seattlejester

Work on the car has been slow but steady. Working full time is good in that money is not really an issue anymore, but bad in that I never get to go to the stores since I work 8-6. So where to start... 280zex I'll be sending you a text soon. I emailed MSA, no response. Called them and they picked up immediately and I spoke with a rep. He asked for pictures which I sent, he stated that he has never seen this problem before and adding the trim should push the gasket out making it seat better. That makes sense, but if the gasket pulls anymore from the windshield I'm pretty sure the windshield will have gaps between the gasket and the glass instead of the gasket and the body, I'll have to wait for a friend to get started as putting the trim in with the windshield on the car is proving to be a little tricky. When asked about the doors being hard to close, he also stated he had never heard of the issue, (which I find a bit strange given the amount of posts on the subject) but he gave me the helpful advice of hammering the welting down, which I will try. Now to answer Pac_Man: my car is not perfect, it has been hit at some point, and I'm pretty sure the windshield must have been replaced in its 40 year life so I can chalk the gasket kit not fitting to those, for now I have duct tape sealing the windshield and I have to slam the hell out of the doors to get them close to lined up with the body . The windshield situation might change for you, but I'm pretty sure most people experience the door gaskets making the door hard to close and instead go with the Kia weatherstripping option. Getting out requires me to roll the windows down and pull the handle since even with the pulley I can't pull hard enough to disengage the door latch. It is unfortunate, but realistically I was not expecting any miracle of a response since my problems seem pretty normal. I mean seeing 280zex's car with the same kit having no leaks and the minimal effort he has to use to close his doors was infuriating! So I called my local Nissan dealership to see if they could get me the correct speedometer gear. Read them the parts number and the rep said he could have it shipped in a week. Then backpedaled and said it might take longer and he would give me a call when he had a better idea since it was not in the local warehouse. I waited for the phone call that would say that it is no longer available, but the phone call never came. I called back today asking for an update and he replied, "Oh, I have it right hear, no one called you?" So I ducked out of work a little early and skipped to the front counter to receive my speedogear. And after the little switch... I have everything I need to get my speedo working , saved about 30$ and 3 months wait time! Finished up most of my wiring. Re-soldered the fuse box to prevent melt down (will probably replace with a more modern unit down the line), taped down most of my stray wiring, soldered most connections, and got most of my instrument panel wired up and working. Now the car securely runs with a digital time, cabin or engine temp, volt reading, and inertial fuel cutoff switch with bypass. Still need to wire up my little LED turn signal indicators and the shift light, (all small discrete LED's), but I'm pretty happy. I had a bit of a moment when I installed the fuel gauge and it read 0 even with ~3 gallons in the cell. Tried swapping the connections etc to no avail. Finally put on some clean gloves and reached down for the sender, to find that the fuel did not come up to the sender! Silly me. Realized there really wasn't anything stopping me from a test drive, since my initial fear was not knowing the revs and stalling the car a whole bunch. Made sure the car would rev freely and gingerly backed it down the drive way and took her for a little run. The car is really loud, but finally driving it was super thrilling. I ended up stalling once trying to go up my driveway, but managed to get back home safely. A quick walk around led me to realize I still hadn't made a battery tie down so that is next on the list! Also managed to call the local exhaust shop. I could try making my own exhaust, but why go through the trouble of measuring and welding when there is a very reputable shop right down the street? For mandrel bent 2.5 inch exhaust piping from the header back with flanges (to take off portions, like a mid section for tranny work or an o2 sensor install, or the muffler portion for a new muffler), flex pipe (he was a little skeptical about this, but I wanted to add one as the PO had ripped out the exhaust hangers twice with the exhaust), all tucked nicely, I was quoted 300$, that's cheaper than an exhaust system for my daily! My goal for this week is to have the car registered and insurance paid for, so I can enjoy it a little before this year ends! List to address: Gasket fitments and install (general waterproofing) Hood and inspection cover install Battery tie down Driver door paint and window crank mechanism (keeps falling off the rail) Turn signal and shift light pod Exhaust Carbs running lean (popping at 4k) The list keeps getting shorter .

How did you bleed your brakes? I know using my vacuum bleeder I was just pulling fluid from the left into the right line.

280zex: I just might send you that text, the gasket issues are driving me nuts and I think it is about time I address them. I e-mailed MSA to see if they have any other tips to offer.I bought some sealing tape in case all else fails, permanent waterproof seal they say . I will text you if I can not find a solution! Valve train is spot on the money, she purrrs like a kitten, a 30 foot monster kitten that is! I gained the extra adjustment by grinding down the adjustment nuts to make them skinnier, I have the cold valve gap perfect, I'll have to do a hot gap after I get my exhaust so I can drive the car around without setting off car alarms. tamo3: your white gear looks a lot whiter than the gear I pulled out, maybe my gear is of the purple variety outlined in datsunzgarage for a 4.38. Hopefully nissan calls me back with some good news regarding availability of the correct cog and I can just swap it in. I wonder if that means the PO installed a 4.38 rear end in the 200sx O.o

Called the local nissan dealership, they said they could get the correct part in about a week for 30$ so we will have to see how that turns out, I only had the part number for the cog from the internet so hopefully all goes well. Friend came over and we spent a few hours cleaning the windshield and installing it. To my great dismay... Lower Driver Lower Passenger And upper driver all have gaps! This will be totally unacceptable, I remember reading about this problem earlier, but I had thought the MSA weatherstrip kit had a decent windshield gasket. I'm beginning to regret the purchase, neither doors fit very well, the windshield really leaves much to be desired, and this does not bode to well for the remaining gaskets. I'll have to do some more research, but as it stands now, water proof my car is not! Since I am nearing the end, I started working on some of the replacement displays. This replaces my center radio/heater control. Entertainment can be provided by my phone which is charged by the usb charger, and the electric heater will be connected to one of the switches. In addition I have a voltmeter, a digital clock, and a cabin or radiator thermometer. Since my fuel cell reads 0-90 instead of the stock 88-10 I bought a new gauge for that as well. A little ugly, but function over form . This replaces my ammeter/fuel gauge, but the voltmeter should provide more relevant information especially with my alternator upgrade. The last piece I will be working on is a little LED display. I found some colored 12 volt LED so I can wire one to the shift light, and have two green ones on either side to replace the indicators that no longer exist (tach replaced). Main things left to address: Driver door problems (hard to close, window not lining up quite right, unpainted portions, all the small gaskets) Passenger door (hard to close, does not line up, all the gaskets) Windshield gasket (trim and fitment) Hatch (gasket not installed) Fuel Cell (not sealed yet) Wiring in new panels Sway bar (tighten front, install rear) Suspension (cut 280z springs as outlined in faq) Tighten Steering Rack Install hood and inspection covers. Mount battery

I have yet to mess with the float levels, and I have an electric pump . My synchrometer sk arrived a few day ago, so I got my carbs balanced. And with the addition of some carb dampening oil, the start procedure takes about 10-20 seconds. I imagine with the chokes in place that should really alleviate my start issues. I asked the autoparts store and they were perplexed by my request for straight 20wt oil. Went to the hardware store and voila Now that I have my tach installed and am starting on my instrument panel and accessories, I decided the speedo should be addressed. My options were either a GPS speedo, use my phone, or to try and get the stock gauge working. I remember looking up the correct cog a while back for ~28$. Upon looking back it now runs 61$ O.o, with a 3 month shipping period. A quick look through my local junkyard and I found a 1986 200sx, which by all accounts should have the correct cog, based off of wikipedia, datsunzgarage, and other online sources. You can imagine my surprise when I pulled this: Now that does not look like a red cog at all! According to the color chart, the white cog should be a 3.9 which never came on the 200sx, and counting the teeth tells me it is a purple cog with 21 teeth! Or am I really confused and suppose to be counting the spaces in between the teeth? Very confused at this point. I'll have to consider my other options soon if this does not pan out.

Stock 72 carbs on n42 block and head.

So, she moves :D :D As Leon suggested, the problem was with the adjustment of the clutch master. The problem stems from the stupid clevis pivot brackets I bought a while back. The culprit in question. When I sent my brake booster in they failed to return the stock clevis bracket, frankly the boot was torn and I just didn't give the loss of the clevis bracket much thought. I taped up the boot and just let it sit. When I put the brake system together I found the replacement clevis was too short for the brake (for those of you who know, the clevis pivot is located much further inboard of the pedal for the brake pedal). So I took the one off the clutch master so my brakes would work, and replaced the one for the clutch master with the new brackets. Turns out that it was too short for the clutch, pressing the pedal would just pivot the actuating rod slightly and depress it slightly, even when maxing out the actuator rod. So other than the fact each one cost 13$ each, they were quite pretty much useless. So to test out my theory I made my own which was quite a bit longer. Ugly but functional! And now she moves, unfortunately only a little bit since my tachometer doesn't read anything. Stalled trying to guess my engagement point lol. Things left to address before the first drive, battery tray/clamp, tying down loose wires and vent lines, installing tach, and a slow start. I have to crank it for a good 45 seconds or so before I get a start, but once it start it will start right back up if I stall or turn the car off. So cold start problems?

Flasher relay is located on steering column and on passenger side

Next to your left foot on a LHD 240z it is a small box with 3 prongs coming off of it right underneath the dash screwed into the body.

Hmm, the tranny and engine are from the same 79 280zx, but the clutch and pressure plate are new....will report later tonight.

Good news, the engine starts much much easier now. I think having compression in more than 2 cylinders is very helpful, haha. Gollum: Actually I tried using my vacuum bleeder and it just didn't give me the same confidence as using a clear tubing with classic bleeding method, had a whole episode with it when I was bleeding my brakes lol. Leon: potentially very very good advice. I was just about to post regarding my problem and I think you might have just solved it! So my friend just came over and we bled the system, turns out it was still pretty well bled from the last time, no bubbles I could see. Tried getting the car to engage in reverse to pull out of the garage and no dice. Just gear grind. To check the tranny and the rest of the driveline was good I had the rear wheels off the ground, and the car will start in both reverse and forward gears, but the clutch doesn't do anything wheels keep spinning even with clutch fully depressed. So either the clutch slave isn't engaging far enough, or the master cylinder is in bad shape. But the bleed showed fluid being pushed, so it looks like I'm possibly out of adjustment? I'll have to go look through the fsm. Austin: We'll have to do that sometime, maybe this weekend, I took work off so I have all day . For the picture deprived: The 15's seem a little too small, but we'll see. Still have to lower the car a bit.

So after some thinking, I realized that the cam had the block on it which I remembered was from the E31. So last night I pulled the cam and cam towers. Swapped the cam from the N42 in, and reordered the cam towers. That didn't fix the adjustment problem, still only had correct gap on cylinder 1 and 5, all the other ones were out of spec. After some thinking I realized that shaving the lock nut would give me a little more adjustment. After pulling the rockers off again and shaving some of the nuts, cleaning with oil and reassembling the gap is perfect on all the cylinders . So after dropping money on some new falken tires, I decided I would try and go for the first test drive, unfortunately car won't engage gear . Hopefully I just need a good clutch bleed. Will have to wait for a friend to help bleed the clutch, all my gauges are on order, will have to install the windshield, and have to trace an electrical drain, but almost there

Sure that would be great, lets push it to next week or so if you don't mind. I want to try and get some tires and some of the other work figured out a bit so only the engine will be left!

I actually checked last night. It still seems like quite a few of them are still not getting enough tappet to rocker clearance. A few have gained a little bit a little clearance though so hopefully the assembly lube is breaking apart if that is the problem. Ill eventually go back and see if i can move the tight clearance tappets or rocker onto another lobe with adjustment left after some other. If all else fails and the car makes no power etc, i am actually thinking of buying an assembled head from Datsun parts llc

I didn't feel right asking for a ride at night, with the road so wet. I'll have to bug him next time!

SUCCESS! First of all thank you everyone! Couldn't have even started to tackle this problem without your help. 280zex came by and we got the car running very reliably and boy does it make a great noise! (Click for video, phone mic overloaded, open header, smoke from ceramic coating curing) tamo3 was actually spot on. I had the shop do the head without the cam towers. And I neglected to take a look after it was assembled. Honestly I was surprised this was even mentioned as this didn't even come to my mind, all I was thinking was fuel, air, and spark, but I neglected compression! Story: 280zex came over in his very gnarly 280z and immediately started diagnostics. He and I both noticed how easily the starter turned despite new rings and such. A quick bump without the valve cover yielded no noise from the valve train. Turns out quite a few of the rocker/cam gaps didn't have nearly enough clearance forcing the valves to stay open not allowing the cylinder to develop compression. He adjusted them, but strangely some of them still didn't have enough clearance despite being maxed out on rocker adjustment (hopefully just needs breaking in?). After the first complete adjustment of intake and exhaust, we were rewarded with a hiss, signifying compression. He went down the line, some of them not quite getting enough gap, but maxed out adjustment on those. After that, we tried to crank the motor, but no dice on the ignition. Looks like the wire to the positive side of the coil wasn't sending much if any signal at all. After splicing some new connections we were greeted with some major stuttering. Some starter fluid and we had ignition! Car ran for a bit and stalled a few times. After bumping up the idle speed, she lives! A really big shout to 280zex. He drove over an hour is typical Seattle weather, gapped my plugs, adjusted my valves, and took care of some of the wiring, all this without asking for anything, just genuine great guy help. Aside: Big thanks goes out to everyone for helping me along thus far, I realize I still fell into the stereotypical traps: posting answered questions, not using my own head, looking for the easy way out, etc. But your comments, your critique, your views kept me going. And I feel like I can finally say my car is truly near the finish line. I will have tires on order in the next two weeks, the registration updated, the windshield installed, and the doors properly aligned, and will literally start buttoning the little bits. This is only stage one of my build and I plan on stepping up the hybridZ aspect of this build after getting to know my new ride. Stay tuned!

Thank you for the advice. I feel like I'm really really close, but I must be missing something somewhere. So no go on all of the parts above. Tried spraying ether while cranking and still just a few thuds but nothing even remotely resembling a running car. Only things left on the check list is gapping plugs, moving the distributor gear again, and rebuilding the carbs. The battery charger is super excellent though .

280zex: I would be very greatful, pm inbound! I'm going to try a few more things tonight, but I have a feeling that won't be enough. Gollum: Yes the starter fluid I'm using says ether on it. I've even tried lifting the piston and spraying it in, but the most I've managed to get is a pretty loud backfire. Schedule for tonight will be as mentioned above: Charge all the spare batteries I have lying around, and try cranking with crank assist. Replace coil, cap, and rotor. Re-gap spark plugs. If that does nothing I'll try rotating a tooth on the oil pump, and if I still don't have any luck. I'll seriously consider taking off the carbs for a rebuild.

Anyone here have time to take a look at my car? I can't get it to start and I'm almost at my wits end. I can make it worth your time .

No dice. I can only get the car to back fire once or twice, but can't get it going. Things I know: New battery, freshly charged from daily driver. Motor cranks. Builds oil pressure. Has fresh 5w-30 oil. Has fresh Chevron Premium Gas. Currently no air filter. Things left to try/check: Spark plug gap. Replace rotor, cap, and coil. Rebuild carbs. Play around with oil pump distributor shaft again. Any local guru's want to take a look? I can pay/feed/whatever you want.

I will grab another gallon or so, but it is a sumped fuel cell so I don't think it has the traditional gas pick up tube problem. Took my strut brace off removed my valve cover and set the first two cam lobes to bunny ears, checked the timing on the pulley to Tdc, and the distributor shaft looked to be in the right place. After draining the oil and pulling the oil pump a half dozen times, I realized the shaft was in the right place. Turns out my distributor was not! Used the coarse and fine adjustments and I am comfortably a few degrees btdc whereas before I was quite a bit past Tdc. It was 3 am so I didn't try cranking it for long, but I got quite a few more burps from the engine before my battery started getting weak. Hopefully will be able to dial in the timing and get it to start later today after jumping the battery from my daily driver.

My strut brace makes removing the valve cover a chore, but I guess now is the best time to fix that issue while I check timing. You are definitely right, better to just start by visually confirming everything rather than assuming everything stayed in place. Hopefully will report tomorrow with progress. Thank you for the detailed write up. Cheers.

So I tried to start the car today. Added coolant, oil, and gas. Cranked without spark to get the fluids cycling. Then tried to crank. No dice. I can see the motor cranking (tilting, accessory belt spinning), I can hear the fuel pump going (fresh chevron premium gas, 1.5 gallons). Took the air filter off, and put in some starting fluid, motor started making some noise, and I would see a bit of a yellow flash from the exhaust (open header, yellow flash means unburnt fuel igniting at end of stroke?), which leads me to believe that I do have spark, but my timing is off? Does it sound right to bank on my timing being out of whack? I had everything matched up to the diagram from the engine rebuild book.

Very very pleasantly surprised by the content! I've been meaning to do this as well but it has slipped my mind, now I have a new winter project .

Hmm, I did find the wires for the "stock" pump, although I'm not sure where it traces back. Would you happen to know if the wire is a live wire? Or is there a connection I have to make to make it live (no battery in car quite yet, so no multimeter input)? I'll have to look at my wiring harness guide again. As of now, I've tapped the jumper that is replacing where the ballast resister goes for the signal for both the pump and the fan relays, that way both will be "on" when the car is in the on position. I've also ordered an inertia switch to kill the fuel pump in case of an emergency to be on the safe side! Unfortunately my replacement radiator is a tad thicker which prevents the use of the stock clutch fan, but my stock clutch fan decided to eat itself by running off balance against the radiator so that prevents the use of it even if the stock radiator wasn't full of rust. The one that came with the ZX motor was destroyed when I tried to remove it . I would have loved to have kept the clutch fan, but a stand alone dual fan setup lets me run that variable speed I may need in traffic.