Pop's Z

If you are talking about the spider gears in your R200 differential being welded, then any R200 differential will fit, but know that the '79-'83 280ZX (non turbo, non automatic) diffy ratio was 3:90, and the others from '75-'78 280Zs are 3:54. As far as bolting up your half shafts to the stub axles, the stubs can be pried out of the diffy with two big screwdrivers and placed in the replacement diffy if the stubs are different. Cheers, Mike

I took a drive from Minturn to Leadville, CO this past fall and noticed that the trees on both sides of the road were dead. CDOT uses magnesium chloride on the roads before snowfall. When it melts it runs off both sides of the crowned roads. Keep your zed in the garage in the winter, and take your daily driver to the car wash and use the underbody spray often. Even new cars will rust. Cheers, Mike

Mine did the same thing. I went back to rubber and was amazed at how much nicer the car was to drive. I have been told that these are really only for racing, and for street use they are harsh. Cheers, Mike

Mark, I had a Pioneer Super Tuner cassette deck in my original '73 back in '75, too. Great sound at the time...ah, the memories. Cheers, Mike

FWIW, I had a similar issue with the head bolt on an Onan generator down inside the block. A friend who was a tool distributor got me some reverse drill bits and surprise, surprise the head bolt just backed right out. I had to work in a very confined space in a boat so was unable to get it lined up perfectly, but it didn't matter. I was very relieved at the time. I have used the same bits on my Zed occasionally (not a cylinder head, though) and they worked their same magic. Good luck. Cheers, Mike

Steve, You certainly have the Z disease. I have a '73 motor at Kenny Peralez's shop in Berthoud with about 75,000 original miles on it. You can have it at no cost if you can use it. I also have the complete heater assembly and a bunch of other parts. I can't use them, and they are just taking up space. You are welcome to any or all. Cheers, Mike

Hi Chickenman, The pic of the tweeters in the eyeballs is almost like mine except mine are black. I scraped the chrome off and glued them on with black silicon seal/adhesive. That worked great until my wife decided that the a/c blowing on her from the eyball was too much and grabbed and shoved and the tweeter fell off. Oh well, I'll just glue them back on maybe with JB Weld this time. They work great, though. The problem with our cars is that even with a lot of sound insulation, by the time you are going 70+ the wind noise is pretty bad, but below that threshold it's great to have the tunes. I like to have tunes of the era...I call it my own little time machine. Steve Miller "Your Saving Grace", best road tune ever............ Cheers, Mike

+1 for me, also. I bought them from the builder and installed Rockford/Fosgate speakers to go with my 6X9s in the back and my Sony tweeters in the vent eyeballs. Great sound. Cheers, Mike

FWIW, I had those ball/socket TC rods on my car for about 10,000 miles. I replaced them with stock rubber bushings as there was a lot of uneven road surface feedback in the steering. It worked and the feedback went away. BUT what I found when I removed the ball/socket was the nylon pieces had big cracks in both units. I don't know if this might be your problem, but those are worth looking into. Cheers, Mike

Motorsport Auto in Orange. They are an advertiser and supporter of this website. When you log in you can see their add in the upper right corner. Cheers, Mike

FWIW my wife sees my zed as "the acceptable mistress". Keeps me home and in the garage except when I'm on the road having great grins. She "accidentally" added up all my zed purchases once...only once. We never talked about it again. Cheap fun and no worries. Cheers, Mike

Take two putty knives opposite of each other and work them slowly (as to not scratch the paint...you could also put some blue tape under the blades) under the emblems. Wiggle them and slowly lift the emblem off. It attaches with little barrel clips available at auto paint places. Hope this helps. Cheers, Mike

Hey Matt, How are you going to keep water out of those? It's been my experience that moisture inside of the plastic will condensate. My Subaru Forester has a damaged seal on on of the headlights and there gets to be a lot of condensate inside. I actually drilled a couple of small holes in the lens to let the accumulated water out. They want about $180 for one and you have to dismantle the front end to get them out. And because the lenses are damaged by uv ,and because if one is going to dismantle the front end one should replace both at a cost of $300+ I have just been putting it off. Just wondering...... Cheers, Mike

I've posted this tip before, but this seems an appropriate place to post it again. To recover the pins you push out of the rivets take your shop vac put a handkerchief over the tip secure with a rubber band. Make sure there is a bit of room IE: a pocket down the hose. Turn on the vac, place hose down the many crevices where the pins hide. Don't shut the vac off until you can grab the pins. Voila, you will pick up 95% of them. The rest are sacrifices to the interior gods. Have fun. It's very satisfying to remove those panels and see what's behind them. Be careful as old plastic can be very brittle. Cheers, Mike

What an absolutely gorgeous restoration! You have every right to be proud of your effort. Thanks for sharing it with us. Cheers, Mike

Removed my R180 4:11 diffy (from a 200SX). Going to install R180 3:54 (from an automatic car). I think my canyon carving days are over...time to get the revs down for highway driving. I will install the proper 17 tooth/black speedo cog when I again crawl under the car, probably next week. Heading out for an aspen viewing drive to Telluride Oct 1. Looking forward to it. Cheers, Mike

Steve, Where have you been? Haven't seen or heard from you in a looong time. Nice to see you back. PM me with your email address and I'll add you to the Z guys list. You missed a very nice drive last Saturday up here. We had 12 cars and 15 zedfanatics and drove from Loveland to Masonville to Stove Prairie to Poudre canyon to lunch at Mishiwaka to Rist canyon back to Masonville ending at the Big Thompson school and US 34. A fun day was had by all. Welcome back. Cheers, Mike PS: sorry for the thread hijack

Oi James, Now the REAL fun starts. Cheers, Mike

All the info you require is in this thread. Dave Irwin "zsondabrain" is a master rebuilder. He did mine and they work perfectly 3 years later. Cheers, Mike

Wow, those rims/hubcaps brought back some memories. 1975...I needed steel wheels and hubcaps for a set of 4 studded snow tires so I could take my blue '73 Zed to the mountains to go skiing. Yes, I had the ski rack, too. ( The EMPI wheels and Continentals were no match for snow). I go to my local Datsun dealer ...d***'s Datsun and asked how much it would be. The guy took me around back and pointed to a stack of take-off wheels and hubcaps and said, "Take all you want, no charge. We're just glad we don't have to haul them to the dump." Now I wish I had taken them all...I could retire. Oh, wait, I am retired. Sigh. Cheers, Mike

Steve, I had this same problem when I first got my Zed. The solution was to readjust the clutch pedal height to factory specs. When I did that the problem went away and hasn't come back in 5 years. Now if the bearing that the pivot pin goes through is wallowed out that won't work, and will require a more complex solution. This subject has been covered on this site before. Search is your friend. Cheers, Mike

Actually that part attached to the diff. and was Datsun's answer to vibration dampening. My "73 came with a smaller version. FWIW, I took it off, didn't notice it was missing. You don't really need it. At least, I didn't. Cheers, Mike

FYI, speed bleeders are two different size threads front and rear. Don't remember now which is which, but one of them also fits the clutch slave cylinder. +1 on using them, though. Cheers, Mike

I've used dryer fabric softener sheets to keep critters at bay. I don't know if it really works, but I've had no critters. I just put them everywhere: on the shelf behind the seats, under the seats, in the intake to the air cleaner, up the exhaust pipe, behind the dash, etc. I've used moth balls before, but the lingering smell was not pleasant. Now I just put them around the car on the garage floor...sort of like a defensive position. Good luck with your storage. +1 on the empty gas tank. Cheers, Mike

Yesterday went out for a bit of a cruise. Got a ticket from a Sheriff's deputy on a motorcycle with forward look radar for 13 over. He knocked it down to 5 over and 1 point. I was totally guilty. I've owned the Zed for 10 years. I have done some serious hooning about in it. I paid the $98 fine...that averages out to $9.80/ year. Cheap for all the fun I've had. Ironically the last speeding ticket I got was in 1975 in my '73 Zed for 30 over. When I think about all the times I could have been busted I just smile. Cheers, Mike