mdbrandy

Just turned 46 in January, here in good ol' Central Illinois. My first car was a 1971 240Z (in 1977), and I hope my last car will be a Z too!

Got mine a couple of days ago, and just had a chance to open it last night. Looks nice! I have nothing to compare it to, but from the pics on this thread, it looks very close to perfect. . I, too, now need a grommet to make it work, though. Seems like a lot of us are in that boat...

I have a pair of MOOG ball joints on my '78 280Z, and they fit fine.

OK, so I answered for my 1970 (#215) that I'm trying to get back to original as possible. So "correct for my year" first, "superseded Nissan" when that is not available, and "quality aftermarket" or reproduction if there is no way to get original. For my '78 280, the answer is "whatever I feel like". I've used some Nissan parts (good quality, and not always more expensive then aftermarket), some good quality aftermarket replacement (e.g. MOOG ball joints), and some aftermarket fluff stuff like a new steering wheel and an air dam (yet to be installed).

Are they really unobtainable now? I bought a pair of NOS ones from MidwestZ back when they were still in business, but that was less than 3 years ago I think. Lots of things are going NLA, I know...

Did you lubricate the bushings when you installed them? Most poly bushing kits come with some really sticky water-proof grease that you are supposed to use on all poly-to-metal contact surfaces if you don't want sqeeks. Even then it doesn't always work, but it did pretty well on my 280Z when I redid it all in poly.

Anyone that's into reproducing a good quality replacement, I'm game...

Well, I learn something new every day here. One more early part that I have to look for. My Nov 69 car has a laced boot, so it must have been replaced at some point. I didn't even know that there was an early type...

I agree, however, one thing that I've found is that there is always a "ring" of corrosion around the outer edge of the interior of the drum where the shoes don't contact. That corrosion can actually be fairly thick, and I've had it make life really annoying. Turning fixes that, of course, but sometimes a good wire brushing just around that edge will knock it down. Just a thought . Mark

And here's the "together" picture from the 76 manual.

I downloaded a '76 service manual from the web the other day. Here is the brake pic from it.

Nevermind. Got it. It was apparently corroded onto a locating pin. A little kroil, a putty knife, and a pry bar, and I popped it off. BTW, if anyone is looking for a cool transmission jack, I got the one in this pic from Harbor Freight for $125 shipped to me. It's good to 800 lbs (who cares!), but has two axes of adjustment of the platform (side to side and front to back) just by turning a couple of knobs. Made it really easy to adjust to the correct angle to get the transaxle out, and I anticipate it will be easy to get it aligned to put back in. And now I've got it for any other Z trans or differential I need to lift into place . Mark

First, I'll appologize that this isn't about one of my Z-cars. Sorry 'bout that. But it is about a Nissan . I'm trying to remove the manual transaxle from a 1995 Nissan 200SX. If there are any remaining bolts holding this stupid thing on, I can't find them. But it acts like it is still solidly bolted to the engine. Any time I've dropped a Z-car tranny, once the bolts are off, it is pretty easy to just pull away from the engine. But I've never removed a FWD transaxle before. I've pry-bar'd and (lightly) hammer'd it outward, and I move the whole engine/tranny. Don' see any separation at this point. If anyone knows anything about removing a transaxle that would cause difficulty in separating it from the engine (other than not being able to find all the bolts holding it in...), I'd appreciate hearing about it. Sorry again that it isn't a Z-car .

I parted out a '78 Federal car, and it had the EGR system, and my '78 California car also has it.

Want to sell just the mirror?

Interesting! So even regional color selections! I think I've seen one other green Camry in town. The University of Illinois colors are Orange and Blue, so you don't see "too many" cars those colors...except for the really die-hard fans with Vans dedicated to tailgating and such!

It's interesting that there's that much difference between Indy and 100 miles West in Champaign, IL. I own a '99 Camry (granted - I bought it when I lived in MD). However, I can't drive it anywhere without parking within a couple of cars of one or more other Camrys. If mine wasn't one of the more unusual colors (dark green), I might never find it! Or maybe I just notice them more because I drive one when the Z can't be driven....

I may have to just paint a red dot on! Just don't have time anymore to do the searching...if anyone comes up with an extra :stupid: , let me know! . Congrats to the finders and restorers of these early parts... .

I'd also suggest: http://autobodystore.com/forum/index.php I've found a lot of good information there.

1971 240Z - from 1978 to 1982 daily driver 1975 280Z - from 1982 to 1989 daily driver 1978 280Z - from 1994 to 2003 (never ran rustbucket) 1970 240Z - from 2003 to now. (disassembled project car. Never driven) 1978 280Z - winter project, summer daily driver. So there have actually only been about 5 years since I turned 16 that I haven't owned a Z! Never quite mapped it out before like that...

Can't help you with a replacement, but I can confirm that on my '70 240Z, they both look like the pic on the left in the first post, and on my '78 280Z, they both look like the pic on the right.

Well, I'm late to the club meeting as always, but welcome to the site, Greg! I can't help with any local shops, since I don't live around you, but I did buy my 280Z in Cincinnati from a private party that I met on e-bay! Picked up my 240Z on a side-street right here in good old Champaign, IL. I hope you have good luck finding someone to do the body work - no one around here would touch mine, since all they want to do is collision repair. But if you have wheelbarrows full of money, you can take 26th Z's advice and cart it off to Maryland or something! Good luck getting her back in shape - I find that the research on what the early cars looked like and had on them is half the fun . Mark

Here's a picture that has been on my phone since last May, and I just got a way to get it off (without sending it from the phone, which I don't want to pay to do...). Was at a car show in Albuquerque, NM in May 2006. Mark

I agree that it looks great! And I, too, am interested in your plating. Especially the emissions parts in the engine bay - they look good! I'm going to rebuild the air injection system on mine, and I have some NOS stuff (injection manifold and check valve), but some of the other parts I have not found, and would like to replate... Mark

Oh yeah! There we go! Display those red dots!