Miles

Nion I used the 36 in. Lokar cable. The installed cable is 17 1/2 in. long from the fire wall to the connection on the carb. Add another 2 to 3 in. where the cable goes through the fire wall and connects to the gas pedel. I heated the gas pedel and bent it back about 10 to 15 degrees to get the travel right. I could have used the 24 cable, but wasn't sure how much the bends and a little slack in the cable would require so I went with the 36 in. Also, per JTR I cut about 1 1/2 in. off the bottom of the gas pedel so it would not catch on the carpet. However, at a stop sign, the pedel did get caught once on a mat and was full throttle. Gets your attention real fast. There is no longer a mat on the driver's side. You can see a pic of the cable on our photo site below. Miles

Pulled the diff mount apart today. Found that two washers were placed between the bottom of the solid mount and the cross member effectively raising the nose of the diff crunching it into the E brake lever arm. Miles

I just went through the stuck drum ritual. I tried all of the various tricks and techniques. The driver's side drum pulled off very easy. It was deeply scored inside. The passenger side drum would not come off. So after two days of frustration I took a 3/8 drill and drilled through the drum right around the hub. It came off after I made the full circle of holes around the hub.This drum is now history and will never frustrate anyone again. I then wire brushed both hubs to remove rust and scale. see your Haynes manual brake section as it mentions the hole in the drum. The hole in the drum is actually for inserting a screw driver to adjust/slacken the brakes. On my 72 240Z there is an adjuster hole on the back side of the backing plate on the driver's side and no hole in the backing plate on the passenger side. On the passenger side you have to adjust the brakes through the hole in the drum. There is a flat piece of metal (cog) that allows the adjuster to turn in only one direction each time you set the E brake. In order to slacken the adjuster wheel you have to reach in though the hole and push the flat piece of metal (cog) away from the adjuster. This was a PITA since I could not see the cog and had to fish around for it. Make sure the E brake is working as it adjusts your brakes each time you set the E brake. Otherwise you will have to adjust them through the holes provided in the drums/backing plates. UPDATE I discovered yesterday why my 72 Z has an adjuster hole on the back of the driver's side backing plate. The previous owner replaced the stock strut with a 77 Z strut/brakes. I am now replacing the 77 strut with the proper 72 strut. This was a potentially dangerous situation as the 77 strut is longer than the 72 strut and there is no provision for the E brake adjuster to work creating an asymetrical strut/brake set up. Lesson learned...you can't assume anything is right when you buy a 30 year old project car. Miles

I'll tighten up headers and try the oil treatment. I't will be a while before I can get back to this. Right now I am trying to resolve the differential yoke hitting the E brake lever arm in the tunnel. Just put in a solid front diff mount and the driveshaft yoke is now right against the E brake lever arm. One step forward and one back sometimes. Thanks Miles

we are experiencing the old problem of the differential yoke hitting the emergency brake lever arm on hard acceleration. So we installed a solid front differential mount and now the diff yoke is firmly against the emergency brake lever arm . What is weird is with the original rubber front mount the yoke hit the emergency brake only on hard acceleration. With the solid mount the yoke is jammed right into the emergency brake lever.Has anyone come up with a way to move the emergency brake lever arm away from the yoke? I was thinking that by using a longer linkage to the cable connection I could move the emergency brake lever towards the front of the car. Thanks Miles

Eric I did follow the artical, but that passenger side drum would not budge. I tried repeated heat, hammering and even dry ice to no avail. The driver's side drum was deeply grooved so I decided to just go ahead and do a 100% rebuild on the rear brakes including new drums. The stuck drum was also deeply scored as the previous owner evidently couldn't get the drum off either and let the shoes wear to the metal. When I am done all front and rear brake components will be new except for the hard pipes. Thanks Miles

Got the drum off. Don't do this if you have good drums...I drilled all the way around the hub with a 3/8 drill bit being careful not to score the hub. The drum finally pulled away after I drilled the last hole. Lots of rust on the hub. Found that the shoes were soaked with brake fluid and the adjuster was jammed. Original plan was to rebuild the front brakes first. At this point I think I'll just go ahead and rebuild the rear brakes. Learned some things about Z brakes. The cylinders and the stock shoes are different on the left and right side. The after market shoes (Raybestos) I bought are the same for both right and left sides. The seem to fit ok. I tried to buy stock Nissan shoes but none could be found locally. Once I get the rears rebuilt I would like to try the Ferodo "Green Stuff" shoes and Metal Master front pads. Anyone out there using the Ferodo shoes? Miles

Lone The engine was previously built. I read somewhere in the forum that there is an additive you put in the gas and in with the oil that is supposed to free up lifters and clean up deposits in the piston ring grooves. If someone knows of a good additive let me know. The Ford solinoid: just splice it into the wire going to the starter? Also, I like the idea of a cut out switch on the ignition wire to help cranking a hot engine with lots of advance. It would serve to frustrate the car theives too! Eventually, we are going install a new crate engine. Thanks Miles

Thanks for your input. Miles

I'll try the heat approach today. Thanks Miles

Just got the exhaust on the 350 sbc and now I am hearing a ticking noise from under the valve cover for the first time. Could this be a sticky lifter or something more serious? I cranked in a lot of advance on the 350 sbc which resulted in great throttle response. However, when the engine heats up it is hard to start. The starter labors to crank the engine. It will start if I hold the pedel to the floor, but it takes awhile. I retarded the timing and it starts ok when hot. How do dial in the advanced timing and not have the starting problem? Thanks Miles

Step one is to get the Jags That Run (JTR) manual. There is a JTR link on the Hybrid home page.It will cover most of the questions you have about transmission options. In our conversion we used an 89 Camaro world Class T5 five speed trans. The shifter comes up through the stock shifter hole and it is very smooth. You can see the shifter details on our photo page below. We are also using the R200 differential. We have just over $5000.00 in the car so far and have done everthing except the exhaust ourselves. Still have brakes, suspension and paint to do. Having a shop do the conversion would have cost big bucks. Miles

Denny I'll give it a try. Any safety issues? That passenger drum is close to the gas filler hose. Have you done this before? Miles

I had the same problems as you are (lean sag/backfiring). To richen the mixture turn the mixture adjusting wheel at the bottom of the each carb clockwise looking from bottom up or counter clockwise looking top down. Start with screwing the mixture in all the way until it stops on each carb and then back it out in full turn increments. Make each carb has the same number of turns. Mine runs best at three turns out (in lean direction). It no longer back fires, but I still have a slight lean sag on partial throttle. I suspect a hose is leaking and I know that the throttle shafts are warn on my 240Z. Mine no longer back fires and starts easy. I am going to live with with a lean sag at partial throttle until I do the V8 swap this summer. Also, there are some good carb tuning tips I received from other members in the L6 section of the forum. Look for my posts on backfiring. Miles

In the process installing new shoes on the 240Z. Driver's side drum came off easy. The passenger side drum is stuck as if it were welded to the hub. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks Miles

We did the R200 diff swap into a 72 240z awhile back. I was checking the rear brakes recently ans noticed that the 78 280Z mustache bar we installed has a slight warp towards the back of the car so there is a 1/4 to 3/8 gap between the bar and the vertical transverse arm mount on the drivers side. On the passenger side the bar is flush against the passenger side traverse arm mount. The car we got the mustache bar from did not appear to have any rear end damage. Is the slight warp of the mustache bar on the driver's side normal? Second question: Is there any way to remove the mustache bar with out pulling the differential? Thanks Miles

I have been considering doing the Toyota brake swap using the MSA kit. Does MSA supply the small hard pipe that connects the caliper to the flex line? Also, has anyone else experienced the problem with the brake pedel going to the floor? Other people who have done the Toyota swap indicate they get about 0.5 in. of slack in pedel travel. Can that extra pedel travel be adjusted out some where in the master cylinder linkage? Thanks Miles

Kendall You might want to check with MSA about the headers. The MSA "shorty" block huggers look like Hooker headers to me. The MSA headers provide a nice clean fit and there is plenty of clearance between the header and the steering shaft. Per the JTR (Jags That Run) manual you could also machine a pair of ram horn style chevy headers. MSA: http://www.zcarparts.com/ Miles

Fairlady 327 Unfortunately, there is not enough room to mount a mechanical fuel pump. We are using an electric fuel pump wired to the elusive stock "green wire". I found that the green wire starts taped up at the gas tank and terminates in a taped bundle just behind and to the left of the 72 fuse box. I did not install the JTR oil pressure cut out switch for the fuel pump. I am going to use an inertial cut out switch that chops all power in the event of an accident. I would have prefered a mechanical fuel pump.

Thanks for the feedback. we are going to try and finish the car so we can make it to the next MSA meet in May. It is my son's car so I'll have to beg him to let me drive it once in a while. That is OK as I have a very clean stock 72 240Z daily driver I am going to convert this summer. I plan on using a crate engine for my conversion. I would appreciate any advice you have on crate engine sources. I want a "ready to drop in" complete 72 300 hp sbc. My plan is to have the car ready and take a week off from work to do the engine swap. Miles

Here is progress we have made since August last year. Still have suspension, exhaust, brakes and paint to do. Thanks for all of your help along the way. See pics at: http://www.netsnapshot.com/pickalbum?IanZ Miles

I upgraded to a new photo site and will add more photos of conversion details soon: http://www.netsnapshot.com/pickalbum?IanZ Miles

We are using a B&M short throw shifter on my son's Camaro T5 in his 240Z V8. Very nice @ approx $164.95 in Summit catalog. Miles

I have updated the photos on my web site: http://www.geocities.com/ian240z/ian240zv8.html Note that the B&M shifter comes up in the stock position. I'll try to add the tranny mount photos next week. Miles

I installed a 74 350 sbc and a 89 W.C. T5 five speed manual trans in my son's 72 240Z using the MSA motor and tranny mounts. The distributor is approx 1.5 inches fron the firewall and the engine is lowered, but not as low as the JTR position. The mounts were easy to install. One advantage to the MSA tranny mount is that it bolts up inside of the trans tunnel rather than flat against the floor as with the JTR mount. The tunnel mount allowed me almost infinate latitude in setting the angle of the tranny output shaft for proper driveline phasing. The tranny was moved up and down with an angle finder attached to the tailstock and when the correct angle was dailed in we bolted the tranny mount to the tunnel. The T5 shifter came up through the stock shifter hole and only required a slight amount of trimming of the drivers side of the tunnel next to the drivers leg. We have had no drive line vibrations with this set up. we are using a B&M shifter on the T5. For cooling we are using a 82 Camaro radiator ($50.00) with a Flex-Lite Black magic electric fan ($250.00) and with a 160 deg. thermostat. Engine runs cool right at 160 deg. Rearend is a 78 280Z R200. We had a local shop make the drive shaft for $65.00. I have a 72 240Z that will be converted using the mounting kit MSA kit.