EuroDat

With all this experience you are gaining on this project your next datsun project will be a breeze Good to hear things a going your way. Sounds like two jobs, two successes. Nothing more satisfying then when you do something on these cars and you see/feel the benifits of all that hard earned knowledge.

I punched out the internals of a spark plug so I could make a compressed air fitting to do leak down test. You could make something like that. It took me about 1 hour to make. If you get the piston up to tdc and lock the engine in 5th gear with the ebrake on. The compressd air (about 6 - 8 bar) will hold the valve in place so you can hit the retainer without the valve moving. Ill post a photo of it tonight. Basically need some fitting for the sparkplug hole and compressed air. I have done the seals using that method as well. It wasn't on a Datsun, but some principle.

I know what rossiz means by rope being squishy. I used a cord from an iron for one head. Thats the eleftrical cord with cloth weaving. It worked great. I have also heard of people using small tubing like that used in fish tank bubblers. The small diameter doesn't squish so much and its easy to feed in the spark plug hole. What I meant with the sound is at first its makes a ping ping sound and then changes to a dull thud sound when they let go. Mmm that might not be making it any clearer. Once you have done a couple you will get my drift, do to speak. Don't tap the clests or collets as datsun calls them. They are tight around the valve stem and the spring is still pushing them tightly around the valve. All you will do is transfer all the force to the stem and move the valve up and down with each tap. The general idea is to hold the valve up, preferably not by using the piston crown. When you tap the spring with a socket or punch, the valve should stay put and the collets will release. If you look at the top of the spring, you will see the spring, a retainer and two collets. The outside of the retainer is what you should be hitting. It can be done with a socket, round pipe or a blunt screwdriver etc.

I like to feed a piece of rope down the spark plug hole before turing the piston to TDC. After a coupls of goes you will get the feel of how much rope to feed in. It helps keep the valve up in its seat. I never have liked the idea of the valve hitting the piston and pushing it back down. Note: If the socket trick doesn't crack the cleats loose, I try the socket extension off center on the spring cap just next to the valve stem and not on top of it. You will hear the sound change when they come loose.

Yer, I know what you mean. I have a garage full of good opportunities. Looking at your photo on my computer (intstead of tablet) it looks like a long extension or maybe the one that is 30mm shorter. Here is a photo of the long one and very short 71C extension. The extension housing comes in three different (2wd) lengths that I know of, The very short is 750mm, middle 860mm and the long is 890mm total length. From what I have found and discovered first hand Im sure there are more variations of the 71C than the F**W71A & B combined. And Im not talking about ratio's. Chas

The video shows what your doing and it looks fine. If the cleats don't seat properly then the spring will sit a lot lower compard to the other springs. It will generally sit crocked as well. Your looks ok from the video.

Nice work I like following this thread. The S14 transmission is different in more ways than you would think. - You will have to change the bellhousing to match the L seris engjne otherwise it will lean 12 degrees. - The 200SX had the stubby rear extension. 300ZX and 240SX had the long extension. You will need to re-engjneer the transmission mount and propellor shaft will be far too short. Shortening is always easier. Most people doing this swap generally go for the 240SX or the 300ZX (Im going with the 300ZX) and use the 71B (4 or 5 speed) bellhousing. The bellhousing will require some minor mods for one selector and front cluster gear clearance. Then shorten the propellor shaft 50mm or find a series I. The stubby extension has a really strange selector mechanism. For me anyway, Im use to the 71B and the long 71C. The 71C with an aftermarket shifter feels great. Really clean gear changing. Simple evolution A-B-C and improving over the years.

This end result looks great. Ever thought of making more;)

Poeple often comment abou clutch engagement height when they change from the origunal 280Z clutch to an aftermarket clutch. The 280Z pressure plate seemed to work in tge higher range of travel. This could be what you are experiencing as well. After a couple of days/week of driving I would bleed the clutch again to make sure all the air is out. A little bit of air will effect clutch engagement. You only have to open the bleeder once. Any air thats in there will be in the slave cylinder. The rest would have worked its way back up to the M/C and out through the reservoir. A good idea to check your M/C and pedal adjustments like chickenman said. If the MC dossn't come back completly it will not open the port to the reservoir and the self adjusting will no longer work. The clutch fork can not adjust to wear because the fluid can not escape to the reservoir. Nice to hear it all worked out in the end. The first time is always hardest and you were on your own which makes it more challenging. But doesn't it feel good now it's all back together running like you want it to?

Jim, thanks for the compliments. Now to see how they fit. Let me know if you need anything.

It could be from the inhibitor switch and automatic transmission selector light. I think they piggybacked of one wire like your example and had those colors.

You can look through the oil cap hole and the inlet valve cam lobe should be pointing upwards towards the sparkplugs side of the motor. Thats the one directly under the cap. If its down towards the manifold side, then you are between exhaust and compression strokes. Saves taking the valve cover off. Another way is to remove number one spark plug and rotate the engine with your thumb over the hole. You will feel when its coming up on the compression stroke. Then rotate a little more until timing makes line up.

There is also the problem with mix matchd parts. Aftermarket pressure plates could also play a roll. The collars can also be a contributor. The 280Z 5 speed used a 25mm collar and othees had 24mm and 29mm. The 24mm you could grt away with, but the 29mm or the 16mm from the 71A transmission will not work. The slave cylinder can accomodate the 24 and 25mm and any tolerances caused by aftrmarket pressure plates/resurfaced flywheels etc.

The ZX transmission Cliff installed in his 240Z is out of a 2+2 and for all intention purposes its the same as the 280Z wide ratio. The 2+2 came with the 240mm clutch and wide ratio 5 speed transmission.

I posted the measurement for a slighty used (20,000km) clutch in post #17 in this thread. It should be around 110 - 120mm from the front of the bellhousing to the clutch fork. Yours being new might be a little more than 120mm. I not sure what you are measuring in your photo, but you are on the right track. You will be able to push the rod into the slave cylinder at least a couple of centermeters when the clutcb is new.

By moving the leads around, you are indicating something is wrong with the timing. Are you sure nr. 1 spark plug is firing on tdc compression stroke. Could be 180 degrees off. Take nr.1 spark plug out and turn motor by hand to make sure it coming up on compression. Engine was rebuild and has not run yet. We have some unknowns to deal with. Its not just: it was working and then stopped. It's something to tick off the list.

If you are not getting any response from starter fluid, you must have a problem with spark or it's flooded and the spark plugs are so wet they wont spark. How did you check spark? Your saying "Getting spark", but not explaining how you came to that conclusion. Explaining what you did step by step can give clues for others to give you better help and advice. You could have a bad connection or bad TIU. I would concentrate on that first. You should get some sort of response from starter fluid. You think the injectors are not opening which could also indicate no signal from pin 1, coil trigger.

That photo says a lot. Looks like the input shaft is not engaging the clutch disc. Try turning the output shaft at the rear extension. You might need to grip the main shaft lightly with vice grips or something like that and turn it while pushing it. If you are working alone, threaded bar or bolts about twice the length of the originals will help hold it in place. DON'T use them to pull it home, you will damage something. The bolts will hold the transmission more or less in line so you can get behind it and wiggle it in. If you use the bolts, use your jack (even a scissor jack well do in a pinch) to support the transmission and play with the height. You can then remove the straps. They are probably restricking your movement too much anyway. It might be time to leave it alone for a while. Do something else and get your thoughts back on track. We have all been there and frustration can work against you just as much as the problem itself. Try to find someone to give you a helping hand. Even if its only for moral support and keep you sane through this dilemma. Working on your own came be frustrating when things ain't going well.

Hi Cliff, Looks like you have identified the problem, now the cure. Me personally, I would cut and weld the two together. You know the original ZX selector worked in the 5 speed and the bent selector has enough clearance in the console. Typical that 5th gear suffers this problem. I have heard of this problem before, but never experienced it. That way I asked those questions in post #4. At least its not in the transmission and thankfully you didn't pull it out to find that out. Is this the 280ZX 2+2 you found a while back?

I have a question. How did you get the old bushings out? Did you punch them out with a hammer from the outside in? Its looks like the control arm is compressed, judging by the photo's. These control arms are strong in cetain directions and in others not. Measure the distance between the control eyes. The distance should be 141mm. The stub axle is 135mm which gives you 3mm for the lip on each PU bush. If you spred the control arm with a jack, make sure its met these measurements.

Just followed your like to the ratsun guys discusion. It looks like its out of a 720 2wd truck with the L20B engine, probably 1980 model. In 81 they went over to the Z engine (NAPS) Z22 and Z24. It wouldn't be the 620 because they had the short rear extension. I couldn't see your picture of your clutch sets until now. It was showing as a link. I can see the pull ring on the alignment tool bottom right in photo. You should drop the transmission to lubricate the splines. New disc and clean input shaft will be dry and could cause problems later. I wipe a small amount of grease onto the splines and use the old clutch disc to move up and down the splines and remove any excess. If you push the disc on, the grease will heap up around there and could sling off into the disc.

You can try unstrapping the transmission from the jack first. Give yourself a bit more freedom to move the transmission around. Hold it by the rear extension housing and wiggle it while pushing it gently home. If you take the transmission back out. Check the clutch disc with your fingers. Run you fingers around the outside of the pressure plate and feel the clutch disc. If its out of alignment you should pick it up there. If it is, then loosen the pressure plate enough so you can push the disc around with your fingers. Check it with your eye or using the alignment tool and check it has equal distance around the pressure plate fingers. This problem can hold people up for a while. The first one is a learning process. One you don't forget easily If you need to do it again, you will remember.

Yes I do. This is your problem. It came out so it will go back in. Those clutch alignment tools are approximate guides (IMHO). That is why I just use my naked eye and line all three (plate fingers - disc splines - pilot bearing). It only has to be a 1mm out and you will have trouble. The pilot bearing has to support the tool, something it is not designed to do. Any play between the pilot bearing bush and the tool or ball bearing wear and play between it and the tool will allow it to drop a little and result is disc out of alignment. Check it with your eye to confirm. When you put the tool in, is it in the center of the pressure plate fingers?

Btw: The input splines are probably clean and dry from doing the bearing on the transmission. Use a small amount of grease on the input shaft splines. Not too much or it could fly oof into the clutch disc and cause shudder later on. The clutch disc slides back and forth on these splines when it releases and engages. It's very small amout of movement, but dry splines will hinder this and the clutch can rub on the pressure plate when disengaged and cause grinding in reverse and hard to get into gear. If you have a brass pilot bearing a small amount of grease on that won't hurt. It can be a bearing or a bush.

You are almost there. If the splines have slipped into the clutch disc, than the only thing holding it back is the spigot or pilot bearing (nissan calls it the first motion shaft bush) in the crank shaft. If you didn't take the pressure plate off it should be perfectly in line. If you remove the clutch and put in back on, you must align the clutch disc. Otherwise it will fall down about5 to 8mm and the first motion shaft will be way off alignment. Sometomes I use a couple of 100mm lengths of threaded bar in the bottom two bellhousing bolt holes. Works well for me when Im on the ground. It helps with alignment and if you can't get then in, you have an alignment problem. If you use threaded bar, get a hack saw and cut slots in the end so you can use a screwdriver to get them back out. Did you do anything with the clutch disc? If so I would check the clutch disc alignment. Look at the pressure plate finger and position yourself so the pilot bearing is in the centre. The clutch disc must be a perfect spacing around the pilot bearing. This is how I line mine up because I don't have a alignment tool. If not didn't remove the pressure plate, then it is probably just too must rigidity. The tranny is strapped to the jack. Try to find some bolts roughly twice as long as the ones that came out and us them in the bell housing. Don't tighten them, just use them to stop the transmission from falling off. Take the straps off the transmission and lower the jack a little (1 - 2 cm). Get behind the transmission and wiggle it up and down left and right while pushing it home. At a given moment it will go click and pop in. Thats when the input shaft finds the pilot bearing.