# Finally got some work done on my 240, if anybody's interested (pics too)



## HybridAndy (Jul 26, 2004)

What's up everybody. I just got finished working on my 240 today and though I'd share a little. Took me about 3 hours but I managed to yank all the old garbage wires out of the thing (bunch of wiring for amps and whatnot). I had to pull both front seats and the bottom rear seat to get it all out. Took everything and threw it in a bag and it all weighed 8 pounds so that's not bad. 



















I also installed a radio (the previous owner had the radio "stolen" a few days before I drove to NY to pick it up, I think it was in his closet) but took a while to get everything right. All the factory plugs where hacked off so all I had was bare wire and even the wires that were connected were just barely twisted and then wraped and wraped and wraped in electrical tape. There was also about 10 feet of crap house speaker wire attached to the speaker leads (I have no idea why). The antenna lead was also hacked off and just bare wire (the rest of the plug was laying inside somewhere). I just bought a new motorola style push on plug and it's working but it's not perfect, need to figure out something else. I also bought a dash kit from a local stereo place and it was for every Nissan made since the mid 80's and it fits like crap so I need to find a new one. Anybody using a stereo dash kit made specifically for a 240sx and know where I can get one. This one isn't even held down with anything (screw holes didn't line up) and I can't put the radio's trim ring on because it won't fit around the top. I also had to replace 2 blown fuses to get the radio working too (turns out the dome light fuse will stop the radio from working? There's a diagram in the FSM about it and it shows that). Now my dash clock and delay wipers work again and the seatbelt moves with the car off (that was driving me nuts). Fixed the shifter boot too, it was only held in a few places and had big holes you could see down thorugh.

I ran out of time/energy but I still need to fabricate a battery tie down. I bought an adjustable top strap and some threaded rod but I haven't put it together yet. It didn't come with anything except the front J hook and it's too short to use for my strap anyway. I also need to pull the front wheel off and replace one of the wheel studs. I picked one up but didn't have time to get started on it. Hopefully this week I can get the tiedown finished and get that stud replaced (I think the 10 hour shifts are done at work so I should have some time) and I want to run it up to the local drag strip. The clutch is completely shot (gas it hard and the engine revs like you downshifted but you haven't touched the clutch) but I'd like to at least get some baseline numbers. I just ordered a complete 180sx front cut last wednesday so hopefully it will be here this week sometime so I'm not worried too much about the stock KA (there's a thread in the SR20 forum called "ordered my SR20" if you want to read it). Anyway, I don't know if anybody even cares but I though I'd post it up and put up some pictures. Here's a link to all of them, I'll probably add more soon when I take them.

http://divizion.com/240/


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## Prelude Guy (Jul 19, 2004)

Hey Andy,

The car looks good. Did you shampoo the carpet too?? I want to take my seats out and do that.

Congrats on the front clip purchase. Looks like you are on a mission with that car. Good job. :thumbup: 

I was working on my 240 today too. I changed the oil and tried to figure out why my car is hesitating. Still can't figure it out.  I thought it was the injector....but I think I am wrong again.  I am going to see if the O2 sensor is bad. 

Can't wait to see updated pics when you install the motor. :thumbup:


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## HybridAndy (Jul 26, 2004)

Woo, I got a reply! No, just vacuumed the crap out of it (crappy digital camera and a few feet to wonders to hide little details). Carpets actually in pretty good shape considering the age and miles. Lots of sand though, I guess they have beaches in NY. Seats are easy, 4 bolts and 1 electrical clip under the drivers side and your done. 

Thanks for the congrats. Hopefully it's here before wednesday (I'm having it shipped to the machine I work at to store it in the warehouse) but I'm working part time right now so I'm only going to be there till Wednesday around lunch. I'm going to call tomorrow and see if I can get a tracking number. Hopefully have it running under SR power pretty soon. 

I should change the KA's oil (it took a quart when I got home to even show up on the dipstick, and looks dark then anyway) but I don't think I'm going to bother. What's your car doing exactly? Have a link to a thread? 

I'll have plenty of pics (and lots of page and half long posts) before that motors in so if you feel like looking, you see lots of it. Seeya.


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## 180SX-X (Sep 21, 2003)

Nice car...i've had a few 240's in the past(including an SR powered one, but i bought it like that). i now have another one that is going to have a CA put in it in the upcoming year(yea, im poor now because my damn RX-7 is a money pit)...good luck with the SR swap.



Prelude Guy said:


> I was working on my 240 today too. I changed the oil and tried to figure out why my car is hesitating. Still can't figure it out.  I thought it was the injector....but I think I am wrong again.  I am going to see if the O2 sensor is bad.


check your MAf connections and fuel filter/pump...


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## Prelude Guy (Jul 19, 2004)

180SX-X said:


> check your MAf connections and fuel filter/pump...


I already did that. Both are fine. I am going to change the O2 sensor now.


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## HybridAndy (Jul 26, 2004)

Thanks for the comments. I just stopped and got the rear tire patched today (again, he says new hole and charged me again but I think they just didnt put a big enough patch on it, oh well, $8 ain't bad). Hopefully the clip will be here soon, I'm excited. 

Anybody ever have any problems with their gauge cluster warning lights? Once I get the car started, the seat belt light tends to stay on for a while and then go off regardless if I have seatbelt buckled or not (I always wear it and the under seat plug is attached). The door open light also tends to flicker sometimes and now that the dome light is fixed, it will flicker with it when set that way. I'm assuming it's not the doors itself because the automatic seat belts would freak out too so I'm guessing it's the rear hatch sensor is loose. Problem is, I can't find the damn sensor. Is it built into the latch? My brake light would come on and off today too but it looks like the plug on the side of MC was just a little loose, hopefully that's fixed (fixed it when I parked it and haven't driven it yet).

I still say change the cap, rotor, plugs and wires and then try the coil if that doesn't fix it. It sounds like when you fill the combustion chamber with lots of fuel and air, there just isn't enough spark energy to get it to light properly.


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## HybridAndy (Jul 26, 2004)

Damn I'm pissed at myself. I got my battery tiedown finished, looks pretty good actually and I went to change the front wheel stud. I took the front caliper and rotor off, hammered the old stud out really easy. Put the new stud in, tightened it down with an old open end lug nut. I'm just about done and being a genius I decide to make sure the thing is seats tight so I put my impact wrench on the lug to pull it tight. The impact gun is too much and it ends up spinning the new wheel stud in the hub and strips all the splines (looking back, I think I needed some washers and the lug bottomed out on the threads before it it hit the hub). I had to hold the stud with a pair of channel locks to get the lug off and now I have a stripped out hole where the stud is supposed to be! Damn it, I'm still pissed at myself for that. The parts store stud I was using isn't splined as far down the stud as the old one (I'm assuming an OE) and if I tried putting the torn up OE one back in, it seems to grab. I'm going to try to stop by the local Nissan dealership and get a new OE lug to at least get something in that hole. Looks like I may need to replace that whole front hub now though. I'm tempted to get 5 lug but I don't want to have to chnage the rear too. Oh well, enough complaining from me. Hopefully it will be at least partially fixed by tomorrow. I still have 3 lugs holding it so I'm not worried about it falling off but that still pisses me off. I gotta remember to leave the air tools alone sometimes.


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## 2Fass240us (Aug 2, 2004)

HybridAndy said:


> I gotta remember to leave the air tools alone sometimes.


Or just be more careful with them...

If I were you, I would start doing some research on a 5-lug swap. FYI, you don't have to do the front and rear at the same time as long as you don't care that your front wheels won't match your back wheels! 

And I also wouldn't drive around on only 3 studs for longer than is absolutely necessary. You might consider getting a hub from a junkyard, as well.


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## Chuck (Nov 19, 2003)

Ive been driving around on 3-lugnuts for.. like... 3 monhts now.. No adverse side effects yet!


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## HybridAndy (Jul 26, 2004)

I've considered the 5 lug swap and I'd like to not have to concern myself with having to have 300zx rotors redrilled but I also don't know if I want to deal with converting the rear setup to 5 lug as well. Plus, it's hard to find local junkyard parts for things like the S14 spindle (I could find 1000 ford escorts if I needed one though). I'm going to see if there's a good hub on my clip and just swap that one if there is. 

Eh, I've driven cars on 3 lugs before for a while, it's not that damaging with a modern hubcentric design.


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## 2Fass240us (Aug 2, 2004)

HybridAndy said:


> Eh, I've driven cars on 3 lugs before for a while, it's not that damaging with a modern hubcentric design.


Not so sure I agree. You'll have slightly unequal clamping force holding the wheel to the hub. Do I think it's safe? No. Do I think you can get by with it as long as you properly torqued the other nuts? Yes.

I would say 1 missing lug on a 5-lug hub would be better, but still not good.


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## HybridAndy (Jul 26, 2004)

I agree I need to get that stud fixed and that would be best but I still haven't had any luck. I stopped by the local Honda/Nissan dealership and tried to pickup a new OE stud but he said he didn't have any in stock and he has a box with a bunch of different Nissan studs, but I came straight from work so I didn't have the old one with me to try to figure out which one I needed. I'm going to try again friday and see if I can take up the old stud and find one that matches. Otherwise it's trying a few parts stores for one that will work. I was hoping to take the car to the drag strip friday for test and tune so I'm hoping to get that stud fixed first but it's looking like it's going to rain all wekeend so I'm probably not going to make it anyway (I just wanted to get a baseline for what the old engine could run, but that burned up clutch is going to kill me). 

I think at this point I'm going to try to grab a hub off my clip and stick with 4 lug for now. I may upgrade down the road but I'm not sure yet.


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## 2Fass240us (Aug 2, 2004)

HybridAndy said:


> I think at this point I'm going to try to grab a hub off my clip and stick with 4 lug for now. I may upgrade down the road but I'm not sure yet.


As long as neither the clip or your car has ABS, you should be OK. Let us know how it turns out.


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## HybridAndy (Jul 26, 2004)

My cars not ABS and I'm hoping the clip isn't. I actually fixed the stud for now but I'm probably going to plan on replacing it eventually. The OE studs have longer splines than the aftermarket parts store studs so they still grab when seated down tight. I tried to buy a new OE stud from the local Nissan parts department but the guy couldn't find a part number in the computer and I didn't have the old stud with me to pick one out of the box (why does Nissan use 10 different wheel studs instead of just 1!). When I got home I realized I have 3 perfectly good OE studs left in the hub, and they're spot on the hub still has good splines so I just knocked out another OE stud and put the aftermarket stud in that one and pulled the OE stud in the damanged hole and it grabbed tight. I didn't have any useable washers so I had to put the rotor back on to get the studs fully seated this time but I've got 4 torqued lugs on all 4 wheels again. I need to go pickup a new set of wheel locks cause the one's I have are basically crap and I've already started to strip the key and I've only had them for 3 weeks. 

I know my clip has been shipped at this point and I should have the tracking number tomorrow morning (hopefully) so I'm going to get started here pretty soon. I can't wait to get going. The only real problem I have left with the car at this point is the seat belt light goes on solid when you start the car and doesn't respond to the buckle being inserted or not. It turns off after a time and stays out though (the underseat plug is connected). I also get random flickering of the door ajar light on the dash, along with the dome light if it's set to turn on with the doors. The seatbelts don't react so I'm assuming it's not the main doors but a sensor back at the hatch. There's a blue wire run back to the rear side hatch light, I'm assuming a sensor wire for the old garbage alarm so I'm guessing either that wires got it messed up or the sensor is bad/loose. It's not a big deal but it's driving me nuts. I'm picking up a new dash kit for the radio tomorrow, hopefully one that fits this time and I have to fix that antenna again, but so far everything is looking good for the swap.


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## B18C_Ferio (Jun 6, 2004)

HybridAndy said:


> The door open light also tends to flicker sometimes and now that the dome light is fixed, it will flicker with it when set that way. I'm assuming it's not the doors itself because the automatic seat belts would freak out too so I'm guessing it's the rear hatch sensor is loose. Problem is, I can't find the damn sensor.


my light flickers too, door open sensor is on with window all the way up, goes out when i let it down a bit...noticed that my door doesnt close all the way, and i cant loosen the striker with an impact screwdriver(to move it in a little so the door closes tighter)...but when i turn the peice of plastic on the striker and get it just right the door open light stays off...also the sensor is on the car and not the door


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