inline6

Update time. I put the stock pinion spacer/shim back in and took a fresh set of wipe patterns. These wipe patterns look "better" to me in that the amount of surface area where the paint has been "cleared" is much larger that what I was achieving by adding thickness at the pinion spacer/shim location. This time I put drag on the crown wheel as a rotated the assembly to get the marks. With the .3 mm shim on the left side bearing and the .4 mm and .5 mm shims stacked on the right side bearing, I measured .021" plus some of backlash. The pattern above was with that combination. I moved the .3 mm shim to the right side and measured backlash again. This time it was .012". I somehow forgot to get a wipe pattern after doing so. I will do that and take some more pics and post them here. With less backlash, the wipe mark should move further away from the heel end and toward the toe end (on the drive side of the tooth). With no more shims to move from the left to the right, the best way I can think of to less the backlash is to machine the left side bearing retainer. A picture: Removing material from this face will result a change to the the carrier bearing location vs. where it sits now when the flange is bolted to the case. So, to fix the excessive back lash, I want to shift the carrier to the right some small number of thousandths of an inch and I want to achieve this by removing a small amount of material from the left side flange. Doing that will bring the ring gear closer to the pinion gear. Additionally, whatever amount is removed from this retainer has to be matched in additional shim thickness on the right side bearing retainer so that the preload on the carrier bearings does not change. As originally assembled with the original carrier, there was a .3 mm (0.0118") on the left and a .4 mm (0.0157") and a .5 mm (0.0197") on the right. That combination adds up 1.2 mm. Side shims are sold in the following mm sizes: .2, .25, .3, .4 .5. If, for example, I estimate I can get the backlash within specification by removing .2 mm = 0.00787" from the left side flange, then that amount would be removed from the left side flange and I would add a .2 mm shim to the existing stack of shims on the right. Or, another option which would achieve the same thing would be to machine .5 mm off of the left retainer, and then add a .3 mm shim to the left side and a .2 mm shim to the shims already on the right side (add .2 mm more to the .3 mm, .4 mm, and .5 mm shims). Again, whatever the amount that gets machined off of the left side retainer, I will need to add back into the total shim thickness. Ultimately, I need to get backlash to .004"-.008". It may be best to remove .5 mm from the left side retainer because then I have many sizes of shims to work with from an adjustment standpoint. Also, removing .5 mm covers the possibility that I run into a problem of removing .2 mm and that not being enough to get the backlash to .008" or below.

Congrats! I like the color choice too.

From my list: Machine shop to remove a small amount of material from the left side flange of the differential - need to put the stock pinion shim back in and then check back lash with original side shims in their respective places. Then check backlash again after moving the one left shim to the right side. Compare the difference and estimate amount to have removed from left side flange, given side shim sizes available. Send driveshaft off for balancing, but... I have to put the differential in car and check drive shaft fit first. I may need to remove some of the shielding on either the rear of the transmission or the driveshaft. Tell Snake Oyl to proceed with the restoration of the seat belts I sent them in June even if reproduction date tags cannot be sourced (they have delayed for weeks because they haven't been able to confirm that they can get the tags from "their vendor". They will be able to get the labels. Cashier's check and additional parts are going out via UPS to them tomorrow. Buy carpet in bulk (still have to decide which). Cut to fit the car and have local company put correct finished edging. Or, purchase Auto Custom Carpets, Inc. kit from RockAuto. I may purchase this kit for day to day use... and have a custom set of carpets for show. I Purchased an Essex pile version of the carpet set available from ACC (Auto Custom Carpets) https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=6070062&cc=1209158&pt=1264&jsn=10419&optionchoice=1-A1168-0-1 Get gas door lock and ash tray grill chrome plated by local company - email with pictures of parts needing to be re-chromed sent to get quote Horns - these have to be re-plated before I can put them back together I also have the following fairly large lift items: Assemble the seats - fit new support straps, foam and upholstery covers. Repair/restore center console Test gas tank for leaks - source and install a new tank from S30 World if it leaks Find source of the electrical short circuit in the windshield wiper circuit Found it with @SteveJ help. So, some progress, but it still looks like I am going to run out of time to me. My windshield wipers were not parking as they should. They were parking higher than their range of sweep. That is not right. They are supposed to have a range of sweep that is higher than the park position. After reading related posts, I realized that I had not paid attention to the reassembly of some of the parts on the wiper linkage. In order for the linkage to park lower, the offset cam piece in the wiper linkage has to be in the position to make the linkage arm longer. Some pics: As found with the issue: cam/offset in the short position: cam/offset in the long position (note that you can see the edge of the of the back plate, and the linkage bar that attaches to the motor is extended to the left a bit more: After removing the clip and the top washer: After flipping the cam/washer piece with tang over - now with the tang at the top position, the link bar is in it's shorter length position. So the pic just above is CORRECT. This is the position of the washer with the tang when the motor is operating. When the motor reverses, the offset and tang will rotate 180 degrees. This will move the link bar to the "long" position which will extend the effective length of this arm just a touch. And it will result in a park position on the windshield where the wipers will be lower on the windshield than the normal sweep range. Also, I found that the best park position was set when the link bar (the piece that bolts to the back of the wiper motor shaft is in alignment as in these pictures. In other words, the ideal park position is achieved when the link bar is in perfect alignment with the long linkage bar it is attached to. Like this ------ -------. Not angled either up or down from the long bar, but simply a linear extension. I had to install the motor with the bag hanging off to the side so I could mess with the round cap on top of the motor that adjusts final resting location of the motor shaft. Then remove the motor again, put the bag on and reinstall the motor.

Were these clear zinc plated originally, or chrome plated?

I called them today. It seems they had a place in Atlanta, but they said that during Co-vid they shut it down. They only have operations in CA now. I will send them pics and get a quote. This is the website: https://decometalfinishing.com/chrome-plating-in-atlanta-ga.html

I certainly could use the help. 🙂

I have been thinking of driving the car to ZCon in Tampa. I've made a list of things that need to done before the car is done and it is large. At this point, I am thinking I will not be able to finish in time. Here is a partial list, mostly of items requiring outside assistance: Machine shop to remove a small amount of material from the left side flange of the differential - need to put the stock pinion shim back in and then check back lash with original side shims in their respective places. Then check backlash again after moving the one left shim to the right side. Compare the difference and estimate amount to have removed from left side flange, given side shim sizes available. Send driveshaft off for balancing, but... I have to put the differential in car and check drive shaft fit first. I may need to remove some of the shielding on either the rear of the transmission or the driveshaft. Tell Snake Oyl to proceed with the restoration of the seat belts I sent them in June even if reproduction date tags cannot be sourced (they have delayed for weeks because they haven't been able to confirm that they can get the tags from "their vendor". Buy carpet in bulk (still have to decide which). Cut to fit the car and have local company put correct finished edging. Or, purchase Auto Custom Carpets, Inc. kit from RockAuto. I may purchase this kit for day to day use... and have a custom set of carpets for show. Get gas door lock and ash tray grill chrome plated by local company Horns - these have to be re-plated before I can put them back together I also have the following fairly large lift items: Assemble the seats - fit new support straps, foam and upholstery covers. Repair/restore center console Test gas tank for leaks - source and install a new tank from S30 World if it leaks Find source of the electrical short circuit in the windshield wiper circuit Then, there are the things I am forgetting... hahaha

I didn't keep track of the hours closely, but I am going to say it took something around 10 hours of work to remove the scratches and restore the shine to the left door window. Thanks again to @Patcon for helping me source a left door glass with a date on it that is "in the ball park" for my 6/71 car. There were several deep scratches as well as some pitting which I was mostly successful at removing. I don't know if anyone else has the stomach for putting this much effort into removing scratches on glass, however, I think I should be honest in case future readers want to give it a try. The most aggressive disc in the kit is "a beast". It will quickly remove glass... and put nasty swirl marks in your glass in the process. Use it only if you have really deep scratches. The green discs (middle grit) are quite aggressive. Use these for light scratches and minor imperfections. The blue discs are quite fine. You will burn through them at a pace of 5 to 1 vs. the green discs. It is hard to see when you have sufficiently polished out the scratches from the green discs. Attack the glass at a 90 degree angle from when you use the green disc. It will be easier to see when you have removed those scratches if you do this. This https://glasspolishshop.com/polishing-repair-compounds/cerium-oxide is effective at polishing the glass back to a good amount of clarity and shine. If found that the Eastwood polishing buff was better than the polishing pad that was included in the pro polishing kit I bought: https://glasspolishshop.com/glass-restoration/scratched-glass-repair-kits/pro-glass-scratch-removal-kit-xnet-system. I think the Eastwood felt buff was harder than the one received in the kit. And using it, I believe the cerium oxide was utilized more effectively on the glass. With a softer pad, I think the cerium oxide was not pushed as hard against the glass, and therefore, did not polish as effectively. After so many hours of neck wrenching work, the scratches have been removed from the glass (except those very close to the Temperlte etching). When sighting down the glass at a sharp angle, you will be able to see slight waves or undulations. The finished product looks a bit like bodywork that was not done perfectly. Glass does get removed after all, and because it is so hard relative to primer or filler on a car body, it is exceedingly difficult to remove scratches and keep the glass perfectly flat. Anyway, there it is - the info you would like to have about attempting to remove scratches from glass. It takes a lot of effort, many hours, and though the final result may remove deep scratches, the final result will leave you with some slight waviness in the glass, and not the same level of smoothness as the factory finish. In other news, the window support is different from the 1971 vs. 1975 cars. Here are a few pictures which show that the regulator channels are in different locations. This makes using a 75 window in a 71 car not work. After I finished work on the left door glass, I installed it in its frame/support and installed it in the left door. Order of operations is: Install stainless steel frame (with glass channel weather strip already installed. Then window glass. Then front glass glide. Then regulator. Then rear lower guide for regulator wheel. After I confirmed rolling the window down and up was as it should be, I installed the 3M product for holding the vapor barrier in place. This product is very tacky. So, it sticks to the door, and the plastic vapor barrier to it, extremely well. Next, I will put the door panel clip receivers in place. I will need to cut the vapor barrier in a couple of places (around the window roller and the door release) and I will need to glue in place a couple of rubber seals before I can put the door panel on.

It is kind of freaky how you and I are traveling in parallel on so many Z restoration things. "I finally received this PVC tubing the other day. I bought it for the front markers lights but realized I needed a piece for the wiper motor too." - I bought some from Amazon just the other day for my from side markers. I went with the 1/4" diameter instead of the 3/8". I will be ready with the lacquer thinner when it is time to install it. "I can't upload the picture I want, but I the plug on the wiper was bad and instead of depinning it, I crushed it with a set of channel locks. Much faster!" - I did the same with one of the connectors for the steering column wires. It seems that the harness connectors are made out of a plastic which is not UV resistant. Sunlight makes them turn yellow in short order. I used Vise grips to bust mine to pieces. "I replaced the pins on the end of the wiring. Put a new jacket on the cable and reinstalled the wiper motor and bracket into the car using Steve Nixon's great little rubber pieces" - Same here. I seem to have an electrical issue with mine though. I tested the motor the other day and it kept running when I turned the wiper switch off. The fuse for the circuit blew shortly there after. I replaced the fuse and it blue again within seconds. Looks like others have beat me to the punch on the round head wiper screw. G

Lately, everything I attempt to do on this car fights back. For example, I have sourced a new battery, battery tray, and battery frame from a Nissan dealer. So, with all these "factory original" parts, how do I end up in this situation? A closer look: Is this battery shorter than the original? Is the battery tray thinner/shorter than the original? A combination? When I saw this, I just laughed and walked away to do something else. I am also wondering why the slot in the rubber part here is offset to one side. I have no clue. Next came more work on the right side door. I am still dealing with the consequences of the paint shop removing the doors (and I specifically said not to). Getting the right side door aligned exactly the way it was is a pain in the arse. Tightening the hinge locating bolts, loosening... rinse, repeat. I had them where they belong and did final body work finishing across the door gaps. I had it really close to perfect. Now, I am struggling. The door is made of thin metal. It is quite possible that by the time you bolt in the stainless steel window frame and put in the regulator and the glass, the shape of the door changes a bit. Probably a key piece of helpful info for those of you reading this and yet to apply paint to your car in the future. After quite a bit of fiddling, I got the "feel" of rolling the window up and down right - consistent slight amount of force throughout the travel both downwards and upwards. Next, I made a vapor barrier for the door and put that in place (sorry, no pics - I will remember when I do the left side). I had to straighten the lock pull rods as they were a bit "bent". The product I used to attach the vapor barrier to the door (first pic of three), and new door frame seals: For the front door frame seal, I couldn't get my favorite contact adhesive to stick to it properly until the third try. After the first two, I scuff sanded it. Only then did the adhesive stick to it properly. I have some adhesive clean up to do still. After these seals were glued into place, I could put the inner door panel on. I sourced reproduction door panels some time ago, probably a couple of years. They appear to be good quality, but I decided to move the door panels from my track car to this car. I purchased these new from a Nissan dealer around 1994. They are still in very good condition. The track car will get the repro panels. Getting the pull strap on took a crazy amount of time and effort. The chrome pieces do not want to snap into place. I had to massage and modify a bit here and there until they would finally latch into place. Anyway, that is how it can go sometimes. Much more difficult than it should be. But, I press onwards. 😉

I did, including the glove box lock. For that one, you have to drive out a pin to access the wafers.

Correct, the tower and smaller rear wheel well are covered by one piece first. Then, you put on a second piece that covers the front wheel well. The "riser", behind the seats is installed last. Yesterday and today I worked on removing scratches from the replacement left door glass I got from @Patcon. I had to order some more discs and powder, so I set it aside for now. I went to install my tail lights and upon close inspection, determined that one of them needed more sanding and polishing to restore the proper shine to the lenses. After some more effort was expended there, I was able to glue the lenses onto the housings. For that job, I used auto body seam sealer. Seems like and odd thing to use, right? But, the old stuff that I removed from the housings when I pulled the lenses off looked like seam sealer. And, I had good luck with using it once before on the tail lights on my other 240z. My tail light lenses were in rough shape to start. Lots of pitting and scratches, some of them deep. I bought a small roll of felt from Home Depot and made little pieces to replace those that were originally in the bottom of the assemblies. I guess these are vents... to allow any moisture that finds its way into the assemblies to dry. While the housing were separate from the lenses, I used a heat gun to attempt to straighten the mounting flanges of the tail lights. These distort over time and prevent the stock rubber gaskets from sealing to the body of the car like they should. When "gluing" the lenses back to the assemblies, there is a need to use clamps (and boards and rags) to clamp the lenses to the housings, and let the sealant cure for 24 hours. Even with the housing flanges straightened somewhat, I used some self adhesive weather stripping (highly compressible) between the tail light assemblies and the body. These are now air tight - no exhaust fumes will be coming in through this notorious location. While not perfect, the lenses look very nice now.

Removing double post. I think the forum software is acting up. 🙂

The time has come for me to install the rear tower and wheel well interior trim. The reproduction pieces have a "shallower" diamond imprint. I prefer the original. These pieces are often damaged, I think from putting in and retrieving things out of the rear hatch area, Objects nick and slice the vinyl, especially on the inner most portions that protrude. For the rear strut tower pieces, I took three complete pairs which I had accumulated over the past few years to a local auto upholstery shop. There, we determined the best sections for use. I left them with instructions to pull them apart as necessary and to re-stitch one complete pair using the best sections from the lot. Another "issue" I have noticed looking at 240z's over the years is that the vinyl covering the rear strut towers, if removed, often looks terrible when it is put back in. Whether, the wrong adhesive is used, or the installer lacks the necessary skills, or something else, the result often falls short vs. the other restoration work done on the car. So, as I started yesterday with my plan, one that included having all of the remaining diamond vinyl glued into place on the car before the end of the day, I knew I was in for some long, and stressful hours. First, I used Wesley's Bleche-White (an ancient bottle) to clean the backsides of the vinyl trim. Over the years, the white (I assume cotton) backing wicks up water and collects dirt with it. Wesley's Bleche-White that you can buy today appears to be a different chemical composition (based on a few minutes only) of searching online. The one I have appears to be the original stuff. I was amazed at how much dirt came out of the backside of the vinyl. I rinsed them thoroughly and then hung them outside in the GA heat to dry. While they were drying, I taped up parts of the back hatch area to protect from glue overspray. I once again used the Landau contact cement. When it is 90+ degrees, this stuff dries a bit quicker. That, and the very odd shape of the strut vinyl trim parts makes installation very challenging. On the first one, I struggled a bit because I didn't get the alignment right and it kept sticking to itself. With each passing second, the glue got drier and drier and more sticky. I screamed some obscenities and tried helplessly to reposition it without pulling it back off completely. Within two minutes, I realized I had failed, so I pulled it off completely. One important thing to note about contact adhesive is that it can be reactivated by applying more. So, before it dried even more, I grabbed the gun and went with a bit of a different plan. Instead of lightly coating the entire inside of the vinyl as I did before, I only sprayed the top (horizontal) section. I resprayed the corresponding top of the strut tower. Then, I positioned the top section so that the triangular cut out for the upper strut mount bolts was in the right location. From there, I put my attention at the portion of the top surface of vinyl that presses up against the inner quarter panel. I aligned the holes (those that accept the black plastic trim clips) that were in the vinyl to the holes in the inner quarter panel. I pushed the part contacting the inner quarter panel against it firmly. When I was sure those holes lined up, I lifted up on the triangle cut out area and pulled the vinyl taut as I repositioned the top (horizontal) section. You have a bit of work time, but you have to move quickly. At that point, I had only the top section in place, but the alignment looked good. From there, I lifted the other sections up so that I could spray glue onto the backside of the vinyl and onto the metal strut support structure. I applied more glue in areas where the factory workers had. Flat expanses got less, areas of transition from one surface to another, got more. From there, it was less challenging. I focused on getting the backmost section located properly against the inner quarter panel, making sure to put some tension on it as I pressed in into place. This is necessary to keep wrinkles from forming. I did have to lift back up some and reposition, but not a lot. Anyway, for the second one, I copied my successful second effort on the first. It went well. I still have some glue overspray, and the white haze that you see on the black vinyl to clean off. I think the white haze came from the Westley's Bleche-White, but it comes off. These pic were catching a lot of afternoon sun as well, so the black looks like it is washed out a bit, but it isn't. I think it will look nice when all cleaned up.

It is not that much work to take the carrier out, swap pinion flanges, torque and measure turning resistance on the pinion. You just need the pinion nut ft-lb spec and the turning resistance in-lb spec on hand... and good torque wrenches.

You have to be careful here. I think to resolve, you will need to swap the front flange on the differential to one from another R200 - to one that matches your driveshaft. When you do, you have to torque the pinion nut to the right torque range. If you do not, you will run the risk of quickly damaging the the "front pilot bearing", and suffering subsequent differential pinion/ring gear damage. I recommend looking up the torque spec in the differential manual in the resource section and using the low end of the specification. Why? Because the bearings are not new... and I have found that once they have been "crushed" and run... the light end of the specification is enough torque to achieve the correct turning resistance on the pinion shaft. The correct way would be to remove the differential. Place on a bench. Remove the carrier assembly. Remove and replace the front flange. Torque the pinion nut to the light end of the spec. Measure the turning resistance in inch lbs. Once you determine that is good, put the carrier back in, and reinstall the differential.

Sheet metal screws hold it down. In the US cars, that ring was used starting for the 1972 model. The 70-71 models which have a different transmission, utilize a different shift boot and do not utilize that oval ring.

New gears and used gears will have different wipe patterns. That said, my 4.11 gear set is used. I should have taken a wipe pattern before I took it apart. Had I done so, that would be the reference I could be using now. I am going to assume that my 4.11 gear set should have a wipe pattern more like that of the stock diff I posted pics of yesterday, and attempt to start again with the .126" stock shim in place, but start altering the ring gear position to reduce the backlash. I'll see where that takes me on this trip of experimentation with wipe patterns.

I've been staring at my posts and pictures for hours. I watched some more Youtube videos. Going to jot down my thoughts and sleep on it. The wipe patterns I have been getting are not right. They have a sharp edge on the bottom. They are too far down into the base of the tooth. The contact area should be larger. It should be centered, both between the base and top of the tooth, as well as centered between the heel and toe of the tooth. Drive side matters most. So, I need to center the contact on the drive side. I have been chasing too hard after the backlash. By adding pinion shim thickness, I have been able to reduce backlash, but I sacrificed pinion to crown gear alignment. The pinion is now too "high". I will have to reduce the thickness of the pinion shim. My first wipe patterns- I believe these resulted with the .126" pinion shim and the side shims in their original locations - which means this was with about .020" of backlash, and I hadn't figured out that I had to put some drag on the carrier to make the wipe impression more defined: No hard edges... and what appears to be much more surface area of contact. Same set up, but teeth that were not painted, but received paint transfer: Again, no drag applied to the carrier to help the impression. .020" backlash is too much... for sure. I'd like to try putting the .126" shim back in and moving the side shims to the right side... and doing a wipe pattern while applying drag on the carrier. If the wipe pattern is similar to the above in that the surface area of contact is larger... that will be good. Unfortunately, I will not have any further backlash adjustment. At that point, to tighten the lash, I will need to explore using shim stock between the crown gear and the Quaife carrier assembly.

I thought about it some. Since I have a stock differential, I thought I would get a wipe pattern from it to compare. I measured backlash at just under .010". This is a few thousandths more than specification. These are very different. The size of the surface area where the paint is displaced is much larger. These pics look more like my first effort to get a wipe pattern with just the .126" shim in place where I had way too much backlash: I am kind of lost now as to how to proceed. I am going to run back through pics from prior efforts and stew on this.

I put in a custom made shim today. Instead of .126" thick, this one is .151" thick. So, this custom one is .025" thicker. Where the original side shims were a .3 mm on the left and a .4 mm plus a .5 mm on the right, now I have a .2 mm on the left and two .5 mm on the right. The backlash before I took the differential apart was .005". The backlash is now .0055" Here are pics of the wipe patterns: I actually don't know if these are good wipe patterns. I mean, I have seen these pictures in the Nissan differential service guide. But I don't know how closely the wipe patterns are supposed to match the illustrations, and for some reason the guide doesn't have illustrations for the coast side:

Are you still making these @240Ziggy?

Looks like the one I bought from Rebello years ago.

The front bumper is now fully fitted. One thing that is odd to me is how the over riders fit. The natural fitted position of these is such that a minor tap is likely going to push them into contact the fiberglass head light buckets. I've only taken the time to look at pictures of a couple other 240z's and it seems to me that the correct fit aligns these just inside the grill opening. I also am unsure what the correct depth of mounting the bumper is. I have room to slide it out a tad if that is more correct. The way I have it now, the closest part of the over rider to the body is at about 1/4". When setting the bumper height, I went for an even amount of space above the front turn lamp and below the body recess in the headlight bucket - "centered" in the recessed area: I like the replica competition steering wheel. It is a little smaller in diameter than the original, which I like. And it has a thicker grip diameter, which is nice also. However, it has less dish (so less depth). Without a seat to sit in, I can't tell if that will be an issue. I don't want there to be an ergonomics issue where hands and arms don't fit comfortably when my feet are the right distance to the pedals. Because it has less depth, the rim sits further away compared to the stock rim - I'd say about 1.5 inches less depth. And because of that, the turn signal stalk has to be bent back some. When I put the wheel in place, the end of the stalk was only about one and a quarter inches from the back of the rim. That is not enough clearance for free hand movement on the steering wheel. The distance between the stalk and the stock steering wheel is about 2 and 7/8" inches. I think after bending the stalk a bit, I have about 2". I will give that a try and adjust further if necessary. Replica competition wheel with wood rim... rebuilt headlight combination switch... cleaned and polished surfaces Turn signal stalk depth... cleaned and rebuilt turn signal switch assembly... Front side marker Front and rear side markers after cleaning polishing and installation

It took a lot of time to get the rear bumper together and on the car. On the backsides of the bumper ends and over riders, I used primer with zinc in it, and followed with a light layer of black. The backsides of these pieces were glass bead blasted before I sent them off. However, there is something about the plating process which causes rust/corrosion. It was very light, and only in a couple of spots, but I don't want it to be a foothold for more. So, hopefully the zinc primer and paint will keep further corrosion at bay. OEM chrome bumper bolts from the Z doctor were shorter than the originals (third pic here). That said, the originals are much longer than they need to be. I polished the originals a bit and reused them. Rubber strips for the over riders are aftermarket - some of the few parts on this car that are not genuine OEM parts.