SteveJ

You can thank my brother, who educated me on fusible links 26 years ago.

I could afford it, but then I'd have to sleep in the damn car after the wife figured out how much I spent on it.

So did you do any of the things I suggested in Post #6?

Yesterday I spent a little time to pick up a lot of the tools that were collecting around the car. Today I decided to address the horn issue. I bought some Hella horns, and I took off the first stock horn. After I unplugged it, I noticed the accumulation of 30+ years of dirt and corrosion. I took a wire brush to clean the electrical contacts and tested the horn. It worked just fine. So I put it back in the car. I pressed the horn button a couple of times, and the horn still worked. Okay, so the horn relay is good, too. I unbolted the other horn, and it fell right into my hand after I removed the second bolt. It wasn't even hooked to its wire. D'oh! It's probably been like that for over 28 years. I cleaned the electrical contacts and bolted it back in. After a couple of presses on the horn button, the second horn came to life. Okay, I have spare horns, and tomorrow, I'll take delivery of a spare horn relay. With the horn in working order, I took off the lug nuts and loaded the tires into the station wagon. Tomorrow the wife will take the tires to the tire store where they will be replaced with some Falken Azenis RT615K+ tires, 195/60R14. Yes, I found a performance type tire that will fit on the old Iron Cross wheel. So the old girl rests quietly waiting for the night.

But the nice thing is that it's available. Z Car Garage was seeing 350 RWHP and was still planning on tuning some more. That's what a lot of guys are getting with forced induction.

I saw some threads when this DOHC was being developed, and I read an article about it on the Z Car Garage blog. https://www.zcarblog.com/2021/07/30/performance/datsunworks-twin-cam-power-for-your-l-series-engine.html Z Car Garage has also worked on at least one Z with an OS Giken DOHC head.

https://zcarsource.com/spring-set-front-rear-260z-280z-74-5-78-new/ Frankly the Chevette springs were a great improvement in my 260Z over the tired stock springs.

I have not been impressed with the quality of what he has sold. Anyway, the springs for Chevettes are getting harder to find. I bought them on Rockauto 7 years ago for about $40/pair. Here's a thread where John Coffey was talking about it:

You could use Chevette springs and cut them to height. That works well. I would definitely do that before going to California Datsun.

In your "want to buy" ad, I provided you with links where you could buy a proper fusible link. I advise you not to jury rig a fix. If you do not use a fusible link, you risk an electrical fire that could burn up your car.

Just note that the voltage adjustment was for the old style points voltage regulator. A solid-state voltage regulator, which is pretty much all that is available now, probably does not have any adjustment.

Um, I think that WAS your fusible link. That would not be a ground. Do not replace it with a piece of wire. http://www.zzxdatsun.com/catWiring.php https://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/12-4332

Too many ugga-duggas.

Careful, Jeff. This is a family oriented forum.

I'm not sure exactly when you are experiencing this disconnect. I can tell you that when you release the key going from START to ON, there could be a momentary drop in voltage. It's nothing for a typical ignition (electronic or mechanical) since the inertia of the engine will keep things going during that gap. It might not hurt to reach out to Haltech about that. If it is a real problem, I could guide you on a possible solution.

Here's a thought for the fill plug. Use a 3/4 to 1/2 socket reducer (https://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-47823-4-Inch-2-Inch-Reducer/dp/B000NQ4R4G) to go on the male plug. Grip the socket reducer with a pipe wrench for leverage. I would think that would be difficult to round the fill plug.

Turn off the vacuum pump and watch the vacuum gauge. If you have leaks, it shouldn't take too long for the pressure to start creeping up. I can't give a quantitative value, but I'm sure you could find some references on how far down to draw the system and how long it should be able to hold the vacuum.

I'm not sure why this came to mind after reading your post...

Unfortunately you picked the wrong time to be CDO. (I prefer having the letters in alphabetical order.) 😉

Yeah, a little later I found myself wondering how it could have gotten out of sync, since I don't recall seeing anyone describing touching the chain while doing the valve stem replacement.

Good point. It's not like electric motors have a displacement.

If you ever do this again, make sure the car is in gear and wheels are chocked before you apply the compressed air. That will keep the pistons from moving. How much PSI were you using? Someone else will have to provide guidance on the timing chain, but yeah, you're going to have to reduce tension to get the chain on. Life is a cruel teacher. You get the test first and the lesson afterward.

From Nostalgic AC, it looks to be around $1650 plus the cost for them to integrate controls.. That includes the crimping tool. You'd still need the freon and vacuum pump to draw down the system prior to adding freon. For that, find someone with a good vacuum pump. Don't rely on a HF special. Moisture in the system will degrade performance. You also want to find air leaks before you dump freon in.

@Wally, @Zed Head is correct. I'm pretty sure the ring lug is a body ground. There should be a threaded hole in the fender nearby. If you are considering re-using the AC lines, block them off. A better idea is to remove the AC stuff completely if you're not hooking it up and get a better setup when you do want AC. For the bottom photo, you need to give a wire color. In other words, pull down the protective sheath, clean the wire, and report the colors.

@Captain Obvious posted a picture in another thread recently, but here's the text version of how to do it. Black/white to the coil positive Green/white to one side of the ballast resistor Black/white to the other side of the ballast resistor Black wire from distributor to coil negative Now you saw that I mentioned black/white twice! How do you tell them apart? Make sure the car is off. Make sure the green/white wire and both black/white wires are disconnected in the engine bay. Using a multimeter, measure continuity from the green/white wire to each black/white wire. The black/white wire with continuity to the green/white wire goes to coil positive. The other black/white wire goes to the ballast resistor.