Jeff G 78

The lights are working again. With some coaching from @Randalla, I pulled the combo switch and cleaned the contacts. That got both high beams working, but not the RH low beam. That issue turned out to be the bulb socket. I cleaned the terminals on the bulb and the socket and everything works again.

Not yet, but I will. Thanks!

After a few trouble-free weeks of driving, my headlights started acting up. Sometimes, they won't come on, but after a few tries with the switch, they work. In addition now, the RH light isn't working at all. A test light shows power at the connector by the fender, so I cleaned the contacts with no change. I then removed the lamp and I also have power at the bulb socket, so I put 12V directly to the lamp and it works fine. With everything back together, the light is still dead. Time to dig deeper. With the high beams switched on, the LH light is dim and the RH is still dead. Clearly I have issues, so I need to go through the whole system. The morning drive to work is dark enough to need the lights on for other traffic, but not for me. In the coming weeks, I will need them to see.

The 76 frame should fit in a door for sure. The rubber seal is the only difference as far as I can tell. I have a feeling, the later frames will also fit even though there are many other door differences, but I have never tried that combination of parts. The parts catalog would tell you if a '76 and '77 frame is the same. If it is, then the '77 - '78 frame will fit in any Z door.

I've had so many Z's, they all start to blend together, but I believe they added the rubber door seal in 1976, not '77. Way back in 1982, I bought my first two Z's, a '72 240 and a '76 280 out of a field. I recall at the time, the '76 had the seal and the '72 did not.

If the carbs are '72 3-screws, they will have different float heights between the two carbs, though the fuel height will be the same. There are a few ways of measuring. I posted some pics years ago on here where I cut clear water bottles and marked the proper heights on the plastic. I then set the top half of the float bowl onto the plastic so I could tell exactly when the floats closed the inlets. I found that to work better than trying to measure the float height with the top half inverted. I'll see if I can find my post later tonight and edit this post with the link. The fuel level tool is ideal, but they are unobtanium, so your choices are to measure the float, or measure the fuel level with a clear plastic bottle.

I reinstalled an old, crappy trim panel I had from a parts car. The once black vinyl has blue overspray and the butyl isn't really sticky, but it HAS to be better than nothing. I didn't want to install my good black panel yet. I'll know tomorrow if it helps at all.

I got mine too!

This surprises me. When we do smoke testing at work, we seal it up tight. We cut cardboard to fit the driver's door window and that gets taped on tight. The inside guy then climbs into the trunk/hatch area with a flashlight and a 2-way radio so he can direct the smoke machine guy to all the possible leak paths. In our case, we are dealing with very small leaks, so it takes a bit of time to make sure everything is sealed tight. Even brand new cars with modern sealing will still leak around tail light gaskets, trim holes, and wiring grommets. I can only imagine how bad the average 45 - 50 year old car leaks.

Thanks for the detailed answer. I left the tailgate trim panel off for now since my door locks are worn out, so if I replace them with good used ones, I will swap the hatch lock as well. I didn't want to seal it up and then peel it right back off. I assume I'm getting a ton of leakage through that wide open hole.

The only downside is that it might be harder to see the smoke from the outside. Some of the leaks could be above the tank, behind tail light trim, and the smoke might travel before appearing. The gaskets are also working the correct direction when a vacuum is drawn inside with the smoke outside.

So, in the end, what all did you replace and where were most of the leaks? I'm sure mine leaks at all the usual spots. The hatch gasket, tail lights, hatch trim panel, and all the pass-thoughs for fuel and vent hoses. Right now, mine doesn't even have the hatch trim panel installed. That might be the biggest offender.

I installed a leather steering wheel cover today. It was $15.99 on Amazon and it looks great. My Z had one of those terrible 1970's foam/vinyl wheel wraps. I left it in place to add a bit of thickness and put the leather cover over top. Ideally, I would have removed the old wrap and added foam padding to get the thickness I wanted, but then it would have been much harder to get the correct leather size. I removed the wheel and used a baseball stitch. It took a few hours to stitch it on and I'm happy with the results. The old wrap prints through a bit in the photo, but it's barely visible in person and it actually gives the wheel a bit more grip in the hands. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0989MRSDV?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details I bought a M3 size and it was perfect with the foam wrap under the leather. I'd guess the M2 would fit a stock 280Z wheel.

I really need to tackle mine now. I get woosie driving home from work. The mornings are fine when the temps are low, but I need the windows down in the afternoons and the fumes are nasty.

So, is the smell and CO gone when you drive with a window down?

This isn't a new issue and I don't reall plan to fix it, but I'm curious what causes it. My '77-'78 5-speed trans does not center from the left. The 5/R gate centering spring works fine, but it doesn't center from the 1/2 gate. Is this a common issue and is it fixable without a major overhaul? The trans only has about 70,000 miles on it. I bought a rusty original owner low mileage '77 30 years ago to harvest the trans and interior which are both in my '78. The car sat around for many years, and at some point, the centering spring quit working. The trans shifts great other than the lack of centering. It's the only Datsun trans I've ever had with this issue.

I drove my car 30 minutes to work today and all went well, except, I REALLY need to find and seal up the air leaks in the back of the car. I have a pounding headache. 🤢

The carbs that I threw on mid-race were fresh ZT carbs and I still had to tune and sync them. My carbs as well as the ZT carbs had SM needles and once tuned, both ran equally well after I fixed the underlying fuel delivery issue. SU's are extremely simple and with just a basic understanding, you can get them very close. A wideband O2 along with a spark plug check will help you check them under load.

With a Unisyn and a few youtube videos, you can tune them yourself with great results. I once swapped a set of SU's mid-race and tuned them in the pits. The whole job including removing the carbs from a red-hot engine, installing a new pair, tuning/synchronizing them, and buttoning up the choke cables and airbox took under 30 minutes. The problem ended up not being the carbs at all, but it ruled them out. The actual tuning took less than five minutes. For videos, search University Motors John Twist SU. He has a great series of British SU rebuild and tuning videos. The Hitachi SU's are similar enough that the tuning is the same.

I'm not sure how mechanically inclined you are, but the parts are very cheap and the labor isn't hard if you just take your time. You can do it in a weekend with simple tools and a floor jack. Get the car up pretty high so you have room to work.

The pan holds engine oil and that's a common leak point as is the rear main seal. When the RMS (Rear Main Seal) leaks, the oil will come out all around the dust shield and drip out of the weep hole of the bellhousing. If you really want to know, you can get the car in the air on jack stands and pull the rubber boot around the clutch release fork. With a borescope ($20 from Amazon), you can look towards the rear and see if there is a gear oil stream coming from the trans input shaft seal area. Again, other than ordering parts ahead of time, it desn't really matter. The trans has to come out either way. The seals are cheap, so just replace the RMS no matter what. The oil pan gasket can be done with the engine in and on the mounts, but it's tight. Are you going to do the work yourself?

A bad crankshaft rear main seal will look just like that. What does the oil smell like? Gear oil has a very strong odor while engine oil has very little smell. Is your clutch slave wet as well? It's very common for the clutch slave to fail which causes the hard engagements. No matter what, the trans has to come out. I did mine a few weeks ago for similar leaks. My rear main seal as well as the trans output shaft seal and speedometer O ring were all leaking badly. The job isn't too bad, but there are quite a few things that have to come apart. The exhaust, driveshaft, starter, clutch slave, console, shifter, and speedo cable must come off before you can pull the trans. While you are in there, replace the rear main seal, clutch kit if it hasn't been done in a while, and slave. Pulling the trans is not hard, but you don't want to pull it again in 6 months to replace something you didn't do this time. Read my "what did you do today 2023" post about making alignment pins. They turn a frustrating job into a piece of cake when you reinstall the trans.

Somebody on FB says that he likes the MSA 5-piece molded-sewn kit the best. Anybody have that kit?

The 280Z continues to run well. I filled the tank today with 12 gallons of fresh gas, so there is about 3:1 new versus old. It already seems to run a bit better over 4,000 RPM, though I haven't pushed it hard. The fuel gauge went to full, so as of now, everything works except the vacuum-controled HVAC. The hoses are all brittle, so I ordered a 50' roll of vac hose that hasn't arrived yet. The carpet in the car is completely worn out and faded, so I'm trying to decide which vendor to go with. Amazon has ACC for $348 with free shipping. StockInteriors.com has what looks like the same exact kit, though they don't mention ACC. Their current price is $325 + $75 for shipping. Factory Interiors has the same ACC kit as Amazon for $288 + $71 shipping. ZCarDepot has a kit that doesn't specify the vendor, quality, etc. for $299 + $30 shipping. Finally, there is Newark Auto. They have a kit for $275 with free shipping. The ACC kit is molded, while the Newark kit is not. Is one better than the other? What kit have others had good luck with?

The market has peaked... for now. Once we have an economy that people believe in, the prices will rise again. Personally, I wish the Z market would crash back about 15 years. I loved buying and selling S30's for parts. There is no such thing as a parts car anymore. Every seller thinks they have a future Barrett Jackson car when they really have a $500 parts car. This holds true for every classic sports car. When a Porsche 912 brings $45k, something is seriously wrong. You couldn't give a 912 away 15 years ago and it should still be that way.