Arne

Yesterday I would have agreed with you, Gary. My red 240Z (61,000 miles) clunks pretty noticeably. I've been planning to replace the moustache bar bushings and front diff mount to see if I can reduce it some.But today I drove my yellow car a bit. Has probably 200,000 plus miles on it. Surprise!! Absolutely no clunk! None! Now that I know it can be done, that a 240Z can be clunk-free, I'm on a mission. Now, back to Tony's issue. You are apparently describing a noise which is cyclical, frequency increasing with speed (not revs). Not the more typical clunk when changing direction or stabbing then releasing the gas. That being the case, I'd suspect u-joints first.

Pretty normal. The Z diffs are open, not limited slip. Whichever wheel spins the easier will therefore get all the power and the other pretty much none. So if the brakes are tighter adjusted on one side than the other, only one spins. If one of the halfshafts has a tight u-joint, only one spins. Pretty much any reason, if one side spins easier, it will spin and the other won't.

I could have predicted that this thread would turn this way. Canby seems to be a sore point up here in the PacNW. Here's my take on this. I'm still a a bit new to the Datsun scene, although I've been into cars for over thirty years. I've never been one to join clubs though, so perhaps I can address this without bias. Get a group of enthusiasts together, and they create a club. The bigger the club gets, the more it takes to keep things organized. Get it big enough, and you start getting factions and cliques. Eventually some split off because some group and the parent club can't see eye to eye. This is normal, and not limited to clubs, but happens in lots of different groups of humans -- churches, governments, clubs, businesses, etc. Not surprisingly, I'm told that this has happened in the Datsun scene up here. (Or so I'm told, it happened before my time.) As far as the Canby show goes, I can certainly understand why they want advance registration. Planning an event like this takes time and effort. Add in the judging and trophies part, and try to plan where you are going to put everyone in a limited area, and logistically you need to have some idea ahead of time as to who is coming, how many of what model car will be there, etc., etc. Again, this doesn't bother me too much, as in addition to not being much of a "club" person, I've never been all that interested in having my cars "judged" or in winning trophies. Just don't care. I like to fix, maintain and drive my cars - that's what turns my nut. I go to shows to see other people's cars, and meet and visit friends. Luckily for me, there is no shortage of other people who DO like to have their cars judged, who DO have interest in trophies. If it wasn't for them, there'd be no other cars for me to look at. I will attend Canby, as it is close by, and there's bound to be some fun stuff to see. Don't expect to see my car in the judged area, as that's not my thing. Several people have said that they prefer a more laid back show attitude, and that's OK too. Because that's how I'll approach Canby - laid back. If others want to get wound up, go for it.

My wife and I will probably be there on Sunday, but not registered for the show, just to look and visit. On the other hand, I could re-install my 1971-dated plug wires, Koito headlights, and put a set of narrow tires on the steel wheels and D hubcaps... Or not.

As Will said, anything is possible if you throw enough money at it, but I think it will be VERY difficult to achieve 0-60 in less than 6 seconds without the things you list as "not for you".

Funny you should ask. I posted this earlier this week.http://classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25857

New caps are available. As for the fumes, are they fuel fumes, or exhaust fumes? Two totally different issues. Exhaust fumes require all the seals and such to be fresh and tight. But fuel fumes are from all the vent hoses, which run inside the car! I just finished doing mine last weekend. Replacing these hoses requires the tank be dropped. Other than that, not too tough.

Most modern cars with electric fans have them wired so that they will continue to run as needed even with the ignition off. This is to assist in cool-down. I don't know if this is really necessary in the case of a Z, but it's something to consider. But if you do wire it so it will run with the ignition off, I'd buy the best quality relay you can find, not the cheap $3.99 unit. You don't want the relay to stick and run the fan until the battery dies.

Frankly, those stock parts are worth so little that if it were me, I'd just stash them away somewhere. Assuming, of course, that I had the room to store them indefinitely.

Yeah, as I said, if I were doing it again, knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn't buy the $88 one. On the other hand, I believe that one is 5/8" ID (15mm actually). And fuel-rated 15mm hose goes for $6/foot or more. Get seven feet (to be certain you've got enough) and that's still over $40 right there. For the extra cost from Nissan, I did at least get cloth-braid.

There's lots of things I like about having Zs. But the best is the friends we've made - both virtual friends here online, and real friends here in the Pacific NW.

As part of the slow refresh of my red '71 240Z I knew I needed to replace all the fuel hoses, especially the big ones that go to the expansion tank in the right rear quarter panel. I'd read all the instructions for saving money by using generic fuel-rated hose and inserting sleeves in them to keep them from kinking and such. But since I am more than a little reluctant to pollute my red car's originality, and also because I really didn't feel like messing with bending and inserting sleeves, I decided to bite the bullet and buy factory hoses. As a side benefit, I figured I could advise others on whether this was as good an idea as it seemed to me at the time. So now that it is done, here are the part numbers I used, and my comments. I got mine at club discount from my local dealer, but your dealer may not offer that. So I included prices from NissanParts.cc for comparison. (Prices current as of 1 May 2007.) 17239-E4601, $27.15. Smaller diameter hose, runs from expansion tank to top right side of the fuel tank. About 3 feet long. Has a preformed double bend at the tank end. This hose is apparently actually correct for '73 240Z, but works OK on '70-72 cars as well. (Correct '70-72 hose is NLA.) The double bend is not quite the same as the one that was on my car, but once pulled into place seemed to work well. Arne's advice - RECOMMENDED, but not absolutely required - The preformed bends do help for this hose. You might be able to get by with generic for this one, but the bend at the tank end might kink some on generic hose. Since this one is affordable, I'd do it. 17235-E4601, $53.20. Large diameter hose with several preformed bends, including a 180 degree bend at the tank end. About 4 feet long. Goes from the expansion tank through the floor to the back of the fuel tank on the right side. Correct for '70-73, fits perfectly. Arne's advice - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - You need that 180 but would need to sleeve a generic hose to do it. The price of this hose is not that bad considering the three custom bends. Buy it. 17238-E4602, NLA as of 9/09. Large diameter horseshoe shaped hose, less than 2 feet long. Runs from expansion tank to fitting on filler neck. Correct for '70-73. Fits fine. Arne's advice - SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED, not absolutely required - You can do this one fairly easily with generic, especially if you used a slightly longer hose than normal so that the bend was gentle. And now that it's NLA, you'll probably have to... 17236-E4601, $88.43. Medium diameter long hose. About 6, maybe 7 feet long. No bends at all. Runs from left side of tank up through the floor, across and into the bottom of the expansion tank. Correct for '70-73. Fits fine. Arne's advice - NOT RECOMMENDED - Unless you are a fetishist about original parts, use generic here. This is the most expensive hose from Nissan, but it has NO preformed bends. So there's no advantage to the factory hose on this one. I also used 18" of 3/16" ID fuel hose (return line), 18" of 5/16" ID fuel hose (fuel supply line), and 4 feet of 1/4" ID fuel hose (evap tank to flow valve line) to do all the other hoses there while the tank was out. In addition, I got replacement grommets and hose sealing sleeves from Banzai. The hose sleeves could be replaced with heat shrink, but I felt the real thing wasn't all that expensive. My grommets were still soft, but the replacement hose from the top of the expansion tank to the metal line that goes to the flow valve on the left front inner fender (the 4 feet of 1/4" hose) was a smaller external diameter than stock. One of the grommets I got from Banzai was apparently intended to deal with this difference and worked great at that spot. Anyway, the deed is done. For myself, I'm not sorry that for the red car I bought the long one from Nissan, but for my yellow car I would not have bought that expensive one. I think it worked, the garage does not have that faint gas odor tonight, so I'm happy.

If we are talking the combo switch (lights and wipers) I know that the '73 and later are different due to the intermittent wipers. There are different part numbers for various earlier ones as well, but I don't know how compatible they might be.

And both were 14". No 15" choices on the 280Z.

Depends on your goal, Brian. I will be using stock rubber on my red car, but it will never see the track and seldom (if ever) an auto-cross. So rubber is fine for me.

Hmm. None of the three '71s I've had (both manual and automatic) have had this part. Was it something Datsun came up with later?

I apologize as well, for my lack of clarity. My car does have the white Z, in hollow metal.

I agree with Chris' assessment. That emblem is the same as those on my 10/70 car.

Are you looking for the factory small bumper guards, or the aftermarket (and sometimes dealer installed) Amco over-rider bars?

No, don't want to use anything that would be difficult to get off when I do end up painting it later.

I like the Xenon on 280Zs, but I certainly don't consider it period-correct for a 240Z.

I will either leave mine in black gel-coat or paint it black at first. Later when I paint the car I will paint it to match. Other than that, I haven't seen anything else of the period-style I like. I do know where there is an NOS Kamei air dam, but it's not an attractive unit in my opinion.

I'm planning on getting a spook later this summer. I've looked into this as well, and have come to the conclusion that while there are more than a couple small shops cranking out this style, I will buy mine from Classic Datsun Motorsport. They have the original BRE mould, and the consensus is that theirs are a bit better fit than most. That's not to say that there aren't others that fit OK too. Several people have indicated that the ones from MSA aren't bad either, which I believe are made by Showcars Bodyparts. The MSA spooks are on sale right now for $100. Last part of the equasion is the condition of the valance you are attaching it to. If that's not straight, the spook is going to warp and twist when it's attached. That may be the issue with the red car pictured above, might not be the fault of the spoiler.

The less travel you have from rest to bottomed out, the stiffer the shock valving needs to be. That helps slow the compression motion down before it bottoms. Similarly, if you have a higher spring rate than stock, the springs really try to push back (think pogo stick), so increased rebound damping is necessary to compensate for that.

To keep the ride height as is, if you have shocks now that lack gas pressure (the shafts stay put or self-extend slowly if you hand compress them), you'll want to stay pressureless with your replacements. That means either Koni or Mulhollands.If your existing struts have a fair amount of gas pressure now (the shafts self-extend fairly rapidly if you compress them by hand), then Tokicos would be a better bet. You have already identified the rebound issue with your new springs. With springs of a higher spring rate the shocks need a lot of rebound control. As far as the ride issue for a daily driver, that depends entirely on your preferences. You may be far more tolerant of a firm ride than I may be. I've found that good performance shocks need not be harsh, but will generally be firm. That has been the case with my Mulhollands, and also with other well matched packages I have used on other cars as well.