May 15, 2023 3 min read zxtoo

All the little mechanical things

In which we finish out most of the pre-race mechanical tasks

you're damn right it is

I keep talking about our lists, and our planning, I'm overdue for an update on the Datsun 280zx build. As I draft this we are about 24 days out from the green flag. After our most recent work nights, we're feeling better than ever that we'll be race ready.

One thing about building and racing an older car that is always front of mind: parts availability. As we've checked off our to-do's, many of the car specific mechanical items have given me anxiety: what if we can't find a replacement clutch cable for a 42 year old import? I'm happy to report that, barring new breakage all of our mechanical checklist is complete!

Over the last two work nights, we've made some incredible progress, with hiccups.

Bleed the clutch

This just seemed like a good idea for any car hitting the track for the first time. We did not have any idea how good an idea it was until the ... substance loosely resembling hydraulic fluid started dripping out.

chocolatey goodness

That's bad. What's worse is halfway through pumping that gunk out, we realized the soft line was cracked, and needed replaced. This work spanned two nights as we waited on parts, but last night completed the line replacement, and the full fluid flush.

Buy cheaty spark plugs and ignition wires.

This was happily about as straightforward as you might ask, and included replacing the distributor cap for good measure. Checking out the old plugs paints a lightly concerning story about cylinder #5.

We are focused on other things, but will try to get a compression test in before the green flag. If there's a problem there, we're unlikely to be able to do much about it anyway. So, new plugs, new wires, new cap, and lots of hope!

Change rear differential fluid.

Did I mention this car has a rear diff? Hell yeah it does. Also the gear oil in it was probably last changed in the Reagan administration. We had high hopes of being able to replace the gasket also, but that very quickly turned into more work than we were up for. All the same, we got new gear oil.