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I've been playing around with the free AI the last week as it's scorching hot down here and everywhere else too. Anyway it's pretty neat plugging in numbers and seeing the supposed results. My main goal is to eventually figure out my P90 head I bought for $25, yeah that's right twenty five dollars 😁, hopefully what valve length and lash pads I'll use and how much to cut for the Schneider cam kit I bought many years ago. I don't think it's my cam though, just a core I sent in but it has high lift so I'll be using the Viton Ford valve seal as the OEs would get squished. @Diseazd has given me some advice also to go along with the P79 and P90 modifications Datsun garage provides. https://datsunzgarage.us/p90/

@Route66 They aren’t repos, they are awesome fenders, just 280 fenders. Very modest modification needed for perfect fit. You’ll need a body guy with a welder to move the little clip for the inspection panel to snap in……an easy job, and once you bolt it up, a slight mod to get the seams perfect……all zero sweat. @zspert is the expert to comment on the mods…..you can see the perfect result on my 71.

Nice Zed, it's a famous number often played, this one is also a good choice... OZZY OSBOURNE - "Mama, I'm Coming Home" (Official Video) - YouTube

Newer but pretty cool!

It seems that's what you've been doing for the last decade and really aren't any closer to a solution than you were when you first recognized the problems. Unless you have a strong emotional tie to your Z, I suggest moving on to another car that you can enjoy driving with confidence that it will run well and get you where you want to go and back home. Just a suggestion that could make your life less complicated and more enjoyable. I once had a '74 Porsche that I never drove farther from home than I cared to walk back. I knew several AAA tow truck drivers by their first names. I was happy and relieved to finally sell it and eventually bought another that I've owned for 32 years.

Where are you located? Complete the profile. I didn’t see any information on my end.

Ok thank you and good to know. Mine is an early 260, will be interesting to see what I have to do in the inspection lid area. Last year I sold the original fenders, rusted out down in the fold, to a guy who drove a few hundred miles to pick them up. I guess fenders are scarce these days, are the repros that bad?

Why would i sell the car. Its a matter of getting it fixed or not?

OK, the geniuses @ the Nissan US marketing Dept. came up with a brilliant plan to keep the motoring public's mind on the new Z car still in the incubation stage; we'll restore a bunch of old Z cars and sell them for cheap. They spend a ton on advertising but not too much so there's still a bit of mystery/speculation to the operation. They buy, at great expense, more than they originally thought it would cost, 200ish old Zs. Next they send one of their minions - now the company president - down to the parts dept to get the ball rolling. The guy behind the counter listens to the plan with growing amusement before telling Mr. Minion that there just isn't enough quantity to make his bosses plan work for 10 Zs let alone 200! Minion now worries about how he'll break the news to his boss and still keep his job. Of course an automobile manufacturer can't/won't resume production or ask one of their closely held - forgot the Japanese word - suppliers to resume production for a quantity below 0k say 5000 units of anything. At the time I found it interesting that they wanted me to reproduce and supply parts A-D but weren't interested in already available reproduced parts E-H. Note the nasty-looking washer bottles on the Z Store cars. I learned later that Nissan US had broken the restoration process down to individual operations and had decided that each operation/step of the process would have a max dollar amount assigned to each operation. Don't know if this is old ground but there was NO effort, none, to keep engines and transmissions with the cars from which they came. They had my reproduction ID plates so any # could be stamped.

Well no good mechanics in Panama. Car temperature reaches barely past half of the thermostat and 3/4 with thermostat. My problem is still under heavy traffic when engine starts to misfire. So i guess we will need to tackle this problem systematically.

It is a different brand of car!

I haven't checked in on your continuing problems for a while, so please catch me up on what you've done about suspected lack of water flow through the radiator. Does the car overheat? Did you run it without a thermostat to see if flow happened? Did you run it with the thermostat long enough for it to open and allow flow? After reading about all the issues you've experienced for years, I have to wonder what keeps you connected to this Z.

Well, this is a bummer for the day. https://apnews.com/article/ozzy-osbourne-dies-adff88b55f1d3b0bace5705d58d3cdde

He didn't but these guys did.

My 72 240z has no emmission crap. All of these parts were removed by the first mechanic. We dont need that crap in Panama. Last mechanic doesnt show up. Just giving excuses to finish his work. Nevertheless, he did capped the PCV valve and tuned the carburetors in such a way. He argued that plugs 3 and 4th were getting fouled because oil was getting through the damaged pcv valve to the engine. This kind of logic makes no sense. I'm not a mechanic, but I'm not dumb. I'm planning on installing the new PCV valve this Saturday and checking how many turns he gave to each nozzle. To me the car lacks some punch. Any advise on how to tackle this issue and forget about this mechanic would be positive. Im also doing a leak down test on all the 6 cyl and draining the radiator to see if there is any blockage.

I never realized that David Cassidy turned in to a global phenom.

Interesting beetle frenzy mania going on. Almost like a whole different brand of car. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1973-datsun-240z-290/

Personally speaking, I love it. It's a rare example of 'finger trouble' at the factory which Nissan corrected and a very human touch as such. But for others it has created some consternation and questioning, largely because it is so rare and undocumented. I'd be happy to own such a corrected number, but others wouldn't...

Being devil's advocate here, who expected Nissan to go back into production of parts just for the Z Store program in the first place? Seems to me - and I was paying attention on the Japanese S30 owner/enthusiast/specialists/parts supply at the time for my own needs - that there was a whole lot of 'Lost In Translation' going on between the Z Store planning people, NMC USA, the shops doing the work and the many-headed operation that was NMC Japan. That's the only reasonable explanation. Who would embark on a project which required new parts to restore a three figure number of cars without checking on and securing the stock and/or resupply of said parts? We could easily make a case for the Z Store Program being a good idea that was - in its execution - very "poorly run", in spite of its success in publicity and PR terms.

Always a pleasure Guy.

Right you are Mike, 280 fenders…..We had to alter a small section of the top of the fender and move the catch for the little inspection doors to make em work. The hood and two fenders were bought for under $600.00 total. I should have bought em all. Hope you’re doing good! Guy

Route66 et all, Want to clear up a couple of things about the Z Store program. 1 - Those are 280 front fenders that Nissan superseded the 240/260 numbers to in about 1995ish. There are 2 subtle differences that in the end don't amount to a hill of beans. 2 - Poorly run, then and now, Nissan - just last week they announced the closure of 2 factories because nobody is buying their cars - didn't go back into production of parts for the Z Store program. If they did why did they have very little me supply them with so many goodies? However, before he retired I had a friend pretty high up in the Nissan food chain in TN. One day I got a call, Mike, windshields and rear mufflers are available again. I called my local dealer where the guys are long time knowledgeable friends and asked them to do an INQUIRY - that's the official word - on those 2 part #s. Sure enough they were available. I ordered 10 muffs and 5 windshields. The muffs and windshields arrived a few days later but 2 of the windshields were cracked. I had them order 2 more windshields but only one came in as they were again unavailable! What the hell was that?? This was after the end of the Z Store program. Now, the fly in the ointment of my story are slam panels. That is, the horizontal panel visible when the deck lid is open. Nissan had someone reproduce them and they were listed with a special description and part # 240 PATCH PANEL 999M1-M0000. I still have 2 in stock. I have a real strong suspicion that this was a Nissan US deal. I feel this way because Nissan batteries, manufactured by Interstate, have the same 999M1 part # prefix. Cheers

@Nils Ya, when you press the switch it's supposed to flip into the other position. It sounds like you have a similar issue to what I had originally: I could depress the toggle, it would temporarily switch to the other side, but once I released the switch it would reset back to the original position. Yours sounds a little worse as it isn't even able to temporarily switch. I forget which colors correspond to which, but power comes in through the center connection, and then goes out through the connections on the left or right - one for high beam, one for low beam. Ie, we'll just call the connections 1, 2, and 3, with 1 being high, 2 being the center, and 3 being low. 1-2 would trigger high beams, and 2-3 would trigger low beams. You can test that with continuity. You should never have continuity between 1 and 3. @fredrick that's a spring and a brass cap. It sits in a circular opening in a rocker inside the actual switch housing. The piece is held into the plastic via a roll-pin and is the only part I didn't remove when disassembling the whole thing (I didn't think there was a chance I get it out without it breaking. It's the second picture in the first post This whole setup is quite finicky and I've thought a few times about trying to engineer some kind of replacement, but not sure if the interest would justify it.

That litte metal thing that almost looks like a screw. Where was it located?

I opened my switch, and one problem is that it doesn’t toggle. When I depress it, it moves to the other position, but jumps back when I let go. It’s supposed to stay in its position until the next time it is depressed, right? Not sure why there was continuity on both poles, but the inside was pretty clean so I doubt that dirt was the cause.