Help, my car has a mind or its own!!!!

[SMUSICMANS]

Hey all, I have a 1980 280zx. It is running great sense I put a new fuel pump on it. But it still wants to act up from time to time. I will be driving down the road, and I lose all power in my tact. My rpms just completely drop and the car dies. Now I still have power for my radio, lights and everything else like that. It’s just the rpms that die. I start it back up and it may do it once or twice more, then it runs great. What could be causing this? Like I said, it only happens once and a while.

Thanks

Steve

[44014]

pull all your elecrtical plugs off clean them and put them back on using a bit of grease or somthing when you put them back in should help

cheers doug

[SMUSICMANS]

:stupid: I'm stupid!! What do you mean by electrical plugs??? I have never heard of something like that. Do you mean spark plugs, or fuses or relays? Let me know I’m sorta new with all this mechanical stuff. I looked in my Haynes book and did not find anything with that terminology.

Thanks

Steve

[seerex]

more or less anything connected to the ecu box <brain> or the fuse box , or dizzy, sounds like a short or looose terminal

[datto_240z]

It sounds like fuel to me. I donno about the electrics.. shouldnt be if all of your other electrics are going. Take you spark plugs out, clean em and check the clearances.

[78 280zcar]

It might also be your ignition switch or the ground on your battery, you might want to check out the negative lead on the fuel pump too. I have kinda the same problem and traced it down to the ground on the battery. I wire brushed the leads from the wire itself and put new battery terminals on the posts. I still have to change my ignition switch though, because mine wont start sometimes and I thought it was the neutral start switch, so I tried starting it in neutral but it still didnt start, (mine is also an automatic), I have to shove the key in as hard as I can to get it to start.

[st0878]

I had a very similar problem and turned out to be the thermotime sensor. I'd disconnect it and it would run fine. I think only the FI Zs have thermotime swithches. This was on a 75z. I just bought a 76 Z and I have this problem every now and then with my fusable links making bad contact cause I don't have covers on them. I cleaned them up and it had been running like a champ since!