2ManyZs

Nissan parts numbers for the headlight covers are: 63900-E4126 / Right hand 63901-E4126 / Left hand

The fiberglass ones would be easier to repair yes, but, they are getting harder to find than the metal ones. Second reason is, I want to spot weld the nuts on the backside of the metal ones so I can take them off and on a lot easier for cleaning and whatever.... Plus, if the trim rings put any stress on the fiberglass... well, then you are going to have all sorts of little cracks and that's unacceptable to me...

FWIW, I got my set of headlight covers with the chrome trim from www.nismoparts.com last summer....They may still have them and they may not... a lot of things I got from them last summer are now NLA. If nothing else, try Zedd Findings, Charlie may have a supplier. No, I don't want to drill any holes in my fiberglass headlight buckets either... that's why I got a set of metal ones off a parts car......they aren't that expensive and you can find them for sale nearly all the time somewhere.....

The "euro" distributor has a quicker advance curve than the US distributors. It probably doesn't make that noticeable a difference with a stock engine, but could work well with a modified one with a non-stock cam and carbs such as triples. As far as dual points.. well....:sick: twice as much trouble for no appreciable gains.....

Let's hope it is just not seated correctly in the oil pump drive tang..... Been sitting here trying to think why Social Circle, GA was so familiar... been almost 20 years since I used to pick up plastic pipe there and take it all over New England....:tapemouth

Sounds like the drive spindle might not be seated completely in the crank drive gear or in the oil pump possibly... doing this while the engine is in the car is a major PITA... been there, done that. Try pulling the distributor and turning the engine over and then check to see if the drive spindle has changed position on the distributor(vertically), other than that, it would be taking it all apart and starting over.... Since you didn't remove the drive spindle, I think we can rule out it being out of time.... won't tell ya what I did the first time I did it while the engine was in a car....:stupid: Live and learn.....

Looks pretty good to me.... the only thing I can see wrong so far is the frame rails have sustained some bumps and dents from either no-so-well-placed jacks or road hazards. The best thing I can say is, at the least, you might want ot replace the frame rails under the floors if the floors clean up with no large amounts of rust thru. Can't give a 100% diagnosis without seeing the floors and frame rails after a good cleaning and sanding (or sandblasting) to clean off all the grime and undercoating. How do the floor pans look from the inside? That is another place to look, if you see rust holes from the inside, you're gonna be surprised what you find under the undercoating and grime underneath.

You might have ruined the pic if you had turned around and stuck your tongue out at him.... or worse....

I'm going to guess-timate around 11/72 or 12/72, if the engines really did go in sequence while being installed in all the Z models.

Only a couple things that might help, since you seem to have tried them all. Have you checked and/or replaced the rubber plugs in the floor? The one in the spare tire well? The one under the console in the "pocket" under the ashtray? Since you say it only does it when the windows are open creating a vacuum, I'd say it might also be in the firewall.... or around the doors.... or.... Have you tried extending your tail pipe a few more inches? Maybe go to the parts store and just buy a cheap chrome extension to just try it? That's about all I can think of, you've already covered all the obvious ones....

FWIW, if you can't find something from MSA you should try Andy Russell or Charlie Osborne, they seem to be able to come up with some parts that no one else can. You never know what they might be able to find until you ask.... Andy is at z@datsundude.com Charlie is at www.datsunzparts.com

Gee Mark, I could have sold you a dirty fan assembly......:devious: I know it's not funny.. but sometimes you have to take people's description on Ebay with a grain of salt unless they post plenty of pics.....of course, even then, you could end up not getting what is in the picture too....:disappoin

I think this is the car and owner you are asking about... he has a couple pics in his gallery but I think there are only 3.... http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=8179

I know it's no consolation, but your pics could be the ones I should have taken of my car.... mine was rusted just as bad and in the same exact spot. I noticed the bondo in the dog leg when I bought the car, but didn't realized it had rusted the inner fender panel out like it did.... I ended up having to buy a whole inner fender panel just so I could cut out the patch panel at the bottom where the dog leg wrapped around it so it could be welded back like it was, damned hard to fabricate that piece with the compound curve and lip for the dog leg to weld into the fenderwell.... Mine was rusted out on the outer side even worse than yours. Looked the same under the dog leg too.....:disappoin Oddly enough, the passengers side is perfect with no rust and/or bondo....

Passengers side...

See if these help...

Uh huh..... I think she'd look much better behind the wheel of the black 300ZX convertible in the background anyways.... For that matter, I'd rather drive the black 300 in the background.:devious:

FWIW, I would use a header blanket instead of the wrap unless you have a ceramic coated header. The wrap is tightly wound around the tubes and if it gets wet, it holds a lot of moisture and will cause the header to rust out that much quicker. The blanket wraps around the whole header, thereby giving it some dead air space. Most hot rod shops (or Jeg's or Summit Racing) should have some type of gas line heat shield that you can slip over the gas lines, usually it is sold in bulk lenghts and you can then cut it to fit and it will look a lot neater than the factory type shield. I agree that it sounds more like vapor lock, but the coil overheating and breaking down the spark is also a good possibility as well. I'd insulate the header first one way or the other and see if that helps, even if it doesn't cure the problem, it should help the car run better simply because it is not building up so much heat under the hood and the carbs will get a little cooler air.

So how come you had to sneak up behind her with the camera? I hope you talked Karen out of buying one Mike.......although the roadster is a bit better looking than the coupe, it's still a 350....:cross-eye

BTW Victor, I have a cousin who has the same trouble when sipping on a Margarita..... but she's a blonde! :cross-eye

Since your static timing is set at the crank pulley, the scale is actually worthless if you ask me..... I've got one of the "euro" distributors that has a scale that has a scale marked out with "R" and "A" so that you only know that you are retarding or advancing the timing to give you a referrence point. If you wanted to, I see no reason you can't put whichever scale on the distributor that you want as it is only bolted onto the bottom of the body.. they should both be "zeroed" to the same point as far as I know. Does that answer your ?

Another choice.... I haven't done business with them, but they do seem to have a lot of Mikuni parts..... http://www.wolfcreekracing.com/classified.htm

Hey Marty, glad you had a rather uneventful trip but you forgot to come up my way and stop in for a visit.... Wanna do it again? Could have set you up with any parts you needed.... and taken a pic to post with your "cheshire cat" grin on your face.....

Has the rack ever been greased? Another often overlooked piece is the top bearing on the strut.... they fill with water and garbage and can cause heavier than normal steering....