the years and have never been charged for balancing. I doubt that many places do this. By the way, I checked the clutch surface with a straight edge, and to the best of my ability to measure, it is flat within .002" so I assume it doesn't need resurfaced. Oh, and the friction disk that I have is clearly NOT the CF-II disk from your post, so I don't know what I have. ZSaint, You seem to be saying the exact opposite of what was said in the earlier thread I referenced above. From what I can see my existing T/O collar is way too short. It looks to me like it will have to move nearly an inch from its extreme returned position just to reach the clutch levers. (I could be wrong...) In any event I have what appears to be the shortest T/O collar ever made for a Z car.

Well, I was just about to put the engine and transmission back in the car last weekend, when I discovered that I need to spend another $100 on parts before I can do that... Oh well, it is only money, and I just keep getting older so why hang on to it? Laugh, or you will cry I guess.

Those look wonderful.