240zadmire

“Any thing can go wrong, will go wrong”. And this is a hell of a time to go wrong. Spring time is here. I planned to drive a lot but this happened…. The transmission is the only part that I didn’t rebuilt, failed after under 5K miles since I “restore” the car. I can only hope the damage not too severe and parts are still available. This is the wide ratio transmission built date 1977 June time frame.

Gents and ladies Bad news. Drained the oil and 2 small metal derbies stuck to the drain bolt magnet. The other 2 pieces of gears were near the drain hole. I was able to pull them out using my pinky. The 2 pieces gears look like a 3-pieces as their ends look cleanly cut. Take a look at the photos. what am I up to? The trans is totally toasted or still salvageable? It’ll take me at least another week to pull it off the car. regards

Hi Mark, Neutral or any gear, the noise goes silent when depressing the clutch. I'm still able to shift to any gear and driving without any problem. I fear I have to disassemble the transmission to know what is really wrong with it. I've been searching online to see what is the best rebuild kit for the job ... seem like there are a lot of info out there. I'm still not sure which kit fit the bill. regards

Greeting folks, I believe my 5-speed transmission is version FS5W71B as it has 2 prongs for the exhaust mounts. I usually do a 40 miles drive on the weekend. Yesterday, when I shift into 2nd gear, I felt hard "jolt" as if i ran over the cow or hit a big rock under the oil pant. I can definitely felt that something is wrong with the transmission. I'm not sure if I describe what I felt correctly ... normally, if the clutch pedal is not depressed, the transmission connects to the flywheel directly, you felt/and hear the gentle sound like when you biking the bike down hill without you pedal-ling it, the sound from the gear make a small, pleasant sound. But after the "jolt" felt, the sound is much noticeable. But when depress the clutch, it's as quiet a the mouse. Does that make sense???!!! I'm pretty confident there is something wrong with the transmission. The bearings might be gone. What do you guys thing? Any suggestion where should I diagnose the problem? regards,

Folks, the good news is that the car pass smog test, barely. There seems to be still some leakage somewhere. Definitely not from the canister as the technician unhook the hose and clamp tight. It got to be somewhere around the gas tank and the vent tank. one of these day, I’ll drop the tank and trouble check it. Btw, all hoses were new, 2 years ago. regards

I found the crack. Hopefully that’s the only place. It’s the big hose from the vent tank to the gas tank. About 3” from the clamp. The cut is about an inch, very clean. Wonder how it cracked like that. The hose is braided and I installed new. About 18 months now. will try to get the test again and keep you guys posted. Thanks for the help and yes, 2 bicycle valves stem, soldering iron, a clear, 10’ tube with bicycle pump did the trick.

If the plumbing is tight, no leak, then blowing air from either ends (filler next or unplug hose from the charcoal canister) will have very high resistance or not able at all?

Tire valve stems, that’s ingenious thanks

This car was “restored” by me, so all hoses and bolts were connected or tighten something 😉 im trying to build a smoke machine. Saw some one build on YouTube using bicycle pump…. Very effective. if I were to disconnect the hose that connected to the charcoal and pump smoke to that rubber hose, is that the same as from the gas filler neck?

Thanks for the video. Very informative. I believe he clamped a hose near the canister. Pump nitrogen through the tank filler. The car was off while he was doing it. Seem like he took a long time testing it… I did replaced the hoses on the overflow tank. It probably has a kink on it. I’ll open it up and will take a look again.

Greeting, took the 280z 1977 for the smog test and everything passed except the fuel evaporative controls functional. The technician say something about pumping nitrogen into the gas tank and take measure for 2 minutes… he said there must be a leak somewhere that didn’t hold pressure. I don’t smell any gas btw. Is this problem relate to the canister or so I need to replace all fuel lines? much appreciated

Greeting, I observe a weird problem. Recently, I upgrade the headlights with dapperlighting OE7. I'm using the input from the passenger side by tap in to the connector from the body to the passenger side headlight. I also follow various guidelines to add 2 relay for high/low beams and only single fuse from the battery to the whole assembly. The light is wayyyyyyyy brighter than the stock. I feel much "safer" driving at night. My eyes might play trick on me but the dash lights for the speedometer and tachometer actually brighter, I think. They're LED. The other gauges are still look dim. That's the extend of the last work on the 1977 280z. so, I exhibit a weird problem. Every now and the, when I accelerate from stop light or even while on freeway cruising at 65MPH and if I want to speed up a bit to change lane or to feel lively, the acceleration stumped. It is hard to explain, but let me try ... the feeling is as if somebody hit the car from behind. Or the feeling as if you were just learning how to drive stick shift/standard and you let the clutch off too fast that you feel the jolt from the rear differential. I notice the RPM steadily climbing, so I don't think the fuel injector dumping too much fuel or starving. Also, the clutch is couple of thousand miles for about a year. I don't see any oil leak from the transmission. I guess I can rule out clutch slippage. Any idea is appreciated Regards

Btw, my tires are 195/70/r14 with r200 diff. The tires probably made some different but I don’t know what was the stock tires. But 1 mph error margins is precise enough for me.

I did a trial and error and got the white, 19 tooth cog. The speedometer is approximately 1 mph slower. But I think it’s because I couldn’t keep my foot steady. I’m a happy camper. I know little things like this annoyed me 😉 thanks for all the suggestions

It’s fixed but I don’t know if what I did actually fix it or by accident… intraced red/black stripe, red/white stripe and green/black stripe to each connector such as C6 BLACK, C9 WHITE and to the headlamp terminals for continuity …. They all have continuity on those wires. I believe the ohms for the red stripes were 1.1 and 1.2 ohms respectively. While I was proving for connectivity test on C9, I accidentally touch other terminal and case a small spark. That is the only noticeable I made. Reconnect firmly and seem like both low and high are working as expected. Still, I have no clue how it is working now. Last time it wasn’t working because of a loose battery terminal. Perhaps somewhere, the connectors weren’t firmly connected and/or the ground/earth terminals not firmly secure… I did sand the engine terminal, firewall and one other connector at the AFM just to be sure. hopefully this the last issue with the headlight…. btw, I ordered the dapper lighting kit and hopefully they’ll ship in coupe of weeks so that I can upgrade the headlight to be brighter. So nervous driving at night with the stock headlights thanks for all the help, as always! regards

The year is on the subject line. It’s ‘77. I’ll measure it shortly stay tune

Yes. The halogen h4. don’t know if they are related but most of the interior dash light bulbs including the dome light are LED except the fuel empty indicator

Did the continuity test one red with black stripe against black and red with white stripe against black and has continuity when switching between high/low. I trace the wire diagram and the only missing is the inhibitor. But isn’t inhibitor is for automatic transmission? the low beam head lights both went bad the same time? I might need to get a new head lamp just for testing?

Well, I took off the multi switches and did a thorough cleaning. I dismantled everything on the signal blinkers side but to no avail. I even try to jump the black and one of the red with yellow/white stripe but low beam just won’t work. Possibly the headlight low beams dead? Strange if they both dead simultaneously . Fuses are good. 12 volts at the connectors at the headlights. any thought?

Hello folks, a while back I had issued with low headlights not working and thought the culprit was the battery terminal not firmly secure…. Well, the symptom resurface again. I made sure all terminal are connected firmly. High beams work fine but not low beam. I have the pen test light that connect to a negative and the pen connect to any of the 3 terminal at the head light terminals, seem to have light. My voltmeter is dead as I the battery is dead 😉 can you explain how do I read the diagram below . do I need to connect the red with black stripe to negative to make the low beams work? I’m suspect the high beam lever at the steering wheel is faulty

Seem like my 5 speed is from a transmission type “B”. If I turn the pinion housing upside down, then the gear bites the internal worm gears. For testing, I “manufacturing” a lock washer to hold it in. The interesting thing is the speedometer is about 3-4 mph faster. So, I’m having a dilemma. The original pinion was 20 teeth and odometer is ~5mph slower. The 17 teeth pinion is ~3-4mph faster. I either need to get a blue, 18 or white, 19 teeth. the numbers stamped on the r200 shoe that my ratio should be 3.54. what do you guys think? 18 or 19? I’m leaning toward 19

Well, I ordered a black version of 17 teeth and guess what? It is much smaller than the red one. Take a look at the photos. Is there more than one black 17 teeth? The black I received is about 20mm vs 24mm wide for the red one. please advice.

Greeting folks, Got a chance to re-lubricate the speedometer cable and other things bother me as the mileage doesn’t seem match with the google map. Got curious, drove different car with same route and my minivan milage agreed with what google map. My Z is short a few miles. On top of that, the speed, mph is ~5 miles slower. I download the app from Apple store to measure…. got curious, did the 10 tire rotations as well as the one complete rotation and see where the shaft pointed to… both agree to be shy of 17 revolution and 3 o’clock mark. So the diff ratio is about 3.36. However, the stamp on the r200 gear is 39-11 as shown in the photo. Moreover, the speedometer pinion seem to be incorrect. It is red and 20 teeth. I would think my 5 speed and r200 with the info above should be a 17 teeth, black color pinion. What do you think? and btw, the transmission seem to be an early s30 rather than the 5 speed 280zx regards

You’re right. Looked back at old photos and there it is. Got the hose hook to the tube and it actually quite a bit of condensation. Probably about 2 full spoons of water when park in the garage.

Greeting! I skimmed the gym’s sauna last could of months by using my sauna on wheel but can’t stand it anymore. When the car is moving I guess it’s bearable, but boy, people saw me wipe sweat off of my face at red lights … I can see their sympathies in their eyes…. below was how I did it. Hopefully it can help somebody learn from my experience or avoid my mistakes. Keep in mind I’m not a mechanic let alone AC specialist. the R12 to R134a valves conversion do not work. Parts are below All I did was remove the caps and screw the new valves on top of the old ones. The high valve is toward the radiator, the low valve is toward the firewall. I follow the online instructions of how to pull the vacuum, close the valves at the gauges and turn off the vacuum pump. Left it like that for 12+ hours. Seem like there is no vacuum leak after more than 12 hours with 29psi solid. i used 3oz ester oil and 2 can of 12oz R134a without any additive from Oreily. Some one from this forum and other places suggest to put approximately 80% of R134a as molecular is lighter, operate at higher PSI. So I put in approximately 18oz of r134a Outside temperature was in the mid 70. After 3oz of ester oil and 18oz of Freon, cabin temperature measure was about 50 degree. I’m so happy. Been running almost every other day for 30mins to 1 hour happily without wiping sweat off of my face. Other avid drivers were surprised why my windows were up mid afternoon knowingly cars this era often than not, no AC. last couple of days, I notice when I made a sharp right turn, about a tea spoon of water splashed on my right foot. Closer examine under the evaporator under the radio, there is a, suppose hose connector to drain the condensed moisture. I suppose it need to connect to that hose and down the transmission housing. You can see a drop of water about to fall. I couldnt find the hole on top of the transmission housing. Perhaps my carpet/sound deadening cover it. Can someone confirm?