coupe72001

After grumbling on the phone a bit, when I arrived it turned out that $700 was the total for everything: an hour's labour at $100 for the radiator mechanic to call a tow truck, $80 for the tow truck, $100 for a standard bosch coil (source of wiring oddness), and 5 hours labour at $95 an hour to fit the coil. Greaaaaaat... Anyway, I did some homework with consumer affairs; turns out a mechanic has every right to hold your car for nonpayment. The onus is on you to demand a quote before the mechanic starts work (or at least an estimate), force them to call if it's going over budget, find out what the mechanics labor rate is, and to find out what they will charge for any parts likely needed (I can tell you now if I knew they wanted $100 for a $50 coil I'd have told them to stick it on principle alone.) The long and short of it is find out if you are going to get screwed before you hand the keys over, cause there is probably bugger all you can do about it once you have. Better yet, fix your car yourself!

Ill see the invoice at the time that I am expected to pay for and pick up the car. Not sure what to expect...

Update. The car ended up stranded at a radiator mechanics (given I initially wanted a new switch soldered into the radiator) with a dead ignition module. I supplied another distributor and gave permission for a them to have it towed to a local auto electrician to sort out the wiring, and hopefully kill two birds with one stone (revive the buggy fan and stop the new ignition module from frying). Anyway, the auto-electrician kept the car for over a month. Finally I got a call from the radiator guy saying the car was finished and running again, and they would go and get it in the morning. I expected to get bent over by the auto-electrician, and sure enough, the radiator guy told me that the auto electrician's bill had run up to $700 odd. WTF? I don't remember giving anyone permission to clock up the better part of a grand's worth of... wiring. That's over a day's labor to find and fix a short and swap a distributor. Any suggestions on how to deal with this?

I fitted a Mallory distributor to the C210 last weekend, and was very pleased with the results. I plugged it into the existing wiring and it worked greatly. I also had a go at fixing the electric fan that has been playing up (running continuously when the car is off/cold, and failing to run when the car is hot.) Unfortunately, it seems that the two problems are linked. The fan is still continuing to play up, and the ignition module for the lovely new distributor suddenly fried on Tuesday. I used a multimeter and found that the + and the - from coil to distributor both have power. That's not right is it? I think there must be a short somewhere that is causing the fan and distributor both to fail.

If it's unregistered, why don't you register and roadworthy it in standard trim, and then start doing all the mods?

The gumtree ad was for a cool $15000, so that means the ebay reserve is... $20,000? Maybe the seller is looking to double his money with a nice round $30,000. The biddings up to 6G already, something I wouldn't have imagined possible 3 or 4 years back.

The 280zx conversion works an absolute treat. I have the entire 280zx rear end in my C210 - including disk brake conversion and rear sway bar. Avoid the Pedders Red rear lowering springs. I have them in my car and they are way too low. The car sits on the bump stops and half the rear wheel is hidden up under the guard somewhere. Pedders Red front springs are about spot on though.

I gave up and went to an auto electrician. The distributor was running the incorrect rotor button. I blame Autobarn. Interestingly, the standard Datsun coil was`the only one powerful enough to throw the spark the extra (excessive) distance between rotor button and distributor cap. The sparkys were stunned the car ran at all. Thanks to all who offered theories. D

Tell me about it! Thanks for the offer Mr Chin, it looks like I've found a set in Vic good to go. I'm tempted to jack up the car in the mechanic's car park, do the driveshaft and brake line on a Sunday afternoon and let the mechanic think the cars been stolen come Monday morning!

Very awesome theory. I didn't know about the 7.5V wire. At any rate, new and old coils alike all say 12V. To eliminate wiring as an issue, I've hot-wired the car with 15amp wires as follows: 1. Positive terminal on battery to positive terminal on coil. 2. B (battery) from the ignition module to positive on the coil. 3. C (coil) on the ignition module to negative on the coil. 4. The ballast resistor has been deleted. The results are the same. Arcing with the factory coil. Inability to start with new aftermarket coil. Bummer.

Just rip that sucker off. From memory it's only tight due to the large number of pins. Work around the base slowly with a stiff plastic blade if you can.

Like a spaz I clipped a gutter and busted a uni joint when the tyre made contact with tarmac again, and the flailing around drive shaft cut the rear right (metal) brake line. The mechanic, who I had the car towed to, bless his greasy b@stard socks, has offered to repair the uni joint and brake line for a cool $400. The drive shaft is the bolt in type RHS. Money, car parts, slab o' beer...

Well this sucks. Have tried two new aftermarket coils (generic 12V and GT-40). Both send spark down the ignition lead, but spark does not make it to the spark plugs, ergo the car turns over, but doesn't fire. When I go back to the second-hand factory coil the car gets spark and runs, but runs like crap due to half the spark arcing to the coil terminals. I can conclude from this that aftermarket coils cause the leads to fail (jokes). The wiring is correct, the leads, spark plugs, distributor cap, rotor button are new. I'm flummoxed. Drew

In the end I found a decent C210 carpet in brown. I dyed that sucker black. As far as I know the aftermarket 240K carpet on fleabay is yet untested in a C210. Cheerio, Drew

Hi, the coil looks good, although crack spotting is hard with a black coil, but I've ordered another one off fleabay to eliminate this possibility anyway. We'll see how we go if it ever turns up!

Hi all, Here's a bit of a weird one. I have a Datsun 260C, and just did the handy electronic ignition upgrade using an r30 coil and electronic distributor. The weirdest thing is happening. The spark leads out from under the coil lead, and arcs to the positive terminal of the coil. Some spark makes it to the plugs, so the car runs... just. I have tried 3 different coil leads, two of which are new, but the problem remains to some degree. Anyone know what's going on here? Cheerio, Drew

Dennis you beat me to the punch! Just a heads up though, nothing's harder than trying to explain how you ended up with a hypodermic needle glued to the work-bench in the garage when mates visit!

Well spotted. It's a so hard to find pre 90's JDM in magazine form. Another excellent read is Japanese Nostalgic Car (they have an interesting website as well). It's supposed to be a quarterly, but they don't seem to be churning them out even at that rate

This stuff is so small it's almost embarrassing to ask but... I need the plastic plugs (one each side) that blank off hole that gives access to the bolt in the bottom of the front quarter panels. Also I need the rubber surrounds for the little button inside the door jam that turn the interior light on and off when you open the doors. If you are in Vic I'd make a visit and pick out more stuff too.

I sold one on ebay ages ago... went for SFA from memory. Apparently they are worth a bit in Japan because they go up a higher number on the speedo than the JDM versions.

A 280zx electronic distributor will work too if you find one, they pop up on ebay USA some time.

You might get lucky here in the classics section, but if you haven't already I'd think about reposting your question in a modern/turbo section of the forum.

Actually, a mate of mine in Tasmania bought eBay USA coilovers for 240z, he checked with them and they assured him they'd fit his C210 coupe (not sure how they'd know given the lack of C210's in the states). Anyway, I'll try and get an update about how they worked out. As far as I know there are a bunch of similarities between 240z's and C210 Skylines; I'm using the Hilux caliper over Magna ventilated disks up front, and a complete 280zx diff cradle and disk brake rear end on my C210. At a guess the original Toico disk and drum set up on the C210 is the same as the 240z...

Normally I don't go in for the MR30, or RB motors, or at anything turbo-charged... but that really is one awesome sleeper. Best of luck with the sale.

So this guy bought your car (which is L24 if I remember) and sold off his V8 Skyline... Did he mention if he was letting the V8 go for legal (rego/RWC) issues, or because he was keen to go original (well substantially more original anyway) or for some other reason not covered here?