AZ-240z

Will, I took some measurement from mine. The inner diameter of the grommet is 1/2 inch, the outer diameter of the top half is 1 inch, and the outer diameter of the bottom half is 1 1/8 inches. See last picture above to see this variation. Total grommet thichness is 5/16 inch, and groove width is between 1/16 & 3/32 inch. The material, to me, looks more like a synthetic, very pliable, shiny material instead of molded rubber. Dan

Yes, the area under both seats, and the area behind the seats and under the black plastic jack and tool pouch housings all had the natural fiber jute installed on series 1 cars. If you do a search for jute, I think you will find a lot of good info and pictures from Kats.

When my car was entered in the show at the 2004 National Convention, The editor of this book and his photographer asked to take some pictures for this book. I was more than happy to honor there request and was quite surprised that my car was profiled on pages 110-112, much more than I expected, upon receiving a copy from the publisher. I have been putting off trying to get the associated article translated, but I really must do this to see how my comments were translated. If anyone has a good grasp of the Japanese language and would be willing to translate those pages, I could send you a copy of the article.

Marty, As far as I know, there are only two shift boots for the 240z. The early boots which incorporate the soft rubber grommet installed on the series 1 cars, and the later boot with leather ties. The later boot with the leather ties seem to be readily available as they are often offered through ebay sellers. Is this a correct assumption on my part, or were there other variations? Dan

Slide the boot down the shift lever on the Z432 and it becomes an innie.

Hi Kats, I am looking at my NOS boot, part # on the bag is 75150-E4101, and your boot looks exactly the same right down to the stitching as far as I can tell. The boot shown on the Z432 is stitched a little differently, and the vinyl grain appears to be more of a pebble texture. The clothed backed vinyl is fairly thin. Kats, your car is a treasure of originality. Dan

Mckrack, Just out of curiousity, what do you base your assumption on that the color is not the same on the tail light and grill panels as is on the original hub caps? I have a not too great picture of my car when it was new, and the color of the tail light panels appears to be the same as the hub caps. I, also, have a set of NOS hubcaps as a comparison. NOS grills are still available, but buying one for the sake of making a comparison is not in my budget right now.

I can remember the same problem with my 71 about 33 years ago. It turned out to be one of the U-joints in the half shaft. The early cars had the off-set in the half shafts to the differential which put unusually hard loads on those U-joints. This would be the first place I would look. Hope this helps. Dan

Arne, I have my boot and have been attempting to take physical measurements of the grommet as accurately as possible without removing it from the boot and possibly damaging the it. It appears to just slip into a hole in the material but I'm going to be safe, for now, with a brand new boot. If I can make a drawing of the grommet and figure out how to scan it into the computer, (not easy for the illiterate computer guy), I'll post what I have. The quest for the Grommet continues. Dan

Interesting that this search for shift boot grommet topic came up. I have a NOS early shift boot that will be going on my car, but have recently been looking for a source for this grommet, myself. My thought was to have this boot reproduced before I install it, if there appeared to be any sort of demand. If anyone is able to come up with a part number for this grommet, I will be keeping an eye on this thread. Japan supplier can often find impossible items. Dan

Jim, I would say that there is a lot of hope for your having a numbers matching car. My car is numbers matching, about 2,000 numbers older than yours, and my engine is just shy of 6,000 numbers greater than my vin. It is one of the last series 1 cars produced with a build date of 1/71. Dan

I'll put in my 2 cents. I don't have my car here, but, as I recall, the bolts pass through a cover plate and then screw into the block. If you were to remove the timing chain cover plate, I think you will find that the thin bolt probably snapped off outside of the block. You will need to use a pair of vice grips to grasp the remainder of the bolt and unscrew it from the block. Trying to go through the cover plate with some kind of easy out is looking for disaster in my opinion, until you actually look to see what it looks like at the surface of the block. In the early days of the 240z with the metal fans, this was a very common problem when replacing water pumps gone bad with the use of these early, heavy metal radiator fans. Hope this helps in your discovery of the easiest plan for a repair. Dan

Chris, my only point was to describe the original paint texture as being slightly sandy, ie., matchbook scratcher, to the feel. As to how this was accomplished, Wick Humble developed a formula of Gray Lacquer paint with a suede agent added as described in his Datsun Z-Car restoration book. If you have obtained the original paint code and formula, I would love to have a copy of it. I have a NOS set of these hub caps still in the paper bags, except for one, that I use to confirm paint texture and color accuracy.

Gary, when these were new, the paint texture has been described as a match scratch surface. If you ran your finger over the scratch surface of a box of matches, that is pretty much the texture of the original finish. As a result, one had to be very careful not to get wax or any other contaminates on the paint as it was nearly impossible to clean up. The front grill and the taillight surrounds were painted with the identical paint. I am sure that if Les handles this, it is a pretty close match. Dan

Gary, Nice job with the paint job. Does the aerosol paint you got from Les have the same texture, kind of a rough or match scratch surface, as was original to these wheels? I'm restoring a set of these and need to get some paint on them. Thanks. Dan

Jerry, Thanks for the great picture. It is shaped a little differently than I had remembered. Could you measure the approximate hole diameter that this grommet fits, and tell me the year or vin of your parts car? Dan

adjer, the person I have always gone to for this kind of help has been Mike at Banzai Motorwork, www.zzxdatsun.com. I am sure he would be of assistance in either finding a source for this plate, or possibly having one in his inventory. Good luck. Dan

Hello All. First I would like to offer best my wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season to everyone. In my quest for originality, I have been searching for a part which I haven't found on our Parts CD. This is the rubber grommet which is used for the antenna mast and motor drain tube which located in the rear deck below the antenna location. I know that the grommet is shaped similarly to the throttle rod boot in the firewall, but, I would really like to find the real deal. Although the CD has been invaluable to me, I am hoping that some of you may have a more complete paper parts catalog showing a part number for this item. It would, also, be terrific if someone had one of these grommets still intact and could post a good picture of it. I know that this is a very obscure part, rarely seen unless you crawl under a wheel well, but, for me, that's the fun part of originality, like pealing an onion. If a good example could be found, doing a reproduction may be a rare find for others. Thanks, and again, best wishes for a terrific Holiday. Dan

moonpup, What a great tool to have at your disposal. Thanks a zillion for running my #s in your parts price list. Looks like I definitely lucked out, and now have a multi-use part. Thanks, again, for taking the time to check this out for me. Dan

Need a little help for anyone who has a good set of parts manuals for All Datsuns. I found an NOS part, but it was not the correct part for my 1970 Z. Can anyone tell me the purpose and car model part # 25230-89903 is for? The part I was looking for is #25230-E4100 which is the rear window heater relay. #25230-89903 does not show up in the parts CD. Thanks for any input. Dan

Warren, If you have a 240z, by removing the heater control panel in the center of your dash, you open up a large access hole to easily reach all five instruments. To remove the heater control panel, there are three or four wire cables which must first be disconnected from their respective vents under the dash. Hope this helps. Dan

Chris, ie., 27th Z, The above quote just made me remember, someone on ebay has reproduced the early, suction cup looking, hood bumpers like Kats has. Just thought I would mention this for all of you early Z car purists. I, too, am in that purist catigory, just don't have bragging rights to the very early series 1 cars. I'll try to find an item # on ebay if it is still around. Dan Edit: I just found the ebay item number for those early bumpers if anyone is interested. Item #280054811432

Bruce, Check out ebay item #290057100569 for a good look at the labels. Or, for $187 you can have a new heater control panel with new labels. Dan

Thanks Enrique, Arne, Zak, I will give the modeling paint you have suggested a go. My main point of concern is, will is stick, or adhere to the chrome Plating? My experience has been that paint will just flake off of chrome unless there is some form of chemical bonding taking place. Zak, I did see your thread in the archives about your hood ornament and others that concern themselves with paint on plastic emblems. Thanks, again, all. Dan