Arne

Chris, welcome to Z ownership! Yes, here in the US there was a Datsun Competition Department, but for the most part they marketed parts made by aftermarket makers here in the US, not actual Japanese parts. For example, the exhaust they offered was a header/dual-pipe package that was made by Clifford Engineering. Unfortunately, very little of that "original" performance stuff is still available today. Many of the manufacturers are long gone, and the few that are left generally don't make parts for 40-year-old imports. A number of us have (at different times) put effort into reproducing period accessories and performance parts, as well as stock restoration parts. For example, I spent almost 6 months getting a small batch of Bolder Tint windshield sunshades reproduced. Carl Beck worked with a spring winder a few years back to build a batch of replica Nissan Euro Stage 1 springs. Done correctly, you can safely modify most 240Zs without affecting the value. I tend to try to keep my modifications both period-correct (or at least period-looking) and reversible. Other than the things that were long gone before I bought my car (stock exhaust and wheels/hubcaps), the only non-reversible mod on mine is the front spoiler, which required drilling the front valance. Everything else is pretty much a bolt-on, and the original parts are in safe storage. Your profile location says Oregon, what part? Edit: I moved this thread into the Introduce Yourself forum.

For any of you not on Northwest Zs current notification list - the rest area group is going to try to leave the rest area for the final drive into Canby at 9:00 AM sharp this year, not 9:30 to 9:45 as in prior years. So plan to leave a bit earlier than you may have in the past.

Pretty quiet on this. Weather is beginning to look like it will cooperate for the weekend. Going to have two or three cars leaving from Eugene at 7:00 AM, to meet with the PDX crowd at the rest area as normal. If there are others from Eugene or farther South who want to caravan up with us, shoot me a message.

I got factory Nissan bushings from my dealer. I've yet to find a suspension bushing that was NLA. This assumes that you have a semi-local dealer who still knows that a Datsun is part of the Nissan family. If not, I'd try one of the online/mail-order dealers who tend to more classic-friendly, like Courtesy Nissan.

Looks about the same as the original, never-removed vinyl in my car. Nice job!

There are about a half dozen potential clunk sources back there. The RT mount (much as I am pleased with mine) should not be considered as a total cure. Diff mounts, halfshaft u-joint, struts, even transmission problems can cause clunks - all of which pretty much sound like they are coming from the rear center of the car... Back to the OP's issue - Since this clunk is new after the strut and rear suspension rebuild, I would suspect either the strut inserts moving in the tube, or a now-tired front diff mount. The diff mount can be bad enough to clunk w/o being visibly separated. That's where a good diff strap or the RT mount can help. But I'd still suspect the strut inserts. If either of the gland nuts are bottomed out on the tubes (no threads visible), I'd look there.

When does it clunk? On bumps? On torque changes? One thing that happens now and again is one or both of the new inserts are not completely cinched solid in the strut housing. Occasionally I've heard about cases where the gland nut will bottom out on the strut housing, when it is supposed to bottom on the strut insert instead. That will allow the insert to move in the strut tube and clunk.

Not much you could do anyway, without re-engineering the fuel delivery. By the time of your ZX, emissions equipment was pretty thoroughly integrated into the factory fuel injection. There's not much that is removable separately.

I'm sure it could be done, but the benefit (if any) would be tiny. There really isn't much "cooler" to the simple loop that runs through the bottom of the radiator.

Zohan, have you not read any of the myriad of posts and threads here on doing this swap? Every single question you have asked has been answered here before - not just once, but several times. There are literally a dozen or more posts that talk about the spacer on the end of the crank that must be removed before you bolt up the flywheel. Here's one that covers this issue in particular: Auto to Manual swap (the pesky spacer)

Yup, just disconnect the lines and ignore them. Most replacement radiators have the transmission cooler these days, and they sell them as one-fits-all.

I seem to recall that the originals I removed when I painted the car (can it have been 3 years already?) were glued. In any case, I used a touch of weatherstrip adhesive on mine. But after three years, they have shrunk and pulled loose. Sometime soon I'll need to do something about those.

Yeah, the insurance angle is a possible issue. But the legality of running bumperless might not be. I looked into this some years back for a different car. At that time, the only state I found that prohibited an owner from removing or modifying impact bumpers was Florida. The rest of the states didn't care.

Dave's kit is made for 240Zs with square plugs. In a 240Z it is total plug-n-play, extremely well made, and not obtrusive-looking at all. (And I'm a bit fussy about that kind of thing.) For a 280Z, you'll need to contact him to get him to make one that lacks the round connectors that the 280Z uses. Still a great option, just a touch more work on your end. That would still be way better than the Black Dragon kit, as people who have tried that in the past have said you'll need to cut and splice the new relay harness, as it is really a generic part that doesn't truly fit our Zs all that well.

Well, in the early cars the reduced voltage out of the resistor goes through the tach on its way to the coil. Call it ~8V through the inductive loop. Bypass the resistor and you get closer to battery voltage through the loop instead - in my car a bit over 11V, not quite 12V. Will more voltage through the loop harm the tach? I don't know. I suppose it is possible. You'll hear comments both ways on whether the Pertronix Ignitor is reliable or not. There are people who have had bad luck with them, and just as many (more?) that have had no problems. (My failure was the Pertronix coil, not the ignitor.) But since I've seen plenty of failures with other solutions as well (especially the ZX ignition), I keep a set of points, related parts and necessary tools in the car at all times, just in case.

In theory, I agree. I will say that my tach has not had any problems running on full voltage, but I don't plan to do that forever. Something else to consider - Pertronix seems to recommend the 3Ω/no resistor combo, and the 3Ω is the only Pertronix coil that MSA sells. I'd prefer the 1.5Ω w/resistor myself. But since I've already had one Pertronix coil fail after VERY limited use (but beyond the warranty in time), I'm looking into a Crane PS20 instead, which is 1.4Ω and ships with its own matching resistor.

Yes, they are different. They used switched ground as noted above, not switched power. For normal filament type lights, it doesn't matter. But diodes (the D in LED) are by nature current-direction sensitive. To use those lights you'll need to reverse the switching polarity using relays.

Plenty of people have thought about it, but I can't recall anyone actually doing it. Keep us posted!

Yeah, I'm thinking the countershaft (aka layshaft). It spins in sync with the engine and input shaft. But it also spins in neutral???

When did Goodyear acquire Dunlop? Back when I was in tires Dunlop was owned by Sumitomo.

Hybridz.org is the place to learn all about engine swaps. If it's possible, someone there has probably done it. Make sure you search and read before posting questons, they aren't very tolerant of people asking things that have already been asked and answered in the past. From the looks of it, it can be done, but will require a fair amount of fabrication. 460ZGT Project Build

Minor maintenance time. The car slowly developed a bit of rear clunk again. After the transmission rebuild and R-T mount install, it was pretty much clunk-free, so I decided to check it out. Traced it to the outer u-joint in the left half-shaft. Replaced it with one of my spare half-shafts, and it is once again very tight. Got to re-seal the diff one of these days, though...

Does anyone know just how long the replacement string should be? I didn't have enough foresight to keep the broken piece from mine so that I could have measured the proper length. I *THINK* the broken part was 8", but can't be 100% certain 5 years later.

Because - just like old versions of Windows, for example - the previous forum software was outdated, full of security issues and bugs, difficult to maintain, and very close to becoming unsupported by the vendor due to age. Yes, the change has been rather dramatic, and it takes a while to get used to something new. But staying with the old version would not have been viable forever. We will need to adapt.

OK, that looks encouraging. Keep us posted on your progress.