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Well, I have some EXCELLENT news! While going through my files trying to find some other stuff, I ran into a box with my original 1971 radio and at the bottom of the box were these:

My wife is reading a book The Blind Mechanic by Marilyn Davidson-Elliott (Nimbus Publishing) about a local celebrity who I never knew of: Eric Davidson. He was blinded in the Halifax Explosion at age 2 then went on to follow his love for cars. He was a master mechanic and could diagnose many cars by his attuned hearing. Here is a brief video of him:

Yeah that's the cool thing about New Zealand(NZ) miles away from anywhere but some real talented motorsport people. Bumped into a guy just the road last week, he had a full CNC machine just in his shed for afternoons hobby work. Kelford Cams is also in NZ some of the top cams in the world. My head guy Kevin Bann worked for them for years. Now he has his own business Horsepower Heads, the cams are being worked on at the moment by Kelford Cams. There are five dynos within 20 minutes of me, three of them are dynapacks (also made in NZ) and one is my brothers LOL. We have two race tracks within 2 hours drive and it goes up to four if you want to drive another hour or two. We have rules that provided your race car is safe and can pass a warrant of fitness you can drive it on the road. I think I should stop now :) before I start raving on about Bruce McLaren and John Britton etc

Hey guys, good afternoon. I recently got my hands on a 1972 240z and decided to join the forum so I can learn more about her and Z cars in general. She's an automatic and completely matching numbers. The car itself runs beautifully and drives great. I don't regret the purchase one bit. Its white with a red interior and is almost entirely rust free save for some minor surface rust in the battery area and a few other places. The original interior is in great condition. The dash is not cracked and all the gauges work. The car itself came with a lot of dealer options installed. It has the AC, Dual Racing Mirrors, Front and Rear Guard Rails, Shade Kit on the rear glass, Arm Rest/Glove Box, Parcel Bar, AM/FM radio and the 240z side stripe kit. Interestingly, it also came with a full set and spare of original Radial Snow Tires that were sold by Datsun dealerships. It also has the original floor mats. I think its only missing the luggage rack and air foil. Also, I don't know if this was a dealer option, but it also came with a pristine Beltek 8-track player in the glove compartment as well as two Beltek speakers installed in the trunk. I'm only the second owner, so I hope to learn a lot more about her. Thanks.

Just finished putting another diff in......slop is gone.

I was one of the first people to use the 123 ignition on a Z and I have been running this setup since 2015. I concur that the setup and install instructions are lacking and I too experienced an advanced timing situation after the initial "LED Install" procedure but unfortunately did not realize this for quite some time so I was running more advanced that I originally thought. Fortunately nothing catastrophic happened to my engine and I was able to correct this by checking the initial settings with a timing light. Although the 123 people indicated in their emails to the OP that timing should always be checked with a light, I have not seen that written in any of their instructions although it is possible that I might have missed it. One other issue that I have had with the 123 ignition is that periodically my car will refuse to start or it does start but does not run correctly (misfires) and the only thing that solves the issue is to replace the rotor. I was never able to completely figure out the cause of this or why the rotor just seemed to randomly "go bad" until I read through this thread and subsequently did some additional research. As it turns out, I also run an MSD with my ignition and when I was first considering the 123 distributor, I found a warning on their website that said not to use the 123 system with an MSD ignition. I did not understand the engineering reasoning behind this so I contacted the company directly to find out a little more. Their engineers told me that they already had customers using their product with an MSD with no issues being reported and so they really didn't seem to know why that warning was there. They basically told me that it should work without issues. Well fast forward to today and after a little more research I found the root cause of the problem. I happened to stumble on a Triumph TR site where the OP had a similar problem on a 123 ignition although in this case the rotor was actually burned. This led me to another thread on a forum called Pelican Parts and they apparently specialize in parts for older European cars. Well as it turns out, the engineers at 123 chose a readily available, off the shelf distributor where they could house their electronics and just change the drive mechanism to work with numerous different cars. So the cap and rotor, and I suspect even the dizzy body itself was very widely used in VW's, BMW's, Volvo's, etc of the late 60's going through the early 80's. Well during this time, the EU apparently was focused on RFI suppression in newer cars and mandated that auto electronics include RFI suppression hardware. I do not know exactly when this was mandated but I believe it was sometime in the 70's. Well believe it or not this mandate resulted in the inclusion of a resistor in the distributor rotor that sits between the center contact and the end contact. What I learned from the Pelican Parts forum (where a lot of these guys use this same cap and rotor setup as the 123 ignition as that's what the car originally came with) but they have also upgraded to MSD. Unfortunately these rotors with the internal resistors were designed and used at a time when ignition systems were not as powerful as today's systems, including MSD, and so the higher output power of the MSD essentially burns out the resistors over time. I must admit that I thought this seemed rather absurd as I had never heard of such a thing, but I happened to have a number of rotors that had "gone bad" so I decided to do my own checking. Well sure enough when I checked continuity between the center and end conductors, it was a total open! I really couldn't believe what I was seeing so I used a Dremel to cut away at the epoxy and sure enough buried under the epoxy and between the 2 conductors was a burned out resistor. The solution that I also found on the Pelican Parts forum was the Dremel out the epoxy and resistor and simply solder in a 12 gauge piece of wire to replace the resistor, and then simply use JB weld or some other suitable epoxy to seal it back up. You can find more info about this here: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/596559-msd-rotor-modification-detail.html Ironically, 123 Ignition now also sells a modified rotor that replaces the resistor with a wire: https://123ignitionusa.com/oem-rotor-modified-no-resistor-for-all-4-and-6-cyl-123-applications/ $45 for a rotor seemed a little excessive to me so I purchased a couple of Bosch rotors (p/n 04008) and did the mod myself. A little tedious but definitely better than paying $45. So after 4+ years of dealing with this random problem I believe it is finally solved. I will also say that despite some of the startup issues that I and others have had with the 123 system, I am very satisfied with the end result and would not hesitate to use this again. Fortunately my experience with the company and the product was a little more positive than the OP. I hope this helps others that may have experienced the same issue and that I've saved you from pulling your hair out as well. Mike.

Can you pop the cover off of the old one and look for carnage? Magnet shavings, chipped gears, ovaled holes? That would finish the story. We need more destruction pictures for diff problems.

The worlds slowest car build has had some progress. 1st off, its off its wooden dolly, the one that was suppose to be for 3 months, lasted 6.5 years. I put it on the suspension mounting points so couldn't bolt anything to it. I was fortunate enough to have tracked down all the correct moustache bar parts, with a little help. Had to make a former to make the ends correct. Subaru 4.44 plated r180. Had it apart and checked bearings and wipe pattern, all perfect. I'd like to use bolts instead of the studs though for the rear mounts, can't see why not? All the rear end is now in place(chassis stuff). Rear suspension is now on. I've just gone for new rubber bushings everywhere. I need to check with with Ad at VA motorsport exactly how the suspension tops go together in the car, its intrax suspension with VA's road/rally topmounts. Theres little adapters/spacers. I can't work out if they go on the underside or inside. Nothing is torqued down yet, i've ordered a few replacement bolts for ones i've lost. I've got to do a bit of stonechip on the front rails under the engine. Not looking forward to that. Knackered steering rack doesn't please me. Some pretty things put back on..... Firewall insulation cut rearlights and panel

Definitely a man with a good eye and with important academic and entrepreneurial accomplishments. May he rest in peace.

Thanks for the vinegar tip. Cleaned the contacts in the plugs and now it runs and I even have low beams. I've just lost brake lights, blinkers, and reverse lights now...

The plates in the door jamb are riveted. The one on the shock tower uses small screws. I think its best if they go back this way. PM an address and I will drop you some

I agree. In fact, if the car does have its original paint, I would recommenced not doing any mods to it. 240Zs with their original paint and in such great, original condition are very difficult to find and are becoming very valuable.

Nice car and great originality. I would treat this one as a rare original sample and modify as little as possible.

As I understand it, the felt covers were provided to keep bugs from getting inside and turning the light housing into insect housing. Probably also help to keep out road dust.

https://datsunrestomods.com/collections/all just saying maybe its time to abandon the porch Cv adapter w/lock wire and sloppy spline stuff...

R200 3.90 with an OBX limited slip, so far it is running great.

Head Work Done Weld combustion chambers and Straighten head and re machine front and back. Then Weld injector holesand CNC porting 1head Then from Kevin Bann - Horsepower heads - "Write intake and exhaust programs to suit the build specification. The intake port is sized to 'choke' at 9000 rpm and provide peak torque at around 6000 rpm. I had to move and skew each intake program individually to line up with existing manifold. A lot of re-welding and re thinking the chamber because of the different chamber roof heights between this head and the old head. I ended up buying deeper valve seat inserts and lowering the chamber roof to gain compression while retaining flow past the valve. This will keep a stronger deck in the head as not so much needs machining off it versus keeping stock valve height." Then Supply 12 extra deep valve seat inserts, machine and fit CNC machine valve seats and Surface grind head 1.6mm Then we found the P90A head had hydraluic lifters which you can no longer source. So bugger, but bought some inserts and fitted the stock solid lifters. Just got in some 3.5mm lash caps from Kameria and now we can get the final cam grind done. Heads should now be done in a couple of weeks, Bugger my engine builder is in holiday in Europe. We decided to fit the 260Z stub axles while waiting as they are a weak point. Supposed to bolt straigh in! Well maybe for the 240Z but definately not for the 240K. Well thats another story. Specs are 228cfm at .550" lift - Chambers are 38cc - compression hopefully around 11:1

I would lean toward removing the interior panels and looking for the break in the wire. The plastic trim panels can be removed by pushing the center pins through the rivets. Of course, it can be a challenge to find the center pins afterward. If you search around on this site, I'm sure there are useful tips on removing other panels.

Found it! They sent me the wrong strut in the right box. Stand by

Fred here, Head Stock Judge for ZCCA. Although the "from the factory" is the way we judge, I was not aware we were taking off for this TSB issue. I will discuss with Todd and Chris. Also, I will look at the car in Branson for the double points for heat shields. As far as the delay in judging sheets, Todd took them home and I did not get them back for quite a while, sorry. Fred

Thank you Kats. You are very kind

NO straight roads. All perfect pavement. Could never drive every road. Too many, every one is tight narrow twisty, bounded by rock or bush RIGHT there at your mirrors and rims. Lots of on-coming traffic, including trucks, makes for continuous butt clinching, challenge filled driving. Glorious! Only downside is the passenger's constant screaming and pleading for mercy.

I don’t know if it’s nuts, but thank you. The goal is continue to have fun building it. This will be my last project for the summer then it’s driving time! Everything I do can be un- bolted and put back to stock as well. I am crating all original parts. Also I like the idea of it appearing mostly stock outside of the stance and visible stuff like brakes. Next? Honestly I don’t know. Part of me wants to crate the stock motor and build a more fun one. Who knows.

Hi Mike.....Mike Maginnis at Banzai has a guy that will stamp it just like the original. I bought the plate from Mike and he got the engraver to stamp it for me....didn’t cost that much either.....looks great. Guy

You could loosen the bushings bolts on the front control arms and see if it will settle some and then retorque them.