Walter Moore

Defensive driving school? I sat through one of those back in the day.:cheeky: Seems I had one too many tickets for "recklessly" driving 67 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. On the same exact stretch of road I might add where the speed limit is NOW 70 MPH and traffic travels 80 MPH... I was such a BAD person back then, but now I am MUCH better!

You have obvioiusly never actually been there... I was in Paris in 1992 and the air at street level was actually blue. No offense intended. I am sure it is better now. But seriously, most countries in Europe didn't start passing emissons laws until the 1990s. Since in some those countries cars aren't usually used for daily transportation it was considered less necessary. With large portions of the U.S. having NO public transportation of any kind cars here get used more.

Vehicle Inspections??? We don't need no stinking vehicle inspections! The righteous citizens of the state of Indiana rose up and told the legislature where to stick their vehicle inspections way back in the 70's, just after they banned daylight savings time!!! What did you say? Indiana has daylight savings time AGAIN!!! OH NOOOO... Where have all our righteous citizens gone??? NO NO NO:eek:

My 71 came with the "York" style compressor and the clamp on hoses that never sealed even when they were new. We had a similar system on my wife's 67 Mustang, and we had to recharge the R12 every spring because by October the system was empty. I just cut the hoses with loping shears (Tree branch sheers) and unbolted the compressor and the add-on evaporator coil housing inside the car. If the EPA is listening, the car had been in storage for over 10 years. There was NO pressure left in the system at all (I checked). It didn't even hiss when I cut the hoses. The piston style AC systems were worthless no matter what brand of car they were installed into. But I have converted a couple of later factory AC systems to R134 with no problems at all. As for the cost of R134 vs R12... ask the guy how much it costs to recharge an R12 system. But have an assistant ready with smelling salts because it is un-real. The last "recharge" that I paid for on an R12 system was over $100 just for the R12, and that was a system that was only a little low. (It still almost cooled the car.) A full R134 conversion kit was cheaper than a recharge for R12. (Including the cost to have someone reclaim the old R12 and evacuate the system.)

I think that we all forgot the most important driving technique! The shiny side goes UP, and the greasy side goes DOWN! Have fun, but be careful... remember that the life expectancy of a car is only about 20 years and yours is thirty! Treat it with the respect and caution it is due. (you wouldn't flog a 90 year old grandmother would you?)

Sounds like the way my 72 Pinto took EVERY corner... whether I wanted it to or not I came out of nearly every turn with the front wheels pointed in the opposite direction from the turn... trying to keep them AHEAD of the rear wheels. Man that car sucked, but it sure taught me a lot about driving!

Take your pick: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/SIC102 http://classicdatsun.com/ http://www.zbarn.com/New%20Parts%20F./seat_upholstery_kits.htm http://www.datsunrestore.com/catalog.html http://www.blackdragonauto.com/icatalog/z/t72.html Did I leave anyone out?

Stick with doors from the 76 - 78 models. If you search the forums there is a thread somewhere that mentions that the early doors are different from the later doors. My Driver's door isn't original, and while it closes ok, the lower rear edge sticks out... There is a subtle difference in the shape of the body on the later cars from the early ones... I think the later cars are longer perhaps?

There are a number of things that might need to be replaced, but until you look you can't be sure. The differential attaches to the frame with a mount that has rubber parts, like a motor mount. If it is torn you need a new one. Similarly there are mounts for the mustach bar, and if a 77 has anything in common with a 71 you have to remove the lower control arms, which have rubber mounts as well. Sad to say, but unless you look carefully now you could be in for an umpleasant suprise later.

Really? The reason that R12 was so popular originally was that it was non-toxic. In fact it is harmful to the ozone layer because the only thing that breaks the stuff down is high-energy radiation, which is only present on earth in the extreme upper atmosphere. Once that happens the chlorine released reacts with the ozone and degrades the planet's natural radiation shield. (At least that is the theory... it has never been proven.) Now the lubricating oils that are in there WITH the R12, THOSE can be unpleasant. Back in the pre-ban days they used to sell R12 off the shelf at Wal-mart and K-mart. Usually you would waste a couple of cans before you figured out how to re-charge your car. I have never heard of anyone getting sick from R12. In the 1960's it was used as the propellant in nearly all spray cans.

Actually, no. The shunt is a calibrated resistor that is always in the circuit. The "Ammeter" is actually a very sensitive voltmeter that is constantly measuring the voltage across the "shunt". If your shunt is missing, and the car still runs that means that the Ammeter has been by-passed. Without the shunt the ammeter will not carry enough current to power the car. (and as was pointed out earlier without the shunt the ammeter could burn out very quickly) You didn't mention what year of Z car you have. On the early cars 70 - 73 or so the shunt is actually mounted on the back of the ammeter. If I remember correctly on the later cars it is mounted in the engine compartment somewhere. (The higher output alternators on the later cars made mounting the shunt in the dash a fire hazard.) In either case, if the problem is that the car does not run BECAUSE the shunt is missing, the simplest solution is to replace it. You can also jumper around the ammeter, but if you do use a BIG wire as it will have to carry all the current to power the entire car. (Except the starter)

I don't know about New Mexico, but welcome to the club here! I hear that cars don't rust in your part of the country, so consider yourself lucky. Rust is actually the primary limiting factor to the life of a Z car. They seem to be very durable otherwise.

Truly a sad day for his family and co-workers, and fans. But he lived what he loved, and he died as he lived. What more can any man hope for than that?

Escalon, don't be offended by what I am about to say... The bottom line here is that all body shops, high end or otherwise are an "ongoing concern", meaning that they intend to be in business for many years. Like a drywall installer, they have to give priority to the high volume customers (Can you say insurance companies?) who will be sending them business tomorrow, and the day after that for the forseable future. (I had a drywaller who I had to bribe with extra $$$ to make him hurry up and finish only three months late...) No matter how happy or unhappy I am with the work that a body shop does on my "restoration" it will be YEARS before I will be back with more work for the guy. He would starve to death waiting on repeat business from me, even if I am estatic with the result. Frankly, I wonder if we wouldn't actually get better service from someplace like Maaco, or Earl Scheib simply because we fit better into their business model. With them WE are their intended customer base.

That is amazing... I guess that what mislead me is that the new bolts that came with the belts I bought are marked "8.8", which is a metric strength class designation. The OEM bolts are marked RYB, or something like that, and they are soft as butter. I would have expected SAE fine thread bolts to be either grade 5, or grade 8, and to have matching markings... Oh wait, perhaps the letters on the old bolts are some obscure 60's era SAE grade markings... I am an electrical engineer, not a mechanical one. The SAE grade designations are somewhat outside my essential knowledge base. I just assumed that this was another place where a metric bolt and an SAE bolt were interchangeable. I know from first hand experience that an M5 x 0.8 and a SAE #10-32 interchange. I have done that both by accident and on purpose. This isn't the first time that I have found SAE bolts on the interior of the car. For some reason the bolts that hold my radio/Heater control/Map light panel are SAE #6-32, and the bolts that hold the fuse box in place are SAE #10-24. I did not re-tap them either, I just discovered this because I had lost the original bolts, and those are the sizes that fit correctly. A 4mm bolt would not thread into the face plate holes, and a 5mm would not thread into the other holes... truly strange and anoying. Not saying that it wasn't done by the PO, but I don't think he would have had any reason to remove the fusebox.

I couldn't find a thread on this subject, so I started one. For the future reference of others who, like me, live in a area where obscure metric bolts and taps are difficult to find, the bolts for the seat belts on a 1971 240Z are a rather unusual size. They are M11 x 1.25. Some of the bolt holes had some dammaged threads. Bolts would go in just a little hard, but when they came back out the threads were rounded off. I tried the old trick of trying to clean the threads with a bolt by cutting a grove in the threads to make it look like a tap, but it didn't work. So I searched for most of the day for a local (Within a 50 mile radius) supplier of a tap in the size mentioned, without success. Finally my Mechanical Engineer son asked if there was an S.A.E. equivalent... silly question I thought until I did the math. 7/16" = 11.1mm 20 threads/inch = 1.27mm/thread I found some SAE 7/16 x 20 bolts and nuts in my assortment of random bolts, and to my suprise the M11 X 1.25 bolt threads into a 7/16 x 20 nut perfectly. You would never know they are different. I bought a tap for the SAE size at the local auto parts (Napa) store. The metric bolts threaded in and tightened up perfectly.

From my perspective, being asked about the worst part of this site is a lot like asking a man who was rescued from a ship wreck what the worst part of his RESCUE was... When I first bought my Z car and started the restoration a friend of mine who is "into" Opels recommended that I seek out an internet club related to Z car because there would be information available there for free that otherwise I would never find. That was truly good advise. The information avaiable here on some of the more obscure problems encountered repairing a Z car has on more than one occasion been the difference between progressing to the next stage of the restoration versus just parting the car out on Ebay. I even enjoy the discussions of other Datsun/Nissan products that pop up from time to time. I had never seen or heard of a Skyline until I visited this site.

Just wondering... If 10W-30 will work, would something like 5W-30 or 5W-20 be better? I notice that a most new cars in the U.S. require one of those oil weights anymore, so both are widely available.

If you sand hard enough it really lights your fire!

It will be four years in October since I got my Z car. It still doesn't run. My biggest problem is that every time I take one thing apart to repair it I find several OTHER major problems that have to be fixed before I can complete the repair that I started. This has gone on for so long that I no longer allow myself to think about WHEN I will be done... only IF I will ever finish. BTW, I need to update my personal icon, because the car has been primer gray for nearly a year now... Maybe I will buy myself a digital camera for my birthday. (That would be a nice change, from constantly buying Z parts.)

Man, for that price it seems like reproduction would be possible... I can't imagine paying that much for a set of tail lights.

Glad to hear that you got it working. I doubt that dirty injector connections would cause a car to run rich. Typically that is caused by either leaking injectors, a plugged air filter, or a defective O2 sensor in the exaust pipe. By the way, for all those interested, ALL cars sold in the U.S. have an EGR valve, not just those in California. The EGR valve injects exaust gas into the intake manifold to reduce the O2 content and lower the combustion temperature, thereby preventing the formation of oxides of nitrogen. Even diesel engines sold here have an EGR valve, which is one of the reasons that U.S. specification diesel cars don't get anywhere near the fuel mileage of the European specification diesel cars.

COOL! That #112 "yellow" is just about the exact color that I have decided I want to have my car painted! I am going for a sherbert-lime green, if I can find one. That is pretty much the same!

BTW, the 4 speed in the previous picture is from an early Z car. (70 - 71) The late 4 speed looks like the transmission on the right in ZSaint's picture. The 5 speed is longer however, and takes a different drive shaft. At least that is what the Hanes manual says, I have never seen one. I just know that MY 4-speed looks like the transmission on the right.

I have never tried using a SBC thermostat cover on a Z car... Just from memory the basic shape and size are similar, except that the cover on a Z is aluminum while the standard cover for a Chevy is steel. Also typically it seems like the Chevy covers have an outlet pipe that is pointed upward while the Datsun cover is more or less horizontal. If I recall correctly the chamber size on the Chevy cover, that is the hemispherical dome, is smaller than the one on the Z car. It might fit, if you have one try it I guess... but generally you will not get much support around this site asking about non-Nissan parts. Folks around here really aren't into that sort of thing. Heck, I was snubbed once for asking about using a whip style antenna instead of a "correct" motorized retractable one... Don't take it personally, it happens.