davewormald

Wow, it had only been posted for a few hours when I saw it!

For someone in Ontario looking for a challenge. Not enough pictures to tell how bad the rust will be, but presumably bad. https://www.facebook.com/share/193NoTU1fx/

I did check the torquing of most of the rear suspension and drivetrain nuts and bolts when I first started looking into the clunk that now appears to be completely gone. It's so nice to drive the car without cringing whenever I see even a small bump in the road ahead. When I get around to working on the drivetrain clunk, I'll definitely check the mustache bar differential nuts (partly because they're so easy to access). In the meantime, I need to work on a gas gauge problem and continue my work to banish exhaust fumes from the cabin. Talk about a classic set of Z-car problems ... As always, I really appreciate this forum and the people who help out so much!

The D-shaped hole in the spring top cap is larger than the threaded portion of the inner shock that goes through it. Given that the self-locking nut on top is torqued pretty tightly, I don't think that's really a problem, but thought I'd mention it. Yesterday I decided to try an alternative solution, which is a large "washer" made from heavy rubber (actually horse stall/gym flooring mat) on top of the shock. I cut it to fit tightly inside the gland nut. I cut the inner hole to the same size as the hole through the top of the gland nut, so it isn't touching the inner portion of the shock. This means that it doesn't impede the shock at all, and it didn't give me a false sense that it solved the problem by preventing the shock from moving horizontally (until it inevitably wore down from friction with the shock). I cut the washer to a little less than 1/4" thick. I put a little grease on the bottom of the washer and tightened the gland nut up. This resulted in a thread and a half or so being left visible on top of the strut tube and immobilized the shock within the tube. I reassembled everything and went for a short test drive. Previously the noise would occur before I even got out of the underground garage. It didn't occur at all on the test drive over some bumpy pavement. It's raining today, so I won't be able to do a longer test drive, but I'm pretty confident that this resolved the problem, which is a big relief because I wasn't positive that it was really the cause of the clunk. Given that shocks can run hot, I was a little concerned about using rubber, but I checked and the rubber should be stable to a temperature much higher than my shocks will ever reach. It's possible that it could compress over time, in which case I'll only have served to advance the frontiers of Z-Car clunk science and kludging. Unfortunately, the relative silence made it clear that I also have a clunk that sounds like the traditional differential clunk. I'd hate to run out of things to fix.

Thanks @Zed Head. I remember reading a few threads about this problem when I was first working on the suspension back in 2021. At the time I thought I'd avoided the problem, but sadly that wasn't the case. The solution seems straightforward enough. I'd be interested in what size washers people have dropped into the strut tube, given that the bottom of the tube isn't flat, and the bottom of the shock is a fair bit smaller than the diameter of the strut tube. My suspension is still on the car, and the spindle pin is not removable, so getting things settled in the bottom of the tube will be a bit challenging, as would getting things back out of the tube if that becomes necessary. I'll definitely measure twice and cut once in this case.

More work to do, but I did a few things: I confirmed that the "gland" nut is not the original one that was on the car before I changed the shocks. It's the one that came with the KYB shocks. I confirmed that the collar mentioned by @Patcon is on the bottom of the shock (I haven't pulled the shock from the nice quiet driver side yet, but will if I need to) I noticed that the top of the body of the shock is about dead even with the top of the strut tube that it sits in, which seems about right. The top of the body of the shock is flat, and its diameter is about a millimetre less than the inner diameter of the nut. This leads me to believe that the nut has to be tightened enough to stop the shock from moving horizontally as well as vertically. The gland nut has 7 threads while the strut tube has only 3 or 4. Looking at both the nut and the threads on the strut tube, I think I've tightened the lower threads from the nut down below the bottom threads on the strut tube. They've carved some new threads into the strut tube and the black coating has been scraped off the lower threads of the nut. Because I'm having to drive the threads of the nut into the metal of the strut tube, I think it's possible that I'm not getting the nut far enough down onto the top of the shock to hold it in place. I'm using a large pipe wrench on the nut, so I have plenty of leverage, but it can make a mess of the nut, so I'm not pushing too hard. I also DO NOT want to damage the threads in the strut tube by overtightening. I can see a couple of options here. I could drop a spacer into the strut tube to lift the shock slightly so I don't need to go past the end of the threads in the strut tube to get the shock immobilized. I've heard of people doing that, but the bottom of the tube isn't flat, so I'm a bit skeptical (maybe Patcon's suggestion of a spacer on top of the shock is the way to go). I could probably carefully dremel the last couple of threads off the gland nut to see if that enables me to tighten it sufficiently. I've only driven the car 6000 miles or so since grannyknot got it back on the road a couple of years ago, but the shock is pristine inside the strut tube. I didn't put any oil in with it and don't think I will when I reassemble it this time, either.

Thanks for the responses. They all make sense to me. I replaced the shocks about four years ago. I can't remember whether the (not-glanding) "gland" nuts are the originals from the car or not. I posted about replacing them here in the forum somewhere so I'll have a look. It makes sense that the nut would need to be different if the replacement shocks are narrower. It's a little strange, though, that I only have the problem on one side of the car. I suppose I could take the driver's side apart and have a look at that one as well. I also noticed that the top cap for the spring/shock, which has a D-shaped hole to fit the D-shaped inner portion of the shock, has a lot of play. It looks like it might be worn. I believe it's the original part.

I'm resurrecting this old thread since it's closely related to an issue I'm dealing with. I've got a clunk in the rear passenger side that sounds like suspension. It's not the sort of differential or U-joint clunk you get when accelerating or decelerating. It happens when driving slowly (<30 mph) over bumps. I have reason to suspect the strut/gland nut so I pulled the suspension down and removed the spring. This video shows a lot of horizontal play between the shaft of the strut and the opening in the gland nut. The sound it makes is very similar to the sound I'm hearing when driving except that it gets amplified by the body of the car. There's no vertical play and the nut seems to be tight enough. Should there be this much play? If not, what should be holding the strut in place laterally? It also occurs to me that the spring might hold everything in place when it's installed, but the sound is so like the one I'm trying to track down that I'm suspicious.

Thanks Garrett. I'm currently sitting on two. I just need to get off my butt and get one (or both) of them painted.

Do you mean you replaced the Pertronix with the MSD Blast and no resistor? When we replaced the original coil and resistor in my car with a Pertronix and no resistor the tach wouldn't work. I added a TachMatch device. It didn't fix the problem initially, but the entire setup mysteriously began to work almost a year later. It's possible that the tach would have started working again without the TachMatch, but the scenario you've described is one of the use cases for it and mine's continued to work perfectly all summer.

I wasn't taking sides on the cadmium versus zinc issue. I have no knowledge or expertise to bring to bear on that topic. 26th-Z said "but how does this all matter", which is what HS-30H was referring to with the Brute quote. I think one of the hallmarks of this group is believing that details matter. My comment was meant to commend that behaviour. And Zed, you're definitely one of the people who cares about detail in my view. I don't always enjoy the exchanges themselves, but I think we all benefit from the willingness to engage, and the level of knowledge that results. Sorry that I wasn't clear.

I'm not about to wade into this discussion except to say that I think there's a lot to be said for the quoted comments. First, I like, and get in this context, the Shakespeare reference. Ouch! I'm betting it was a weak moment for 26th and he'll be back onside soon. But more importantly, if there's a community on the internet more dedicated to knowing everything there is to know about Datsun Z Cars, I haven't found it. This is it. Sometimes it takes a long, rancorous discussion to get to the answer, but down the road it's only the answer that will matter. Good for you guys for caring enough about this stuff to challenge each other to get to the right answers. Not everyone will care about whether it was cadmium chromate or zinc chromate, but a few will, and we stand a better chance of determining the answer today than we ever will in the future. Cheers to you guys for your dedication to the cause!

That makes sense, but the problem is really just cosmetic (once I've confirmed that the exhaust problem has been corrected), so I don't think I want to go as far as adding a second strut to correct it. I don't think all cars with the single strut have raised driver side hatches, though, so I'm thinking that there are other ways to address this. If the hinges are worn, that might be a place to start, or maybe the two hinges just need to be adjusted relative to each other to lower the driver's side? At this point I haven't glued the seals back in or attempted to adjust the hinges or latch, so I think I'll move ahead with those steps and see how close I can get things to flush. The upper portion of the new inner seal is almost vertical when installed. When the hatch is closed the vertical portion slides outward against the underside of the hatch to create the seal, so I expect it to compress a little over time as well. As an aside, I was happy to see that, with a couple of careful initial closings where I manipulated the seal at the hinges, the seal is sliding over them properly. Both my original seal and the replacement were mangled by the hinges. I've been procrastinating on the next steps because I know I'm not going to enjoy removing the adhesive from the car before gluing the new seal in, but I'll report back when I've made progress.

I ordered and received one of these seals from Scott's as well. I can confirm that it's much better than the Precision version. With the Precision version there was a big gap all the way along the bottom of the hatch, which welcomed copious quantities of exhaust into the cabin. The hatch sat visibly higher than the edges of the quarter panels. The hatch was higher on the driver's side, and stuck out slightly at the back on that side. I removed all the weatherstripping (both inner and outer) and checked the fit. I was surprised to find that the hatch still sat slightly high and stuck out slightly at the back on the driver's side. I removed the support strut and that allowed everything to align. The strut is a replacement. I'll have to check the source. With the new hatch seal in place, but not glued, the hatch sits pretty nicely. It's very slightly high, but I suspect it will settle, and I haven't tried adjusting the hinges or latch yet. Once I connect the strut, though, it's noticeably higher again. It's lower than it was with the Precision seal and there's no gap along the bottom edge, so I don't think exhaust will be a problem, but it's higher than I'd like it. Has anyone noticed a strut causing the hatch to misalign? Any ideas about how to correct it? I'm a little surprised that the strut can move the hatch backwards. I would have thought the hinges would prevent that.

The 2000GT is certainly a nice looking car. I've always liked that version of the Celica as well. On the other hand, I've never liked the fender-mounted mirrors. They somehow spoil the lines of the car for me. I know a lot of people love them. Pretty cool visit!

We appreciate it! This whole album was good. You might also remember Hard to Laugh and She's So Young. Both had pretty solid airplay back in the day in Canada.

... and appropriate.

I'm sad just reading this. What a beautiful car! I'm certainly no expert, but it looks like a car that would do well on BAT to me.

I hope you strapped them down to the headlight scoop for the drive, although I think you'll need to wait a while before opening them.

Yep, that guy's got some writing and acting talent. A really good communicator. Very enlightening and entertaining! I think he probably could/should have included an explanation as to how/why the two sides of an unaligned U-joint can turn at different and varying speeds. Maybe it would have been too much, but I think it could involve a little trigonometry, and who wouldn't like that?!

It's more indecision than anything. I'm not usually prone to indecision, but I'd really like to stick with a fiberglass scoop, and couldn't convince myself to go metal. I also think you're better off selling the four pieces together, than having two fenders and one scoop, so it probably works out OK. I do appreciate you checking on them for me. Good luck! As a friend of mine likes to say, "My wife loves that sh*t!". @CanTechZ I'll send you a PM and hopefully we can move this forward!

I've never done this sort of repair, but I'm confident that I could do it if I had to. These days there's so much good material out there on the internet (interspersed with the other stuff) that you can learn to do almost anything if you're at all handy, and are willing to put in the time. I'm not worried about the mounting studs. One of my original ones was broken and a fix looked pretty straightforward. Of course, I might have the luxury of sourcing one that doesn't require any work, and I might take the lazy path if it's available! I moved to a condo a couple of years ago, so I no longer have my three car garage or my enormous basement to work in. ☹️

No problem. I really appreciate you guys doing what you do to help out. This, among other things, is what makes this particular forum so great!

@CanTechZ It's certainly better than mine, and it looks like it could be cleaned up, although I'm no body repair guy! @Yarb were you able to check the one you have to determine whether it's fiberglass or metal? What sort of shape is it in?

I'm sure I could manage to do the necessary repair work on the scoop, although I'd prefer not to! @CanTechZ , if you could send a couple of pictures that would be great. @Yarb, let me know whether yours is fiberglass and what sort of shape it's in. Thanks to both of you for responding! I'd really rather have a used part than a newly manufactured one!