Dave Sommers

Hey 2many, I can tell you want it felt like cause I'm an old guy now. Flashback to '73 - went to the dealer and got jerked around as I was just 19 and they treated me very poorly - didn't want to let me drive one or talk seriously about the pricing. So I found one in the paper that was two months old that the owner had to sell. I had sold my 2 liter roadster and had all cash; a wad of $100's. He saw the cash and buckled under selling it to me for $500 less than he had just paid - got it for $4000 bucks. (alot of $ back then). I still remember counting out the 100's on his coffee table then driving off in that car. It was white with the red interior, just gorgeous and as it had less than 2K on the clock it did have that new car smell still - nice heavy plastic odor that lasted for some time too! 19 and the hottest new sports car you could get for the $ - I was no doubt unbearable for my friends to be around and lucky not to have killed myself in it. I've had several since but I still love that first Z the most.

From your description of the failure it is an ignition issue without question. All previous posts are good info and directions to go. Just a couple of areas to check before you throw a lot of $ at the problem. A couple of areas that have acted this way for me over the years: Check all the spade lug connectors at the coil/ballast resistor to make sure the wires are still firmly attached and the lug is got a good grip on the spade. I had to strip one of these wires and wrap it around a lug to get home once. Check the two small wires in the dist are still intact and have continuity. One feeds the breaker points; the other grounds the breaker plate. I have had both fail due to fatigue and they will also cause this problem. I have also had ballast resister have intermittent short after it runs a few minutes and cause the same response - engine quits only to restart and run a few more minutes. Remember always start with the simple and work up to the complex (and expensive). Advice worth everything you paid for it - nothing. good luck

Mike and 2Many are very much on target with their posts. Your family is first above everything else and in spite of how much emotion we can attach to them, cars are just machines. I would have done exactly the same thing if required by circumstance. Another great car is in the future don't despair.

When you do the tranny swap, use the throw out bearing and sleeve that matches the clutch assy that you are using, not the trans. That is what must match. The deck heights are somewhat different for the different cars and you must have the sleeve height match the clutch set or it won't work correctly. I had a list of the different clutch deck heights around somewhere, but would have to look for it to be more specific. Believe me taking the trans out for the third time to get it right is no fun at all....

All those things in previous post are good. Most of the wiper problems I have seen are due to just two things, corroded wiring connectors or more commonly corroded or badly worn pivot posts - the posts that the wiper blade arm is attached to. If when the wipers actually work, they move across the window at a snails pace - even if lifted off the glass, you have binding in the wiper drive train. This is most probably in the pivot point bushing and post. Check the rubber boots around the post - if they are still even there. If age damaged or gone, then water has washed out the lube and the posts are binding. Disassemble the system and you can carefully take apart the posts. Clean everything out well until parts work well together then regrease and put it all back together. Wipers usually will be back up to speed. Make sure to replace the rubber boots - they are cheap. Good luck.

I will bring it up at the ZCCNV meeting this week and see if anyone is interested. I am, but it is a hike up there from No VA. We usually do Summit Point as it is our closest track. Several of our club members do race at the glen, so it might be of interest. I'll let you know.

You guys are right. I've seen two of the Nissan restored Z store cars and this one sure isn't one. They were done to a very high level, truely near perfect. This one has far to many hack jobs on it to qualify or even come close. I hope there is some way out of the deal when you buy a car over ebay and you get there and it turns out to be a POS. If people are bidding over 5k for this very average car, maybe I should be selling mine there too - it should a least get twice that price. WC Fields said it best....

Dale and Kmack - If you want a quick cheap fix you can simply take out the fuse box to access the wiring and splice an in-line fuse holder into the parking light circuit. It can be done fairly easy and cost you almost nothing. Make sure the new wire is of adequte gauge and the fuse no more than the 20 amps for that circuit. You may find that the heat has melted or burned up some of the wiring, so you may have to go back a few inches to get to good wire. This will work, but getting a new fuse box is the cleanest and real fix. If you look at any old Z you will find the taillight fuse holder has melted the plastic box on most of the cars. Many of them have a inline fuse already spliced into this curcuit. It is caused by corrision forming between the connections on the back of the box where the wire lugs are riveted to the holders. The tailight circuit draws a fairly good amount of juice so this connection gets the hottest and melts out the box. High resistance generates the heat. Load the curcuits and use the finger test to see if any of the other fuse holders have also had it. If they are too hot for your finger, they are also corroded.

Yes the rest of the Z world had a better gearbox. A 5 speed was available as an "option" depending totally upon the dealer you were buying from. You could drop in a 5 speed gearbox one of two ways. By taking a 2L roadster gearbox and swapping the Z bellhousing so it would fit an L motor - but this only worked on early Z with 3 piece gearbox or if you could get the bellhousing. You could also buy 5 speed from Datsun comp catalog, which is what I did for my then new 73 240 (used up and long gone). It was costly, but going fast is never cheap. Most of the local dealers here in No Va didn't bother with this as they were selling every car they could get and didn't care about doing this type of thing. They made more $ installing stripes, bumper bars and other junk. I got mine by knowing the parts guys well and I did it myself. Of course a 5 speed swap is nothing special today - they are everywhere.

Dale, Daniel is going the right direction here and giving you some good advice. You also need to take a look at the backside of the fuse box itself and make sure that the connections there are in good shape. If the riveted connector is the least bit dirty or loose, you will get problems. You can load the circuits and feel each fuse for heat - if you can feel the heat, you need to look for a problem in that circuit. The design of the early Z car fuse box caused ALOT of problems with exactly what you experienced. My 73 did it when it was about 3 years old, the next 73 I had did it, and the 72 I now have also has a melted out position in the box. However, it is usually the position that fuses the running lights that melts out, not the brakes. I've seen this on just about every 240 I have worked on, so welcome to the club...

I believe that Brian is going the right direction. If it quit quickly without warning most probably ignition related. The frosty carb idea is possible but that usually gives warning in the form of rough running and loss of power - at least that is the symptom when the airplane engine does it and it isn't always below freezing when it happens. You should consider looking over the ignition system. Start with the basics and then go to the more complex. Coils can and do get intermittent and cut off without warning, then work again for a period of time. I have had ballast resistors get an intermittent short in the coil that is on the underside of the unit - check with a meter while you give it a tap. Check all your spade connectors in the ignition circuit for loose wires and make sure they have good contact. Also, check that the ground wire on the distributor plate is still intact and not damaged. It doesn't move much, but they have been known to cause problems as the advance plate rotates. Just my advice and it is worth everything you just paid for it - nothing. Good luck.

I bought a seat cover kit from MS two years ago and was pleased with the overall quality. Fit was decent, looks very original and is holding up well.

Is anyone currently making a patch kit for the inner fender area? The area I am looking to repair is the dogleg indented area directly above where the front cross member bolts in. I have the typical east coast rust spot breaking through the inner fender and am looking for a preshaped replacement metal piece to weld into this area. Any suggestions?