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I haven't posted in a while.....hope life is treating everybody with kindness The single best thing I have done to my braking system was to install a larger 8" brake booster. Best of my memory 69-72's had a small 7" booster. Nissan updated the 240 brake boosters to a 8.5" in '73. They knew the boosters were to too small and corrected the braking problem. You also may want to inspect/replace your brake booster check valve. I did go a larger caliper but never got that great breaking feel until I completed this upgrade several years ago.......This made a HUGE DIFFERENCE in my braking power. JDM-Car-Parts use to have an upgrade for 69-72 that had the correct bolt pattern to accept into the firewall. That made the transition from a 7 to 8" a breeze for me with no extra drilling. https://jdm-car-parts.com/products/datsun-240z-1969-1972-8-inch-brake-booster-upgrade-kit?variant=31778739748973

Thanks for the imput, I am going back and forth between the options. I know i'll have to do fabriation work to get the Z depot floors to fit, but I dont mind fab work. I just dont know if theres more of a pain getting seat rails mounted or other obstacles that will creat a conflict. I just got a 1977 280z as a project and the previous owner decided the best way to make his car look dfferent was to add about 200 pounds of bando so i feel you on that. gotta love a good project.

I'm going to need to get some replacement floor pans as well. I have had at least three separate people tell me to go with KF Vintage. One was a contractor that had done previous classic car restorations, another was a vendor at the Carlisle Import & Performance Nationals, and another was a Z mechanic. Needless to say, that's who I will be going with when I finally pull the trigger and decide to replace my floors. Mine were filled in with old Maxwell House coffee cans and lots of filler by a previous owner that did not want to weld. I was planning on replacing my floors as this winter's project, but I may need to put it off due to the persistent Gov't shutdown. Not having a current and reliable source of income may stall my plans somewhat.

I am needing to replace my right side (passenger) floor as there are a few spots of rust. I will be replacing the seat rails as well. I am looking at the Z Car Depot and kfvintagejdm floor pans. The KF floor pans look to be exact molds of the OEM parts while the Z car depot are less detailed aftermarket style. I dont care to keep my car looking OEM and the Z car depot are 1/2 the price about. anyone have expierence with these two options and why i shouldnt go with the Z car depot option? (plus for me would be the Z car depot gives the left side as well if i need for almost the same price as one side of the KF pans) https://zcardepot.com/collections/sheet-metal/products/floor-pan-replacement-sheet-metal-240z https://kfvintagejdm.com/shop/datsun-280z/complete-right-side-floor-pan-datun-280z/

I discovered something I was doing wrong. On the bottom of each carb is a small button, the service manual calls it a "lifter." By pressing it with one's finger, can raise the piston slightly, I think the purpose is to make sure the piston isn't stuck. By pressing on the lifter, the piston goes up along with the needle. Logic says that would make the mixture more rich, so I thought and I would use that method to determine if my mixture was rich or lean, bad idea. The manual says to turn the nuts 1/8 turn at a time to find the max rpms. I think I'm in the ball park, I need to find where I get the highest rpms by adjusting the nut on each carb. Once I get the mixture proper, I can return to setting the idle speed and the balance. CO was very helpful in getting the floats adjusted, I ended up per his idea of adding weights to each float. If I'm on the wrong track, please let me know, I'm open to suggestions. Jim

The needles are adjust correctly, one takes a straight edge along the piston to make sure the shoulder on the needles are correct. There is a lot of history here, had a very difficult time getting the needles and floats adjusted right in the bloat bowls, that took an enormous amount of time. I have a tach on the coil, next is to turn the nuts to go on the rich side, then rock back and forth to lean, looking for max rpms, at least thats what I understand. I've been running fuel out of a 5 gallon gas can, the excess goes back into the main tank, ran my gas can out of fuel. The fuel tank is somewhat rusty, need to find if it is usable or now.

I have a maxima rear disc conversion available you're interested...

I wonder if the needles are set too low in the pistons? Closing off the fuel with the choke off

Engine was running super lean, have the nuts turned down six turns to far. I think it's a bit too lean yet but it runs, had to adjust the idle screws, rpms was too high. I'll install a small tach and play with mixtures next. If I remember there is an idle screw on each carburetor. Then there is a screw that adjusts just one for the purpose of synchronizing them. The brakes have an issue, one of the brake reservoirs goes empty when I pump the brakes, got a leak somewhere, didn't see anything dripping on the floor. One problem at a time, engine first. Are master cylinder rebuild kits still available? Jim

Front Willwoods are an easy install. Fronts are where most of your stopping power is. I just put the fronts on all but one of my cars…..they will really put your head towards the windshield. I use my stock Master cylinder with no problem even with the Z with front and rear Willwoods. A hard pedal usually is caused by a lost reaction disk in my experience. Don’t know what else causes a hard pedal.

Installed new fuel hoses from ZTheraphy, they are more flexible than my other hoses from the hobby shop. Fuel may have been OK, but running new fuel anyway. With choke all the way on, nuts about 2.5 turns down, starts with ether. Then RPMs picked up and engine ran for the first time. As I reduce the choke to the point where the choke is off, the nozzles all to the top, engine coughs and dies. With the chokes on again, engine runs, very clearly the carbs have been set too lean. I'm thinking about setting the nuts about five turns down, that should richen it. Then run it with the chokes on and gradually back them off. I think if I keep trying that and can get it to run with no choke, I'm in the right direction. If I get that far, I can start adjusting the mixture, one carb at a time to where the idle RPMs peak. I would then go back and forth between carbs for peak RPMs, once I get it stable, then synch the carbs with the unisyn and set the idle RPMs. BTW, have not done any actual testing for vacuum leaks. If there is a leak that happened by itself, I might check the vac assisted brakes, it has a large rubber diaphragm that could be rotten. I'm 77, and have forgotten a lot about this stuff but it's coming back. I think I'm in the right direction, appreciate comments. Jim

Need a set of these seat rails.

I have loved and enjoyed my Z since 2008. It has been a loyal friend to me over many many many miles. The other day I was driving her round and the brake pedal was starting to feel a bit hard. I mean hard in a way where no matter how hard you mash the pedal, the braking force does not increase. I find this entirely unacceptable. I am currently 100% stock. I have refurbished front calipers and OEM stock (but not original) rear wheel cylinders/drums. I think the time has come for me to take a serous look at my brakes. The time for another Zedyone Build thread is YEARS overdue and this is something I have always wanted to do. My options include: 1) Complete overhaul: Front redo/rear disk/larger master 2) Just do rear disk conversion (probably end up doing CV conversion as well from u-joints) I worry about needing a larger master to handle rear disk brakes. I have looked at Wilwood conversions and some from silvermine, etc. All appear to be the same thing packaged a bit differently. But I do think the time for 4 wheel disk brakes has come. is there any advice from my Z buddies on this conversion. I want to entirely rejuvenate my braking power.

Become a subscriber and the pop-ups will go away. The advertising is what keeps this site alive. By no means is the site making any money.

You might find some things here: https://junkyardjenny.com/

Hello I just joined this Z car community to gather some data on a 1972 Datsun 240 that I'm helping my son build. We're a little over a year into the project and its currently on a rotisserie. I'm a retired body shop owner and have built dozens of first gen Camaros. This is my first foray into a Japanese automobile. Simple things on an American car such as door latches ,strikers and door adjustments are pretty straight forward. Then comes this car (seems there are some "rubber bushings" missing on the door latch), the reason I'm here. However if I have to deal with these "popups" every time I change a page, I won't be here long. I get the advertisements, but this "download" thing is more than annoying. Is this normal?

Anyone know of Datsun junkyards in the USA?

Need a lot more info to help with this . Ignition set up ? Timing at WOT ? Still running vacuum advance ? What year head ? Was the camshaft degree’ed? Camshaft specs ? Engine compression ratio ?

They run up to the ignition module. The module uses the signal from those wires to know when to create spark. Looks like this. Has many wires connected to it, including those green and red ones.

So I got out to the garage a little more today and played around bit more. I read through the post that I found above and tried out a few things. I tried the method Here where I tapped the green wire to the ground to see if I had spark. I had spark at the ground but not at the spark plug. After rereading the post again, I noticed that I didnt disconnect the other terminal. Ill have to try that next time im out. Other than that I just started taking stuff apart to see if I could find anything obvious. I did find that the wires, to whatever this terminal is, are all chewed up. they run to the pickup in the distributor. The other end runs to the front of the car. Im guessing to the other side and into the fuse panel perhaps? Ill have to read up on that. The wires still have continuity. I wonder if the previous owner did this for testing. This coil looks old as hell, Im tempted to just replace the coil, condenser, module, but it looks like I might be able to upgrade to a newer distributor and ditch all that. Need more research on that. Id like to get it running as is, before I start upgrading from OEM. I did find that the wires are fairly hard and stiff, I also lost a cable end on of the cables. so Ill def be ordering a new set of cables. On side note, do these gaskets on the egr look right to you? Its seems weird to me.

Posed the question on the interweb and got this "AI generated" answer but it lines up with the automatic transmission info in the 1976 280Z FSM: "The inhibitor switch on a 1973 Datsun 240Z automatic transmission is located on the transmission itself. It is typically found on the right side of the transmission, where it controls the circuit for the reverse lights and the starter interlock system. The switch is responsible for ensuring the car can only be started when the transmission is in Park or Neutral, and it provides a closed circuit for reverse when the transmission is in reverse. For a 1973 model, the switch is specifically designed for automatic transmissions and is not present on factory manual transmissions." (We've had A/T Z cars in the shop and swapped out auto transmissions for manual transmissions, but I honestly don't remember the wiring at all.) The electrical schematic has it wired with 4 wires: B/Y, B/Y, RB, R. (B/Y for the start circuit and R & R/B for the reverse lights) The other relay in question is called "Seat Belt Relay" on page BE-2 of the FSM. Refer to "Fig. BE-1" item 17 "SEAT BELT RELAY (A/T MODEL ONLY)". The FSM shows that with 6 wires (as does the schematic - but the schematic does not label it "seat belt relay"): B/Y, B/Y, B/Y, B, G, G. (B is shown on the schematic as the GND symbol). BE-2 of the FSM shows the seat belt relay mounted on the firewall. Others, in other forums, do describe it as the "K-18". Those are the only ones I see related to the start circuit - I don't think the black box under the glove box should be involved. (Is it the ACC Relay?) And there's a post on ZCAR.COM: https://www.zcar.com/threads/not-the-inhibitor-relay-topic-again-1973-240z.424554/

Nice, correct engine block color. I had a great black wrinkle color paint when I first did my turbo swap but they apparently quit and I have yet to find a decent substitute. Yours looks pretty good. Mine could use another refresh...

This is the Jet Hot cast finish. Please excuse the slightly green cast which is the result of either lighting or camera user error. I like the color but more importantly it's extremely robust. After more than 25 years the exhaust manifold on my 280 still looks like it was just done. Hope this helps. Not a job one wants to do twice. PS This is the exhaust manifold from the Z used as the model for the Franklin Mint Z car

My 3.12L is finally going in!

LOL