1975 Datsun 280z daily driver (for now)

In reply to PseudoSport:

Thanks for the info! At this point I just want something to plug the hole in the door. I think it should work ok.

New brake master cylinder will be here tomorrow morning! Hopefully I can take her for a road test by the end of the week!

Got the master cylinder on and air in the tires. It was a long hot morning, and the 1st test drive ended with my buddy pushing me home with his truck. Oh, and old dry rotted tires don't like 50 psi. More details to come...

So here's the long version of this mornings events. I started the day around 9 am, and it was already 90+ degrees and REALLY humid. I jacked up the rear, took off the wheels, and aired them up to 50 psi (trying to get rid of flat spots, this method was recommended to me).

Then, since I only have 2 jackstands, I decided to replace the master cylinder so that way I could bleed the rear brakes afterwards. After some fighting with the crust, brake fluid goo, and silicone sealant (yeah, I guess someone thought it would fix the leaking master cylinder...duh) I got it replaced.

I then "bled" the rear brakes--no fluid came out of the right rear, and only a little out of the left rear--methinks I need new wheel cylinders. Then it was onto the fronts, so I jacked it up, aired up the tires to 50 psi, greased some suspension parts, and gravity bled the front brakes a little. Thankfully the front calipers appear to be ok. Although the brakes weren't perfect, I had enough of a pedal to go for a test drive. So I fired her up and took off. I got a couple miles away and she started to pop whenever I gave her throttle, then stall. I limped/pushed back towards home, then called my buddy to come give me a push. While I sat in the car waiting, all of a sudden there is a noise like a gun shot. Knowing exactly what happened, I got out and walked around and found this.

My buddy showed up a few minutes later, we took the spare across the street to fill it up at 7-11, then he pushed me home with his '77 F100. I wish I had a picture, I bet we looked pretty funny.

So that's where I'm at now. I think I'll check out the air meter first-it was popping and jumping whenever I tried to rev it up. I'm still hoping to take this thing to Cars and Coffee on August 3, so we'll see. I think I'll be back at the junk yard raiding that other '75 again.

try opening up the bleeder on the rear (you may even want to take it completely out) and give the pedal a good hard thrust. I had a clogged bleeder/almost frozen rear caliper on the audi when I first brought it home and this technique helped get the fluid moving again. caliper works fine now.

it works better with two people because you don't want to introduce a bunch of air into the system, but you are already bleeding them anyway so it's not a huge deal if you do. I have also pulled the bleeder out and cleaned them with brake cleaner before, being the smallest bottleneck in the system they tend to get clogged with grime first.

sorry to hear about your troublesome first drive, the running issue kinda sounds like the AFM or maybe bad/dirty gas like crankwalk experienced. good luck man, you'll get it purring again before long.

Yeah, the RR bleeder was clogged, but nothing came out even with it out. I had my wife pumping the pedal, but maybe I need to get in there and pump the mess out of it. Wheel cylinders are friggin' expensive for these things, like $60 bucks each for the cheapest. I can get rebuild kits for $5 or so, has anyone ever done that? It looks pretty simply, just one seal and boot. I might take them apart and soak all the parts in some rust penetrant or something, then rebuild them.

I'm thinking I might pull that vane air meter out first and mess with that. Hopefully I can mess with that Monday-today is family day and ping-pong tournament tonight with the guys from church.

Looking good; that tire trick does usually work but I don't think I would use it on a hot day driving very fast; heat builds up pretty quickly.

In reply to chandlerGTi:

Yeah, thankfully I was just sitting on the side of the road broken down when it exploded. I don't think I got above 20 on the test drive anyway, so it still would have been ok.

yeah you may just need to bite the bullet and get some new wheel cylinders. it would be hard to get a frozen one apart and rebuild it if the pedal cant move it. btw ebay has them around $10-$15 each

In reply to 2K4Kcsq:

Really? Thanks! I will check out the eBay ASAP!

Unfortunately I have this weird style of wheel cylinder, not the more typical style like in the newer ones. These are still $40+ on eBay. They are $99 from Black Dragon, it looks like eBay is my best bet.

Oh, and I found these yesterday too, so I might try to pick them up and then find one more that matches or is close. http://norfolk.craigslist.org/pts/3913946470.html

wow that is strange. . . If it wasn't such a pain to pull the stub axles I'd say just swap backing plates to the newer style drum setup. but those stubborn axles can be more involved than they seem . . .

In reply to 2K4Kcsq:

Yeah, I think they were only on the earlier cars...changed in '77 I think. I'll probably just get a couple off of eBay, they're in the $40-50 range, which is the cheapest I've seen. RockAuto has them cheap too but they aren't available at the moment.

Oh, and I completely forgot to mention that when I came home yesterday from showing my Maxima to a potential buyer, the left rear tire was flat. Not sure when that one exploded, but I'm sure it made someone jump!

While pulling the trash bin in this morning, I checked the other tires on the car. The only one that's good now is the spare that I put on it on Friday...all of the others have popped and have cord hanging out. I just made a call to a Craigslist ad for a set of used tires.

Need.. To.. Get.. Rb-s13.. Running...

Agh. Too many projects... Ranger first.

RB20det... Ranger?!

N Sperlo wrote: Need.. To.. Get.. Rb-s13.. Running...

Yes you do! An RB Ranger would be cool just to make the domestic guys mad.

Spent some time working on the car this morning. Well, I should say that before I did that I checked out at least 4 used tire shops for some 195/70-14 tires to throw on this thing. A few places had a couple random ones that were in mediocre condition, and they still wanted $40 a piece! After pondering the possibilities all day, I've decided to go ahead and get some decent tires for my 15" wheels and put them on. I'll definitely have 4x4 wheel gap until I get it lowered, but at least the tires will be good and I won't have to buy them twice. I'm going with a 225/50-15 (wheels are 15 x 7, 0 offset), and there aren't a whole lot to choose from that aren't race slicks. I think I've settled on the Falken ZIEX ZE-912. Discount Tire has them for $77 each, but I might be able to get them cheaper from Firestone-I'll call tomorrow. My buddy from my old job is going to put them on for me this weekend. This means I need some new lug nuts too, so I'll have to see what Advance has in stock.

After the tire hunting was done, I messed with the car a little. I discovered that the plug for the air meter was loose, and I think that's what caused me to break down last week. I need to find the little metal clip to hold it on securely. I also messed with the driver's window some more. I've tried every possible way I can to adjust that thing properly, but it just keeps binding on the front. I can't even force it to go up straight. Something tells me something is bent. Anybody have any ideas?

New tires! 225/50-15 Falken ZIEX ZE-912

My buddy mounted them up for me on Saturday, all for the price of a Chick-fil-A meal! Now I need to see what I have for lug nuts (there are a bunch of random ones in the trunk) and put them on so the car is moveable. I think I'm headed to the junkyard tomorrow to see if I can snag some more parts from the car I found last time. Hopefully it's still there!

Tuesday will be wheel install and shifter bushing install. I'm going to order some brake hoses and wheel cylinders tonight or tomorrow, so I should be on the road soon!

Still gotta figure out those darn windows though...

good luck on the pick-n-pull run

Grab all the little wiring clips off of that parts car. You never know when you'll need them. I've parted a couple 280Zs and always keep that kind of stuff.

In reply to jimbob_racing:

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. I've got a bunch of stuff I'll try to pull off of it, including window regulators. Those windows are driving me nuts.

Buy the entire door. It can't be that much more than just the regulator and you'll get everything you'll need.

In reply to jimbob_racing:

I don't really have anywhere to put the doors, and they are really rusted out at the bottoms. I just got back from the junkyard and I got both regulators and some other stuff for $60. A better update will come tonight or tomorrow!

This morning I went back to the junkyard that I was at the other week, and thankfully my car's "twin" was still there. The window regulators worked well, so I grabbed them and all of the other window brackets/slides. I also took a look at the oil pressure switch (I totally forgot to last time), and decided that the one in my car is just wrong. Every picture someone has sent me has had this one, so I got the switch and a length of the other end to solder onto mine. Here's mine currently:

I also grabbed some of the chrome trim for the hatch, as mine is bent and coming off. The tab for the horn is also broken off, so I grabbed the whole turn signal stalk, as the tab is screwed onto it. I figured I would get the matching driver's side door lock (not sure why I didn't grab that last time), so now my doors and ignition all match. The hatch lock cylinder was all mangled, but I'll re-key mine down the road maybe.

All in all it was a successful junkyard trip, and it only cost me $60 (I talked them down from $75). I didn't get any of the clips I needed (somebody had snagged the engine harness), but I'll do some more hunting for those later.

Tomorrow I'm going to put the wheels on so I can move the car--they are re-sealing the parking lot and I need to move it on Thursday to a different area. I'll also try to get some of these parts installed. Brake hoses and wheel cylinders will be ordered in the next couple days, and hopefully I'll be cruising soon!

Here's the loot-

awesome dude. hopefully those new regulators work better. . . it's getting harder and harder to find junkyard S30`s.