Captain Obvious

Wait... Have you put a timing light on it and checked your ignition timing? If your ignition timing is already OK, then there's nothing to be gained (at this time) by dropping the oil pump and changing the distributor drive gear. if your timing is on target, then your timing is on target. Doesn't really matter if that tang is at 11:30 or 12:30. You might want to do something about it after you've got the other bugs worked out, but for right now, if your timing is at the right spot, then adjusting the drive gear won't buy you anything. Won't make any difference.

Haha! Just remember to keep it in perspective. There are lots of Z owners who just can't get their car to run. At all. You've got a small issue where it's a little tough to get it started the first time when the engine is stone cold. Other than that, you're OK, right?

Are they ever really "done"? Is that even possible?

Mario, The EGR stuff sounds OK. Might be a small leak past the valve, but you have at least ruled out a gross problem there. As for the resistance measurements you got off the AFM, you're right... The measurements you got between pins 6-8 and 8-9 sound fine, but the measurement between 7 and 8 doesn't seem like it agrees with the test result of "Continuity (Small Resistance)" that is listed in the 75 EFI manual. However... I took a look at the 1980 EFI manual (which covers 75 through 80) and that newer version has a different answer for that test. The 1980 manual says you should see about 150 Ohms between 7 and 8. So it seems you may have highlighted a mistake in one of those two manuals, but I don't know which one. I'll try to take a couple measurements off my car today to figure out which source is correct and which is screwed up. I suspect the 1980 manual is correct which would unfortunately mean that you haven't yet found any anomaly to explain your car's behavior.

Thanks for the additional info. And glad I was able to help you get some sleep. I'll stop it with the threadjack now!

Well I'm certainly no headlight expert, but I like looks of the mechanical mounting scheme of the 9004 and 9007/H13 better than the H4. I like the O-ring seal, and I like that they snap into the housings without the external rear swinging metal clip. I also think they might mount a little shallower than the H4's because you don't need the rubber top hat on the back. (However, you might just end up trading the rubber top hat seal for a longer connector body though.) Anyway, I was just musing. Looking to compare different options before I pulled the trigger on anything. All that said, I did fifteen minutes of digging and came up completely empty on anything other than the H4's, so the whole idea may be moot. Not to say that there are zero 9004 or 9007 options in existence, but I haven't turned any up.

Thanks Chickenman. Funny you mention the flat front bulbs... I was at my local junkyard the other day and there was an old Land Rover there that had a set of 7" Hellas up front. I didn't pull them though because they were the flat front and I like the convex fronts better. So here's a question for you who probably know more about this whole thing than I do... What I would really. really like is something convex front that uses the H13 bulbs instead of the H4. I admittedly haven't spent significant time looking, but have you seen anything like that? Something 7" round with a convex front that uses this style bulb:

Good. That's the best place to start. Hopefully you'll find that you get enough light out of your current bulbs once you get the relay system installed and aren't wasting half your available power through the old original wiring system. I've been thinking of changing over to an H4 system like your Hella's. but more for the bling factor rather than function. I'm sure they would be better than the old sealed beams, but I'm not dying for more light. I just like the idea.

About that wedge pin... Once the two bushing nuts are tightened, the whole thing (spindle pin, nuts, and inner bushing sleeves) should all be pinched together, locked up and move as a unit. The only way it wouldn't move as a unit would be if the inner bushing sleeve slipped on the surface where it contacted the bottom of the strut housing. The nuts pinch the bushing sleeves against the strut housing and that should be enough force to keep the bushing sleeves from slipping. Just like on the front inner bushings... They don't have a wedge pin on the front, right? I think the purpose(s) of the wedge pin is a little different... I think the wedge pin: 1) Prevents the spindle pin from rotating as you are trying to tighten (or loosen) the nuts, and 2) Keeps the spindle pin centered between the two bushings such that about same amount of threaded length is poking out at both ends. Without the wedge pin, not only could it be difficult to get the whole thing tightened or loosened, but you could also potentially tighten one end until the nut runs out of threads and bottoms out on the tapered portion and then have too few threads left sticking out of the other end. I'm no suspension guy, but that's my read.

Excellent. Glad it was that simple. Nice that you didn't have to discharge the whole A/C system and pull the dash to fix it. Enjoy the warm toes.

Glad to (try to) help. I'm operating off obsolete brain cells with the details of the A/C stuff. Been a long time and I don't remember all the details. I do think disconnecting the linkage off the vacuum actuator is a good idea. Might be able to figure out if the problem is inside or outside the heater box. But be warned... there really isn't a lot inside the box. Unless some piece of foam has fallen out of place and is jamming up the works I'm not sure what else could have gone wrong in there. One thing I've seen in some other cars is that when the original foam degrades over time, sometimes it turns into a sticky gooey mess. I don't remember if that happens with old Datsun stuff, but if so, your mode door might just be "glued" into place by sticky residue left over from failed antique sealing foam. Also, here's some pics I took when I had my air box out of the car for some work. I don't have A/C, but the basic system parts (like the air box) are the same for all the cars. You've just got the vacuum stuff bolted onto yours that I don't have:

And BTW, aren't all the doors on the A/C cars tied together with the vacuum actuators? Are you sure your problem is with the mode door and not with the heat/defrost door down closer to your feet? The linkage for those floor heater doors is kinda kludgey.

The mode door is hidden behind your evaporator core, isn't it? If that's the case, you won't be able to do much from the front. You can get a little access to the mode door if you pull the blower assembly out of the passenger footwell. There just isn't much to it though... Pivots on two pegs on the bottom. I think I got some pics around here somewhere.... If you take the linkage off the drivers side peg, you should be able to move the door smooth through complete range of motion. Might tell you if it's a linkage issue or something inside the box. Maybe a critter dropped a couple nuts into your air intake and they came through the blower and are jamming the door?

You checked fuel delivery to the carbs, but did you verify that fuel is actually making it into the bowls? Maybe your little screens or your float needles have plugged up? I know it's unlikely that both carbs did the same thing at the same time and I also know you said that it wouldn't start even on starter fluid, but I just want to play too.

I agree. Unless you've already got a well done headlight relay install, you're gonna burn something up. And, in fact, if you don't already have headlight relays, you're not getting all you can out of your current bulbs. I took some measurements before and after my relay install and those measurements indicate that I'm getting almost twice as much power out of my bulbs now than I was before. (And I haven't looked into it, but I suspect the power in to lumens out relationship for incandescents is very non-linear...) Bottom line... Step one would be to make sure you're getting every possible lumen out of your current bulbs. Do you already have a well done headlight relay install?

Maybe your other locks have been changed out in the past and for some reason they didn't do the hatch lock? I've heard that the hatch locks are impossible to find. NOS is very rare and nobody makes a new replacement like they do for the doors and the ignition. One of the other locks on the car that goes unnoticed... the glove box lock. Does your current key work in the glove box lock? If it doesn't, then maybe the hatch and glove box use the same (older?) key. If your current key DOES work in the glove box, then I'd suspect there's something busted up in your hatch lock like a tumbler has split and is jamming up the works inside.

Haha!! Nice! I already get "up to" 10% ethanol at the pump, but I bet yours tastes a lot better!!!

And since we're talking about ported vacuum sources... Here's a pic down the throat of the throttle body and you can see the distributor advance port on the left and the EGR port(s) on the right. Been a while since I studied it, but IIRC, the pair of larger holes in the foreground are BCDD. The distributor port is the rectangular slotted one on the left back where the butterfly would contact the housing if it were closed (instead of being blocked open as it is in the pic):

Yeah, I took a quick look through the service manuals looking for some sort of diagram or sketch that did a good job of showing those vacuum lines and came up with nothing very good. Best I found was in the Engine Tune Up section, and the clearest year I found was 1977. So take a look at ET-2 in the 77 FSM manual. You're interested in tube numbers 5, 12, and 14. 14 comes off the throttle body and goes to a metal "T". 5 comes off the "T" and goes to the vacuum can. 12 comes off the "T" and goes to the distributor.

I've thankfully never needed to open up a Z transmission but I have been inside a couple other manual transmissions in the past and I assume the basic concepts are identical. Point is, I'm no expert and other than pointing out that it sounds more like a linkage or interlock problem than a clutch problem, I'm not the guy who can pinpoint the exact location of the issue. I did in the past work on a transmission where it was hard to get it into a non-synchronized (first) gear and it turned out that the two gears that meshed were both badly damage and the teeth had actually smeared to the point where getting them to mesh was difficult. On that one, there was a also a loud whine when in first gear. I don't think that's what is going on here.

It's the one that points toward the radiator. Vacuum from that front port should "T" to go to two places. 1) the distributor vacuum, and 2) the carbon canister control line.

Forgive me, but I'm not sure I can see how this could be a clutch issue. Because reverse is non-synchronized, clutch drag would manifest itself as a grind when trying to put the car into reverse (because the gear teeth would collide until the collisions were severe enough to stop the clutch disk from spinning). But since there's no grind, why is the clutch adjustment theory so prevalent? I'd be more suspicious of a linkage issue with one of the shift rods or maybe something to do with the interlock detent balls?

Very nice! No point deductions for you!

Seriously? You're worried about changing from Philips to Allen or torx on the horns because it might be "obvious"? Seriously? I know obvious (obviously) and that's not obvious. Haha! That said, if I ever, ever, ever see your car, that's one of the first things I'm going to check for. You better thank your lucky stars that I'm not a show judge.

I don't know about "most", but a lot of them do. Maybe 50/50? Problem (my opinion) is that a lot of them have recently standardized on a web site design and I don't like the new one. Here's a couple options near you. Note that they are all running the same website. They probably enter in their own percentage discount off stock and their shipping and handling charges, but other than those customizable parameters, they're all the same. Scott Clark in Charlotte - http://charlottenissanparts.com/?siteid=216961 East Charlotte in Charlotte - http://www.nissanpartstogo.com/?siteid=216616 Harrelson in Rock Hill - http://harrelsonnissansocarolinaparts.com/?siteid=216864 Thankfully Courtesy has not succored to the temptation to standardize. Hopefully they never will. There are fewer things I hate more than searching by VIN. Courtesy - http://www.courtesyparts.com/