MariaAZ

I disconnected the vacuum line and plugged it at the manifold and the car runs fine. It brakes fine as well (takes more effort but Hubby, who drives it, says it's not really bad) so we've got a bit of time. Could it be a faulty check valve? I read a reference in one manual that the check valve may cause hard braking problems.

Thanks for the input. I borrowed a car for today and have a couple days to figure out what to do. I've got another Z I can pull the booster out of until I can get another one, and I've got a few manuals to help. From the experienced voices, how difficult would you say the remove/replace process is? I've done a bit of wrenching under the hood, but never anything with brakes beyond replacing the master cylinder on one of my Roadsters.

We just had a problem develop with our '74 260Z. When the brake pedal is depressed, the engine revs. The brake pedal is also very hard and it takes a lot of strength to push down. Any thoughts/solutions would be greatly appreciated, as this is currently our only running vehicle.

I hope I'm not stepping out of line with a story about our '63 Datsun Roadster (it IS related to the Z after all). We were on a Sunday drive in the Roadster and passed a Nissan dealership. The 350Z had just come out and they had quite a selection, so we decided to stop by. After a few minutes looking at the Zs, I glanced towards our Roadster and saw a small crowd of people standing around it, with a very impressive-sounding Nissan sales guy talking quite authoritatively about "the MG." I walked over and very nicely said "actually, this happens to be a Datsun Fairlady" to which he attempted to correct me with the "fact" that Datsun didn't import any cars to the US prior to the early Z cars. I asked him to look at the badge on the center of the steering wheel, he said quite unimpressed "it's a P". I straightened the steering wheel and asked him to look again, but he wasn't buying that it was actually a lower case d. There was only one thing left to do; I popped the hood, pointed to the VIN plate and asked him to read it. He stood there for a moment, muttered something about having to get back to work and wandered off. However, I quickly discovered that opening the hood of a 40+ year old Datsun practically in front of the repair bays of a Nissan dealership is a good way of attracting mechanics. Several came trotting over and spent a few minutes studying the engine bay. I started getting a bit concerned that we were attracting unwanted attention, as a guy came out of the sales office and watched us with a not-too-happy look, so we beat a hasty retreat.

Gary, unfortunately we have to test anything built from '67 up. I'll have to find exactly what they test, it's two elements; one is CO and I believe the other is hydrocarbon, both at idle and at load. My 260Z has a stock engine, running home-rebuilt SUs (about 6 years ago) and no emissions. It's passed for several years, last year was the first it failed. The 240Z original engine has been rebuilt and overbored, has professionally rebuilt SUs (about 3 years ago) and also no emissions. This is the one that fails every year, and each year it's a little worse. I don't know if the county is tightening the requirements (entirely possible) or if it is a function of wear of the carbs. I'm wondering if the needles could be causing the problem? I assume they DO wear.

No help with question #2, but as for question #1, my experience is yes.

OK, that doesn't sound bad Not exactly good, but I could definitely handle that.

Thank you!

Hubby's 240Z is at the mechanic's. He drove it to work and it ran like a top. When he tried driving home, the engine died and when he started it, it ran rough. Sparks were coming from the muffler as well as black smoke so he limped it around the block and back to the parking lot. The muffler was incredibly hot and an odd burning smell (not like oil though) filled the car. When I got to the lot to pick him up, he started the car up. It sounded fine to me but Hubby said it wasn't running right and that odd smell started in the car again, but I couldn't smell it outside. No smoke from the tail pipe either. We had a cat converter installed a couple months ago as a last-ditch effort to get the car to pass emissions. Any idea what the problem is?

I have a water leak on one of the hoses that comes out of a tube off the thermostat housing. There are three hoses on this tube; one comes straight out and goes to a line around the back of the engine (possibly to the heater?), and two come out the bottom of the pipe and appear to go into the intake manifold (it's hard to tell, I haven't pulled the hoses off yet to trace where they go.) Also, the hose that goes straight in looks like it's been blocked. When I pulled off the hose I found what looks to be a bolt screwed into the pipe then cut off. I couldn't find reference to these hoses in neither my Clymers nor my Haynes manuals and was wondering what they are. Below is a picture, the part in question is the rusty discolored tube in center.

Pardon me for this total newbie way of describing this... Our 240Z's horn doesn't work. When I removed the headlight switch to clean the contacts, I noticed that the combo switch/turn signal part had a broken plastic tab on the bottom. I had pulled the switches off my 260Z earlier and recognized the broken piece as being what looked like a mounting bracket for a curved piece of metal that appears to be a contact point for the horn, and a loose red wire with a taped up end. I looked in my Haynes manual and couldn't find a diagram showing what it might be. Is this broken bit a piece of the horn? If so, can be replaced, or do I have to replace the whole switch? I know the horn works as there is a button under the dash that activates the horn, though I haven't checked yet to see if it's directly wired to the horn or patched in through the harness.

I thought I'd resurrect this thread as I have another question concerning removing the smog pump. Where can I find a cap to plug the fitting where the smog pump hose enters the manifold?

I've been reading that the gas shocks tend to raise the ride rather significantly. If I read correctly, this is most noticeable with stock springs. At this point I'll be picking up shocks from the local Checkers/Kragen or NAPA, all they sell are Monroes and KYBs. For the world of me I can't find the post where the height (at the rail I believe) was given. Both Zs have different symptoms; my 260 skitters about the road, and Hubby's 240 just is plain ol' rough. Would these symptoms indicate different suspension problems?

Good questions, DeMoore. I've been looking through my Haynes and Clymer manuals for that information. At this point in time, I want to bring my 260Z to pretty much factory specs. I'm not really worried about ride height or anything fancy. Hubby's '73 240Z might be a different story. In the future we'd probably want to put something a little fancier on his Z, as it's had a fair amount of mods done. A PO had installed sway bars and headers (and probably other mods that I'm not aware of) in an attempt to make a street racer. The head gasket was blown and one of the cylinders was badly scratched, so we opted to have the engine overbored (.030 I think) during a rebuild about 6000 miles ago. For the present though, I just want to correct the rough ride, and if I can get away with just the shocks I don't have a problem going back in at a later date and replacing the springs.

Thanks for the input! It doesn't really look difficult at all, I just KNOW I'll be suffering "while I'm at it"-itis though ETA; see, I'm already thinking "while I'm at it"; if I remove the springs and struts (I'm thinking "while I'm at it" I might replace the springs as well), what other parts would it make sense for me to replace at that stage?

This is a totally newbie question, but how feasable is it for a person with moderate mechanical skills to replace front and rear shocks/struts? I've done quite a bit of work on our Zs and Fairladies (rebuilt carbs, swapped engines in one of the 1500s, rewiring, drop gas tanks, etc.) but when our mechanic said our Z cars needed suspension work and quoted the price, I thought it just might be something we could tackle. I read the Haynes manual as I've never done anything to the suspension, and it doesn't look too terribly difficult, but after reading a few threads here I'm starting to wonder if I'd be better off leaving this one to the pros.

I was kind of thinking I have to do something with the pump. The car is due for emissions this month, and has passed quite handily these past few years with the round top SUs and a portion of the emissons "stuff" on the intake manifold blocked (mostly the hoses associated with the flat tops). I'm thinking about running it through with the pump disconnected to see if it passes, and if not I'll replace the cut belt. It's amazing with the manuals I have for the car that none of them had clear instructions on how to loosen the idler pulley, at least what I was able to find. I didn't really want to destroy the belt, but was in desperate need of the car tonight and figured I'd save a bit of time today and fork over some dough later on. Now that I know how to loosen the pulley, once we get Hubby's 240Z back from the mechanic (it failed emissions this year) I'll get the darned pulley out of there and replaced.

I backed the screw out almost all the way and the pulley never even budged. The block where the pulley is attached stayed put in the bracket, like it's frozen in place.

Just as followup... I couldn't access the pulley spindle nut without removing the fan shroud and didn't want to risk not having the car ready by this evening, so I ended up cutting the belt off. The pulley itself is frozen where it is; too much play for the belt to turn properly, but too tight to ease it off. A short test-drive later and I'm surprised at how quiet the Z runs now. I have a feeling this issue has been building up for quite a while. I'm hoping to re-install the A/C someday (it's factory air but hasn't worked since before I got the car) but until then I'll just leave everything the way it is now. Thanks to everyone for the help!

I've posted a couple photos below, the first one shows the loose idler pulley, the second shows where the hose from the air pump goes to. I'm sure this is going to be a dumb question... how the heck do I get the A/C belt off?!?! I can't find anything really useful in my Haynes manual (except how to tighten the A/C belt) Having never dealt with repairing this particular part of the car before (I've swapped starters & alternators, rebuilt and installed carbs but never tried removing the belt from the compressor) I'm about ready to take a sharp knife to the darned thing, as I have about six hours to get this taken care of before I absolutely need the car. It doesn't look as cut-and-dry as removing the alternator belt.

I tightened the bolt but it didn't do anything to the pulley, which is wiggling on the spindle. If I ultimately remove the air pump completely, how do I deal with the hose that goes to the engine? It's an early '74.

The idler pulley on my 260Z looks like it's ready to break; the bolt is backed out quite a bit and the pulley part is bending visibly. When the motor is running, there is an awful rattling from the front that looks like it's caused by the pulley. It is the only running car we currently have, so I really need to resolve this issue ASAP. If I remove the belt from the A/C and air pump, will it affect the running of the Z? I have retrofitted the flat tops with round tops so the emissions aren't exactly stock In its current configuration (with the air pump currently connected) the car passes inspection, so I'm also concerned that altering anything might affect this.

About 1.5 years ago I had the passenger door window replaced by a glass company. From the time I got the car back, the window "hitched" at about the halfway point when being rolled up. One needed to push on the window in order to get it up. The company said something about a part being worn out. Since this window doesn't get rolled down often, it didn't really present a problem. A few days ago, a passenger rolled the window down all the way and when he tried rolling it back up, nothing happened; the handle cranked but no glass came up. I pulled the door panel off and discovered that the window had fallen off both bottom channels of the regular as well as the front sash and the channel on the back of the door. We were able to get the window back in all the channels. With the front sash and guide channel loosened, the window rolls up and down without hitching anywhere. However, the rear edge of the glass sits much higher than the front, preventing the window from rolling up properly. I've looked through the articles and archives, and have read EScanlon's posts on adjusting windows, but this one is so out of whack that everything I've tried doesn't work. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

I lost one of the nuts that hold the wiper blade to the spindle and had no luck combing the local salvage yards. Does anyone know of a source for this elusive little piece of metal?

Elbow grease is no problem, I've got plenty of that! As for the sanding... any opinions on using an orbital sander for at least part of the operation?