SteveJ

I couldn't wait, even with the heat of the day pounding down on me. I had to do the test drive. I cleared out a path to back out of the garage, buttoned up the car, and set up the camera. This would be the first time since April 2010 that the car has moved under its own power. I backed it out of the garage and started recording. With a stock engine and suspension, it feels so different from the modified 260Z. I started down the road and noticed that the steering wheel is pointed toward 2 o'clock. I'll fix that tomorrow. There was also quite a tick from the valvetrain. I'll check the valve lash tomorrow, as well. You can hear it in the video when I pull back into the garage. The drive was uneventful. I just went down the road a couple of miles and drove it back home. It came up to temperature nicely, and the oil pressure was good. Of course, this description is no measure of my satisfaction of getting the car back on the road. Tomorrow I plan on washing the car, vacuuming out the interior, and tackling the tasks mentioned earlier. If I get done soon enough, I may also change the oil. It's been a few years since I last did that on this car. Then I have fix the gas gauge. Otherwise, I've VERY happy with where I am with this car.

At a monthly car meet hosted by Gateway Classic Cars. It was time to pay some attention to the 260Z.

The tires are mounted on the wheels, and the wheels are on the car with the lugs torqued. I got the cooling system back together, filled, and burped. (Yes, I remembered to run the heater to get the air out.) The oil pressure looked good when I ran the engine to burp the cooling system. I'll leave the oil as is for the test run, but I'll be changing it soon. The fuel gauge doesn't budge, but I'm guessing that I need to replace the sending unit. I need to double check to make sure I didn't knock a wire loose on the sender when I was messing around with bypassing the electric fuel pump. I checked the turn signals again today. They didn't want to flash with the LEDs, but I tracked down an electronic flasher, and all was good again. Tomorrow I'll put on the registration sticker and get the paperwork in the car. I might even test it tomorrow.

You should be able to push fluid through the bleeder screws at the MC. It's just like pushing brake fluid through the calipers and wheel cylinders.

Make sure you can bleed the brakes before you say that.

If I didn't see it, it doesn't exist. Kind of like how a lot of Americans say Nissan didn't make a 260Z in 1977.

You can thank my brother, who educated me on fusible links 26 years ago.

I could afford it, but then I'd have to sleep in the damn car after the wife figured out how much I spent on it.

So did you do any of the things I suggested in Post #6?

Yesterday I spent a little time to pick up a lot of the tools that were collecting around the car. Today I decided to address the horn issue. I bought some Hella horns, and I took off the first stock horn. After I unplugged it, I noticed the accumulation of 30+ years of dirt and corrosion. I took a wire brush to clean the electrical contacts and tested the horn. It worked just fine. So I put it back in the car. I pressed the horn button a couple of times, and the horn still worked. Okay, so the horn relay is good, too. I unbolted the other horn, and it fell right into my hand after I removed the second bolt. It wasn't even hooked to its wire. D'oh! It's probably been like that for over 28 years. I cleaned the electrical contacts and bolted it back in. After a couple of presses on the horn button, the second horn came to life. Okay, I have spare horns, and tomorrow, I'll take delivery of a spare horn relay. With the horn in working order, I took off the lug nuts and loaded the tires into the station wagon. Tomorrow the wife will take the tires to the tire store where they will be replaced with some Falken Azenis RT615K+ tires, 195/60R14. Yes, I found a performance type tire that will fit on the old Iron Cross wheel. So the old girl rests quietly waiting for the night.

But the nice thing is that it's available. Z Car Garage was seeing 350 RWHP and was still planning on tuning some more. That's what a lot of guys are getting with forced induction.

I saw some threads when this DOHC was being developed, and I read an article about it on the Z Car Garage blog. https://www.zcarblog.com/2021/07/30/performance/datsunworks-twin-cam-power-for-your-l-series-engine.html Z Car Garage has also worked on at least one Z with an OS Giken DOHC head.

https://zcarsource.com/spring-set-front-rear-260z-280z-74-5-78-new/ Frankly the Chevette springs were a great improvement in my 260Z over the tired stock springs.

I have not been impressed with the quality of what he has sold. Anyway, the springs for Chevettes are getting harder to find. I bought them on Rockauto 7 years ago for about $40/pair. Here's a thread where John Coffey was talking about it:

You could use Chevette springs and cut them to height. That works well. I would definitely do that before going to California Datsun.

In your "want to buy" ad, I provided you with links where you could buy a proper fusible link. I advise you not to jury rig a fix. If you do not use a fusible link, you risk an electrical fire that could burn up your car.

Just note that the voltage adjustment was for the old style points voltage regulator. A solid-state voltage regulator, which is pretty much all that is available now, probably does not have any adjustment.

Um, I think that WAS your fusible link. That would not be a ground. Do not replace it with a piece of wire. http://www.zzxdatsun.com/catWiring.php https://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/12-4332

Too many ugga-duggas.

Careful, Jeff. This is a family oriented forum.

I'm not sure exactly when you are experiencing this disconnect. I can tell you that when you release the key going from START to ON, there could be a momentary drop in voltage. It's nothing for a typical ignition (electronic or mechanical) since the inertia of the engine will keep things going during that gap. It might not hurt to reach out to Haltech about that. If it is a real problem, I could guide you on a possible solution.

Here's a thought for the fill plug. Use a 3/4 to 1/2 socket reducer (https://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-47823-4-Inch-2-Inch-Reducer/dp/B000NQ4R4G) to go on the male plug. Grip the socket reducer with a pipe wrench for leverage. I would think that would be difficult to round the fill plug.

Turn off the vacuum pump and watch the vacuum gauge. If you have leaks, it shouldn't take too long for the pressure to start creeping up. I can't give a quantitative value, but I'm sure you could find some references on how far down to draw the system and how long it should be able to hold the vacuum.

I'm not sure why this came to mind after reading your post...

Unfortunately you picked the wrong time to be CDO. (I prefer having the letters in alphabetical order.) 😉