moritz55

Good luck ! Take your time and don't get frustrated. It's very challenging laying under the car driver front wheel area and reaching up with this L-shaped rod. You will need good lighting from under the car pointing toward the Hood Latch Release bracket area also. This will help with visibility such that you can line up the u-shaped hook easily in getting your Latch opened manually. Let us know how it goes !

In one of my earlier 73 240z's , the nylon speedo gear in the pinion had several teeth missing or chewed up. It must have been removed and replaced incorrectly at some point causing the gear to wear. While you have your Speedo cable out - remove the speedo pinion and check the teeth on the nylon gear. Nissan can order them they just need to know the # of teeth and gear color. Here is the link .. look at post #3. It has the Nissan PN's for the various speedo gears in the pinion - you can match your's up with. Looks like Courtesy Nissan also sells the pinion gears. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6997&highlight=speedometer+pinion One additonal point - I use 75W90 Valvoline in my tranny & rear end. When you change or drain your transmission oil, try to save it and measure how much you removed. Your oil may be low and thus the Speedo gear may not be getting lubricated properly, especially it's chewed up or damaged. I recented changed my tranny oil and it was actually overfilled by 12oz by the prior owner which caused it to leak out the rear at the shift selector, so make sure your car is level when refilling the tranny oil up to the fill hole. Good luck and keep us posted ...

I can't open the website url. Anyway from my experience shifting for me ussually occurs around 3k rpm. From 1st --> 2nd , I can do it around 2k starting off .. 2nd --> 3rd I try to keep it around 3k and the same for 4th & 5th. I have a 1982 5sp 280zx in my '73 240z. If I feel like having fun I'll shift around 4-4.5k for 3rd --> 4th and 4th --> 5th... the sound and pull is awesome. In general my best mileage and performance is when the car runs around 3k. I also have a vacumm gauge in place of the clock - so it gives me a good idea how my engine performance is doing all the time. Normal idle Vacumm is around 14psi, when driving steady state regardless of what gear I may be in I like to keep it above 10psi and if I remember correctly for my car - it's ussually when it runs above 2.0k rpm(maybe close to 2.3k). If I get below 2.0k and press on the accelerator - my engine power drops and it really lugs along. Not sure this is what you were looking for - but hope this helps.

Here's been my schedule. I have now owned the car for 4 years and have put ~5500miles on it. I do not use synthetic oils. For motor oil I use Valvoline VR1 racing (with higher zinc) and add ZDDP (4oz) with every change. My approach has been to use a lot of guidance from this forum in establishing the schedules below. Plugs - 1 year (In Spring when put on the road) - I use NGK's and have 2 sets so I clean, re-gap and re-use a set for following year. Just started 2nd cycle - will replace both sets in 2years depending on how they look. I have a MSD 6A and Mallory Promaster Coil so I have to watch for Tip break-down. I Gap to .060" due to such large spark. Oil & Filter - 1 year (I change the oil annually in Fall before storage, 20W50 Valvoline add 4oz ZDDP). Coolant - 3-4 years (Prestone 50/50 mix), check for leaks monthly. Changed it 2 years ago. Air & Fuel Filters - Annually. K&N Air Filter, clean it in Spring. Fuel Filter replace with new after burning up old Gas and when installing Cleaned/New plugs. Brake Fluid - 7-10 years (drained & cleaned 4years ago - 5years more to go or sooner if a leak occurs. Check it monthly for leaks, topped it up last year. I do have 4w discs: Toyota 4X4 fronts and Maxima Rears - 1982/83 vintage) Can't remember if I use DOT4 or DOT5 as I'm traveling in Asia on business this week. 5spd Manual Trans/R200 Differential Gear oil - 10 years (used 75W90 Valvoline, just changed tranny when I replaced the Speedo O-rings this year, had a small leak to correct. Differential changed last year) Inspect Hoses - Monthly check. Lube Jobs: Steering, U-Joints, Suspension Grease fittings - Annually. When I have the car NYS Inspected on the lift. (in Spring when put on the road). Tire Rotation - 5000 miles. I have Bridgestone Potenza Pole Positions A/S directionals; so Front -to- Back only rotation. Just bought new ones and upgraded my suspension with Urethanes (and greased them) to resolve Rear End alignment issues. Had car re-aligned with new tires. Urethane Bushings - Just upgraded this past year so will Grease Annually in Spring Time ( or if a sqeak if any occurs). Good luck .. and publish this information when you summarize it for us. It will be useful. Many thanks for starting this thread...

I also went with Bridgestone's, however the Pole Position - Potenza's 205/65/15, I just wanted a bit more tire to fill the wheel well. I brought my front end to Stock height with Arizona Z coils and wanted new tires for a better ride. I'm waiting for rear Coils from Arizona Z to finish the job as my rear is ~1/2 inch lower than it should be since it has original coils. The Bridgestones were a great improvement over my BFG g-Force Sports. I keep my Bridgestone's at 29-30psi where as the recommended tire pressure for our 240z's is ~28psi. Anyway I added some photos ... the ride is great. btw ... If anyone is interested, I have a set of Five(5) BFG g-Force Sports .. size 205/60/15's ... I'm willing sell at a very reasonable price. They have less than 2000 miles on them at most and one tire is new (it was the spare and un-used). Many thanks....

dorodax ... similar to Carl, I'm interested in your suggested settings. I have Dave's setup installed in my 240z with an L24. I was wondering what you set your Unilte dizzy mechnical advance too? Mine is installed straight from Mallory and I am going by memory now... but at idle (~900 RPM) mine's set at ~17 BTDC advanced and at 3000 RPM it's about 40-42 BTDC advanced. I run 91+ Octane, never get any pinging .. even when I did run 87 Octane on a trip this past summer. Any suggestions or insight is welcome.

Well it's been 4 days since I replaced the O-rings on the speedo pinion and changed the oil in the transmission filling it to proper level. I had 1 drip 2 days after under the shifter selector lever. It looked like pretty black & old oil so I think it was residual from the inital leak I referenced in post #7. I'll continue to watch this - but I think I'm in good shape. Thanks all for the advice and insight...

Hmm .. Sounds like then you've got a worn ignition switch. Your button does exactly what the relay kit does however the relay kit allows you to use your ignition switch as normal. Also I assumed you checked your ground and hot wire connections already.. if not double check and clean them. Hope this helps.....

It could be several things. First check to assure you have a good/new Ballast Resistor (should measure 1.6ohms) and the connections are clean and in good shape. Second - I had problems similar but only on HOT days, around 85degrees when the car would sit. It would start cold fine, but not when hot or warmed up. ==> Since ignition switches, if original are 30+ years old and all the amperage passes through the switch to trigger the selonoid/starter, the contact gets worn over time. Thus not all the amperage gets to the solenoid/starter to crank it. .... to fix this I bought for around $25 with shipping a starter relay kit on ebay that is simple to add near the starter. This assures 100% of the amperage get's directly to the starter/solenoid - problem resolved. Here is a link to my thread ... http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34668&highlight=Ignition+Relay Good luck.. hope this helps....

Well yesterday I completed the O-ring replacement and ended up draining the transmission. It went well, hardest part was getting the 3/4" Fill Plug loose and most of the time was spent jacking my car up and getting it level. I took it out - drove it hard for 20+ miles and guess what .. no leaks. Thanks for all the advice... More Observations However? - Since I have a 81/82 280zx 5spd, I expected to drain slightly under 2liters(or around US 2quarts). FSM spec on my 280zx transmission is 2 liters .. but I knew I'd drain something less. ==> Well I actually drained ~76-77ounces! This is 2-1/4 liters or 2-3/8 quarts. I did go and buy another quart to be safe - figured I made errors calculating what I needed to fill it back up. ==> Well, filled it up till the oil starts to drip from the fill hole and guess what - it took 61-62 ounces !! This is ~1.8 liters or ~1.9 quarts, just what I expected since I knew I'd not get it all out by draining it .... now I feel better! Question? - While doing the job I noticed Oil Splattered around the transmission housing of the car in the vicinity of the shifter lever(rear). I cleaned it all up and dried it out. I figured it was from ~3 weeks ago when my front end was jacked up for about 1week while I replaced all the front end bushings and added Stock Height coil springs, which raised my car 1" back to stock height. Now my car sits level since the rear is at stock height. ==> So my question is with the transmission previously being Over Filled by almost 12-13 ounces (~1/2 quart too much), would jacking the front up and letting it sit for a week cause the oil to leak out the back near the shifter? Note: I have been driving the car with the extra 12-13 ounces in the transmission for 4years and never had leaks. So ... Right now there are no leaks after 24hrs and I'll watch this. Any advice and insight is welcome. Many thanks..

This is very helpful Esprist ! I had my transmission fluid changed when I 1st bought the car - only 6000 miles ago (4yrs ago). I know it's still fine... My assumption was I had to drain the gear oil. I'll go with this approach and assume what little oil leaks out from when the speedo cable and cog is removed is not enough to worry about so as to not have to add any.

Thanks .. and will do DeesZ !

Hi everyone .. I have a small leak that causes a nusance drip at my Speedo cable housing attached to my transmission. So before it gets worse and I store the car for winter - I'm planning to replace both the small internal and larger outer O-Rings. I ordered them from MSA. I have an 82-83 280zx 5sp manual transmission with my '73 speedo cable. Both O-Rings are commom from '70 thru '86 for manual transmissions, so I assume no serious issue with seating the O-rings properly. I have read thru this link and understand what to look for in the O-ring replacement of the pinion: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31338&highlight=Speedometer+Cable+Leak ==> I'm searching for any helpful tips on how to change the transmission oil as I'll be jacking the car up in my garage. I'll get a small hand pump for adding it, and I know the car must be level. The drain plug is in the bottom - so I'll drain it before pulling the speedo cable off. I'll get 2 Qts of gear oil to assure I have enough, most likely Valvoline gear 75W90 oil. Any other advice is welcome.. Many thanks in advance ...

Bryand2 .. I did mine and it took about 15mins. Just be careful so as to not alter the orientation of the rack portion of the shaft to the Steering wheel portion. I used some chalk and marked both pieces along with taking several photos before I dissassembled. Loosen all the bolts first and you'll have to rotate the steering wheel to get access to the lower ones. Then take the bolts out one at a time. When you get to the last bolt try to remember how the plates were arranged, it makes it easy upon installing the new one(you also have the photos if you forget). Pre-assemble the New one with the plates and bolts loosely so you know how it should be installed and then go to it. One bolt at a time .. once you get 2 bolts in the 3rd and 4th may require rotating the steering wheel slightly. No lubrication of the Urethane coupler is needed - and tighten it up! I noticed a tighter steering response after putting the urethane coupler in as my rubber coupler was mushy. I did not notice any vibration or new noises being transfered to the steering wheel after I did this change. I'm very happy I did it. Anyway - good luck ..

I went with Poly "Black" ones from MSA on my '73 240z. Did the Steering Coupler, Rack Bushings and all Transverse link bushings, mustache bar bushings and Sway bar bushings(I may have missed one or two..). I lubricated with Lithium Grease (becuase it's not moisture absorbant) and MSA provdes a clear (vasoline-like) grease with their kits. Only thing left to do is the rear Bump Stops when I get my new coil springs from Arizona Z. My car rides at Stock Height as I have Tokico Shocks and Arizona Z coil springs. I get a squeak once in a while from my rear when accelerating on bumpy roads. But never on normal roads even over pot holes. I do live in upstate New York and our roads are pretty riddled with potholes. My steering and front end is awesome and on highway I get super control and no drifting. I love it - it drives better than my original 71 Z. My tires made the biggest difference on comfort and noise overall... I went from BFG g-Force Sports to Bridgestone Potenza A/S Pole Positions 205/65/15 . Also after rebuilding my rear end - and aligning the rear Toe-In to spec on my rear, noise was even further reduced. I think as you rebuild your rear end - try to assure your braces and mounting hardware is square so that your Toe-In is to spec after your new bushings are installed. 35+yrs of wear and stress causes many of vertical rear braces holding the transverse links in places to almost all be out-of-square. Thus a lot more noise and vibration is transferred to the body since the tires track poorly. Here is the link and read post #87 on what my experience was regarding my rear end rebuild: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33630&page=4 Anyway - good luck and enjoy the process of improving your 240z !

Great idea... I'll do the same when I get the install my new MSA release cable. Thank you !

First let me thank 260z ... post #9 to this link. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4519 Hello all, just wanted to resurrect this old post since I was successful in opening my front hood after my hood release pull cable broke. The sketch in post #9 to the link above is excellent. I bought a 5/16" diameter piece of 3 foot long soft metal stock at Home Depot (~$5.00). It bent pretty well in my hand vise but is reigid enough to withstand lateral force. I bent it such that it had a ~1" loop and an 8"-9" short leg with the rest being the long leg (~2ft long). See my photos.... Jacked the car up, and from the driver side close to the firewall, I placed this Loop into the wedge where the cable pull lever is. You have to feel for it a bit as it's 1" away from the firewall and 1/2" below the top part of the wedge holding the hood down. It doesn't take much to pull it outward toward the driver side of the car... and it popped the hood easily. The longest part of the job was jacking the car up and removing the Driver side front wheel. I have rigged up a temporary pull line that I reach from below the car until I get a new hood release latch cable from MSA. Hope this gives others confidence on how to open the hood when the cable is broken WITHOUT pulling the hood off! Many thanks again to 260z member for this advice and good luck to others ... Attached Thumbnails

First let me thank 260z ... post #9 . Hello all, I thought of resurrecting this old post since I was succsful in opening my front hood after my pull cable broke. The sketch post #9 is excellent as I bought a 5/16" diameter piece of a 3 foot long soft metal stock at Home Depot (~$5.00). It may have been aluminum becuase it bent pretty well in my hand vise. I bent it such that it had a 1" loop and an 8"-9" short leg with almost a 2ft long leg. See my photos.... Jacked the car up, and from the driver side close to the firewall, I placed this Loop into the wedge where the cable pull lever is. You have to feel for it a bit as it's 1" away from the firewall and 1/2" below the top part of the wedge holding the hood. It doesn't take much to push it outward toward the driver side of the car... and it popped the hood easily. The longest part of the job was jacking the car up and removing the Driver side front wheel. I have rigged up a temporary pull line until I get a new hood latch cable from MSA. Hope this gives others confidence on how to open the hood when the cable is broken WITHOUT pulling the hood off! Many thanks again to 260z member for this advice and good luck to others ...

Well I took my 240z to the Alignment shop today! Refer to post #73 & #87 above. I finally installed new Coil Springs from Arizona Z last weekend on my front to bring the hieght back to stock level. So I took the car in for a front end alignment and also wanted the rear alignment data. So these are the alignment machine & technician's data: 240z Stock Spec : Toe-In.......... +0.11 degrees ... to.... +0.23 degrees ...... ..... with a total Toe In .. +0.23 degrees... to ... +0.46 degrees Camber....20' +/-45' equals +1.08 degrees....to....-0.42 degrees Alignment Machine/Technician ................................Driver............ .Passenger Toe-In ............... +0.14 degrees ..... +0.17 degrees ............... total Toe In ... +0.31 degrees Camber ............... -0.7 degrees ...... -0.8 degrees Anyway - I am pleased with the Toe-In results, but my Camber is still more negative than I would like. I'll be installing new springs to get the rear closer to stock hieght. It won't be for a few months however as I'm waiting for Arizona Z to get some in stock.

My rims are 15" x 7.5" MSA (MotorsportAuto in CA)chrome wheels from about 12 years ago or so and came with the car when I bought it. The center has a cap with the "Z" logo stuck on it, such that it covers the lugs. Up close the chrome is a bit dinged up. My tires as I mentioned are 205/65/15 Bridgestone Potenza Pole Position directionals. They are significantly better in comfort and pretty good for handling than my BFG g-Force Sport 205/60/15 tires that I had and far better than the Yokohama 205/50/15's that came with the car. The BFG tires were loud and very hard - nice for handling but terrible for comfort. These BFG tires were also slightly undersized so my speedo was off, that's why I went to the 65's. Also the 65's gave me more rubber between the rim and road for some improvements in comfort. My tire size today is just a little larger than stock (~1/2" in diameter larger in total) so my speedo measures ~1.5 MPH slower than I'm actually going at 60MPH. Somewhere in this website I read the stock tire for a 240z is 175HR14 I think... which translates into 170/82/14 equivalent size. Many use 195/70/14 tires if they have 14inch rims. Here's a good website for Tire dimensions & conversions: http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTireMath.dos Anyway - good luck on your work and keep us updated.

The ride comfort really for me was more a function of Coils, Shocks and Tires - not bushings. My new tires and new coils had more impact on noise reduction (do to road bumps) as well. So I used Urethane bushings from MSA .. for all my transverse links(front and back), the mustache bar, stabilizer tie rod(in front only - I do not have a rear stabilzer), steering wheel coupler (round 4inch diameter near the firewall) and the steering rack bushings. I'm real pleased. Just be sure to use the heavy grease that comes with these Urethane bushings as they'll squeak otherwise. Heavy lithium grease has also been referenced in this website to prevent squeaking and it's good because it's also moisture resistant. Note: while you are doing this - if your differential mount is old - you should consider replacing this. I bought mine from MSA also.. here is the link: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/10-2251 For Coil Springs - I went with Arizona Z coils. They enable Stock hieght and a tighter ride because they are firmer than stock. My care is a 1973 240z and I very am happy with them. They made the most improvement in comfort and handling - my coils were obviously original and shot. Here is the link: http://www.arizonazcar.com/springs.html My shocks were installed by the prior owner and only had 5000 miles on them so I did not change them out where as the Coil Springs were original. Hope this helps some for you.... here's a couple photos of how my car sits. I do have 205/65/15 Tires - Bridgestone Potenza Pole Position.. I like them as they are a good balance between comfort and handling. They are for summer driving and have directional rotation.

To all .. This is a repost of my #73 posting in this thread. I included photos now of my finished job after ~150 miles or so of driving. 240z Stock Spec : Toe-In..........3/32"(out)....to....7/16"(in) Camber....20' +/-45' equals +1.08 degrees....to....-0.42 degrees ................................Driver.............Passenger Toe-In (Before)........ - 3/16" (out)......+ 5/16" (in) ..........(After)..........+ 1/16" (in)............0.0" Camber (Before)........- 0.3 degrees......- 1.0 degrees .............(After).......- 0.2 degrees.......- 0.3 degrees So .. my Rear End seems to be pretty much square. I just checked the distance betweens Front and Rear wheel center's and they are within 1/16" - 1/8" or so of each other. I also retorqued all my transverse link and vertical brace bolts to assure they have not changed - everything seems solid showing no signs of movement or distortion. Jon and team - thanks again for all the advice and encouragement. Many thanks...

Excellent , thanks for the info. I'll do this when I install mine... I presume when you attach the Stabilizer Bar to the Frame you torque to 13.7-18.1 ft-lbs. Many thanks...

I'm curious here as well. Your bottom bushing looks compressed quite a bit but not terrible. Since the range for torquing is so wide (8.7 - 19.5 ft-lbs) back off toward the lower side of the spec to give it more rubber. Are your bushings rubber or urethane? I have new urethane bushings/grommets coming. I interpret the following: Lower Bushings attaching the rod to the Transverse link are to be torqued to 13.7-18.1 ft-lbs. (then use a lock nut to assure they stay in position). Upper Bushings attaching the rod to the Stabilizer Bar are to be torqued to 8.7-19.5 ft-lbs. (then use the lock nut to assure they stay in position). This is quite a large range so I was going to go to a mid-point and assure the bushings are compressed at least 50% before locking it in place with the lock nut). The Stabilizer Bracket (attaches to the frame) are to be torqued to 13.7-18.1 ft-lbs.(I didn't look to see if there is a lock nut - but if there is, then attach it locking this in place as well). This is would be my approach.

The only measurement I took to assess the squareness of the body was to measure the width at several locations moving from the Front to Back along the unibody frame. This measurement I took at the lowest points below the running boards using a plumb-line and 5 points on each side. I then used a 5 foot straight piece of stock Aluminum that I had for when I do construction projects. This allowed me to transfer the unibody frame lines from either side to my garage floor. Anyway - after this was done, I had a 3/16 inch difference between Rear and Front of the car (I don't have the data sheets with me - but the width ran 53-3/8" vs 53-9/16" kind of range). My Rear measured 3/16 inch wider .. across a length of 90.75" (which is almost Front Wheel to Back Wheel. I calculated this to be roughly 1/8 degree error in squareness which was minimal. Even if I was off by 1/4 inch .. it's less than 1/10 degree out of square ...