Captain Obvious

Awesome. So you should be all set until your door locks start acting up. :laugh:

That's the same car as the Craigslist ad I posted above. They drug the car out of the weeds and took some pictures in the open. It doesn't look any better in the light of day....

You could have pulled the spherical post out instead of cutting the washer. Put some Loctite on it when you put it back together, and it should hold. The REAL elegant solution would be to make a new stud with a larger ball on the end... That would be the most time consuming alternative! Here's a thread with some other related pics:

Haha! Yes they are! It would sure be sturdy and fuel resistant!! As mentioned above, one of the things that makes the Nitrophyl work is the fact that if done correctly, it skins over on the outside to produce a protective and non absorptive shell. "NITROPHYL material is transformed from a solid material to a hard, cellular structure by a two-step molding process. The outside layers, which are in contact with the hot surfaces of the cavity, produce a hard, smooth outer surface. The inside acquires a closed-cell structure. This distinctly different shell or "skin" protects the cell structure and adds to the mechanical strength of the part. NITROPHYL floats are also abrasion-resistant and capable of reproducing cavity details with sharp resolution in a wide range of sizes." NITROPHYL Design Guide I'm no plastics guy and I don't know if Rogers Corp sells the Nitrophyl compound in a resinous form, but it does appear they currently hold the trademark on the Nitrophyl name. I didn't look deeply enough to determine if they want to make their money selling resin or selling floats, (or both). I also didn't dig to see if there were other "generic" compounds of foamed NBR available from other sources or if Rogers Corp had a stranglehold on the technology.

That stuff from McMaster would be about as hard as a shoe heel and difficult to machine, but you guys are missing the most important tricky part... It's solid and it won't float. The tricky part to the Nitrophyl is that it's a FOAMED Buna-N, not solid. According to Rogers, you can machine and glue Nitrophyl sections together to make a float, but it's not as simple as taking a solid hunk of typical Buna-n (like what McMaster offers) and trying to hog out a float.

"For over 40 years, Rogers Corporation has been the leader in the design and production of liquid level floats where resistance to gasoline, oil, and other hydrocarbons is essential. The key is in our NITROPHYL® NBR (Buna-N) Technology." Rogers Corporation NITROPHYL-Floats

Cool. Let me know. Here's the grind stamp on that cam:

I've got an internally oiled "A" grind cam and all the valve train bits from an N47 if someone needs a cam. Came from an early ZX motor that I'm parting out. $80 shipped east of the Mississippi, $85 west. Cam, rockers and retainer springs, lash pads, adjuster balls and their mounts. I kept all the bits for each lobe segregated and packed up independently so you know what goes where when putting it together.

Gotcha covered with the L28... $100: I haven't pulled the bottom end apart, so I can't tell you how the bearings look, but I have no reason to believe there's anything wrong with it. I can I tell that there's no wear ridge at the top of the cylinders and the crank spins smooth and easy. Piston tops also look fine. You can open it up at my place if you wish, but for the price, you can hardly go wrong! I'm probably between one and two hours from you. PM me for more details?

You don't need your locksmith to tell you if it can be reyeked... You'll know as soon as you try to insert your blank. If your blank slips in, you should be able to key it to what you need. If your blank won't go in at all, you're still on the hunt for the correct one. Fingers crossed for you! Another option I just thought about if you get desperate. You could use the longer cylinder (the one with seven tumblers) and just not populate all the positions. Just put six tumblers in it and it will operate just like the shorter cylinder. Locksmith will probably hate that idea... Only thing is that I'm not sure a longer cylinder will fit properly in the housing designed for the shorter one. Just musing at this point.

I messed around a little and based on the pattern of URL's they used for the sections, I've verified that section 7 is there. It's just not linked to correctly. If you enter the address manually: You can get to section 7 here Section 8, however, is truly MIA. (Maybe because it's "Section 8?")

Haha! I had the exact same thought when I saw this other Craigslist ad: 1976 Datsun 280z 2+2 barn find When you say "Barn Find", the implication is that the car was INSIDE the barn, not simply the fact that there is a barn on the same property!! I mean, this is ridiculous!! If you look closely, you can see parts of some wooden structure in the background of some of the pics. One can only assume that it's a barn?:stupid:

Did a little digging and I didn't find definitive info, here's some stuff that may help. Here's an older thread talking about the early key blanks with some pics: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/help-me/12182-ignition-lock.html Here's a snipped from the parts fiche showing the different key blanks: Datsun 240Z/260Z/280Z Blank Key It appears that the very early cars had single cut keys with grooves on one side only. There were multiple different key blanks for these early locks. You don't have this style and I don't know much about them. Then at some time, they switched to the reversible key type that was cut on both sides which doesn't matter which way you insert it into the locks. This is what you have. On the parts fiche, it indicates that these reversible styles came in "left" and "right". I'm thinking that there might only be two versions of your blank, L and R. And as a side note, I can't get sections seven or eight of the parts fiche at xenons30.com to work. Is it just me, or is there something wrong with them?

Oh, and BTW, Taylor is a brand of key blanks, and the X6 or X7 can be used to determine if it's for the six or seven tumbler design. You can use the longer blank on the shorter locks... You'll just have more unused shank sticking out of the lock. The reverse (using the shorter to work a longer cylinder) might not work because you'll probably run out of length. I hate when that happens.

Glad to help. I'll try to dig up where I read about the four different key blanks. I wasn't too concerned with the early locks because I've got the later longer style so most of my research centered around that style instead. Let me see what I can dig up...

Mike, If you do in fact end up with baggies of both parts instead of singles, I'd gladly take one of each off your hands and split your cost 50/50. Keep us posted!!

You got issues. I'm no locksmith or expert on Z lock genealogy, but from my searching and reading... When the Z first came out, they used a six tumbler lock shell. I believe there were four different shells available and each required a different key blank to fit. That means there were four possible keys and six tumbler positions for each key. All the lock shells look the same from the outside, and that's why your locksmith said it "looked like the right one". That's because it DID "look" like the right one. Problem is that you can't see inside with just a picture and you can't tell what key blank it needs. Then sometime along the years, they switched to a seven tumbler shell and I believe there were two different shells requiring different key blanks. That means there were two possible keys and seven tumbler positions for each key. As you could probably imagine, the seven tumbler shells are longer than the six tumbler shells and that's where the "long" and "short" designations come from. Sounds from your discussions with your locksmith that your car uses one of the older "short" six tumbler shells. If your goal is to continue to use one key to operate all the locks on the car, you must first determine the correct key blank for your locks and then find an ignition lock shell designed that same key blank. I don't know if parts still exist to do that, but it sounds from your locksmith that he can't get them. If you've smashed the depth locator feature inside your lock by hammering on the key, you're lucky it works at all with any amount of wiggling. You need a new lock shell and tumblers. If you can't find the correct shell for your current key blank, you're going to have to carry two keys or change all the other locks to the same new blank as your new ignition lock. I suspect you'll have the same issue there... You won't be able to find door locks or trunk locks that will work with the same key blank.

As it should be. That's the second function of the spring and rocker bar I mentioned above. When the key is inserted and turned off "LOCK" for the first time, that rocker bar latches the locking mechamism out of the way until the key is completely removed. The snap you hear is when the rocker bar unlatches the lock mechanism and lets the lock snap into place. Glad they found it!

Zed Head, I'm not sure you missed anything... Mike says his five speed has two ears on the rear housing which according to this site (Differential Ratios) means that it is an early five speed from a Z: I've got two ears on mine as well, so I'm thinking that Mike and I have the same genre. So does that revelation do anything to the suggestions about what to do about clipping reverse on the way out?

Haha! Great... That's one of the ones that's on it's way to me! I bought one of those, and one of the Bosch units that's threaded on both ends thinking that I might be able to modify it to fit better. Sorry, but here's to hoping that your issue is somewhere else! :classic: To test the check valve on the supply side, clamp the line from the fuel filter TO the fuel rail. To test the FPR, clamp the return line FROM the fuel rail back to the tank. The OTHER line over by the fuel filter. If you clamp them both at the same time and you still lose pressure, then you've got a leaking injector, cold start valve, or are leaking fuel through the FPR into the vacuum control line connected to your intake manifold.

I'll be watching your progress with this as I frequently clip reverse coming out of 5th. I've been inside trannys in the past and it annoys the crap out of me that I do this when I so much know better. I don't know if a stiffer detent spring would fix it, but if it does help and is that easy to put in, that would be excellent! Zed Head, What do you mean by "feature"? Do you mean the feature of clipping reverse on your way from fifth to fourth? Or the feature of having an anemic detent?

Thanks for the tip. Solenoid valves are easy to find. Solenoid valves that are guaranteed to be compatible with gasoline (and ethanol) aren't so easy to find.

I've got a couple ebay check valves on order. Should be here soon, but in the meantime, I had another idea... Anyone have leads on a car that used an electrically controlled SOLENOID VALVE on the fuel supply? Something that electrically blocks or allows the flow of fuel through it based on an electrical signal. If something like that exists, I could easily wire that into the system such that it will only allow fuel flow when the engine needs it. I've seen devices like that used in the vapor recovery system, but I've not seen one used to actually control liquid flow. So, anyone ever seen such a device used for gasoline control?

Gotcha. Well if I get into mine and find that it can be repaired, I'll take some shots.

I would like to drop back just a little and double check something... A lot of 280's have hot start issues and it's usually fuel related. I know you said there's no spark when this problem is occurring, but are you positive, no question, absolutely know for sure that it's an electrical problem and not a fuel problem? Are you sure that the timing light while cranking is a good indication of spark? Did you try the timing light when it's NOT hot and get flash?