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Just got the wheels back from the sand blasters, not easy finding a 14" stock looking tire with a modern tread design and quiet on the hwy. I settled on a set of P195/70 R14 Hankook Optimo, they seem to fit the bill.

While Motorman7 is restoring my '73 240Z, (thread titled: We're bringing back the flat tops!) I've started digitizing the slides I took of the car I've kept since I bought it new in 1973. I came across the pictures I took of a "fun run" in 1974 sponsored by Jack Gubrud, the owner of Gubrud's Valley Datsun in Mt. Vernon, Washingon. That was where I bought my car in April, 1973 after returning from a 10+ month deployment to Vietnam aboard the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. This was on Sunday, August 4th, 1974 from Mt. Vernon WA (north of Seattle) over the North Cascade Highway through the Cascade mountains to the town of Winthrop, WA. I believe almost all of the Zs in these photos were purchased at Gubrud's Valley Datsun. Lots of S30s! As I recall, Jack Gubrud paid for a BBQ picnic lunch for everyone. And we had a presentation by a Datsun engineer about the new Hitachi carbs. Wish I had paid more attention!

I never want to be critical of someone else's car - critically negative. That's just not polite. So I want to point out some things on the BAT car that I am particularly fond of. I can't stop admiring the construction screws used to mount the fuel filter; mounted over on the side so you can see the custom holes drilled in the shock tower. The battery acid drip marks are to die for! What authentic patina! Like none I have ever seen before. The heater hose firewall grommets are gorgeous! I just can't say enough. Put a reserve on your car, motorman. A big reserve. If that thing can go for $44k.....

I'll be curious to see how the tail light panels look after being installed with the lights and not having the chrome accent around the tail lights.

I thought so too; even finished up bolting on the oil pump. But then I put the distributor cap on there. The rotor was well passed the no. 1 plug position, even with the adjustment screw at full advance in its slot. Yeah, setting the ignition will tell all I suppose. I just hope its better than it started. At least I know the trick to setting that spindle now ?

I have mine at full advance or close to it. They seem to run better to me the little I drive them but I'm trying to do better. EDIT: Zed Head I thought you were the OP, Neb. Sorry about that.

The one that "looked good" looked more right. Did you rotate the distributor within its adjustment range, the slot on the lockdown screw, to see if the rotor points at 1? And don't overlook that it's the front of the rotor electrode that sparks not the middle. Imagine rotation in action. You'll find out when you set ignition timing. Might be fine, there is another adjustment on the distributor itself.

FS5C71A has big two nuts for securing the fifth gear , this design is a cause of common trouble of surging the gear and the hub by the big two nuts become loose. Mr . Kawashima has been rebuilding so many Nissan transmissions , he puts a single big nut with special securing method for the fifth gear of FS5C71A If customers want it . Also he recommends using a 71B upgraded folks , double sealing for the control lever etc . He offers me FS5C71A with all the Warner synchro modification, I think it will be very nice but , I just like the original at the moment. Kats

Looks good to me. Your distributor cap should have a raised line on the outside that will line up with your rotor button at number 1.

Thanks for the info, it is a big help. I am working with BAT now and looks like the auction will start in about a week or so. I am pleasantly surprised by all the interest in my car. I have received several calls and texts over the last couple days and I am pretty sure I could have sold this for $37K and the car would be gone today if I had stuck with the price. I appreciate the advice from the thread here. It seems the market is a little bit hotter than I anticipated. Anyway, we will see how this all turns out.

Alright, I got under there again last night and took another stab (or rather a dozen) at aligning this thing. The procedure mentioned in the book siteunseen posted worked; if I rotated the oil pump CW while I inserted it until flush, and then rotated it so the bolt holes lined back up after it was flush, it would produce the CCW rotation up top. I ended up with 3 'options' (I'm assuming these are based on the gear teeth spacing) and went with the one that pointed the distributor rotor at the #1 plug (which was the most CCW one). I think the vice grip method could work, but I didn't have vice grips long enough to hold the top of the spindle. Hopefully this resolves the timing issues. Y'all are awesome; once again appreciate the help! I'll probably post again once I finish rebuilding the intake manifold and get it all back together and see where the timing is at.. this is the final orientation of the rotor: This was the final config: This one looked better, but the distributor still wasn't quite pointing to the no. 1 plug:

I finally finished painting all of the parts for my 240z.

1. 2. Use 27mm socket on crank to turn the engine clockwise as viewed from the front of the car. If you overshoot TDC on the crank, you can back up CCW then re-approach CW. (Don't go backwards (CCW) and stop at TDC). 3. Removing plugs makes turning easier and more precise.

here's mine when I tore it down. After it's back together