Alan Pugh

To put 7" wheels on a 180sx you need a positive offset of 45mm this gives you a back space of 147mm. To fit these to a Z with standard springs you would need a spacer a minimum of 32mm thick. I'm not sure about the S13 but I would have thought they would be fairly similar. Alan.

Hi David, I agree with Gavin on the bog in the rear quarters and what looks to be a crease up the top on the left hand side at the top of the hatch area. The bonnet leading edge looks the same as mine did and i think you will find that when you try to get the rust out you will end up with a lot of small holes, I did. The rust in the dogleg just behind the door will be the tip of the iceberg I think. The door requires a new lower skin repair section. Everything in the pictures is repairable and even the rust you can't see is repairable rust wise, but it all costs dollars. Far be it from me to discourage anyone from buying a Z but I think $2700 is too much for this car. Having said that I don't realy know what your plans are or what you want to end up with. I paid $500 for mine and it had less visible rust. If I can help in any way with sourcing parts or rust repair sections and panels let me know as i'm sure all the Aus members will. Good luck with this one or the next one you look at but don't give up. Z cars are infectious. Alan.

Mike, Lachlan was right I was talking about outer door skins and I am seriously considering sending my door trims to Jim but it all comes down to dollars. The extra 300mm on the ( station wagon ) costs quite a bit when your doing a full rebuild. 2+2's forever. Alan.

Hi David, Make sure the car is complete is very critical for a 2+2. You would think that with all the 2+2 parts cars out there that getting parts for these cars, especially interior parts, wouldn't be a problem. If only that was true. I've been rebuilding my 2+2 for three years now and I am still chasing a few bits and pieces. Make sure the bottom of the doors are okay as door skins are next to impossible to get. I hope it goes well. Alan.

Hello everyone, why is it no one ever looks like the picture you get in your head? Well here I am.

Mr C, where did you get that spoiler from? I'm after that style for my car. Thanks Al.

You say in your first post that you set the needles flush with the pistons because they weren't even close but you haven't said where they were before that. It seems to me to be on the lean side at high revs. If the needles were too high in the piston and you have lowered them this will give you a leaner mixture.. Something else to look at before you spend more money. Alan.

I'm with Gav on that one, I was always told they were parking lights so your car was visible on the side of the road at night while parked. Can't do that these days because the CAR won't let you. Alan.

Add the word Month to #13

The MegaSquirt FI system is going to be my next winter project. I'm thinking that it would work well on a twin throttle body injection setup off the standard inlet manifold. This would actually convince me to get rid of my flat tops.

There is no charge getting to the battery, so you need to check the whole charging system. Loose or burnt connections first then delve deeper. Alan.

Sounds to me like your fuel pump isn't getting enough fuel to the carbs for sustained high speed running. Are you still using the return line to the tank? If you are, try blocking the return line and taking it on another run, if everything is OK you need a higher output pump. More volume not pressure. I run a Facet electric pump which runs at 4 to 5 PSI and pumps 58 litres per minute. If your worried about the alternator not putting out enough charge, run the engine at 2400 RPM and check the voltage at the battery, it should be 14 to 14.7 volts. Alan.

Definately sounds like a bearing from what you have described. No noise in 4th gear is the give away here. Keeping in mind a gearbox gives you different ratios for each gear, and unless you are in 4th gear which gives you 1 to 1 drive, everything is spinning at a different rpm. I had a car once that was a 5 speed that I bought from a woman who only ever used the car as a 4 speed, it had done 65000 miles when I bought it and none of those in 5th gear. The bearing noise in 5th gear was terrible when I bought it, but three new bearings later it was as quiet as a mouse. Alan.

I used the flame method as well, although mine is on the rotisserie which makes it a LOT easier. I only had the one fireball accident, trust me you don't let it happen more than once. One side effect though, my eyebrows didn't grow back as bushy. Alan.

I agree that the clamp with bumper would stop to a degree the flex and tendency to turn under load. If this was a fix for early model racks I am assuming we are talking about 70-73 240Z's and not the later model rack fitted to my 77 260Z. I know in Australia we got a different version of the 260 than the US and there are a lot of questions that come from this. My car is a 2/77 260Z 2+2 GRS30 015866. I don't understand how I can have 2+2 #866 in 1977, two years after the start of the 015 prefix, the delivery figures don't make sense, but that's a whole new post. I'm going to refit the clamp anyway. Alan.

This is an interesting question because I have removed mine too, not knowing what it was there for. I haven't seen it mentioned any where and have no idea what it does. Having said all that, why would Nissan go to all the trouble of making a clamp like that with the little rubber bumper on it if it did nothing? I look forward to the answer on this one. Does anyone know?? Alan.

Hi Ross, This may be a long shot but if you're going to take your box apart this is worth checking. On these box's there is a nut on the rear of the main shaft that is torqued up and staked on assembly. I bought a box down here in Melbourne (FS5C71B) for $50.00 because the synchro's were gone. Well on disassembly of the box to check the synchro's out, the nut on the back of the main shaft had not been staked properly and had come undone two turns. On finding this I checked the synchro's for wear and found the wear on them to be minimal so I re-torqued the main shaft nut and staked it properly. As I said, I realise this is probably a long shot for you but if your taking your box apart anyway I think it's worth checking. Alan.

Hi George, I too think you should check the ring and pinion but more so the pinion itself. Get underneath the car and try to pull and push the drive pinion into and out of the diff. It probably wouldn't hurt to remove the tailshaft and check the nut that holds the companion flange to the drive pinion, I have seen these come loose before when the haven't been staked when installed. I'm probably wrong but I think it's worth checking. Alan.