zclocks

Sorry for the delay in answering all the e-mails but my web site had a New Years Problem :stupid: Currently the site is up and running so please feel free to e-mail with questions and hopefully clock orders. Thanks and Happy New Year. Ron Ron@zclocks.com

Zedyone, Thanks for the great complememts. I really try hard to provide the best service possible for the Zcar community. Ron (Zclocks)

Will, Good work and you are right on. I have a schematic and part numbers from most of the parts,but you have other problems to overcome. The motor is obtainable and it is dc not ac. Gears are another problem and the bearing for the motor or other motor need to have a 14mil ID to work and maintain alignment with corresponding gears (I make these). Patents are still in place and Citizens and others are not willing to let them go(I've already tried). Also most of the parts were subcontracted and not made by Citizen. Citizen just put their name on the product. You can and will ruin the tuning fork if you don't know what you doing. Just removing the ckt board from the housing can damage the fork. And lastly the media that attaches to the fork is a 2mil ribbon. You will have to have micro soldering or wire bonding tools (epoxy will not work). Interested to learn the outcome... zclocks

Buzz, I'm with Arne on this one, find a new installer. You could install a radio 11 inches deep in the space you have on the 260. You need some one who isn't affraid to get creativ , build a mounting bracket and install whatever you want. Gads....I have a Clarion in my 75 and it has an amp hanging off the back of the 6 inch radio that adds 4 additional inches. What stereo shops want to install is something someone else has worked out so they can do it quick and charge max $$. Crutchfield is very good but their only a reference/starting point. If the radio is a problem with maxium room I hate to think what will happen when you start installing speakers in the doors!!! That's another one every source says can't be done. I have 6.5 inch 3-ways flush mounted in my car with no problem. If you know how and arn't affraid to experiment you can custom fit anything. ....ZC

If the clock and control unit are working and the clock was in good shape it would be worth something. However, if someone has tried to repair the control unit and damaged any of the critical parts it's worth nothing. Parts for these units are not available and you can't make them. Zclocks

Matt, Make sure the the throttle linkage is not sticking or hanging up. You can check this with the engine off by slowly working the linkage.The linkage should work smoothly when opened by hand and should return to a completely closed position. Also, the throttle valve in the throttle body may be sticking due to deposit built up. Ron

Dave, Not sure why you asked the question about accurate time for the quartz clock. In the previous post Jon has a mechanical clock and the time/accuracy there is completely different than the quartz. The stock mechanical clock has accuracy problems and and the best you can do is minimize the problem. The owners manual for the stock 240Z clock suggests you "set the time daily" for accuracy? They knew there was problems. Ron

Dave, The quartz clock is crystal oscillator controlled. I check the accuracy against the standard I use, but the real accuracy is how well you can set the clock time. Using a time standard and different hands (for accurate measure) I have determined the quartz movement to be within one second per month(again this is my standard). There is a provision to adjust but if the solid state components are within tolerance there is no need to adjust. Also this is the standard quartz clock mechanism that Datsun used in their quartz clocks which was supplied by their subcontractor Kanto Seiki. The answer to your question is no I do not adjust the accuracy before I ship but I do check the accuracy. As long as the clock supply voltage is 10 vdc the clock should perform as described. The quartz clock accuracy is as designed by Kanto Seiki, no jewels and unadjusted.Oh yea I forgot, all my clocks are LAB TESTED. Hope this helps.....Ron

Jon, Good going. Make sure you test your clock for several days by watching the time and making the speed adjustment if necessary. It's almost impossible to adjust the time(fast ---Slow) if the clock is in the dash. If you can't find you bracket let me know as I think I have a 100 or so laying around. Ron zclocks.com

Gary, These (the early two knob) clocks are very sensitive and parts are not available. I've worked on a hand full and their all different. First you need to determine if the motor in the clock is working. The way you do this is connect it to a battery and you will hear the motor hummmmm. If it doesn't then that's problem number one. The clock is just a motor and lots of gears. The real timing, accuracy, and control is in the control box. Whatever you do don't play with it as you can screw it up beyond repair. To be very conservative I have seen the two knob rally clock go for > $400 so make sure the repair service you pick is experienced and has worked on this particular clock. For the rest of everyone who's asking about the control box(unit) , YOU CAN"T BUY ONE and their NOT AVAILABLE. This unit is 39 years old and very unique. Without going into a lot of detail this is an RF engineer's nightmare. To be very honest most of the early rally clocks I have worked on I have been very lucky to fix and I only say that because there are no parts and if something breaks you have to build that part(if you can) from scratch. So like I said earlier, pick your repair service carefully or you could loose the clock(early two knob) entirely. As far as the single knob clocks goes I can service and refurbish without problems. Currently I have one on eBay for sale... Ron

The clock on e-Bay is not the one as offered by Datsun on the 70-73 zcars in japan. This clock does NOT have a control box and the bezel on the rally portion is fixed. Also the early rally clock (70-73) has two knobs on the face. The one on eBay could very well work, but it better have been rebuilt or it won't be working long. The clock is still a nice clock and different from the standard clock. If you want to see what this early clock looks like it's on my web page (zclocks.com) or see the attachment. Zclocks

It's always hard to start something new as mentioned in the previous posts.The ARC welder is for heavy metal and the Z body is very thin. Not mentioned is that you can not weld rust. If your a very visual learner then take a class at the local community college. You'd be surprised how fast you can pick up the art. You'll learn that arc is only one of the many welding types (gas, Mig, Tig...etc) and going through a class you will see it all. ZC

Motors in the 240 clocks do go bad. They are very delicate and are not possible to repair. I'd say most of the time the clock simply stops because of the sludge. Ron

Mike, I would think it's best to keep the clock running.

I'm fairly new to this web site and have seen several articles on clocks. This is of particular interest to me as I do have some experience with total clock reconditioning. I've been repairing, refurbishing and specializing in 70-83 Datsun /Nissan clocks for the last 8 years and thought I would pass on several bits of trivia and technical information. I never really thought about NOT using oil on a clock as that seems to be common knowledge until a friend came to me years ago with a 240Z clock. Bill knew I worked on all sorts of electronic hardware and was soliciting my input. His problem was that his clock had stopped (like it was the only 240 clock that didn't work). I have a 75 280z and my clock has always worked. I was wondering why bills didn't? I took has clock apart and began to understand why. Bill said he had removed the clock and flushed it out with WD-40? and then lightly oiled all the components. The clock worked for several months and then quit and this was the second time for this occurance. After I looked at the clock in detail I could see why. The automotive environment is very tough on all the components and the most critical parts are hermetically sealed. The first generation 240Z Datsun clocks were not hermetically sealed and susceptible to all the dust, dirt, chemicals, humidity and temperature. JECO, the Datsun subcontractor, who built most of the Datsun clocks never used oiled for good reason. Oil attracts all the nasty contaminants that can wear out critical clock components and eventually grinds the clock to a halt. I know I know everyone always uses oil on their grandfathers clocks. If you think about it we change our engine oil which is filtered for the very same reason, so that the engine will last longer and not wear due to....the dirty oil. The first generation clocks (240z) have what's called a "NO LOAD" motor which keeps the main spring of this clock contiguously wound. The rest of the clock consists of gears, paws, and bearings that rotate and work in unison to move the clock hands. The problem is that any gear or bearing that produces friction slows the entire clock and if sever enough the clock will stop. Are you beginning to see a pattern here. Oil that is used to lubricate (all oil) coats the surface of moving parts and eventually starts to collect contaminants. Eventually this causes the viscosity (on a micro level) to thicken and produce resistance to the overall clock operation. In addition the change in temperature alone will change the oil viscosity. Believe me when I say it takes very very little resistance in any of the clock parts to stop this mechanism. When solvent other than alcohol is used to "flush" the clock all your doing is removing the contaminants, but when you apply oil you start the process all over again. If you don't mind removing your 240z clock every year or so then I guess that's ok. After helping Bill reinstall his clock I'd opt for a clock that would work forever (we did but that's another article). The 240z guys and girls have a rough time compared to rest of us removing and installing their clock. That is unless the dash is removed. This is what I have found works the best, denatured alcohol. You should remove each and every clock part, clean all parts with an artists brush, inspect the cleaned parts, and reassemble (NO OIL). Let me say that again...NO OIL.This can be a rather daunting task and is not for the weak of heart or those with limited patience. I know this works because I've cleaned way to many 240 clocks and I still have one of Bills 240Z clocks on my test bench. It works and it keeps pretty good time. It doesn't get much outside time, but that's why it's still working. If I get enough interest I'll write a weekly article on "how to" for each of the four generation clocks. Like what goes wrong, how do fix it, what's interchangeable, how do I clean it, what kind of paint to use and so on. Hope this was helpful and please give me feedback. Thanks.........Ron This post has been promoted to an article

jon, Since you're gone this far don't give up on your mechanical clock. You should have better luck with fixing the OEM clock rather than trying to integrate your face plate on your current clock with a quartz clock.The face plates are not interchangable and need modification or things don't line up. You'll see what I'm talking about when you get there (I have a fix). Also, if you find a quartz clock I would really really recommend the clock mechanism be refurbished. I use the same quartz unit on all my refurbishments and I rebuild every one, working or not. These clocks are at least 27 years old and they do have moving parts which wear out. It saves a lot of frustration after installing a clock and finding out it works for a short time and needs to be removed, AGAIN. Try this on the mechanical clock. The capacitors you replaced are polar(electrolitic). Did you observe the correct orientation? Are they the exact uf values? This is important. Second if you did install the caps correctly try this(to determine if the coil is bad). Apply 12 volts to the clock and observe what happens to the flywheel on the clock. You will have to look closely and may have to disconnect the + 12 volts to the clock and re-apply. If the flywheel moves at all then the coil is not bad. If all else fails I do have working ckt boards for a small fee. Oh by the way nice picture of your 76. Love the red. Ron ZC

Well Assie Zed, if you had written me with your question I would have told you where to start. Mechanical clocks are not simple and can be very time consuming. The capacitors are the first to "dry out" and cause the problem. Also , if you over heat the ckt board trying to remove the capacitors you can damage the coil attached to the ckt board. Again this is the first place to start and if you get lucky that will cure the problem( coil to magnet alignment doesn't matter). I do repair this kind of clock, but the accuracy and reliability is not acceptable (my opinion). The best is to convert your clock to a quartz version and I also do this for the 70-76 Zcars. I also specialize in converting the 240Z clocks to a quartz unit and you can't tell the original 240 clock from my conversion(well you can as mine looks better). If your interested in a quartz clock or would like your mechanical clock repaired please contact me at: www.zclocks.com. I don't mean to sound conceded, but I do the best work, work exclusively on Z clocks, have a very large supply of parts, guarantee my work and ship all over the world. Let us know how you repair turns out.... Zclock www.zclocks.com (aka: Zclock bloke) :surprised