Captain Obvious

The PO of my 77 replaced the fuel injectors with aftermarket while he owned the car. I assume that he picked an appropriate replacement, but he was into "more power" and I wouldn't be completely surprised if he substituted something different than original in an attempt to improve performance. Is there any way to check for sure? What do I look for on the aftermarkets? Any way to double check that I have the right injectors for my motor?

That waveform is pretty much a function only of the pickup and the reluctor wheel. As long as the pickup is working, I bet all of the stock distributors look the same. I guess you could get some timing jitter if the bearings are shot, and you might get some amplitude variation or asymmetry if there is some kind of problem with the pickup, but other than that, I don't know what could go wrong. Haha. Send it to me. I'd be happy to give it whirl (pun intended) and take some pics. Heck, I'll even include RPM and voltage measurements. I didn't bother to measure anything on mine. I was just looking at the pretty pictures.

Not just the bushings, but the rest of the ball and socket joints as well. Yeah, I hear ya about doing your own work. Alignments are one of the few things I pay others to do as well. I've toyed with the prospect of the do-it-yourself alignments, but so far, I've just paid. However, that said... The Z would be a very simple place to start as toe is the only adjustable parameter. Something I forgot to mention before... When you do replace that joint, here's an alternative to the "counting the turns" trick to getting your alignment close enough to drive to the shop. Note that I've not tried this on a Z so I don't know if there's enough room to get up in there, but it's worked on other cars. Pull the cotter pin, loosen the nut, and pop the tapered bolt out of the receiving part, but do not yet unscrew the end from the rod. Clean up the tapered bolt and the corresponding hole, and put it back together again without the nut. You can usually just squeeze the bolt into the hole with your hand and it will stay in place. Use the nut if it won't stay together without it. Then put the wheel back on and lower the car to the ground. With the tire on the ground nothing should move and you can preserve your alignment. So now undo the bolt again and this time unscrew it from the tie rod. Then when you screw the new tie rod into place, you can thread it on a little at a time and keep checking when the tapered bolt fits smoothly into the hole. When the it fits smoothly all the way home into the hole, you should be close to where you started from. Lock the end in place and tighten everything up. It probably won't be perfect, but you should be able to get to the alignment shop without ruining your tires. Does that make sense?

Haha! :laugh: I'm not sure which side of the line is the "fashionable" side. I'm not telling which are my three... The Z is clearly one of them, but mum's the word on the other two! :tapemouth

Yes, you should have a front end alignment done after replacement. With that in mind (since you're going to be paying for an alignment anyway) you should take a good look at the rest of the suspension components up front and take this opportunity to replace any others that look suspect. As others have mentioned, with the looks of that one joint, it wouldn't be surprising for others to be in similar shape.

I have owned three of the five. Can anybody do better? FYI, here's thier list: 1979-82 Fiat Spider 2000 1987-93 Ford Mustang 5.0 1975-78 Datsun 280Z 1988 Pontiac Fiero 1960-63 Ford Falcon sedan

Well to be completely truthful about the whole thing, I thought that you were kidding with your original question. Yes it looks bad!! That tie rod end is obviously in need of attention, and I actually thought you were being sarcastic with your question of "does this look bad". It doesn't look "wheel gonna fall off tomorrow" bad, but yes... it looks bad. So as soon as I realized that you were not kidding, and you were honestly asking that question, I jumped back in to clear things up. You never know the levels of experience of anyone unless it's been discussed, right? So, with all that hopefully behind us... I wouldn't try to salvage those joints at this point. I would either replace them now, or replace them later. I think that throwing any money at them (like new boots) would be like lipstick on a pig. ("Lipstick on a pig" - That means "wasting effort on something that is not truly important instead of focusing on the real root issue.") If they aren't all loose and floppy from wear or gritty and sticky from rust, I would run them until you had a convenient time to replace with new. I would not put new boots on those rusty joints. I think that's all water. Looks like he was driving on wet roads right before he pulled the wheel. If it's been like that for a while, I suspect water has worked it's way down inside the joint.

Sorry... I was joking. And poorly it seems. So, the serious answer? It looks to me like the dust boot on that joint has failed and fallen off. And based on the rusty looks of the pivot bolt sticking up out of the socket, it's been that way for a while. With that in mind, I bet water has gotten down inside the socket, and that joint isn't long for this world. If you don't choose to replace it now, I'd keep a close eye on it. So, back to the semi-comedic answer?? Yes, I'm sure. Torque it to 200-250 and you're problem will become obvious. The pivot bolt will surely snap off at that torque and you'll have to replace the joint. Problem solved. :laugh:

Thanks Chase. I've been told by my PO that he did the tank with POR-15. I'm hoping for the best. Makes sense to me.

Looks fine to me. Just tighten the nut up and make sure you use a new cotter pin. Don't cheap out and try to re-use the old one. Oh, and make sure you use a torque wrench. I'm thinking 200-250 ft-lbs will cinch things up and you'll be good to go.

Any ideas as to why that is? What is it that makes the Red-Kote so much less sensitive to prep details when compared to the POR-15?

Sorry I didn't get to you sooner. On the good side, if you do decide to replace them all with OEM, you can replace the clamps without taking the hoses off the nipples. If you are careful and are comfortable working with small easy to drop parts, you can take the screws completely out and spread the clamps enough to get them onto the hoses without taking the hoses off. I really don't like the water style (with the slots in them) for fuel line applications. The shots cut into the hoses...

Assuming the original Phillips screws aren't all smeared out, I recommend that you switch back to the original factory hose clamps. Why? Because OEM Nissan is stainless, while the aftermarkets are zinc plated steel. Take a magnet to the OEM's and then to your new ones. I bet the new ones are magnetic, while the originals are not. I've been known to grab a couple of the OEM Nissan clamps from the junkyard while I'm there. I use 'em all over the place. They're not just for Nissan anymore.

I was giving my distributor a once over while I had it out of the car for my oil pump replacement, and while it was laying on the bench, I figured I would hook it up to a scope while I give it a spin with a screwdriver bit in my drill. Just to see what would happen. No real conclusions, but thought someone might like to see the pics. This is a manual trans 77 USA market distributor, but I suspect the waveforms for the pickups would basically be the same for all of the non-points distributors starting in 74. Here's my fancy test set-up: And here is the corresponding waveform. Important to note that the steep falling edge of the waveform is where the point on the reluctor is passing the metal tab on the electronic pickup, and that's the point at which the ignition module would fire the plug:

That's what I'm going to have when I'm done except I'm going to reuse my original hatch lock at least for the time being. I suspect the reason the doors and ignition work more smoothly is because of the internal design. All the springs (in all of the locks) push the tumblers in the same direction, and this causes some issues. Seems the hatch lock doesn't seem to do as well of a job centering the key in the tumblers as the doors and ignition and because of this, it can be finicky. So if you don't mind me asking... What $$ did they get you for a NOS hatch lock? :bandit: Also, did you remember to get your glove compartment lock keyed to the rest of the car?

No hurry on the pics. I believe you. It's just that I've been relying on the documentation for some of my conclusions and analysis, and now come to find out that all of my documentation sources are probably wrong and I've been making assumptions that might not be correct. Making matters worse is that all of my info sources agree, and they're still wrong? When you take the pics, would you please lay the needles along a ruler or something so I can get an idea of how long both the SM and your N27 is? I've got N27's here, but who knows... Maybe they changed them somewhere along the line? That would be cruel, but who knows? :ogre:

Yeah, that would be good. To each his own, and it's not that I don't like loud music from time to time, but all day long? thump... thump... thump... thump... thump... thump... Where's thump... my thump... thump... aspirin??? :dead: So what's the bottom line? This thread seems to have drawn very little interest... Is anyone from the forum actually going? Is anyone actually taking a Z? I like to get to one Carlisle event per year, but lately it's been the GM National. I'd like to see Z's, but are there going to even be any there? Are any of the local clubs organizing a showing? I won't have a road legal S30, but I could bring my Z32.

Sorry guys. I did not know that. I'm at the mercy of documentation, and apparently there's a problem. I was going by this catalog: It lists the SM as having fourteen stations: Being as how the stations are 1/8 inch apart and number one is right where the non-tapered mounting portion of the needle starts, the overall length (of the tapered section) of a fourteen station needle would be very close to 1 5/8". So you're saying that the tapered section of the SM's are not 1 5/8 inch, but are in fact shorter than that?

Not from what I've found. I've not seen SM's with my own two beady little eyes, but the SU literature says they are the same length as the N27's. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time for documentation to be wrong! Have you verified that yourself? Because if you have, then that means the SM's are completely out of the nozzle at WOT and there's absolutely no amount of knob diddling that will have any effect on ratio at that point!! :eek:

The SM needles flatten out as you get towards the tips. The rate of change between stations at the hilt of the SM's is twice the rate of change between stations at the tip. The last half inch or so by the tip is the most gradual changing area of the entire SM needle. So I'm sure you already saw this coming, but that means that 1.5 turns at the hilt has much more impact than 1.5 turns at the tip. I'm curious as to what kind of numbers you would get with the 27's as well. Interesting about your numbers though... I suspect ZT wouldn't be thrilled with the results. I don't have the url in hand, but I remember someone else had their car on a dyno with ZT carbs including SM needles, and they were pretty much perfect across the entire operating range. I don't remember the details of the motor, but I'll see if I can dig up that other thread. No. Kidding.

Good point on the direction of rotation. I forgot to mention that the correct way to spin the shaft is counterclockwise when looking down at the distributor. And yes, I'll give you an amen on checking the cam oiling. I don't have spray bar on my 280, but I did verify that I had oil coming out of all the lobe holes. It didn't really "spray" while I was priming it, but it was better than an "ooze". Kinda in between. I had to put my drill on the lower speed (higher torque) setting to spin the priming shaft, and I have no idea what RPM that was.

If I did the analysis correctly, depending on nozzle adjustment, you should be running between stations 12 and 13 when the piston has maxed out upwards at WOT high RPM. That means that depending on how many turns down you set your nozzle: The N27 round tops max out at a needle diameter between 0.0710 and 0.0690 While the SM's max out at a needle diameter between 0.0670 and 0.0650. So I'm not surprised with the results. If you started the day at a full three turns down, the SM's would still be four thousandths richer than stock even if you were to run those nozzles all the way up to dead zero flush with the bridge floor. It doesn't sound like much, but four thousandths is a lot when you look at it in percentages.

Thanks FastWoman. Seems unanimous I'm particular as well. Not big $$ particular, but particular if I can afford it. So you got ebay locks too, huh? I bought more than I needed from ebay and used the extra tumblers to rekey everything to match. So I've got a pile of Great More keys as well, but I'm not going to use any of them. I need to go back and update that lock rebuilding thread I started a while ago. I've got one more door to do, but I've got a lot of info to share. Problem is, as goofy as it sounds, I can't do that last door until I solve my oil pressure problems.

Haha! Thanks guys! Sell them??? Haha! I'm hoping that after my oil pressure issues are solved, I won't never ever never ever need it again, right? Ever. Right? I could cut it down a little to make shipping easier and offer it up to make the rounds for the tool loaner program! :laugh: Now that you mention it though... How about a shorter version that would fit into your standard 1/4 hex drive extension? Something with a 1/4 male hex on one end that would fit into the extension and the other end machined to fit the oil pump. Would only have to be long enough to stick up out of the distributor hole. Maybe 12 inches long overall or so? Either stick the drill down in there (if it will fit), or buy an extension if there's too much stuff in the way. Rev II. :bulb: Let's hope I don't need it!

Haha. I was thinking about this a little more last night, and I believe with some custom fixturing I should be able hog out a key blank with the machines I have. I couldn't do the stampings on the head or the plating, but I bet I could do the basic blank. Not stamped, mind you, but machined out of sheet brass. I'll give it a try when the rest of the projects are done!!