Arne

9 Mar 2008 - Maneuvering Parts Still more of the same going on around here. I remove parts, take pictures of them and offer them for sale, and frequently I sell, pack and ship them. It has all gone much easier than I expected, partly because the yellow car truly did have a fair number of decent parts, and a number of them were/are somewhat rare parts that were only used on the first year or so of production. Not all of the parts get sold, however. As I continue removing parts from the yellow car, I noticed that the worn spots on the vinyl seat covers was quite different than that of the red car. The backrests of the yellow car are worn, tattered and ripped open. But the seat cushions looked pretty good. In contrast, the backrests of the red car are very nice, but the vinyl on the lower cushions was brittle and split open in the pleats. I do know that the red car's original owner was very tall, well over six feet, and apparently having the seat adjusted back that far has prevented wear on the seatbacks as he got into and out of the car. Oddly enough, even the vinyl on the lower cushions of the yellow car appeared to be factory original. So it seemed to make sense to combine parts to see if I could improve the red car's seats. So I used the lower vinyl from the yellow car with the original red car's seatbacks. I swapped the lower vinyl side to side to optimize the wear, and used both of the foam cushions from the two cars' passenger seats. This worked out quite well. The seats are much nicer looking without the splits in the seat cushions, and the driver's seat is a bit more comfortable as well with the better foam. Admittedly they aren't perfect, and at some point I'll end up replacing all the vinyl and foam in both seats. But this swap did make a nice improvement, and has moved seat work much farther down the priority list. I'm making plans to attend a Datsun swap meet in Wilsonville at the end of the month. I'm going to try to sell a few of the larger items that are a pain to pack and ship. We'll have to wait and see how that goes.

25 Feb 2008 - Still Here Yes, it's been quite a while since the last update. Between one thing and another, there just didn't seem like a good time to sit down and type anything out. Status of the red car is mostly unchanged. Driving it a bit here and there, and laying some plans for the future, mostly. I did change the headlights again just the other day, as I acquired a nice set of true vintage Cibie halogen lights to replace the modern vintage-looking lights I bought last year. I'm very pleased with the Cibie lights, both in their output and the period-correct looks. I also discussed having the roof panel replaced with a bodyman who has done this on several Zs in the past few years. I'm seriously thinking of having this done when I have the car painted. More on this topic when it gets closer. The car itself is running fine, and is very pleasant to drive. I finally replaced all the 36 year old cooling hoses on it recently, as well as installing a new Nissan thermostat. That was a little more work than I had anticipated due to corroded bolts in the thermostat housing, but worked out fine since I had the new housing and parts I had previously installed on the yellow car. After changing the thermostat, now my heater works the way it should. The car has developed some sort of leak in the front of the transmission, apparently the front seal. Will have to look into this soon. Still selling off parts from the yellow car. This has actually gone much better than I had expected, and in retrospect was absolutely the correct choice financially. Still a few good parts to go...

20 Jan 2008 - Mostly Electrical Since the last update, I've actually been driving the Z more than working on it. A pleasant experience. But that doesn't mean I haven't done anything to it. Far from it, actually, so this update will be longer than average. Shortly after the first of the year I replaced the left rear wheel bearing. No particular stories to impart on that job. The previous bearing was making a bit of noise and had a bit of play, so its time had come. The job went about as I expected, took about 3 hours. I can't recall if I posted that I had tried the ZX electronic ignition in the red car a short while back, but went back to the points ignition when I found that the engine wouldn't rev past 4000 RPM with the ZX ignition installed. Today I re-installed the ZX ignition, on the (somewhat unlikely sounding) theory that the problem I had with it before was due to a lack of amps to drive it above 4000 RPM. Now that I have the 60 amp ZX alternator installed, I figured it was worth giving it another shot. So I did the bare minimum--I installed the ZX dizzy and by-passed the ballast resistor. That was all, didn't even change out the original 36 year old 240Z coil, or go to the wide-gap plugs. Works perfectly. Revs cleanly all the way to 6000+ RPM. No glitches at all. So the answer is one of two things: either the original 240Z alternator could not keep up with the ZX ignition at 4000 RPM; or the new OE-type 280ZX coil I have is bad. I don't think it is the latter, as I'm pretty certain that I have--at some point in the process--run the new ZX coil with points. So perhaps the problem was the alternator. Seems a touch odd, but there it is. So now that it works, it's fine and I'll keep it on the car. I put a spare ignition module for it in the tool bin. I've noticed no real difference in how the car runs with it yet. I will go ahead and change the coil and plugs eventually. But I still don't really expect any quantifiable improvements in how the car runs. I guess needing less choke (a common report with electronic ignition conversions) would be nice, but we'll see if that really happens. But the reality is that I was happy with how the car ran on points. My goal in this change is not so much performance, but in saving wear on the original, low-miles distributor. Yet another part to pack away in a box somewhere. Last weekend I installed one of Dave Irwin's famous 240Z headlight relay kits. This highly regarded and recommended item prevents some very common 240Z problems by reducing the current flowing through the original wiring, switches and fusebox. Like Dave's other products I've installed, this relay kit is incredibly well designed, and very well built. It took me all of 25 minutes to install it. I've also done a little experimenting with re-wiring the rear brake lights, in hopes of being more noticeable to drivers behind me. Not sure that I've finalized this yet, so no details to share until I'm sure I've figured it out. The other Z-related activity for me of late has been packing and shipping parts from the yellow car. I've actually had a pretty good response to my parts offerings so far, and have shipped a fair number of parts.

31 Dec 2007 - Happy New Radio! Finished installing the 'new' Pioneer Supertuner radio in the Z today. As with all the other mods to the car (other than the sunroof and the BRE spoiler), I installed it with nothing permanent done to the car. No holes drilled, no wires cut or tapped. The antenna is a full-auto Harada aftermarket unit that fits well, and still has a stainless shaft. The sound is lacking treble with the speakers mounted under the seats, but other than that, it is all good. Eventually I will probably mount a pair of speakers in the rear, I've already done some experimenting with making a right side mounting bracket. But for now, I'm using a pair of speakers that I already own. Total investment so far is $55 -- $22 for the radio (off craigslist) and $33 for the antenna at a local clearance place. The original radio and antenna will be packed away to join the original Koito headlights, dated plug wires, etc. in storage.

16 Dec 2007 - A Few Small Changes Since the last update, I finally installed the ZX alternator in the red car last weekend. Later in the week, I drove the Z to work, and it appears to be a worthwhile addition. The ammeter is far more steady with the modern electronic regulator. Changing the load in any way causes a much smaller jump of the needle, and it stabilizes much quicker. In addition, sitting at a traffic light idling I notice that my headlights don't noticeably dim, nor do the turn signals slow down, even with the brake lights and heater blower running as well. Seems to be a positive addition in all ways so far. Today I installed a parking light relay kit (again from Dave Irwin). A very nice piece of work. I wanted to get one before they are gone, as the supplier he gets his OE-style plastic connectors from is dropping one of the parts this kit requires. The goal of the relay kit is twofold. One is to reduce the voltage drop of the current to the parking and dash lights by not routing it through the 35 year old fuse box and headlight switch contacts - therefore giving brighter parking and dash lights. The other is that by not running all the current through the fuse box and switch we can avoid the typical 240Z melting fuse box problem (as suffered by my yellow car, among many others). The relay kit works perfectly, no surprises there. I'm not certain if my lights are really all that much brighter or not, as the wiring in the red car is so good that I don't think my voltage drop was all that bad. But my goal for this (and the headlight relay kit I plan to get after the first of the year) is to KEEP the wiring in great shape. So the more current I can move out of the factory fusebox and switches the better, in my opinion. I also pulled the original metal cooling fan off the red car and replaced it with a plastic fan and clutch from a 260Z. Eight blades instead of seven, and about 3/4" larger in diameter. Still fits fine under the little guard on the top tank of the factory radiator. The original metal fans were only used for the first two years of production, until Nissan found out that the weight of the fan was too hard on water pump bearings and caused premature failure. So this plastic fan should help prolong the life of water pumps, and perhaps save the radiator from fan damage someday. Haven't started the radio project yet, but should get to that soon.

4 Dec 2007 - Winter Lull Begins Just as in prior years, the stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas is pretty quiet round here, or at least in regards to Datsun news it is. I've been driving the red car once or twice a week, while slowly disassembling the yellow car and selling off its parts. I've shipped off a couple of small orders so far, with a couple more pending. I probably won't get too deep into this until after the first of the year. In the mean time, I've been laying a few plans for the red car. As I do plan to drive it regularly, there are a few more modifications I want to make to it. Nothing that can't be easily reversed, but things that will make it into a better daily use car. The front spoiler was the first of these changes or additions, and is also the least reversible as I had to drill several holes in the lower valance panels to mount it. But there was never any question that I would do that, as I have always liked that style spoiler on early Zs, and it just looks right to me. A few weeks back I had Dave Irwin build me a pair of wiring adapters to make the front side marker lights also function as turn signals. This adds a bit of extra visibility to the car, which is always a good thing. They simply plug in with no permanent change to the car, so I can easily revert to stock if I want. (Dave has added these to his line of 240Z wiring parts, here is the info page link - SCP Info.) In the near future, I plan to install the 60 amp 280ZX alternator from the yellow car using the ZX Alternator Adapterthat Dave and I came up with. This will give more output, and also much more stable regulation with the electronic regulator of the ZX as opposed to the points-type regulator of the 240Z. Again, this is another thing that I can simply bolt in with no permanent changes. Last (for now), I'm giving some thought to replacing the original AM radio with that vintage Pioneer Supertuner AM/FM/Cassette deck I bought a while back for the yellow car. This will require a new and different antenna, and a bit of wire routing, but should make for a more pleasant daily drive. (AM radio around here is NOT entertaining.)

4 Nov 2007 - Rust Claims Another Victim If you have read this far, you are aware that recently I have been stripping the yellow car in preparation for rust repair and paint. This weekend that process came to an abrupt halt. Friday morning I found that the passenger floor and associated frame rail is much worse than I had thought. After taking the car to the shop where I was going to have the work done for further consultation, the body man 'thinks' that he could still patch the floor pan, if I supplied replacement frame rails. More labor, of course. (Totally understandable, and I expected that.) It still might need a replacement pan though, he won't know for certain until he starts cutting. Sigh... This is the rusty straw that broke the car's unibody. Sadly, I must admit that it's just not worth it. Here's my dilemma. Let's ignore all the costs I have into the yellow car up to this point. Chalk it all up as learning and help with debugging the red car. So starting from zero now, the reality is that it's going to cost $5000 at least to get the car reasonably rust-free, presentable and reassembled. Maybe as much as $6000. After that investment, it would be a running, driving, clean and mostly de-rusted 240Z with a straight and freshly painted body. But it won't have the original engine, the interior would be intact but aged, bumpers would be there but would need re-chromed to be up to the quality of the rest of the paint, mis-matched wheels, soft suspension, old paint under the hood, etc., etc., etc... In that condition, could I expect to break even on the body and paint? Say I finish it for $5500, could I sell it for that? And the honest answer for here in the Pacific NW and with the recently faltering economy is probably, no. Dump that $5-6000 on it and it's probably still only a $4000 car in today's market. And since I don't want to keep it for several years until things improve, it doesn't pencil out. On the other hand, instead of dumping a bunch more on it only to go further in the hole, I can part it out and cut my losses significantly. The thought of parting it pains me a bit, but it's time to get real. While the rust makes it a poor restoration prospect now, it is still mostly complete and has a lot of parts with value. A fair number of those parts are hard-to-find Series 1 parts, which shouldn't be too hard to sell off, either. So instead of going farther in the hole, it seems to make more sense to stop the bleeding and sell off parts to re-coup some of my investment. I can save the proceeds for painting the red car instead. And if I hang on the the shell of the yellow car, I've got a nice roof for the red car should I decide to get rid of the sunroof. (And I'm leaning that way right now.) So I spent the rest of the weekend assessing what I have of value, and beginning the parting process.

14 Oct 2007 - Clunks Banished This weekend was round two on the red car's transmission, and I won this time. Which means that the clunk-hunt which began in ernest way back in late March is finally done. What I did on Saturday after dropping and disassembling the transmission (again) was to check the end play on any shaft, gear or bearing for which Nissan gave specs. There are three major points of note for this, and I ordered one of every thickness of shim and snap ring that Nissan still had available, just so that I'd have all the possibilities on hand. I also ordered (and replaced) the woodruff keys for the front-most gears on the countershaft, as well as another front countershaft bearing (since I was going to have to use a puller on it to get to the woodruff keys). Those parts and a couple new gaskets set me back about $30. I only used a couple of the new shims and snap rings, but I'd rather have them here to choose the best fit, than have to order the singles and wait. Started the project at 9:30, finished and went on a test drive at 4:30. All went smoothly. And it no longer clunks!! Now I can finally put this behind me and get on to other things. Today (Sunday) I put the yellow car's transmission back into the yellow car. So it also will move under its own power (again). Which will allow me to resume working on it. Soon, I hope.

30 Sep 2007 - A Good First Year After one year and a touch more than 3,000 miles, how do I feel about the red car? Pretty good, really. It turned out that there has been even more to do to the car than I had expected, and I made a few errors that have drawn a lot of this out much longer than I expected. Things like those Mulholland shocks, and my error in not checking all of the end play in the transmission shafts while I had it out the first time, to say nothing about all the hoops I jumped through on my way to pinning the clunking to the transmission. So this car has had its share of work this year, certainly. But 3,300 miles also shows that it's been a fun addition, and I think the toughest parts might be behind me now. The latest batch of transmission parts (a selection of shims, mostly) should arrive shortly. Once the parts are all here, I'll pull the transmission back out and attempt to do it right this time. I should be able to do the whole thing in a weekend. (Then I can reassemble the yellow car, too.) Coming up for this one? The big items on the list for sometime this winter will be reupholstering the seats, new carpet, and replacing all the heater and coolant hoses. At some point I'll want to replace the front suspension bushings, but that's actually a bit lower priority. Some of the better parts of the current seat upholstery will be used to refurbish the yellow car's seats, once the body and paint are done. So the seats are most likely the next item, although 'next' in this case doesn't necessarily mean 'soon'. Of course, that's all dependent on nailing down this transmission project first. More on that soon...

25 Sep 2007 - A Well Deserved 2nd Anniversary Present Pity the poor yellow car. This past year has not seen much progress. The poor car has lent many of its parts to the red car for diagnostics. And here it sits today with no transmission, its own gearbox sitting in the garage waiting to make certain that the red car's transmission can be rebuilt successfully. That doesn't mean that nothing has happened good to the yellow car these last 12 months, though. There's been some cleanup and reworking of the engine compartment, a bit of work in the interior, and it even got a new-old driver's side headlight bucket (fender extension). Plans have been made, and soon after the transmission is back in the car, I will begin to strip all the trim off the exterior and much of the interior in preparation for rust-repair and paint. Yes, the decision has been made, and I will finish the yellow car prior to selling it. It won't get finished to perhaps the same level as I had originally planned when I first bought it, but it will end up as a solid, good-looking 240Z suitable for daily or weekend fun. And as another step toward that goal, I bought the car a present, one of the last major missing pieces, coincidentally arriving on the car's second anniversary. A used, but fairly nice rear bumper. Expect to see more progress on the yellow car over the next few months.

23 Sep 2007 - Back to Square One There was another Datsun drive and gathering yesterday near Corvallis. I didn't make it to this one. Instead, I added yet another chapter to my red car's clunking saga. Saturday morning after a few errands and such, I finished reassembling the red car's transmission. All new bearings, seals and synchros. Went together very nicely. After lunch, I put the red car back up in the air, and swapped the transmission again. I also replaced the clutch disk and throw-out bearing while I had it apart. I didn't really know how good (or bad) the clutch in the car was, but figured I'd do it anyway. Turns out that was a good call, the disk was on its last legs and was due for replacement. At 5:00 I went for a drive. New clutch works great. Shifts into second gear really nice (had worn synchro on second before). While all the early 4 speeds tend to be a bit noisy, it was definitely quieter than before. And after it warmed up - the clunk returned. For a while after I got back home, I just sat there and stared at the yellow car's transmission sitting there on the garage floor. Trying to imagine what could possibly still be wrong with the one in the red car. Then I stared at the pictures and cutaways in the service manual. In hindsight, my thought that the clunk was the mainshaft shifting under load due to sloppy bearings was hogwash. Now that I have had it all apart and in my hands, I can see that the mainshaft couldn't really do that even if the bearings were far worse than they were. After thinking it over I wondered if one of the "fixed" gears on the countershaft or the "fixed" syncho hubs on the mainshaft are actually moving on its shaft. There are only four suspect pieces, and two of them are eliminated because they aren't under load in first or second gear, which is where it clunks the worst. So it would have to be either the primary drive gear on the countershaft, or the 1st-2nd gear synchro hub. Here's where I wish I hadn't sold that 'then-surplus' early four speed. If I still had that transmission, I'd have more options. I drove it again today, and determined that I can make it clunk in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and reverse, but not 4th. This is pretty definitive. With those symptoms, it has to be in the countershaft somewhere. (Or layshaft, if you are used to British terminology.) Best guess after talking to several more people (including my dad) is that the countershaft has too much end play, and it is moving back and forth under torque loads. It is also remotely possible that the woodruff keys that locate the primary drive gear on the countershaft might be worn. I'll replace them when I tear it back down, just in case. As it is, it could be worse. Yes, I'll need to drop the transmission again. But once out, I won't have to tear it too far down to check into this. Not next weekend, we're going to be out of town. But possibly the following Saturday. On a more positive note to end my weekend, today I swapped the springs in the red car (again). After comparing my red car to another 240Z on the drive last weekend, I realized just how tall it sits with the gas KYBs and stock springs. So I grabbed my spare set of repro Euro springs from under the workbench, cut them down a bit more than I had cut them for the old non-gas shocks, and put them in the car. The results were pretty good. The front sits just about where I want it, and the rear is close. Not truly lowered, just pretty much stock height. Next time I have the rear apart for something else, I may trim off another 1/4 coil or so. But it's not worth pulling it back apart for that now.

17 Sep 2007 - Busy Weekend Lots to report from this past weekend. I got all the parts for the transmission (save one gasket) earlier in the past week, and thought I might have time to begin reassembly on that, after a few other things got handled. The first of those other things on Saturday morning was to mount the brand new front spoiler that also arrived last week. This was something I've been wanting for a while, as they really help stability in crosswinds at highway speeds. And the BRE style spoilers are the ones that look the most correct on a 240Z to me, they've been making this style since 1970. As always, that task took longer than I had expected, but not too much longer. After that, I adjusted the valves. I thought I had heard one tapping the other day, and I hadn't yet done this myself. That went fairly smoothly, no real issues there. After completing a couple of non-Z jobs, I did a little vacuuming of the interior. Finally I got to the transmission, but late enough in the day that the progress was not all that significant. Sunday was much more fun. Deanna and I met five other Z drivers here in Springfield in the morning, and we drove East into the Cascades. Had a great drive through the mountains, and met yet another Z owner for lunch in the small town of Sisters, OR. Checked out some scenery, had fun visiting with others, and had a great drive in the cars. Next weekend, back to the transmission. Unless I get tempted by yet another Datsun club's gathering...

3 Sep 2007 - Inside the Gears Now, I'll be the first to admit that there are people out there who might not consider this kind of work to be relaxing or recreational. But I actually do enjoy it. I'd probably almost rather rebuild a transmission than an engine. The results upon teardown were about what I'd expected. The rear countershaft bearing is rough, and is undoubtedly where the whining noise was coming from. There is a considerable amount of play in both the mainshaft and input shaft bearings, and the needle bearings between the two shafts are very sloppy. The synchros look OK, but since the second gear synchro has been slow, I'll replace them all while I have it apart. The clunking was apparently the mainshaft moving sideways under load, due to slop in the bad needle and mainshaft bearings. I also found one slightly chipped tooth on the reverse idler gear. Probably not bad enough to warrant replacement, but I may do it anyway. But I'd almost bet that the fragments from that chip were the cause of the bad countershaft and mainshaft bearings, they're in about the same area of the transmission. I'll also replace the clutch disk and release bearing while I'm at it, just to prevent having to drop the transmission again in the near future. I'll begin pricing and ordering parts on Tuesday.

26 Aug 2007 - Success! Finally! After 10 months of ownership, and 5 months of concerted efforts, the clunk is gone! As a final step prior to swapping transmissions, and since there was a heat-related aspect, earlier this past week I re-checked all the exhaust mounts, just in case the exhaust has been moving. And that made no difference at all. So at 9:00 this morning, I went out and got to work. Dropped the transmission out of the yellow car, then dropped the original 'box from the red car and installed the yellow car's transmission into the red car. Rick (a Z friend from the Portland area) stopped by on his way home from Danny's Datsuns, got here at about 12:30, and the job had gone so smoothly that by the time he got here, I was almost done. We went for a test drive around 1:30, and finally the car drives like I knew it could. No noise, no slop, no clunks! So for now, the yellow car's transmission will stay in the red car. I will probably disassemble the bad gearbox next weekend, so I can begin to decide where to go from here. The transmission now in the red car originally came out of the parts car, but since I sold the the other early transmission that I had, I am still one transmission short. Rick does have an early 4 speed in a parts car he is dismantling, so that may be an option. I've also considered installing a 5 speed in one of my two cars. But there are drawbacks. Since both cars are pre-72, I'd either have to enlarge the hole in the tunnel (a bad option in my opinion, especially on the red car) or have some custom fabrication work done to build a shift lever that will work in my cars' bodyshells. The other thing is that if I buy a 5 speed out of a boneyard, how do I know that it's any good? After all, even the 280ZX gearboxes are at least 25 years old by now. There's a good chance that I'd have to rebuild one of those after I buy it. Sure, a 5 speed would be nice on the freeway, but I hope not to have to drive a lot there. So it's not all that important to me. If I'm going to have to rebuild one anyway, I may just as well rebuild the original. At least that way I've still got the clean and pretty parts that the car came with.

19 Aug 2007 - I'm Back! There hasn't been a lot Z-related going on around here for a while, what with vacation and trying to sell a Harley for an extended family member. But not a lot doesn't mean none, and I was back at it again this weekend. So here goes. I got a pair of headlight buckets a few days ago. I wanted the left one to replace the one on the yellow car which had a big chunk missing. I installed that one today, and properly mounted the existing right side bucket as well. Both now fit pretty good, and will look fine once it is painted. $20 well spent. And now for the part that you all have been waiting for... The Latest Episode of "The 240Z Clunk that won't die!" I have to admit, this problem has been bugging me a lot. After going through all the rest of the normal rear suspension and differential parts, I had recently focused on one or both of the stub axles, assuming them to possibly have bad splines. But since new stub axles are expensive, and also since I just happen to own a similar 240Z that does NOTclunk, I decided to make the effort to swap more parts from the yellow car prior to spending more money. Darn good thing. Yesterday morning I pulled the right rear strut assembly out of the yellow car and installed it (as-is) in the red car. Drove it. No change, still clunked, getting worse as the car warms up. Put the right sides back to the way they were, and then did the same on the left side. And again, no change. So I put those back as well. Sigh... Want the long version? Here's the list of parts that I have replaced with new: Rear transmission mount Front differential mount All six u-joints (professionally done, not a hammer and vice job) Driveshaft balanced Rear struts, with bump stops Inner rear control arm bushings And here is the list of parts that have been tried out of other cars: Both halfshafts, several times (both from yellow and parts cars) Rear differential mounting bar (from parts car, which had fresh bushings) Differential (from parts car by way of yellow car, doesn't clunk in the yellow car) Both strut assemblies, including the bearings and stub axles That pretty much covers it. By now I have touched, swapped and/or replaced everything in the rear suspension and rear drivetrain. And none of it has helped. So where does this leave me? Looking farther forward. I spent more time today driving the car, and paying very close attention to when and why it clunks. From this I determined it is definitely drivetrain-related, not in the suspension. And it is very definitely temperature related. When the car is cold, it almost doesn't clunk at all. Very slight, and not very noticeable. As the car warms up, the clunk becomes more pronounced, more harsh, and easier to provoke. This leads me to believe that the cause is some part that builds heat with normal driving. And since everything in the drivetrain from the front u-joint back has been checked or replaced, that brings me to... The transmission. Arguments in favor - Well, it's part of the drivetrain, and it definitely gets hot after a few miles of driving. Arguments in opposition - The clunk sounds like it is coming from farther to the rear of the car. I do know that the transmission in the red car is not 100% healthy. It has a pretty pronounced whine in the lower three gears (probably layshaft or needle bearings), and the second gear synchro is weak and easy to beat, even in normal driving. And as for where the clunk is coming from, I do know that noises travel a lot. In fact I know that the whine in first through third gears is from the transmission, yet listening from inside the car you'd swear it was the differential. So why shouldn't the clunk sound like it is coming from farther to the rear as well? Where to next? The obvious answer (although a fair amount of work) is to pull the known-good transmission from the yellow car and try it in the red car. If that does work, then a decision will need to be made about what transmission to use in the end. Too early to speculate on that now. But if that doesn't fix it, I'm fresh out of ideas. Who knows, at that point maybe I give up, fix the yellow car and sell the red one. Probably not, but perhaps you can understand how discouraging this has been. Going to try to start the transmission swapping next weekend...

15 Jul 2007 - Still Clunking I'm still trying to track down the source of the clunking sound from the rear. I've tried all the common things with little or no improvement. So after discussing it with some Z experts, the consensus is that one or both of my rear stub axles probably have worn splines. I haven't disassembled it yet to check this, but I'm laying plans to do so fairly soon as this is driving me nuts. I don't want to move on to other things on either car until I get this handled. So that will be the next thing I do, just not quite sure when.

25 Jun 2007 - Bushings Changed Yes, all the new rear suspension bushings arrived in time for me to install them this weekend, along with re-installing the original differential. And the results... Well, again I have made it better, but it's still not gone. The inner front bushings were obviously bad, and showed evidence of moving. But that still isn't all of it. Whereas before I had a harsh clunk on both acceleration and deceleration, I now have a more subdued clunk on acceleration only. Nothing when I back off hard. And not as frequent on take-off either. So again, I made progress but didn't fix it entirely. I'm not yet sure what my next move on this will be. I'm running out of things to check and replace. More thought is needed.

17 Jun 2007 - We're Back Since the last update, I've done some checking on body and paint work for the yellow car, attended a Datsun show, and tested a different differential in the red car. One of the main reasons to get the yellow Z running again was so that I could drive it across town to have it looked at by the body/paint shop. Which I did just prior to the show in Canby. We talked for a while about what I had in mind for it, and I was given a verbal quote that seems do-able. I haven't firmed any of this up yet, but I may finish the yellow car after all. More on this in coming weeks. Last Sunday we spent the day at the meet in Canby. We had a good time, caught up with friends from prior get-togethers, and made a few new friends too. Saw lots of cars. I didn't take many pictures, was too busy gawking and visiting. Yesterday I swapped the yellow Z's differential into the red Z in an effort to determine the source of the rear-end clunks I hear in the red car. While clunking noises are not uncommon in Zs, I know I can cure this as the yellow car has none. The differential swap did not change it, so I have ordered a full set of rear suspension bushings instead. As soon as the bushings get here, I'll swap the differentials back and replace all the red car's bushings. Maybe as soon as next week.

3 Jun 2007 - Let's Talk Yellow Since I have the red car pretty much ready for the trip to Canby next weekend, I spent a little quality time with the yellow 240Z today - starting with getting it running again. I tried to start it yesterday, it fired briefly and then died. From there, nothing. So I checked one of the float bowls and found it totally dry. "Oops," I thought, "I've run it out of gas." So today I poured a couple of gallons into the tank, cranked it over - and still got nothing. Now I'm starting to get suspicious. The gauge showed almost half a tank. (Didn't look at it yesterday.) But the float bowls are still dry. When I ran the electric fuel pump I could see it pushing air bubbles through the fuel in the filter. So I crawled under the back to look at the lines at the tank. And as I had suspected at this point, I found the fuel hose was rather loose, even though the clamp was bottomed out. After replacing the hose clamps with different ones that I could cinch down tightly, I got fuel to the carbs again. Once that was handled, I tried to start it again. The results were better now that it had fuel, but still pretty poor. Since I had been fiddling with the ignition of this car last weekend (while troubleshooting the red car's ignition problem), I decided to check through that first. And sure enough, the point gap was almost none. After re-gapping the points, it fired right up. I warmed it up, and took it for a drive. And again, the poor old car impressed me with how well it drives. Give it a decent exhaust and re-web the seats, and it'd be a pretty fair (albeit not pretty) driver. Runs nicely, feels fairly tight, pretty impressive, all things considered. At that point, I finally got to real reason I wanted to get it running again, and started cleaning the engine compartment, tidying the wiring, and such. Still assessing what it's going to take to make it decent. Might get some more info on that later this week.

28 May 2007 - We Have Ignition... The cleaning and detailing of the red car has continued, and is mostly complete. Although the old, dried wax from one of the previous owners is almost magical. I clean and remove the wax from a spot, and days or weeks later when I go back to look, more has appeared! I may be cleaning this stuff for the rest of my life. But all in all, the car is pretty presentable right now. I did have some troubleshooting fun with it this weekend, though. Last Thursday I drove it to work. My drive in the morning was fine, but when I left for home that afternoon the car started cutting out intermittently. No hint of that in the morning, but it started before I got out of the parking lot that afternoon. Never felt like it was going to fail completely, but it did it at times the whole way home. From the symptoms, I was pretty certain that it was an ignition problem, not fuel-related. It turns out that I'm well equipped to diagnose ignition issues, as I have lots of spare parts. The yellow car is running the same stock points-type ignition as the red car, plus I have a complete 280ZX electronic ignition system sitting on my workbench. So it's easy for me to start replacing parts one-by-one until the problem goes away. I had already replaced the plugs and plug wires shortly after I bought the car, but nothing else. Most of the rest appeared to be 36 year old stock parts, other than the points set. Cap, rotor, coil, etc. So my first step was to do the quickest change, I installed a new coil. Drove it to work again on Friday, and it was quickly apparent that the coil was not the issue. This I considered to be both good and bad news. The bad news was that the engine still cut out, the new coil was not the solution. But the good news was that the engine still cut out - the problem was consistent enough that troubleshooting would be fairly easy. Saturday morning I started with more easy parts. I swapped in a different rotor, no difference. Then I swapped the distributor cap from the yellow car. That fixed it. But I was a little puzzled by that, as although the 'bad' cap appeared to be original, there was no sign of carbon tracking, burned contacts, or the like. The symptoms didn't quite seem right for a bad cap, but with the other cap, it was fine. After looking the rest of the ignition over briefly, I bought a new cap, rotor and good set of points for it. I could have installed the ZX electronic system instead, but it would have needed a few parts as well, and I really don't have any big aversion to points. And as I was installing the points, I found the real cause of the problem. The lead that runs from the distributor terminal to the points had a frayed spot in the insulation and was probably shorting out now and then. This lead runs along the outside edge of the distributor, and I probably moved it a bit when I changed the cap. I found that the lead in the yellow car's distributor was a fairly recent-looking replacement, so I used that one in the red car for now, and will get a new one soon so that both cars can have good leads. That's about it for now. Did a few more tune-up type things while I was doing the points, and a bit more cleaning. Still need to do the rear suspension bushings, that should be the next task. But I probably won't get to that before the show at Canby in two weeks.

13 May 2007 - More of the Same I continued on the same track this last week, working on the red car. The new KYB struts arrived, and were all four installed Thursday morning. The results are good, the car now rides fine. It still feels firm, like a sports car should, but it is no longer bouncy. I don't feel like I'm beating the car to death on a rough road now. Yes, I'm certain that I've lost some handling capability over what the Mulhollands delivered, but I'm willing to sacrifice that for the way I typically drive. And the ride height did increase by 1/4" to 3/8" both ends. But that will eventually self-correct as the gas pressure slowly bleeds off over the next few years. So yes, I'm very pleased with these now. I also had picked up the new differential mount, and that was installed Thursday afternoon. The differential mount I took out did not look bad, and there was an old Nissan Parts label on it, so I'm sure that it had been replaced at some point in the past, but the new one definitely quieted a bunch of the clunking back there. Next step to tighten it all up will be to replace all the control arm bushings. On Friday, I refinished the tail light trim panels. And that turned out pretty good also. The color of the special paint I ordered is very close, but it seems to be a bit too glossy. I may end up using a matte finish clear on them at some point, but for now I'm just going to let it be and see if I get used to it. And the cleaning continues as well. I'm slowly working my way around the car, removing parts, cleaning, removing old dry wax, and generally just detailing things as I go. The driver's side is finished, more to come.

6 May 2007 - Cleaning and Maintenance Picking up where I left off last week, I have finished the spring replacement on the yellow car. It now has a thoroughly usable set of springs, and the springs I borrowed from Bryan and Gail can now be returned. I should be done with changing springs now, with one set (the cut-down Euro springs) left over. I also (finally!) tidied up the fuel pump installation on the yellow car. Got some new fuel hose, mounted the pump properly and re-wired it properly. I took it for a short drive afterwards, and I'm pleased with the results. It still needs a real exhaust, the bad rear wheel cylinder repaired or replaced, and at a minimum some carb work. But all in all, it drives pretty nice at this point. If only it were prettier... For the red car, I dropped the gas tank to complete the fuel hose replacement. Worked well, I filled the tank afterwards and neither the inside of the car nor the garage smell like gas anymore. I have ordered the replacement strut inserts, they should be delivered early this week, and I expect I'll have them installed before the weekend is over. I have also decided that my next replacement part will be the front differential mount, as I believe that is what is causing much of the clunking sounds from the rear. I plan to order that this week as well. I've been slowly cleaning and detailing the exterior of the red car, bit by bit. I have ordered a can of custom paint to refinish the badly faded taillight trim, I figure that should arrive soon also. This cleaning and detailing will continue all month, as I try to clean it up prior to the gathering at Canby next month.

29 Apr 2007 - More Miles Another long day on the road for the red 240Z yesterday. Deanna had an event to attend in Portland, so I drove her up in the Datsun. After I dropped her off I drove to Beaverton and met Gary, and the two of us caravanned from there to Astoria, ostensibly to attend the Astoria Crab Festival. We did attend the festival, and had some really good dungeness crab. But the highlight and primary reason for the trip was to drive our 240Zs. On the way to Astoria we took a back road that had very little traffic. It could have been better paved, however. Those really firm shocks I have handled great, good control and very little body roll. But they are still too firm for my tastes and the way I will normally drive the car. On the return trip we stopped for a visit at the home of yet another 240Z enthusiast, had a good visit and took a few pictures, including the one below. After a short visit, I returned to Portland, picked up Deanna and we drove on home. A long day for me, about 400 miles on the car, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. The car did fine on the trip, other than the ride from the struts. I'm laying plans for their replacement now, and have a couple of people who are interested in the Mulhollands once I get them out. The other thing I've noticed is that the more I drive, the worse the suspension bushings seem to get. They are all original, so that's really no surprise. I'm planning to get all new rear suspension rubber soon, and will do the front later this summer. Probably won't be much driving of the car going on for a while now, until early June and the Datsun meet in Canby. In the mean time, I plan to finish replacing the fuel vent hoses, and maybe get to some of the suspension refresh done. We were hoping to perhaps get the seats redone by then, but I think we're running out of time for that. Today I began replacing springs for what I believe will be the last time. I'm pulling the set of (borrowed) springs out of the yellow car and replacing them with a set of used springs kindly donated by Gary. I got the rears done today, and will finish the fronts in a week or two. Also found a leaking wheel cylinder on the yellow car while doing the spring swap. I'll have to deal with that soon as well. Last news for this month, the yellow car is no longer actively for sale. That doesn't mean that I won't sell it if someone were to make me a nice offer, but I'm not going to actively market it for a while as I continue to explore the possibilities for finishing it myself.

22 April 2007 - Random April Thoughts Well, I'm back home again, after spending 5 days last week in Beaverton. It's good to be home, although I did enjoy dinner Wednesday evening with a couple of Z-friends from the Portland area. With this last trip, I have recently had a fair bit of seat time in the red 240Z, two trips up North this month, plus a few days here in town. And I have come to a few conclusions about future changes to the car. The Mulholland struts I put in a while ago in are going to have to go. They were the wrong choice for me, for this car. They would be really great struts for track or autocross use, especially if the rules require stock springs. They are really firm, and handle great. But they are just too firm for weekend touring, which is going to be the primary use of my car. So I will be installing KYBs sometime later this year, and I figure that I should be able to sell the Mulhollands to cut my losses there. Haven't decided whether to use the Euro springs or not. I drove a 240Z in Portland that does ride decently with that spring/strut combo. But I bought them with the yellow car in mind, whose stock springs were totally shot. Since the red car's springs are still good, there's less reason to use them. I'm definitely going to need to replace all the rubber bushings in the rear suspension. (Front too, most likely. But that's less noticeable than the rear at this point.) There's a bit of clunk still from the rear, even after replacing all the u-joints. I've also noticed a slight bit of 'rear-steer' effect under acceleration and deceleration that makes me think the rear control arms are moving a bit. So new rubber bushings (no need for poly for my uses) are in the plan. A front spoiler is necessary. At freeway speeds, crosswinds and such really blow the car around. Not really surprising to me, that has long been a complaint leveled at early 240Zs. Since I have the '70s-era sunroof and '70s-era mags, the obvious choice for me is the '70s style BRE front 'spook'. I'll probably get one from Classic Datsun Motorsports (made from the original BRE mould) rather than the repros sold on eBay or or other vendors. I'll either leave the finish as is, or maybe paint it black at first, and then paint it red to match the car someday when I get the car painted. I'm still mulling over the fate of the yellow car. I think I'm going to do some talking to some body shops about it over the next few weeks. It's so close now, if the rust was handled and a decent coat of original yellow paint applied, it would be highly marketable. In fact, once the body was done, it wouldn't take much to finish it. Still a possibility...

15 Apr 2007 - Prepping for the Road I haven't driven the red car much since the trip to Wilsonville a couple weeks ago, but that will change later today. I've got a training class all next week in Beaverton, and I'm leaving later today in the Datsun. Not a big deal, just a little farther than the last trip. I did spend a little time checking a few more things out prior to this trip, primarily the rear wheel bearings on both sides. I've been hearing a bit of noise from the back, and couldn't decide if it was bearings or just road noise. And apparently it is just road noise. Looks like the bearings on both sides have already been replaced before, and they feel very good, smooth and tight. So I'm going to try to stop worrying and accept that these old cars are not all that quiet inside. Other than that, not much major to talk about. This past week I added some 'Z' emblems to the wheel center caps, replaced the lower door window glass bumper in the driver's door, and re-registered the car with a pair of vintage, period correct license plates. I'll post later as to how the trip this week went.