Just got a '96 240sx

[firejackal]

I don't know if this is the right forum to post this in, if it isn't admins please let me know.

I just traded my civic for a '96 240sx. Probably wasn't a good trade, but I saw the car and I fell in love and I couldn't find any rust. It needs a lot of love, a lot. Since I'm a "my own" mechanic, I can do all the work except for body work and alignments.

I'm going to be needing a lot of parts, some interior pieces as well. I'll post more on that later.

The previous "previous" tried fitting the r33 front and rear on the car then adding bondo to smooth it out, they failed and stopped half way.
* The front bumper is hanging on zip ties, no front collision bar. I don't know if this is a vis bumper or JDM. Headlights are also on by zip ties. Are the JDM headlights suppose to take h1 bulbs? Cause these do. The assembly says "ichikoh 1493x. Head 12v55w h1 Japan. Clearance 12v5w"
The previous owner didn't even had the headlights wired up, plugs was there, but they had a 9006 bulb zip tied in the bulb slot.
* no front turn signals
* rear tail lights are glued into place, assemblies says "housing>pp-t20<sae[pp]." And they take 2 1157 and 2 1156 bulbs. Same bulbs my crx uses.
* bumper also zip tied on.
* no rear middle light
* sun roof has a piece of plexiglass glued in, leaks, so I'll be needing that.
* hood has a Japanese writing on it, says "sr20 1998" from what I can read.
* engine is a ka24, but it may have been turbo before because it has a line for oil out of the valve cover.
* wheels are 5 lugs, didn't these came 4 lugs? Looks like OEM Nissan 16" wheels. (Not steelies) but I don't know what the lug pattern is.
* after market side mirrors, will be needing that too.
* the engine does run, suspension is rough, feels like struts are blown. Looks all OEM.

I'll have to wait to upload images, my phone isn't letting me.
So I guess my questions are these; any brackets out there to get these r33 parts to fit properly? And is anyone is parting out any cars in south west Ohio?
And any suggestions would be appreciated too.

Right now I'm in the progress of redoing the wiring from this swap, they twisted wires and taped them up. Good thing I know how to solder.

[firejackal]

Another thing, the fan is wired to a switch, does anyone know what the factory wire is for the switch for I can get that back to stock?

[bmaddock]

Post pictures..

[firejackal]

I'm trying to upload images, Tapatalk is being a pain at the moment. So I might try to upload to imgur from my phone.

So I found one front turn signal end cut off and one running light end missing. I ended up using some of my spare Honda 194 sockets for now until I can get the proper Nissan ones (sorry Nissan guys.)

While messing with these wires I went ahead and decided to wire both lights together (on each side) used the running light wire as positive, and the turn signal wire as the negative. So both lights are on with the running lights and flash with the turn signal/hazards. They work but I get hyper flash (had it before as well since the lights was missing).
Does the car detect if the negatives are not wired up?

Taking apart the dash I found a lot more wires just twisted together, exposed.
Also more missing pieces, like the area around the radio.

[firejackal]

Alright sorry for the delay with the pictures, didn't realize how much of a pain it is to do it from my phone.

Here is the car how I got it:
http://i.imgur.com/DNYWvBj.jpg?1

(Sorry for the messy garage.)
So the car is a big project, according to the VIN report, it had a lot of prior owners, at least 6. I believe the car started out red, then at some time it was painted yellow, then the last person plasti-dipped it black.

Ugly aftermarket mirrors:
http://i.imgur.com/8BOOzAM.jpg?1

It had a spoiler at one point:
http://i.imgur.com/iOBdfGV.jpg?1

Rear, no center light on the trunk lid, previous owner had planned to fill it in with bondo:
http://i.imgur.com/tXlDDH1.jpg?1

Missing a piece of the trunk conversion:
http://i.imgur.com/X1CCl01.jpg?1

This is how they attempted to convert the trunk:
http://i.imgur.com/stOh2vw.jpg?1
No idea how that piece is attached.

All that incomplete bondo:
http://i.imgur.com/2ufvAWA.jpg?1

Roof:
http://i.imgur.com/yHSbHby.jpg?1
Piece of plexiglass, with some kind of black canvas on top, and everything epoxied/siliconed in, so of course there are cracks in their moulding. I haven't checked to see what's all missing from the rails yet.

What I assume to be the missing driver door window switch:
http://i.imgur.com/1j66isL.jpg?1

Two missing buttons next to the mirror switch, dunno what they was yet, unless they was just place holders:
http://i.imgur.com/0Enlrk3.jpg?1

Now my updates:
Doing some test fitting after making some bumper brackets until I can find a legit bumper support/collision beam. Also got some headlight brackets made, still need to figure up some for the far sides next to the fender:
http://i.imgur.com/C1C3ot8.jpg?1

Testing out my running light and turn signal mod:
http://i.imgur.com/WE4sHQr.jpg?1

And some other things,
The identifier stuff on the headlight:
http://i.imgur.com/jkaO1tH.jpg?1

And Japanese goodness, one of the stickers under the hood:
http://i.imgur.com/Hf60DQo.jpg?1


So anyways...
I don't know if I want to keep the previous owner's direction of the R33 parts or go source out original bumpers, headlights, and tail lights.
Going to be a lot of work to get this stuff sitting flush and to remove the gaps.
You guys can probably tell in the front bumper picture how far the headlights are sitting forward compared to the lines of the bumper. I don't know if this is because I need different fenders (to sit the lights more back), or some cutting is required. I wish some company made conversion brackets.

On my next day off I'm going to tackle the fan.
So here is some questions regarding that; from the factory, the car used a fan mounted to the engine right?
The fan they have attached on the radiator has four wires, so I need to figure out what each wire does. The colors of the wires are black, green, blue, and yellow. But I do have two aftermarket 2-wire fans sitting around, just no mounts for them.

Does anyone have what each wire does coming out other stock fan harness?
I couldn't find anything in the FSM, the FSM is a little confusing to me when looking up electrical diagrams. The 4 wire colors in this harness are yellow/red, brown/yellow, black(1), black(2).

After reading up how people do electric fan conversions, I think I'm going to go the route and buy the Nissan part #21503-40F65. This is a $45 part which contains a coolant line neck, with a fan sensor and a lower hose.
I've already planned my diagram how the wiring will be done.
12v to a fuse then to the relay switched pin 30, then switched pin 87 to the fan.
12v signal (ignition switch or fuel pump) to coil pin 85, then coil pin 86 to the coolant temperature sensor. If I don't have the sensor yet, I can use a switch in place the temperature sensor as a temporary means. And I need to find out the amps of the fan being used. Couldn't find any type of ID on the fan.

[pancakes]

Thank you for attempting to save that 240. If it were me, I would go back to stock. You are correct about the window switch and the place holders next to the mirror switch. That is going to take some serious work to get that car right again. I noticed you said body work isn't your thing, so take your time, get it prepped as best you can, save up money, and hand it off to a professional. Oh and post up that previous owners info on here. He deserves just as bad as that car got.

[firejackal]

As far as i know the previous owner didn't do anything to the car, besides no proper maintenance: no power steering fluid, rear driver side caliper locked up/clonking sounds. From what i was told, it was a guy who owned some place called "jdm midwest motor depot" down in Cincinnati Ohio.

Last night i realized there was something leaking around the rear differential housing (looked like a oily/messy engine bay back there).
Also no license plate lights, more then just the bulbs were missing, the light housing back there was not present, just the plug that goes out of the trunk. So my immediate options for that would to be pull one off of a integra parts car i have and modify it to fit, or to put in a led strip.

[Drifting Kalamari]

Damn, gl getting the car back into shape! Glad you got it though, so much better than a Civic. Just going to have a long road ahead fixing all the PO's mistakes.

[firejackal]

Yeah a lot mistakes to fix haha.

Yesterday i got the fan switch re-wired to include a relay, routed it all inside the fuse box. It's all ready for when i get a thermostat switch.

Next i found out there are problems closing the hood, i have to press down hard. When it's closed, the hood pop latch won't work unless someone else is lifting up the hood.
I could always go the ricer route and get hood pins, but since the hood has Japanese writing on it, i don't know if it's rare or not to do something like that to.

[rodneyfromtrini]

If I were you I would spend a day and go over everything that it needs and write it down on a notepad. Then your best bet is to hit the junkyarks and hope to find a decent one in the lot, if not go on nissan courtesy parts and start ordering. As far as the bodywork, save up and let a professional take care of it.

[firejackal]

Yeah I'm going to need to do that notepad thing.

So I decided I needed to drive it around the block to make sure the rear brakes I just changed was okay.
* I had issues getting the car going, then I realized my foot needed to be completely off the clutch to get it moving, there was no play in the clutch.
* car smoked a lot from the exhaust, a lot of white-ish smoke.
* when I pressed on the brakes, the front brakes would make this awful clunking sounds.
* when I got back (a very short trip around a block in the country), pulled in my garage, the car was making all sorts of gurgling sounds, opened the hood and the overflow tank was overflowing. Waited for it get done (heard bubbling noises in the upper radiator hose. the lower hose was cold) and the overflow tank when down to nearly empty.

One of my friends says the thermostat might be stuck, so I'm going to drain the coolant and replace that. But first I'm going to put back on the old coolant cap (I used one from autozone, which I've had issues before on other cars) and see what happens.

[97nismo]

Should have kept the civic

[daftcon]

^^^my initial thoughts exactly!^^^

but in all honesty, you need to treat this thing like a mangy malnourished dog you found in the rainy woodlands of the northwest. you have the opportunity to save this things life. and she'll love you everyday because of it. i'm really starting to realize more and more these things need to be preserved better that we see most people doing. and it mostly comes from fanboys who think the daily "missile" look is where it's at. it isn't. good luck man, i'll be keeping an eye out.

[firejackal]

Perhaps i should have kept the civic, but i wanted something different and always wanted a 240sx. But now since the deed is done there is no looking back, only forward.

Concerning looks, i had particular goal in mind. I don't like the fanboy looks, but i also don't like the stock looks, nor do i like trying to make it look another car.

My goal right now is to get it to the point i can DD it, then over next summer to actually start body work. But that all depends on money, I've got my first kid on its way that is due at the end of summer.

So i took out the gauge cluster to make sure all the lights were working, three lights was not. Half was some kind of blue led bulbs.
The plastic shroud that goes over the gauges was plasti-dipped sky blue. After taking that off, there was yellow paint under it (the previous owners really liked yellow.) Stripped that off.

Since i plan on trying to be on this forum most of the time (not going to disappear on purpose) guess I'll say a little about me; I live in south west Ohio, but I lived half my life in south florida. I'm not a kid anymore even through i still act like one, I'm 32. I'm mostly a computer guy, i do a lot of computer programming as a hobby. Started out the car scene in Honda's maybe only 4 years back. I currently have a crx, which i love that thing because of how small it is.

[Kingtal0n]

Sounds like a blown head gasket (white smoke + overflow bubbles)

I know you do no want to hear this but, That car needs everything. By the time you buy replacement parts for the drivetrain/bumpers/paint etc... you could have bought another completely stock good condition running 240sx. A 95 should be around $2500-$3000 all original with 140k~ miles running strong. I've paid as much as $3500 for one when it has good papers ( clean carfax, no accidents, original paint, straight frame rails, clean pinch weld).

on the other hand, if you like to tinker and learn about cars in general, there is no better source than what you have right there. By the time you get that thing running normal again you will be an expert. I would focus on the engine first, do a compression test and verify the blown headgasket so you can start sourcing a new engine. Pay no more than $350 for a running KA24DE from a 95+ with 160k miles.

[firejackal]

Just a quick update. Did a leak down test on the engine and each cylinder held the pressure. So that's good.

So now i got to look at the thermostat.

And I've got something draining the battery. Nothing would come on or start so i checked the voltage and it was at 4v. Didn't realize this before because I've kept the battery unhooked until the other day i did the test drive.

[jza80king]

Just a quick update. Did a leak down test on the engine and each cylinder held the pressure. So that's good.

So now i got to look at the thermostat.

And I've got something draining the battery. Nothing would come on or start so i checked the voltage and it was at 4v. Didn't realize this before because I've kept the battery unhooked until the other day i did the test drive.

Sounds like you are already making progress that's good to hear about the leak down test.

[firejackal]

So i put the original Nissan (worn out) radiator cap back on, and i didn't had any coolant overflow issues.
Had it idle for 10 minutes, then took it around the block again, using my obd2 adapter to monitor stuff; the coolant got up to 177F degrees but the lower hose never got hot.
Hot heat coming out of the vents, but of course only the high setting works.

[firejackal]

Alright so today i decided to tackle the driver side window to see if i can find out why it doesn't go move.

Got the door apart to discover the window was held up with one of those metal hose clamps.
Got that off to discover the regulator wasn't even bolted in.
Got the window motor off, tested it, and it turns slowly, but still turns.
Then i discovered that rubber guide for the window that is closest to the window regulator is missing all its rubber except for a tiny spot.

Yay more to add to my list of stuff to fix..... And the endless attempt to find parts that doesn't seem to exist.
The part is H0221-S14001 which is also part of the side mirror bracket oddly.
I wonder if there is any way to repair and make new rubber?

[jza80king]

For what its worth have you checked Courtesy Nissan for the parts you might need? It will definitely get expensive but here is that part you posted.

http://www.courtesyparts.com/80233m-corner-piece-assy-doorlwr-240sx-s14-1995-1998-p-185455.html

[firejackal]

Sorry the late reply, courtesy nissan is how i found that part number. After seeing some of these prices it kind of makes me sick, there is no reason for it.

Anyways, so some updates and more problems. I have been working on getting the keyless entry working, which i am not successful yet, i can't get the unit into programming mode.

I drove the car over the weekend to work, during this time it rained, it was flooding in from around the sunroof area. My back was wet by the time i got home.
The rear driver side caliper was dragging (sliding in that corner in the rain, and that rotor was three times hotter then the other three.)

The unit that controls the windshield wiper is bad. Caused the wipers to stay on while the key was in the ignition (the switched had been unplugged to this point so I didn't know.) By unplugging the control box, only one function works on the wiper switch, holding the switch down to force them move.

Also the resistor box for the fan controls are bad since only the high setting works.

And i believe the alternator is bad.
I think i mentioned i was having battery drain issues. I finally went to look into that. I had a 300mA draw that went away when the 7.5a fuse "Alt S" was removed. Also noticed that the alternator has a faint whine to it when the car is off.

So yay... At this point i don't have enough money to fix all the problems. So priority time...

But concerning the window motor, i have it wired up to a switch at the moment for i can bring it down or up. But the only problem is it doesn't know when to stop when going up. So i need to be careful.

[firejackal]

Alright another update;

As what I posted in my other post. Originally when I pressed the hazard switch it wouldn't do anything for an X amount of time, then it start flashing (or I'd hear it but don't see the indicators.)
I decided to open up the hazard switch, everything looked fine but I cleaned up the contacts and re-lubed the contacts with some bulb lube I had. And now the switch is functioning correctly. The light on it is also burnt out, but no idea where to get a replacement. The connector for the bulb is so small I couldn't wrap a LED or a resistor around it.

Next update, the alternator.
I bought another alternator (a reman one direct from denso) and it had the same issue as the first one. So I started to look over the wiring before I assumed I bought another bad alternator.
After a couple of days of looking over things I was about to give up. But then I noticed that the connector going to the alternator (S,L) had non-stock wire terminals in it, so it made me wonder if someone got the wires switched.
Looking online for a pinout for the alternator was fruitless. No one seems to have a picture of all the connectors and wires. The FSM just confuses me cause it doesn't tell me which pinout is for what side of the plug.
Then I found a replacement regulator on ebay which had the pinout, so I re-pinned the connector going off of that.

Now it is working like it should (haven't actually driven it yet) but it's not making any humming sounds or drawing current until the key is on. And the battery light comes on with the 2nd key position, and then goes off when the car is started.
And the voltage is around 14.3 volts while running. So all is looking good with that.

[firejackal]

And yet another update, more problems of course.

So, every time driving the car it felt like I never had all my brakes.
This meant I couldn't come to a complete and safe stop if someone pulled out in front of me or an emergency happened, so I give myself enough space and went slow for if such an occasion happened.

Today I decided to replace my bleeder valves with speed bleeders. I bought the ones from Russell/Edelbrock ... replaced passenger/rear side fine, got to the driver/rear side. Got the old bleeder valve off and no brake fluid was flowing out. I was like "okay..."
I put in the new speed bleeder anyways, tried pushing on brake pedal and still was stuff.
Took the speed bleeder out... and here is a note: Don't tighten these too much, it crushes the end, the end of the speed bleeder appears to be aluminium... I'll try to upload a picture of this later

..... anyways ....

So I unattached the other end of the brake line from the caliper to see if the caliper was clogged, still no fluid. So I followed the line and found the issue, portion of the brake line was gone. One end was a rusted mess, the other end was plugged (folded over on itself and crushed), so the previous owner knew about this.

I have extra brake lines from another car, but I have no idea how to work on them. How to safely bend them, to flare them, to patch them, etc... so more fun with this car... yay...

[jza80king]

Damn man... You inherited a car in terrible condition. Props to you if you can fix everything. Working with brake line isn't difficult, you can buy a tool to help bend it properly so that it doesn't kink or break. Any local parts store like autozone, O'Reillys, harbor freight should carry something for you.

[Toomuchboost12]

Honestly i would just find someone with a donor car . perhaps a rusted s14 that runs and swap everything over (bumpers tail lights headlight hood litte by little ) after you figure the condition of the engine in there . if its bad then just find a new motor .