Zed Head
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Everything posted by Zed Head
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Just remembered that 77 has the space saver spare tire. Comes with a canister of air, to fill an expanding rubber tire, made of 40+ year old rubber. Most people switch to a smaller import "real tire and wheel. That is one thing that might be a trip killer. Flat tires are common. I don't know that I'd trust that tiny expanding thing in the spare tire well. Has anyone ever actually used one of those, after 40 years? Maybe take a can of "Fix-a-Flat".
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Inner and outer. http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsuns30/Datsun-Z-Index/Axle/Front-Axle
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The next simplest test is to check the vacuum hose from the FPR. Give it a twist to break it loose before pulling it off. If you only have a short time to mess around. If it's wet with fuel, you'll need another FPR before continuing with your other tuning tests anyway. Edit - forgot to say that you can still get proper pressure readings with a leaky FPR. You just can't see the extra gasoline.
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I vote for go for it. Watch the gauges. Don't let it overheat. Make sure the alternator is charging. Stop and check fluids every hour or two. It will be an adventure for you and your future wife. Stories... Too soon to be mundane. No offense to the cautious folks. There are probably some Z oriented shops along the way. Get their info and make the trip during business hours.
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The spacers match the hubs and are designated with a latter showing the size range they are in. Most hubs are the same, "B" I believe. Check the letters on your hubs. If they are the same then mixing up the spacers just moved the play from one side to the other. So swapping them would just move the play back to the other side. A better way to make sure things are right is to measure the spacers and the hubs before assembly. And the axles do have some play. About 6 thousandths.
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You can use points to drive an MSD or Crane electronic ignition. And there's always Pertronix, they have a better ignition module that gives high energy spark, the Pertronix Ignitor II. Many options. Not surprised that you found a broken distributor. Most of us have.
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Only responding to what you wrote. Good luck.
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The idle air bypass screw is under the rubber plug on the side of the AFM. It is used to lean out the idle mixture by letting air past the AFM vane. In later years Nissan put a solid cap over that screw so it couldn't be adjusted. But 1976 still made it easy. It's a fairly easy and common adjustment for idle. Not sure I'd read too much in to it for your year. Didn't realize that the car was not driveable. You said that it smoked, and died, but it seemed like it was repeatable after eventually restarting. Now you say it's "not running!"? Anyway, good luck and don't expect a miracle cure. You'll probably have to check a lot of things that check out just fine before you get to the one that isn't. "The car has not been running much at all for 2.5 months, I drove it a whopping total of 4 times....... mostly neighborhood drives less than 10-15 miles aside from the 75 miles drive home after initially purchasing it. I have not had a chance to beat on it, I would like to really drive it.... BUT IT'S NOT RUNNING!"
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All I'm saying is don't make things too complicated. It passed emissions in California, which is difficult to do. I'd be surprised if the days of the shady smog guy are still in play these days. The fines for doing that are huge as I understand it. Beside that, the car has been running fine for 2 1/2 months, when, apparently, a problem "suddenly" occurred. A shady mechanic can't make a car run well for just 2 1/2 months. The seller of the car probably sold you a good car. Something small and simple is probably broken or stuck. Have you been beating on it? Taking it up to redline, banging through the gears? Have you been maintaining it properly? Has it run low on oil or coolant? Have you been adding "wonder chemicals" to the gas tank, like Seafoam? Once you get the EFI systems back in spec. they're pretty steady. They don't need constant attention. Watch the oil and coolant levels, put gas in, and drive it.
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Why did you show the old plugs from before the tune-up by the Po's mechanic to pass smog? They don't tell you what's happening now. If the PO's mechanic got the car to pass CA smog then it must have been running pretty well. Most of the suggestions here are for old sat-for-ten-years engines that barely run. Your problem looks like something broke recently. So don't go crazy, and make sure that you record every change you make so that you can undo it. You're on the verge of creating a terrible EFI nightmare.
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I seem to remember that there was a short period of time when some of the links were NLA. Probably why all of these random sizes from random sources popped up everywhere. But now they all seem to be available from Nissan, for cheap. Why go elsewhere? They're even on sale at Courtesy. "Out of Stock" but it looks like that they still ship. Maybe they're not really available?
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The leaking FPR, through the vacuum hose, and the coolant sensor are high probability and easy to check. The leaking FPR is one that would come on quickly too. The diaphragm cracks and it's broken. If there's gasoline in the vacuum hose it's toast. Those plugs look terrible, very rich. And you should use less never-seize. There's probably enough in the holes now to last the lifetime of the engine. It's dangerous too because you can over-torque your plugs. Not good in an aluminum head.
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mbz, the more detail you can give the better. If you just describe what seems important to you then our brains can only go as far as your brain. Tell us the stuff that seems worthless. "Exhaust" isn't good enough. Does it smell sweet, like coolant? could be a head gasket. Has it overheated recently? I said "inspected" the plugs, not replaced. How did they look? Were they wet with gas, or clean like they've been washed with coolant? Were they all the same or were one or more different? Details. The white wires are for testing. They just sit there, doing nothing. So, you are holding RPM at 2500 for two solid minutes (that would be a long time) and it just pours white smoke? You said "kicks out". Don't know what that means. No offense intended. Just need a better idea of what's happening. Does your car have a catalytic converter? You're in CA and they were the first to get them.
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What does the white smoke smell like? Have you inspected the spark plugs? How high is "high" - "very rough for about 1-3 minutes at high RPM "? Give the ECU a sharp tap or two and see if things change.
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Keep an eye, or a finger, on the coil to be sure it's not over-heating with full current running through it. Good luck.
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And here's zcardepot's Brown link set. Probably repackaged Nissan parts. So the reds are cheaper, but it's not clear what, exactly, they are. And, even better, I'm pretty sure that you can see "0.3" on the wire itself, and 1.25 on the Black ones. https://zcardepot.com/products/fusible-link-brown-black-wire-set-oem-280z-77-78
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If you want to work on the tach problem later you can run a wire from the ballast resistor output terminal to the coil positive terminal. That will bypass the tachometer. If it starts and runs that will be another sign that your troubleshooting is correct.
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There's a nice 1971 wiring diagram on page 37.
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There a lot of wires at the tach.
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Sorry, I missed this post. My last post was redundant. You might post up which wires you're measuring continuity and power to. If you're seeing power to the tach and continuity from the tach, then measuring continuity through the tach would be the thing to do. Actually, resistance measurements, ohms, are better than continuity.
