Walter Moore

Ok, it is obviously not the Alternator. I strongly suggest that you go back over your conversion wiring again. It sounds like you are not getting any excitation voltage to the internal regulator. (or it is wired to the wrong pin.)

You can't just turn the muffler sideways? :stupid: Just joking... don't get mad.

Not to rain on anyone's pity party, but... We are fast approaching the 40th anniversary of the 240Z. Personally I am astounded at the number and quality of parts that are still available for these cars. Forty years is a long time for a car as specialized as the Z. I mean consider: The L series I6 that is the basis of these cars was only sold in the U.S. for 13 (model) years, and only in (I think) three models. (The Z, the 810, and the early Maxima) Compare that to the small block Chevy that started life in 1957 and is still in production, or the small block Ford that was in production for nearly 40 years. If you need a motor or transmission in a Mustang or Camaro/Firebird/Corvette almost every Ford/Chevy from the past 50 years has a donor that will fit. The same goes for the beam axles (except for the Vette). They LOOKED exotic, but under the sheet metal they were the same basic car as everything else on the road. That makes parts more available used, and increases the market for new parts as well. I could go on, but I hope you get my drift. I mean, try to buy parts for a 15 year old, out of production, Honda (from a dealer) sometime. Yes, the Datsun parts aren't as available as perhaps they once were, and the prices are higher. Still, the 240Z was considered (in the U.S.) a "cheap" entry level sports car in it's day, and that market rarely ever has any owner loyalty or aftermarket support. I am happy as a clam with the level of support and parts availability for these cars.

I have not tried a lighter flywheel. I currently have a Centerforce clutch on my stock flywheel, and have decided that when the current clutch wears out I am going back to a stock Nissan clutch and pressure plate. I just don't think there is enough power from an L24 to justify using aftermarket parts. Just my opinion...

I tried my idea, and it works but it seemed a little stiff, so I went ahead and bought a new breaker plate, magnet, and vacuum advance so that I could compare the two in operation. The hardest part to get was the vacuum advance unit. I tried two different part numbers before I gave up and ordered the last number listed in the ZX parts listing shown on Xeons130's page. (22301-P7901 by the way...) I have not put the distributor back together yet (More on that later) but I did compare the operation of the two plates, new and refurbished, mounted in the housing with my air-vac. The repaired plate moves in response to full vacuum, but it is noticeably more sluggish. The new plate snaps back and fourth instantly, while my hayseed repair takes about 1/2 second longer to move. In the process of this testing I noticed that the new breaker plate, part number referenced in the earlier post by 280~Master, allows the vacuum mechanism to rotate the timing MUCH further than the original plate allows. Using a little thumbnail trigonometry I estimate that the original plate is moving about 8.5 degrees while the new plate is moving nearly 13. Since the FSM for the 79ZX shows my distributor moving 9 degrees (18 degrees at the crankshaft) I am guessing that the new plate isn't quite the part that I need. I have spent most of the weekend playing with spread sheets, rivets, J-B weld, and Dremmel tool trying to make the two plates operate identically. When I get the distributor back together, and have a chance to test it on the car, I will report on my results. (With pictures and charts, I promise.) But the car is running so good right now that I really hate to mess with it. So it may be a while. Then again I love playing with things... :stupid:

The 280ZX turbo didn't come out until 1981, so if the car is really a 1975 model it is a retrofit by a previous owner. (Not that uncommon I suppose.) Look really hard at the frame rails, and floors because those are high rust areas. Also the rear fenders and rocker panels tend to rust. If you search the term "rust area" here you should find other places to look. I hate to say it, but body kits are often used to conceal major rust issues. Good luck!

As I was tearing down and inspecting one of my points distributors I discovered that the "T-bar" is marked 12, meaning that it has a whopping 24 degrees of centrifugal advance. That didn't match anything in my previously posted chart. I cleaned off the body and found the following marking: D612-52 Which again wasn't in my chart. After some searching on the internet I discovered that this is the "stock" distributor that came on the L24 equipped 240Z in the U.S. I guess I missed it when I made my initial chart. Interestingly, the Haynes manual also does not list this distributor, and it requires a totally different initial timing setting than all other distributors, 5 DBTC. (Remind me to burn that Haynes manual soon...) I have confirmed, using a "dial back" timing light, that the points distributor I have installed on the car matches this advance curve. I also discovered that fortunately the vacuum advance on that distributor is broken, since I have it set to 10 degrees of initial timing. Anyway, attached is the updated chart. Distributor advance curves revision 1.xls

I had that same problem and it turned out to be a bad fuel pump. I went electric, but a good mechanical pump probably would have fixed it.

Back to the question... My hood does that sometimes if I don't get it fully latched. It was worse when I first started driving the car however. Lengthening the hood latch post made the problem much less frequent. I suspect that another 1/4 turn might fix it all together.

Owners manual? You actually have an owners manual for your car?

I suspect that you may be giving the PO more credit than he deserves when you say he was meant to drive cars...

Ah, three countries separated by a common language... "...pulled my finger out..." Man, didn't that hurt? "...had a crack.." Not the type that requires a pipe I hope. But seriously, that floor looks wonderful. Keep at it! One of these days it will be a fun car. For now, just a fun project.

My general rule is that stick-on weights are inferior in every measurable way to the hammer on clip weights. Also, if you have a wheel that has more than 2 ounces of balance weights on either side, ask the shop to try turning the tire 90 degrees on the wheel to try to get the weight down. When you need large balance weights, either the tire or the wheel has a problem, and usually if it is the tire it will get worse over time. (As the tread wears away the imbalance in the tire's body will become more apparent.) Regrettably if aligning the tire differently on the wheel does not reduce the imbalance, the only sure way to identify which component (the tire or the wheel) has the problem is to move the tire to a different wheel. Was that more information than you wanted?

I just pull the plugs, and turn the engine with a ratchet, but then I have the 1 1/6" socket that fits on the bolt head. I also notice that I usually end up bleeding from all kinds of scratches where my arm inadvertently touches the radiator. But at least I am sure that it doesn't damage the cam doing it this way.

Thanks! I was hoping that someone would post those numbers. The local Nissan dealer said they were still available. The breaker plate is over $80! :eek: Great link! By the way, the breaker plate has three spring steel wear plates as part of the assembly, and they are very smooth (and hard). Sometime this week I will try the JB weld, and let you know how that turns out.

I hear that straight diesel fuel cuts rust pretty well, but I usually use PB blaster. (it smells awful however...) If you can get those bolts from Nissan they would likely work better, but if I remember correctly those are a fine pitch 10mm thread. (Important to know if you have to re-tap the holes.) Let me run out to the garage and see if I can get the actual thread pitch... Yep, it is an M10x1.25

It does look beautiful, and I am sure it would make a great driver. (But be advised that my 240Z looks great in pictures and MUCH worse in person.) I also notice that it has what appears to be a "Blaster" coil and the air reactor is probably missing. (See the photos taken from the right side of the engine compartment. The air reactor outlet on the air cleaner housing does not have a hose attached.) Those are not problems if you just want a really good condition driver or collector car. But they might be an issue for a show car. (I personally take my car to shows mostly just to prove that it still exists, not to win anything.)

Don't write Hyundai off too quickly. I have a brother who years ago would walk before he would drive anything other than a Toyota. He traded his last Toyota in two cars ago on a Hyundai and now he will not drive anything else. Remember that Toyota, Nissan, Honda, etc. made cars in the Japanese market for decades before breaking into the big leagues. The Korean car companies have mostly had to learn on the fly. They have made their share of mistakes, the 20,000 mile non-warranted clutch in the V6 Tiberon comes to mind, but both Hyundai and KIA have come a really long way in a very short time. They will be the companies that Nissan will really have to compete with on the world stage in the upcoming generation. (Until the Chinese and Indian companies hit it big.)

:classic: Yep, I suspect that by definition a used part, taken off of a 30 year old car, that was in a JUNK YARD is a piece of junk. That is why I took it apart to see what I had. I also believe that the car was not junked because of the distributor, and that if I had just installed it on the car without checking it out the car would have run, perhaps not well, but it would have worked sort-of. (It is hard to be sarcastic in writing without appearing angry, which I am not.) Seriously however, from the appearance of the material used in the ball bearing retainer, I do not see how there could be many of these distributors left in truly "Good" condition. That has to be about the cheapest plastic I have ever seen used in a critical application. That would be plan B! If I can't repair the vacuum advance operation I may set it up to run without it. If people really think that this could work, I may try it and then spend a long time "bench testing" it before trying to install it in the car. The point distributor is working really well at the moment, so there is no overriding hurry to get this done. I think the hard part will be getting the plates clean enough for the JB weld to stick. I may also see if I can limit the vacuum advance travel somehow before I install it. So many things to play with. So little time... I will keep you appraised of my progress.

By the way, automobile exhaust emission controls in the U.S. are required by:"the Clean Air Act, which President Nixon signed on December 31, 1970." Since the U.S. constitution prohibits ex post facto laws, it clearly does not apply to cars manufactured prior to that time. Also on the EPA web site I see that: "The Act directs the Administrator of EPA to prescribe standards to reduce emissions of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons by 90 percent from 1970 model levels in the 1975 model autos." Did you catch that? 1975, not 1970. This is the link: http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/caa70/05.htm Yet, for some reason Nissan installed the reactor pumps on the 240Z from the first year of production. Why did they do this when no U.S. law required it, unless California was different? I owned several 1972 model automobiles from other makes that didn't have air pumps. In fact the earliest car that I ever owned with one was a 1974 model. The whole history of emissions controls confuses me.

I don't know all of the details of how and when this stuff was required. I know that in most of the country it wasn't enforced until the mid 1970's. My understanding of the requirements is based entirely on the attached document that I downloaded from the EPA's web site. 12-miles.pdf

It is called an "air reactor" I believe, and yes it is a smog pump, and yes so far as I know all 240Zs shipped from Japan with one because they were required in California at the time. (At least that is what I have read...) Since California was Nissan's largest U.S. market they made all the cars for California's pollution requirements. For the rest of the country exhaust air injection was not required until about 1974, so cars sold outside California typically do not have the reactor pump installed anymore.

Not all of the items you listed are unique to the "series 1" cars. My car (4/71 build) is an early example of what some people in the U.S. call a "series 2" and it has, or originally had several of those items: E31 head Series A transmission 4-screw SU carbs. Dash mounted hazard switch Unused depression above the hazard switch. A lot of those things you list are common to all of the pre-73 cars. (or perhaps even to all of the 240s)

I purchased a 280ZX distributor to begin tinkering with with the intention of eventually putting it on my car. I disassembled it yesterday and when I took the "breaker plate" or advance plate whatever you call it out several small plastic pieces fell out of the thing. (The 79' FSM calls it a breaker plate but others here seem to prefer the term advance plate.) The plate was so jammed up that the top part would not move relative to the bottom part. I also noticed that the magnet that fits under the stator is completely shattered and apparently they are NLA according to this thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32769&highlight=280ZX+distributor The plastic it turns out was the final remains of the retainer for the ball bearings that fit between the upper and lower plate. I ended up taking the entire plate assembly apart to get it freed up. Anyway, on to my wacky idea: I managed to scavenge some ball bearings the correct size from another junk distributor. What if I took some JB-Weld and attached some washers to the bottom side of the upper wear plate and used them to retain the ball bearings? (See attached picture.) Since the old bearing retainer is shot, (See the broken plastic pieces in the same picture.) would washers glued or braised to the upper slide piece serve the same function? My only other options are to either lock the two pieces together and forget about the vacuum advance, or to try to run it without the bearings, which would lower the stator by about 5/32" and I am not sure how well that would work. Also, has anyone successfully made a replacement magnet for this type of distributor from refrigerator magnet stock? It looks possible, but I don't know if it would be strong enough.

As far as what to start on first, I would start with the part you are most comfortable doing and ease into the rest. Or start with the part that keeps nagging at you when you think about the car. In either case it is really easy to lose heart and quit. Try to FINISH part of the rebuild before you take on too many other items. That way you can mentally keep track of the successes and not just a lot of unfinished business.