Zed Head

If you've removed the fuel lines from a pressurized rail you know that there's quite a bit of fuel that comes out before pressure drops. The hoses and the filter expand slightly under pressure and hold some volume. If that pinhole was the source you'd smell a lot of gas. Actually, the car probably would have caught on fire by now. FPR's tend to leak down. You can clamp the return line to test that. Still unlikely, but injectors and CSV's can leak. Those would cause richness. You're kind of at the point where you just have to spend extra time being extra thorough on each component, with good accurate measurements. That's how the FSM procedures end up also, from quick measurements of continuity in the front of the chapter, to measuring actual numbers in the middle. On the numbers and details topic - are there part numbers on the injectors? And where did you get them, new? eBay, CL new may not be the same as parts store new. Details are the key, "slowly", "new", "working", etc., doesn't tell the story. eg, mechanical advance "works". 2 degrees or 20 degrees? The more detail you can add the clearer the picture becomes.

People have been known to loosen the screws that hold the board in place and shift it so that the wiper rides in a different spot. From what I've seen though, and my own experience with one AFM that ran lean, there's not much you can do to fix them once they start crapping out. I've never heard of a an AFM that went bad on the rich side though, usually they go lean. Have you confirmed that the mechanical advance in the distributor is working? Connect the light and rev it up. Also, not clear why you don't just connect the vacuum advance like it's supposed to be. There is no benefit to leaving it disconnected. And the fuel pressure dropping to zero is not right. You can test the pump versus the regulator versus the injectors/CSV by pinching the lines shut, one at a time then obth, and running the fuel pump. If the fuel hose is new enough to survive a pinch without splitting.

The EFI harness has its own ground wire, connected directly to the negative battery post using a plastic covered metal blade type connection, male to female. It's right next to the battery, off the firewall, in the stock configuration. Post #19 here shows it, with a little picture. Upper left of the illustration - http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/40658-fuel-pump-and-relay-problem/ After thinking about it, I think that somebody pointed out in the past that the EFI harness ground wire might actually just connect to the bolt on the intake manifold that is also a ground connection. Not positive. Multiple gorund paths would be good. Really though, ground paths should always be confirmed as low resistance paths back the battery, and the alternator body, using a meter. If the ground strap does the job, that would be enough. There are many pins in the ECU connector that can be measured to ground.

Where's 7-8? U? U = ?

Shows that it's worth a shot to let these guys know what's going on. I called a company once about "replacement CV shafts for the 240Z" and it turned out that somebody in the company had just assumed that all of the Z's and ZX's used the same drive system, because they were all IRS. They reproduced the later ZX shafts and started advertising for all cars. He was surprised too, but may not have been able to stop the bad info from spreading - http://www.discountautoparts.com/autopages/NISSAN-240Z-CV-Axle.html

I measured my two spare AFM's, which have both been on my engine and both run a hair lean (fixable with the potentiometer) and they both measure 175 ohms on 7-8. One was 180 and 100 on the other two circuits,the other was 202 and 112. Both divide out to 1.8, if that means anything. I don't have a good picture in my head of how the ECU uses the split voltage. Didn't connect the battery since there's no numbers, just a continuously decreasing voltage spec. Nothing obvious showing...

That's a good catch. I only see the 180 and the 100 when I look at people's AFM numbers. I have several AFM's I can measure just to see what my 7-8 numbers are. Might hook a battery and meter up too. The level of the problem, the rich mixture and super-low mileage, doesn't make sense, from the other information given. Edit - I don't find any indication of "should be low reading" on 7-8 in the FSM. Some would consider ~200 ohms to be low. 7-8 is only called out as continuity, but not detailed later in the FSM. Anyway, I'll see what mine show, they all worked.

Continuity is correct. It's a matter of degree. Actually, ohms. The solenoid itself passes current to actuate. Typically, resistance through a solenoid is about 60 ohms. You need to measure resistance, not just continuity.

Duralast and Powertorque appear to be the same company or use the same pictures - http://www.autozone.com/drivetrain/clutch-set/duralast-clutch-set/42731_121859_4121/

That kit shows that it came with the collar/carrier that should have matched the pressure plate. Did you use an old collar or did the kit only come with a bearing? The collar that came with the lit should have made everything work fine. IT's the collar and pressure plate that have to match, nothing else, not year, or transmission. http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/PTQ5/KF53601/01351.oap?year=1971&make=Nissan&model=240Z&vi=5142639&ck=Search_clutch+set_5142639_-1&keyword=clutch+set Someone else just had this same problem (drawing a blank on the name) and ordered the complete kit with collar from OReilly. Measure from the surface of the flywheel to the surface of the collar that the fork rides on. It should be ~92mm.

I found this - http://perrinperformance.com/i-13324281-gasket-for-subaru-diff-cover-r180.html when I searched this in Google - nismo differential gasket R180

Pretty sure that I've seen johnc mention them. I think it might be a performance part. Maybe in a Nismo catalog somewhere.

Probably not the problem then. The fact that it only short circuits on Start is a giant clue though. I would focus on that. There's a only a couple of circuits that are different between Start and Run. If you can leave it on Run with no problems, but the wire burns on Start, those changes are the source of the short. Maybe the solenoid wire is shorting to the wire that burns. When you hit Start, there's enough juice to power the solenoid and burn the wire. I'd follow that solenoid power wire out and see what it's touching. I have old charred insulation in one of my wire bundles, ugly but no shorts. Someone's past mistake. Maybe you have one of those, but yours went too far.

It's not common but have you confirmed that the CSV is closed and not leaking while the engine is running? It's fairly easy to remove, pull it out and run the fuel pump and see what it does. Or block the hole and start the engine. I had a similar problem diagnosing my bad FPR and I've seen others with the same. The pressure will read correct, but the diaphragm leak allows fuel to pass through and in to the vacuum hose, on to the intake manifold. In my case, the FPR was only malfunctioning when it got hot. I never did figure out what, exactly, was causing it. But when mpg dropped to 15, in one day, I swapped FPR's and fixed it. Do you have a performance cam in that head? Head work, plus cam, plus no vacuum advance = low mpg, poor low RPM performance.

Measure resistance from the starter body (where the negative cable would normally attach) to the negative cable. That will tell you something about the quality of that ground path. You want a tiny number. If you want to take a chance you could run a jumper cable (the big wire kind, used to jump dead batteries) from the end of the negative cable to the starter bolt and see if the wire gets hot again.

I see now. That strap's purpose is to give a good path to ground for anything electrical attached to the body. Body, engine, negative battery cable to battery or alternator. Where is the negative cable attached? It would normally be attached to that bolt and to the negative post. That is the main path to ground for the engine block, but more importantly, the starter motor. The starter motor draws a lot of current, that's the only reason the battery cables are so big. If the negative cable doesn't have a good connection the current will flow through whatever path it can find. Maybe the burning wire is providing that high current path for the starter motor.

I don't know if it 's possible but maybe the fork just pulled off of its clips on the throwout bearing. If so, it would be extended out of the transmission and the slave rod would be at an odd angle. Might be worth a try to wiggle it around and see if you can push it back on.

If you're positive that this is the case, then it's a clue. It would be odd though. You're not looking for a shorted circuit in the ground system. You're looking for a short circuit to ground on a wire that should have resistance on it. "Short circuit" just means that current is following a path back to the battery or alternator ground that it wasn't meant to follow. A short cut. Test all of the wires, they should all have some resistance on them, in the tens of ohms at least. The shorted wire will have close to zero ohms resistance. I'm not sure what that last sentence since the starter grounds through the mounting bolts.

Did you check at the ECU connector? Or just the CTS itself? You could have a perfect CTS, that's worthless if it's not connected to the ECU. Make a list of all of the parts, and all of the test results, and post it. Something will show. The right parts, with the right numbers, and it has to run right.

I left an assumption in my method, that the master rod was sitting on its piston seat, when the pedal is on its stop. Which leaves essentially no free play. The fact that you have all of that free play makes me think that you pulled the rod out of the master cylinder to get it connected. That won't work. I would pull the clevis pin and push the rod in to the master cylinder by hand to see how much distance is there. The clutch hydraulic system is essentially self-adjusting. The only hydraulic play is the distance it takes to cover the hole to the fluid reservoir, which is not very far at all. The slave cylinder is the same, except that it is filled when you press the pedal, then it only retracts as far as the clutch fork pushes it. No play at that end at all.

Take a meter and find out which way is shorted - through the alternator's T plug or through the meter. Then find out how the battery current is getting to the short circuit. It's either shorted all the time, or when the key is On, or when the key is at Start. Hopefully you were able to stop it before the wire was destroyed.

I'm not familiar with any AFM measurements in the FSM or the Guidebook except resistance of the carbon trace. And that's not affected by the "calibration". Do you mean your resistance numbers are off by 12%? What are the numbers?

Here's the way I adjusted the rod in my car. It's not the factory way, but I think it works, just based on simple principles. I took out the clevis pin that connects the pedal to the rod end. (Tense change here). Let the pedal rest on its upper stop. Adjust it to the factory number if you like or to where it feels comfortable. Then turn the rod end (yoke, I guess it would be called), until the holes are lined up. Tighten the lock nut. Then slip the pin back in (it's easy now), and it's cotter pin. There's enough play in the hole and the pin that everything is about where it needs to be and you get maximum travel from the pedal stroke. The main reason I do it this way is because it makes the clevis pin easy to insert. There's no room up there. Here's another trick - run a thread through the clevis pin hole, then run the thread end through the pedal and yoke holes. Use the thread to pull the pin up and to the holes. Then you can hold it up with the thread while you do the final maneuvering with your finger tips. Forgot to say, re your problem, if you can't get the holes to line up, with the pedal on its upper stop, then the rod is too short. I think that my adjustment is way out at the very end of the rod. It's barely long enough.

Plus, the beer can method on the atlanticz site would be "calibrating". Turning the wheel to make it leaner would be "screwing it up".

You didn't mention the most important component, the coolant temperature sensor. And 32 psi is kind of high at idle, have you checked the FPR for leakage? See if there's fuel in the vacuum hose. With that gas mileage, the first tow things I would check are the coolant temp. sensor and the FPR. I had a similar problem, it was a bad FPR. And check your coolant sensor readings at the ECU connection. Then you'll see what the ECU sees. Get real resistance values and know what temperature the sensor is at. Also, vacuum advance helps gas mileage. Disconnecting it is a mistake.