mdbrandy

I haven't checked the availability of new parts yet. The antibackfire valve and air pump are still listed in the Victoria British catalog too, but I got reasonable e-bay deals on pretty good looking parts, and saved about $150 over new (and got the pump brackets). I want to see what I can find used before trying to locate new. I'd rather spend the real money on stuff that's more fun :classic:; you know, like suspension mods for the 280 :devious: !

Lets see, the door post plate can be drilled out in minutes, and the engine bay one unscrewed in minutes. The dash VIN is harder to get to but just held in with two rivets. Probably have to remove the dash or the windshield to get to it. The hardest one is the engraved VIN on the firewall, but a grinder would take care of it in short order. That's to remove the VIN information. To actually get new info on the car would be a little harder, but the plates are just metal stampings.

BTW, what I'm starting out with looks like the attached pic. Thanks.

Well, I have decided to be in the unusual position of trying to put the air pump system back on my 240Z instead of taking it off like most. I've decided to go farther into the restore route than I had originally planned with the 240Z, now that I have my 280Z to do whatever I want to. So, for all of you that have removed your emissions, and have chucked the parts in a box that is taking up space in your garage, can I have some of it :classic: ? I've already located an air pump with its brackets, as well as an antibackfire valve with a T-pipe connector. Looks like the major parts I'm still missing are the control valve (5) and check valve (4) on the attached figure, as well as a bunch of the hoses. I have an exhaust manifold with the air pipe, although one of the head pipe studs is broken, and it's in pretty mediocre shape. So, anyone that would like to rid their garage of any of this stuff, please let me know. Of course, I'll be more than happy to pay for shipping. If you want $$ for the parts as well, let me know and I'll consider it if they are in really nice shape.

Wow. I too traveled that stretch many times when I lived north of Baltimore and had to go to DC often. That "random" element of life sure can be scary at times. I spent 15 years doing risk analysis of hazardous installations, and I can tell you that the probability of dieing like that is so small that you might as well not even consider it. But that doesn't help the people that did...

Man that really bites. Sorry to hear it. When I lived in LA with my '75 280Z, all I lost was my stereo and a big chunk of the center console. Bummer.

Although I am not sure, I believe that the 5-speed was an option all the way up through '78, and the 4-speed was standard.

Thanks. I'll put them in my investigate list for when I get to a point of putting paint on one or the other of my toys :classic: .

280Z's have a lot more stuff on them. BIG bumpers compared to the 240Z's. Beefier frame members mean more metal in the body. Beefed up doors to meet crash test specs. Mostly, the extra weight comes from Datsun having to meet US crash test specs, and somewhat from extra systems such as the FI, Cat converter (on some cars - my '78 is a CA car and has one), etc. I believe most of the extra weight will be from the bumpers, doors, frame, and generally beefier car. Look in the engine compartment of a 240, and you'll see a LOT more empty space than in a 280! If any of the racers out there have actual weights for these things...

Sure is easier to buy one in good shape. The '78 280Z I bought a couple months ago is a CA car, one owner, that I also bought in Ohio! He brought it from CA and then almost never drove it in OH, so it has no rust to speak of. Now it is up to me to try to keep it that way! It's in nice shape, drives well, and I don't have to weld on it! Could probably use shocks and bushings soon, though. That's a long way from the '70 240Z I bought locally (Champaign, IL) that has more rust that I want to admit. It'll be a long, expensive road to bring it back, and if it wasn't a very low VIN, it would probably be a parts car now. Kozby, what kind of lead time does the place in Macomb have? They're actually only about 2.5 hours from me, so they might be useful...always looking for places that are known to do a good job!

Is it in a ZX? I looked at several ZX's before buying my 280Z, and almost all of them had a falling-out headliner!

If you read the judging criteria attached previously for the stock class, it says: FWIW.

To my knowledge, the answer is no. If you read the conversations we've had on this board (and on others), you'll see that there are many details that are unknown or debateable. In addition, for any single car, it is very difficult to know how it actually came off the factory floor, since Datsun apparently used parts as they had them, and thus the definitions of "Series I" or "Series 2" 240Z's as we use them in discussions are somewhat fluid for any specific car. Early parts can show up on slightly later cars if they were backstock that Datsun wanted to get rid of. Anyway, if you can find such a book, we'd all love to see it, I think. But I don't believe you will find it.

Perfect! thanks!

This raises a question that has occured to me as I work on my 240Z. If, say sometime in the future, I decide to enter my 240Z in a "Z contest" somewhere, and say I have gotten it back to as close to stock as I can, is there any place where I can get a "concourse checklist" or anything to know what judging would look for? I've heard of "290 point cars" and stuff like that - that's out of 300 points? Do the judges just look at the cars and try to find things that aren't "right", or do they have criteria? Given all our discussions about what is original and what is not, it seems to me that it would be very difficult to actually put together such a checklist. Anyway, anyone that has had experience having their Z judged in a stock class, I'd appreciate a little guidance. It's years of work before I get the car together, but it'd be good to have info now instead of after I've got it done. The more I think about it, the more I figure I'll have fun tricking up the 280 and taking the 240 back to what it was to begin with.

Civ104, Been in HDG long? I lived in Bel Air from 1993 until 2001. I have a model of the HDG lighthouse sitting on my entertainment center. Nice area of the country.

Sweet! Yours is better than mine, since I bought one with square knobs! Anyway, on the firewall, there should be a pinch bracket to connect the cable through. I posted a pic of mine in another thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8116&perpage=15&highlight=hand%20throttle&pagenumber=2 Look about half way down the second page of the thread, and I have a picture posted of the pinch bracket. I'm jealous now. I want round knobs! :mad:

Will do, but don't hold your breath. I spent a couple months looking and watching, and ended up driving to Cincinnati to pick up the 280Z that I bought. California car that had been transplanted. Everything else I saw within 500 miles was a rust bucket or way over my budget (like that ZXR!).

Well, I found a nice post buried 5 pages deep in a search: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6608&highlight=steering+wheel It has a lot of interesting opinions already there. If anyone has anything to add, let me know!

The steering wheel in my '78 280Z is slightly sun damaged on the top, with a small split, and I'm thinking about putting an aftermarket wheel on the car. I'm not too concerned with originality in the 280 (I have the 240Z for that!). It would be nice to keep a Z logo of some sort, though. MSA has some wheels that have Z logos, as well as a variety of other wheels. So, my question is, for those of you into aftermarket steering wheels, what would you recommend? The car's a daily driver, so it has to be something "ergonomic" that doesn't exacerbate the already heavy steering. Thanks for any opinions.

Before October when I bought my newest '78 280Z, I was looking for "low or no rust" daily drivers, and I was looking at ZX's as well as original series cars. I saw three or four ZX's with VERY low mileage. One had only about 30 miles on it. There was one in St. Louis with only a few thousand, and I think it was a ZX race version (280ZXR?). You're right, I really wish someone had saved a few examples of original series cars with low miles, but it looks like people didn't think about it much until the ZX's. Or maybe the few low mile original series cars are just not for sale .

The problem is, that if you buy a car like that, you're hesitant to drive it! Good museum piece or show only driver.

Every Z driveshaft I've removed, from 240's and 280's has just slid out of the transmission. No bolted or clipped connection or anything. Sounds like as you are pulling the shaft out of the tranny, you're pulling down on the back end of the shaft and binding the splined shaft inside the transmission. You have to pull it straight out, and it has something like 4 inches of slip-in splined shaft on the transmission end of the driveshaft. That's about all I can think of that would keep it from coming out. Good luck.

So nobody's ever seen an original air cleaner that isn't orange? Makes me feel better that it isn't just something that I've missed in my "Z-knowledge". :classic: Maybe it is just rare or unusual if it is really original.

I thought all the 240Z air cleaners were orange. Were some of them different colors? The '73 in this e-bay auction has a blue one and claims to be original: 73 240Z Just wondering.