BadDog

Well I replaced all 6 plugs this morning, and she's still running fine. Still starting hard, though Timberwolf: When I was 16 my buddy was "tuning up" my '74 Monte Carlo and slowly drizzled ATF in the carb while holding the throttle open to the tune of about 4500 RPM. He said it cleaned the carbon out of the motor. It *did* run a lot better afterward, but I remember the thick cloud of fog pouring out of the tailpipe, across 4 lanes of busy traffic Anyway, I'll check the plugs again in a week or two to see how they're holding up. It'll be easier to adjust my mixture once I get my new-to-me air cleaners

Yes, I think you're right, it probably gets mounted with the tabs in the backside or underneath somehow... maybe it's supposed to be mounted to the hood or grill that would make it difficult to open the hood The only front bumper overrider pics I can recall seeing are the type that span the bumper guards. Hmm... I wonder if this is a European version? European bumpers didn't have bumper guards, right?

2ManyZs: Yes that does help, thanks a lot I figured the rear mounting procedure would be somewhere along those lines.... as for the front one, it was never used and came with a Datsun box, plastic bag and the hardware still sealed in a little baggie. I don't see anything wrong with mounting one that doesn't connect to the bumber guards.... do you? I just can't remember seeing a picture of one anywhere And I'll have to make sure it's centered. The bumper's got a dent in it and need to be re-chromed anyway, so what's 2 little holes drilled in it?

hmsports: that'd be a scary one for me! Dave, I guess I was thinking about how gas pools in the bottom of the carb a little when the choke is fully engaged. I forgot it didn't really squirt any extra gas... and what do you mean by "Replace them with a pertronix ignitor"? what is that? Is that something to replace the points but keep the distibutor? Maybe I should take a pic of mine inside and out and someone can tell me if it's original or not... Anyway, thank you all for your suggestions. I didn't have time to post what happened because I had to go to a client this afternoon. Anyway, I cleaned those 2 plugs the best I could, checked their gap, replaced them and set out on my way (if I had more time I would've swapped plug 2 with 1 to see if the problem moved). The car felt a little better, like only 1 cylinder was down. I decided to stop by a Nissan dealer on the way to see if they carried new plugs that would work, since mine were were so fouled-looking. I was heading down the offramp when the engine felt like it stumbled a little bit, and suddenly she was firing on all cylinders again. I guess enough carbon must've given way Anyway, I got 6 new NGK's from a parts store and I'll put them in ASAP. Some of you might know from previous posts of mine that when I got this car, the timing was 10 degrees off, she was running really rich, and the carbs were so out of balance that the front one barely flowed any air... it's no wonder the plugs are so gunked up. *sigh* one thing at a time... I'm just glad that this is all it appears to be for now. Gotta invest in that AAA membership if I'm gonna drive this puppy more than once a week. My daily driver has roadside assistance as part of it's warranty

OK, I just got adventurous and tried to check the points. My distrib cap has 2 spring clips, so I popped them up and took the cap off. I'm assuming the points are the metal contacts on the underside of the cap? They don't look carbonized at all. The rotor (?) contact looks good, too. Could my plugs be fouled so badly that they're not firing (and haven't dried out after a few hours?) She's been starting hard lately, and I've had to pull back the choke lever 4 or 5 times total when trying to start her. I know this shoots gas into the carb each time, am I almost flooding it? I'm going to try to clean the plugs and check their gap...

My car ran fine the last time I drove it (Saturday) but suddenly this morning started & ran like crap all the way to work. (At first I thought it was just because it was so humid out.) I don't have any real tools here to diagnose it with, but it felt like it wasn't firing on all cylinders. So, I checked the plugs to see if any were wet, and 2 and 4 were. I started her up, and with the engine running, popped off plug wire #2: no difference in idle. Put it back on. Popped off #4: no diference in idle. Removing 1,3,5, and 6 one at a time effected idle, so I'm guessing that 2 and 4 aren't firing for whatever reason. I waited a few hours and tried starting her again, but she still runs like crap (and I have to go see a client across town... argh). The distib cap and plug wires look relatively new, but who knows if the points were changed at that time... I tried adjusting the spark wires around a little to check for a short, but to no avail. I guess when I get home I can use my timing light to check for spark on wires 2 and 4, but til then I have to do 40 + miles of driving on 4 cylinders Is there a way I can check the points relatively quickly without screwing anything up? If they're bad, are they generic parts or specific to my distributor?

No problem, Akir-ra

and the Kenwood Excelon Dual-Mags. And like the duct tape? It's a temporary solution to keeping exhaust gases out of the cabin, and it's working great!

Alpine CDM-7874:

Front overrider:

*just* enough juice in the new batteries to get the pics out! Woohoo!

The front overrider is 22.5" end to end, and 16.5" between the centers of the mounting holes. I took pictures, but then the batteries in my camera died; I have to charge up new ones I'll post the pics when I can

I'll see if I can post pics tonight... I got them both off of e-bay, the front one was listed as "for a '71" but I figured it'd fit any 240.... the rear bolts to the bumper. I guess it'd be easy to mount them; maybe what I'm looking for is advice on getting the placement right

Can anyone give me advice or a how-to for mounting bumper overriders? I've managed to acquire a rear one (but without hardware) and a NOS front overrider, with hardware still in the original bag. The front one is different from other fronts I've seen in pictures: it doesn't go from bumper guard to bumper guard, it's narrower and looks like it mounts to the bumper itself... I can post pictures if needed.

Hmmm that's what I get for going by the sales brochure: earlier model year pictures . Maybe they *are* original... they're still not comfortable for anything but short drives

The dead giveaway on my seats is the reclining mechanism, a lever. I think the original seats had a rotating knob

<homer> mmmm... silver Z..... mmmuuuuaaagghh </homer> Had to ship mine from TN... and, well, anybody who saw the auction on e-bay knows how much I paid for it

That car looks really sweet, and I think you got a great deal. I think you've got 280 seats though (no lumbar "vents"), like my car. The PO said they were original, and I didn't know any better at the time Oh well, they aren't comfortable to me anyway But like I said, great car, good deal on it I think I paid too much for mine, but I wouldn't budge on my color choice

I just put a new Alpine CDM-7874 HU in my '73 a week or two ago. I tried mounting some Infinity Reference 652i's thta I already had in the rear stock locations, but the tweeter stuck out too far to re-mount the stock panels. Not wanting to put holes in them, I went the 6x9 route instead: Kenwood Excelon Dual-Mags. They're made out of some Kevlar-like material, and have huge tweeters. Voices and instruments sounded really natural, and they have nice tight bass response. I put them in some pre-fab 6x9 enclosures. I'm still experimenting with location; once I find a sweet spot I'll bolt them to the hatch floor. I may still use the Infinity 6.5's, mounted on the front kick panels inside some universal Q-Form kick panel enclosures... gotta decide if the front fill is worth the extra $100 for the Q-forms + putting holes in the stock cardboard panels... maybe I'll just use surface-mount tweeters

I'm running a set of Sumitomo HT200's on sotck 14" steel wheels... they're inexpensive, and pretty good wet or dry. I've had them for just over 1000 miles now. The only problem is that I think my wheels are a bit out of round... I start getting some vibration from 65 mph up to 80. It could also be worn bushings etc. I think I'd like to keep the car original, (I'm debating though, due to wheel balance, condition of the carpeting, and uncomfortable seats) If I end up getting Panasports sometime down the road, I'll probably stick with the Sumitomo's or get some Toyo Proxes if they come in the size I need. I had a set of Proxes T1's when I had my 318ti, and I loved 'em.

Well I could live with the muffler being backwards, except it rattles against the bodywork surrounding the outlet. 2ManyZs, I'd try that, but they put 2 clamps on it: 1 in the middle and 1 towards the rear of the inlet. I'd basically have to cut it almost all the way to the muffler body I guess I'll just wait and see what another shop can do, and what MSA has to say about the possibility of a mis-bent pipe (I have a call into them)... thanks everyone

all this, and info-mercials for the "Tornado" or whatever it is for "boosting horespower and increasing gas mileage"too

Looks like I took it to the wrong place... trouble is, most shops around me won't touch a "custom exhaust". This place only agreed to do it once they verified they couldn't source their own. Now they're giving me crap about trying to make it fit the right way, with the manager saying "I tried it *myself* and it didn't fit. The pipe must be bent wrong" whatever... I looked at the picture in the MSA catalog, and it shows center inlet, offset outlet, so the muffler is correct... I'll try to knock it off with a rubber mallet. If that doesn't work, I've got to find another shop to look at it, or maybe one of the local Nissan dealers. If another shop can't get it to work, I'll have to try a different type of muffler, maybe a cylinder-shaped one. Or a totally different exhaust, which means I'm out $200 +

They crimped the pipes with the old-style clamps. I couldn't get it to budge at all The shop that did it claimed that the pipe before the muffler "must be bent wrong" because it wouldn't line up to the muffler if it were to be in the "right way". Guess I'm stuck for now...

Thanks, Escanlon. Mechanically, the car is pretty good. I've got the engine running well, the brakes are good, suspension is good, exhaust mostly replaced (needs tweaked). The car's actually in such good shape that I want to make sure I don't wait too long to do something about the rust where it has started. I've been focusing on getting the car driveable for extended jaunts, like when I take it to work and sometimes end up driving ~150 miles throughout the course of my day.