Zed Head

Blue, I can't see enough contrast in your picture to tell which way the seal is in. But I've attached a picture from the 1978 FSM that might help. I know the seal goes in in the way that looks like it would be the most difficult to push over the shaft. Lips to the rear. There's also some good advise on the clutch fork pivot ball (withdrawal lever ball pin screw). I had a significant leak on a wrecking yard transmission I installed. It took me a while to figure out that it must be coming from the pivot ball. Coarse threads equals big leak.

1972 240Zs came with carburetors, so your post does not make sense. Do you have an EFI engine in the car now? If you do have EFI, then you need a properly functioning temperature sensor. For starters, measure the resistance at the ECU plug and compare it to the values in the chart in the FSM.

This - http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/38461-240z-260z-280z-turbo-swap-guide/ or this - http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/50208-the-ultimate-l28et-guidewhat-you-need-for-350whp/ are options. Could get spendy.

I would bend a piece of copper wire for a feeler if I was going to stick anything in there. A long piece so it doesn't fall in...

Is it a P90 head or a P90A? The P90 heads are sought after because they don't have the hydraulic rocker arm pivots. With a good light, and maybe a mirror, you might be able to see the flat top of the piston through a spark plug hole, if you find a cylinder with its piston at TDC.

Reverse has no synchro gears. Try rocking the car back and forth while you're trying to get it in to reverse. The gear teeth are probably just in the wrong position to mesh. Edit - this will only work if the drive shaft is installed.

Thanks for the info. It doesn't show on the Barrett web page that I could see. The seller fee was in the FAQs, didn't see any thing but registration fee for the buyer. So you're saying that Barrett gets 20%, +/- a couple, depending, of the hammer price. That's way more expensive than selling a house. Edit - and the buyer's cost is actually 10 - 12% higher than the hammer price? So a $20,000 bid actually costs $22,000 - 22,400. That's some fees.

Lots of good stuff on the web site - http://www.barrett-jackson.com/consign/faq.asp#4 You were close BGM, maybe they've lowered the fees to draw people in. Looks like the seller pays the fees, probably 'cause they end up with the cash. More expensive than selling a house.

"Stopping like it's stuck" is a sign of too much advance. Not sure what you mean by "all the way to the right" on your adjustment. Turning the distributor clockwise is advancing. You might have your oil pump off one tooth. Or your plug wires off one hole (that would be 120 degrees of crank rotation, I believe though, so unlikely). Or your wires off one hole and your pump off one tooth. Something's off. You can either fiddle around with your plug wires and the other adjustment on the distributor or adjust the oil pump. But I would start over: set the pulley mark at zero (make sure you're on the compression stroke on cylinder #1), put the distributor at the center of adjustment (line up the two lines), pull the distributor cap and see where the forward edge of the rotor is pointing (the rotor turns counterclockwise), then put your #1 plug wire there, reset your firing order, and check your timing. It should be close to zero.

The u-joint sounds like a likely source. If you can crawl under the car, take a screwdriver and stick it in the joint and lever it around. If you see any movement, that's bad. Also look for signs of rust at the rubber seal around the four bearing cups. The u-joints on his car should be replaceable, available at many auto stores. More oil came out after his drive because the oil expanded when it got warm. I've had the same thing happen. zombie, there is no "slave bearing", maybe you meant throwout bearing? That would make more noise when the clutch pedal was pressed and would be more tied to engine RPM.

The spring still shows as available at Courtesy, if you just want to start over. SPRING-VAL 15133-21000 Found 'em here (I love this site) - http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsunS30/DatsunZIndex/Engine240Z260Z/OilPump/tabid/1572/Default.aspx The 280Z pump parts appear to be out there also.

Was pretty sure I saw the length listed in the FSM and found that it is. At the end of the oil pump section in the Engine Lubrication chapter. 52.5 mm free length, Page EL-4. Are the HP springs longer or do they have a different wind or wire thickness?

So the car has only 14 years on it! Nice. You might also find the key code on the inside of the glove box door.

The injectors are grounded by the ECU, which is triggered by a wire from the negative side of the coil. That's what I meant by injector signal. It's kind of uncommon but needs to be verified. It's easy to do, but sometimes hard to understand. For starter fluid, I would pull one of the vacuum hoses from the intake manifold and squirt some fluid in. That way you don't have to mess with the AFM hoses. The easiest would be the very small hose that runs to the firewall and around to the air conditioning vacuum tank. It's small enough that you can leave it off without affecting intake vacuum much. Fuel pressure should be measured between the fuel filter and the fuel rail, with a temporary gauge (some install a permanent gauge,which is nice since you can check it when the problem happens. These cars did not come with a Schrader valve so you'll need to remove the hose and attach T-fitting. The hose is typically very difficult to remove, so I would buy an extra foot of high pressure fuel injection hose since you'll probably have to cut it off. IF you haven't downloaded the FSM yet, and read the Engine Fuel section, you should. It's very informative and good to have the knowledge in the back of your brain while you're pondering what your engine's doing. I will bear with you, but, to be honest, will probably never bare with you.

Yes, but different parts. The parts work together to produce spark.

If you can, check for spark when it is difficult to start. If you have no spark, that's a sign that you have an ignition problem, but it may not be the module. If you have spark but it still won't start, then fuel supply or injector signal might be something to look at. Try starting fluid also, if it starts then dies, you have a fuel problem. You should verify fuel pressure first thoguh. You could have a dying fuel pump. You really need to take some measurements with fuel injection, there's no way around it. You could have 15 psi fuel pressure, which will look like a lot of flow, but won't be enough pressure to run the engine right.

MY fuel gauge (1976) stopped working about two weeks ago. I pulled it out to replace it with one from another car, checked the various circuits to see where the problem was and couldn't find any. Put the old one back in and it worked correctly. I don't know if the connector just worked itself loose (we were in the first really cold weather of the year) or the needle just got stuck and it jarred free when I took the gauge out.

I think that you are embarking on a lonely quest. Not many people rebuild their differentials, and those that do, from what I've read, tend to have problems afterward. Even the guys on these forums that have lots of experience have stories. Despite the simple concept and relatively small number of parts, the parts have to fit precisely or you'll just get more noise, but with new parts. I had considered rebuilding mine, but couldn't justify it, since replacements were easy to find. Good luck. Report results if you do go for it, there are a lot of noisy differentials out there.

Groovy. I'm taking a gold star. The main reason I thought of it is because that's where I jumped in to the fuel pump power line to supply the "brake warning lamp check relay", after I installed a ZX alternator. And I too have found a long jumper wire in my car, running all the way from my ignition switch to the fuse box, to take the place of a rusted out relay. Once I fixed it, my accessory position on the ignition switch started working again. If you're measuring at the AFM connector, back through the harness, then what you're seeing is probably the resistance of the solenoid in the relay. 6- 7 ohms is about right for a relay solenoid. One down...

The Pertronix unit has an ignition module built in. The 280Z distributor has an external ignition module, up by the fuse box, in the cabin. You can use a GM HEI module if you don't have the stock Nissan module. The 280ZX distributor has its ignition module mounted on the distributor, the small black box on its side. What kind of L28 distributor are you using?

Did you even try the double-nut method? If not, why not? Just wondering...

The harness has several connections under the carpet next to the right side of the passenger seat, the fuel pump power runs through them. Easy to get to and one possible spot for a "hack" or even a short. According to the wiring diagrams, the only power supply to the fuel pump wire runs through the combined EFI and Fuel Pump relay. All you can do is try to trace it out. The 76 diagram shows a green wire with blue stripe all the way from the pump to the plug you disconnected, through the C8 and C3 connectors.

If you'll be taking a lot of curves I'd go for the parabolic formula.

Did things work right before and why did you do the alternator swap? Which swap method did you use? The last time I had a faintly glowing Charge light, my alternator was dying and took my ignition module with it.

Great suggestion. I think the hole is on the bottom side of the lobe though, not the tip. Probably the leading face, to get the oil on the lobe before it starts working. For future oil fill hole peekers...