mdbrandy

Anybody know how hard it would be to transplant the double struts out of a '78 280Z into a '70 240Z? I have a 280 parts car that the struts still hold the hatch open on, so I guess they're in reasonable shape... BTW, right now, the 240Z has NO hatch strut, and no bracket for one anymore. Love those POs....

Just be careful - my spare tire well didn't look much worse than yours, but when I got down to it, I stuck a screwdriver through the rust in about 10 places. All little 1/4" rust-throughs, but from the bottom it looked fine. Until I poked. FYI.

Well, from what I see, the fiche only lists one part number for the VR cover up to 7/73 (24027-E4100). It doesn't, of course, say if it's plastic or metal, but if Bambi's have all been plastic, then I guess I'd assume it was plastic. Any other early car owners that know if yours is original want to confirm as well?

I acutally did try "Back to Black" rubber The capitalization must have made the difference. Without the caps, the first hit is the one you want. That toolbar is sweet. I didn't know about it. Thanks!

OK, now I have to ask: you are saying that the later covers are metal and the early ones are plastic? The one on my 11/69 car is metal, which implies it has been replaced with a later one, right?

Only if it gives you what you are looking for. Using Back to Black without quotes gave me a bunch of references to the AC/DC song Back in Black, and "Back to Black" gave me many references, within which I must have missed this one. Thanks for the reference (you too Bambi).

Ok, I'll bite, what is "Back to Black", and who makes it?

If you find a place, let me know! Over the past week or so I've removed all the fuel and hydraulic (brake and clutch) lines, and have very carefully preserved all of those insulators. However, some of them are in so-so shape, and I'd love to replace them. I don't see them in the VB or MSA catalogs, but I haven't called either place yet. I'm more in a "take apart" than "put together" stage so far. Good luck.

Same here. Jim Carrey can either be very good or very bad. In this one, I think he was pretty good.

My "restoration" will be to the point of trying to make the car look stock wherever it isn't too hard to do so. I would, however, much prefer to have fittings, bolts, nuts, etc. be stock sizes. I really hate finding SAE head-size metric-thread bolts on this thing! I've only found a few, but they REALLY annoyed me! Those will definately be replaced. If I can get brake lines with 10mm fittings, I will do that. I'd use 11mm only if I couldn't get the 10.

Thanks for the info and the links. Classic advertises a complete set of stainless steel lines for a "1969" 240Z for $200. Be interesting to see if they fit, and if it's really ALL the brake lines. At least I know I can replace any that don't come off cleanly, and maybe all of them! I think I'll wait for the Kroil that's on order to try the other three corners, though... Thanks again!

OK, I'll certainly check tomorrow. I have a VB catalog that I just got in the last couple days, and it only lists the brake lines from the hose to the caliper or wheel cylinder. As long as they're available from SOMEBODY, I'll be happy. :classic: Thanks.

Well, care and the "right" tools haven't worked this time. On the right front brake line from the proportioning valve to the bracket/hose fitting, I have managed to pretty badly round the flare fitting at the wheel end. Penetrating oil, 10mm flare wrench, emory paper on the tube trying to remove rust before turning, etc. didn't help. The nut actually broke loose and started to turn, but must have bound on the tube even though I cleaned the stupid thing up. I thought it kept turning, but apparently it was rounding off, even in the flare wrench. So. Before I go at it with the vice grips, any other suggestions? I searched the forums, and didn't see any other ideas. Is this pipe even available? I'd be happy to cut it off and buy a new one, but I don't see it in catalogs, so I suppose that isn't an option. Still have three more corners to do, too! One other question: I managed to get the fitting off at the clutch slave cylinder, but the pipe snapped in half with no effort at all - either it was rusted almost through, or there was welding damage from previous pan work that was performed about an inch away some years ago. (The pipe and fitting was covered with weld goo and spatter) Is this a parts-car only piece, or can you get new? Thanks.

I'm glad to take in any and all historical info that I can at this point (i.e., you're certainly excused for chiming in!). I've owned this car only about 30 days or so right now, and I'm early in the throws of trying to figure out what I need to do. The reason(s) for many of my posts here are because I want to restore the car to close to what it started out to be without going nuts. If it had a vapor system on it, then I'd try to put one back. As it is, it appears that it didn't have one. So I don't have to :classic: . It would be interesting if non-USA market "stuff" made it's way into a US market car - especially if it was the lack of required emissions stuff. Carl answered that since it wasn't "required" here (US) until January 1970. I don't know much of anything about cars in other markets (what I do know, I've learned in the last month on this site!), but it's interesting to learn. I loved all the pics you took in Japan and posted (thanks!). Lots to learn, lots to learn...

Right. Now I'm trying to ascertain if and where the access plate was or should be, since there was nothing to remove there on my car. I'll look closely for mounting holes tomorrow. Yup, that's what it is. There are two holes there near the filler neck. One had the single included vent hose just dumping out below the wheel well, and the other is empty. As noted by Carl Beck in another thread on this site, this car did not have a vent system, but most of the holes, etc. for the system were included, since Datsun did start putting the vent systems in after the first month or two of production. I couldn't retrofit a vent system even if I wanted to unless I purchased another gas tank, since the connections for the system are not on my tank. I'll certainly plug the unused hole, and seal up the vent pipe in its hole when I put it back. Don't want to breath those gas fumes!

I've attached the best one that I have here. I think I've got a better on on the digicam that I havent' downloaded yet. The gas tank is in the lower right. Along the lower left, you can just see the edge of the fender lip. The main part of the inner fender well goes off picture to the upper left.

I'll have to look around and see if I see any screw holes that look like they should be filled. The fiche shows that the one that should be on my 280Z parts car looks very different than the ones listed for the 240Z, so that won't help...

I'd be surprised if it was more than 15 pounds empty from the way it felt last night. Also - you mention a plate covering the opening to get to the fuel tube to tank clamp - I didn't have one of those. One more thing that was added on later cars, or is this missing on mine? Is the cover plate plastic or metal? I'm assuming this is part 17270-E4100 on the fiche, listed as: PROTECTOR - FILLER HOSE RH. Where does it actually screw into? I know the PO had the rear quarter sheet metal replaced, so if it screws into brackets there, it could have been removed at that time.

Ah, so the verdict is in! Thank Carl for the info - the only way to put a vent system on mine would be to get a new gas tank, and I really didn't want to do that! Thanks for tracking this down Chris!

I don't have too much to add to that. I don't have two of those vent lines, so I didn't have to worry about that. I didn't remove the top back vent line from the tank - I removed it from the inside of the car, and fed it through the tube in the rear deck as I lowered the tank. If the hose is in good shape, I think this is easier. If not, it will probably crack, but then you'd want to replace it anyway, right :classic: . Also, I was surprized at the connections to the sending unit. I was trying to 'lift' the caps over what I assumed were nuts holding the wires onto the unit, only to find out that the connections were essentially a clip-on over studs on the sending unit, so the connectors just popped off. On the J-bolts, make sure to put a wrench on the weld-nut on the top of the fitting so that the bracket does not twist as you apply torque to the nut on the bottom. You can probably break the strap if you don't. I didn't do it at the beginning, but learned very quickly as I saw the strap start to twist. That weld nut seems easy to round off, too. I used a 14mm flare nut wrench after my open end wrench started to slip. Lastly, the clamp on the main filler tube as it connects to the tank. The screw on mine was rusted (as expected), and the "captive" nut on the back side just spun as I turned it. I couldn't get a wrench on the darned thing. So, I lubricated the clamp to hose surface, and carefully pryed the clamp around on the hose until the screw faced out into the wheel well. After trying everything to get the screw to come out (I hadn't learned the benefits of penetrating oil vs. WD-40 yet), I used bolt cutters to cut the screw body. This left the clamp completely intact, and all I'll have to do is get a machine screw of the right length to replace it. I had the car way up on jack stands, and getting the tank out was very easy after getting all the clamps and bolts loose - it doesn't weigh much as long as you've drained in completely. Hope that helps.

Also, the stock manifold mates to the stock exhaust with a flange. Many headers come down and are just clamped to an exhaust pipe with no flange. I think the stock flange has three bolts if I remember correctly.

My '70 240 speedo starts at 20mph, and the '78 280 parts car I've also got sitting around starts at 10mph. I have no reason to believe the '78 speedo isn't original, but I have not done much with that car. FWIW.

It looks to me like the car was set up to have the vent system. The screw holes for the vent tank are there. There is an extra factory hole through the wheel well that there is nothing going through (and no plug). There are a number of plastic covered retainers that are not used. HOWEVER, there are these sorts of things throughout the car. Unused screw holes and retaining fingers that look like they were never used. This car apparently didn't have much in the way of extras. Not even a rear window defogger grid. It is easy to believe that Datsun was preparing to put a vent system in, but wasn't ready when the initial cars rolled off the line. As to the hoses, the one coming up from the tank to the filler tube is original (woven cover), but the one coming from it and going through the wheel well is not. I would agree with you if it were not for the gas tank itself. It COULD have been replaced with a version with no vent tubes, but where would it have been obtained if no Z ever had one? There is no evidence of cutoff/welding on the tank, and why would someone do that anyway? Just cap the vents. Anyway, 26th-Z is going to talk to Carl Beck and we will see what he knows. I think the jury is still out...

Oops. I forgot to attach the picture.

OK. I have the tank out now. The difficulty I see with the assertion that all 240's had vapor recovery systems is that there are NO OTHER VAPOR CONNECTIONS TO THE TANK except for the one main one back to the filler tube. So. Either someone hacked the vapor system AND replaced the gas tank, or this car never had the multiple hose system that the fiche shows. There are two hose connections shown on the fiche that this tank never had. The parts fiche lists three different tank assemblies, the first of which is 17201-E4100. The second tank listed, under description, says "ASSY-TANK FUEL FOR EVAPO", which indicates to me that it may be for a vapor system, while the E4100 tank is not. Certainly not conclusive, but from what I saw under my car, if this is not the original fuel tank, it was replaced fairly early in the car's life. So, any thoughts on what this new evidence means that are different than my interpretation? Thanks.