240z Resto

Makesy

Club Member
The thing about these 'little' faults is that they provide a great opportunity for us to get into our garage and tinker. By doing that we learn all about the piece of kit we have a problem with, sort it or replace it and get a great deal of satisfaction. Then we go back in the house after the wife has finished watching the 'soaps'.

There was an issue with the driver's door lock/latch on my Sam. I had it all to bits (not easy getting it out, so window frame out too) , cleaned it, oiled it and was happy it was all working well. Bought a new lock with key too because the old one had been forced to try to get it to work. Re-installed it, no joy - after further investigation it was something that is mentioned in that pdf above - one of the screws that hold the latching mech to the door was too long. But at least it all works fine now and I learnt a bit more about Zs.

You don't get that opportunity with modern cars that just keep working until the ECU packs up.

I couldn't agree more. A lot of my resto is about getting to know the car (and maintenance in general, rather than just getting it back on the road.

I am not particularly mechanical, but would would love to be moreso, and this build thread hopefully gives a bit more insight into how to go about it for someone who is thinking about giving it a try.

It's also a good guide for me to look back as I forget all the lost hours I've put into (and will put into) this car!
 

Makesy

Club Member
My light switch is a bit sketchy, so this switch rebuild guide will come in handy eventually
 

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  • Rebuild_240Z_combo_switch.pdf
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Makesy

Club Member
So with all the pre-christmas chaos I hardly had chance to work on the car for a while. But I've had some holiday over the xmas break and managed to get a few bits done!

New fuel filter and fuel pressure gauge, with new hoses

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Fuel pump with pre filter is also fitted and hosed up. I haven't done the wiring here yet and need to figure out the wiring config for the sender while I'm at it.

I sprayed up all the bracketry while I was down here as there was some surface rust showing.

Steering wheel was showing its age with a bit of rust and paint bubble so I gave it a spray up. Will report back on how it looks.



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All the hoses to the vapour tank were rock solid and crumbling. If undertaking this job definitely wear a dust mask as the amount of 40+ year old dust and debris that came from this area of the car was awful.

I literally had to carve the hoses away from the vapour tank to remove them.

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After removing the vapor tank, I found that the vent pipe which should lead to a carbon canister is actually connected to...nothing at all! The fumes are being directed straight into the engine bay! If anyone can advise what to do here I'm open to suggestions. Temporarily I think I will run a line to near front lip of the car to at least allow the vapour to disperse somewhere outside of the car

Sprayed up my new front brakes and fitted them. Very pleased with the outcome. They make the hubs look really shabby so I've given them a good scrub with a wire brush since this pic was taken.

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Removed my hatch lock and can't find a new one.

Tried removing the door locks but I haven't quite figured out how to disconnect them from the locking system

Replaced my key ignition as I'm convinced you could have started it with a screwdriver should you have wished.

Most of my gauges still don't work and the windscreen still needs replacing, but all in all I think I'm well on the way to having her out and about once the weather picks up.
 

Makesy

Club Member
Following some advice from the helpful folks on the DPAN group, Duncan Pearcey and Mike F, I've decided to scrap the vapor tank in favour of a T connector linking the tank and filler neck to a vent hose.

This allowed me to remove lots of old nasty hoses
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On inspection of the offside rear quarter it looks like there may have been some welding done at some point. All my lines look straight though, so maybe it was just a panel repair. I'm a bit puzzled but hopefully it's nothing too serious. I plan to sand it back and temporarily spray over it to preven any further rusting.

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One of my tank straps had a big gouge missing, so a friend of mine mcgyver'd a new one from some old sheet metal. The old, rusty piece is on the left, the new one on the right. I'll pray this before fitting.

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New air dam arrived from FRP and it looks great! Very pleased with it and can't wait to spray it up and fit.

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New hoses/filter/fuel presure gauge all installed.

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Fuel gauge is working, though only reads to half way when sender is moved to 'full' position. I am now suspicious that this may be due to old wiring, so will rewire in due course if my testing proves this.

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Also on the hunt for a windscreen fitter in the West Yorkshire area - all recomendations welcome!
 

Makesy

Club Member
Windscreen fitter now found, I need to order my screen rubber from Mike F so that job can be done.

Fuel gauge now fully functional after repairing a bad earth.

Routed the tank vent hose into position. The hose I had was slightly too large, but some perseverance and elbow grease (read: lots of WD-40 and swearing) and it's now in place.

I have a couple of waterproof connectors I want to add to the sender and pump for easy removal if required.

With any luck, I'll have the tank back on this weekend.
 

Makesy

Club Member
How foolish I was to think the tank would go back on easily!

I added a thin rubber strip on each strap but I think this extra thickness was just enough extra diameter to mean my bolts are too short. I will have to look for some longer ones.

In all the manipulation of the tank, I managed to pull the sender earth wire off, so will need to fix that and make sure it is oht of the way next time.

The filler neck is proving a total pain to manipulate but some quick advice from Mr F and a couple of youtube videos and I think I may have a solution, involving some heat (soak in warm water/ heat gun) and patience.

My perseverance continues...
 

Makesy

Club Member
My new (old) lights arrived from @franky (thanks!). Can't wait to get these installed and wired up.

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I wasn't convinced the filler neck has ever covered more than ~5mm over the tank spout, so I bought some new filler neck hose from Demon Tweeks to act as a coupler.

Earlier in the week I was convinced I needed an aluminium coupler and came up with a rather elaborate plan of how to connect everything, but a a bit of a blast from the heat gun and a small chamfer on the inside of the new hose and it slotted over the old filler neck beautifully.

For anyone wondering, the tank spout requires 2.5" (63mm) hose and with a new filler neck going for over £100, I'm sure something can be pieced together using more readily available parts should anyone require a replacement.

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I had half re-nstalled the tank last week with the assistance of a friend. However, earlier in the week I managed to convince myself that we had wired the fuel pump up backwards and needed to pull everything apart again to check.

Once dismantled, I found the punp to be wired up correctly...better safe than sorry I suppose!

My mate had managed to injure himself during the week, so I ventured on with the tank reinstallation myself.....A truly painful experience!

I used a jack with a piece of plywood on top to help support and manouvre the tank into position - without this i would have been stuffed.

I had cut some rectangular pieces of 6mm rubber to replaces the stock isolators which were missing from the top of the tank. I forgot to take a pic, but I used some douple sided tape to hold them in place on the tank whilst it was being positioned.

I obtained some hooked bolts from my local diy/car shop. They look like wall hooks with some sort of masonry spacer on them, which I removed. Itrimmed the ends of the hooks to prevent any obstruction and fitted them through the straps. You can see one in the grainy photo below.

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Excitedly, I went to start her up...and....the battery was flat (again!)

I've left her on charge for the night, but I will be popping some oil down each spark plug hole for good measure before I try turning her over.

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Looking forward to seeing if she starts any easier. I certainly feel like I'm making some progress!

For fun, I took this artsy shot of one of the rear wheels whilst I was fitting all the hoses back on.

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Let's see what tomorrow brings.
 
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Makesy

Club Member
Exciting news - Car is now registered! Huge thanks to @chrisvega and @johnymd for the technical details of completing the form and @Geoff-R for the motivational support!

Since then, thd battery turned out to be a dud, so my trusty friends at Auto Spares Kippax replaced it FOC.

I'm still having trouble firing up and after pulling the plugs it is easy to see why...

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These have only been in the car a few months (a car which has never left my garage!)

A quick call with Mike F and he thinks it may be an overfuelling issue.

I will run some tests on the cold start injector at the weekend to see if there are any faults there.

New sparkies and leads to go in soon also.

Give me strength!
 

Makesy

Club Member
Spent the past few days trying to identify which sensors are making me run rich....only to find that most of them have been disconnected/plugged at some point.

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Gave the sparkies a once over and fiddled with the firing order again. I got it to a point where it turns and backfires so i think I'm now wrestling with a timing issue.

After the issues I have had, I am weighing up going down the carbs route but that really is a last resort.
 

Makesy

Club Member
Had a lot going on over the past few months what with a job change and a holiday!

Progress slowed but didn't stop!

Engine...

I found fuel in my oil so dropped it. The smell almost knocked me out! It needed a change anyway and it gave me an excuse to remove the cam cover and find TDC (thanks @jonbills ) and also spray the cover up.

This quickly became a bigger job than I had planned, when I decided to take the intake and exhaust manifolds off.

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I removed the manifolds ready to fit my Zstory exhaust. I decided to wrap the exhaust header to reduce bay heat - this job was a royal pain in the ass!

Halfway through I almost gave up...

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But I persevered, and after much swearing and trapping of fingers, got it done.

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Efi...

I bought the EZ EFI kit from Zcardepot to modernise my injection system.

It's taking a bit longer to install than planned as I've been messing with the manifolds, but I plan to get it running in the next few weeks.

I'll post a few more updates on this kit specifically once I complete the install as I know there are a few people interested in how it runs.

Body....

I have cleaned up some surface rust below the brake master cylinder which appears to be from leaky or spilt brake fluid. Just a patch job for now to put me on until I get round to a proper body overhaul. I did similar work in a couple of other areas of the car.
 

SacCyclone

Club Member
I'm sure the new modern EFI kit will solve many of the current and re-occurring gremlins that plague the old factory EFI system and relays.
Great work and cheers for sticking to it.
Mike
 

Makesy

Club Member
I'm sure the new modern EFI kit will solve many of the current and re-occurring gremlins that plague the old factory EFI system and relays.
Great work and cheers for sticking to it.
Mike

Thanks Mike,

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't contemplated giving up at some point - it is pretty hard work!

I'm pushing hard to get her drivable and get some miles on the clock before summer ends
 

Makesy

Club Member
Not sure if I ever shared this, but this is more or less how the car arrived with me.

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With this wonderful rats nest of an engine bay..

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Looking forward to making a comparison with how it looks when I'm up and running :)
 

Makesy

Club Member
EZ EFI Kit...looking forward to seeing how this fairs.

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New windscreen in. Bloke from Cabglass did an excellent job

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This sticker couldn't be removed from the old windscren, but I kept a pic as part of the car's history...

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Spraying up the rear drums, cam cover and intake manifold. I also sprayed the rear louvres, front grill and fuel rail too...

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Test fitting my front spoiler. I had to really stretch it to make it fit, which is a bit disappointing. I was aware that fibreglass can be a bit of a chew to make fit, but I was quite surprised at just how much I had to force it, and was worried it might break.

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Makesy

Club Member
Test fit of the louvres. The paint finish isn't the best and the gloss black feels a bit much. I will get them professionally sprayed at a later date but this will do for now

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Also test fit the exhaust manifold and I'm very pleased with the look

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Ripped out all the old efi componentry and 3 of the 6 (why?!) Fuel lines which have worked their way into the car over the years.

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Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Don't know how I've not seen this before, what an awesome job you're doing!

It really does wear you down at times but glad to see your persevering and making good progress! They like to test us to make sure we're committed to the relationship :rofl:

Looking forward to seeing the new refi system installed!
 

Makesy

Club Member
That's unusual to see a RHD master cylinder on a left hooker!

Is it really an RHD MC? I learn something new everyday!

It came with it when I bought it and AFAIK the previous owner in the UK didn't do anything with the car, which would mean it was fitted in the USA.

I'll be replacing it though as I don't know how old it is and therefore how well it functions (brakes were down when I got her)
 
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