datsunlover

Not sure if I should post this here or in the electrical section.. Mods feel free to move if you like. I'm thinking about buying some nice white face guages to replace my dimly lit stockers (that are kinda vauge anyway..) and have realized the spedometer is going to be ..well.. tricky.. What I was thinking though, is I will be running a 91 KA (240sx) 5 speed tranny in my 75 280 and I didn't realize till I pulled it out of the wrecking yard that the spedo 'sender' is actually electronic! For now, I have rig'd the stock one (mechanical, attaches to wire) out of my 4 speed on to the KA case and it seams like it will work. But once I have the drivetrain back together and the car is running, I wana do new guages... and I want them all to match... so I was wondering if I could use the 240zx electronic unit (just has 2 wires coming out of it) to end a signal to an aftermarket spedometer?

I would say yes to the exhast, but probly no to the intake. The intake is gona be a difrent bolt patern (FI) and the earlier Z's don't have the holes in the head to accept an fi intake. I'm not 100% on this, but it makes sence from what I've seen over the years...

I can't say if they are actually strong or not, as I have yet to get mine in the car (waiting for the engine to get built and returned to me) but I will say the KA tranny looks stronger.. There was a little work involved to make it fit on my 280z bellhousing, but hey it was a $100 5 speed. If it blows up in 3 months, so be it.. I'll find another KA with fewer miles on it (Mine has been rebuilt from the looks of things, but the car had 320K showing..) and at that point, it'll be an easier swap in. Also, I'm keeping the stock trans X-member so a swap back to a nissan 5 gear is possible in the future.. Like if I find another parts car for $100 (I'm bitter on this one.. had to get rid of one recently... I GAVE it away...)

I found this in my 'notes' folder (I have a bunch of text info copied and saved from this site, over the last few years) I can't remember who wrote it, and can't vouch for it's accuracy as I have not done it yet.. Using 280zx Dizzy with MSD Ign. box. (cut RED loop on MSD rev-limiter) 1. MSD heavy guage red and black wires to battery + and good ground (I grounded it to the wheel well) respectively 2. MSD light gauge orange and black wires to coil + and - respectively 3. Stock coil + wire (black with white stripe) taken off coil and connected to MSD light gauge red wire (you will also probably want to splice your tach key-on 12v source wire here) 4. Stock coil - wire (black) stays on coil - with MSD light guage black wire. ALTERNATIVELY you can hook this wire to the MSD light gauge white wire, although the manual says not to do this (you'll see why in a minute) it worked fine for me though either way, also I read that your car will run better if you DO connect it to the white wire. If you're at all worried you can just leave this wire disconnected and the car should still run. (I would like another oppinion on the 'best' way to wire these) 5. TAKE THE MODULE FROM THE ZX DISTRIBUTOR OFF!!! There are two wires that connect into it coming from inside the dizzy, red and green. (one less part to worry about!) 6. Connect the purple and green magnetic pickup wires to the wires that were connected to the distributor module, purple to red and green to green. (this is why the manual says not to hook up the light gauge white wire... it says not to use the white wire and the magnetic pickup wires at the same time *shrug* worked fine for me when I hooked it up though) 7. Tach signal wire plugs into the MSD box right next to the magnetic pickup wires. NOT Using MSD BOX; (NOTE: This is basicaly using the zx dizzy as an upgrade for 78 or older Z. This is what I have done right now..) Take the wire that was originally going to your points (from the minus pole of the coil) and connect it to the C connection on the outside of the ignition module. Then run a second wire from the B terminal on the ignition module to the plus connection of the coil. The connection to the balast resistor from the coil should allready be there. Now, just short out the balast resistor. I left mine in place and simply ran a wire between the two connectors. Hope this helps..

I don't think the zx's are as bad for rear diff mounts.. the nose of the diff is bolted through to the x-member, and the rear mount it blted up to the floor area.. I would think if it was broken you'd hear some awfull racket back there... maybe the subframe mounts though... I supose you could call rev matching a 'racing technique' but I do it all the time, even in my beater 4x4 truck. Less chance of loosing control (ussualy when downshifting on ice/snow) and it's easier on your clutch, assuming you get it right. Think of it like this; When you push the clutch in, the driveshaft is still spining, but it's being 'driven' by the rear wheels as you are still moving forward. Then you drop to a lower gear, and let out the clutch. If there is slop in the u-joints, that has to get taken up before the car will start slowing down. It hapens quick yes, but I've had a few vehicles that have done this. My truck is one of them and it jumps and jerks all over the place if I'm not carefull and smooth with the shifting. Come to think of it, it could be a bad u-joint in one of your half shafts too..

Good good good...

How are you downshifting? Just droping a gear, and releasing the clutch? (For starters, that is not the best way to gear down.. not trying to insult you, but do you know how to match revs/heal toe downshift?) Anyway, i'll bet it's probly 'slack' in the driveline causing the jerking. Loose u-joints and worn bearings in the tranny/rear diff can cause this 'slack' and it takes some finess to drive and shift smooth.

heh.. try coming up here and see what 380k gets you! My mother bought her house 5 years ago for around the $200k mark (2200sq feet, 2.5 car garage, 1.8 acres of land) and it's worth about $275 now.. I'm living in a 1 bedroom apt, make $12/hour and the girlfriend makes $10/hour. $700/month for rent. We worked some rough figures out, and at this point we couldn't afford to even get into a $90k house..

I should say I still wouldn't pay that much.. but I could understand the price a little more if they were 15" and mint/polished/ect..

S12 would be the older (rear wheel drive) 200sx's right? I had an 85 and loved it.. probly the best car I ever owned.. They seam to hold up better than the old Zs as far as rusting out goes, and have the r200 irs with 4.11 gearing IIRC.. I bought mine for $500 and all it needed to make it roadworthy was the front struts and rear tires replaced. I didnt know about it when I had my 200sx, but there is a web site/forum out there... S12.org I think.. If I coudl find another one, I'd buy it for sure. Probly do a 302 V8 swap in it..

Hmm.. well, evrything's fixable, but aftre an impact like that ANYTHING is gona be a bit 'tweaked' or bent.. and an old Z is not the strongest car to begin with.. I'd say at this point, if you have the funds, buy a solid roling shell and use this car as the parts vehicle..

Heh, well after resealing the front cover AGAIN (damn leaking sonova...) I'm just gona hope for the best. It's a $100 tranny and I now have about 10 hours into it, so if it blows up 3 months down the road, I'll worry about it then. Even IF the counter shaft 'walks' forward a bit, I think the gear shaving off a bit of alluminum will be tollerable.. allum. is pretty soft, and the gears are quite hard (and sharp.. nicked my finger tip spining the bearing checking it) so it should be fine.. it's gona be a month of so till I get the car back together, and probly a few weeks after that for the weather to warm up enough to go for a 'shake down' cruise.

welllll... Hmm.. looks repairable to me, but it also looks like there is a healthy coat of BONDO in a few places.. posibly evreywhere.. There was a post here a while ago about fixing the 'roof dents' issues.. Something about heating with a propane torch (you're striping it down to bare metal, so paint burning wont be an issue..) and pushing it out/back.. I'm not sure though. See what you can find in the search. I'm curious though.. WTF happened to that car?!? Looks like the rear wheel is bent/pulled quite a bit.. how's the frame/unibody in this car? Personally, that's the first thing I look at when trying to determine 'is it worth fixing?' on any old car.. The body on my 75 was terrible, but the floors had been replaced prior to me buying it (not perfect, I had to finish the job.. damn previous owners..) and up here, the ol Z's are getting hard to find.. in any condition!

You could get a zx N/A driveline (2.8 and 5 speed) and simply drop it right in... OR (this would mean some parts sourcing) get a 2.8 from a 280z, which the carbs/manifold should bolt right on to, and then find a 5 gear from a zx (81+ are the better 5 gears i believe) ..that would run on pump gas, AND be reliable. I would say it'd be a bit quicker to.. Basicaly this is what I'm running in my 75 180z, but I'm going to be using a 240sx 5 speed (bolts onto the older Z's bellhousing with a few mods) and have yet to get it all together. I switched to the carbs last summer and diched the crappy stock FI and it was a HUGE improvement in power and drivability. For best milage, FI is the way to go, but IMO is more expencive and less 'tuneable' (talking about stock Z FI systems here) I'm not sure on this, but was told once that a 240Z cam in a 280z head (N42) is a good combo.. acts as if you added a hotter cam, without the $$$ spent on a hotter cam.

My engine builder/friend actually goes out and looks for blocks that NEED to be sleved, as you can ussualy pick them up dirt cheep (ussualy small block stuff, but IMO an engine is an engine...) He sleeves them, builds them, and has run LOTS in drag cars and 'street duty' hot rods.

Well the girlfriend is tired of her 'crappy' 02' Grand Am (base model) that is starting to get.. old. 72000Ks, it's noisy, rattles/clunks, and handels like poo-poo. So we drive up to the GM dealer she got the car from, and I spot this little sentra on the lot.. hmmm.. hell.. it couldn't hurt to check it out.. The girl seems to like it, and the salesman (she's friends with him) says they 'could' work something out to get her into it.. I go over to have a closer look at it.. it's loaded with power evrything, 17" 5 spokes, 4 wheel disk, SIX speed! it has a sunroof and a rockford-fosgate stereo system (dealer instaled) which is LOUD! cruise and A/C, ect. The salesman looks at me and says "um.. maybe YOU should drive.. you drive stick right?" heh heh.. So off we go.. WOW this little thing MOVES!! I mean, it wasn't total but'hole puckering, but I was really impressed with the grunt down low, and it pulled hard on the highway even from 2k RPM in 5th! It's a bit of a rush getting through the gears, as 1st to 5th are VERY close ratio, and 6th is a little tricky to find (I touched reverse a little the first try.. ) but overall it wasn't to hard to drive. At 100K it's turning 2500rpm in 6th! I can imagine the awesome fuel milage... Suspension felt good and firm, and the brakes were better than I expected. I'd love to drive this thing evry day, but I think it's a bit 'too much car' for the girlfriend.. and she isn't very good with a standard tranny either.. still, it was a fun 30 mins either way!

Forgot to add I have a lincoln electric that I used to put pretty much my whole car back together.. I'm running .030 flux core wire, and it works good..

Dang.. I have two sets, and sold a pair (not matched) to a guy last summer for $150!!! I felt bad, like I ripped him off or something, but hey; he made the offer! Now if those were a set of the 15" swastikas, in MINT shape, I could understand that price.. maybe...

I don't know where my front air dam came from as it was on the car when I bought it, but I had the same issues. Solved them like mat73 did as well, with a couple of pieces of flat sheet metal riveted to the headlight buckets. I molded fiberglass over it and you can't tell with the 240 bumper on there. As for $200 to paint the spoiler.. seams a little high to me.. I got my whole car painted for $200! (I did all the body work/masking/prep)

I supose it would work.. I'll do a photoshop.. found a pic of a white 280zx in the for sale section (seller is CUBAN) Not very big/high quality and my photochop skills need work, but you get the idea.

I dono.. I think if the timing was backed off a bit and you ran premium fuel it would do alright..

Ok, that's what I was coming to.. Here's the thing.. I've been told it's not a good idea to use cam towers from a difrent head.. is there truth in this? Reasoning; The newer head (with out spray bar) is in a lot better overall shape than the stock head (with spray bar) originaly on my car. What I'd like to do is put the cam towers with the spray bar holes on the newer/better condition head.. unless that is asking for trouble.. See, I'm puting in a $275 cam and really don't want to smoke it in the first week I get the thing running..

I want one!

Soo... in theory, if I used a high volume oip pump (for a turbo ZX maybe?) would that enable me to use both the spray bar AND internay oil'd cam?