IdahoKidd

Great info on painting. I too am prepping my Z for paint (GMC's Gunmetal Metalic Gray) along with my 75 Volvo 164e AND my 57 International S120. (too many projects by the way). My question is: do paint fumes sink or rise? I have a fan from an old furnace I plan to use to evacuate the shop. Do I need it to exit down low or up high for best results? Thanks, Leonard

On my 77 280, I am going to go with the GMC color found on the 2009 Canyon, Dark Steel Gray Metalic. You need to see it in person, but it is a beautiful dark gray with lots of movement. De-chromed and with the MSA II air dam, side dams and rear spoiler on old Appliamce "turbine" wheels with the centers painted to match. My other 77 is going to be 94 IROC yellow as found on the IROC Camero. But, only one car at a time. There is a recession (according to the TV)

Uhaul rents trailers for $50 24 hr local use. I am sure there is one near Houston............

My 77 280z has a non working a/c. There is a sticker with some details on the hood. Was the a/c installed factory or is it a dealer item? Can it be brought back to life with the new freon replacement or is it just too much to deal with? Thanks, Leonard

Maybe I screwed up. I just sent one to the crusher that was about as good as these pictures show...................

I am going to hang on to the title and the vin plates, you know, just in case. There is one the inside of the passenger fender and one on the body in the door opening. Any others I should capture?

Thanks guys. I wondered about the fuel injected manifold on the older motor. If that would be a direct bolt, the rest should go. I knew about the performance loss but it would be better than no motor I guess.

I am parting out a 240z with a good motor. A fellow has asked if it will work in his 280z using the 280z fuel injection setup. I don't see why not but I certainly do not know for sure. Any thoughts? Leonard

Greg, The hatch was great but is now gone. The choke cables are good but the knob is busted up. I can get a pic later this evening. Leonard

The roof is in good shape, as is the head liner. The trick would be the shipping. Where on the planet are you? There is a somewhat local fellow who would like it but he's not sure it is worth the time to do all the work to both cars(replacing a sun roof). The right fender has been taken, the left fender has a wrinkle directly behind the headlight. Not from the side, but where the headlight was pushed straight back about an inch or so. There is a new metal headlight "trim, extension" not sure what it's real name is. This piece on the other side was fiberglass. Leonard

I assume this is the original faceplate and radio..........

The battery tray is near perfect. Looks to me like it is welded in and would need drilled out. Thought about saving it though. I need to look in my 280z driver and see what shape it is in. The dog legs, if it is the trim piece, is already gone. Leonard

The car was as close to stock as it could get except for the wheels. Nothing special abouit them either. I just don't want to throw away something that is known to fail, hard to get, made of unobtainium, etc.

I know there are some folks who follow the vin numbers for these cars. Car #59995, a yellow 240z with an automatic is headed to the crusher very soon. What should I keep in storage or what does anyone need from a rolling chasis? (I have three 280's). Most of what is left I would ship to you pretty much for the cost of the freight, depending on how much time I have to spend getting it out. This car is head to the crusher by Fathers' Day. Any questions or suggestions on what I should keep around can be sent to Idaho.Kidd@yahoo.com Thanks!

If I take a jump wire from a good fused power source and connect it to either the left or right headlight fuse, the light comes on when the switch is on. It tells me that there isn't power getting to the fuse block. I do have power on both sides of the fusable link, checked at the spade and not just at the end of the link (male side if that makes sense). I just got home from work and will fool with it some more.

I have lost both high and low beams on my 77 280. There is no power to the fuse block. There is power through the fuseable link. I have read every post I can find and have tried everything I can come up with. If I heat up the fuse block, the lights do come on. Every other light works as it is supposed to. Near as I can tell, I am looking for a missed or bad connection between the battery and the fuse block. Am I overlooking something? Thanks, Leonard

Well it all makes since, the replaced engine was from a zx. I am tickled to know I can still put the ac in. I have a donor car that has the completed stock set up, so someday...... BTW, the car starts and runs incredibly well. I am tickled! A few little bugs, the tach and the clock mostly. When I get more time I'll fool with them.

I removed the center bolt from the cranshaft, took out the six little bolts that held the 3rd pully onto the crankshaft and the pulley easily separated from the rest. I then put the center bolt back into place, torqued it to the best of my ability and away I went. I wasn't nearly as complicated as it seems to have been in a different post. Again, I am not sure specifically what motor is in this car but believe more and more that it is 82-83 zx. I do know that putting in ac or anything requiring the use of that 3rd pulley is going to cause grief.

I figured out the connectors. All of the confusion comes from the fact that both connectors had black wires. At some point in the cars life, the connector to the thermotime switch had been replaced/spliced with a new one with black legs. The harness was then rewound/taped up (good looking repair). A bulge 10 inches up the loom gave suspect and sure enough, opened it up and green wires. Thanks for the help! PS-sblake01; took the car an auto electrical shop and found the ignition module wiring was reversed as well as the fuel injection harness. Took the e12 distributor out and put in the correct one. The tech there was the one that thought the motor was not correct for the year but thought it would be just fine. It actually runs really well, just hard to start. Thank you for your time and information. Leonard Moscow, Idaho

Thanks, I'll check the numbers in the daylight. Any advantages or disadvantages to having this motor? It seems to run out just fine once it gets warm. Put in new thermotime switch this evening so just maybe......... Leonard

I finally have this car up and running but the cold start injector doesn't fire when hooked up. It does fire when triggered when tested. The engine temp doesn't seem to come up above 120 according to the gauge. I noticed this evening that the wiring connectors are interchangeable on the two. It is possible that the wiring connector for the thermotime is connected to the water temp sensor and vice versa. Can anybody tell me how to tell by the wiring, where it goes or colors or any other identifier to see if I have them crossed. Also, the tach doesn't work nor does the clock. Coincidence or related? By the way, the z car will not run when the wires to the ignition module are hooked up backwards............. Gotta love those PO's. Thanks, Leonard

I have a 77 280z. The previous owner installed a salvage motor but never finished installing. I am wondering if there is any way to tell what it might be. There are three bolts holding down the thermostat housing, it has two sending units coming from it (thermostat housing). It also had a power steering pulley on the crank, which, by the way, does not allow the fan to rotate without major damage to it and to the radiator. Beyond these identifiers, is there any way to tell what I might have? Thanks, Leonard

I really appreciate your time and your information. Here is more of what I know. The previous owner died while trying to make the car run better. It ran when it was taken to him, and the more he worked on it, the worse it ran until it didn't run at all. He replaced the entire engine (??) trying to make it run again and never got it accomplished. The engine in the car had the distributor you see in the picture. From what I can find, it is referred to as the "matchbox" and came from a later zx. The base is the one for that distributor, at least it is different than the other two distributors that I have. Neither of those work and I suspect dead pickup coils. This one is hooked directly to the positive and negative side of the coil, bypassing the voltage reducer and produces huge spark. The other pictures are of the ecu and of the ignition control (?). Both are identical to the 77 donor car and I have swapped both back and forth without success. While I am unsure of how the distributor affects things, I am almost certain the injection system isn't firing or grounding or working however it works correctly. Both sides of the injector plug have power to a test light and do not blink. The cold start valve sprays when tested and that plug has pulsating power. Is there a test to check current at the ignition control (passenger side unit) that will tell me about circuts or lack of power or ?? Thanks for your time Leonard

The previous owner had the fuel injection harness wired backwards; putting power to the ground side, grounding the power side.-still have power to both sides of the injector plug on the engine. A loose ignition relay on the passenger side lit up the rest of the fuse panel (it must be grounded, not just hanging by the wires). Still no power to the two top left fuses in the panel (they say light left and right) but all the lights work on the entire car. In fact, everything works, except it won't start. It has the match box type distributor and tons of spark If fires and briefly runs with starting fluid The fuel pump works like it is supposed to (changed out AFM with donor car-took right off). Pumps on crank, pumps when key is on and lever moved at AFM. I am tired and I give up. 20 hours without much to show for it. All of the wiring is back to original to the best of my knowledge and resources. Any chance the fuel injection module (large black unit on kick panel left of driver foot) is ruined because of reverse polarity? I switched out donor box but prior to discovery of reversed wires and I may have cooked it too. Time to go seek professional help....... Thanks, Leonard

The two wires in question are the ones that apparently go from the battery to the harness that crosses the firewall near the hood latch. The the wire on the left (has the eye, then a connector), is red, goes a foot or so and morphs into blue and black wires. Does it go to the positive or negative side of the battery. The other wire (has a white connector)is red and remains red. Does it go the positive or negative side. With them both unhooked, I have crank, I have fuel pump during crank, I have headlights, but I DO NOT have the gen light, or wipers, fan, etc. I have most of the mess unraveled and put back to original, knowing these two are correct will get me going a long way. I have read literally hundreds of posts, gone through the repair manual file and have looked at all the related photos I can find. I am certain it is so simple that it is assumed everyone knows. Many thanks!