Arne

It's been 5 weeks since the last post, and I don't know how much of that time I have spent fretting about wiring. I've learned several things: Good Series I wiring harnesses do exist, but are not all that easy to round up. About the only way to get a full set from a single car is if you buy your own parts car. And good luck finding a parts car with intact wiring. Pricing for harnesses is all over the board. For the full 3 harness set, I got prices from $150 to as much as $900!Since I couldn't easily get a full set from a single car, I decided to drop back and do it one section at a time. Since the dash harness assembly is the one that I KNOW is bad, it was the place to start. So this morning my dash harness (24013-E4602) arrived, along with a matching long-tail fusebox. Completely intact, right down to the fuse holder for the radio. No signs of ever having been hot. The fusebox also shows no sign of getting hot. So for the rest of the weekend, I'm planning to get out the Fluke and test each wire for continuity and resistance. I'll also clean all the terminals, and make any necessary repairs before I pull the dash to install it. The same for the fusebox, a couple of the rivits seem a bit loose so that will be dealt with before it ever goes in the car. Once this harness and fusebox is installed, I can perform some tests to decide if either the body or engine compartment harnesses are really needed. Stay tuned.

Just an FYI, there's a nice looking long-tail box on eBay right now. I feel safe pointing it out because I already found one. But some of the rest of you guys might still need one. Series I fusebox on eBay

That'd be me, if I was really doing it. But I ran out of time before I actually got the first batch made. I plan to build some eventually, but right now I've got too much going on with my own car to find the time to build and ship these gadgets. Maybe later this summer, if all goes well.

You'd need the L28 crank and rods both. The result is the same as the 260 crank and rods, as they are the same.

Ron is right, the "A" box has all the moving parts of the linkage built in to the transmission tail housing. It is impossible to design a short shifter for this without designing a replacement for the tail housing. But on the other hand, your sig mentions that your car is a '72. I was pretty sure that by that time Datsun had switched over to the "B" transmission. Are you certain you have an "A" box?

Hmm, it does appear that this is an Australian spec head, but just because it's not common doesn't mean it's good. It is from an injected car, that's obvious. But since it has the round-port emissions liners, I can't see that it would be all that different that a P79. Certainly not worth any special amount to me, but if you just want a conversation piece... Maybe it's just me, but a whole lot of people in Datsun-land seem to be preoccupied with cylinder heads. Perhaps we need to admit to ourselves that for anything less than a full-bore race motor, the differences between all these different heads are not all that great. Use what you have, and don't fret about it.

The answer to that is to not buy them new. My current family car is a '96 328i that I bought in 2002 with 37,000 miles on it, for about 40% of what it cost new. It will last me for many years. The 328i is my second BMW (not counting bikes), the previous one was an '81 European 323i. (For those in the US, imagine a 320i with small 240Z-like bumpers, four wheel disk brakes and a 2.3 liter six.) I don't catch too much of that behaviour on the road from other cars, but even driving a 20 year old BMW prompts comments like, "Ooh, you drive a BMW!" Jeeze people, the 323i had 250,000 miles on it and cost me $5000. And my 328i cost less than a new Civic would have! And these people are probably driving around in a $35k Tahoe or Explorer! :stupid: Sorry, that punched one of my buttons.

It's different, for us Yanks it takes a bit of getting used to, but in theory the fenders are a better place for mirrors. You don't have to take your eyes as far off the road to look in them, and the forward position tends to reduce (or eliminate) the typical blind spot. Of course, the image of what you are seeing is smaller, because they are farther away. But they can really be hard on pedestrians, which is probably why no one uses them anymore on new cars.

Far be it from me to disagree, but I'm pretty certain that the above diagram is how I did mine, with the original tach. Works fine, as far as I can tell. I'll have to wait until the weekend to verify, however.

Yup. You win. I've NEVER seen one of those.

It's not so much that parts are hard to find (for the most part they're not), but that the money to buy them with is in short supply!

Now if only my Z God status could enable me to materialize new parts....

If there is an extra black wire near the coil that isn't connected to anything, it should connect to the negative terminal of the coil. The picture below is on Bryan Little's site:

It is my understanding that if the tach on a 240Z was unplugged that the engine won't run. So it's probably not something as simple as the tach being unplugged. What ignition do you have in the car?

Umm... No. It's all yours.

Appliance Industries again. They were called "Dia-mags" and were only available in 14x6 in four lug, as I recall. They used a really odd proprietary lug nut that would probably be a b**ch to find today.

Did you check the float levels? Because if they aren't the same, screwing the mixture screws out the same number of turns means nothing. I'm betting on radically different mixtures in the two carbs.

If the snowflakes are only 6" wide, that's not wide enough for much tire. Maybe 205/60-15 at most. That doesn't sound like it meets number 3 to me.

My Series I (10/70) has a sticker similar to that pictured above. Just how similar I can't say right now, I'm at work and the car isn't. Series I cars did not have the recess in the dash pad for the sticker, however.

Before you buy springs, more research is needed. First, it is not unusual for an early Z to sit a bit high in the front. And so the fender gap may not be the same in those conditions. Also, the pictures make it look as if the front tires are lower profile than the rear. I'm not sure if that's true, it might be an optical illusion. But if it is true, that will make the appearance even worse. Factory springs don't use letters as identifiers - they used colored daubs of paint. Typically, there were different springs for each side in front, and a third part that was used on both sides in the rear. Since your springs have an "R" on them, they apparently aren't factory. But without knowing who made them, there's no telling what the "R" means. Might not mean rear. If it were me, I'd probably look into getting a whole matched set of springs so that I knew for certain what I had, and that all four were compatible.

N42 head in your car has the same square ports as the P90a, so the header you just got should fit your existing head.

Isn't that the pair that have been on eBay several times recently? Too bad he doesn't have a full set, they'd have been sold by now.

Since I've never seen a set of Wats in person, I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've heard they are first rate wheels. Work rims are nice, but in my opinion (based on two decades in the wheel and tire business) multi-piece wheels are over-kill for street use. The can be more fragile, and frequently harder to clean. I've only seen a few ROHs in person, they look nice and seem well built, but the styles I have worked on seemed rather heavy for their size. Of course, that was 10 years ago.

Depends on how worried you are about originality. You could use a set of 1/4" spacers on the front as one option. Or you could switch over to 280Z hubs and rotors, which is a cleaner way to go.

Synthetic does run cooler, and has less friction as well. I don't yet run it in the Z, as I've only put 50 miles on it and really don't know the true condition of my engine yet. I do run synthetic in all my other vehicles though.