Jughead

Anyone have a nice decent Front Hood to fit early 1972 Z? I need one! I live in Seattle & can come to you!

Hi, I'm looking for a nice hood for my '72 Z. Anybody got a nice one for sale? I'm located in Seattle, WA. Thanks!! JH

Ahh. This is interesting & helpful. My tip is closer to the red (stock) above. And my corner (1 of them ) is closer to the red one too, although I'm uncovering atleast 1/8 inch of bondo (see pic) Question #2: Does anyone have any info/experience related to the remanufactured steel hoods available on ebay, etc? I see that they're going for anywhere from $800-ish to $1200-ish. I'm considering that as option. Any thoughts, advice, etc? Thnx! JH

It does help! Thanks very much!

Hey Z-sters! I'm finally getting around to addressing the hood on my '72 240Z, which had been banged up, bondo-ed and repainted under previous ownership and needed to be addressed. I removed the paint from the corners, to evaluate and repair/strengthen before repainting. (see my attached photos attached). Can anyone send me photos of the underside of a 240z hood - specifically the front lip corners and middle as shown in my photos) so I know how it SHOULD look? Buch appreciated in advance! Jughead

Sounds like a good plan. Definitely keep me posted!

Tirnipgreen I'm having mine retorqued on July 5th & will keep you posted. Honestly, the stance is starting to grow on me... !Mine's a "driver", so wouldn't want it lowered anyway. Also, I only have a few hundred miles insince installing the shocks, springs, so, who knows...stay tuned.

Other than that, I'm gonna try having the Control Arm bushings retorqued under load, though I'm not expecting much....I'll keep y'all posted

@Tirnipgreen Yeah your stance looks just like mine. I like your wheels btw. So, now I'm wonder if bigger wheels/tires would help. Again, I currently have 195 70R 14 tires on it. Thoughts? How could I find out what tire/wheel size would be optimal with out spending a ton of money?

@Tirnipgreen Send me a pic of your car to compare to mine. I'm sure we both just caught Z Source on "bad days" ...;)

Thanks guys - very helpful. The springs were represented as correct for a 1972 240Z. Can I be sure that different springs will give me a diffent height. Will it eventually sit lower with time/miles? Can I get a better look (i.e. less gap) by changing the tires? @DatsunZGuy: Thanks for the data point

Thanks all - very helpful. The springs I installed were represented as correct for a 1972 240Z, so needless to say, I'm disappointed. Can I be sure that the springs are the problem and that replacing them will give me stock specs? @jfa.series1: What springs are you running on your car (pictures)?

Hi All, I have a '72 240Z. I had my suspension rebuit last summer and now the ride seems too high. (It measures 3-4 inches - measured from the top of the tires to the bottom of the fender openings.) (See below for pics of Before & After the suspension rebuild. The snowy one is "after".) I had bought new springs from Z Car Source of Arizona. The guy answering the phone told me the springs were "stock" spec, and kind of brushed me off. (His number is now disconnected.) I also had KYB struts and all bushings, etc. from MotorSport installed at the same time. Everything else is stock. The tires are new too - stock size (195 70R 14). Questions: 1) Has anyone else had the same experience with or without these springs? 2) Will the ride self-lower with time? (I've put less than 200 miles on the car since installing the springs/struts.) 3) What are my options to get to stock? 4) AM I over thinking this?! Thanks much!

Thanks all. I just bought denso. horns and installed them. Not OEM, but i now have a working horn which is awesome!.

Hi All,= What is the procedure for bench testing horns out of the car? It's a '72 240Z. I bought 2 supposedly working, rebuilt horns from ebay and want to test them prior to installing. I tested both horns individually by connecting their spade connectors to 12.7 volts and grounding the mounting brackets. No sound on either. The connections are all very clean (by me) and I I measure 12.7 volts passing between the spade connectors and the grounds. What am I missing? Thanks!

Thanks gents. Answers to @SteveJ's questions: 1) Do you have an electrical or mechanical fuel pump? : Mechanical. I see a steady suppluy of fuel in the fuel filter 2) Do you have a heat shield over the exhaust manifold? Yes. 3) Have you thought of insulating the fuel line where it could get heated up by the exhaust?: I have not considered doing this because the car's been running great. The manifold is the original. 4) I'm going to hold onto the Tach - at least until the problem is sorted out. One more clue: Last night while test driving I noticed the that amperage gauge was occasionally swinging wildly. I've never seen that before. Full disclosure: I did install some LED dash lights the other day that I got from Datsun Garage...

UPDATE So I swapped out the Tachometers this weekend, and the Tach now works great. ( @SteveJ: You're right it was surprisingly easy (I'm 63 yo).) HOWEVER: Engine performance is still low. It seems to be better than it was before I swapped Tachometers, but it's still not good. With a warm engine and the clutch out, it take a long time to increase RPMs. Questions: Under the assumption that the replacement Tach is good, any hypotheses regarding what the issue might be? How would I check the wiring for shorts, and where should I focus? Thanks!!

I agree that it's super coincidental. Questions: How would a bad tach affect the engine performance as in my case (hypothetically)? Is there a way to bench-test the tach while it's still in the car? I have another Tach that looks to be in good shape. How would I bench test that one? Removing a Tach seems like it would be a major P.I.T.A. Is it? BTW: This is very helpful - thanks.

@Captain Obvious: I disconnected the black & white lead from the coil (+ side ) , and when I switch on the ignition, it DOES still peg to max. Thoughts?

@SteveJ The car is a 1972 240Z. (I've updated my signature - thanks for that tip!) Test results at idle: Green/White @ ballast resistor: varied but roughly 10.77 Black White @ Coil: varied but roughly 10.22 Black/White @ ballast resistor: varied but roughly 13.97 Re: the connector: Are you thinking it was never used for this car? (I don't recall unplugging it. and I don't have fog lights.) I can tell you that the green is hot (juts under 12V ) with the ignition switched on and the headlight switched on, so I like the fog light idea.

HELP!! I seemed to have created an issue in removing my radio, and I need help diagnosing/fixing. Car: is a ’72 240Z with standard/stock points ignition. The car ran great prior to radio removal. Current Symptoms: 1) Tachometer pins to max when ignition switched on. (Goes to zero with Ignition off) 2) Poor performance (low power) while driving. Everything else seems to work fine. The radio and heater control panel are currently out of the car. Events leading to issue: The car was running great. The radio did not power on, although the antenna switch on the the radio worked to raise/lower the antenna. I carefully removed my radio to diagnose it, which involved removing the center console and heater control panel, and loosening the fuse box to move out of way. With the heater control panel removed, the wiring revealed appears to be stock and unmolested (see picture). In trying to diagnose the symptoms above, I have replaced all the fuses with new ones of the correct amperage. (My cigarette lighter now works!) Questions 1. What hypotheses would explain the symptoms? 2. How would I test the above hypotheses? 3. Is it possible that simply reinstalling the radio will fix the symptoms?! 4. Can anyone identify the plug with black and red wires identified with a question mark ? (I don’t think I unplugged it, but it drives me crazy I cannot identify it !!) Thanks in advance for your help – I will report back for posterity!

Hi all, Question: Does anyone have a bench testing procedure for a stock '72 radio? I'm hoping to get the radio in my '72 240z working. I've removed the radio and found some burned/corroded speaker wires which I've sorted out. The antenna switch works fine (goes up and down with the switch). The blue light does NOT turn on. The radio is a Hitachi KM-152OZC. I just saw one on eBay for $2,000, so yeah, I'd like to fix mine. THANKS

@mayolivesThanks! The oil pan gasket got jostled a bit on my second attempt at installing the front cover. (I broke a cover bolt the first attempt.) So far no leaking, but I'll probably replace the pan gasket at some point anyway. Right now I'm working on getting my choke cables adjusted... Here's an engin pic from the other side (couldn't help myself).

Hi all, Does anyone have good step-by-step instructions for adjusting the Choke Cables on SUs? I'm having a hard time finding an adjustment wherein a) the Nozzle comes down with Choke on, and b) the idle is reasonable (~ 900) with choke off and engine warm. Thanks!!

Here's an update on my Z, in case anyone's interested: To summarize, I chased a backfire/"frontfire" condition by replacing plugs, wires, distributor, timing chain, coil, points, ballast resistor intake exhaust manifold gaskets, head gasket, carbs. I brought the head into AutoSport (Seattle) for a valve job & had the head rebuilt and the intake & exhaust manifolds refreshed. I even painted the engine block while I was at it. The problem ended up being (drum roll...) 2 plug wires swapped at the rotor cap! Duh. (I give 99% of the blame to myself and 1% to the Haynes manual!) Anyway, the engine looks and runs great now, and although I'm thoroughly embarrassed, I'm also extremely happy to have the Z on the road! Thanks to everyone who pitched in to help, and EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS to Steve @ Z Therapy. (What a great guy!) Along the way I had a lot of fun and learned a ton. Now onto to the suspension...!