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I got to spend a bit more time on the Zed recently and made some more progress. I dropped the gearbox and pulled the clutch. I'd actually ordered a new clutch but the engine had a fairly new Exedy clutch fitted so I decided to refit the Exedy one. The kit came with a new throwout bearing and spigot bushing so I changed the throwout bearing on the clutch fork and replaced the spigot bush while I had access. I didn't have a bush puller so I used a little trick that I read on a Skyline forum to remove this - essentially the same as the grease trick however using wet toilet paper instead. I was a little dubious at first (sounds like a classic stitch up) but it actually worked a treat. It had the added bonus that the TP collected a lot of the extra grease in the cavity and was much nicer to clean up. So at this point I had everything ready to put the entire driveline back together, which felt like another big step towards getting this thing back on the road. Clutch and gearbox went back together surprisingly easily. The only slightly tricky part was the rear driveshaft bolts where there isn't much access room above the rear swaybar. The focus was then on the engine and getting this built up and ready to go. I made some good progress and got the following done: front main seal replaced and air conditioning main pulley installed new water pump installed new thermostat housing, thermostat and temperature sensor installed headers installed (waiting on new studs & hardware to finish this install) alternator installed starter motor installed And finally, after most of the major engine work was done, the bonnet, front fenders, headlight buckets and cowl panel were installed. It's finally starting to look like a car again (albeit a very dusty one).

No worries, glad you're sorted. I was going to offer a 1600 shaft for you to either try or for me to measure up if you couldn't get what you needed, went down the shed for a look but all I have spare is a pile of worn out ones with dead uni joints and another pile like what you already have. The ones with splined end that I fitted to my brother's car were definitely from a 240K coupe, I pulled them out of it myself. For completeness in case anyone is interested, the halfshaft is 400mm from diff flange to hub flange when fitted to a 1600 (well, when fitted to a rear suspension assembly sitting on the floor, may be a slight variations when in the car with weight on it).

If central bolt fixing system then they could be from an early Skyline, a 240K or an early 280ZX.

Do you have the halfshaft that is splined on the inner end and bolts direct into the diff with one central bolt, rathe than the more usual ones that have a flat flnge on either end and bolt onto a little stub axle that then is bolted into the diff ? I probably didn't explain that too well.....Anyway, I swapped out an R200 in a 260Z ages ago for an R180 out of a 240K, it used these different style of shaft so I had to swap both 240K diff and 240K shafts into the zed. The original R200 260Z shafts I took out are now in my 1600, they fitted fine. I'm not going to guarantee it would work the same way, but perhaps 1600 shafts may work for you and be easier to find than R200 zed shafts ? Early 180B's also used the same shaft as 1600's till they swapped to the alternate style later in their model life.

They are exactly the same Mike.

Well its been a while! Here is a high level summary of what has happened since the last post: Tanks Inc PA4 fuel pump installed in the shallow part of the fuel tank without any welding Ended up upgrading to a Megasquirt MS3 CPU, MS3X expansion module and internal knock monitor - full sequential fuelling and retaining L20Et dizzy converted to full cable throttle debugged a number of items with the EFI and added sensors to allow for more compensations with fuelling calculations I've tuned the fuelling tables while keeping peak timing ceiling at a conservative 30 degrees until the knock sensing is tuned. The designed third harmonic of the manifold occurs at 5500rpm and you can definitely see the effect in the fuelling maps and the way the car picks up from 3500rpm. It serves as a little bit of validation for Whitleytune's design. Next stop, dyno runs on the same dyno for comparison!

UPDATE AUGUST: Been chipping away at the Z very slowly. Everything else I own has been blowing up which has kept me away from the Z for the last few months. The gearbox blew in my Forester, and it was a expensive ordeal to upgrade to a 5 speed STI box. Then it broke again a few weeks ago with the radiator splitting. So I'm currently fixing that too. And my wife's car is puking oil. So my weekends are currently spent trying to keep all the other junk running at the household. But I have been able to do a little bit to the Z. I have been searching far and near to find all the chrome bits and pieces I'm missing from the car. Found these new metal cast quarter pillar badges in England. The seller states there is no Left and right badge and they are the same. That was a lie, and I received 2 RHS badges, making me have to re drill the passenger side pillar to fit the badge there because the pins were in the wrong spot. Also found chrome trim for the rear hatch glass, minus the top corner parts on eBay from America. So they came and I gave them a polish and fitted them too: I restored the old headlights... well, at least 1 so far. Ordered the Toyota H4 light as a upgrade, which worked for me as I was able to get it for cost price through work, saving about half the price. old: new: . . Not sure how I feel about them to be honest. I like the curved glass of the sealed beam Hella unit that was in it. I also ordered some Raybrig blue diamond headlight lenses. For a more tuner/updated look. I'll keep the Toyota lights in for now, but I can swap them out later if I get over them. Oh.... and I needed a "beefier" gearbox for the Zed........ My engine is currently getting built too through a mate at his engine shop.... We are aiming for 450hp....... Rudi...

After 3 years of waiting and waiting today I can say the 240z has officially headed home. What a wait and mission with many ups and downs and more ups and downs till it finally got done. Still have a few things I would like to get stuck into myself before I get the wiring and interior sorted such as brake lines, callipers, turbo hoses and what every I can try do myself. Hopefully after the 240z gets engineered I will get the car polished and ceramic coated to protect that paint. Sooo beautiful