Our Cars- So, I Bought a Datsun

Every once in a while we like to share the cars that we actually own. You may remember this Jeep from Longroofian, or the Uberbird owned and raced by perennial five o’clock shadow wearer Tim. Or, perhaps you’re familiar with Jeff’s pride and joy, which has taken him on many an adventure.

Well, now I’ve added to my own meager collection, and I thought y’all might like to know about it. Joining my 1962 Austin Healey Sprite and 1974 Jensen Healey is a 1970 Datsun 240Z, which makes a nice Japanese filler between the two British bookends. The car is rough, and in fact I had a bit of a challenge bringing it home last Friday night due to a pair of uncooperative carbs. Regardless, I am determined to bring it back from the other side, so join me after the jump to see what’s been going on with this orange coupe so far.

Okay, so first off I should note that it’s been punched in the nose. That dent occurred – or so I’ve been told – when someone backed into the poor car in a parking lot. It was just minding its own business! The crease in the hood pushes it out against the fiberglass sugar scoop of the right-hand headlight, which brought to light the fact that there’s a butt-load of Bondo in that fender. Oh well, for the price I paid the whole car could be made out of body filler.

In case you are unfamiliar, the S30 240Z is powered by a 2,393-cc cast iron block, alloy head, single overhead cam straight six. That was good from the factory for a claimed 151-bhp and 141 ft-lbs of torque. This one didn’t put out anything near that, because, despite a bunch of new stuff under the dented hood, there was still a lot of bits that had seen better days – or at least hadn’t been maintained  as they should.

In the case of this car, the parts that had seen the most neglect were the twin SU-style Hitachi side-draught carburetors. I’m not going to delve into the nuances of these carbs, other than to note that SUs are my personal favorites, and the ones with which I have probably the most experience. A major issue of this 240Z was that it refused to start without the aid of starting fluid, and then had trouble holding an idle until the temperature came well up. The 240Z has the anachronistic feature of a manual choke – bless its heart – and in this one’s case, one that didn’t seem to be working at all.

In the case of the SU carb the choke works by dropping the jet, thereby creating a larger opening around the needle which, sitting in its center, allows more fuel to be sucked through the venturi. On this car,that wasn’t happening. What then needed to happen was for me to pop the lids off the carbs and undertake a massive cleaning. The bodies of both units were coated in carbon build up, and hence blacker than a cat’s soul. It took a whole can of carb spray, and a swim in my cleaner bath for the cruddy parts to return to any semblance of proper motion.

You can see in the above picture a ring of darkness that is the top of the carb body. You’ll also see that these are 4-flange carbs. The choke operates off of two cables worked from a single lever on the console, rather than the more traditional single cable with an interconnecting shaft between carbs – like on my other two cars. A gentle tap on the top of the jet allowed it to break free, while a half hour soaking in cleaner will hopefully mean it’ll stay that way for a while at least.

Everything went back together with little issue and the car started the first time after reassembly without the aid of ether. Woot! The carbs still need to be tuned – making me rue having lost my UniSyn (go look it up) a few years back – and eventually will require a rebuild. Still, the throttle shafts seem okay, and the rest of the engine appears to be without problem.

What is a problem is the car’s electrical system. When I purchased it, the car had a number of burnt out bulbs and no brake lights! The 240Z has a rather complicated wiring arrangement for the brake lights – taking a circuitous route through the hazard switch and then turn signal switch before wending back to the twin clusters. It turned out that the hazard switch in this car was broken, and messing up the continuity. A new switch sourced from a swap meet vender (more on that swap meet another time) and now the car has brake lights. Up next, turn signals!

The car came with a few extra parts, including a factory set of front overriders that look to be pretty pricy according to that that bay of E. It also has a bra, unopened and likely to stay that way because I prefer to go braless. Nicely, it also has an ancient spare as well as the jack and lug wrench so I don’t have to hunt down those parts.

The more I work on the car hopefully the better it we be. My plan is to keep you all informed of its progress with occasional updates here on the Hoon. Until then, I’ll leave you with a shot from the hatch, because, well that’s the last picture I have right now. Wish me luck, and hope I haven’t made a terrible mistake.

All images ©2013 Robert Emslie, All Rights Reserved.