Arne

This auction is a type of advertising, not truly an auction. It basically says, "Please see that I have a pile of cars and parts to sell, and contact me directly so that I can sell them to you outside of eBay." Really cheap advertising, as at that starting bid, he probably paid a $0.30 insertion fee. Of course, it totally violates eBay's rules...

If you are skilled enough to build that, perhaps you could build a small robot. Or maybe a radio controlled scale person. Seems a shame not to be able to drive it on a small track somewhere...

Mine also has the antenna switch to the right of the knob. In my experience, cars with the AM-only radios had the vertical switch to the right of the station knob. AM/FM radios had it over the knob. I believe that all '71s came with the AM-only radio from the factory, but the dealer installed AM/FM units were similar (or maybe the same) as the later units. I could be wrong, though...

Well, if you aren't much of a mechanic you probably won't want to try to learn by jumping in the middle of a partially assembled motor. As I see it, you have a couple of viable options: One would be to take it as is to a shop that is very Z-knowledgable. You don't want to take it to just any shop, since neither you nor they will be familiar enough with the L-series engines to easily pick up were the prior assembler left off. Find a good shop that knows Zs and let them get it done. You're going to have to trust them, if they say you need 'such-and-such' you'll need to get it done. And don't be surprised if they want to disassemble and/or re-do some of what has already been done, since the only way they can be sure of their work will be to find out for certain what has already been done. The other option is to bag what has already been done, find a complete and intact motor from another car, rebuild it as necessary and install it. In some respects this is the easier task, as you will be starting from scratch - there will be no question as to what has been done, or what yet needs to be done. But you won't have your original, numbers-matching engine in the car when you are done.

Welcome! Sounds like your car and my red one are in similar condition. If so, you (like myself) are one lucky person.As far as contributing outside of PayPal, send a Private Message to the site owner Mike and he can give you other payment options.

Related note - I installed a new (proper early-style) master cylinder on my red car today. The previous owner had a shop replace the cylinder last spring and they installed the later-style cylinder on it, I wanted to get back to stock. I found that to get the later cylinder to work on an early booster, the shop had to extend the pushrod length as far as it would go, and also readjust the pedal pushrod as well. Both of those changes had to be undone for me to return to the original type of master cylinder.

Go West, young man... http://sacramento.craigslist.org/car/239348426.html http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/car/237134493.html http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/car/239531468.html http://portland.craigslist.org/yam/car/237837860.html http://portland.craigslist.org/yam/car/239856189.html http://salem.craigslist.org/car/238079704.html

Thanks, Jim. Too bad you don't have more batteries for your cell phone...

Stop! If you think the pump lever is not moving, DO NOT CRANK the engine any more until you verify that the bolt on the end of the camshaft is tight! The fuel pump lobe on the cam is simply bolted in place. If that is loose, the pump would not pump. But worse, if it comes all the way loose and falls off inside the timing cover you could experience all sorts of damage. Pull your valve cover and check that before you go any farther.

Not applicable, David. The fuel pump on a '71 is mechanical, not electric.

Who has their heater panel out of the car? I'm getting ready to put the heater control back in the yellow car, but I'm missing one control cable. I plan to make a new one out of an old choke cable, but I need to know the length. The one I need is the one with the loop end that goes to the big flap in the heater box. How long is the cable itself, and how long is the sheath? Can anyone help?

Sorry guys, I disagree. I recall the pictures of the damage, and it's not worth it. Far better to start with a better shell. Keep the original car, so you can salvage any good parts for the next car. Watch for car with as good a body you can find. Maybe something like these: http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/car/239374472.html http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/car/239374472.html

How far away do you call "local", Ian. In other words, how far away are you wiling to travel for one? Are you only interested in '72s? No '70, '71 or '73s? What condition are you looking for? Mechanically and body-wise?

Don't know if it makes any difference internally, but ZX distributor I have started life with the E12-92 module. So perhaps the later units are more reliable?

According to the charts on Zhome.com, pure white vinyl was only offered in 1972 in red, orange and blue cars. Red and orange cars could have had either black or white, blue cars all had white. In '73 there was an off-white in blue cars only.

You'd lose it here in Eugene, OR. Every Oregon Ducks fan here buys dark green cars. Dark green Camrys are a dime a dozen here.

You know, people always say that the vacuum advance mechanisms are mostly all shot by now, but all three distributors I have now (two single-point 240Z and one 280ZX w/E12-80) still have nicely working vacuum advance units. So maybe they are more durable than everyone assumes.

You'll need to have a good motor, and make sure he is staying with vintage 185/70-15 tires. Don't let him run modern staggered size rubber!

Let's make certain we are talking about the same thing. Because the vacuum line for the advance on the distributor was not routed to the balance tube, but to a small fitting on the front carb body. US spec 240Zs had two fittings on the balance tube for emissions gear. These parts have been removed on many (most) cars by now, and those fittings on the balance tube need to be plugged in that case. There are some who have removed their vacuum advance, typically those who have triple carbs and the like. But then they don't even have balance tubes, so I don't think that's what you have been seeing. I attached a picture of my car's engine, which is complete with all the emissions gear. I noted the vacuum advance hose with a green arrow. It's hard to see where it connects because it's hidden by the carb, but I pointed it out with an orange arrow. I also attached a more typical picture of my other car's engine. It's not as clear but does show the lack of smog gear and the plugged nipples on the balance tube. Hope this helps.

I seem to recall that knowledgeable Weber people regard the DFAV carbs from Pintos much the same as Datsun SU people regard US-Flat-tops. So I really doubt that there is much to be learned from something like this that would be all that helpful. Although I should think you could buy it cheap! But then again, as you know from earlier discussions on this, I'm definitely an SU fan...

The wires for the neutral/stop switch would only be present if the car were originally an automatic. Manual transmission cars only had the one pair of wires going down that side of the tunnel.

The backup light wires on both my cars (10/70 and 7/71) both come from the same spot that Bruce's picture shows. The backup light switch is the one on the right side of the transmission. The other one is probably a top-gear-indicator switch, which were commonly used in the late '70s for emission control. They would often vary the ignition advance depending on what gear you were in. You can safely ignore that in your case, I should think.

It's pretty seasonal here in Western Oregon. July through mid-October is almost totally rain-free. Right about now is as bad as it gets, rains 4-5 days a week. After the first of the year it'll break some, and there will be dry stretches.It's not bad enough for me to bother putting it up for the winter, it will get driven every couple of weeks anyway. And then next Summer... :laugh: :classic:

Like all economic issues, it boils down to supply and demand. With early Zs especially, they were fairly evenly distributed around the country when new. But in many parts of the US the ranks have been decimated by rust. So the supply of good and/or restorable cars in much of the country is rather small. Price goes up. Here in the West where we don't use road salt, the number of available cars is much greater, so the price goes down. The down side is that cars that people would happily buy to repair back East get crushed here because they have little value. That doesn't mean that there aren't expensive cars here on the left coast, but but since there are far more to pick from, it takes an exceptional car to be worth much. Some examples from Craigslist searches done today for 240Z cars for sale: Chicago, IL: 0 cars Pittsburgh, PA: 0 cars Richmond. VA: 0 cars Atlanta, GA: 1 car, $6000 Miami, FL: 0 cars Boston, MA: 0 cars Washington, DC: 1 car, $4000 Raleigh, NC: 1 car, $3300 Minneapolis, MN: 0 cars New York, NY: 0 cars Philadelphia, PA: 1 parts car, $225 Austin, TX: 1 car, $1250 Dallas, TX, 0 cars Houston, TX: 1 car, $1700 Denver, CO: 3 cars, $3750-11,000 So that's 8 complete cars East of the Rockies (plus 1 parts car), and 3 of those are in Denver. And now, from the West -- Seattle: 4 cars, $800-3500 Spokane, WA: 2 cars, $600-3400 Portland, OR: 3 cars, $2200-12,500 Salem, OR: 2 cars, $3000-8000 Eugene, OR: 2 cars, $1200-2500 Sacramento, CA: 3 cars, $2000-13,0000 San Francisco, CA: 11 cars, $1000-5700 Los Angeles, CA: 4 cars, $1500-7000 Orange Co., CA: 5 cars, $1500-7500 San Diego, CA: 1 car, $2300 Phoenix, AZ: 3 cars, $3500-12,000 Reno, NV: 1 car, $5000 That's 39 240Zs listed on Craigslist today that are West of the Rockies. Some of them are expensive. But many of the $2000-4000 cars don't look much different than the $6000 car in Atlanta. Supply and Demand.

In my experience, that may be sooner than you expect. I've used KYBs with lowering springs in the past - but only once. (Not a Datsun.) The KYBs were toast in about 6 months time. I don't know if it was because the lower ride height overworked them, or perhaps because they were damaged by bottoming out, or what. But I believe the warning they issue about not using them with lowering springs is valid.On the other hand, I'm sure that we'll hear from lots of satisfied KYB users with all manner of lowering springs. As for what springs to use - what is your primary goal? Better visual appearance, or better handling?