One Way

Tackling the rear suspension components on this resurrection project. Best suggestions for removing the struts out of the housings. I have been spraying all the parts with Blaster, using a breaker bar with a cheater pipe, and a little heat if needed in the tear down of the rear suspension. So far so good but no luck on the struts seized into the housings. Pipe wrench and cheater bar did not do anything to break the corrosion and I am not too excited about applying any heat around the struts. Any advice from other rusty Z experts? Also wondering about the springs. They look fine but rusty and over 40 years old. Clean and paint or buy new? Thanks in advance for any help. John=Lugoff, SC.

I was looking into getting the DANA-SPICER u joints. Normally the highest grade u joints readily accessible. I did notice after cleaning away all the grease and grime and rust, one of the joints has a long extended grease zerk while the other one has the usual short stubby one. Some of the u joints I have looked into have the long zerk. The DANA-SPICER shows just the short one. I will certainly be doing some careful measuring as we proceed with this particular project. There is a slight amount of play in the LR outer joint. I have not yet removed or cleaned the RR axle. Thanks for the helpful advice, John-Lugoff, SC.

Just beginning the resurrection project on the rear axles and related components. Removing the outboard axle nuts required some heat-red hot- to break loose after 40 plus years. I know new nuts and lock washers will be required, but what do you think about the bolts? The J.I.S. M10 hardware is a bit difficult to locate-14mm hex size-and the taller height nuts I believe will work in that spot. Interference nuts or regular nuts with lock washers? Just looking for recommendations on the best hardware options. I have got the new rubber boots and clamps already and will be pressing out the u-joints as time permits to size them up. Surprisingly the u-joints still feel pretty good moving but like all the other aged original parts they should be replaced. Thanks for all the help with our resurrection project, John-Lugoff, SC.

I picked up a nice double flaring kit at the Charlotte Auto Fair a while back at one of the tool vendors. Not a name brand kit but looks pretty good, has all the pieces the expensive name brand kits have. Seemed to work good on the few lines I did on another project but have not used it enough to get real familiar with. Thanks for the helpful tip, John-Lugoff, SC.

Thanks for the info. I guess I need to play around with my flaring tool a little bit more. I am planning to purchase a better tubing cutter-my current one has seen better days-and the neat deburring tool that ONLINE TUBE has to offer. Thanks again, John-Lugoff, SC.

Thanks for the tips. The fuel pump in my 78 has a 1/2 inch inlet hose . A little research through WIX found #33299 to be a metal style with 1/2 inch barb ends. There are not too many inline fuel filters with the 1/2 inch barb unless you go to a high performance style where you thread in your choice of adapters to the filter. A little strange that Datsun never installed a filter before the pump. I was very impressed with the booth that INLINE TUBE had at last fall's AUTO FAIR at Charlotte Motor Speedway showing their copper/nickel tubing that bends so easily and smoothly and seemed to flare very nicely too. I almost bought a roll of the 5/16 for the fuel and a roll of 3/16 for the brakes but passed it up. Maybe at the spring AUTO FAIR in April I will pick it up and save the shipping. I have done the inverted flares on brake lines before with my tool but not sure how we can get the rounded bulge in the line for the fuel hose. The O'Reilly price on that Beck-Arnley pump is about double the Rock Auto price. I did not even bother to check my Team Member pricing for that pump. The Import Direct pump with a lifetime warranty will run me around $80 with my Team Member discount at O'Reilly's. They do treat their employees very well on parts discounts. I will keep the project slowly moving forward as time permits. Thanks again, John-Lugoff, SC

Thanks for the response. The resurrection project is 42 years old, last record of being on the road is 1996-inspection tag on windshield-and the storage was not friendly to this Z. Some rust on the lines and what you can see on the exposed ends internally does not look good. Tank and lines did have something in them at one point in time may have been gasoline. Just want to eliminate a potential problem. The Z is all torn down and would be much easier to tackle the lines now rather than later. Any suggestions on using aluminum fuel line or the copper/nickel line. Everything I have read says the stainless steel line is hard to work with. Also will have to purchase a flaring tool to put the little knob in the line. I do not believe the brake flaring kit I have does that? I have only used it to do inverted flares on brake lines in the past. PART NUMBERS for the damper and fuel pump BOSCH 16121178035 available at Pelican Parts, BimmerWorld, Turner Motorsports-all BMW specialty houses IMPORT DIRECT E16078 available at O'Reilly Auto-looks very close to OEM BECK-ARNLEY 152-0253-exact match to OEM Progress on the Z continues to creep along during rare times I am not working, babysitting, taking care of the family needs, or yard work. Thanks again. John-Lugoff, SC

Just beginning to resurrect the rear portion of the fuel system. Working with the great info from this site on the fuel damper. Hopefully we will track one down. Is the OEM pump the way to go for a stock EFI engine or will an aftermarket unit do the job? Huge price differences. O'Reilly offers their IMPORT DIRECT brand that appears similar in size and design with correct size inlet and outlet sizes and 2 terminals. Most of the other aftermarket units seem to be "CAN MAKE IT FIT" varieties with several fittings, rubber cushions, etc. Would it be wise to install a fuel filter between the tank and pump? Any suggestions on an inline filter with 1/2" barbs? What is the best way to do the fuel line to the engine compartment? I am considering going the high PSI 5/16 injection hose or should we go the steel line route? Is there stainless tubing available to combat the modern fuel issues and corrosion? Many new vehicles are using the hard plastic lines now. All suggestions welcome as I begin the cleaning, blasting, painting process on all the fuel pump brackets and mounts. Thanks again for this great resource of info on my Z project, John-Lugoff, SC.

Back to square one with the distributor. After placing the order for the needed parts and waiting a few weeks with no results I contacted the Nissan dealer parts dept. handling the order placed through parts.nissanusa.com and got the bad news the parts are discontinued. Why they were still listed on the site, I am not sure. Other parts were clearly listed as discontinued. Here is the list of parts needed. Vacuum advance-#22301-N4200 Plate #22136-N4200 First 2 are must haves. Third part just would be nice to have, Slider-holder cap-#22116-N4200 I will continue to investigate as time permits. Hopefully the Z experts can provide some more clues. Thanks, John-Lugoff, SC.

Thanks for the replies. The Beck-Arnley parts are offered through our store's system but as special order only. The pricing is significantly higher than the very generous team member pricing we receive on items stocked in our inventory system. The Rock Auto pricing in this case is a bit better than my team member pricing and the shipping charges are about the same. Also just received a discount code from Rock Auto via e-mail this morning. Think anybody was watching my parts searching from a few days ago? I will be pulling out my credit card and getting the order placed before I go into work. Thanks again. John-Lugoff, SC.

Looking for experienced opinions if the Beck-Arnley hydraulic clutch parts-slave, master, hose-are worth the extra money compared to the store brand options. Quality control seems to be a bit slack on some of the chain store branded parts. First hand experience being an assistant manager at one of them. I do not have any previous experience with the Beck-Arnley parts but have seen the name out there with generally higher prices. Just continuing the resurrection project and getting the various systems parts purchased in advance for the project. Thanks, John-Lugoff, SC.

Thanks for the reply. I guess I am not the only one to have the same issue with parts. It was a pleasant surprise to find the parts.nissanusa.com website that covers all the old Datsun vehicles. Some of the part # were clearly marked NO LONGER AVAILABLE but at least you get a valid # for the part. I located and ordered all the parts I believe I will need to reman this distributor. My biggest need will be the technical end of assembling all the advance mechanism parts properly. It looks quite involved but I will dig into my Haynes repair manual as well as print out the info from the Factory Service Manual which I think my wife has downloaded somewhere into our computer a year or so ago. Computer navigation just is not my strong point. Requests for any additional parts or help will be coming as needed. Thanks, John-Lugoff, SC.

SUCCESS sort of. I did get the vac advance unit out with additional Blaster and patience. ZED was correct about the ball bearings and plastic cage. Now I will have to search for a new plate assy. Quite a bit of corrosion on that plate and ball bearing areas. Plastic cage is cracked, springs and weights look fine, inside distributor housing looks like new after a quick spray with some brake cleaner. Back to the parts hunt. Enjoying the tear down process on this distributor. Hopefully I can get it properly reassembled if I can locate all the correct parts. Getting ready to go to work soon. Will keep you all updated. Thanks, John-Lugoff, SC.

Continuing the distributor renewal project. I just ordered a vac advance unit #22301-N4200 through parts.nissanusa.com and hopefully it will be the correct part. It is coming through Gwinnet Place Nissan in Duluth, GA. I was surprised to see so much detail on that site. I am sure I will be using it again. I am still a bit unsure on how the supercessions go on these parts. Not much info about that. Also according to the diagram, my distributor would be the California version as the contactor appears to be the same as mine. Our local Nissan dealer was clueless and pretty unhelpful with some of my previous inquiries-too old of a car to get parts excuse, even though I had the needed part numbers,-so it was a pleasant surprise to be able to find an easy to navigate website with prices clearly posted and good diagrams. Will need continued help I am sure during this process. Odd that part # on Google search did not get me any legitimate results. Thanks in advance, John-Lugoff, SC.

I may go out to the shop and dig a bit further on that slide part. The vac advance unit and online searching does get a bit frustrating but I am not a very good internet navigator. The Nissan # 22301-N4200 appears to be my correct choice-FED emissions, manual- which crosses over to several aftermarket #, none of which exist on the search in the manufacturer's website or in the parts suppliers' websites, or even worse one of the # comes through as a PCV valve. The vac advance units must be available if Cardone is offering a reman unit or in some cases sending your distributor in to be refurbished. We have some real horror stories at our parts store with us sending customer units in to Cardone, with all the proper paperwork and procedures done, and the part is unable to be located at Cardone and going through a maze of different departments all providing no answers. Personally I never advise any of our customers to go that route even though our corporate office has that as part of their "NEVER SAY NO" marketing policy. The last problem our store had was with a customer doing a numbers matching restoration of a 428 Cobra Jet Mustang and his water pump. Our store manager processed the whole order correctly and he battled through countless phone calls, leaving messages that never got returned, and plenty of lame excuses on the whereabouts of the water pump. Almost 2 months later it did show up at our store with no explanation after getting word they could not find it. The only thing enclosed was a bill for the service and the shipping charge. Both of which were very reasonable. Go figure. I believe we gave the customer the unit for FREE because of the long wait, lack of answers, and the customer's good attitude about the whole mess. Thanks again, John-Lugoff, SC.

Thanks for the reply. A picture in this case is worth a thousand words. My words often come out wrong. The pins I referred to were for the bottom drive collar and the pin in the reluctor. That process went smoothly. The diagram #6 is listed in some parts look ups as the reluctor and has some specs for California emissions or high altitude applications only. The contactor in my distributor is a bit gummy and grimy. Not sure if a good electrical cleaner would be sufficient or purchase a new one. I do not believe my resurrection project-1978 280Z-has the California emissions. No air pump or Oxygen sensors on this vehicle. I will continue to do some more research on the parts but the vac advance unit seems to be non existent so far in my search. The other question I had was about diagram #13 listed as cap setter. The parts diagram I had lists it as a "slide". Definitely bent in at the top along one edge. Glue or corrosion? Some more cleaning and time will tell. Thanks again, John-Lugoff, SC.

I have a rare day off from work as well as from babysitting grandchildren, so I decided to disassemble a very dirty and a bit rusty 42 year old distributor. Any helpful hints on removing the vac advance unit. Soaking in Blaster, a bit of patience, and also some prayer, all the screws are out, pins pressed out but the vac advance unit is not moving. Repair manual says to slightly angle it to remove it from the advance weights but have not had any success so far. It will be soaking in Blaster overnight and see what happens tomorrow. Also a question on what the manual labels as a "slide". The very thin sheet metal channel that acts as as locator tab for the base plate. The top portion is pushed away from the distributor body-the channel portion is bent. Originally I thought it was corrosion that bent the slide but after a bit of cleaning and poking with a pick, I am not sure if it is corrosion or some type of glue. That is also soaking in some cleaner and will have to investigate further. That portion of the distributor did have some corroded sections. Thanks again for any tips and suggestions on #1 removing the vac advance unit-#2 locating a new advance unit, Merry CHRISTmas, John-Lugoff. SC

Cap, rotor, wires are all readily accessible and I have new ones on hand. I am finding pick up coils and reluctors but can not seem to locate a vacuum advance unit or the springs for the advance weights. I have found some Cardone reman distributors available that have all those pieces included but thought it would be neat to retain the original distributor assembly that was installed at the factory. I did get all the pieces for the alternator which also was the factory installed unit on my resurrection project. I am not a big fan of Cardone reman products and looking for some helpful tips. Obviously these parts must be available if they are being installed on the reman units or are they just getting cleaned up real nicely and put back on? Thanks for any help and Merry CHRISTmas. "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a SAVIOR, which is CHRIST the LORD" LUKE 2:11

I have seen their ad in Hemmings Motor News. The Damper Doctor has a nice looking website and very good reviews. Nice to know of another Datsun guy having good results as well. Depending on our weather situation tomorrow I may try to contact them by phone and get the correct process for sending mine out there and checking about the rusty grooves. They may want them cleaned before sending it to them. Thanks for the info, John-Lugoff, SC.

We purchased this resurrection project knowing it had been sitting since 1996, and the sit time was not too friendly to our Z. Besides being rusty in the pulley grooves, I am a bit concerned about the rubber binding material on the balancer. The ones I have found do not look like the original and the diameter specs listed do not match mine. There are a few specialists rebuiding the balancers with new bonding processes. Any suggestions from the Z experts will be greatly appreciated. Based on the number of harmonic balancers we sell at our parts store for much newer vehicles, my previous belief of them being a part that never goes bad, has been erased. Being over 40 years old and over 20 years of bad storage has made me a bit uneasy with this balancer/crankshaft pulley. Thanks again, John-Lugoff, SC-praying for minimal damage from Hurricane Dorian. We are far enough inland to avoid the strongest damage but concerned about others near the coast.

Thanks for the info on CSV. Should have figured that one out for myself. My mental image of the CSV is on the other end of the intake. I guess it really does not matter which end supplies the fuel to the CSV. Looking forward to this modification project and sourcing the aluminum fuel rail material, good quality barbed fittings, and the challenge of the drilling and tapping. Suggestions welcomed, John-Lugoff, SC.

The picture is worth a thousand words. Barb fitting appears to be 1/8 NPT ? Please correct me if I am mistaken. Also I know the FPR stands for the fuel pressure regulator, but not sure about the CSV designation. I will certainly need to do some more homework on the plumbing. The original FPR on the 78 has 3 barbs. I believe 1 is the vacuum and the others were the in and out lines. I may have it all wrong in my head. That happens quite often. Thanks for any additional clarification and help, John-Lugoff, SC.

Thanks for the great tips. Teflon tape is a great sealer for household plumbing projects, but not very valuable when it comes to automotive or industrial applications involving gas or oil. Sorry for the response delays but work-shorthanded as normal the past several months, church work-love serving my LORD and SAVIOR-and babysitting-always a lot of fun with the grandkids, get in the way of the car project at times. Still waiting on some additional responses about the BCCD delete option or access to the diaphragms and gaskets needed. Thanks again, John, Lugoff, SC

As stated before this car has not been on the road since 1996 and the throttle body is quite dirty and needs a soaking. Throttle shaft feels good and tight, operates smoothly. Throttle position sensor was immaculate. The plastic cover did it's sealing job perfectly on that part. The BCCD is another story along with the dashpot. Not in reuseable condition. Any suggestions? The BCCD seems to be a bit of controversy on the Forums. Can it be eliminated without major driveability issues? I have not found any replacement parts for either the dashpot or BCCD. The rest of the throttle body will be soaking for a few days. Will have to wait and see how it turns out. Thanks again for all the help. John-Lugoff, SC.

P.S. Just found the measurement specs on the link. Should be helpful. Assuming this was a 3 ft fuel rail? Some of the measurements were given from the end of the fuel rail , but the most important figures are the distances between each barb. Thanks again, computer dummy John.