EricB

hi all, what do you gather is the right thickness of lexan to use for quarter and rear window glass. The local place that stocks it apparently on has .093" which seems a bit on the thin side of things... suggestions? thank you. -e

If anyone's interested in having a look at the current state of the Japanese aftermarket, look here, the show ended last Sunday. http://www.boomplustoys.net/tokyoautosalon2003/index.html

the one i pulled out of the 10/81 280ZX has flat top pistons - the 4 others still have their heads attached and have between 175K and 225K miles according to their odometers... I don't know how to tell from the exterior if they have flat or dished pistons.... they charge US$60 for a shortblock + $25 core charge, it came out to roughly $95.- They are located in North Hollywood, right off of the I5 freeway... Let me know if you need specific directions or something? -e

oooooh.... i see.... when i had read the article about the cyl's being siamesed i had had a totally different mental picture of something probably ten years too modern... i guess i was thinking i'd see a distinct water jacket around each pair of cylinder sleeves - I guess something akin to what you find on the Honda DOHC VTEC blocks.... never mind then.... BTW that same junkyard has 4 more F54 with roughly 175K to 225K miles on them... let me know if somebody wants one... with only hand tools to use it takes me about 3~4hours to pull one out... -e

I am just about done pulling a very nice condition L28 (F54 casting) out of a 10/81 280ZX - but a question's come up... I thought that the reason why the F54 L28's were the "strongest" ones (for the purpose of building 3.0L engines) was because the cylinder walls were siamesed.... I thought I had read that on at least two different "how-to build a 3L" websites... Is this not the case? Needless to say the L28 I am about to pull out does not have this... what gives? did i misunderstand something? thanks, -e

i just got off the phone with randy from their parts dept over at courtesy nissan and he had no idea what i was talking about... i asked him to look both in the nismo catalog and in the nissan parts book and he found nothing.... maybe he wasn't looking in the right place? yeah a P/N would be great!! Also and separately has anyone tried ordering the lower panel which closes off the bottom of the engine bay from unwanted turbulence - it's in the same section as the radiator shroud of the nismo catalog... nismoparts.com says NLA courtesy hasn't gotten back to me about that yet... -e

I've got two noticeable rust holes under the pass seat - both about 2-3" long - and the only thing keeping the elements out is the tar paper on the inside, under the carpet. I don't SEE anything as bad under the driver's seat but that doesn't mean it isn't there.... so i was thinking of putting new floors in, should i do frame rails at the same time? i know MSA has floors, but i am not so hot on their CS and wouldn't mind taking my business elsewhere... does anyone recommend a good source for floorboards that remain close to the original factory ones? now as far as actually putting them in, i've got a friend who does great welding (he's done all 3 iterations of my exhaust so far) and i would have him do it... is there anything to watch out for, to be careful about, etc that would require special chassis skills other than cutting out the bad piece (with a torch, with a sawzall, etc) and welding in the new one??? thank you, -e

2ManyZ's - thanks for the article link.... I do have a (dumb?) question... where does the bracket pictured below (and taken from the article you linked me to) come from? is that the maxima bracket you are talking about? what years should I be looking at? it just slides onto my rear stub axle? the '82 Z I got the calipers off of had its caliper bracket as an integral part of the lower A arm it looked like - that's why I didn't grab it... -e PS: I did find a nice and thorough 3.1L article on the Georgia Z site, here's the link: http://www.georgiazclub.com/tips/ztech/3.1engine/3.1engine.htm

do you want to swap over just the electronic distributor to your 73 (easy - bolted right in for me...) or do you want to swap over the whole electronic system to your 73 (hard.. can't help you there...)? -e

thank you to the both of you... i grabbed the calipers from the '82, and the rotors (they need a turning but have plenty of life), and the lines which i'll probably swap out anyways.... i'll look for the georgia Z club on google.... if i find the link before you 2ManyZs i'll post it here.... when i do the swap i'll also be putting in the '79-81 ZX master cylinder as recommended just about everywhere.... as for the maxima brackets - i am not sure what you mean - but i'll look up the link.. -e

hi all, i was just at the junkyard where apparently today was "Z rear disc fiesta!" apparently... I came across 4 '79 Z's with rear disc brakes and 2 '82 Z's with rear disc brakes... From my cursory inspection it looks like the spacing for the mounting bolts of the bracket of the rear caliper to the rear hub is the same... BUT the two calipers ('79 vs '82) look very different. Does anyone here have a preference one over the other and why - yes this would be for retrofitting them to my '73 240Z... to be more specific the '79 appears to be a one piece design and it extends much deeper towards the center of the car than its '82 counterpart which has a more modern "2 pieces held together by 2 14mm bolts" look to it... what do you think? Rick (HMS)? 2ManyZs? Alan? -e

I'll try it first with a spare '73 tach then the 260Z tach I have.... I asked because I knew someone else with a '72 and the same EI distributor and his tach seems to have issues past 5K rpm... we were wondering if we needed the later 280 tach to work with the EI distrib... guess not.... Thanks again Victor (got the heater control panel off just fine BTW...) -e

Does it follow that if I have the later electrical distributor out of a 79-81 then I need to get a matching tach out of that car and only that car ... and then possibly swap faces to make it look like it belongs? I ask because I have a random spare 260Z tach lying around - can't use that can I? -e

I've looked through both my Datsun '73 service manual as well as the Haynes manual. One refers me back to a supplement specific and separate to the 240Z Hitachi radio while the other says nothing..... I've got 4 wires coming off the radio: blue, white, white/blue, and red/blue with no plug on the end (it was chopped off before i got my hands on it) I want to return it to factory, down to the wiring... I've fished around under the dash and the only plugs that are not hooked up are one on the passenger side next to the antenna switch plug but it has only three wires (blue, white, white/black), and the other is on the driver's side of the center tunnel by where the buzzer is located - it has only two wires leading to it (red, and blue) Is there supposed to be abother plug somewhere with 4 wires that woulkd hook right up to the stock radio? Or is it supposed to be the above three wire plug and a bullet connector for the remaining wire? thanks, -e PS: sorry for being anal... :stupid:

thanks for all the great input!! will do all of this today... -e

oooooh..... a 90° screwdriver, huh? hmmm... well where does one get that from? ok well then let me look at it again with that info.... i got your PM too btw - thanks for the offer to help. Let me see if I can manage it myself first.... -e

I did searches for "removing radio" "removing stereo" and "removing heater (control panel)" and have not turned up anything useful..... I am looking to remove my circa '82 pioneer tape deck for an original Datsun Hitachi AM/FM radio I just got my hands on... I've removed the center console, I've removed the buttons & knobs for the Heater Control, I've removed the face/trim of the Pioneer deck, I've removed the 4 screws that hold the HVAC panel in & have removed the map light... Yet the HAVC panel appears to still be connected to the Heater control unit.... How do I remove them such that I can get better access for removing the junky Pioneer deck?? Would it be helpful if I posted a pic to show how far I've gotten?... Thanks all....

thanks for the side by side pics.... just what i wanted... -e