coupe72001

Hi, Im down to one car now. "Golden Boy" the wrecked rally car is toast, and all the good bits have been bolted onto my white C210.

It comes gift-wrapped in a totalled C210 shell... without wheels. You are welcome to the cage, but the onus is on you to take the shell with you and cut it out at your leisure. It's mostly just bolted in, but it's welded to the body in one or two places. Anyway... just thought I'd offer before I get it towed away. I have to wrap up the wrecking process soon, as the landlord is sick of the car haunting his car-port. By the way it's a full-cage, its black and it's plain old metal, not a fancy aluminium job or anything. You can pick it up from Yarraville, Melbourne. You may also salvage a rear door, steering box, tatty dash with good cluster and two OK brown seats. Not much else is left. D

Thanks mate. Just googled 'em and will track one down. Im feeling much more positive about the car in general today. Just got it back from having it sorted out a little and its going great guns.

Bonjour, I have damaged my manifold gasket (along with every other mechanical component related to a datsun 6). Bursons et al. say that they can no longer sell me an extractor friendly asbestos gasket for health reasons, but not to sweat it because the standard (metal/cardboard???) gasket, for stock exhausts, will do the job. Are they having me on? Should I trust them? Will I break a standard gasket? Are better quality gaskets available? If the standard gasket cut the mustard, why the hell did they invent an extractor gasket at all? Thanks in advance... again. D

Given my horrible track record of breaking all things secondhand with startling profficiency, Im going to splash out on a new Petronix Ignitor system. Should it not suit Ill definitely snap up one (or both!) of the distributors on offer. Interestingly, I called z-spares in Glen Iris and they are gagging for electronic distributors; they have 6 points-to-electronic jobs lined up and not a single available r30/280zx/imported mitsubishi distributor to fit! Also they had never heard of the Ignitor conversion, which I find odd.

Auctioning these puppies on ebay. Ending sunday. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...p;rd=1&rd=1

Cheers Lachlan, good to know. I found a company that distributes the Ignitor (points to electronic conversion) system in Bayswater, Melbourne... a bit pricey though at $250. At least I wont blow it up in the immediate future... probably. I dont have a great track record with new or second-hand parts!

Actually, you dont happen to have one by any chance, do you?

You're a great man to know Jason. Cheers!

My freshly professionally wired electronic distributor has just crapped itself. As far as I can see it is actually a standard L26 points distributor with a Petronix Ignitor conversion kit... availible from the states for $75US. Does anyone know if you can buy this, or a similar kit locally? Couldn't find anything useful on the web. Also, do other electronic distributors bolt straight up to the L26? What would you do in my shoes? As always, advice is much appreciated. Drew

I just snapped off my only door key in one of the door locks of my car. Given filthy thieves have already mashed the other door lock it looks like I'm up for a replacement set. I'd hit pick-a-part, but irritatingly the U-pull-it places never seem to retain the keys, which obviously I'll need. My car is the C210. Ill pay money anyway you like. Everyone else is welcome to learn from my stupidity and should cut themselves a spare tomorrow! Cheers, Drew

Thanks for all the replies. After a bit of shopping around I decided to get my SU's sorted by a pro. They are going great guns now. Anyone looking for a Datsun/carbie friendly mechanic in Melbourne should look up GMA Motors in Yarraville in Melbourne, as he actually used to rally a C210. Just for the record; my SU's are 1 and 3/4, with water cooling for the manifold and a heat sheild for the extractors... and yes, they are certainly working out better than the 260Z carbs... WOFTAM, heh heh, should have worked that one out. Anyone out their doing something different with carbies? Anyone had a go at running triples? Drew

Im not actually sure what WOFTAM is... but im guessing its not World Of Fun Times And Merriment. Actually, I have dealt with the Z shop guys before. They will actually service my car, which is a plus... But I'm open to making new friends in the industry. Their time is certainly worth more than $30 an hour. BTW Tangles, I had a set of quad Keihins on my old Honda 1300 Coupe 9... Sigh... they were very special. Drew

Having had a bit of a nightmare with all my carbies (twin SU, twin 260Z Hitachi and C210 single carb) over the last little while I was curious... What carbies are you old-schoolers running on your cars? How many? Where do you get them serviced, or do you DIY? Do you love them, or do they cause you endless pain and suffering? Ringing around Melbourne its hard to find anyone that will even TUNE my carbies, let alone for anything less than a small fortune.

Mate, I think we have the two most similar cars on the whole website here! The extractors are currently in a damaged 1978 C210 sedan, except mines yellow. You can have the whole exhaust for... um... something pretty cheap I guess. Give me a buzz on 0410 842 016 or send me a PM. I am located in Melbourne by the way, picking them up is fine, but posting them might be more grief than its worth. Cheers, Drew

YEAR: 1978 MODEL: C210 daily driver/project car BODY TYPE: Sedan COLOUR: white (yawn) YEAR: 1978 MODEL: C210 rally car... smashed and now being wrecked BODY TYPE: Sedan COLOUR: um... custard

Forgot... and this may be a grossly inaccurate statement, you may have cooked the modulator in your distributor if you wired it up incorrectly. When the moduator is fried it'll crank, but not fire... I think...

Hey mate, My problems with timing and the wrong lead to the wrong spark plug came from mixing and matching componentry, an issue that you shouldn't have, given you never disconnected your distributor or leads. However, I also managed to foul up my carbies jiggling them about so much during the swap. So even with the electrics sorted it STILL wont idle under 3000rpm (breaks down and cries like child)... So you may be in the same boat as me if your engine was anything other than upright and unshaken at all times... that is if your R31 even has carbies, I dont know much about those modern cars

Hang a clutch pedal (and spring) off the end of the fulcrum - no need to swap the whole pedal box. The cluctch master cylinder bolts up to the clutch pedal through a hole in the firewall. The hole has a little cap bolted over it at present. Sometimes C210/240k gearboxes pop up on the OZ DAT website, and on datsun parts on ebay. Be wary of quality though - my 2nd-hand box only lasted about 6 months!!! I'd find a reco'd box and save yourself the pain of having to rebuild it soon after. happy shopping!

Some invaluable advice... You will need nuts and bolts. Problem with the auto and manual gearbox swap; neither your new master cylinder, nor your manual box, may come with the necessary bolts to hold the master cylinder to the side of the box! Same with flywheel bolts... and a few others that I cant think off at the moment. Access to a wreck/sympathetic wrecker will help you with this problem... I got badly caught out when I attempted this swap over $3 worth of bolts! (slaps forehead). The crankshaft cap made me cry as well... until I slid it off the back of the engine with my hand.

Thanks again for the replies - its a huge help. The engine is winding over at present, but wont fire... I can crank it till the battery goes flat, but it just wont fire. Came close though... rumble rumble RUMBLE rumble... false alarm. I also suspect a massive timing error - but I cant tune it till it is actually running... Arrgh! (Unless there is a trick I dont know about) The electronic distributor looks a bit like this one (but less shiney) http://www.pertronix.com/new_products/igni...ess/ig_pg32.htm The red and black wires hang togther off the side of the distributor. I traced the red wire to the coil positive, and the black goes into a tangle. Ill look again closely tonight... Just googled electronic ignition, and it looks like of those 2 wires one is ignition, one is coil +, and there needs to be an earth somewhere in the system. I actually had a starting problem like this earlier this year, and it turned out to be a shabby .50c connector on a distributor wire causing a weak spark. Anyway, Ill see how I go tonight. Thanks again.

Right! Turns out the distibutor on the engine with the funky wiring is an electronic ignition. Rather than dealing with it, I put my points distributor back on. I wired up the fuel pump as instructed (thanks to Art and dodgy lightbulb with 2 wires test light). We now have spark and fuel, and she kicks over... but doesn't start. I get the sinking feeling that the electronic ignition was on there for a very good reason. The points distributor may not provide enough spark for the twin carb set up. So tracing the 2 wires coming from the electronic distributor on the rally car, the red one goes to the positive on the coil, whereas the black one goes into the spagetti... Anyone know where it is supposed to end up? Also... is there something else I may have messed up doing the engine swap? As far as I can see I reconnected everything the way it was previously (there are of course minor differences with the vacumn hoses going from single carb to twin carb).

Thanks for the replies, I will give it a bash tonight. The distributors on my car and the rally car are actually a slightly different design (maybe one is the 260Z distributor??? - the rally engine is an E88). I am thinking of using the C210 distributor for now, as I can simply reconnect it to the existing wiring. Later I will connect the electronic ignition kit that is gathering dust in my garage anyway...

...actually, if anyone has a good photo of their twin carb L series engine bay, that would be a great help... see if I havent made a mess out of the rest of it!

Completed my engine and gearbox swap on the weekend... other than one or two wiring issues. The new engine is running an electric fuel pump (not mechanical) - so I have to cut into the wiring somewhere to power it. Does anyone have any suggestions for something really easy to find in the C210 engine bay that that I could connect it to - I guess something that is an accessory, rather than getting constant power... I basically suck at deciphering wiring diagrams and electrical stuff in general. I also noticed that my old distributor had one wire connecting it to the spagetti, but the new one has two wires... I might just recycle the old distributor for simplicity's sake. Anyway... can't wait to test drive. Cheers Drew