Arne

I'm just fussy that way, I guess. Can't see putting it in the car if it's all ratty-looking. If I'm going to clean it up at all, I may as well do it right. Not likely that I'd spend much on date-matched wheels for a car that no longer has it's original engine or transmission. I certainly understand the reason some people might want things like that, but my car can never be original again, so why bother?

DOH! Man do I feel silly. I guess I haven't really looked at a 280 in a while. I went back and edited out my rather mis-leading comments above.But I say again, the steering wheel is not really important. It looks like a good car for the money.

Edit - Rather lame un-informed remarks edited out.But again, the steering wheel is of interest to us as a curiosity, certainly not an issue on whether or not to buy this particular car.

Here's the deal. I've got a total of 5 stock 4 1/2" steel wheels, four from one car and one from the spare of my parts car. The matched set are date-coded 4-71, the odd one is 3-71. I need to make one of the five a spare for my normal car. I could use the odd one, but it's going to take a fair amount of prep work (strip and re-paint). Or I could use one of the others that is ready to go, but that would break up the matched set. Now, remember that none of these wheels are the proper date code for my car, they are all 6-8 months too late. So it really doesn't matter to me which one I use in the spare. But if someone else might someday need/want the matched set, that would probably be enough reason for me to expend the effort to strip the odd one, rather than break up the set. I'm just not certain if there's enough people truly restoring cars of the 4/71-6/71 vintage to make the set desirable. Does this make any sense to anyone? Should I be concerned about breaking up the set?

Definitely not the correct steering wheel. A car with that production date would have had the steering wheel with the holes in the spokes, not the one with the indentations. But you know what? That is totally a non-issue. The proper steering wheels (should you decide to go that way) are easy to find. Shoot, I've got one off my parts car in the garage right now. And so do plenty of other people. A bigger issue is the non-original color, but that can be corrected as well. The short version is that while you can probably expect to find a little rust hidden in that car when you really get into it (there's virtually no such thing as a TOTALLY rust-free early 240Z), for $700 that is a darn good start. Of course, you'll need to add several hundred more to get it transported across the country, but it's probably still well worth it.

Gary, I haven't yet calculated how much to cut, partly because I don't yet know what my end goal is. Something like what Carl suggested, I suspect, though. I've cut springs in the past, and have always been able to figure out how much to cut, I've yet to ruin a set of springs. (Insert sound of Arne knocking on wood.) I'll keep you in the loop, you and I will want to discuss this later, before you do your springs (if you decide to use them).

The antenna switch was originally mounted on the radio faceplate. Yours waas probably re-located when the radio was changed at some point.

Probably a bit more than 1/4", Carl, when you consider that the 205/60-14s on my car now are a full inch smaller in overall diameter than the stock sizes. So in reality, my car is probably sitting closer to 3/4" higher than the stock US specs.All in all, I'm not certain just why this should be the case, considering that everything all checks out the way it should, and I don't have gas pressure struts polluting the data. I do suspect that when I have them out of the car next time (when I replace the struts) that I'll cut them down some. Just how much depends on whether I use gas KYBs or hydraulic Konis. I'll keep you posted.

Since I now have a second 240Z that is a manual transmission car (a later '71 that I'm parting out), I have had a chance to learn a bit more about the differences, other than what I mentioned in the original article. As is the case with the original article, the details here are based on early 240Zs. Some of this will likely apply to later cars as well, but YMMV. Bodyshell - I have found a few other differences in the bodyshell, in addition to the presence of (or lack thereof) the bracket for the clutch hose on the framerail. One is a mounting point on the inside of the firewall above the throttle pedal for the "kickdown" switch. (More on the switch itself later.) Manual transmission cars do not appear to have this mounting tab. But the manual transmission cars do have a rectangular clutch pedal stop (about an inch high) on the firewall, that is missing on some or all automatic cars. Also, the automatic cars have four holes with captive nuts at the four corners of the shift lever opening (to retain the automatic shift selector) that the manual cars don't have. Wiring - Both the engine compartment and dash harnesses are different for the automatics, the rear body harness is the same. The dash harness has extra leads for the "kickdown" switch, as well as an extra dash illumination bulb for the shift selector. In the engine compartment harness, the lead from the ignition switch to the starter solenoid is routed through a neutral safety switch on the automatic before it gets to the starter. (These are the leads that must be connected together.) The reverse light switch leads may have different connectors than on a manual car. And lastly, there is an extra relay on the left inner fender in front of the coil and near the radiator support. More on this below. Mechanical - Under the hood, the automatics all had a radiator with integral transmission cooler in the lower tank. The fittings can be ignored or capped off when the manual transmission is installed. (In fact, these days many aftermarket replacement radiators on the market are fitted with the cooler so that they can be sold as one-size-fits-all.) There is also an extra vacuum fitting on the balance tube, that goes to the transmission modulator. This port will need to be plugged or capped off. And then there is the ignition. The automatics came with a dual point distributor, instead of the single point unit on the manual transmission cars. And this is where a whole lot of the differences are related. You see, the dual point unit was not designed for performance or reliability, it was designed to give more ability to vary the timing advance curve. Under normal driving, one set of points would be used. Under full throttle, the above-mentioned "kickdown" switch (which actually has absolutely nothing to do with transmission kickdown) energizes the relay near the coil, which switches the ignition to the second set of points. That second set has a slightly different static timing, which effectively changed the advance curve. This could cause problems during ignition swaps, if not taken into account. It might be considered less than optimal for the ignition to cut out whenever the throttle was opened wide, which could happen if the ignition were re-wired incorrectly!

OK, final measurements. All four Euro Stage 1 springs are installed, the shocks are NOT gas-charged, tires are 205/60-14 and the car has been driven 8-10 miles since the installation, so they should be as settled as they will get. Before - height at the jack points was LF 7.25", RF 7.25", LR 7.25" and RR 7.0" I did not take any installed height measurements before I started, sorry. After - also at jack points, All four at 8.25". Installed height in the rear is very close to what you noted above, Carl, at about 9". But it's about 8" up front, which seems a bit much compared to your specs listed above - actually close to what the stock US springs should be. I forgot to measure the free length of the old springs until it was too late for the first three. (The old springs got moved straight to my parts car, whose Eibachs are about to close on eBay.) But I did remember in time to measure the old RR spring - it was 14.25" or .75" shorter than it should have been. I'm willing to bet (based on the before measurements) that the other three were probably all about .5" shorter than spec. So the end result is that the car sits considerably taller than it did before on it's well-worn original springs. The ride is moderately firm, but not harsh. When I change shocks later, I may cut them a bit (especially the front) to tune it some, but all in all, I'm happy with them.

NO! Everyone just passes by the REAL first step. Verify and set the float level in each float bowl! If the float level is wrong, any other "starting point" is worthless. ALWAYS set the float level first!

Maybe. I may instead swap the entire harness into my car. But if I did that, I would likely have the dash harness that is now in the car available. But it may not be for several months, in either case.

Jim, to answer your question about the automatic harnesses for 10/70-12/70, they were 24013-E4705 & E4706. All the harness info I had at the time I did mine is in the earlier thread - http://classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19793 Something to note - I'm now parting out a 4/71 manual transmission car. I already have the body and engine compartment harnesses out, will pull the dash sometime in the next few weeks. I'll post back what the harness numbers on that are at that time. But more to the point, it appears to me that the later '71 harness is VERY similar to the 10-12/70 harness, the only difference I've found so far being the fusebox is a short pig-tail. So if you went with a matching short pig-tail fusebox, I think a later '71 harness would probably work, perhaps with minor mods.

The part numbers on the actual tags on the two dash sub-harnesses are not generally listed anywhere in the parts list as they were not available separately. So I would not expect to find those two sub-harness numbers in the parts CD.

OK, I'm still kinda new to the local Datsun scene - "REAL" as opposed to... what?Is there a local get-together for artificial Datsuns?

Electrical - no doubt. This earlier thread on my issues tells it all. http://classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19793

I love that look on a 240Z. I'd put a set on mine in a heartbeat - except my wife doesn't like them. So I'll have to stick with something else equally old school. Haven't found what I want yet...

First, remember that my car currently has under-sized tires on it - 205/60-14. The rears aren't done yet, probably this weekend. But the front ride height at the rocker are - Before = 7.25", After = 7.75". I'd never heard that definition of "installed length" before, I've always called that spec "loaded length". And it's hard to measure that, and trying to allow for the step in the spring seats, and such. But the installed length of the Euro spring in front appears to be about 7.5". All of this could change once the rears are done, the weight distribution might be messed up right now with the mis-match. I'll post the final results when I finish the rears.

If you use the old cam, use the matching rockers. (Keep the rockers matched to the same lobes.) If you use new rockers or cam, replace it all.

That's one option, for sure. The better one for me is: http://classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21274

I used to work in the auto repair industry years ago, and we used to see this fairly often in both Nissans and Subarus when their ignition locks got worn. You can try to fiddle with it yourself, but we always found that when one of the guys did this to a customer's car it was quickest to have a local locksmith fix it.

A good set of Libres will go for more than your $200 on eBay - closer to $400, I'd guess. Shelby (as a wheel manufacturer) is no longer in business. There were several companies that made that style wheel, all copies of the original American Racing Libre. They are all similar, but a different brand may not match your Shelbys exactly. Your best bet is to have that one repaired, as noted above.

Ha! We might have to get together on this, I have a spare front cover, but no spare back plate!

Those are for the late '71 and on. The Series 1 ignition key was single sided like the early door key, and the head was not oval, but shaped more like a pennant. Search for 'key blanks' and you'll probably find out all about them.

I just pulled a set of Eibachs off my parts car (posted on eBay right now as #120017599781, shameless plug) and I can tell you for certain that the Eibachs are definitely preloaded. In fact, the free length of the Eibachs is very close to that of the stockers. I don't know about the Tokicos first hand, but I too have heard that they have no pre-load.