Richard McDonel

Early in the restoration of my 71 240, I took the head and block to a reputable engine machine shop and they milled enough off both to true them up. Now the body's done and I'm back to the motor, I am hearing that there is very little margin for milling on these engines. By the fit of the front timing cover, I figure 12 thou. was taken off the block, but I have no idea on the head. Can anyone advise me how to tell if the head is too thin? I know I can get spacers for the cam towers, but have no idea how to determine the number and thickness I should use, if any at all. And finally, assuming it all goes together, does anyone see any reason to employ the old hot-rodder / racer trick of laying play-do or plasticine on top of the pistons, then torquing the head down, and with cam engaged turn the engine over, as a safe way of determining any possible piston-to-valve clearance issue? Many thanks.

Back in March I posted a question about how to get the rear strut into the lower control arm.. I was tearing up bushings trying to force it in. Zed Head wrote on March 1 suggesting I put a greased scraper at each end of the strut assembly and shove it in that way. I thought it sounded crazy, but gave it a try anyway. And it worked! Thank you zed head!

One of my rear 240Z control arms (A-arms) appeared to be be bent, so a friend kindly gave me a spare he had in his shop - thanks Dan. Anyway, when I removed the old inner bushings on the new arrival, I found the housings to be different than the others, in that the bushing housing has a smaller i.d. My other control arms have a housing i.d. of 30 mm. and my after-market urethene bushings are a perfect fit. This new arm has openings of only 27 mm. Closer examination reveals that this is due in part to the steel used the in the housings being heavier - roughly 3.5 mm wall thickness vs 2.5 on the others. Catalogues I've looked at show the same bushings fit everything from 240 through 280. I'm wondering if what I've got is some specially built, heavy-duty racing or rallying part. And if so, is anyone making bushings to fit? Thanks folks.

Thanks folks, I guess that answers it. I use the bolts I've got, torque them up properly and I should be OK. It just seemed inappropriate to have that much slack. If we hear a clunking noise up front under braking, then it's still a question - otherwise we're sailing. Cheers All,

I'm all set to reinstall the tension-compression rods, and it appears I'm either missing a piece, or I have the wrong size front bolts. The bolts, which I carefull labelled and stored at the time of disassembly, are 9 mm. The holes are 10 mm. In the parts catalogues there are what appear to be bushings, but Black Dragon calls them "washers," and they're only for 260-280 models - I've got a 240. It's been several years since it all came apart, and I have no recollection of any bushings or washers. Can anyone describe for me the proper attachment of tension-compression rod to front control arm? Thanks

ksechler, Re-flaring probably wouldn't hurt my lines either, but with the ground-up resto I'm doing, I'll probably have to make new ones. I have the old ones off, and I tried to clean them up with paint stripper, solvent, and SOS pads, but they still look grubby. They really stand out against the backdrop of a freshly painted orange engine bay. If anyone knows of a sure-fire clean-up for 42-year old brake lines that have probably had everything from brake fluid to rattle-can spray paint on them, please let me know. Many thanks

Thanks Zed, I'm going to try the greased putty-knife trick, but I think I'll wait until I have a spare set of hands. Two bulky, snug-fitting parts, and two greased putty knives sounds like a bit of challenge for just one! Cheers

A friend and I are independently rebuilding 240s. We both started several years ago, so bits, pieces, and memories sometime go missing. We had great difficulty installing the front tension - compression rods, and I was wondering if there are different lengths. Mulching through some old parts, I came across another pair, and YES, there are some that are better endowed than others! I'll try to attach a photo, but the important thing is that the machined and theaded ends on one set are some 3/16" longer than the other. The remaining problem on the front is that both of us carefully saved our front mounting bolts for the t-c rods - they are 9 mm dia, and that is now too small. The exploded parts diagrams show what looks to be bushings that would take up the slack, but neither of us has, or can remember, any such parts. The Black Dragon catalogue shows these bushings to be "washers" but only for later models - not the 240. Can anyone tell us where we went wrong? Now to the back: My son and I have just mangled a perfectly good pair of bushings trying to get the lower strut assembly into the control arm. Now that everything is apart again, I did some measuring, and I just don't see how there's room for everything. Total clearance is 2 - 3 mm, and the bushings take up more room that that. If everything was set in place then torqued down, it would be dandy, but to force the strut bottom laterally into the control are - while as I said, it tore up the bushing. So, ny bright idea was to get the smallest jack I can find, and use it to gently widen the control-arm gap a millimetre or two, slip the strut bottom in place, shove the spindle in, take out the jack and tighten up everything. Any thoughts? Would I risk screwing up the control arm permanently?

Thanks Mike - I'll do that. Cheers

I'm (still) restoring a '71 240. There is a series of clips supporting the fuel and rear brake line, mounted to the driver's side of the transmission tunnel. My metal clips are still OK, but the rubber insulators are either missing or rotted. Any idea where I might find new ones, or am I better off just taking a sharp knife, a drill, an old hockey puck (or softer rubber if you can think of a source), and making new pieces? Thanks

I have a '71 240Z that spent the first 40 years of its life in the Arizona desert. Generally a good thing, but in this case when I removed the rear hatch, the rubber spacers/gaskets on the hinges had all the maleable texture of peanut brittle, and of course broke off in bits and pieces. Replacements aren't available at Black Dragon or through the Nissan dealer. I could use new rubber gasket material, but there appears to be more to these pieces than just flat gaskets. The formerly-rubber material formed a cover over the hinges. Was that standard? If I simply use gasket material, will water not get into the roof cavity? Any of your thoughts would be appreciated.

A lot depends on how much you can do yourself. Certainly, if you're just going to hand ithe job over to a bodyshop, then get pros to do the upholstery, etc., $15K won't cut it. Talk to your body guy and see what his cost would be if you delivered it stripped and clean both in an out, with all body bolts loose, then reassembled it all yourself. On this site a few weeks ago, I questioned whether to replace or repair the wiring harness, and the consensus seemed to be that I should repair what I have. So fine, the car is all apart, I'm just setting the dash upside down on the workbench and going over every wire, one by one. Time consuming, but a lot cheaper than having someone crawl under the dash for lord-knows how many billable hours trying to find out why the XXXX doesn't work. All that being said, it had best be a labour of love, because 95% of the time restoration is a lousy investment! And yes I heard all about the '37 Benz that went at auction for $9.8 mill and the '57 Testa Rossa for $16 mill, but they are the rare exceptions. Best of luck.

Just getting ready to paint my ground-up (I know, it sounds like what you do to cheap cuts of meat or the gears on very old Ford trucks, but then a 240Z can't be a "frame-up" resto, given it has no frame; can it?) restoration. I have the original orange paint code, but I'm getting conflicting signals on the rear finisher, that is to say the exterior metal panel that covers the rear vertical surface and frames the tail lights. I've been told that it's just flat black, but others have said it should have a silver tinge to it. Also the grille - I've got two and they both look flat black to me, but then 40 years does funny things to paint. Are they supposed to have any shading at all? Many thanks.

Arne, Ken, Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It sounds like the idea of a new harness is not a good one. As for the six-prong connectors, yeah, that might be a good place to do some updating. Your question is build date. Actually, I have bits and pieces of two cars; one 12/70, and the other 4/71. Under-dash looks the same so far, but I haven't really got into them yet. Both are four-speeds. The dash harness is what I am really concerned about - the others appear relatively simply and visible.

I'm beginning to reassemble my 240Z ground-up restoration. I have two dashes, and both have the amount of dead-end wires, taped-together fixtures, splices, etc. you might expect on a 40 year old car. With visions of spending hours at a time on my back under the dash once the car looks otherewise ready to run, trying to figure why things don't work, I am weighing the benefits of buying a whole new harness. I've found two suppliers: www.keepitcleanwiring.com, and www.new-datsun-parts.com/240Z I'd be very interested in hearing the thoughts of others who have been where I am right now, and also learning of experiences with the two suppliers mentione above. Many thanks.

I recently cleaned my 240Z gas tank and sealed it with POR. I was a little concerned that with all the small dia. fuel and vent lines, the sealant might clog something. So I took a piece of mechanics` wire and ran it through the various pipe fittings. When I got to the main pick-up line (immediately adjacent to the fuel-gauge sensor opening), the wire kept sticking and binding. Once I worked it past the first two obstructions, it ran well for a few inches, then stuck again. At that point I had no idea whether the wire had got caught up in another bend in the pipe, or had reached the bottom of the tank. Fortunately, I had a spares-only wreck with a rusted tank. I cut open the old tank, and was able to view and measure the fuel pick-up pipe. What you have in the pick-up pipe are two roughly 90-degree bends near the top that will snag your feeler wire. Past that, it`s pretty straight. Measure the mechanic`s wire, and once you are 14 inches (35.6 mm) in, you have reached bottom. The things they don`t tell you in Haynes!

Thanks guys. If your MSA parts are only a bit loose, perhaps I can make them work. I'll give them a call and see if they can spare the time to measure them before I buy. If that doesn't work, I guess I'll take JohnnyO's suuggestion. Perhaps from four old boots, I can salvage two.

Still monkeying with the steering rack. I have two of them here; one from a '71 and one from a '72. On both racks, the outside diameter onto which the rubber boot fits measures 36 mm. When I bought a pallet of parts off a guy down east last year, there were two brand new "McQuay-Norris" boots from Black Dragon. Great, except they have a diameter of 45 mm. The boxes they came in had Black Dragon part #62-400. I wrote BD, attaching pics of my rack with a vernier caliper showing 36 mm, and their boot clearly indicating 45 mm. Their reply was that part 62-400 is the right part for my car. Period. I went on McQuay Norris's website, and they too have only one part # for all '70 - '73 Zs. My local Nissan store acknowledges an older factory part number (48203-78500), but says it is no longer available. Anyone else had a similar problem? Thanks.

I inherited new axle boots and u-joints with my parts 240Z. In the course of pulling the u-joints, I caused or discovered some damage on the inside mating surface of one yoke. I had an extra set of axles and decided to go ahead with those, but found that the end nearest the diff is permanently sealed - not held with a spring clip etc. Of the various manuals, the factory shows the whole thing as being a simple project (remove with a soft-faced mallet, etc.), while Humble glosses right over it. Clymer is confusing in that in one paragraph it says you can't do it because there are no replacement parts available, then in the next goes on to describe how to do it. A peek in the Black Dragon catalogue shows they have remanufacatured replacement axles, but only for 260 - 280 automatics (at $900 a pop! I'm building a Datsun guys, not a Lambo ). What I'm guessing is that the sealed-end axles I have are really for a later model automatic. Sound right? Now, with respect to the damaged yoke -- and here I'm talking about the small piece, not the end that is part of the axle -- does anyone think I will have any balance problems using one from the A.T. axle? Thanks, as always

Thanks all. Interesting stuff. I guess I'll concentrate on getting a good, running car going, and worry about the air pump later. No use holding up the project for something that few seem to have in place anyway. We ain't putting it on the 18th fairway at Pebble Beach!

I have three exhaust manifolds, believed to be one each from a 240, a 260, and a 280. All have air-line fittings that have been crimped off somewhere in their history. Common practice on many cars from that era. But can anyone tell me if there were ever 240Zs that did not have air pumps? If I want my 1971 240 to be a quality restoration, should I be trying to find an old air pump and mounting hardware? Thanks

Nice Car!

May I expand on this thread? Here in western Canada, ethanol is not a big thing, although it might start expanding as we now have a plant making the stuff here in Red Deer. Only a minority of stations sell it right now. I frankly know little about it, but where I do have some experience is with its mineral cousin, methanol, which we used to run in our oval-track modified racer. That stuff is corrosive. After every day's racing we we would flush out the lines, pump, and carb with gasoline, and if we didn't, evil things would begin to happen. For instance, I used the wrong foam baffle material in my fuel cell once, and the stuff turned to porridge. So my question is, how corrosive is ethanol as compared to meth?

Slightly off-topic, but mention of matching numbers is interesting. I know Corvette guys are anal retentive on that, but how important is it in value when talking about 240Zs? I'm doing my restoration as close to dead stock as I can - steel wheels, S.U. carbs, original ride height, etc. I'm also sticking with the L24 motor, but not the original block for this chassis. (I do have a perfectly restorable L26 sitting on the garage floor, but my 240 is getting an L24). Not that I will be looking to sell once the project is complete, but does anyone have thoughts on the relative values of matching-numbers vs not?

My restoration project is now at the rear control arms. They're about to be sandblasted and painted. But they're so light! Does anyone know of any failures of these parts? I can imagine seams and joints separating. I have no intention of racing this car, but I think back to my racing days, and we used to re-weld entire seams of stock frames and control arms. Any thoughts or experiences to share? Thanks