Zed Head

Wonder what the difference is? https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/nissan,1976,280z,2.8l+l6,1209226,electrical,starter+motor,4152 p.s. if I had a spare engine a bunch of flywheels like I used to I'd go take some measurements. Yarb might have hit on a solution. Trade your starter in for a 1978 or ZX gear reduction starter. Maybe it has more throw for the gear. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/nissan,1978,280z,2.8l+l6,1209260,electrical,starter+motor,4152

Found an image of a Sachs. Quite a few mm difference by eyeball. https://www.ebay.com/itm/293381977250?fits=Model%3A280Z&hash=item444eedb4a2:g:Yb0AAOSwkwxd-Umn

Might be that the flywheel is sitting too far from the block. A measurement from the back of the flywheel to the dust cover (the thin metal plate) would be good. Somebody could compare to theirs if they have an engine handy. p.s. the ring gears are press fit on to the flywheels. Yours might have moved. Hard to tell, that's why a measurement to the flywheel will be best to compare to others. If that shiny flywheel surface is flat, that's a lot of space that might have been covered (Edit - added red lines for emphasis). I'll see if I can find an image of the back of a flywheel.

I think that your ring gear might be shot. The starter gear gets driven in to the ring gear only by the strength of the starter solenoid magnetic field. It's designed to slide smooth teeth in to smooth teeth, not crunched teeth in to mangled teeth. You can get new ones, but a new flywheel is almost the same cost. Hard to find a good picture in a product listing but I did find a Google remnant, below. https://zcardepot.com/products/ring-gear-for-starter-flywheel-240z-260z-280z

Doesn't matter much really, because you're obviously not reading the posts with the facts and the links to the facts. My posts and CO's posts are from the CDC web site data. You're right, we're all free to believe what we want to believe. I'd hate to be working in healthcare in Idaho though. Looks like you can't get care there, no matter what you want to believe. https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/coronavirus/article253905873.html This guy is just a CEO of a large healthcare provider. Not sure where he gets his facts. This is from yesterday, not last year. https://www.primaryhealth.com/blog/urgent-care-clinics-over-capacity “I’ve been in urgent care and primary care for 30 years, and it’s inconceivable to me we’re at a point where we can’t see all the patients who want to see us,” Dr. David Peterman, CEO of Primary Health, said in a news release. “Our health care workers are exhausted and working hard to see every patient and answer every call. But at some point, it’s just too much. This is a serious crisis.”

Relay questions...

The part about the ECU is the entrance to the rabbit hole... Link this thread in your other thread. Then it's all contained.

It's just courtesy, to let people stay focused on the reason they started their thread. For example, I could post here in your thread about whether I should use Bosch relays from a wrecking yard or the cheapest from O'Reilly Auto or Rockauto. Seems like a valid concern and "on-topic". Then we could have 20 posts discussion about it. Personally, I like the wrecking yard Bosch relays. They're cheaper and probably of higher quality, even used. Designed to last the life of the car. $8 new can add up. Still, might be worth it, new Bosch. https://www.amazon.com/Bosch-Automotive-332019150-Relay/dp/B0010ADJIE

It's just courtesy.

That conversation has been going on for decades. I think that regional fuel quality might play a part as well as altitude and temperature, plus timing and other tuning factors. You won't really know until you try it, basically. I'd just make sure you're conservative on your ignition timing, including the fine details like the rate of centrifugal advance and vacuum advance. There are many variations in timing curves out there in the world of Z distributors.

Trimpe.bob is still around and you've kind of hijacked his thread. I was going to suggest that you put the details of your car in your signature but something has happened to the site settings and that option is gone. A person used to be able to Edit their profile but the Signature option is missing now. @Mike Study ground loops. Sometimes you just have to add and disconnect grounds randomly to get rid of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_(electricity)

I linked an article about the need for the trucks. People are definitely dying from COVID-19. It's definitely hard to keep up with what's happening in the world. There's a lot going on right now.

https://tabcoparts.com/amfinder/

I just found instructions for a fingertip pulse oximeter by a neighbor's car. Texted her to see if they were hers and found that a friend of hers had just contracted COVID even though her friend was vaccinated months back. She had just delivered the oximeter to her porch. Thinks she got it in a stuffy thrift store that had unmasked patrons. She was masked but got it anyway. So now she's living alone checking her blood oxygen level and waiting. Watched a soccer game over the weekend in Columbus Ohio with stands packed with people singing and shouting. NFL is starting. Schools are starting. Hate to see it but the next wave is here and going to get bigger. Get your guard back up. Here is hospitalizations. Forget about your elective surgeries. Stay healthy.

I watch the numbers to see the trends, so accuracy is not super critical. And, in the big scheme the overloading of the hospitals would be pretty hard to fake. Those people aren't lying when they say there's no room left. I don't think that refrigerator trucks for the dead bodies are being borrowed for media hype either. Idaho is way up there on the "you're on your own" scale and the governor is asking for help. That's a sign. https://ktvz.com/news/ap-oregon-northwest/2021/08/31/idaho-governor-calls-in-help-amid-surge-in-covid-patients/ https://news.yahoo.com/texas-officials-asked-5-refrigerated-010202435.html https://covidactnow.org/us/texas-tx/?s=22401166

Lots of interesting ways to think about death.

Sorry CO, I left out some middle years just to make the size of the post smaller. 13, 14, 15, and 16 add up to 150,000 so 359,000 is the correct ten year number.

Never heard of them. Only found them when they popped up on a Google search of that part number.

Is it an automatic or manual? Might not matter but good to know. If I had your problem I'd probably try to lever the starter away from the ring gear while I tightened the starter bolts. Crude, but it seems like the starter gear teeth aren't fully engaging with the ring gear. Maybe the wear on the ring gear teeth is enough to finally cause binding, from what was a tight tolerance. Actually, an even simpler quicker test is to loosen the starter bolts slightly so that the starter can move away when actuated and let the teeth mesh. It should be fine for a few starts as a test. If it works you'll know that you have gear meshing problem. Edit - do you still have the old starter? Take a close look at the teeth on the drive gear. You might find that they've not been fully engaging in the past. Might be a clue.

It's a 75 280Z. I wonder if the rest of the car is similar. That is not a typical rust area, to that degree. Might be best off to find a new shell and move all of the good parts over. https://www.classiczcars.com/profile/35466-ennisdavis/

Has it ever worked for you or did you just buy someone else's problem?

Facts only mean so much but here are some. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/past-seasons.html Looks like 510,000 for the first full year of COVID-19. We're at 127,000 already at about 6 months in to the second year. https://ourworldindata.org/covid-cases

Found a web site. Who knows? 436 Euros for the top piece. http://www.autospares.eu/search.html?search=search&article=66300-N4700&term=0&sort___search_results_by=final_price&chk_smode=on&smode=A http://www.autospares.eu/price-lists/nissan/2568/

I didn't narrow it down, just found the part shown and posted a starting point. But, since you brought it up... http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun/Z-1969-1978/body-260z-280z/2-seater/cowl-top-grille

Use this to figure out which wrecking yard cars to chop up. http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun/Z-1969-1978/body-240z/cowl-top-grille