Mickl

haven’t used the car in 3 or 4 months but started the 260 up today. Down the road I noticed the fuel gauge was on empty and I ran out of fuel just as I got to the servo. Lucky there! It appears that the tank contents has siphoned out through a rubber waste line connecting both carbies and outletting to the side of the gearbox. The cardboard sheets on the shed floor have clearly soaked up several litres of petrol whilst it has been standing. I had observed a fuel smell over the summer but mistakenly blamed some mower fuel containers!! what causes the fuel to drain out like that and how can it be prevented? Not great to have petrol leaking over hot exhausts as the rubber tube is not fixed down. Cheers , Mick

Thanks Dave, I put them on evil bay but I doubt anyone would want them? cheers,Mick

I found these two hub caps in the shed today. Checked all over the net but can’t find a Datsun model that had them. Can anyone identify them?

Scott's, happy to mail you one of the old ones which you might be able to copy. I hope I never want another one now but there could be guys out there who might have a rear brake job coming up. They are for a 1977 model on and earlier models have an elongated rubber seal, which is quite different. USA sites refer to them as for 280z send me your address if you want to try. Mickl

Thanks for the rapid responses. I should have mentioned that it is a77 model with the self adjusting mechanism. however, I took a drum off and applied the handbrake 50 times or more and the self adjust lever does not activate the star wheel. That is why I was trying to get at the adjuster from the back of the backing plate......and it seems impossible to crank it from here. I did turn it about one rotation to push the shoes apart a bit but any more and I can't get the drum back on. I am thinking I might drive it a bit and wear the shoes in and maybe I will be able to remove the drum a bit easier and crank it another turn or two?. i am shying away from taking the shoes off and trying to get the self adjuster working as it was such a mongrel to get them on before!

I have just replaced shoes and cylinders and had to back off the handbrake star adjusting wheel fully to get the hubs back on. Bled the brakes etc but now the handbrake is not coming on and the brake foot pedal is not very effective as the rear cylinders have to push the shoes along way to grip the hub. I find it impossible to adjust the handbrake up by accessing the small adjusting slot in the backing plate....there is just no room to get any tool in. help needed please! Mickl

Black dragon is no more. Found some at the z store. Postage was horrendous and two arrived in an envelope a couple of weeks ago but at $60 each!,! i don't think 3D printers can use rubber?? have reassembled it all but adjusting the handbrake through the backing plate slot is a nightmare so I have posted a new thread to ask for help here. Mickl

Thanks guys, I will track a pair from USA. i found a Black Dragon catalogue which has them in it. cheers, Mick

I have just bought some new shoes and brake cylinders for my 77 2+2, along with machining the drums, but cannot find a supplier of the squarish dust grommet where the handbrake lever passes through the backing plate. Does anyone know where to get them? cheers, Datman

Yep, that's it.

Got a bit too physical with my stiff choke and broke the knob today. Anyone out there with one or where to find one? cheers, Mickl

I am considering getting hold of some standard 260 mags ( are they called snowflake?) as I am getting some trouble from my car club in getting the historic registration. They reackon the wheels must be no wider than the tyre placard so my wide jelly bean wheels don't comply. Has anyone got a set out there they don't want. I live in Newcastle NSW. Cheers, Mickl

Thanks again everyone for helping out. Suggestions centre around the distributor not operating properly as well as the diaphragm being split so I have asked the mechanic to send the lot up to Dualfuel at Mooloolaba to get checked out thoroughly. If there are still problems after that, it might be a trip to John Collins in Newcastle for a spin on the dyno. Regards Mick

Thanks everyone for the detailed input on my problem. I just contacted the mechanic and he confirmed that the vac unit diaphragm was split so it needed refurbishment to get it going and the place in Caboolture sounded very suitable. The rest of the distributor seemed OK. However, there was no "ported" vacuum on the Su carbs, only the manifold vac. and the manifold vac does not perform properly between isle and revving. I got the Su carbs long ago from a guy in Wollongong before I swapped the old mechanical points distributor over for the electronic 280zx distributor so maybe they don't complement each other? Do the original hitachi carbs have this "ported" vac off take which my su's don't have? The mechanic says I either need to find a way to get the SU carb "ported" and then the vac unit repaired, or Get a mechanical distributor and forget the vacuum, which could be expensive, or Get different carbs, which sounds expensive too. As I mentioned earlier, I am no mechanic and I am having some difficulty with the concepts and communicating exactly what the mechanic is explaining. Getting the car to start easily, smooth warm up and running properly under load is what I am hoping for. Next move??

I have discovered today that SU carbies do not have any vacuum pipe on them. Not sure where the tube onto the vac unit on the dizzy comes from as the car is at the repair shop atm. A friend has advised me that the manifold can be removed and drilled for a pipe barb then connect it to the dizzy vac unit. Also, there is a thick spacer(?) almost one cm thick between the carbie and the manifold and alternatively it can be drilled for the barb instead of the manifold. The vac unit itself has been found to be split so I will also have to get a new one or get it repaired. So......can anyone confirm the above and which path would you take? Thanks, Mick

Thanks everyone, I will follow up and post what I find out cheers, mick

I am not so mechanical so have to get the car looked at down at the garage, and I live in a small town so access to dynos and specialist mechanics is difficult. The auto 260 has been rough to keep going under idle when cold and occasionally backfiring when put under load. Mechanic had a quick look recently and thought the vac advance was shot and that the vacuum from the twin carbs was not working that well either. He suggested I investigate a fully mechanical dizzy from a speed shop to overcome any vac issues. The initial setting is 15 degrees of advance, don't know what the total is. Looking for advice on: 1. Will it be possible to replace the vac unit to overcome the issue and where do you find the right one to buy 2. Would it be best to spend some $ to get a new dizzy and if so what is recommended? 3. Could the water temp switch or relay be the issue? 4. Something else??? Cheers, Mickl

My choke was not working so I removed the console, which was a bit of a job, and found that the choke bracket screws into two pissy holes in the plastic console. The hole pieces had broken up due to age and inherent weakness so they couldn`t be used. I bent up some aluminium to the right shape by trial and error and used two self tappers to hold it down. When reinstalled, the console bears down on a part of the choke bracket holding it firmly. Couple of pictures follow. Cracks in the console in a couple of places were repaired using Rapid Fix superglue which has the powder to reinforce the join. This stuff is new to me but well worth the expense as it glues the two pieces firmly by making something like a butt weld over the join which provides a very strong join. Couldn`t get a photo of these repairs which showed any detail, but I recommend it for repairs of this kind. Hope these descriptions might help others at some time with similar problems Mickl

The thread on the two pipes for the automatic trans fluid at the bottom of the radiator was metric (M 14x 1.5) rather than BSP and so it was very difficult to find appropriate fittings. Speedflow and others on the net didn`t seem to have anything which looked right but I finally tracked down two fittings at RYCO for $62.96 for the pair, which was a bit expensive but what can you do. Another complication with the tubes was the angle of the flare needed in the fitting (60 degrees) as there can be 4 different shapes. The ryco flared fittings parts number is 6680-0414 and it is called -414x1,5MET(JIS)F 60`CONCAVE for those who may follow this path

The radiator was a pretty good fit and the only thing needing to be done was to make the bolt holes in the cross member a little elongated....maybe an extra 2 or 3 mm extra was needed. The pipes for the gear oil are threaded so hydraulic type flared fittings now have to be sourced to refit the gear oil cooling. There is only 70mm clearance between the radiator and the clutch fan bolting plate so it is no longer possible to use the standard fan. I have bought twin 10 inch shrouded thermo fans which will fit very nicely to the inlet side of the radiator. I don't have air con so the fans will mount here fine. Next week`s job. I could mount them on the inside of the radiator and set up as a pull-fan as there is the 70mm space but outside as a push fan is easiest. The twin fans with mounts, electrics etc cost me about $92 over the net. Radiator was $157 delivered and much cheaper than a re-core. Maybe you could very lightly spray it black to hide the aluminium look? Send me a pm if you want the exact supplier`s addresses.

Thanks for the links nizmozed, I will see if I can get hold of a thread guage to measure up the thread size. I will post up a picture for you and comments on fitting plus thermo fans on Monday Sydney Mike. Mickl

Radiator went in OK but the two bottom automatic gearbox oil pipes are threaded rather than plain hose push-on as the original radiator. I am having some trouble tracking down suitable threaded nuts with flared tubes so that I can reconnect the gearbox rubber pipes. I looked at other radiators on evil bay and they all seem the same. What have others done to solve this problem? Thanks Mickl

Thanks for all of your help Gareth, I have ordered one from "Ausparts depot" in Melbourne for only $155 delivered. I think iot will be fine and will post the results once it has been delivered and installed. The "champion Cooling" rads were in the USA and postage was pretty high. I also checked with the locals for a recore of the original and it would have been about $550. Cheers Mickl

Thanks for the advice retro z, I didn`t think to remove the spoiler, it only took a few minutes to pull it off and gat it loaded up on the truck. Mickl

I may have to get a tow truck in to move redzed tomorrow so I had a look under the car to see where the truck winch would attach to drag her up the tilt tray. If we pull her from the two front tow eyes the air dam, scoop will get shredded and there are no tow points at the back. Is it OK to attach the wire to a rear control arm and put a few layers of carpet between the wire and fuel tank ...........or is there a better way at short notice?? Mickl