Hardway

I'm using an R200 differential. Really, they had to cut off 3 layers? I'm going to run mine as is for now. If I need to cut off more I can do it later as the effort will be the same at this point.

Already at $9100 with 8 days left. Definitely a great looking car. Good Z cars continue to bring good money.

I can justify $200+ as Carl said it best. Bumpers that are just in decent shape sell for good coin. Properly rechromed and restored bumpers sell for big $. I paid over $600 shipped for a matching front and rear bumper set that came off of a 240z that had been turned in to a race car very early in its life. The bumpers are a 7 out of 10 in my opinion and would make any owner proud to have them on their Z. I won't be putting them on my Z until I get it painted way later down the road. Even if I were to sell my car I don't think I would sell the bumpers as they are just getting too hard to find in really good shape. The Harrington group bumpers are very nice but as I brought up in another thread, I wish they would make the correct bumperettes for them so they looked much more original for US spec cars. I had been in talks with them to see what it would take to produce them but I do not have a set of good condition bumperettes to send them without some guarantee I would get them back.

Thank you John. From the looks of it I need to cut off 1 coil and possibly 1.5. I will start with 1 and go from there.

I am so jealous! Great pics Tlorber and thank you for posting them. You hit it the nail on the head, it truly looks like it was a stellar experience.

Since my wife was busy tonight with work stuff I decided to put in a few hours on the Z. I started by gathering everything to install the struts and springs. I am trying out a pair of Chevette springs in an effort to regain the original ride height of the car. These were used back in the 80’s and early 90’s as a stock replacement performance spring. The uninstalled height of the Chevette spring on the left is 14 2/8 inches while the King lowering spring on the right is 12 1/4 inches. I have another thread going to discuss this and will post my final results in this thread once I have them. I got everything together and hung the assembly on the car for now. Not too bad for a few hours worth of work.

With the bump-stop issue resolved I went about a second attempt on raising the differential and this time it was a success. Everything else went on according to plan with no surprises. The control arms took some real effort to get on since the new poly bushings basically have no give to them. I had to basically walk the front control arm brace on from side to side. The brackets in the rear were a little easier. Once everything was tight everything still moves like it is supposed to. It felt so good to see it all come together. Plus all my hard work of cleaning, stripping, and painting everything really paid off. I know it would be better if the whole car received the same treatment while everything was off but this is the best I can do for now.

I was back at it this past weekend and determined to get a lot done since the weather was perfect. All week I had been contemplating whether or not to change out the other rear wheel bearings. After much thought I decided to do it since I was pretty sure what was in there was the factory bearings based on the lock nut. Once I had it apart I was glad I decided to change them as the grease had turned to a gooey plastic. I did not photograph the rest of the assembly as it was an exact copy of the other. This will let me rest easier knowing they have been changed and should provide many years and miles of use. With rear differential buttoned up I bolted on the half shafts and mustache bar. I ordered all new nuts for the half shafts as what came off the car was a mix of different sizes. They are a very unique size so only Nissan and MSA had them. After a quick check and wrapping the ends of the half shafts with rags as not to scratch them up I went about raising the differential back in to the car. Once it was in place and I started bolting up the mustache bar, I noticed everything was tilting downward. I instantly knew what was wrong, the bump-stop on the differential mount was too long as others had reported the same issue in the past. This was quickly solved by cutting off the bottom layer of the bump-stop. This was also a saving grace, as I was unbolting the bump-stop I noticed the bolt for it was hitting the parking brake cable equalizer thus not allowing it to go all the way back. I marked it and cut off the excess with my cut off wheel. Also, in an effort to reduce the height I used a lock washer and traditional nut as see on the far right versus the flat washer and tall lock nut that came with it. Here it is reinstalled. You can see the scratches on the equalizer from where it was hitting before. In the picture it looks like the nut is hitting the pin in the equalizer but it is not, it’s just the angle of the picture.

Thanks for the compliments guys! Always good to hear about the progress other owners are making. Hey Newtonhubcap, sure! I still have all of them written down and will type it up one evening this week and post it.

So I finally got around to messing with the Chevette springs this evening and apologize for the delay in getting back on this topic. I have had my rear suspension apart for a rebuild and figured this was the time to look closer in to them. Below is a picture of the Chevette spring on the left with the King lowering spring on the right. As you can see there is a big difference between the two. The coil diameter on the Chevette spring is 12.56mm and on the King spring it is 11.90mm. The height of of the Chevette spring is 14 2/8 inches and the King is 12 1/4 inches. I installed them as-is, got the lower control arm connected and the half shaft, all temorarily so I could do a mock up with the wheel on. Once it was on I jacked up the hub assembly to see how far it would compress before it lifted the car off the jack stand. As soon as the jack started pushing up it lifted the car off the stand, the spring just barely compressed if any at all. Granted, the gas tank is almost empty and there is no one sitting in the car but I was hoping it would compress a little. Based on the other info I could find I need to cut atleast one coil. Do any guys that remember using the springs cut off more? If so how many and what was the result? I want to regain a factory ride height or just slightly lower.

Welcome to the classic Z community! Looks like you picked up a really nice car and will serve as a solid foundation for whatever you plan to do with it. Looks like you have mod'd a wide variety of cars, what are your plans for this one? We look forward to your updates.

I am not 100% sure those are Enkei wheels. They do have E center caps. Are there any other markings on them? They look more like a wheel that Eagle or Centerline used to make. As far as what they are worth, throw them up for $350 OBO on Craigslist and see if you get any offers. Realistically I would see getting no more than $200 for the set and that is if they are all in good shape. The 14x7 wheel market is shrinking as a lot of guys are going to 15" and 16" wheels.

Back when I had my '77 280z I did the coat hanger lock repair. See thread here -> http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/open-zcar-discussion/45114-how-s30-door-lock-coat-hanger-repair.html My keys still worked and did not require any fiddling to the get lock to turn. The only problem was the the pot metal cam had smeared and would no longer move the metal arm when the lock was turned. The best part about the repair was I not only got to keep my keys but the repair was basically free and I maintained the return to center feature of the original lock which I would have missed if I had gone with the Ebay locks. Another option that is out there but I have not personally tried yet is the use of a set of door locks for a 1981 Maxima. My 240z's locks are toast and I have a set I picked up at O'Reilly Auto parts for around $30 but have not had a chance to install them yet. Not sure if they would work with a 280z though. I found the thread on them here -> door locks 240z/510 - Nissan : Datsun ZCar forum :Nissan Z Forum: 240Z to 370Z

Here is my thread with pics of my parking brake cable repair. They are down towards the bottom. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/open-zcar-discussion/47863-lime-green-machine-restoration-thread-1972-240z-3.html In regards to the hangers, are you talking about the springs that suspend the cable from the car above the diff or something else?

I will second the ease and success of buying parts on Amazon. I bought lots of Moog suspension parts for 2000 4Runner when I had it and Amazon had the best price by far. I have bought lots of tools from them and was always happy with the purchase and shipping. They don't have many Z parts but I see a few consoles and things on occasion.

2 Z's and can't decide which one to drive. Looks like a good problem to have!

Good idea on the filler plug Tlorber. For now I will it the way it is since at the rate I put miles on my toy cars it will not need to be changed again for a long time. Thank you for the compliments Madkaw. I think the biggest key to getting work done on these cars is having right tools and the know-how to use them. My rotary tool, press, and air compressor get used every weekend. Back in the day when I just had a small air compressor things took a lot longer and when I was younger and just had a good socket set along with some screw drivers and a few hammers even simple things took forever. You make a good point on the sandblasting setup. For what I can do with my rotary tool vs. what little more I could do with a sandblaster does not make up for the large price difference. What I am doing is not really a restoration but more of a thorough re-hab and clean up of all the components I am working on. For the level of the finished product I am looking to achieve I am very happy with how it is coming along.

If it is still registered in your name and you did not write down the buyers info then the trail is pretty cold at this point. Are you wanting to contact the buyer to let him know where the car is? If so try putting an ad on CL or just post it up on Facebook. You never know where your paths might cross.

No surprise there and I am shocked whoever sold it to the junkyard did not part it out on their own. I am sure they had their reasons and hopefully the parts are going on to another car to bring it back to life. However I agree with the comment as I am sure someone got out there with some tools and stripped it to resell the parts.

Thank you Blue. You are spot on as I had the same thought as well. I plan to build a shield out of sheet metal or fab something out of plastic to put around everything. Gonna wait until the rear end and everything is in place to see what I kind of room I have and go from there.

Since it I was on a roll I moved to getting all the bushings installed for the rear suspension. The outer control arm bearings were no harder than I expected and basically used a C-clamp to aid in pushing in the center bushing tube. The larger inner bushings were another story as the bushing tube fits very tightly over the control arm tube. I used a small sledge hammer to get the first one on but then had an “ah-ha” moment… what I am doing? I have a press! I lightly lubed the bushing tube with some 3 in 1 oil before pressing it on. Everything went together with no fuss. Even got the mustache bar bushings in with the aid of my bench vise. Productivity is a beautiful thing! I still had some energy left in me so I got my parking brake cable mounted back on the car. Its hard to tell but I masked off the ends and painted the hardware at each end of the cable to protect it from corrosion since all of its zinc coating was now gone. Also got the rear control arm support brackets installed. For 8 hours worth of work I was very happy at the end of the day with what I accomplished.

While I was letting the stub axle get cold in the freezer it occurred to me I may want to test fit the new spindle pins before I even get close to the point when I would need them. I am glad I did as one of them would not go in all the way. This was because the inside walls has been slightly gouged from pressing the old ones out. No worries, I put a rolled sanding bit on my rotary tool and after a few minutes everything was looking and feeling good.

Riding a wave of progress I turned my attention back to the differential. After doing some research I determined I needed a Nissan seal #38342-N3100. As you can see in the picture the B/A seal is smaller, 52mm to be exact and the orignal worn seal on the far left is 55mm. The seal in the middle is what I found on Ebay as Nissan was sold out of the seals with no time frame on when they would get more. The Ebay seal is made in Japan and sold by seller Seal Giant. It is spot on to the original and at $18 for the pair shipped the price was good too. I made sure the bearing cavity was clean and lightly lubed with some diff fluid before I tapped it in using a cylinder from my ball joint install kit and a brass hammer. I went slow to make sure it went in straight and was not distorted. All in all it was an easy job once I had the right seals. I also picked up a new fill plug for the diff from MSA. I did not expect it to have the magnet on the back but it did. The original was not sealed with anything but I wrapped the threads with some oil & gas resistant sealant tape. Once the diff was filled with some 80w-90 GL5 fluid the plug went in the differential is 100% done and crossed off the list.

While many people were celebrating Easter this past Sunday I was in the garage making some serious progress on the Z. During the week I switched gears to build a press box out of a 2 x 12 x 8 from the hardware store along with some 4” wood screws. I needed something that would be strong enough to allow me to press out the rear stub axle so I could change the bearings. This not only gave me the strength I needed but plenty of depth so I could press the axle all the way out. I had originally planned to use a cinder block but the square in one is just a bit too small. The inner dimensions of my box are 5.5” x 5.5” x 12” It worked like a charm! I padded the bottom with several leather work gloves to protect the threads on the axle studs once it broke free. I followed the How To article on the Atlantic Z site that can be seen here -> http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/rearwheelbearings/ With the stub axle out I needed to remove the outer bearing from the stub axle. I bought a bearing puller kit from Harbor Freight since I do not have the pieces needed to utilize my press. For the most part I have good luck with HF tools but this thing was just sad. After a few turns the 2 studs that go on each end of the silver bearing plate started to bend. I could see breakage in their future and wisely backed it off. I took a minute to measure the old bearing vs. the new bearing and it was spot on so out came my pneumatic cut off wheel. I basically cut two relief cuts in the outer shell and bearing carrier and used a small chisel to break them apart. I made one relief cut in the inner shell and it followed suit with very little resistance. The inner axle bearing seal put up a small fight but it was nothing a relief cut with my Dremel tool could not solve. After the seal the bearing came out next. Based on the condition of the grease they had reached the end of their service life. I won’t re-hash everything in the Atlantic Z article as I followed it to a T and used new lock nuts from Nissan for a 280zx. Plus I forgot to take a lot of pictures as I was a little side tracked by other projects during the day. I will say this, based on the pictures and his experience this job is SO MUCH EASIER with the parts off the car and a press at your disposal. I could not imagine doing this on the floor and under the car. Have I mentioned I love my press?!! The reason I changed the bearings was because they were rather noisy and very loose feeling. Now they are solid, smooth, and quiet. Mission accomplished!

I wonder how many of those $200 5spd shift knobs they sell each year? It is pricing like that keeps people away from these cars along with the fact that many of the parts owners really need are no longer made. Absolutely disappointing! GM and Ford support almost all of their classic cars either by still offering many parts at dealerships or allowing companies to re-produce parts. Nissan needs to get it over itself and either truly support their classic cars with in stock parts at reasonable prices or let other companies do it for them like MSA, Classic Datsun, and the like.