240z Repair and Upgrade Procedures
There are plenty of things you can do yourself, so why pay for a shop to do it?
The 240z is about as basic as it gets. No fuel injection, no computer, no fancy parts and nearly everything is easily accessable. It's the way cars were built for decades. If you have some ordinary tools, such as a set of wrenches, some screwdrivers and a jack, you can do a lot of things youself and save money that can be spent on future upgrades or even additional tools (which is typically where my savings go). I use a handy scale of one thru ten to rate how difficult a procedure will be. "One" is changing the oil. "Ten" is rebuilding a transmission.
New Front Brakes Replacing the brake pads is incredibly easy, with a difficulty factor of 2. Professional shops charge a lot to replace them because they need to make a profit, but you can do both sides in less than an hour and save a lot of money. Go here to see how it's done.
The Honda Civic Wiper Motor Conversion A Honda Civic wiper motor makes a huge difference - it moves faster on "slow" than the stock motor does on "high". It can be done in less that two hours and the only tools you'll need for the modification is a drill and a hacksaw, which gives it a difficulty factor of just 4. Look here to see.
Replace The Moustache Bar Bushings Replacing the bushings is pretty easy but removing the bar itself gives this a difficulty factor of 6. I have no idea what a shop would charge for this. Finding a place that works on cars this old can be a challenge, and even then it might be tough to get them to try but if the bushings are worn out and you hear a clunk when going over bumps, it's a job that has to be done. Here's how I did it.
Five Speed Transmission Any Z transmission can attach to any Z engine without an adapter. You can do it by yourself and only a few tools are needed, but because the transmission is heavy and there are a lot of steps, it gets a difficulty factor of 6. Here's the procedure.
Differential Seals This is for replacing all of the seals and gaskets and fluid, which is pretty much a full refreshment, and it requires removing the differential which means most of the rear suspension has to come out, so the difficulty factor here is a strong 8. It's not for the faint of heart but if you plan on keeping your car for the next decade (or longer), the time and effort are worth it. Here's how it's done.
LED Headlights Not ready yet. Stay tuned.