Zed Head

Your bushing rubber looks in better shape than many I've seen. The washers are supposed to bottom out on that inner sleeve. It leaves the bar kind of hanging in between, with the web of rubber of the bar bushing supporting the weight. The scalloped layer of rubber on the washers is more of a final damper for any movement. That's my take on the design. I think that the idea is to minimize pathways for the high frequency vibration. The diff howl. But the rubber gets weak over time. If you've compared a new rubber transmission or diff mount to an old one you can really see the difference in rubber stiffness. I've had good luck with the urethane mounts, with 2-3 washers added to the inner sleeve to leave a small air gap between the urethane and the washers. Basically, extending the sleeve length. The same general concept of the Nissan design. A little bit of float. My diff noise is less than when I got the car and had old worn clunky stock mounts. I had clunk and howl, pretty bad for both. I also have a an RT-style front mount now. I think that most of the urethane mustache bar bushings are designed to clamp the bar tightly, race-car mentality, and transmit a lot of vibration to the body. That's why they tend to be noisy. Another opinion. Maybe try some new mounts or get a another bar for experiments. Forgot to say also, that the bar can move side to side on the mounting posts. The bushing rubber in the mustache bar ends is not solid, it's a web.

I'm using a Rhinopac OEM-style clutch. Easy engagement, light pedal, no problems with holding power (stock engine and 205 tires). A very smooth replacement part. I would buy another. My old Zoom Perfection OEM-style clutch had a stiff engagement and chattered when it got hot. I will avoid in the future. I bought both new, and used them on non-resurfaced flywheels (cheap, not recommended practice).

Is there play in the mustache bar bushings? Can't tell if you're using urethane or stock rubber. When you hit the gas the front of the diff lifts up and the back, with the mustache bar, gets pressed down. Pivoting around the axles. Maybe you're hearing the mustache bar bottom out on the washer and bolt at the end of the mounting shaft. You could probably tell by grabbing the bar and checking play, from underneath..

You have the same setup as siteunseen. Header and FJ707T injectors. That's two wins for that combination, but still leaves the question of header or injector. Here's something generally interesting on injectors. BWD and Standard are made by the same organization, and the high end BWD's have the FJ type of output (see links below). When I bought my first set of new injectors, I went for the cheaper ones,with the single pin pintle design, like Nissan stock. A few more dollars and I might never have had the problem, assuming injectors alone are the solution. The price difference seemed higher back then. List: Fuel Injector - 1978 Nissan 280Z | O'Reilly Auto Parts BWD 57519P - Fuel Injector | O'Reilly Auto Parts Edit - I shouldn't leave out FastWoman's Standard FJ3 injectors either, with stock manifold and heat shields (but a wrapped/insulated fuel rail). Reported to have occasional hot start issues, but not significant, if I recall correctly. That's three FJ injector winners, no FJ losers yet.

I wonder if there's something odd going on with your fuel pump control relays, that gets corrected when you disconnect the starter solenoid. Maybe the voltage drop from turning the engine is screwing up the fuel control system. It might be worthwhile to connect a fuel pressure gauge, then pop it out to where you can see it while you have the no-start condition. The symptoms seem more like no fuel pressure at all. The priming step might just be building up pressure, which allows the engine to start, then fuel pump control returns when you're off the starter. You're not conforming.

I should have said "switches", in that range. I was thinking in one direction, warming. In the other direction, cooling, it would close in that range. How hard is hard to start? Maybe you're asking too much of an old car.

It seems to be open then. Now you have to consider temperature. It opens at 57 - 72 degrees F. Down in CA, it should probably be open by now. Google says you're at 70 F. Might have to wait until it's cold, or pull it and put in the refrigerator. In the meantime, are you sure that your fuel pressure is holding? A dry fuel rail will cause a similar problem.

I've only had two meters, one with a needle and another that has auto-ranging. Touch the probes together on your meter and see if you get a "1".

That's the heater side of the switch. You want to measure the other pin to ground to see if the switch is closed when it's cold, like it should be. You should see a closed circuit, very low to zero resistance, on the other pin, to ground, when cold. That lets power flow through the CSV to supply fuel when cold.

See #5. In case you missed it...

Actually, it's just a switch. It's either open or closed to let juice flow through the CSV. And you don't measure across the terminals, you measure from each terminal to ground. One side is the internal heater, the other side is the ground for the CSV. 4 and 21 are at the ECU connection.

TT means thermotime? I think you might be blending the coolant sensor with the thermotime switch. Hate to ruin a good walk through the wrecking yard...

I tend to stick with stock parts on the highly engineered systems that contain multiple pieces, so I probably would have went to RockAuto and got a decent brand stock coil. Although in this case, I might use an E-core 300ZX ignition coil instead. ~1.0 ohms, so the module sees no difference, but with the newer, more robust E-core coil design technology. Although the oil-filled coils seem to last just fine, so who knows. But, with your finding of a BB, you're kind of at a crossroad(s?). You can fix or replace the distributor breaker plate so that you can use the ZX distributor and module, or you could get a 280Z electronic distributor (like on your 77) and go with the GM HEI module, and an external HEI coil. More stuff to think about. Maybe you'll get lucky and the BB came out with no other damage.

On the Portland area CL. Actually over in Washington. Some people still think low miles equals high value. Like brand new. 1979 280ZX

If you want to match the Nissan system specs. then about 08. - 1.0 is the range. You want to match the coil's resistance with the module's. Lower resistance might give a stronger spark but it will put more heat in to the ignition system since total resistance will be lower. Hotter coil and hotter module. There's probably room in the Nissan engineer's design safety margin for lower resistance. Your dice. Copied a picture from the 1981 FSM.

I'm with Blue, check your basics before getting too far. Timing is easy to check and very important. Check static timing and mechanical as suggested, and disconnect the vacuum advance and check its operation if you're using it. While you're there make sure that the new parts you installed didn't come loose and the points aren't pitted. Recheck all of your settings. If something bad happens within a short time of doing some work I always look at the recent stuff first.

Sent you a message. I'd just post the info here but with all of the trolling and phishing and nefarious stuff that goes on, I don't want to add to anyone's problems. Good luck.

Who is feeling reasonable and considerate? I found Lenny's phone number on the internet. I can send a message to whoever feels like making a call, but I don't want to facilitate any overt aggression. It's a business number so whoever calls won't be getting too personal. Worth a shot, he might just be very busy.

He probably won't be back. One post, just for his CL ad. Without siteunseen's fix, there wouldn't be any interest.

Just curious - do you drive it without air filters or are they off just for display?

Start at zero and work up. The pot is actually a good theft-prevention device. Just crank it up and you'll flood the engine. I have a 5K from Radio Shack and I barely use 5 degrees of knob rotation.

The atlanticz page shows the coolant sensor with both bullet ends disconnected, for demonstration, so is a little confusing. But you only need to break open one connection, and insert the potentiometer in-line. It can be before or after the sensor. All you're doing is adding resistance to the wire that starts at Pin 13 on the ECU and goes to ground. The ECU will think that the engine is colder than it is and add fuel. The sensor's resistance increases as temperature drops. It won't take much, I hope that you got a taper style potentiometer, they have a finer touch on the ends of their adjustment. I ran a few feet of wire from the connection on the engine harness and mounted the pot under the driver's side dash. In the engine bay is fine if you don't plan to mess with it much. Make sure it doesn't get too hot, it's probably not designed for engine bay temperatures. I added a picture from the Fuel Injection Book, illustrating the circuit and the bullet connections.

Many of us have had better luck with a potentiometer on the coolant temperature circuit to add resistance, to fix a lean problem. Messing with the AFM spring changes the slope of the enrichment curve, richer at the bottom not so much at the top, adding potentiometer resistance just moves the whole thing up. Richer everywhere. Plus, if you mount it in the cabin, you can tune on the fly.

I had the same issue for a little while. Leakage around the radiator cap. You solved yours faster than I solved mine. The hole in the cap of the overflow bottle is tiny, much smaller than it would seem necessary. I reamed mine out a little with a drill bit. Later (recently) I bought one of those pressure-releasing radiator caps so that I can test the system with a short pressure blow-off, along with being ready for any quick repair work. Bubbles in the overflow bottle means everything works. One way at least.

This is a sign that the regulator is not regulating correctly, but the pump is okay. Pull the vacuum hose from the bottom of the regulator and see if it smells strongly of gasoline. It might smell faintly of gas but if there's any mositure in there or it reeks of gas you probably have a blown FPR. Also, when you get a chance, warm the engine up again and remove the vacuum hose. If pressure does not rise to 36 psi or better then you have a bad regulator. Should have added this step before to save you time. I've seen on another forum that a blown diaphragm can cause a cold spot on the intake manifold at the point where the FPR vacuum hose nipple on the manifold points. The cold fuel cools it off. Just another sign. It might be that you have a hole or crack in the FPR diaphragm or the seal around the diaphragm, that gets worse when it warms up. This will give conflicting behavior, the intake will suck in extra fuel causing rich running, but the fuel pressure might read low, which would normally cause a lean mixture. The smoke from the exhaust might be signs of too much fuel. I had a bad FPR that showed correct pressure but was dumping way too much fuel. My gas mileage dropped to 15 mpg from 19, and the people driving behind me were angry. I got screwed up even more because I had a gauge on the fuel rail that read high when it got warm.