MikeW

Tie-down hooks are bolt-on items. They were used to keep the cars from getting tossed around on ships from Japan.

That's not a tow hook. It's simply a bracket that supports the bottom of the grille and nothing more. Perhaps yours was used as a tow hook which might explain why it's missing.

My recollection is that changing the hole simply puts more tension on the straight side of the chain. The tensioner, which is both spring loaded and controlled by oil pressure, should always take up whatever slack there is on the other side while the engine is running. I agree that the tensioner has less effect when turning it over by hand. Does that make sense or am I completely losing it?

I realize there was no counterfeit money. That was simply the example used in the definition I pasted. I had simply never heard that definition of "utter".

"Barry Lee Pryer, 45, of Va. Beach, was arrested at East Coast Z Car Center and charged with forgery, conspiracy to force, utter and conspiracy to utter." Uh, just what exactly is uttering? Ok, now I see: Utter: put into circulation; "utter counterfeit currency" For a minute there I was afraid it was blurting out "I swear I didn't do it officer"

Your car is a total loss to them if it costs them more to fix than what they think the car was worth. Unless you have an appraisal or some other indication of the value they're going to claim that it's just a 34 year old Datsun. If you haven't already I'd search here for other advice about dealing with the insurance company. I know that in the past Escanlon has had some extremely sound advice in this area. You probably want to be as informed as possible before talking to them.

Can you post a picture?

The 260's and 280's were offered as 2+2 models which were obviously longer and therefore did have certain body parts that were different.

I have to give them credit for the way the ad is done. It's nice to see pictures of all the ID tags and numbers and they generally give honest descriptions of things. I do note however that the dash is clearly cracked given the awful carpet covering and they don't mention anything about that in the section on the interior. I also note that the seat covers are not original even though the seats appear to be. At least they didn't start the auction with an outrageous starting bid; it will be interesting to see what the reserve is.

Are you sure it's not just a choke cable adjustment problem?

Dave answered this previously: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showpost.php?p=157989&postcount=42

Wow, the buyer managed to talk them down $95. Based on Carl's evaluation I feel sorry for the buyer ...

That's not bad at all if the car truly has only 33K miles. The pictures look good although I'd like to see more.

Perhaps you could get someone local to go and have a look at it for you before making the trip. I would say that $250 is worth it for a 240Z in just about any condition; surely it's worth that much for parts. You'll need to actually see the car before determining whether it's worth restoring.

Better a Ford GT, than, say, this: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060224/480/la11402240124

With FedEx you can fill out a form instructing them that it's Ok to leave the package unsigned. https://www.fedex.com/ca_english/signaturerelease/

I think there are two separate issues here. The reduced amperage through the fusebox and original wiring is the main benefit of using the relays - no question. This is turn gives you brighter lights due to less resistance and therefore higher voltage - another big advantage. As far as the combination switch goes - and I ended up repairing my own - it's the actual switching on and off that's the problem, not the duration that the lights are on. With DC current, there's always a small arc when the switch is opened or closed and over time it damages the switch. Presumably the contacts would get damaged faster with higher amperage so using the relays should help there as well but once your lights are on leaving them on for hours should not cause the switch problems. My understanding is that this is the main reason that automotive manufacturers have not gone to 24V or higher systems. The big reason to do that would be to use smaller gauge wires for everything - saving weight and money - but the increased voltage would kill the switches faster.

I think you should pull and examine all of the spark plugs. I'm guessing that one of them is going to be different than the others ...

One more point to emphasize how compelling the relay harness is: the stock headlamp fuses are 10A. We all know that these fuses can get hot and cause the fusebox to melt. After installing the upgrade I switched to 3A fuses. Just now I went and measured the actual current through one of these fuses. Actually, it looks like only one of the fuses is actually needed now (the fuse that was formerly just for the R lamp). low beams: 0.13A high beams: 0.33A That's with upgraded Silverstar 55/65W headlamps.

That's what I was thinking. Of course, if he's not getting a spark then it would be even worse. How's the car running?

Bad fuel pump? It's not like there are many places where fuel could get into the oil. Edit: I see now that you probably have an electric pump so it has to be somewhere else. Are all of the injectors working properly?

Can you post some pictures?

Nissan specifies 20W oil for the dampers although people have successfully used other oils and even ATF (automatic transmission fluid). To insure that they're both functioning the same you need a tool called a unisyn flowmeter. You can get the meter as well as a great video showing how to tune the carbs here: http://www.ztherapy.com/products/masterprices/master_price_list.htm

I never got anywhere with that idea. The database part is easy. The hard part is providing a mechanism for users to submit and view the information. As I mentioned in an earlier post I think it would be best if this site could host the database as well as the web page for accessing it. I don't know if the software that runs this site has any mechanism for this sort of thing. I personally don't have a web site/domain suitable for this.