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Those look pretty clever. I will give them a try and maybe go prowl the local hardware store for other options. Now to go clean up the mess! Thanks Again, Gary

Wow, that oil pan gasket job that I thought was going to be easy was a total bust! I ended up taking the pan back off because I could not get the gasket holes to line up with the holes in the block and pan. RTV sealer all over everything, including my helper. Are there any tricks I should be using? I had the whole pan/gasket combo glued together with sealer, but it slipped around during the install. Maybe I could get some really long bolts and thread them down through the block (where that is possible) as temporary guides. Now I have to order another gasket and get more sealer too. More room between the block and the crossmember would help line it up. One more item is reinstalling the rear main seal. Should I just give it a light coat of sealer and tap it in with a rubber mallet? I don't have the special installation tool that is 50 mm in diameter. Thanks for your ideas, Gary

They pointed out a few items that were damaged. The first was this shaft that has a scored, worn spot where a ball engages the shaft. They also said this bearing was stuck and there was a shiny worn spot next to it. Here is one more shot, I honestly could not see anything that was damaged.

Yes, it was and AAMCO transmission shop. I will pick it up tomorrow and take some pictures to post. The good news is that I have the oil pan all ready to reinstall, the pilot bushing removed and the rear main seal removed. All this went very well using tips available on this forum! Gary

They said they would reassemble and change the front cover gasket and seals (which I supplied) for another $131, so the total bill would be $262. At this point I kind of wonder if they can be trusted to even do that. No written estimate, but they said in needed sycro rings, bearings and ship levers. I can go pick it up in a box for $131. The story on the transmission is that it was stored (vertically) for a long time and did not have any gear oil in it. It was pulled from a wrecked vehicle to be used as a spare for a guy who used to race. The drain plug was really stuck, but when I got open it had some goo on it, but no metal on the drain magnet. It did not come with a shifter. Thanks for the very good advice, now back out to see if I can reinstall the oil pan (leaking gasket), remove and replace the rear main seal and remove the pilot bushing! Gary

I have the 4-speed removed from my '72 and was planning on installing my Craigslist find $100 5-speed from a '77 280Z. It is a lot of work, so I decided to have the 5-speed checked out before installation. The shop charged $131 to open it up and inspect it and estimated it would cost $1,500 to rebuild it. As an option they found one for $900 with the old transmission as a core. If I take this option I am into the project $100 + $131 + $900 = $1,131. Any ideas or alternatives? I am located near Sacramento and travel on business weekly to the bay area. Thanks for your input on this. Gary

I am going to do the same job and bought a scissors-style transmission jack from Harbor Freight. With the transmission strapped onto the jack it is 22 inches tall! I have some 24-inch tall Jackstands and some other smaller ones too. Any suggestion for the best location for the jack stands for this project, or do I need some timbers also? Thanks for your suggestions, Gary

Well, I bought two more seats that were in marginally better condition and have some observations. The seat backs are not symetrical. There is a bigger side bolster on one side of each seat back. I am not sure why the designer did this, unless it was to allow easier ingress/egress. If the smaller bolster is placed toward the door, the four grommets in the lumbar area end up on the passenger side, so I may be wrong about the small bolster toward the door. The seat backs do appear to be interchangable except for the bolster issue. The seat controls pretty much dictate that the seat back release lever be on the side toward the door, so the seat bottoms are not interchangable from the driver's to the passenger's side.

I have two questions regarding seats in a '72 240Z: 1. Can the seat bottoms or backs be swapped from driver's side to passenger's side? 2. Right now my passenger's seat has two brass grommets in the lumbar area, but the driver's side has none. Is this correct? Thanks for your input on this. Gary

My "free" 240Z ('72) did not come with a hood although the hood hinges were still on the car. I found a nice used hood for a reasonable price and it bolted right up. Unfortunately the front is too high by about 3/8 inch compared to the headlight buckets. I found a lot of advice on the forum on how to address this, but first I need to figure out how to align the hood left to right. It appears to be just barely hitting a bolt on the drivers side which I am sure may be contributing to the height problem. Any advice on this? Thanks so much, Gary

Thanks for the input. I will be keeping a welder busy since there are also 6 holes total in the rear fenders. I will stop prowling Craigslist on this item too.

I just removed the whale tale from my '72 and now I can see just how many holes there are in the hatch. Including 8 holes for the louvers (which are no longer on the car) I have a total of 12 holes! Otherwise the glass and hatch are in good shape without any rust. Should I be shopping for a new hatch or just plan to have the holes repaired? The car was built in 12/71 and has vertical defroster lines in the rear window. I don't plan to reinstall the louvers which I don't have anyway. Thanks for your input on this one! Gary

The rust on the input shaft pilot bushing area is cleaning up pretty well. Any idea what the shim on the counter-rotating shaft is for? It kind of came off with the front cover. Should I just put it back when reassembling the front cover? Thanks, Gary

Thanks Zed Head, removing the pivot bolt was easy with a 18 mm deep socket. A spare 10 mm 1.50X50 mm long bolt was long enough to bottom out and easily boost the front plate loose. I had been soaking it all weekend and tried a wonderbar with no results. I was concerned about breaking the aluminum housing, so this approach was much better. Thanks again!

I will head out to the garage here shortly and let the disassembly begin. Thanks for the pointers on getting things undone. I just put the rear brakes together this past weekend, so I want to enjoy driving it while I get the 5-speed prepped to replace the 4-speed. Again, thanks for the input on this!

I just bought a very inexpensive early (1977) 280Z 5-speed transmission to replace the 4-speed on my '72 240Z. It may be in good shape as it was pulled from a running vehicle many years ago to be used as a spare for racing. It was stored and never used. The input shaft where the clutch and pilot bearing would be mounted is rusty and a little bit pitted. I got the fill and drain plugs off and there was only some black greasy material inside around the drain plug hole. The magnet on the drain plug did not have any metal, so that was a good sign. I could not see any rust inside, but a few drops of water did come out with the greasy goo. Short of a complete rebuild, which is expensive and maybe not required, is there a way of cleaning it and inspecting it? If the seals could be replaced at the same time that would be great. What should I do about the input shaft rust? I am not set up to do this complicated of a project, so any suggestions on transmission shops in the general Sacramento or even east bay areas would be great. Thanks for your input. This is a really fun car to work on.

Sounds like the stock versions have plenty of capacity. It would not hurt to get a quote at least. I also keep seeing them on Craigslist for guys that are converting to V8 engines or going racing. Thanks for the tip!

I have a 72 240z with an L28 engine. I have a feeling the radiator is stock and does not have a shroud. It keeps the engine cool, but I have not had the car long to test it in hot weather. I live near Sacramento, CA so it can get pretty hot and I live at the top of a huge hill. The radiator has a small leak near the upper tank. I prefer to have ample cooling capacity just in case and would like to get a 3-row radiator. Has anyone bought one from Rockauto? They are very reasonably priced but have a built-in transmission cooler from what I can tell. Will I need to find a shroud also? Thanks for your input, the price difference is about $100 compared to the next cheapest model.

These Riken 14" wheels were on the car when I recently got it. They may have been put on the car when new because the stock steel wheels and new condition hub caps were in the trunk. I need new tires because these are old and in bad condition from storage. They are 225/60/14. I want to go with something a little narrower like 205 or so.

Thanks a lot for the direction. That was not an easy job! A small amount of transmission fluid dripped out, maybe because the front end was elevated about 3". Getting the tiny pin out with destroying it was tricky, but it went back together just fine. The inner seal was very hard from heat and age, but it came out using a drill bit just a little larger than the internal diameter of the inner seal. Seems to be plenty of fluid left in the transmission because when I removed the fill plug it started running out a bit. I wiped down the leaky area and hope to road test it later today when the weather lifts. BTW, my 1970 Datsun roadster has the same setup and I have the O-ring and seal for it also.

My goal is to install the O-ring and seal internal to the speedo drive to stop a leak, but I am not sure how to remove the drive carrier/pinion from the transmission. I did remove the 10 mm bolt that holds down a little flat retainer. Does the whole thing unscrew from the transmission? There are no flats or a hex on the drive carrier so I wonder if I just grab it with channel-lock pliers? Thanks!

I have a mostly restored 1970 Datsun 2000 roadster that just needs paint to make it respectible. It is fun and reliable so I drive it to work once a week or so. Based on that, a coworker agreed to give me his non-running 1972 240Z for free since it would go to a good home. This is a true California car that is very complete except for a hood. It has a lot of miles and a 280Z engine with the original 240Z intake equipment and all the smog stuff. The engine is an ATK rebuilt engine with unknow mileage. It has alloy wheels with the original steel wheels and perfect hubcaps in the back of the car. I recently purchased a hood and front bumper on Craigslist to complete the car. Since it had been stored for about 15 years and not run in 6 years I changed all the fluids and removed and cleaned the gas tank. It started up after a bit of cranking and runs pretty well. I just replaced the master cylinder, but I already know it does drive a bit. I plan to test it out more, but the ancient tires kind of scare me, so I will be doing low-speed stuff. The 4 speed shifter seems pretty sloppy, but the compression test when fully warmed up seemed okay as follows: #1 160 #2 160 #3 155 #4 165 #5 170 #6 165 Any advice regarding the restoration would be much appreciated. I don't really have a plan yet, but I much prefer rolling restorations and plan to use the car as much as possible.