Do I need to rebuild my tranny?

[zbiscuit]

Ok, so I am making a daily driver out of an early 260 that has set for about 6-8 years but was in good shape (other than the engine) with reasonable mileage before it sat. The trans and diff were in good shape and worked well. I am rebuilding the engine because the head gasket blew but I am wondering what I need to do to the rest of the driveline. I'm thinking universals, front and rear seals and gaskets and new fluids, plus of course the clutch, pressure plate and throwout bearing. Anything else?

[GreenZZZ]

Good plan! 260 daily...

My car has over 300K miles (same color as yours) and its had 4 cylinder heads on it and probably 8 cylinder head gaskets. Only needed to rebuild the bottom end of the motor after I spun a rod bearing at the track and that was recent. The piston walls still had cross hatches on it and the pistons looked good so I didn't even bore out the motor. Guess my point is you probably won't need to jump into the block.

I'd replace the bushings in the transmission mount and the engine/tranny/diff mounts if they look suspect. Put a pry bar on them and see if they are cracked in any way.

[Walter Moore]

You will not really know for certain until after you get the car running. If you have driven it already and it shifts easy all is OK.

On the other hand, I didn't rebuild mine and found that the 2nd gear synchronizer was bad. After driving it for a year I swapped it with a 5 speed from a ZX, and then two years later I pulled the transmission to replace the clutch.

(Cursing my lack of foresight for hours has I squirmed under the car to pull the transmission yet again...)

I will let you make the call.

[Zed Head]

Ok, so I am making a daily driver out of an early 260 that has set for about 6-8 years but was in good shape (other than the engine) with reasonable mileage before it sat. The trans and diff were in good shape and worked well. I am rebuilding the engine because the head gasket blew but I am wondering what I need to do to the rest of the driveline. I'm thinking universals, front and rear seals and gaskets and new fluids, plus of course the clutch, pressure plate and throwout bearing. Anything else?

You might think twice about the universals. I replaced all of my half-shaft u-joints because one was bad, thinking that newer is better, but found that the old ones that were still good, were tighter than the brand new ones. I ended up putting two old half-shafts with original u-joints back in. If the u-joint is not loose or dry, it's probably worth leaving alone. You can regrease them by reinserting a Zerk fitting, if they are capped.

To add to GreenZZZ's comment - I couldn't tell that my diff mount was bad until I got the cross member unbolted and pried on it. Then it was obvious. With everything bolted together, it's hard to get the leverage, and hard to see what's moving.

[Skyhook]

The first 240Z I bought was hard to put in gear. A clutch replacement cured the problem. More recently a high mileage 5-speed tranny from an early Maxima that I put in my Z has started making a noise that goes away in fourth gear. I'll put bearings in it in the next couple of weeks. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

[tlorber]

I'll tailgate here since my thread heading would have been exactly the same. I just today bought a 5 speed from an '82ZX for my 240. The ZX had 214,000 miles on it and its life ended due to a front end collision, not anything due to the drive train. The car has been sitting for around 8 years but the tranny has oil in it, and my car now has the smell to prove it.

Beyond front and rear seals, pressure plate, disk and throwout bearing, is there anything I should replace? Should I even crack the case open, or should I just throw it in and pull it if there's a problem?