Walter Moore

I am not sure what year car you have, but on the 240Z's there is a "hidden" in-line fuse holder for the blower motor. It is up in the wiring harness behind the heater panel. The previous owner of my car had taken the entire heater panel out and even replaced the fan switch apparently trying to find the problem. I stumbled across the in-line fuse holder when I was re-assembling things, and being naturally curious I opened it up to see what was inside. What I found was a blown fuse... I can't remember now whether it was a 10A, or a 20A. I do think that it shows up on the wiring diagram in the Haynes manual, if you look hard enough. (With a magnifying glass.)

I had a problem very similar to what you describe. My car would run fine until the engine got up to temperature then suddenly it ran really bad at high speeds. In my case however even when hot it ran acceptably so long as you stayed below about 60 miles per hour. driving faster than that, or even attempting to do so caused the engine to just slow down and run really bad. It turned out to be the mechanical fuel pump that was the problem. Why it was heat related I will never know. As for the pressure readings, they seem low to me but I have never taken any readings on my car. I will tell you that the "bad" pump on my car worked fairly well regardless of engine speed, so long as I didn't have a really heavy load on the engine. It was a volume problem, no a pressure problem. So long as the volume of fuel that the engine needed stayed within its capacity all was ok.

Interesting that they stuck both of the SU's in parallel ahead of the turbo charger. I guess it would work, but most people switch to fuel injection when they add a turbo don't they? I heard that back in 79, when Ford put a turbo 4 in the Mustang they originally just stuck a big 2-barrel Weber ahead of it, but that the intakes would sometimes rupture on the German Autobahn when someone had been running at speed for a long time and suddenly lifted off of the gas pedal. The story was that the throttle plate slamming shut would cause the mixture to lean out and the hot turbo charger would ignite it. I am not sure if it was true, but they did switch to fuel injection pretty quickly on the turbocharged cars.

The other thing that you could do, if the hard lines you have are long enough, is to cut the flare off and remove the 10mm fitting, then slide on the appropriate SAE fitting and re-flare the end. Surely you mean the fitting has an SAE flare nut, not an NPT thread. (Tapered?) I have never seen a Wilwood proportioning valve, but I doubt that anyone puts pipe threads on a brake part.

P225/60R14 is the same outside diameter, and ought to fit so long as the wheel has an offset of around 10mm or there about. The tire and rim association yearbook lists the minimum with for that size at 6.0 inches. Check the inside of the wheels because normally the width and offset values are cast into the wheel.

Given the condition of some of those plates on my car, I can also see a legitimate purpose for the blank tags. If you wanted to do a full blown "restoration" and make it look show room new, those would be handy.

Most of the LSD differentials that I have owned on non-Nissan products took more force to override than normal people would be likely to apply by just trying to turn one wheel by hand. If you were just trying to turn the studs without the wheel you would need a breaker bar to move it. Just my opinion.

Gotta love the optimism... There is a large psychological component to economics. If EVERYONE believes that the situation is hopeless, it will become hopeless because everyone behaves accordingly.

Which end is seeping? I suspect that the threads or flare cone in the end that seeps is messed up. Remember that you need to get the 10mm Japanese brake lines. I don't know how many lines I ended up returning because the guy at the counter thought it was something else.

Most of the Z car parts on Ebay are usually available for less money on one of the many Z car parts sites. About the only "deals" you are likely to get are on parts that are not available new, and don't deteriorate with age. Here are a few: http://www.thezstore.com/ http://www.courtesyparts.com/ http://www.nissanparts.cc/ http://www.zbarn.com/ http://www.classicdatsun.com/ http://www.datsunstore.com/ http://www.ztherapy.com/ I have not dealt with all of those people, and there are others out there, but generally I believe that the retail outlets give better service, and have better products than what you will find on Ebay. The only parts that I bought on Ebay that ended up being good deals were bumpers, used wheels, and perhaps some various other small parts. Beware of "New old stock"...

I do also recommend that you use the belt for the later alternators when doing the swap because the earlier belt is too narrow and will not hold up.

Personally, I doubt that you need different plugs, but it does appear that the P79 head made it's appearance in 1981. See this link for more information: http://datsunzgarage.com/heads/ I suspect that you need to adjust the valves. The backfiring with a hot engine sounds like the gap may be too small. But the plug question is interesting. Let us all know what you find out.

Sorry to hear that. From your gallery it looks like a pretty unique car. Not to many 240Z convertibles around.

Yes, as Jimmy Z said, the camshaft slides out easily, but of course you have to back off the rocker arms and remove the timing sprocket (I think...) Anyway, it is crucial that if you remove the towers, they must go back on in the right place, and be reinstalled properly. I know that there is a thread here somewhere that describes doing that because I specifically asked the question when I reassembled my cylinder head. To save money, I reassembled my cylinder head after it was repaired and had new valves installed. It can be done, just be careful. Oh, and re-installing the valve springs is a royal pain. They are way stronger than most of the valve springs I have dealt with in the past. If the head is off the car I recommend using a "C" style spring compressor because it holds the valve in place, and you will need that.

What years of Pickup trucks had the R180? Did it extend into the "Nissan" era, or were they strictly Datsun trucks? When you swap the differential from a truck do you just pull the internal gears? I assume the truck would have a live axle, so the case is different isn't it? (I see a lot of Nissan trucks running around these parts, so I am wondering if the few junk yards we have left might have one or two...) I have a 5 speed from an 83, with my original 3.36 differential. I have finally gotten used to downshifting into 1st in tight corners, but the prospect of being able to stay in 2nd at speeds below 30 mph is appealing.

Let's assume for a moment that I live somewhere where 79-80 280zx's are almost non-existent in junk yards... (Which is very close to the truth):nervous: Since I don't have a parts CD for the ZX, is it possible, or worth the effort to buy these parts from some normal, non-used parts source somewhere? What would you expect to pay? I know that most people seem to be able to pull these out of junk yards like strawberries at a berry farm, but some of us don't have that option.

Oh no... please don't use the "F" word! It just starts fights.

1 inch lower ride height? (Only if the springs are the same...) Did the 260 get longer springs? Isn't it a slightly heaver car?

What engine was in the 610? (says he who became interested in Datsuns about 2002...):nervous:

I doubt that it is the P.O.'s fault. Those plugs just get tight. Something related to a steel plug in an aluminum case. I carefully hand tightened one once with a really short wrench, and a year later I decided to take it out to check the level. It took several minutes with a pipe wrench and a sledge hammer to get it loose. Personally, I prefer impact to raw torque because it seems to work quicker and do less damage.

On my car I replaced the hoses and left the expansion tank intact because it seems to be in good condition. I really don't see what you would gain by trying to remove all of those hoses except a bunch of potential gas leaks. I strongly recommend replacing them. I guess if your expansion tank is damaged I might have a different opinion.

Outdoors, in Indiana, for more than 10 years... It should be dirt soon...

3.36:1 is correct for the U.S. 240Z. I assume that the 260Z might have come with that ratio as well. I didn't think they made that ratio in the R200 however. Oh, and I made that same mistake trying to count the turns on the drive shaft by turning only one wheel. Best way to determine the ratio is to open it up and count the teeth. A 3.36 will have 37 on the ring gear and 11 on the spur gear. Other options are 37/10, 39/11, or 39/10 I bet it is actually an R180. (180mm ring gear) My records seem to indicate that the both the 4 speed, and the late, close ratio 5 speed I installed later only weight about 70 lbs, so the 125 seems high. Just an estimate perhaps? I noticed that they were really light, so I weighed both of mine.

Sblake, Thanks for the information from the manual. I am actually impressed by the 78 system. Using the Alternator as a backup for the oil pressure switch is a really good idea. It must really cut down on nuisance stoppages. After installing my electric pump on my 71 I had a couple of instances where the engine stalled for undetermined reasons. In one case I had to by-pass the oil pressure switch to get it to run so I could drive home. But then I checked the switch and it tested fine. I am still running a points style ignition, and have the oil pump powered by the "hot" side of the ballast resistor. I eventually realized that if the oil pressure switch made while the engine was still cranking the voltage to the pump dropped to 6V. (Ballast resistor is bypassed while cranking.) In that case, if there was no fuel in the lines the pump would never pressurize the system and the car wouldn't start. I added a diode backwards across the ballast and that fixed the restart problem. The stall problem I have never tracked down. I can't make it happen so I have no idea what causes it. It has only happened twice.