Zed Head

If you're handy, maybe you can use the car's weight as a spring compressor. Jack the strut up and try to realign the pieces on the way up. Seems like it should work if you can get things aligned.

The actual differences between the various AFM models has been pondered by many people. One thing that the 79 AFM is most likely missing is the fuel pump relay contact switch. If you decide to wire around that and try the 79 AFM on your 77 engine, report back with the results. I'm interested, others might too. What probably matters more is the difference in emissions equipment and other Nissan modifications to the system, from 77 to 79. When you swapped in the 79 engine, did you bring the whole engine over with all of the various switches, distributor and EGR stuff, or did you bolt your 77 stuff on to the 79 engine? If you did the first, you have a 79 engine, if you did the second, you have a 77 engine.

Cool looking products. Did you know that if you use the Search box on your site, the axles don't show up, using Datsun or Nissan as search words. And the adapters only show up if you use Datsun, but don't show if you use Nissan. 240Z doesn't bring up anything, but 300ZX brings up four products. 280z brings up the adapters, as does 280ZX, but nothing else. Not to criticize, just helping future customers get to the product descriptions.

The 79 ZX engine should be almost identical to the 77 Z engine except for having exhaust liners in the head. N47 head on an N42 block vs. N42 on N42. The 79 AFM might work but it's not the correct one for your ECU and might cause more problems. Your idle speed problem should not have been caused by your AFM anyway. Are you sure the AFM is bad? There is a test procedure in the FSM.

Don't forget about the NOS parts...

If he pushes the clutch in when slowing down then it fits my module's symptoms. When mine was dying I could make it go bad by winding the engine up to ~3,000 RPM or greater. Then the tach would start jumping around, and reading a much higher RPM than estimated by road speed and gear. It wouldn't idle well or would just would die if I pushed in the clutch. But it would still go down the road if I stayed in gear with the gas on, tach needle vibrating and reading wrong. If I stopped and let it die it would start right back up and be fine until I revved it over ~3,000 RPM again. Just a few more signs to compare.

I think he's trying to sell the whole car. It would help to list the parts that are on it and the extent of the damage. Can't tell from the pictures. Maybe the whole thing is savable, although it would have a salvage title. There are several accounts, some on this forum, of people replacing the complete tops of their cars, to get rid of a sunroof.

I tend to agree with EScanlon. The insurance company is trying to minimize their costs with an artificial deadline. They should be liable for impound costs, not you. Even one extra day of impound costs ($100) could save you thousands of dollars. Think about waiting a day before agreeing to anything. It's not clear how you could be losing $10,000 if the cargo company is going to pay you the "actual cost" of the car. Is the $10,000 a premium over what you paid for it? You're valuing it at $10,000 + ? I'd still like to know the name of the companies involved.

The centrifugal (centripetal?) advance numbers should be stamped on the weights inside. A picture from the top of the insides would be interesting. There is a spreadsheet out there on this forum somewhere with a listing of the distributor part numbers. Edit - Here's the thread - http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?34192-280ZX-Distributor-Advance-Curve-Reference&highlight=distributor+adavnce+timing+curves+numbers Edit #2 - the updated sheet n Post #19 has your second number. Looks like a 1973 240Z with a manual transmission. The weights and vacuum advance can be swapped between bodies though (as you now since you have a re-curved one), so nothing is certain.

What was the name of the shipping company? So that they can be avoided in the future. It seems like a simple lawsuit could get some of your money back. A shipping company that doesn't know how to ship should pay up. Some people think all lawsuits are bad, but this looks like a clear case of incompetence. What's the back story? Overall, payment for damages and the damaged car delivered to your place in MN seems reasonable. Who is twisting your arm to make a decision in a couple of hours?

I'll take an uneducated guess or two.

I think that you mean the fuel pressure regulator (FPR). Easy to check with a fuel pressure gauge. ~36 - 38 psi with the vacuum line off, or engine not running, and in the 28 - 32 psi range at idle, engine running, with everything connected. Insert it between the fuel filter and the fuel rail. You could also have a clogged fuel filter or crud in the gas tank or a bad fuel pump. But the fuel pressure measurement will tell you whether or not to keep looking. Since you're problem is kind of intermittent, you might want to strap the gauge in the engine bay for a few days so that you can check it when the problem happens.

Pretty sure the engine won't start without the inline resistor. I had mine unwrapped and it fell out once. Not even a pop until I put it back in (no CSV, so no fuel supplied at all without the injectors firing). Fun to try though. I've had two engines, also, that wouldn't start without the tach connected.

Yes, those are all typical signs of a failing module. Some of the auto parts stores can get replacement modules, or try Black Dragon, Motor Sport Auto, or Zpecialties.com. They're expensive though, in the high hundred or two hundred range. The wrecking yard is another option, or an aftermarket ignition module, like the GM HEI module. Or you could swap to an early ZX distributor with an E12-80 module. But you will lose the temperature controlled 6 degrees of timing advance, since the factory module is designed to use the two pickups in the distributor. Unless you have a California model. Quickest might be a wrecking yard 75-77 module, if you can find one. They're mounted up above and in front of the fuse box. Edit - Got curious. Change the hundred and two hundred above to three hundred and four hundred - http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/search/Ignition+Module!s!Control+Unit!s!Ignitor/02801/C0334.oap?year=1977&make=Nissan&model=280Z&vi=1209248

If this is his web page - http://www.datsunspirit.com/index.html - you should let him know that it needs some serious work. It's all 404 errors and broken links. Maybe he has enough business that he doesn't really need it.

I have noticed that they're not straight, but since it appears to be a forged steel piece, not machined and built from straight rod, I can't be sure that they're not designed that way. It would make sense to form some pre-bend in to the piece to give it some shock absorbing properties. For the original purpose of the car, an inexpensive sports car with good performance, it seems like it suits the purpose just fine. They only seem to break when mismatched bushings are used. There was no recall on them, and they lasted through 8 design years. I'd feel like I had accomplished my goal if it was my design. The TTT TC rod is an upgrade but I wouldn't call the original crap. I just wanted to see what kully was thinking.

How about some reasons for why you say the OEM rods are "crap". The more technical,the better. I'm always interested in learning something new.

bhermes has a 76. The plug is designed for 70-73. I don't think that it will work as a simple plug-in and go fix. The externally regulated alternators appear to be labeled F and N on the T plug. They are also smaller than the internally regulated alternators. The internally regulated alternators appear to have no letter labels on the T plug, but if they did, there would be an L and an S. Any auto parts store should have a testing machine that will tell you what kind of alternator you have.

They've been known to break in service, apparently. Look down at the bottom of Post #1 (about half-way down the page under Stub Axles) here in JMortensen's thread from Hybridz - http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/49194-differential-cv-lsd-hp-torque-r160-r180-r200-r230-diff-mount/ Maybe you just got lucky and yours broke while it was still accessible. Do you have a picture? Broken stuff is always interesting.

Happy Hawaii Trip Anniversary, Bonzi! Seriously, I can see how someone could get some wires crossed in doing the conversion, especially considering that many of the original wires are left disconnected when it's done, just hanging around waiting to cause trouble. I still have a spare hot wire and a switched hot wire hanging loose in the engine bay (insulated of course), waiting for some purpose along with a few dead wires. I tried the conversion by "connecting colored wires" when I did mine even though it was against my normal inclinations and ended up with a dead battery the next day due to one small difference that hadn't been addressed in the instructions (1976 has a brake warning lamp check relay wire that runs through the external regulator), as helpful as they were. It's always better to know exactly what each wire does before doing anything. In Quinn's case, new wires could be run from the battery and a switched source just to confirm that the alternator works correctly, leaving the old regulator completely disconnected. A voltmeter would be needed. Then the appropriate wires could be chosen from the original regulator wires, just to neaten things up, if wanted. Of course, some of the regulator wires might have a dual purpose and that's where other problems can crop up. But those can be tracked down individually. The internal alternator really only needs four circuits connected to work (#4,the ground, typically comes through the mounting points). Which brings up one thing that's typically not checked but which should be - confirm that you have good ground from the alternator case to battery negative, with the old regulator disconnected. An ohm-meter will be needed.

Still not clear why you're doing some things. No offense. The zhome instructions and my comments don't fit what you're describing as being done. The S wire is "on" all the time, not switched. It should be connected close to the battery positive terminal. A common spot is the big lug on the starter solenoid, or just directly to the positive terminal. No diode. The L wire is the one that needs a diode. But you should probably leave the diode out for now. It's only there to keep the engine from continuing to run after you turn the key off. Not sure about your other connections. You said that two yellow wires are jumped to a white wire. Don't know which wires those are. Then a yellow wire starts smoking. If one yellow starts smoking, then all three wires should be getting hot, right? They're all jumped together. If you have a load on the ammeter (battery drain) with the key off that goes away when you disconnect the yellow wire, then that yellow wire (the one that you disconnected at the end) must be connecting the battery to a device that uses current. So that is not right. You've mentioned measured voltages but haven't really confirmed that the wires you're connecting to S and L, and the white charge wire, have the correct voltages before you start the engine. It really helps to be methodical and careful when getting in to the wiring. Confirm that L is 12 volts switched, S is 12 volts always, the white wire is 12 volts always, before starting the engine. I assume that you have a voltmeter. As it stands now, it looks like you have several wires incorrectly connected. It's not clear why. The zhome page is pretty clear, just confirm the voltages at each wire before connecting, in case of differences between years. It looks like zhome might be for 1971, you have a 1973.

Some of your "consensus" comments are questionable. The liners in the P79 exhaust have been shown to be of little to no restriction. They just look that way. "Square exhaust posts have good flow" - no supporting data. They just look that way. Quench is more complicated than it seems. Just because the pad is there, does not necessarily mean that there will be effective quench. You said that you had two P30 blocks but your examples are F54 blocks. If you're autocrossing, predominantly in one gear, then a torquey engine with a flat torque curve is probably best. The best option there is probably the F54/P79 combination. Also the cheapest, machining-wise, since none is required. The comparison between higher compression and bigger valves (E88 vs. P79) would seem to favor the bigger valves, on the L28 block. More flow for more displacement. But, if you wanted higher compression and bigger valves, then the N42 or N47 head on the F54 flat-top long block would be the way to go. No machining required and meets all of your desires. Most people recommend a "bigger" cam with that setup though to keep the detonation problem in check. Edit - Full disclosure - I just picked all of this up on the internet, probably just like you did. But I've been hanging out on the Hybridz site for a while and they have some good information over there. BUT - I may not know what I'm talking about.

Here's a link to a supplier of one of the more popular systems - http://www.diyautotune.com/ The product descriptions are kind of disjointed and hard to figure out though. Here's a link to another forum's sub-forum, focused on EMS - http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/forum/63-ems/

Bummer. So you already have an off-center hole drilled. That bolt is fairly large in diameter. You might be able to get a small rat-tail file in there and try to re-center it. The bolt is the standard right-hand thread but if you're already in to the threads on one side, it's probably too late to try the left-hand drill. You'll probably have to work most of it out by hand until you can get a tap in there. Tedious. A tap will drag the small pieces out once they're thin enough. I think that bolt is fine thread though, so a tap might be difficult to find and probably expensive. I don't think that you can reach the back side from the top either. You have a dilemma.

Not even sure what you mean by "front diff carrier bolt". Can you add some description? If you tried an EZ-Out then you must have already drilled a hole in the remainder of the bolt. How do you "catch threads" if the bolt is still in there? Why would that make it worse? Sorry, but your post is not real clear on what exactly you're trying to fix. If you do have a broken bolt with a hole already drilled in it, that an EZ-Out will get started in, then I would heat it up with a torch, spray some PB Blaster or Liquid wrench on it, let it cool, spray some more penetrant, then heat the area around it again while trying to twist it out.