NewZed

Are you sure that the half-shaft does not still have the side flange bolted to it? The shaft might have been popped out with the half-shaft attached. You should post a picture of the "29 spline 280z halfshaft". I think that you'll need part or two more also for your swap. Here's a link to a thread from a guy who did something similar. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26067 Re my Edit comment above - I was just referring to the fact that I'm not really an expert. I only replied initially because I'm working on my 280Z diff right now so was interested. A 240 guy probably knows exactly what you need. Good luck.

Picture of the 280Z half-shafts. R180 has splines, R200 has two flanges. Hope this helps.

I think Nissan/Datsun called it the "companion flange", not adapter. Might help with your searching. They pop in and out, held in place with a circlip (I believe). Put "R-200 companion flange wanted" in Parts Wanted and you might get a hit.

A comment/recommendation and a question - Short- Precision brand u-joints seem to be of surprisingly low quality. Can anyone recommend a better u-joint brand than Precision, that’s not super-spendy? Not brute strength, but tight, high-quality and durable. I put four new u-joints in and two of them are loose already, after 5 days. The car is a stock 76 280Z manual and I don’t use it hard, although I do like to get to speed quickly. Long - In my efforts to reduce the clunk in my stock 1976 280Z with manual transmission, I found that I had a loose, dry u-joint bearing cup in a half-shaft. I replaced the half-shaft with one from a parts car and the clunk got quieter so I went down to O’Reilly’s and bought four of their Precision brand, Hecho en USA, Part #393 U-joints. List Price $33.88, Net Price $19.99. After the battle to get the old ones out, the new ones went in easily. Everything was clean, no dropped bearing cups, no loose grease or dust to dirty things up. Used a vice and shimmed the flange to get the cups parallel to avoid any binding. They slid right in. The Precision joints only come with one clip, so there is no fine-tuning axial play as with Nissan brand. They felt nice and tight, but moved smoothly, when I was done. So I pumped them full of U-joint approved lithium grease and installed the half-shafts. The clunk was dramatically diminished and the drive train felt tighter. Life is good. Five days later, after a few drives and a couple of hard runs through the gears (but no standing drag-style starts), I started to hear a little clanking from the back again. I crawled under the car to see if a nut had come loose or if some new part was wearing out and found that two of the four new u-joints were already loose. I can see play at the grease seal when twisting by hand. So it looks like Precision is either not very precise in their manufacturing or their materials are of low quality. Anyone planning u-joint replacement should avoid these u-joints. Back to my original question – can anyone recommend a brand of u-joint, better than Precision? And/or is anyone familiar with the McQay-Norris brand, they have what looks like a higher quality option for a few dollars more (as far as I can tell from O’Reilly’s web page) that I can get special-ordered through the same store. I was really surprised that the Precisions failed so quickly. All of the stores sell them and they are not the least expensive (cheapest) of the various brands available. I assume that some will think that I “must have†done something wrong. But I’m fairly certain that my installation was cleaner and easier than many I have seen described. Has anyone else recently had a Precision joint go bad? Or be bad from the start? I hate to trash a brand name but I spent some time and effort installing what appears to be a bad part. Thanks for any help.

This wiring diagram that Saridout on ClassicZcars did is pretty good - http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?p=308490#post308490 It's for a 76. It looks like the BY wire from the ignition switch comes from/goes to many places. It seems to be part of the START circuit, from what I can tell, with various safety features in-line. A in a circle is for automatic, M in a circle is for manual.

How well did it run with that crank (assuming it did)? And what do the other engine components look like? Port work on the head, intake matching, etc. There must be some other goodies in there. Just curious...

I think that the early 5-speeds had more of a reverse "avoidance" system of springs and check balls in the shifting mechanism. At least as far as I can tell from the FSM diagrams. I actually spent some time comparing the 78, 79, 80 and 81 5-speed shifter diagrams and can not find a difference in parts, except for what appears to be one extra "check spring" in 1981. So I don't know what the 1980 "lockout" is that is referred to in the other thread http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=101796&page=2 I was hoping that someone with more experience with Datsun shifters than me would be familiar with what I was talking about and have some recommendations. Compared to other 5-speeds I have driven this one is just way too easy to drop in to reverse while moving forward. I don't know if it's design weakness of the early 5-speeds or something that can be adjusted/fixed. There is very little guidance back over to 4th gear when pulling the shift lever down from 5th. The transmission came out of a car that sat for 10 years. It may just be that the spring is tired or things are gummed up. I didn't take the tranny or shifter apart, but the oil was clean so I didn't expect any problems. Thanks for the help. It's not a show-stopper as far as driving, but it definitely needs improvement if I can figure it out.

So what y'all are saying is that he should move the red arrow and the "gas goes in" text in his picture down to point at the the white mesh on the bottom of the pump. And the tube with the hose clamped to it is probably the "gas goes out" tube. There's still one tube left in the picture - return line? Looks open at the bottom. Just trying to help clarify...

Thanks for the ozgarage link. I did not know that was out there. Fairly informative, although, as you say, the main lesson seems to be that more ethanol in the fuel means you need more fuel in the engine. The E10 was estimated at 95 octane so it's not clear how much of the timing adjustment is from ethanol and how much is from octane number. I was hoping someone had actually noticed and recorded performance and tuning differences between 91 E10 and 91 E0, on a somewhat close to stock engine. Maybe there is none, except for slightly poorer mileage. Thanks again for the information.

I took a large plastic food container, cut a small hole at the bottom corner, stuck some fairly large diameter clear tube (thin wall for large inner diameter plus you can see the oil) in to the hole (make sure it's a tight fit), placed the container in the car, ran the tube to the fill hole, then just took the top off the gear oil bottle, poured it in and went off to do other stuff. I think it took about an hour to drain in and I had a 1/4 pint too much (residual still in the transmission) so it overflowed, but once it was set up, it was easy. One of those plastic coffee cans would work great.

With ethanol you run more advance? I have been Googling around trying to figure out what Oregon's E10 10% ethanol fuel mix does to an engine's timing requirements, and find that many people blame all of their engine problems on ethanol in the gas, from bad mileage to detonation to slow destruction. I haven't found a good discussion on how to tune for it's use. I have a stock motor, 1976 with EFI, that runs well but seemed a little down on power and gas mileage. I added 3 degrees initial advance (working my way up to more extensive {low budget} modifications, but I need to understand how these motors work first) and it seems to run better - smoother, more responsive and quicker. But I worry about the detonation that I've read about on this site and others, especially once the hot summer gets here. Any insights on using ethanol/gasoline blends would be appreciated. Thanks.

Long as you're downloading, you should really get the manual. It is free at http://www.xenons30.com/reference.html . It describes how to check the AFM and all of the sensors. Plus it shows where the sensors are and what they look like. You can download the WinRar program to unzip it, there's a link to it on the page.

I have a 76 280Z with the original motor. I feel your pain. The 1976 engines used the water temperature sensor as an input to the ECU for fuel supply. They don't come with a CHT, it came in to use a few years later I believe. The water temperature sensor is on the front of the motor, in the thermostat housing, and will cause the engine to run rich if the connection is corroded or it is not working correctly. Mine also backfired and had poor power when I got it. It turned out to be the Air Flow Meter. That's what it's called, not Mass Air Flow sensor. With a bad Air Flow Meter (AFM) the car will idle well, but run terrible at part throttle, stumbling and backfiring, then run great when you floor it. If you have an ohm-meter you can check a few pins at the ECU connection and get a good idea if the AFM is OK or not. The AFM also has an air temperature sensor that the ECU references to add fuel. It can be checked at the ECU connection too.

I just put a 5 speed from a 1978 280Z in my 1976. It works fine but I find that it is scarily easy to hit reverse accidentally on the way back down to 4th gear from 5th. I saw in an earlier post that the 1980 5 speed was the first to come with a reverse lockout. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=101796&page=2 Does anyone know of a fix, mod or upgrade to the 1978 transmission or shifter or console that will provide a reverse lockout? Are they all this way or could mine be broken? As it is, I have to downshift to 4th with a very light grip to keep it away from reverse. I have a 5 speed 95 Pathfinder so I know what a "normal" 5 to 4 shift feels like. The drain plug came out really clean in mine, so it looks like the PO didn't grind things too many times, but I would like to be able to drop down to 4th gear at speed quickly without worrying about destroying reverse. Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks.

Dandyz, are you saying that your 240 with sbc already has a gear drive, and that the noise is annoying as you are currently driving it? You are considering removing the gear drive and replacing it with a chain? I wonder if motor gear noise is transmitted through the chassis like differential gear noise when you go to solid or urethane mounts on the "moustache" bar. Does anyone know? Could the engine noise be better isolated with different motor mounts? I like precision but don't like noise either. Don't have a hybrid yet, but plan to eventually.

It looks like the green/blue wire right between red/white and black. Stick a voltmeter probe down behind the wire and see what it shows with the engine running and not. You never know, a previous owner could have rewired your fuel pump. My car had an old wire run the length of the car next to the brake lines to bypass the AFM switch. Tried to add a picture from the FSM but the file was too big. http://www.xenons30.com/reference.html has the 1976 FSM available for free download. You should get it while you can. It's good reading. Page BE-7 has pictures. Good luck.

Glad it worked for you (so far). Be careful with those cut "hot" wire ends, they're fuse-blowing time bombs. The connector with the fuel pump wire is under the carpet along the edge of the rocker panel, at the bottom of your picture, out of frame.

There's a brake warning lamp check relay under the passenger seat seat that will stay powered up incorrectly if you use the atlanticz.com approach without a few wiring mods. I think the problem is unique to the 1976 Zs. Here is a link - http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36480

I have a similar noise in my 76 with 4 speed. Based on the fact that it goes away when the transmission is under load I thought it might be the pilot bushing ni the end of the crankshaft. As I understand things, they can come loose and spin or they can get worn and give poor support for the end of the main shaft. Just another possibility, I have not fixed mine yet.

Maybe I am missing something (haven't searched enough?) but I can not find out how to search phrases on the main search page. Oddly, the FAQ page has a search phrase option - Search FAQ Search Word(s): Matching Options: Match Any Words Match All Words Match Complete Phrase Search in: Search Titles Only Search Titles & Text but the main Forums search page does not seem to have one. It does single words only. So a search for "five speed" brings up all the posts with five and speed, not just "five speed". Actually, just "speed" - from my example search - (=0&childforums=1&titleonly=0&showposts=0&searchdate=0&beforeafter=after&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending&replyless=0&replylimit=0&searchthreadid=0&saveprefs=1&quicksearch=0&searchtype=0&nocache=0&ajax=0&userid=0&"]Search: Keyword(s): speed The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search: five). I think this is one reason people don't find what they search for. Too many results to sift through. Am I missing something? This is a great site and I'm sure it takes a lot of work to maintain. Not too be critical, I'm just trying to help out.

That sounds reasonable. It does suggest the possibility that you could adjust the lash hot, then have the motor cool down, the lash get too tight and burn/warp a valve or lose lubrication at the cam lobe. Just a possibility. If you set it cold and you can get your gauge in, the lash will just get bigger as it warms up. Has anyone ever had a fine-running hot motor that developed valve problems after a cold start. I am new to the L6 but didn't Nissan go to hydraulic self-adjusting valve train later? Not to wear the thread out...

Thanks for all of the input. I recently set mine cold and wondered if it was really necessary to open things up again to recheck hot, hence the question. In the future, if things get noisy and I want to drive right away I'll set it hot. Otherwise, cold seems like the way to go. Thanks again. By the way, will blood in the oil harm my engine? It's only a couple of knuckles worth....

Has anyone actually measured the difference in valve lash from cold to hot? Or had to make large adjustments from cold to hot settings? Are certain cylinders more prone to change dramatically? The materials and dimensions of the individual valve train components are the same, so it's not clear to me why there would be big differences. Component growth should be the same for each from cold to hot. I ask out of curiosity and laziness. It's easier to set it cold. Plus it seems like the individual settings should be more consistent with cold setting since they are made at the same temperature, as opposed to setting on a hot but cooling engine. Thanks for any comments.

I had a similar problem after upgrading to a zx alternator in a 1976 280Z. The brake warning lamp check relay was draining the battery. I had used the atlanticz instructions and the relay ended up "always hot" (not atlanticz's fault since the instructions were for a different car). With the old mechanical regulator the relay only got power when the motor was running. If you hear a relay clicking when you reconnect a charged battery, it could be the problem. I ended up cutting the relay off of the always on power circuit and splicing it in to the fuel pump circuit, which has a connector under the passenger seat, where the brake warning check relay is. The car will run and stop draining the battery if you just unplug it, but the red brake light in your dash won't work anymore. According to the wiring diagram there is also an EGR solenoid on the same circuit as the brake check relay. My car doesn't have one but yours might.

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