Zed Head

Yes.

You didn't elucidate the fact that the engine stopped turning in your first post. Sounds like a dirty battery terminal. Very common. Or a bad ignition switch. Not uncommon.

It's supposed to be attached to the firewall near the battery. It looks like the one that goes to the positive terminal. They sit close to each other and sometimes get switched by accident. You don't show the ground test in your list. Testing grounds is probably the most commonly overlooked test for automotive electrical problems.

One more possibility - bad or disconnected ground on EFI circuit. It's been known to happen. It's the wire at the negative terminal of the battery with the plastic connector. Confirm power to the injectors. While starting.

The Unilites have been known to fail. When did it last start? Dies it pop or try to start or is it just complete silence? "no start" is very vague. Try starting fluid.

Grit, I'm not really suggesting things that you should do on a whim, I'm suggesting things that I would do if I had your problem. I'd use a mirror to see the AFM.

Another guess and one that happened to me except that it happened when things got hot. The EFI relay coil would get an open circuit and not actuate the relay during starting. Just crank, crank, no start. You could jump the EFI relay pins as a test. One more - you say that you're not getting the injector test lights flashing during starting. This could also be caused by loss of injector power. Put a meter on an injector plug and see if you lose power during starting. The best way to solve these EFI problems is with a detailed list of tests and knocking them off one by one.

I still think that this is worth doing. If the vane is stuck you'll get less fuel. It's not uncommon, I think that confirming the vane isn't stuck is one of the checks in the FSM. As far as the starting fluid non-start is concerned, where are you squirting the fluid? You should squirt it in to the manifold after the throttle blade for best effect.

I've not heard of them clogging. I think it's just a diaphragm that flexes with pressure pulses. The easy check is to remove it and see if it flows. You'll probably want to replace the hoses anyway, they're old and on the high pressure side.

I referred to a bunch of them. Not sure which you're talking about, but most will require some finessing to get in. Even Nissan built a custom bent line to mount their stuff. Study those fuel lines and you won't feel bad about adding a few more bends. They're just well-done backyard mechanic bends.

Another guess. I went back to the first post but can't be sure. How old is the fuel in the tank? Old fuel will often lost volatility. Sometimes it will last for years, sometimes it goes bad in months.

Take the black cover off of the side of the AFM. It is just a press fit with some light sealant to hold it in place. There is a damper weight that moves with the AFM vane. If you move the weight the vane will move, and vice-versa. It should start moving as soon as the engine turns over.

I have a new thought. Maybe the AFM blade is sticking shut during the low air flow of starting. That would lower the injector open time, delivering less fuel. Maybe pop the cover off the AFM and watch it, or prop it open. Also possible that you have a vacuum leak that also allows air to bypass the AFM.

It's a good question and maybe Nissan had a plan for that. Easier to just measure what's actually happening though. As I mentioned above my engine started with no CSV at all. If the injectors weren't squirting there'd be no gas to start with. And there are no pins to the CSV or thermotime switch to the ECU. So, no way for the ECU to "know" if it's squirting. I think that the CSV is extra, added on top of injector fuel.

The relay numbers are pressed in to the fiber board bottom of the relay. Very difficult to see, but they are there. Sometimes the stamping is not too sharp. Bright light and good eyesight help.

If you're absolutely positive that the injectors aren't opening then that should be your focus. Check the Pin 1 circuit at the ECU. Maybe it has too much resistance or something weird happens during starting. Pin 1 is connected to the negative terminal of the coil so the ECU can "see" when the coil fires. On the module don't assume that new is good. 1978 does have "HEI" but the module I was talking about is the GM HEI module swap.

I had a problem once with a weak, not completely bad, ignition module. The spark was too weak during starting to fire gasoline, but would fire on starting fluid. Once it started it seemed to run okay, Probably low voltage during starting through a weakened ignition module. The module has to have good current through it to create good spark. I damaged the module by leaving some spark plug wires disconnected and starting the engine. Forgot to say that I did change the module to a new HEI module once I figured out that it was weak spark. Orange, not blue. The new module fixed it. So, if you're still baffled, trying the HEI module swap might be worth a shot. Pretty cheap and you can wire it up under the hood using spare wire pretty easily, as a quick test. These old modules die on a regular basis anyway, yours will eventually. Might as well be ready.

Unlikely. Not from Nissan anyway.

I'm just reading the words in the FSM.

I kind of lost track of your project or I would have said something. You need to make up 20 mm, ideally, not 10. Actually 22 mm, the magic number is 92 mm. Your old one must have been on the edge. At least you seem to be going the right way. Good luck.

Also, I never realized this and don't know how it's done, but, apparently, the thermotime switch is adjustable. Weird.

The ECU has nothing to do with the CSV. The CSV system is its own little separate control system, with power supplied to it and controlled via the thermotime switch. No ECU involvement, no coolant temperature sensor involvement. There is a "signal" that supposedly goes to the ECU, in the diagram, but many of us have realized that the ECU's don't have a wire to that pin. It seems to be a diagram mistake that Nissan never fixed. The thermotime switch is a thermally actuated relay that grounds through the switch body. Check the ground circuit. The wiring diagram can be confusing if you don't know that. There is power through a heater wire around a bimetallic strip, that opens and closes the relay contact points, and also power to the CSV injector. It's pretty ingenious but still looks crude. I removed my CSV and had delayed starting when it got colder or the car sat for a while. So I changed my starting procedure to giving the engine a good 5 or 6 revolutions on a first crank then letting it sit for about 20-30 seconds so the gasoline from the injectors could vaporize. Then it typically would start normally. You might try that as a test for or as a way to get by without starting fluid.

Was it set incorrectly? Gauge or sensor? They're not the same. I'd recheck your oil level, go drive it for a few hundred miles, and see where you're at.

Does the exhaust smell gassy or oily? There is a difference in odor between the two problems. What are the oil consumption numbers? If it's not leaking it's burning.

Maybe the older steel synchros.