inline6

Some options to investigate: https://upgarageusa.com/pages/nos-parts-we-have-instock-for-1969-1995-z-cars https://vintagerubber.com/datsun-240z-260z-front-bumper-guard-over-rider-strip-kit-69-72/ https://jdm-car-parts.com/products/front-bumper-over-rider-vertical-strip-set-for-datsun-240z I believe I have a spare set of aftermarket ones as well - I think of decent quality. Let me know if you would like to see some pics of them.

I am about to start on the task of adjusting the profile of my Hitachi SU needles (I have SM needles installed). I read this thread in preparation: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/59153-modified-su-carb-needles-for-l28/ @240260280 has detailed knowledge on the subject which is impressive! I wish I had the tools and knowledge to do what he knows should be done. Instead of measuring vacuum, etc. as referenced there, I am thinking about rigging up a camera to record a video of the piston movement under certain real world scenarios. For that recording, I am thinking of putting black marker lines on the piston that equate to the station positions on the needle. For the real world scenarios, I would like to record a series of various part throttle applications. I am hopeful that I can locate a specific range of the needle that will need to be modified. Very generally, I believe I have good AFRs at idle, and cruise (at 50 mph for example), and at wide open throttle. On the other hand, I have lean or very lean conditions at part throttle and during closed throttle deceleration (accompanied by popping in the exhaust). I will be making some more AFR reference runs before I attempt to modify the needles to confirm. But then, I am hoping to record the videos, and remove a miniscule amount of material from the "pick up" needle stations. The segment of the needle I need to modify should be confirmed by reviewing the video. Anyone have additional recommendations or thoughts?

Looks like I never finished this thread. I replaced the front yoke and took the propeller shaft to a local shop for balancing. It was there opinion that the shop that did the shortening of the prop shaft did not balance it. When I went to install the shaft into the transmission, the "slop" (the amount I could push the yoke radially) was a lot. As an estimate from looking, I'd say I could move the yoke in any direction about .020". So, that is about a mm of movement radially. It might have been a bit more than that. So, I decided to replace the bushing that is in the tail shaft of the transmission. Looking back on it, I think the bushing developed wear because of the driveshaft being out of balance for the first 500 or so miles I put on the car. I think that the bushing was sacrificial - meaning made of softer material than the yoke. Anyway, after putting the new bushing in (removal and reinstallation of the transmission was required), the new yoke was tight (no discernable movement at all radially). With everything back together, the vibration that caused me to start this thread is gone!

It is there for both of my cars - 12/70 and 6/71.

I was able to get everything back together on the car yesterday. The new yoke (with a new bushing in the back of the transmission) was a very snug fit. After double checking I torqued everything, I was able to take the car on a test drive. What a big difference! I got up to about 80 on some interstate and the severe vibration, which previously could be felt with a hand on the transmission tunnel, and seen in the blurring rear view mirror, was gone. Now, I can get back to the small list of things that I have to do to finish this car: install inside rear tail light trim panel install front right kick panel clean and glue in tool compartment liners repaint tail light trim panels (for better color match) install NOS glove box hinge/inside panel install rear hatch trim panel repair and install factory radio, or install guts of a new radio in the old radio case

Today, I was able to get the transmission back into the car. Because I am one-handed at the moment, I purchased a transmission jack, and I enlisted the help of a friend. This thing is quite the beast - 1000 lb. capacity and it has two telescoping lifting sections (rods). It cost more than I wanted to spend, but I couldn't force myself to buy a cheap, garbage version. I guess as I get older, I'm going to need more assistance for jobs like this one. So, this is a nice thing to have available. I should be able to finish putting the rest back together and take the car for a test drive tomorrow.

Excel workbook (sheet) is ready to upload to an appropriate section of the resources. Google sheet also has been updated: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Cmnw0F8N7B3VknCzNwGkfN2SGmIHdFJhDjARv3jkxNI/edit?usp=sharing Can someone confirm that you can expand and collapse the groups? You should be able to. Note that the order I have this in, from top to bottom (the sections), follows what I believe to be the best sequence of assembly - for a fully dismantled car.

"Workbook" is a term used to reference a spreadsheet "project" in Microsoft Excel. A spreadsheet is typically a single tab, whereas several tabs (each a spreadsheet) is a workbook. I went looking through my old posts and evidently I indicated that I would update the Google sheet from time to time (I am the author), and I would wait on uploading the Excel version until it was complete. I have not uploaded the Excel version to the resources section yet. I just made a couple of edits to it this week. It seems that I should go ahead with uploading it to the resources section, as it is pretty much as complete as I intend to make it.

yellow chromate hex head bolts (4 on recess in head) M10 X 1.25 - 25mm under head - fully threaded yellow chromate split lock washers - M10 yellow chromate flat washers - 22mm od - 10.5mm id Not comprehensive, but a good start - speadsheet cataloging the hardware on a 240Z: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Cmnw0F8N7B3VknCzNwGkfN2SGmIHdFJhDjARv3jkxNI/edit?usp=sharing The above descriptions are found by looking at the "rear bumper". There is copy of the workbook in the resources section of this website as well. Sorry, I had to edit that significantly!

Nice! What parts did you have done?

Yeah, this "One thing that just came to mind is the oil passageway plug that goes into the front of the block. I remember pulling it out and looking at it but am now only 80%ish sure I reinstalled it." You need to verify a plug is in place.

That sounds pretty good. The front of the car takes a pretty heavy beating over time as well. So, agree with Grannynot - part of the hood. You may want to do the front surfaces of the headlight housings and the three front lower panels as well. I think below the blue lines here: I think it best not to cut the edge so it is on the radius of a body line. Instead, I would cut it at the beginning of where starts to roll from flat... so about a 1/8th of an inch below that body line above. With flares, you will need to do something with the front of the rear flares as well. My track Z started getting beat up there quickly. I put electrical tape on (I like the silver and black contrast). I planned on getting something like the Porsche 930 has, but just never have. If you need to go with clear, consider doing something like this on the quarter panel. It will be visible. On the Z you may want to go from the front edge of the quarter panel (door opening) and along the 'waist line' body line... go far enough back to cover the front third of the flare and radius/curve the top edge down, so the PPF terminates covering about the front 1/4 to 1/3rd of the flare surface. The top and front edges of PPF will collect a bit of dirt over time. Just something to be aware of.

I installed the front grill today. As you can see, the paint is a little darker than the original, but I am not interested in painting it for a third time, especially since I have a wrist cast for the next six weeks. Interestingly, when in the sunlight, the original paint does appear to be metallic. The metallic particles seem smaller, less noticeable, but they do reflect. This is not easy to capture in a photo (second pic here): Original grill hardware:

Hi John, I used vise grips and heated the manifold with a propane torch. It makes marks, but I polished most of that out and re-plated the part. If I had to do it again, I would try to find some sheet metal that was the thickness of the slot. Maybe cut a 8 inch by 2 inch strip and slide the long edge in the slot. Use heat and, grab the plate like handles.

I put the progress dealing with the prop shaft and transmission and differential angles in another forum thread. While I was repainting the driveshaft, I also painted the front grill. The front grill, rear tail light trim panels and the hub caps all share the same paint. I bought the paint for these near the beginning of my restoration. If I recall correctly, I told the paint supply place the info for the color that is in the How to Restore your Z Car book. I painted the grill, but the color was too light - it was too grey, at least comparing to my original, not repainted hubcap. I got some crap in it too. So, repainting was necessary. This time, I took a guess, and added 10% of black paint (by weight) to make it darker. I think it came out a bit too dark, but I like it a lot more than what it was. I think I will experiment a bit more with it, adding maybe 5% of black and seeing how that looks. Then, I will repaint the tail light trim panels and possibly the hub caps as well.

Yes, I am a keeper! I had to come out to try to block an open shot. Two of the other team's players briefly competed for who was going to take the shot, and I guess one of them went straight through me. I say guess, because I am unsure what happened, but I did get the save :) For me, each wrist has now been broken - this is the second time for my radius bone in the left arm. The first time, I got a cross shaped break in it when the ball shot from 10 feet away hit nothing but my left and hammered it toward the bottom of my forearm. Continuing :) -- Both pinkie fingers, one middle finger, and a few front, as well as one back rib. I have torqued both sets of shoulder ligaments several times, but they are quite good now. And, I got nine stitches (one internal, 8 external) at the left eyebrow about 8 months ago. That is pretty much it. Many years were injury free, but not so much in this last 8 months. I didn't think I would still be playing competitively at 56, but I still really enjoy it. I think I am nearly ready to stop playing in Over 30 now however. The stitches and these most recent bone breaks came from playing in that league.

I have it and will check the ID (it is no longer installed) and compare it to the spare new one I still have on hand. I won't be out in the shop much until my wrist heals some. The end of my radius bone is broken (at the wrist) and my pinky is broken too. Was definitely unfortunate in the game on Friday!

The seal was riding here: Those wear marks indicate where the yoke was rubbing up against the bushing. Those weren't there when I installed the prop shaft. I confirmed the extension housing bushing was worn, allowing the main shaft and yoke to move excessively. Unsure if the prop shaft was balanced properly when it was shortened. The local place I took it to for balancing (after swapping in the new yoke) said it looked like it had not been balanced. Additionally, the weights they welded onto it were not tiny. So, perhaps the prop shaft was way out of balance and that is why this happened. I was able to get the transmission out on Thursday, and get the rear housing off, replace the bushing, and get it back together. But, I wasn't able to get the transmission back in the car. Unfortunately, my wrist got injured in a soccer game last night, so I won't be able to get the transmission in for a while.

Yeah I agree. So I took the day off today so I have the time to remove the transmission and replace the rear tail shaft bushing. Headed out to the garage shortly to start on that.

No, I am investigating my transmission rear bushing. I have two of these on hand I bought years ago: https://sales.omegamachine.com/Nissan_FS5W71C_Extension_Housing_Bushing_p/71411.htm I slipped one onto the old prop shaft yoke and it fits nicely. Not loose and not tight. I will have more time later tonight to measure ID and the OD of the new yoke. I'd say the new yoke is deflecting a good 0.030" to 0.040" up and down (total) inside the tail of the transmission right now. I am thinking I may need to pull the transmission tail section out of the car to do this bushing replacement.

Shimming the entire crossmember downwards creates a problem because it won't squish the front control arm bushings to hold them in place. It might be possible, but you would have to shim where the crossmember clamps those bushings as well. After thinking about options for a few days, I ended up grabbing a later front diff isolator (I had a spare) and modifying it. I flipped it around to work with my differential which is in the stock position (not moved back like the 72 model). I didn't take many pictures, but basically, I cut off the ears, flipped them over and swapped sides. I was very careful to tack and position them level to each other and in an adjusted (and equal) front to rear orientation. The net result was to lower the differential at this mount location by nearly 1/4", and to remove some of the angle that was manufactured into it. For the propeller shaft, I replaced the front yoke with a new one and got a local shop to balance it. I painted it and the mount: After installing both, and placing spacers between the body and the transmission crossmember, I took some angle measurements: pinion flange, crankshaft dampener, driveshaft tube in that order: I would have liked to have lowered the front of the differential a bit more, but the diff housing was nearly touching top plate of the diff isolator. And, I would have to add a much thicker spacer between the body and the transmission crossmember to get it down to 88.2. The bolts are quite long though, so maybe I will. Now the not so good news. There seems to be quite a large amount of movement of the new transmission yoke inside the tail of the transmission. I am concerned that the bushing in the tail shaft is excessively worn. This picture was concerning when I saw it. Maybe because of excessive wear in the bushing in the tail of the transmission, my driveshaft with improper u-joint angularity was vibrating around much more that it should have. I'll need to check for a wear specification. The 240SX transmission I the one thing on this whole car that I did not fully rebuild! Ugh!

I don't recall seeing any yellow double wire clamps on the car originally - hoops or otherwise, at least not yellow like the plating we see today. I was at Caffeine and Octane and a couple of guys who used to plate stuff as their business commented on my yellow chromate /zinc plating. They said something about how difficult it is to replicate the original yellow plating because the chemicals are different or something like that. They said we all have to put up with the 'really yellow' plating we have now. I am unsure of the accuracy of that statement. Others, especially original owners, should chime in here if possible, but my recommendation would be to go with clear zinc for all the hose clamps on the car because if you go with yellow chromate, you'll almost certainly end up with a much more yellow color than anything you see that originally had a very slight yellow tint. With my examination of the hardware on my car I found few if any exceptions to: clear zinc: all JIS (cross in the head) screws all clamps coil bracket spare tire hold down door latches and catches some lock washer and flat washers - as used with JIS screws I believe the hardware list I uploaded has the color listed. It is not exhaustive, but it is extensive.

Been looking at RT mount info. Found this: https://www.technoversions.com/DiffMount.html If I were to go this route, the mount underneath the differential would have to be removed completely. There is also question as to whether the RT bracket and this mount would fit the car without modification. Apparently, it is likely that the bolt for the mount to the bracket will interfere with part of the handbrake linkage. Though, there is a possibility that the mount has 3 mounting holes, and if so, one could use the two outside ones instead of the middle one and solve that issue. I can find a little bit of info about people addressing this problem, but I have not found conclusive proof that unmodified cars have this issue. I'd like to get some confirmation of that. Otherwise, I feel like I am missing something.

I hear ya. I guess since I now know I have something that isn't right, I feel I need to fix it. Working on it today, I found some interesting things. One, I was thinking would be a problem, and it is. The front yoke of my driveshaft had some corrosion on it. I tried to clean it up as best I could and was hoping that when I sent the driveshaft off to be shortened and balanced, that the part where the seal rides would be ok. This black goo in the first pic is the rear transmission seal wearing at an accelerated rate. In the second picture, I have removed the yoke shield, and you can see where the seal was contacting at the two points (front and rear edges of the seal) on the shaft. In the third picture, you see where the yoke has been touching the transmission tail shaft inner bushing. That should not be, and could be indicative of another problem. Or, it could be evidence that the driveshaft is not happy and vibrating around because of the improper u joint angularity. This is after 500 miles. I received a new yoke this week from ZCarDepot. I am going to transfer the yoke shield over to the new one (two spot welds) and then take the parts to a local driveshaft shop. Given where the "wear" marks are from the tail shaft bushing on the old yoke input shaft (kind of centered front to back), and that I didn't have any problems with rubbing, I think the propeller shaft assembly length is ok. But, it barely fits between the transmission and the differential. When installing it, I have to bottom it out inside the transmission and rotate it to a particular position before the rear will go onto the front pinion flange. Once there it pulls back just a bit and the two mating surfaces contact. As far as how I am going to deal with the excessive angle at the pinion flange, I am open to ideas. The front of the differential points upwards noticeably when mounted in the car. I think I will need to focus my efforts on modifying the front differential/suspension crossmember, and/or the front isolator. I have a spare front differential/suspension crossmember, and a spare isolator (55415-N4301). I could flip it around 180 degrees and cut and weld on it to remove the incline... Or, I could cut the top surface of the differential/suspension crossmember where the isolator sits to lower it a bit. Going to do other stuff for now and wait for opinions and think on it some more.

Ok, I took a measurement on the factory transmission crossmember. The crossmember has a "drop" of 5/8". So, when the crossmember is bolted into place, the top surface that the transmission isolator is 5/8" lower than the ends. The Techno Toys Tuning has the same amount of drop. The difference is that the hole for the isolator is shifted back also - it is not exactly in line with the transmission crossmember mounting holes like the stock one. It seems that all is well up front. It is possible that the 240SX transmission locates in a slightly different position vertically than the stock 4 speed. However, as I discovered when loosening the transmission crossmember bolts enough to drop the transmission about a 1/4" or so, the angle of the output shaft of the transmission didn't change much. It went from about 89 degrees to about 88.5. Turning my attention to the rear differential isolator, it is easy to see that there is an angle "built into it". While somewhat difficult to see in this picture while installed in the car, if you look closely at the vertical plate of the isolator and compare to the straight edge, you might be able to tell that the top of the vertical plate is closer to the straight edge than the bottom. Removing the isolator from the car, I confirmed that part number of 55415-E4102. This one was replaced new by the prior owner of the car and remained unused other than supporting the diff in the car for about 28 years. Outside the car, it is easier to see the amount of incline built into the part. I measured the angle on the cardboard surface and got .3. So, 3.6 minus .3 is 3.3 degrees. Ok... Why? One would have to assume that there is something different about my car. Too much angle on the rear section of the driveshaft which is causing a driveline vibration - it would not be a possibility that the engineers got this wrong, would it? And, now that I have been through all of this, I am fairly certain that I have been here and done this with my track car before. I believe I ended up modifying the differential isolator to reduce this angle for that car as well. I am very interested to see if this issue (too much upward incline at the front of the differential relative to the output of the transmission) is present in unmodified pre-72 model year cars.