LanceM

Not the same thing in this case, I don't think. It's one of those "you'd have to see it" items. It was a 3 armed flat plastic disk with a bearing ball at the end of each arm, this fit between the breaker plate, for lack of a better term, and the mounting plate, allowing the vacumum advance to easily move the breaker plate which is spring loaded to apply down force between the breaker plate and the mounting plate from below. Sort of a micky mouse arrangement looking at it now, but then, they probably didn't figure anyone would be using it 20 years later. The plastic has become brittle from years of heat and just age, I'm sure when it was new it was much more pliable. Since I have locked the breaker plate in place it wouldn't have been used anyway and the brass shims give it a much more stable base than what it would have had with the plastic anyways.

Never mind, figured it all out. I cut a brass shim to replace the plastic, now that everything is even I can see that there is no adjustment. Seeing how things are suppose to be I'm amazed that the car I took it out of was running! If one more little piece of that plastic part had come out, the distributer would have crashed! Sure am glad I decided to take it apart and clean it up first, I would not have been happy to have installed it and then have it break down the road somewhere!!!

Well I've got a 81 ZX dizzy (modual on the side) that I want to put into my 240, I wanted to clean it up before I install it. I took it apart and found that a plastic bearing holder? had pretty much come apart/disappeared. What is this for? It looks like it is part of the vacumum advance. Can I just put a shim in the right thickness and forget about it since I'm not using the V advance? And are they're any adjustments I need to make when I reassemble it? My manuals only show 240-260 so there isn't anything this new in them...

I am currently polising a set like that. To get the centers polished you have to sand the milling marks off. It isn't as hard as it sounds and really dosen't take long. Using wet dry paper wet I start with 320 and work up to 1500, from there I use Mother's aluminum polish on a buffing wheel in an electric drill, they come out looking like crome. One thing I found that was a problem with getting them to shine was the clear coat that was put on by the factory. Regular paint stripper was used to get it off first. When I'm done I will either recoat them with clear or just figure on polishing them once in a while. I did 2 wheels sunday, and they were pretty ratty to start with, I may get around to the other two this weekend if the weather stays cold and rainy.

OK, You are talking a different animal that what I was. On an empty body I would use more than 4 stands. But to pull a car off the stands pulling yourself up from a sitting position you'd have to admit that it wasn't on very good empty or full....

Yep, The first and I mean first thing I do is try to yank, wiggle, and shake a car off of jack stands. If it moves at all then they are not right and need to be repositioned somehow, and until all 180 pounds of me can't push it off the jackstands trying, and I mean trying, in every way before I climb underneath. That and I got rid of the cheapies 20 years ago, bought some good heavy ones that have wide bases and could hold the car up indivually if it would balance If you have the stands in the right place you can not push it off, it is as solid as being on 4 wheels, OK yeah a forklift into the side.... I don't want anything moving except what I'm yanking on when I'm under a car! My head popping like a watermelon under a frame rail is not the last thing I want to hear in my lifetime!!!

I wouldn't want to stick my nuts not to mention my bolt in anything like that !!! Sorry just had to say it Tumbling would be a slow process, and remember that the rust you remove is the metal from the item itself. So when you are done you will have no rust but pits where the rust was. It will also remove any plating that was left on the part so as soon as it sees moisture it will start rusting again... I would have to agree that if you are thinking nuts and bolts, new are cheaper and are better than cleaned up old rusted ones.

Here's a 3.90 R200 on Ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2434251621

All stock with aftermarket wheels. The mags are ET's that I bought probably 20 years ago, don't know but I don't think they have any special offset.

I run 235/60-14 on my 240 with no clearance issues so 205/65-14 should be a problem.

Ok to start I'm parting out my 81 ZX, I wanted the tranny for my 240 along with anything else that would work. My 240 isn't stock and hasn't been for 20 years so that wasn't an issue for me. My clock was dead when I bought the car 20+ years ago and while in storage the mice took care of the carboard glove box. Well to make the story shorter, the ZX had a nice plastic glove box, came out just fine once I figured out how to fold the top down so it would come out I shove it into the 240 and it fits but damn it's too long, hmmmm this is not a problem! the 240 screws mount on the inner side, the ZX mounts in the front! out comes the marker and the saw and a little sanding later I have a very nice plastic glovebox in my 240!! Original, no, looks factory, yes, very functional, YES! The ZX also had this great digital clock with a lap timer and other great stuff. Would it fit? Well not right away Using a sander I sanded down the clear lense to fit, then the after removing the clock face sanded it to fit the lense. I had to cut off the mounting tabs that were on the clock and now it all fits together in the original clock hole of the 240! The clock face is sort of oval and so you can see into the dash a little at the top of the clock but I plan to paint the back side of the lense black to fill it evenly all around and it should look, well almost stock I mean after all it is a Datsun clock Anyway I thought I'd pass this along to you lucky guys that have pick and pulls that have Datsuns in them... Around here they laugh and tell you that they rusted away before they could smash them!

Thanks all, Pulled the shifter handle, gee that took 30 seconds and out she came! Quick clean and easy, trans is now on the floor and the engine on a stand, time to look for stroker parts Z Kid, thanks for the memorys I seem to remember that same sequence of events happening 30 years ago Luckly I used that as a learning experiance and have graduated to a safer and happer work enviroment with a hoist and big cement floor, one thing hasn't changed though, them beers sure went down good

Yeah it's a parts car, I'll try taking the shifter off as I don't have a dolly to slide it out underneath, but that is an idea. I might be able to lower the engine to the floor and use the boom lift on the tractor to lift the front of the car and pull the car away from the engine... Ideas are forming, thanks guys!

I'm working at taking the engine and trans out of a 280zx, my question is can you pull them out together or do you have to pull the trans first? I'd love to pull them out in one piece and not have to lie on my back working any more than I have to But I'm afraid that the shifter will get in the way, will it work or any tips?? I'd like to have it ready to pull first thing in the morning if I can, want to get this job done and this car out of the shop and the 240 back in before any rain comes...

Long ago when I was a poor boy we used to cut the bottom off of one Chevy SB pan and weld it on to the cut off bottom (after some pounding with a hammer to custom fit) of another to get more volume. Not pretty but it worked and we got the pans for free.

In another case I would agree with you but in this case I'm the second owner of the 73, I bought it in 79. I've had few passengers in the Z and only a small handful that I can remember that I would have be enough of a gentleman to unlock their door I figure between the passenger door and the rear hatch those locks are about as new as they get, the drivers door and the ignition are probably worn enough that almost anything would work, and the keys I got from the ZX are pretty fresh cut looking.

What are the odds that the door key from my "new" 81 zx parts car would fit the ignition of my 73 240??? Ha it does! I couldn't believe it, they sure looked the same but the 73 key is darn near flat on both sides anymore but I gave it a try, works in the ignition and all the doors and hatch! And this is a good thing because?? I only have one key for the 73 and any copy I've had made from it doesn't work!!! It must have been meant to be that I buy the 81 for a parts car! Even though it's turned into my DD cause I feel bad thinking about tearing up a car that runs so go and looks pretty ok from 20' away.... for a ZX that is... even if it is a lead sled that has a suspension softer than a new loaf of bread BTW, is it possible that this thing (ZX) is really turning 3K at 65 mph in 5th?? what's it got 4.11 gears??

Ouch, well I don't think it is going to work like that! You could try to bend it back but I doubt that you will ever get it back to straight or maybe even straight enough to work right again....

I've got questions, too many to go searching for, and my wife will be home soon!!! Short history, I have a 73 240, pulled it out of storage about a month ago after 15 years. I would like to add a 5 speed, R200 rear and on and on, you know just like everyone else Move to today, I snag an 81 280ZX, licenced and driveable, with factory t-tops, electric everything and it all works. It has the usual body, frame, floor pan cancer, but who cares I bought it for parts and got it for $200. My questions: 1) Can I swap the 5 speed and rear end into my 240? I'm 99% the answer is yes but got to ask. 2) It has 4 wheel disk brakes, can I swap the rears? 3) I has really nice seats that just need recovered, will they swap? 4) Electronic ignition, will it swap? Pretty sure it will 5) Since I have it what else should I look at yanking for my own use? Tach? Has a nice digital clock that works????? I figure that if I can use the tranny and diff, I got my $200 worth, anything else is a bonus, I just have to convice my wife It has some good tires and I think stock z mags, FI 280 engine that runs good and don't smoke so I figure I can probably part out the rest on ebay for the $200, What ya think?? I drove it around for a bit and I'm thinking of turning it into my DD till winter and really get my money's worth out of it! Thanks in advance for any info and for putting up with my probably already asked to many times questions!

Something that I found works well removing screws, which Datsun seems to use a lot of, is a ratchet with an Apex holder and a phillips bit in it. Using the ratchet allows you to put a great deal more force on the screw compaired to a screwdriver, keeping the tip from camming out. On a few really tough ones I have used my 1/2" air impact turned all the way down, the hammering of the impact with my body weight pushing against it has broken some loose that I was sure I was going to have to drill out.

I checked and didn't see anything that said I couldn't post this but if I shouldn't moderators please delete it and accept my appoligy. I just found this place, OEM Nissan parts by the thousands, so they say, at what look to be great prices. Their web site isn't complete but here's the link. http://www.oem-surplus.com/nissanwebpage/ I have no connection with these people, don't know anything about them, just found the site and wanted to pass it along to those looking for OEM parts for a restoration that can't be found anywhere else, maybe here.

OK, this is my opinion since you asked for one The temp sending unit is an imersion type of sensor, the sensor is in the fluid. These types of sensors typically are pretty resistant to outside sources, and with the true sensor being a distance from the outside, any outside heat would be drawn away from the sensor by the cooling fluid. I would say that in real life, if the head of the sensor was 240 and the bulb was in 190 degree fluid the reading from the bulb would probably be within + or - 2-4 degrees of the true fluid temp. I use a lot of these at work, sometimes with the fluid hot and the head of the sensor cold, like -40C and the reading is the same if you had the head temp at 100C. Of course the instruments I'm using at work are a much better quailty than the sensor in the car but in relation the effects should be the same. Of course the best way is to measure the fluid in the radiator with a bulb type of therometer and get a true reading of the temp with your expected gauge results. I would have to say also (another of my opinions) that I've seen many posts on "high temps" one way or another and I wonder if there is too much hair splitting, I mean it is an engine, the temp varies, sometimes it will get "hot" but not overheated. The factory gauge was meant to be a general indicator, not a calibrated gauge, if you want exact temps install a quality instrument. With todays oils temp ranges can be much higher and still safe compaired to what was available 30 years ago. Don't take anything I said wrong, you asked for opinions and you got mine They are like most things you get for free.... and like that one part of the body, everyone has one

I was finally able to duplicate the problem on the bench using a hunk of 2x4 to load the starter when it was running! Took it apart and found that the grease in the bendix was all hard from sitting 15 years. Dumped some assorted fluids in it and worked it around a million times and now it works fine. Well at least good enough for me to get it in and out of the shop to work on other things until I get it on the road next year, then a new one will be probably the best thing. Of course now that that's fixed my coil took a dump on me, anyone got a stock one they want to get rid of??? I don't want to buy a new one as I'm not sure yet what kind of ignition I'm going to swap to...

Well back in the car it does the run away starter thing still!!! I'm not using any of the cars wiring except for the battery cables, just like I did on the bench where it worked fine... Think it's time to go have a few cold ones and think about this for a while....

This is getting too weird, out of the car the starter works normally, I have it hooked up the same way as I did in the car and I'm jumping it with a screwdriver, works fine!!! When I did the same thing in the car it wouldn't stop! Going to clean up the ground connection and put it back in and see what happens....