Upcoming Plans!

Since my parents were out and helped clean up the Z from it’s long slumber, I’ve been roaring around in it and really goes through the paces. But I’m not gunning it like a hooligan – I’m finally wanting the 280z to be…better!

A few things on the short list (in no particular order):
1) Paint chips – Sometimes I wonder if drove into a hail storm of rocks. General cosmetic stuff here
2) Driver side rear panel door bumper – Remember this one? The bumper channel is on, but I need to find that arrow end i ordered…

3) Rear Hatch Guides – what?! I was just going over missing parts, and this one was funny; such a large piece and i never put it back on.

4) Rivet Fastener / Push Clips – Wow – so many holes to plug up. Good thing I picked up a rivet / fastener set at Amazon (for this and all my other cars).

5) Clutch – Yep, we bled the clutch already, but I noticed it getting soft again. I’ve already purchased a new clutch master cylinder, however I may look into rebuilding the old one too.

6) Shocks – I’m tired of this thing riding like the baby of a Caddie and a boat!

7) Rattle – I’ve got rattle in the door, rattle underneath the car. Probably because I need to install…

8) Bushings! – Yep, still have these and yet to be installed. With the rain coming, it’ll be good to get this thing on blocks and start having at it.

Daily Datsun mornings are back!

Squeaky clutch…

…meet your greasy doom. That is, if i can get to you.

For over a year now, my clutch pedal has been squeaking and squawking every now and again, just asking to be oiled, greased, lubed. And oh i have before, trust me.. I’d get on a latex glove, blindly find my way up the pedal arm till I hit something mechanical…there…some lithium grease here, some lithium grease there, a few pumps of the clutch pedal and the sound is gone… but it always comes back. Imagine what that’s like with the Z being a manual transmission. For me, I’m used to it. For anyone else, annoying!

I thought maybe the grease was just wearing away – lithium grease doesn’t seem to have the staying power as traditional automotive grease. Until I finally decided to take the plunge, seat all the way back, lay under the dash with my head on the floor and see what the heck is going on down there.

It’s hard to see, but the 280z has this nice metal wall between the clutch and brake pedal arms. Ah! so that’s why I could only get so far up…And now i need smaller hands, because the space to get to the actual mechanism that’s squeaking is for child-like hands only. You can also see from the pic where all that lithium grease went – haha!

 

 

How to get up there without training my nearly 2 & 3 year old nephew and niece to be grease monkeys? WD-40. This probably should have been my first go-to solution for reasons beyond it’s extended spray nozzle: dad would’ve used this first.

The extended straw allowed me to shoot up high into the hard to reach places. And I kinda just blindly shot stuff up there too for good measure. Viola! No more embarrassing squeaking every time I use the clutch.