zKars

"got to tour the design studios and maybe take a guess at what the new 240z might look like...." Holy $hit batman!!!

This requires taking the water pump off, but defintely needs to be checked. The condition of the cavity on the front cover where the pump vanes fit is critical to the pump efficiency. If there is any wear from a previously loose water pump vanes rubbing or cavitation damage to that area (looks like poc marks) the pump is simply not putting out the volume it needs to. Was the cause of my issues some years ago.

The FSM for a 73 can be found at xenons30.com under the reference link. Haynes diagrams are rarely complete and representative of all teh changes. Every year the electrical changed in a significant way. Looking at the "Body Electrical" document, Page BE-2 that manual has a diagram of all the "stuff" in the engine bay. Sounds like that relay is #18, the Throttle opener relay, Manual trans only. The six wire relay on your other car might be an automatic, ie part #17, seat belt relay. BE-5 has the whole schematic, it looks like the BW wire goes directly to the ignition switch, and as such if the relay of blown, may be cause of your problem. Check all the fuses and the fusible link. Try removing/unplugging the relay and see if that helps. Its not critical to operation. In any event, it can very likely be replaced with a standard Bosch type relay. Its a simple two terminal coil and two terminal switch function. Unfortunately the schematic does not have the wire colors other than the BW and GB so it will take a bit of sleuthing. Good luck Oh and what does it do? Seems a speedo sensor turns on this relay, which accuates a vacuum device which likely opens the "throttle" more.. Don't ask me why... I bet its emmision related.

Excellent sleuthing Blue! You can either spray glue various grades of sand paper to it or use this system of abrasive particles as the lapping media like these http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=33017&cat=1,43072 I wonder just how flat that granite really is?

Can't see this as any issue at all. Relocate away.

Most" seats will "fit" but will you like the limitations of how it can be mounted? The gross restrictions are the width at the shoulder with a large bolster, that to hit the door, or for a 280, that lump in the trans tunnel for the cat on the drivers side. Other than that, most "go in", but.... Height is a function of the method you select to mount the seat. Lower is better (and harder to accomplish with sliders that work), but what constantly catches people is the ability to move their lovely new seat back far enough once mounted. That 3-4 " riser bump from the floor up to the short flat area behind the seat typically prevents most seats from moving back as far the stockers. The stock seat-backs start high enough off the floor and are positioned back from the end of seat base, so that they can nestle above that bump and allow the seat back to move almost to the luggage riser with the seat base still in the floor area just touching the bump. Most aftermarket seats can't do this as the back and base connect low and at the same point. This traps the seat back AHEAD of the bump and leaves way too little room to the steering wheel and/or pedals for anyone over about 5-10. I'm dealing with this now with some Corbeau's. Not fun. If you mount them high enough to get them back enough, then you're typically much too high for head clearance. Tough call. Carefully inspect the seat back/base joining geometry on your stock seats and compare to what you're putting in before committing. Most aftermarket ones I've seen are all pretty much the same.

Here's hoping these are not remanufactured hydraulics with old problems left inside. Don't forget your copper crush washer on the slave to hose connection! There's one in the box, isn't there? You can always use the old one if need be, shame if its not new.

First ground the connector on the yellow lead that connects to the sender and see if you dash gauge pegs at max pressure. (key in RUN position, engine not running). If it does, then the gauge is fine, sender is suspect. If not, look for electrical stuff. Try the fuses first. Also check wire crimp on the barrel connector for the sender on that yellow wire. May be broke off or just about broke inside the clear boot that you can't see. I see you did the ground thing, points toward gauge power issues. Oil going everywhere with cam cover off means you have some oil pressure. No need to panic yet.

The strut towers on the late 74-78 cars is quite a bit taller (closer to the ceiling) than the earlier ones. Since the struts are angled inward, I'de guess the tops of the struts are a bit closer together, so the 240 rear strut bar may have to be shortened some. May be enough length adjustment in some of the designes to make it work anyway. The seat belt retractor stuff on top sure gets in the way of all this for sure. Always wondered why they changed that strut height. Don't suppose it was the seat belts? To put a retractor style shoulder belt in, they had to move it from its earlier mounting point. Using the top of the shock tower made sense, but it was too low. So they raised it, and had to add that fat insulator on the strut to compensate. That's my guess. Someone needs to measure across of the center of the struts on a 280 and 240 and report the difference.

Weird indeed. Not the norm at all. I can't see battery size being the issue. Something in the atmosphere is electro-plating those terminals. I wondering if the battery doesn't have a leak. Sprinkle a bit of baking soda around the terminal and see if you get any sizzling...

Great point about the manual way to trigger a spark event with paper interrupting the light and sensor. Also don't forget that you take the whole dizzy out of the block and spin the base by hand to test and trigger spark events, you don't have to have the engine cranking or even running to turn it. Keeps things simpler, quicker to test and hopefull stress free! Good luck!

Notice which one is in front. No surprise!

Don't discount the ignition switch contacts going bad. The start position often becomes finicky. As a test, hook the +side of the coil directly to the battery + with some spare wire, and jump the starter spade terminal to the positive starter terminal to crank it. See if it starts and runs without dying. This totally bypasses the ign. switch. Worth a shot.

Diseazed, ya, I'll check that cam plug too, but I think its good. Thanks for the quick response. I guess I'm at the age that I need a check list rather than relying on my memory for stuff like this. Tough to admit. That's life.... Jim

Well thanks to you-all I have the solution. Just your virtual presence was enough. Actually I just had to write that out to get my thoughts in order. There are two oil gallery plugs, one in the back (I put that one in), and one in the front; which I didn't put back in.... Funny how that causes a short circuit for the oil pump right back to the pan. Easy enough to fix. I'll pretend I'm happy that it was the front one and not the back...... Much messier. And now we also get to find out just how good that Lubri-plate engine break in stuff is that I used....

Gang: Time to call on the engine building experts Finally got to the stage of starting the L28 in a very long term restoration project today. 71 240. Well it runs great, but with just about no oil pressure. oh god, what have i done.... So, the facts: Engine Fresh rebuild, top and bottom. Fresh everything. Including new oil pump. L28 flat tops, F54 block. E31 head, larger valves, stage 3'ish cam, nothing radical. Engine was assembled on stand 15 months ago, and oil pump run with drill and shaft to confirm prime and oil to the head. Everything is great. Engine put in car, but never started until today. Problem: Runs great, but oil pressure on stock gauge was observed just above 0. Changed sender. Same thing. Screwed mechanical gauge in engine port. Same.... Barely moves if at all. Think.. What did you do idiot... Change out new oil pump for used oil pump. Same problem. Oil pump full of oil when removed. It is primed. Remove cam cover, remove dizzy drive and use drill with shaft into oil pump. CCW rotation, 400 rpm drill. Cam is seeing oil at all holes (internal oiled cam, towers have block off plates), but its just dribbling out of the holes. Pump is turning real easy... Oil filter is full. oil dribbles out of engine port when I remove the sender or mech. gauge. Did compression test, 150 psi across the board. Engine ran all of 5 minutes initially before decided to shut it off due to the oil pressure. Block history. F54 block was taken from junkyard zx to machine shop (7+ years ago). Everything was bad. Crank crooked, bores crooked. All was fixed, bored 040 I think, new pistons, rings, crank turned down some, rods sized, undersized bearings supplied. Everything sat disassembled waiting for a car to put it in. I assembled engine 15 months ago for this project car. Checked ring gaps, and a couple of bearing main and rod clearances with plasti-gauge. What I checked looked great. No I didn't check all the bearings, maybe I should have... My bad. So, other than the first thing that comes to mind, like HUGE bearing clearances, what other stuff may I have forgotten that would cause this type of issue? Ideas please!

Spray glue some 120 grit sandpaper to a flat wooden stick, about 3/4" square by about 8 inch long. Use this to remove the gasket material and to keep the surfaces flat as you do it. Do each section between the alignment pins. Only use sandpaper for the last very thin bits, use a single edge razor blade for the rest. Aluminum nicks easy. Go slow. Patience grasshopper.

Clearly its not the pump if the switch made no change. Sorry for jumping to conclusions. Very suspicious that it stays at perfect 70.

Suspect the pres. regulator in the oil pump. Take it apart and clean/inspect.

"The rod is at the machine shop being shortened..." Lose your hacksaw? or did you decide to shorten the end with the clevis?

If it ; Looks like a duck; That “we all fell in love with it the first time we saw it” look, the face with little or no makeup, long lovely body lines and unmistakable rear end.. Smells like a duck; Subtle “odour” of exhaust, and/or raw gas, that blast of Japanese plastic when you first get in... Quacks like a duck; The sweet song of the in-line 6 from behind, and if you’re lucky, triples breathing from the front at the same time... Then it’s a duck...

Comparing the electrical sections of two FSM's will yield more accurate comparisons I think. xenons30.com reference section will help with that. The Fuel injection schematics for the 78 show three separate relays instead of the "pair" that Zedhead refers to that exist in the earlier 280's. There is an EFI relay, a Fuel pump relay and a Fuel pump control relay on a 78, all related to the loss of the AFM fuel pump contacts replaced by an oil pressure switch system. The FP control Relay and FP relay are in the engine bay on the bracket with all teh other relays and V. Reg instead under the dash. Long story short, there may be some "challenges" in putting a 78 harness in your 77....

Aha! Details do matter indeed. Should add your car details to your sgnature. I have a couple of 77 doors by chance at the moment, I can check for spacers at the mounting points, but I don't remember any. new 1/4 window rubber is a real pain. See if the four 3mm bolts that attach it to the body window frame are extra long indicating the window is not sucked into its correct resting spot. There should one be about 1/8" max (or less) between the tab the bolt threads into on the window and the body tab the bolt passes through. If its tight, then its in the right spot and the frame is out of whack. Door games and the hardware are all fresh in my memory from several door related assembly and adjustment chores I've had to do this year. I no longer fear removing and replacing the glass for example. I'll do it on a whim to get better access to swap door handles just for the fun of it now! Those 77-78 doors are SO much better than the early ones, though there are more adjustments....

I have one of the cross members you show in post #1. Its yours for $10 + shipping. Drop me a line to z240@shaw.ca. Glad to get rid of it. The auto/manual labelling on that shot is incorrect. The series 1 z's have a different trans body mount system, where you put the cross member in with two 8mm vertical bolts (which requires the style in-correctly labelled as Auto and the style in post #1), all other s30's use the type with pair of 12mm horizontal bolts, using the crossmember style labelled as manual. I've always wondered about the mount in post #1, ie which came first, it or the one mis-labelled as auto, and if so, what is the VIN break point for their use? Is it an A vs B type trans mount selection for early cars, ie some kind of cross over point where the trans went to the B type, by the trans x-member mounts on the car were still the vertical bolt type? I'm sure someone will chime in with details.

Carl Can't resist a good hunt. http://www.kyb.com/service/installationtips/installationtip08.php "When installing a KYB strut cartridge do not put any water, oil or any other liquids inside of the strut housing. Any existing fluid should be removed from the housing before installing the new cartridge. KYB cartridges are designed and engineered to operate without any additional liquids." Dang, I was planning on smuggling scotch inside my strut tubes... So much for that plan....