Zed Head

Scotty Rocket is a man of few words who does not keep his threads going. But it looks like he has a damaged 78 280Z he's trying to fix. Scotty, the 79 280ZX won't help you much except for the front struts, hubs and brakes. I think that they might transplant, but not even 100% on that. On the other hand, you could put your 78 drivetrain in the 79.

Sorry, I ran out of time to read what you wrote before Google stuck an ad on your page. But I notice that you mentioned a "dead spot" as a reason to buy a new starter, and didn't really describe what you meant by "won't start". Might be a clue there. People have had iffy ignition switches. I had one in a 1978 car. Fixed it by recrimping the S connection. Describe how it doesn't start. Does it make noise, or does the engine just spin and nothing happens? The tachometer needle jumping around suggests a bad electrical connection, or electrical nose from your jump box. Maybe disconnect the jump box and see if the tach needle still jumps around.

Monocoque/unibody = no frame

Funny to see how all of these marketing things come together. On F n' L they were talking about how the budget ended up over $80,000 because all of the parts had to be shipped over from Japan. Just working the Japan angle, big-time. But Big Mike says in his video that they used "AZC" suspension. AZC is not in Japan. He spent 30 seconds of an 8 minute video talking about how they CNC'ed the vent emblem on the side of the car to show "GM", for Gas Monkey. Never did see the car drive. Looks great, but not sure it goes. Have to wait for next week's episode! They got me. I'm a critic. It is a nice-looking car, and more power to Big Mike. Make that money.

Clicked on to the Fast n' Loud show and some guy called Big Mike, from the "tuner" world, is apparently their 280Z build expert. Pretty sure I remember a 2+2 from a short while ago, I might have even posted a link. Can't remember. 1975 280Z. Anyway, weird that they chose a 75 280Z instead of a 240Z. They're playing up the whole SAE versus metric, USA versus foreign, thread pattern BS even though modern domestics engines are all metric. I'm sure that all of those LSX engines are metric. Sad. Have to see if they do more than just drive the car around the block.

It will expand wherever the air has the most leverage. The broad dent across the flat bottom will probably pop up, but the corner dents, not so much. Might be possible to overblow it then beat/finesse the overexpanded parts back down to where they're supposed to be. Then there's work-hardening, which makes dent removal even harder. Some kinks will probably never come out. With a pressure regulator you might be able to get it to start to correct and with some well placed blows on the corner high spots get it to a serviceable level.

Doesn't the parts CD show something? Fiche.

Wick Humble calls them castellated. The Google shows shapes that fit. Works.

That is a very common problem with the 280Z's. For some reason they tend to run lean in the mid-range. Maybe they were tuned to the edge for emissions, and the fuel has changed, or maybe the AFMs or ECUs circuitry has drifted over the years. But many do it. It seems more AFM related, in my experience. Different AFMs behave differently. But, the cure is simple: add resistance to the coolant temperature sensor circuit. Blue aka 240260280 supplied a writeup on the atlanticz.ca web site years ago. Many of us put the rheostat in the cabin so that we can tune on the fly. You can run wire through the firewall to the bullet connectors. The coolant temperature sensor is the one with the two prong injector style connection, not the single prong. http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/tempsensorpot/index.html Your fuel pressure is correct, it's actually a little high at idle. 28-30 is more normal. But 36 when there's no intake vacuum is right.

Also, I'm pretty pretty pretty sure that I've seen the flat ones on a very early 240Z or two. In the wrecking yards and maybe illustrated somewhere. We both misspelled crenulation. Not sure it's quite the right word anyway. Not irregular. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crenulated

The 1969 - 1972 TSB book shows crennulations in a drawing for a March 25, 1971 TSB, "Dampener Installation". Carpartsmanual shows a few changes. Assuming that #30 and #31 is the part. The drawing looks screwed up, but the change dates match for the pair, and the label of "stopper" seems right. http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun/Z-1969-1978/axle/rear-suspension

Thanks, I knew he had one. Weird that he doesn't frequent the site more. He'd sell some parts, I'm sure. Somebody needs a 280Z strut insulator right now. @zmanofwashingto I wonder if his name was too long for the various site changes. Washingto Maybe he can';t log on anymore.

"front end" covers a lot of car. Maybe you just need a parts car.

Maybe somebody can talk him in to making a trip. He'll have to load them up once anyway. Just noticed that he signed "Oliver" at the end of his CL ad. So it is zspecialties. Thought he was a member here but can't find a name. @

I was thinking about selling a spare engine and came across this craigslist ad. Pretty pretty pretty sure it's zspecialties. Snohomish. Piles of parts. Still kind of spendy but nice to know that somebody is collecting them. https://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/pts/d/datsun-engines-trans-and-parts/6521512101.html

Anyone else getting this message? Happens when you log in. I don't stay logged on.

Don't run the engine too much with the heater core bypassed. Better to block both ports. It's a topic of endless discussion, but seems pretty well decided.

People have posted about pushing the bumpers in on their shock absorber mounts, then locking them in place. FastWoman for one, and others. Still bulky but won't stick out so far.

Probably not. Electronic ignition takes less maintenance and will spark a lean mixture better without missing, but won't really improve performance. You'll still have the timing problem too. My local old-timey locksmith shop had Datsun key blanks. Find an old shop, not a Home Depot.

Did you just finish a game of Quidditch when you took that picture? I mentioned an extension earlier. I meant for the spring. Same as getting a longer spring. I saw cgsheen's comments over on Hybridz and he contradicts the Stance instructions about preload. So, apparently, you could add a spring spacer, or use a longer spring, if you needed it, since Sakura didn't design their setup for preload. Just moving the spring perch should do it since the spring is just "perched" there, not loaded. But, before you get too far along in fixing things I'd still assemble everything without the springs and run the wheel through it's expected stroke. You might find other potential problems. Adjust the sleeve so the shock piston is where you want it at desired ride height and the top and bottom of the stroke don't damage anything. Then adjust the spring, via the perch or a spacer or a longer spring. If you can't make it work that way then you'll know you need to get more drastic.

All original! >>> was original.

Edit - if you need to keep preload on the springs, you could add a spacer between the spring and the perch. That would allow you to lower the sleeve. If you find that the parts are not right. Well, turns out I wrote a bunch of stuff while I was learning. And most of what i wrote is wrong. Except the first post about nomenclature, words, labels, etc. It's looking like your struts might just be too short. Not sure what you do about that. Maybe you can add an extension. Good luck. They say to do what you're doing. https://stance-usa.com/about/faq/#toggle-id-9

Yes, "loss of travel" could mean loss up, or loss down. cgsheen might have some setup advice. @cgsheen @cgsheen1 Not sure which is him...

Sorry, I was confused myself. Yes, the Stance system is weird. You want to adjust the strut length so that the piston can travel up also. Basically you trade some down-travel for some up-travel. Not sure what the general rule of thumb is but I'm sure it's out there somewhere. 2:1 or 3:1 or something like that, compression to extension. Then adjust the spring perch to the calculated ride height. You have to do two separate adjustments, not just start with the shock fully extended. Many struts don't use preload. The typical Tokico lowering spring has no preload. So, yes it's an odd system, and I'll bet that may people don't have theirs adjusted for best performance. I would assemble thew struts without the springs and put them on the car and run them through their travel at the height you want. Set the sleeve so that the piston travels in the range that you want. Insert a bottoming cushion/bumper for the shock body so that you don't damage anything if you hit a big bump. Put the springs on and set the perch to ride height. Hope that you chose the right spring rate for a good ride. That's how I'd do it.

I think it's a matter of scale. If you're transmitting small loads then a key, a small tab of metal pushing on a small area of the shaft's outer perimeter, is probably fine. The damper pulley transmits a lot of torque though. And the are of the damper with the slot in it is thin and fragile, hence the breakage. Seems to be more for location. I over-generalized to all keys. I do remember plastic extrusion applications where the key was used as the failure mechanism, to save the shaft and other parts from over-torquing. So it was the power transmitter in that case. I searched the internet and have supplied only the words that kind of support my argument, below. https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Key_(engineering).html