Zed Head

Is that the flattest surface you can find? Your level is sitting on a plant. The ground looks gravelly. Looks like a fair idea but execution is iffy. A carpenter's square would get you closer.

Doesn't stay or isn't? Doesn't stay implies that it's loose.

The outside of the casting is rough and might not be parallel with the bored hole. Were it mine I'd put the wheel back on, then stand on the wheel, flat on the gorund, and work the end of the strut around by hand. See if it's loose like you thought and see if you can see where it's moving.

Do you have a part number? Maybe MSA already gave you a hose from another car. Why would Earl's make an 11/16" for a 19 mm application? You could call MSA also and ask them why the loose fit.

I have 205's on all four corners on mine and I've exceeded their grip a few times in the typical country road corner. It's the most neutral car I've ever exceeded tire traction in. Just four wheels slip/sliding sideways until the grip comes back. On all four at the same time. I started abusing tires in old American muscle cars where you either get the front end pushing towards the ditch or the back end trying to get past the front. I wouldn't' mess the Z car's setup too much, it can't get much more balanced.

As your problem has stewed in my brain I've remembered past conversations abut side loads and stuff, and how the front suspension works. The basics of it are the the wheel is controlled by the transverse link, the TC rod and the strut. The side loads on the strut, which you're working with, are basically from the wheel trying to tilt in or out as you corner, due to side forces on the tire tread, from the road. But the steering linkage also ties the two wheel together, so if one wheel tilts in the other should tilt out. So my first thought that the strut and spindle alone should be a rigid assembly is probably off. There might be some flex. One way to get the strut tube to flex inward, as suggested by others, is if the top of the shaft is loose, the isolator, as cgsheen said. But another way might be if the shock shaft is bent. One more area to check. I think that all of the various connections have to be tight otherwise the looseness translates to other parts of the system. You'd be surprised at how far the wheel will move when a TC rod breaks. I have rub marks on my inner fender well. cgsheen builds suspension parts. He would know best. I'm just on the "something's not right, it should be found and fixed" boat.

As most of us have before... So far, that's at least two people saying just buy them from Nissan. No need to go elsewhere and they're as inexpensive as they'll be anywhere else. Besides eBay, maybe.

jalex wasn't clear on which picture zcardepot sent him. Apparently zcardepot thinks he needs the inner bushings, 55555-E4100, but he's really looking for the outer bushings, 55541-E4100. His #57's have already been replaced with polyurethane, and he's going back to the original bushings. So, part number 55541-E4100 is the part he's looking for. NOT 55555-E4100. Get them directly from Courtesy Nissan. $11.68 each. https://www.courtesyparts.com/oem-parts/nissan-bushing-link-55541e4100

Whatever is going on, he said, in essence, that the issue allows 1/4" of wheel movement, at the spring perch level. That's more than 1/4" at the tire tread. That's a lot of camber wobble to live with, let alone whatever loose parts allow it. That's the problem boiled down. If the wheel is moving, which the OP says is the case, something might be broke. Or it's just a cocked wheel bearing, as Patcon kind of implied. Which should come loose while driving. Maybe he should get it driving and take it for a beating.

I didn't see anything. I was just pointing out where to look closely. If it was mine, I'd have the hub off and would have used a straightedge on the spindle flange surface, then measured across to the tube under the spring perch. On both sides. That's an indirect comparison of the angles. If you can't get the hub and rotor off, use the rotor surface. Verified that the spindle is perpendicular to the surface. Then looked for the reasons they're not the same if they're not. When you have two parts that are supposed to be identical you don't even really need any numbers. That problem would bug the hell out of me. It bugs me just reading about it.

You can watch the slave cylinder rod move if you have somebody push the pedal. From below or looking past the starter. It's possible for the MC seal to fail and still not leak. There are two seals, one for pressure, one for containment. If the pedal moves but nothing happens, that's likely. You can also peel the rubber dust cover from the slave cylinder to see if it's leaking fluid. It should be dry.

I don't know if you meant it but that's pretty funny. Almost the smallest, least expensive part on the whole car. They did add some red PU bushings in other spots, for whatever reason. And it's actually compression. Sometimes people add the T, for tension,TC. Looks nice. A survivor that has good years behind it.

Thanks. I'd remove the hub and drop the "knuckle arm" myself. Clean it up and give it a good inspection. You only have to lift one corner. It might be fixable now but not after it breaks completely.

The seam between casting and tube can be seen from the side with the wheel at full lock. Take another picture.

A properly spec'ed and functioning fuel pump should have no affect at all on engine power. If it does, something is, or was, way out of whack. Don't try to piece-meal carb work. I think that you have to be even more methodical than working with EFI to get these carbs to work best. You're probably not going to find one big thing that makes things better. Good luck. Progress is good. Carry on.

No offense to Z car fans but the Z was, at the time, the economical, aka "cheap", sports car. The poor man's Maserati. Costs were minimized. There are other known manufacturing defects, like spindle pin bores drilled off-axis, causing excessive rear toe-in. I searched "240z bent strut" on Google and these three were on the first page. It's not common but not unknown either. https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/39265-possible-bent-strut-or-spindle/ http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/108051-strut-bent/ https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1754694-bent-front-struts

Did you get your parts from Europe or the states? You're right, EFI was mostly a states thing, for emissions. I think I've read about mysterious no injection notch N42's before. I had forgotten. I put my N42 on top of your E31. They look the same, cooling passage wise. The bores look different though. Might be another clue. The N42 would match an 86 mm bore.

That's too easy!

Or new carpet....

You could measure. Always a good idea. Carbs are supposed to have valves that determine when fuel is allowed into the float bowl. Flooding is usually caused by bad valves or bad floats. Food for thought after you bypass the old electric pump.

It's even hotter in Albuquerque.

Could be. A lot of dust to create that space. Maybe it's the actual head in the atlanticz pictures. After removing all of that material the chamber would be larger. So the head would need shaving to shrink it down. What's the head width, top to bottom? And still, probably 35 mm valves. There's not an extra 1.5 mm between the valves, I think. Post a full length shot of the head and the coolant passages can be compared. There are differences, I think. Causes lots of head gasket confusion. One of the valves is flipping us the bird...

Not so sure of that combustion chamber shape. And the valve measurements are supposed to be of the valve heads themselves, as I understand things, not the seats. It does look like a non-squish or open chamber though. Maybe another E88 or E31. Here's my bona fide N42 head. Look at the area by the plug, and between the valves. Looks like yours has more space between the valves even though you're measuring a bigger exhaust valve value. And the plug area looks different. That would be a lot of aluminum dust. Who knows.

Saw this on the Portland OR Craigslist. Not really a great place to search. https://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/wan/d/wanted-my-old-1981-datsun/6664929227.html

You can stare at it for hours and the only reason that really fits well seems to be cosmetic. Just hiding that bolt. Probably bugged the heck out of some Nissan VP, "can't we do something about that ugly bolt head?", so they fabbed them up and stuck them on.