mdbrandy

I was at the Nissan parts counter here in ol' Champaign, IL yesterday, and the parts database only went back to S130 days. I had a heck of a time with the parts guy getting him to understand what an S30 was! Nissan guys need to take Nissan history lessons...

RATS! Another nail in the originality coffin. I had assumed (read: hoped) my car had the hand throttle originally, since the PO that I bought it from actually disconnected the hand throttle because he considered it dangerous! He wasn't the original owner, though. According to him, he was the 3rd owner. Well, I checked my choke wires today, and they are solid. So now there's no way to tell if it was originally there or not. I guess I'll just have to assume...

Amazing what you learn on this board. When 2-4-T-Z-Man started talking about a number on the block on the drivers side, I thought he was off-the-wall, but I just went out and looked at my block and there it is! E31 on the block, with a raised 9901F beside it. The actual block number is on the raised pads on the passenger side rear of the block (see pic attached - mine is block 2465). The 9901F must be some kind of casting run number or something. I've never seen it before. I have an engine out of a 1978 280Z sitting in my garage, and it says N42, and has a raised number that I can't read (position is bad, and I can't raise the block off the floor right now). It looks like 5 or 6 digits. So, I know it isn't the block number (i.e., not the XXXXXth block made), but I don't know what it is...

Are you talking about the yellow zinc plated ring right under the horn button that faces outward toward the driver? Unfortunately, while I can see some vague remains of a circular stamp, I cannot discern any of the characters in the stamp. On the back of the wheel hub (reverse - toward the steering column), the characters "K15" are stamped into the black ring with a number/letter punch. But no other markings. Rats. At least it is a series I wheel with no cutouts in the spokes! I wonder about PO replacement on almost every part I took off this car!

Much harder on a 280. All that "stuff" ends up inputting to the electronic fuel injection brain, which controls the injector duration. Most of it probably has to be left in place and working. Unlike the 240Z air injection system, most of it also doesn't take away anything from the engine's performance (the 240 air pump takes power to drive it).

There's a date on the steering wheel? I'll look tonight!

This is one amazing thread. Makes me want to go back through the boxes of parts I have stashed and bagged from #215's teardown, and search them all for dates!

Great! Shorter is fine (I hope - there is plenty of wheel well clearance, just not spring clearance), wider is bad. Sounds like they should be the same diameter as stock. I won't be doing it for a month or more - if you get to it and find out differently, let me know! Thanks.

Situation: I am going to rebuild the suspension on my '78 280Z over the summer (it definately needs bushings and shocks), and the plans include new shocks and springs. On my current setup, which has aftermarket wheels and OEM springs, there is probably about 1/8" clearence between the tire and spring on the front. This includes using about a 1/4" spacer on the wheels. Question: I'm thinking about the Tokico Blue shock/spring combination. Are the springs the same diameter as OEM, just shorter and heavier? Can't afford to have to replace wheels/tires due to spring clearance problems, and would rather not add more of a spacer. I assume the diameter is the same so they will fit into the spring perch, but I don't know... Thanks!

Gentlemen: please read the tech link that Carl posted earlier. All will become clear. Panchovisa - the picture you posted is part of the tech discussion that Carl linked about 10 posts ago!

If you read the tech article that Carl (Bambikiller) posted a link to a couple posts ago, you'll know exactly which Toyota silicone oil, including the part number.

That's interesting. I'm planning on restoring to the stock emissions state, but I hadn't considered just having it for looks. Essentially, the only part of the emissions system that causes any performance decrease on a 240Z (that I can see) is driving the air pump. Everything else is pretty passive. Would you put a belt on the pump and disable it internally or something? Wouldn't want to actually drive it, or it wouldn't do any good to disable it in the first place... Hmmm....

Ah. I hadn't considered that. So you can buy the new style cylinder and use either kind of rod? That's good to know...since I have one car of each type :classic: .

Note, however, that the picture shown appears to have the early, adustable type pushrod, which is different than all slave cylinders after, I think, about mid 1971. Later cars went with a non-adjustable rod, and the fork did not have a hole in it. You need the slave cylinder with the adjustable rod, or it won't work with your clutch fork.

Yup. I just like to hear myself type! Some clutches lock up all the time, and then you get the airplane sound effect as you accelerate. Mine (on my '78) currently won't engage at all, and thus I overheat if I sit in one place for very long. Got to get that replaced now that warm weather is here!

Here's the description of the fan clutch's operation out of the '78 factory manual.

The fan clutch works on both RPM and temperature. It slips at higher RPM and at lower temperature. It will always spin some. So, if you are idleing in traffic, it will engage as the air coming through the radiator gets hotter, and slip some as it cools off. If you rev the engine sitting in traffic, it will be engaged due to the temperature, but will then slip some as the engine speed rises. As the car starts moving, the temperature of the air moving through the radiator drops, and thus the clutch starts slipping due to lower air temperature, as well as the rising engine RPMS. I think it's mostly supposed to disengage over about 2500 RPM, but it will always turn some.

My manual is dated 15th January 1970. On page 10, the knobs look square, and there was something (now gone) glued over part #27 (Throttle Control Lever). On page 13, bottom right, the paragraph and picture about the throttle lever has a piece of paper with a picture of a 240Z glued over the top of it. Two pictures on the bottom center and right of page 15 have paper glued over them that show the choke area WITHOUT the throttle lever. Same on bottom right of page 16. The picture on the upper left on page 17 looks like it wasn't ever covered, and shows the throttle. And in the index (page 44), the entry for "throttle" has a piece of paper glued over it. Obviously, it didn't take Datsun long to take the throttle directions out of NA-bound manuals! Oh, and all the knobs except on page 10 look rounded.

Mine has paste-over edits over "something", but I don't remember what. I have the manual at home, and I will dig it out and look tonight or tomorrow.

I haven't looked at my handbook since I bought the car a year ago (the 11/69 240Z), but I remember those pieces of paper stuck over something. I didn't know enough about the car yet (didn't even know what a hand throttle was!), so I don't know what they were covering. I'll have to dig it out this weekend and see...

ROFL ROFL One of my kids just got a hamster - thanks for the warning!

Don't know where you're getting your info, but NA cars have their engine block numbers on an info plate on the car, so you can certainly tell which block went with the car. Not the head, however. And there've been many discussions on model years - seems to come down to what it was originally registered as. Which varies over the years. There is no strict cutoff. My 2 cents.

$4000 for my 1978 280Z about 9 months ago. CA car with "no" rust, all original, well maintained, 118K miles. A little much, but really about $3200 considering I'd have had to pay $800+ to get a CA car shipped here to IL, and that's about the only place to find one in as good shape. $3000 for #215 14 months ago. Mostly original, including a few really old, original 1969 bits that are hard to find. Has rust issues, though. Probably about $2500 in NOS parts purchased for the restore so far. Long way to go...

Just make sure to file away this business in your memory, and refuse to give him any business under any conditions.

Grew up in the cornfields of Decatur, IL. Then spent 7 years in Los Angeles at UCLA in grad school - 2250 miles from IL. Then 5 years in South Carolina (first real job) - 900 miles from IL. Then 7 years in Maryland, north of Baltimore - 725 miles from IL. Now in Champaign, IL - 45 miles from home. Looks like I spent most of my time circling the country back to central IL!