Captain Obvious

Yes and yes. Most noticeable at idle, and could possibly be affected by temperature.

I believe he penned that between vampire hunting expeditions, right?

@Mike You might want to look into this.

Yeah, I'd want metal to metal. I'm no coatings expert, but most powder coatings I've messed with are much thicker than a coat of traditional solvent based spray. I'm thinking that one thin coat of traditional paint isn't nearly as problematic as a thick powder coat. Also, I believe powder coating is actually a thermoplastic coating (polyester?) melted into place. Reheat it and it melts again.

When you say "powder on the end of the flanges"... If what you mean is that you have powder coating on the mating surfaces of the flanges where the driveshaft mates to the differential, or where the axles bolt at either end, then I agree with your tech. I think there should be a hard, predictable, metal to metal contact there, and I worry that powder coating on those surfaces can extrude and squish out from between the two faces. Especially once things get hot and the coating softens from the heat. If that happens, you will end up with loose connections and it will snowball from there and probably result in snapped bolts. Might just be me, but I'd razor scrape off any paint on the mating surfaces and just apply a very thin coat of oil instead.

The early Z's used a simple vinyl covering on the A-pillars, but in 77 they switched to a screw retained plastic trim A-pillar cover. Well Datsun must have messed up some dimension somewhere because the plastic trim covers often crack due to the stress of tightening the screws. On my right hand side, I had one of the screws pull through. Cracked the plastic mounting hole clean off. My first attempt to remedy the situation was to simply buy another used pair somewhere off some forum. Unfortunately, the donor pair I bought not only had the same problem, but it was even the same screw, same location. This meant that I couldn't even use one side from my original pair, and the other side from the donor pair. It became clear that this is a common problem and it's not just me. With that in mind, I took matters into my own hands. Here's what I started with. My right side. Completely cracked off mounting hole in the lower position: It's supposed to look like this. Here's the other side where the screw boss is still intact: Figuring I had nothing to lose, I put a piece of tape over the hole on the visible side: Crosshatched the plastic on the hidden side: Taped a short length of small diameter cardboard tube where the mounting boss should be and filled the moat with epoxy: Gave it a day to cure, peeled off the cardboard, and using a dremel and some hand filing, I contoured the new boss to fit the into place on the car and drilled the hole for the screw: Countersink the other side for the screw head: Used a small brush to paint the exposed epoxy: And after the paint dried, the repair is nearly invisible: So I also figured that since I'd already seen two broken bosses, I would take the opportunity to reinforce the remaining ones which had not broken off (yet). I crosshatched the area and blobbed on a generous amount of epoxy to support the posts. And while I was looking at everything, I also noticed a couple small cracks starting to form along the edges, so I made a couple metal splints and epoxied them into place as reinforcement. After all this work, these things should be good for another forty years. Here's one of the splints next to a reinforced mounting boss: Installed back in the car, and I know it's the little things, but I don't have to look over at the right side of the car and see that missing screw in the cracked off mounting boss! Happy Happy!

Good news on the extremely high idle situation. So, now as for the current idle behavior where it starts out cold at 900-1000RPM and increases as it warms up to 1300-1400RPM? That is to be expected. Engines don't ever really like to idle, and cold engines like it even less. It's normal for the idle RPM to increase a couple hundred from stone cold to full warm, and without additional devices (like the air regulator), it's impossible to simply "tune" out. The engine will always idle somewhat higher once warm. In fact, it's the air regulators job to mitigate this situation. It's job is to apply a compensation bump to the cold idle to force it up a couple hundred RPM. The air regulator then gradually reduces this compensation bump as the engine warms up. In theory, once the engine is warm and the air regulator is no longer adding any compensation bump, the idle speed should be where you want it. So starting backwards... If your warm idle is where you want it to be, and you remove the air regulator. your cold idle will be too low. and in converse... If your cold idle is where you want it to be, and you have removed the air regulator, your warm idle will be too high. Haha!! Does that make any sense at all?

That's good to hear. The weather has been beautiful here in eastern PA as well. My 280 is running better than I can ever remember, and I've literally been coming up excuses to go out somewhere for whatever! Time's a tickin' and there won't be too many Z days left before the salt spreading starts!

And you need to do that. Because if you don't, you'll just spend all winter wondering! Good luck, and may the wind be at your back!

No problem. Glad to help. I've been running this alternative now for a couple months now and I couldn't be happier!! Give me a little bit and I'll get the pics back up again as soon as I get a chance to upload them.

"Here is the offending, evil oil pump shim firmly bent into position." Beautiful. Let's not go through that again!!

I'm mobile and can't post pics right now, but basically until 76, they used a single piston rear wheel cylinder where the one and only piston pushed against one shoe, and the whole wheel cylinder slid (floated) on the backing plate and pushed against the other shoe. Worked well enough until the cylinder froze in the slot. Then in 77 they changed to a fixed location cylinder with two opposing pistons. Same breaking performance (when everything is working as intended), but I consider the non-floating design much more reliable. I believe the chances that everything works as intended much higher for the later design. Wheer cylinder replacement cost is also an order of magnitude cheaper last time I looked. Not to turn this into a sales pitch, but I've got a set of the new design backing plates and stuff for the upgrade available. Easy purchase plan can be worked out when you come over to press your steering rack bearings.

I don't remember if you've talked about what your plan is with the rear brakes, but if you aren't going for a rear disk conversion and are planning to keep stock drums in the back... While you are doing the rear wheel bearings, you might consider upgrading to the newer 77-78 style two piston rear wheel cylinder design instead of the earlier floating cylinder design? You need the newer backing plate which requires taking the stub axles out. But if you're doing bearings and will have the axles out anyway...

Norton says any welding other than resistance welding is a no-no. From the info sheet I found here: http://www.nortonabrasives.com/sites/sga.na.com/files/document/Posters-BestPractices-24x36-NortonAA-8263-MB.pdf "Clamp or screw panel in place for a traditional bond. All products listed have glass beads in them to prevent over clamping. You can use a resistance welder to weld through the Acrylic Metal Bonders while they are in a wet or cured state. You can also use a resistance welder with the Epoxy Panel Bonder, but only while it is in a wet state. If you are using any other type of welder, do NOT weld through any adhesive. Also do NOT weld within 2" of the adhesive." And since I've never, ever, ever, never, ever done anything not recommended by the manufacturer. And always, always, always RTFM and do exactly to the letter what they recommend... I would have to advise against welding.

Yup. The way you had it (not) blocked off before was definitely a problem. If you were to blow into the nipple on that last block you took off, that air would come right out the center hole back atcha. It's not blocked off. And yes, now that you have taken that other block piece off, you should be able to slap a simple plate across the hole on the underside of the intake manifold to block the flow. Remove the hose and cap the nipple that used to feed the BCDD and you should be on to the next issue. If you are thinking you want to put the BCDD back on at some point, here's a recent thread that talked a bunch about the guts inside. Might help with getting yours back into usable condition: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/58748-info-on-bcdd-boost-controlled-deceleration-device/ I've never messed with one, but I'm assuming the basic design for the newer one you have is very similar to the older ones pictured in that thread. I suspect yours is a little simpler and doesn't have an altitude corrector bellows on the underside (unless your car came from CA). Good luck with the rest of the project!

And the first word is "Explosive", right. I already know more than I wanted to...

Cool. Glad you're out of the woods. Here's my new tag line. I was talking about carbs at first, but it applies to lots of other things as well! "I've found that surgically clean and actually assembled correctly goes a long way to fixing a lot of issues! Go figure!! "

Yup, I think some (or most) of the high idle issue is due to the BCDD blockoff method. I've never messed with the ZX under the manifold style, but as Zed Head mentioned, you might be able to take off that last other plate that's under there and then maybe use a simple plate to block off the holes. I don't know what (if anything) else that remaining slab does, but you would definitely have to cap the hose connections that go to it if you removed it. That option doesn't exist on the earlier design with the BCDD on the underside of the throttle body. There's no way to ever use just a simple plate because the vacuum ports and valve seats are integral to the throttle body casting itself. You might have a simpler option with the later version you have. Good luck. And here's to hoping solving the problem is as easy as it seems at this point!

It's not that simple. You can't just remove the guts and slap on a simple plate. When you remove the guts, you remove the valve that seals one side to the other. I whipped this up to hopefully illustrate the issue:

New product!! The marketing dept. sees Lightweight Fiberglass Replacement Floor Pans!! You've got the mold, right??

I suspect you didn't block off the BCDD correctly. As siteunseen alluded to above, it's not as simple as removing it and slapping a flat plate in it's place. I've not looked into the details, but I suspect the later ones under the manifold are pretty much the same concept as the earlier ones on the bottom of the throttle body. Do you have any pics of what you did there?

Haha!! What happened? No, wait. Nevermind. Forget I asked... I don't want to know!

Cool, and thanks for the additional pics. Before conclusion... Yes, both of them should have that spring. Someone must have been inside your BCDD in the past, and left that spring out. You probably already know this, but without that spring, it won't work correctly. You didn't get into what kind of problems you were having, but I surmise that without that spring, it would be either unpredictable and erratic, or hang like crazy at high idle the first time you decelerate. Or both? And also just to close up some of the analysis. So if the whole altitude corrector spins with the adjustment screw, then the purpose of the cross dowel is to convey that rotation to the slotted piece that it mates with. And that makes sense since the shaft of the lower valve (the green valve) is threaded. The later model non-CA version essentially ends there with that slotted stub sticking out to be used for adjustment. The rest of the unit is pretty much identical from that point upwards. So if you are interested, basically how this thing works is like this: There is a vacuum chamber above the lowest diaphragm that senses the intake manifold vacuum. If the vacuum in that chamber gets low enough, it sucks the diaphragm upwards and opens the green valve. When the green valve is opened, it allows vacuum into the chamber above it which pulls the upper diaphragm down. Pulling the upper diaphragm down opens the big round nose plunger valve and allows air to bypass around the throttle butterfly plate. Simple, huh? The whole altitude compensator thingie simply automatically adjusts the preload on the lower valve by growing or contracting in length depending on the ambient atmospheric pressure. Again, simple, huh? Haha!! Way too many parts, and be thankful that todays cars do the same thing just by using the computer to open the idle air control valve a little when decelerating. We don't have a computer, and our IACV is a slotted head screw sticking out the top of the throttle body.

I'm not sure there were "partial" CA cars, but there are minor differences between CA cars and others. If you're looking to identify conclusively, I'm sure I can come up with a list of other items to look for other than the catalytic convertor stuff. Stuff like the altitude switch under the dash. I've got two BCDD's here. One is on my original 77 throttle body, and the other is from a non-CA 78 throttle body that I bought as a spare some time ago. I'm reluctant to take my original apart (for fear of damaging one of the diaphragms), but the one from the non-CA 78 is fair game. If I get a chance, I'll snap some shots of that one exploded. Only issue is that since it's non-CA 78, it doesn't have an altitude corrector on the bottom. Just a simple screw on the bottom and the whole thing is an inch shorter than previous years because they simplified the underside. So a question about the altitude corrector... On your BCDD, when you turn the adjustment screw on the underside, does the entire altitude corrector turn with it? Or is the adjustment screw threaded into the underside of the altitude corrector? I'm guessing it's the latter, and that would explain the need for the dowel across the top of the altitude corrector that fits into the slot in the valve. They need that feature to keep the altitude corrector from turning when you adjust the screw underneath.

Glad you found something with the front three cylinders too. Always good to have closure!!