Arne

The breather hose I bought about a year ago from MSA was braid-covered. It was part #15-6200 and is listed to fit '70-72.

Just a thought - it's possible the alternator has failed and you have run the battery dead. Try charging the battery first. If it starts then, take it down to a shop or parts house and have the charging system checked.

When the exhaust manifold/header is replaced, you will need to replace the gasket too. The intake manifold and exhaust manifold/header share the same manifold gasket. So the intake manifold will need to come off as well.

Basically, they flow too much air. The larger throats allow the the air to move more slowly, which hurts torque. Carb size needs to be matched to the airflow needs of the engine. Triple 50's are way too much for a mostly stock L24.

Yes, your cars would, Stephen.:classic:I could get decent A/C in the Datsun, I'm sure. But that wasn't a realistic option for many of my past hobby cars - like the MG for example, or the hopped up Fiat 600...

Maybe I've been spoiled by living in a mild climate for so long. To me, any car can be a daily driver. I generally drive my 240Z to work at least once a week. I drove a (personally restored) '67 MGB every day for the better part of 5 years. (It was 25+ years old at the time.) Properly maintained, you don't need a modern car for a DD. Provided, of course, you live somewhere that A/C might be optional...

My experience is with 3-synchro MGB gearboxes, both with and without overdrive. I would not hesitate to tear into a Datsun 'box as long as I can get good instructions.

Sounds like mainshaft bearings to me. A typical manual transmission of this vintage has three shafts, all supported by various bearings. You can generally determine which bearings are bad by the times that the noise is heard, and how the tone changes in different gears. The three shafts are the input shaft, the mainshaft and the countershaft (or layshaft if you're in the UK). The input shaft is the one in the bell housing that the clutch disk slides onto. It is a short shaft supported by a big bearing at the front, and a needle bearing at the back where it mates with the mainshaft. This shaft spins at engine speed whenever the clutch is disengaged, even in neutral. The mainshaft is the one the driveshaft attaches to at the back end. It will have one or two caged roller bearings in addition to the needle bearing at the front where it meets the input shaft. This shaft spins whenever the car is moving regardless of gear, it's speed is constant with road speed. The countershaft is the connecting shaft in all gears other than 1:1 (fourth in both 4 and 5 speeds). It is directly driven by the input shaft and spins at the same times and speeds as that one. But it is only under load in reverse, first, second, third and (if applicable) fifth gears. So from this description - noise when you get on or let off the gas in all gears. Just yesteday it started having this awful vibration in all gears above 1500rpms. All noises and vibrations go away when in neutral or if I have the clutch in. - it can't be the input shaft because it doesn't do it in neutral. If it were the countershaft, it would be quiet in fourth gear, so that's out as well. So only the mainshaft bearings are likely to make noise at the times you noted. As for rebuilding it yourself, that is not a job for your average home mechanic. There are many parts, springs detent balls, etc. It's very hard to find good service manuals for transmissions, let alone the necessary parts.

Yes, but... I note that the seller hasn't given a price for the early car. I'm betting that's because he figures it's valuable. Doing a proper restoration on a low-VIN car is very expensive, so make certain it is fairly complete, and don't get carried away and pay too much. After all, rust and a caved-in roof will mean a lot of body work.

Different story on that thread - on that one both ends were tall, not just the front. (At least, that was the case after all four were installed.) Your situation seems more like BuDavid's.

Check this thread: http://classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23673&highlight=st+springs Short version - in the thread above, the ST springs were mis-marked. Sounds like the same issue to me.

Mine are "the red car" and "the yellow car". Never been much for naming cars, in 35 years of car ownership I can't remember ever naming one. The only reason for identifying by color is the "the Z" or "the Datsun" doesn't work when you have more than one. As many of us here do...

I've got Speed-bleeders on my motorcycle. They work great.

Related note - The latest batch of paint that Les had made is too glossy. The color is good, but the gloss looks wrong on both the tail finishers and the grill. (I've tried it both places.) Les is aware of the problem and is working on getting it corrected.

Based on personal experience, a set of un-cut Euro springs (either original or repro) with Mulhollands (or any non-gas-strut) will raise the ride height about 3/4" over stock both front and rear. The change from your current height could be even greater, depending on whether or how much your current springs have sagged. I cut my Euro springs down 1.5 coils in front, and 1.25 coils in back - with NOS Mulhollands that gave me a ride height 1/8" to 1/4" higher than stock. About the same as using KYBs with good-condition stock springs. For stock ride height with non-gas shocks I'd recommend cutting 1.75 coils in front and 1.5 coils in back. If you want the nose just a touch lower than the rear, go 2.0 coils in front and 1.5 coils in the rear. For use with KYBs I'd take an additional quarter coil off each of the above recommendations.

Do it on a clean concrete floor. The pins will generally fall down and sit on the tail lights, or the flange of the tail light gaskets, but sometimes they can fall clear through to the floor. Generally not though, they normally get trapped somewhere between the tail finishers and the rear body anel itself.

Don't be surprised if you don't find much - a lot of those old wheels weren't really marked on the back.

The wheels remind me of Western or Superior. Not sure without more data. The three-bar spinners are third party - they did not come with the wheels originally, as they were for "off road use only" due to DOT regulations. As such, the emblem on the spinners are a red herring, at best.

Here's an interesting addition to this thread. I drove my yellow car a bit today. It has a stock L24, and the entire cooling system is new. New 3 row radiator, all hoses, heater core, sending unit, thermostat and housing, everything. Has a larger diameter 260Z fan. But the thermostat is not OE, just a cheap aftermarket that came with the parts car when I bought it. With my entirely new cooling system, my gauge runs about where yours did in the first picture. That's at 80 degrees (F) outside. If the OE thermostat helps yours, I'll be after one as well.

That explains it. While I like Japanese motorcycles, cameras, some cars and such-like, anime and manga leave me totally cold. Always have.

Synthetics don't directly cause leaks. But they are more detergent than fossil oil, and so they can clean up sludge and varnish that may actually be what is doing the sealing. So an engine may leak after changing to synthetic, but the only fault of the oil is that it is cleaning too well. But it takes the blame anyway. I use synthetics in most of my vehicles, but will probably stay with fossil for the Z. But if I had a freshly broken in L2x that I knew was clean inside, I'd probably do synthetic there as well.

At the risk of branding myself as 'old' and/or 'ignorant', who is Speed Racer, and why should I care if they make a movie about him/her/it?

Assuming you want to keep the system intact (and there has been some discussion recently on the pros and cons of this), you'd need to find some sort of material that will bond and fuse to the existing plastic. I'm fairly certain that such a product probably exists, but identifying it may be difficult. If finding a suitable repair product proves to be too difficult, I have a spare plastic evap tank that appears to still be airtight. Came out of an Oregon car so hasn't been baked by the desert temps.