Leaderboard

@siteunseen, Stevie and I both missed you at this event.

Got my '77 out from a year long selfish hibernation. I love my 240 but I'm gonna have to cheat on the old car and get back in the 280. Rebuilt it then bought my first 240 and put the 280 on "the shelf" but after driving it an hour or so today it's back in play. I love those cars, different feel but a good comfortable one. Better brakes too. I have some ZX flat tops I'm thinking I'll put in under the N42 head. Should wake it up a little plus I'll definately get the 225mm flywheel lightened or maybe find an aluminum one. I think, my opinion!, that's the best bang for the buck. Having been raised up on quick revving motorcycles the aluminum I put in the 2.4 is like a motorcycle with a bit more protection. I'm looking forward to my new project! And of course I'll be posting plenty as I go.

Likely not, but brave to use the Maserati logo and brand name as part of their their own identity. So, either not the sharpest pencil in the box or enjoys poking the bear. Speaking from personal experience, there is no joy in getting the registered "stop what you're doing" letter from a European car company's US legal team. Dennis

A few more COTA pics: The first is my rider for the parade laps, Yoshie Suzuki with the Fairlady Z Owner's Club - Z Project Tokyo. Yoshie drives a black 350Z coupe. If I understood her correctly, she is a nail designer - check out the micro fruits glued to her nails. Next is another shot of the staging line we were in for over one hour - that's @Zup and @S30Driver ahead of us in the first group. For reasons unknown, the track had a Mercedes group scheduled until 6:15.

Here's a good one.

Some of the prices seem reasonable. $45 for an ammeter'fuel gauge, not bad if it works. Fun to browse through and look for interesting errors.

Thanks for letting us know what the VIN is, Jerry. Yes, it is always sad to see a 240Z in that condition. Still no bids on the eBay listing, so I hope you are able to get this car for a good price. The car certainly can be restored and #4574 is still a relatively low VIN. Good luck and please let us know how it works out.

The force is strong! Listened to SRV yesterday while painting my house, loud too. Good work music.

Schwing!

I would call it ironic timing on the carb arrival as my wife and I went to the Queen + Adam Lambert concert at the Hollywood Bowl last night. Of course they played one of my favorite songs; 'I'm in love with my car'. I think my wife thought I was getting into the song a little too much....and then the 'carbeurettas' show up.

Steve, Time is getting close. Unfortunately I am having the end of month money woes again. I was doing ok, until I adopted a 6 pound waif. The PO assured me that Lissa at 10 months old, had all of her puppy shots. I went by her vet to pick up the records. Short story, they only gave her one "7 in 1" shot on 1/3/17, instead of the needed series, leaving her open to illnesses. That night Lissa seemed to have a fever so I ran her to my vet in the A.M. After tests and meds issued, Lissa thankfully was not sick, to the tune of $142. There went my savings, I now have $40 in the bank. Not sure if that will get gas enough to allow me to drive to you and back home. I'll try to borrow some $. BUT, this very sweet little girl Lissa is now protected from illnesses. She is a real doll, great with all things needed, like potty training. She is just what I needed to give me sunshine once again in my life, I'm smiling a lot now. Here is a photo of her. I'll get back to you about the trip over to your house. Let me know what day will work out for you. Hopefully there will be no rain, I do not drive Redbird out in the rain. Thank you, Jai

Yup, complete mystery. Couldn't be that it reflects real values could it? Naw...

Yeah, but you're probably Army, and I wasn't typing slowly.

As mentioned in my earlier threads, I recently purchased a '71 240Z with shifting issues (F4W71A 4-speed manual transmission). The transmission would not reliably shift into 3rd and the lever was so loose you had no idea what gear you were in or shifting into. Getting into reverse required slamming the lever to the right against the plastic console before pulling back. My plan was to replace the clutch disc and pressure plate and to rebuild the transmission. From the beginning I planned to drop it myself, but I called around for quotes to rebuild at shops, in part because I have never done this before. The lowest I found was about $1000 if I dropped it myself and brought it in; many shops said they couldn't/wouldn't work on something this old. I'm not doing a factory restoration so this was something I could not afford. Besides, I want to do as much work myself as possible. Let me again state that I had never rebuilt a transmission; I had never even removed one before. Due to this fact I had some trepidation about taking on this project. However, I did a lot of research before starting. AutoZone has the basic steps outlined on their website for free (requires registration on their site). The Haynes manual for the Z cars also explains the procedure and has illustrative diagrams and pictures. There's also this thread here on the forum: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?42884-FS4W71A-Transmission-Assembly-Photos-%28Jan-1971-240z%29 The final clincher for me was speaking with my grandfather. He's always tinkered with cars; his first car was a 40's Packard and he's been working on them ever since. He told me that the first time he opened a transmission he was terrified, but it turned out that it actually wasn't that bad. For parts I started with the transmission rebuild kit available from AutoZone, with synchronizers. However, I must warn anyone who reads this in the future: THIS KIT IS WORTHLESS! While the synchronizers are correct, an extra fifth is included and only one of the six bearings (why? this transmission only has four) is the correct size. The single gasket included doesn't fit anywhere, but the needle bearing for the input shaft is correct. The oil seals are also correct. AutoZone was kind enough to let me keep the correct parts while issuing a refund, but I still needed the missing parts. I needed the bell housing and adapter plate gaskets, a new clutch fork dust boot (mine was hard and so it crumbled during removal) and a transmission breather (I snapped mine when trying to remove the rear extension housing). All of these parts are interchangeable with the Roadster 5-speed transmission, so I ordered them from datsunparts.com The applicable part numbers on the site are 2194 (clutch fork dust boot), 2203 (breather), and (2481) gaskets. Dean was very helpful, verified that the Roadster parts would work, and expedited my order. I would highly recommend his site and will be ordering from him again. I ordered the missing bearings by their Timken part numbers from Amazon. This was a good solution because the bearings are carried by Amazon and are thus Amazon Prime-eligible (free 2-day shipping or cheap next-day). I also wanted to replace the spring that retains the clutch fork on its ball pivot since it was worn, and it's a good idea to replace the output shaft lock tab washer whenever you remove it. These two parts were ordered from ZSpecialties. They aren't listed on their site, but if you call them up they can get a hold of them. In this manner I managed to cobble together a transmission rebuild kit. If I was to do this again I would purchase a kit from a business specializing in Z cars. While my methods may have resulted in lower monetary cost there was much hassle and wasted time. The above-listed sources detail the rebuild process step-by-step. I'll just name a few pointers for anyone in a similar situation who finds this thread in the future: - You'll need two floor jacks. A transmission jack or a large adapter plate might be helpful, but I didn't have or use either. A floor jack instead of a jack stand under the engine block will allow you to tilt the engine to make mating easier. - If the bell housing doesn't come off easily check if you missed any bolts. I missed two on my first pass; they were completely covered in friction material dust, grease, and road grime. - While everything is apart you'll want to clean it. Any bearings to be reused should be cleaned only in clean gasoline. I cleaned other interior parts and surfaces with gasoline and brake parts cleaner. My wife scrubbed the casing exterior with steel wool pot scrubbers (isn't she great?). Any surface that came in contact with water I wiped down with alcohol to ensure no moisture remained. - The adapter plate needs to be secure in order to drive out and install the shafts. While a bench-mounted vise would be easiest, I don't have one. Instead, I screwed the adapter plate to a piece of 2x4 through its bolt holes and then clamped the wood to the edge of my workbench. - Take apart the gear and shaft assembly over a container. There are a number of easily-lost parts: three detent balls and springs held in by plugs, four detent balls between the shift rods in the adapter plate, a ball under the speedometer worm gear, and a ball under the thrust washer adjacent to 1st gear. Placing these parts in labelled baggies would be wise. - Test the shifting performance of the transmission repeatedly at the various stages of re-assembly and installation. You'd hate to get it in the car only to discover a synchronizer assembly had dislodged. - The clutch pressure plate fits on the flywheel in a specific orientation. There are three dowels on the flywheel; each dowel mates to a specific hole on the plate. If the plate doesn't press on easily, rotate the plate and try again. This wasn't mentioned in any of the instructions or the clutch kit. - Before re-installing the transmission you can make a few modifications to tighten up the shifter. You can insert a greased washer next to the shifter bracket on the striker rod, and use a bolt and nut assembly with greased washers to secure the fork to the striker rod. (see attachment, original image credits to Blue's thread linked above) - It may be helpful to have an assistant hold the transmission by the shifter bracket from the cabin through the cutout in the tunnel; this will assist in getting the right tilt to mate the transmission to the engine. - The transmission should slide in easily. If not, drop the transmission, loosen the pressure plate bolts, and recenter the clutch disc with the shaft centering tool. - While re-installing the clutch slave cylinder check the dust boot on the piston and rod for cracks and tears. New slave cylinders are only $20 on Amazon. Remember to tighten up the rod so there's no play in the clutch fork. - The A-series transmission can't use the brass bushings commonly referenced to improve shifter feel. Instead, you need machined conical bushings to go in the bracket. ZSpecialties sells the appropriate bushings; I'm sure others do too. - There are two easy ways to refill the transmission (use synthetic 90-weight gear oil) without any sort of pumping device. Many stores sell a valve and tubing assembly that connects directly to the oil bottle. My wife held the bottle in the engine compartment while I directed the tubing into the fill hole. Had this not worked I also purchased a length of aquarium tubing in order to fill from the side. The transmission is now back in the car. I hit 3rd gear every time and the shifter is much tighter (some play will always exist as a result of the "monkey motion" assembly). To anyone wondering whether they can do this on their own, I would say go for it. While there were a few tense moments I learned a lot, had genuine fun in this project, and can claim something few people have done. Next weekend's project: rebuild the carburetors with a ZTherapy kit.

Last weekend my buddy Mike (Pop's Z) stopped over to help me install the MSA A pillar trims and windshield header trim in my '71. It is definitely a 2 person job. We found it best to have one person inside the car to pull & stretch the vinyl and the other person outside the car to pull & fold the vinyl along the outside edge of the window weld flange and door weld flanges. Fastening the vinyl to the inside weld flange with the pinch moulding takes a little practice. After a few initial tries, we got the hang of it and committed ourselves by spraying the foam and the vinyl with adhesive. Wick Humble's book on Z car restoration does a good job of describing the process for installing the trims and also the headliner. A few nights later I installed the MSA headliner by myself. I started by taping the headliner into position to make sure it was centered and that there was enough material on all 4 sides to tuck under the A pillar/header trim edges and also the rear edge (where the dome light is). I marked the center of the headliner at the front edge (where the rearview mirror will mount) and also at the rear edge (dome light opening) with pieces of tape. Then I sprayed a band of adhesive on the roof from front to back, about 3 or 4 inches wide. I sprayed a similar width on the backside of the headliner. After the adhesive tacked up I stuck the headliner to the roof starting at the front edge and smoothing it towards the rear edge. I double checked that the positioning was good by holding up the side "flaps" to insure the headliner was still centered. Then I proceeded to adhere each of the "flaps". I did not spray adhesive on the outer edge, about an inch or so, as that amount of material gets tucked up under the edges. Once the headliner was adhered to the roof I began to tuck as much of the extra material up under the edges with my fingers. Then I used a plastic trim tool to finish tucking the edges. A plastic putty knife or a plastic "bondo" spreader would also work for this. Here are a few photos:

Congrats! Many years ago I rebuilt my 240Z 4-speed on the floor in my apartment. Put down heavy corrugated, then absorbent towels, then blue plastic tarp. Never got a drop of oil on the carpet, but the oil smell lingered in the drapes for several weeks...

"Never explain yourself. Your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe it." - Unknown I am of the mindset that the engineers that designed you're engine did so to maximize horsepower and reliability to start with. Modifying there design will only be a trade off of some sort. So IMHO build it to factory spec.

You guys can come over and do mine if you'd like Looks great!