Walter Moore

Actually, no. The shunt is a calibrated resistor that is always in the circuit. The "Ammeter" is actually a very sensitive voltmeter that is constantly measuring the voltage across the "shunt". If your shunt is missing, and the car still runs that means that the Ammeter has been by-passed. Without the shunt the ammeter will not carry enough current to power the car. (and as was pointed out earlier without the shunt the ammeter could burn out very quickly) You didn't mention what year of Z car you have. On the early cars 70 - 73 or so the shunt is actually mounted on the back of the ammeter. If I remember correctly on the later cars it is mounted in the engine compartment somewhere. (The higher output alternators on the later cars made mounting the shunt in the dash a fire hazard.) In either case, if the problem is that the car does not run BECAUSE the shunt is missing, the simplest solution is to replace it. You can also jumper around the ammeter, but if you do use a BIG wire as it will have to carry all the current to power the entire car. (Except the starter)

I don't know about New Mexico, but welcome to the club here! I hear that cars don't rust in your part of the country, so consider yourself lucky. Rust is actually the primary limiting factor to the life of a Z car. They seem to be very durable otherwise.

Truly a sad day for his family and co-workers, and fans. But he lived what he loved, and he died as he lived. What more can any man hope for than that?

Escalon, don't be offended by what I am about to say... The bottom line here is that all body shops, high end or otherwise are an "ongoing concern", meaning that they intend to be in business for many years. Like a drywall installer, they have to give priority to the high volume customers (Can you say insurance companies?) who will be sending them business tomorrow, and the day after that for the forseable future. (I had a drywaller who I had to bribe with extra $$$ to make him hurry up and finish only three months late...) No matter how happy or unhappy I am with the work that a body shop does on my "restoration" it will be YEARS before I will be back with more work for the guy. He would starve to death waiting on repeat business from me, even if I am estatic with the result. Frankly, I wonder if we wouldn't actually get better service from someplace like Maaco, or Earl Scheib simply because we fit better into their business model. With them WE are their intended customer base.

That is amazing... I guess that what mislead me is that the new bolts that came with the belts I bought are marked "8.8", which is a metric strength class designation. The OEM bolts are marked RYB, or something like that, and they are soft as butter. I would have expected SAE fine thread bolts to be either grade 5, or grade 8, and to have matching markings... Oh wait, perhaps the letters on the old bolts are some obscure 60's era SAE grade markings... I am an electrical engineer, not a mechanical one. The SAE grade designations are somewhat outside my essential knowledge base. I just assumed that this was another place where a metric bolt and an SAE bolt were interchangeable. I know from first hand experience that an M5 x 0.8 and a SAE #10-32 interchange. I have done that both by accident and on purpose. This isn't the first time that I have found SAE bolts on the interior of the car. For some reason the bolts that hold my radio/Heater control/Map light panel are SAE #6-32, and the bolts that hold the fuse box in place are SAE #10-24. I did not re-tap them either, I just discovered this because I had lost the original bolts, and those are the sizes that fit correctly. A 4mm bolt would not thread into the face plate holes, and a 5mm would not thread into the other holes... truly strange and anoying. Not saying that it wasn't done by the PO, but I don't think he would have had any reason to remove the fusebox.

I couldn't find a thread on this subject, so I started one. For the future reference of others who, like me, live in a area where obscure metric bolts and taps are difficult to find, the bolts for the seat belts on a 1971 240Z are a rather unusual size. They are M11 x 1.25. Some of the bolt holes had some dammaged threads. Bolts would go in just a little hard, but when they came back out the threads were rounded off. I tried the old trick of trying to clean the threads with a bolt by cutting a grove in the threads to make it look like a tap, but it didn't work. So I searched for most of the day for a local (Within a 50 mile radius) supplier of a tap in the size mentioned, without success. Finally my Mechanical Engineer son asked if there was an S.A.E. equivalent... silly question I thought until I did the math. 7/16" = 11.1mm 20 threads/inch = 1.27mm/thread I found some SAE 7/16 x 20 bolts and nuts in my assortment of random bolts, and to my suprise the M11 X 1.25 bolt threads into a 7/16 x 20 nut perfectly. You would never know they are different. I bought a tap for the SAE size at the local auto parts (Napa) store. The metric bolts threaded in and tightened up perfectly.

From my perspective, being asked about the worst part of this site is a lot like asking a man who was rescued from a ship wreck what the worst part of his RESCUE was... When I first bought my Z car and started the restoration a friend of mine who is "into" Opels recommended that I seek out an internet club related to Z car because there would be information available there for free that otherwise I would never find. That was truly good advise. The information avaiable here on some of the more obscure problems encountered repairing a Z car has on more than one occasion been the difference between progressing to the next stage of the restoration versus just parting the car out on Ebay. I even enjoy the discussions of other Datsun/Nissan products that pop up from time to time. I had never seen or heard of a Skyline until I visited this site.

Just wondering... If 10W-30 will work, would something like 5W-30 or 5W-20 be better? I notice that a most new cars in the U.S. require one of those oil weights anymore, so both are widely available.

If you sand hard enough it really lights your fire!

It will be four years in October since I got my Z car. It still doesn't run. My biggest problem is that every time I take one thing apart to repair it I find several OTHER major problems that have to be fixed before I can complete the repair that I started. This has gone on for so long that I no longer allow myself to think about WHEN I will be done... only IF I will ever finish. BTW, I need to update my personal icon, because the car has been primer gray for nearly a year now... Maybe I will buy myself a digital camera for my birthday. (That would be a nice change, from constantly buying Z parts.)

Man, for that price it seems like reproduction would be possible... I can't imagine paying that much for a set of tail lights.

Glad to hear that you got it working. I doubt that dirty injector connections would cause a car to run rich. Typically that is caused by either leaking injectors, a plugged air filter, or a defective O2 sensor in the exaust pipe. By the way, for all those interested, ALL cars sold in the U.S. have an EGR valve, not just those in California. The EGR valve injects exaust gas into the intake manifold to reduce the O2 content and lower the combustion temperature, thereby preventing the formation of oxides of nitrogen. Even diesel engines sold here have an EGR valve, which is one of the reasons that U.S. specification diesel cars don't get anywhere near the fuel mileage of the European specification diesel cars.

COOL! That #112 "yellow" is just about the exact color that I have decided I want to have my car painted! I am going for a sherbert-lime green, if I can find one. That is pretty much the same!

BTW, the 4 speed in the previous picture is from an early Z car. (70 - 71) The late 4 speed looks like the transmission on the right in ZSaint's picture. The 5 speed is longer however, and takes a different drive shaft. At least that is what the Hanes manual says, I have never seen one. I just know that MY 4-speed looks like the transmission on the right.

I have never tried using a SBC thermostat cover on a Z car... Just from memory the basic shape and size are similar, except that the cover on a Z is aluminum while the standard cover for a Chevy is steel. Also typically it seems like the Chevy covers have an outlet pipe that is pointed upward while the Datsun cover is more or less horizontal. If I recall correctly the chamber size on the Chevy cover, that is the hemispherical dome, is smaller than the one on the Z car. It might fit, if you have one try it I guess... but generally you will not get much support around this site asking about non-Nissan parts. Folks around here really aren't into that sort of thing. Heck, I was snubbed once for asking about using a whip style antenna instead of a "correct" motorized retractable one... Don't take it personally, it happens.

I put the MSA exaust on my car, but haven't lowered it down to the ground yet so I can't attest to how low it hangs... (still up on roller stands.) I was able to get the pipe snug up under the car body. I think the muffler and tail pipe fit very nicely, but then I haven't seen the stock exaust since I cut it off with a sawsall three years ago. The part that I had trouble with was getting the little Y pipe onto the 3 into 2 header. I am still not sure how I was supposed to attach the Y pipe to the header... I went out and bought pipe clamps. I hope I don't live to regret that.

I found the kit in the auto section at my local Wal-mart. I used it on the passenger door panel. It is cheaper than buying a new panel, but I had to use the kit several times to get a semi-acceptable result. I finally got the panel where the rip was gone, but I am not happy with how it looks. Which, to be honest, is about what I expected would happen.

Why not? My kids all think that I am an old buzzard... Actually, I don't need any more salvage parts at the moment..

A quick search for JT OUTFITTERS on Ebay's member profile search shows 6 close matches: jtoutfitters: Member Since May 2001 Rating 3, 100% positive. (All from SELLERS) No negative feedback received. 2 feedbacks left for other members, 100% positive. No items listed for sale in the last 30 days. jtoutfitter: Member Since Jan 2006 Rating 2, 100% positive. (All from SELLERS) No negative feedback received. 2 feedbacks left for other members, 100% positive. No items listed for sale in the last 30 days. jcoutfitters: Member Since March 2002 Rating 73, 100% positive. (All from SELLERS) No negative feedback received. 5 feedbacks left for other members, 100% positive. No items listed for sale in the last 30 days. jpoutfitters: Member Since Feb. 2004 Rating 65, 100% positive. (57 from BUYERS, 12 from SELLERS) No negative feedback received. 75 feedbacks left for other members, 100% positive. No items listed for sale in the last 30 days. (Last item sold in March 2006) jgoutfitters: Member since November 1999 Rating 95, 100% positive. (44 from BUYERS, 60 from SELLERS) No negative feedback received. 109 feedbacks left for other members, 100% positive. 1 item listed for sale in the last 30 days: "Fender Lone Star Stratocaster Strat, Immaculate, As New" $665 (Appears to mostly deal with musical instruments.) jhoutfitters: Member since October 2001 Rating 155, 100% positive. (87 from BUYERS, 88 from SELLERS) No negative feedback received. 222 feedbacks left for other members, 100% positive. No items listed for sale in the last 30 days. (Last item sold in April 2006) None of those profiles fit the description of a scam seller who abuses the negative feedback options to bully people into silence. There is a dispute resolution process on Ebay. I have used it (once) and the seller responded in a positive way to the nudge. I recommend that your friend take advantage of that process, and keep us posted as to the outcome. And in the meantime, please check with him as to the exact Ebay user name of the offender, because somehow the name in your original post doesn't seem to be related to anyone who sells Z parts on Ebay.

Now you guys have me worried. I had my E31 rebuilt a while back, and had all the valves replaced. All that I could get were the 44mm intake and 35mm exaust. I haven't been able to start it yet, but it turns over just fine. (It is an otherwise stock L24) Would I be able to tell if I had a problem just by cranking it over with a rachet? I have done that several times to keep it from rusting up while I was finishing the rest of the car. I never noticed any problem that would have indicated an internal collision.

I guess you have one of the later Zs with vaccum controls... mine is all levers and cables.

Kelly Charger tires are either S or T rated depending on the size. See this link for further details: http://www.kelly-springfield.com/auto/products/csr.html

Are you sure that you don't have an exaust leak in that area?

If you find one that you like let me know... I have been working on my Z for several years and am tired of the body work. The rest of it is fun, but I hate paint and bondo.

...Fiat... Ha Ha Ha... I had a friend who owned a Fiat X19, safest car in history! The only way that you could get hurt with one was if it CRUSHED you when it fell off of the jack stands... EVERY time that he drove it the stupid thing broke... usually the cluch cable, or the clutch master cylinder, or both... (yes, it had BOTH)