Captain Obvious

Haha!!

Wow. I assumed that it slipped out of position some in order to get deformed that bad. I'm not sure how that can even happen! :eek: Good luck with the reconstruction.

That key is hammered! Did that just happen or did it come out that way? And too bad about the pulley crack. A buddy of mine just did that to his because his key did the same thing your did and slipped out of position as he pressed the pulley on. His pulley is a goner. On the good side... I think you have conclusively figured out why your front seal was leaking so bad!

Cool! I thought I remembered people having a hard time sourcing the U-joints. Glad to hear there's a source available!

Sounds like the spray bar had been holding on by a thread and it looks like that rearmost cam lobe may have been running somewhat dry for a while because of that. Is it OK? [vader]Do not underestimate the power of the flat tops.[/vader]

OK, I'll admit it... ^^ That made me chuckle.

Yeah, searching out where play like that is 1000 times easier with someone else inside the car rocking the steering wheel back and forth. It also helps to keep the tires on the ground so they don't move as much. I found that if the tires are locked in place by friction with the floor, it helps isolate the issue. You gotta be able to beg or borrow someone for fifteen minutes to sit in your driver's seat and rock the wheel. I'm still hoping for something not inside the rack itself. Inner tie rod ends or steering coupler would be easier to find than a whole rack. U-joints from what I've heard would be no treat to find though... Let's hope that's not it either. Here's a pic of one of Mike's new inner tie rod ends from that other thread: [ATTACH=CONFIG]69927[/ATTACH] Looks very different than stock, but it's under the bootie, so who cares? Good luck!!

Woof. So the Nissan filters aren't immune either? Wait... Is that a cupcake?

First thing... When you say you put on new tie rod ends, are you talking about outers, inners, or both? Because if you didn't replace the inners, I would look at them first. If you already did that and there truly is play inside the rack itself, I don't believe there are any easy fixes. There are only two moving parts inside the rack, and that's the rack gear and the pinon gear (and it's bearings). So what could be the problem? Rack gear worn. Pinion gear worn. Worn bronze bushings on the ends of the rack housing. Rack rod itself worn where it rides through those bronze bushings. I'm hoping it's inner tie rod ends and not with the rack "proper" at all. Lots of pics and info in this thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/suspension-steering-s30/51640-steering-rack-disassembly-refurb.html I'm sure there are subtle differences between the 240 and 280 rack assy's but I suspect their similar enough that there might be useful info there even though it was for a 280.

Excellent. Sounds like you an I had the same issue... We needed to turn our squeal shims into anti-squeal shims.

Gotcha. Good luck with the project!

Glad to help. I just took a look at the FSM years I have (downloaded from xenons30) and according to the service manuals, those switches were all over the map! Earliest I have is 72 (and I don't have 75), but pretty much everything else was different every year! 77 and 78 looked the same, but that doesn't do you any good. 71 might be the same as 72, but after seeing all the other changes over the years, I'm not really confident. Here's the earliest I have. Its from a 72. Note that the diagram is turned 90 degrees from the way they depicted later years and I find it harder to read. But once you figure that out, it's not too bad. I made a couple notes to try to help: But you'll notice that there is NO connection that is hot in both ON and START. There are a couple choices for ON and there area couple for START, but nothing that covers both. They are mutually exclusive other than the hot at all times source wire. So you either need a 71 manual or forget the manual completely and just measure the connections on the back of the switch. I'm not sure what you want is available that year. Is there a specific reason you want hot in START? Not intending to pass judgment, but it seems a little odd. :bulb:

Hold on. You don't have it right yet... The wire going to what you have identified as position #14 is the SOURCE for all the other functions and it's hot at all times. Of course "hot at ALL times" include both "ON" and "START", but that's not what you're looking for. The only choice you have for a wire that is hot in both ON and START (and only in ON and START) is the one going to position 16. According to the wiring diagrams, you're after the black/white wire, and it was used on earlier years for ballast defeat when starting and on later years for that as well as powering the ignition module, etc. All that said though, according to the wiring diagrams, there was a change in the ignition switches between 72 and 73... The 72 version I have shows NO such connection available at the switch like they do in all the later years. In 72 (and presumably earlier?) The black/white wire is only hot in START, and not in ON. So... This might depend on what year you're working on? If you're working on what's in your sig, then you might not have any option.

The arrows should be pointing in the direction of forward wheel rotation, and I've also found from experience that they do matter. I had an intermittend brake squeal and when I pulled my pads, I found my PO had installed those shims backwards. I flipped them around and my squeal hasn't come back since. I was thrilled it was that simple.

There were a couple small issues with rev. "L", so Revision "M" has just been uploaded. It's awesome.

Here's the latest. It's Revision "M". It includes the two changes mentioned above (voltage regulator and illumination light in the Temp/Oil gauge): 1977 Color Wiring Diagram Version M.pdf Wayne had asked for me to take a look at it and upload it if I got the chance. Never tried to attach a pdf before, so let's hope this works right!! Thanks again Wayne!!

Agreed... It's simply astounding that you didn't jump a tooth or run a chunky bit through the chain. Murphy must have been off doing something else. You might want to watch your back.

I'm pullin' for ya!! Let's hope that's the end of it!

Yes, it's basically another injector that dumps fuel in, and it's located just behind the throttle body. You should be able to find it by following the fuel lines. The fuel line that shoots over towards the throttle body goes to the cold start injector. The cold start injector is not under the control of the fuel injection ECU in any way other than it's connected to the same fuel source. If there's fuel pressure, the cold start injector should spray even if the fuel injection ECU has been completely removed from the car. Assuming it's cold enough to warrant needing the cold start injector, the cold start injector should spray when the engine is CRANKING, and it won't do that forever. There's a temperature controlled switch (known as the thermotime switch) that will cut off the cold start injector after a few seconds of spraying regardless if the engine has started or not. Take a look in the FI literature about the thermotime switch. That's what controls the cold start injector. The ECU has nothing to do with it.

Excellent. Glad you got it back together and that the tensioner didn't take out any other parts when it snapped. Your tensioner clicked into position all right. Into position at the bottom of the front cover that is!! Impossible to go back at this time, but I wonder what happened. You think you didn't get the tensioner plunger into position correctly at the very beginning? My guess is that it slipped out and was wedged on an angle from the very beginning and that's why you had such a hard time getting the cam chain on. And it went from there. I liked your shot holding the distributor drive shaft from the top. I did the same thing when I was changing my oil pump and didn't want to mess with the timing. Looked like this:

I'd leave the wheels on and grab the tires and rock them around up/down and side/side. You need the mechanical amplification of the tire diameter to feel for looseness. If you are measuring right at the hub, the amount of movement is reduced because your fulcrum is shorter. Mine were pretty loose and even as loose as they were, I couldn't really tell by grabbing just the hub. And yeah... It's a PITA.

Beautiful. I'm going to have to redo mine in the (hopefully) near future as well. Hope mine turns out that well!

That's what I figured as well. And I don't think you can put them on and end up with partial covering, can you? I think if you get them on wrong, you completely occlude the oil feed hole. I haven't been in there in many moons however, so memory is quite fuzzy. Well good luck with the investigation and keep us posted! It's just so odd to be on the other side of the fence. You so often hear people complain about low oil pressure. How often do you hear the opposite!

Appreciate the input, and as a matter of fact, cable adjustment was something else I tried before resorting to the return spring. When I first got the car, I had four or five clicks up to set the parking brake. Handle would rattle around and sometimes flash the brake bulb as Jim mentioned above. So, after convincing myself that I wasn't missing some return spring somewhere in the system, I did exactly what you suggested... I adjusted the brake cable to take out some of the slack. After the adjustment, the handle stayed down much better than before, but still rattled a little sometimes. I also only got two clicks out of it before the brake was fully set, and it just didn't feel right to me. Maybe I was just used to those four or five clicks, but I liked it that way. Now I can have my cake and eat it too. Four or five clicks up to set the brake, and positive stop down when not in use. PS - Love the rock that came with the car as a wheel chock! That's classic!