Dave WM

nice looking car. the rust too look for is under the battery, under the brake master, rockers and rear hatch deck. Yours looks to be very solid. You may want to bone up on jacking points, IIRC the rear should be on the diff crossmember.

I took mine up your way last week, 800 miles round trip, great ride, AC on all the way, 25mpg. The 5th gear makes hiway speeds fun.

I always put some lift on the wheels when car is on jack stands, just enough to make it so the suspension is not hanging by the rubber. added bonus if the jacks fail there is another line of defense from the car falling on me. if that is not practical I remove the wheels, to take the weight of the rim/tire off.

Main thing is to see if the fuel is getting to the injectors at the correct pressure. Pulling the solenoid wire of the starter and turning the key to start should activate the fuel pump. Disconnecting the fuel line from top line off the fuel filter to the fuel rail get something to catch the fuel (under the hood looks like a can mounted to the side of the passenger side fender). Could be gummed up injectors as already noted, could be gummed up fuel pump. If gas sat in the pump for a long time, its likely its gummed up the works (the motor of the pump is cooled by gas flowing thru it). Problem areas are rust in the fuel tank, rust in the fuel lines, dry rotted fuel injection hoses. Watch out for that last one. I had a pin leak from one of the lines spraying raw gas right behind the fan. Once you get it going you really should replace all the lines with new FI rated hoses. Other areas to watch out for are the rubber bellows in the air intake system. The one that connects the throttle body to the AFM can crack with age, letting unmetered air into the system, messing up the air fuel mix. There are a lot of ground wires associated with the EFI, check them all IF the fuel injectors are not working. That's assuming you are getting gas from the pump to them. Rust is a common problem, bubbles typically mean more rust under them but no way to know for sure without digging in to it. Values are dependent on location, seems higher on the east coast, prob due to fewer survivors from rust. 2+2 typically lower in value than the coupes. The cars are a lot of fun to drive, and very easy to work on. Sounds like you have the right idea get it running and decide if its something you like.

now do the leak test. I prefer butyl sealant over silicone.

re that after market spark module, I opened it up just to compare to the OE unit. It had noticeable fewer parts, maybe later module did to. I Opened up both to examine them for use of electrolytic capacitors. Those are a chemical based capacitor well known for having a service life (they dry out). The OE had a couple IIRC the after market had none or maybe one. FYI, the ECU also had few if any electrolytic cap in it as well, that is a good thing. The parts in it were of very high quality.

I have a CA car (single pickup) got that module off ebay, think it was the same dealer as the price looks like what I paid. Works fine. A swapped it for the OE one (that was working) just to make sure it worked, kept the OE as a spare.

an offer where you are happy if the say yes or no is the right offer. "No", thank goodness dodged the bullet of having to hassle with it, "Yes", thank goodness I can't get hurt too badly, maybe can recover money as parts if decide to go that way. consider your time and effort to get and store and deal with tearing down if need to.

seems like it would be a good project for someone that really really wants to learn welding and body work. Stuff like the rotted "A" pillar pinch welds, wow, don't recall seeing that. I was saying the same thing about the hatch glass as ZH. Also JSM noted the early steering wheel.

finally saw it, curious about the frame rail needing "straighting" then the doors will not close. Are they indeed supposed to be flat on the bottom? not the few dents but the slight curvature from the fire wall back to the ends. From what I could tell it did not need much just some fixing of details.

glad to see clint howard worked in there.

I lost my internet connection just as the show was starting, wonder what the deal was?

oh well zx bellows not the same as a z, it is smaller.

found one in a nearly picked clean ZX at the yard. Looks like the same as a Z bellows.

got a little panel meter off ebay, 12amps at the battery with fan on (and compressor clutch engaged) will go up with alternator running. I will have to get a fuse only reading with engine on and idle up for max voltage to find out for sure how much amperage, but I suspect it will not be excessive. Not sure if the compressor runs thru fuse. But 12amps seems a bit high for a 20amp rated fuse with lower voltage from non running car. I thought fuses were generally rated at 2x the nominal current in a circuit, esp one with a high start up current like a motor or clutch?

280z no fan trick, if safe to, pop the hood, even just to the secondary latch, lets heat out. I always do this a gas stations when filling up good time to check the oil while at it.

well put it all back together so far not getting hot. As insurance for a tight connection I used some tiny o rings to aid with the clamping force, just hooked them around the term connectors.

pulled the fuse block off examined the back, nice and clean, no issues there. I have to figure out a way to get a direct reading of the amp draw, my meter only goes to 10 amps. It only gets hot at full power, Maybe its the blower motor. I will prob see about getting a 20 amp meter this weekend at sky junk (local surplus place), and rig up a test fuse (blown center with heavy gauge wire leads soldered to it connected to the meter) and see what I am drawing. It has already melted the fuse box cover right over the fuse. I guess I could use a shunt but I don't know how to calculate the resistance, and cant really read it directly with such low ohms that I would like to use. Maybe just use some solid copper wire of a known gauge and look up the resistance? wire is straight thru a blown fuse for the shunt? I would not be adverse to just replace the motor with a new one, and maybe while I have it out try blowing compressed air back thru the evap with a vacuum sucking at the fan duct. The idea being to clear the evap of any blockage of the fins from years of dust and general yuck.

not a lot and prob not the reason for the extreme over heating taking place at the junction of the fuse to the clip. I went back and burnished it with some 500 grit to get as clean as possible, perhaps its plated and all I did was make it worse.

yes but a just remeasured its only about 2mm too long total, maybe a true 30mm would be perfect.

while replacing my blower fan fuse I noticed the replacements were too long, my guess is its a metric vs standard thing. I have 1/4 x 1 1/4 cooper busman fuses that only have about 1/2 the contact patch it seems like it should. so any idea of a correct way of getting a fuse? http://www.littelfuse.com/~/media/automotive/datasheets/fuses/automotive-aftermarket/glass-fuses/littelfuse_aftermarket_glass.pdf agx or sfe?

nice video, nice couple, nice cars!

checked it, at 14v I have about a .4 v drop across the fuse. I checked and had substantial drops from the connector to the fuse end, like .15 on each side. Anyway I cleaned up the ends again, replaced the fuse (the old one was on its way out, had a nice blob forming in the middle), and used a different type of 20 amp a spiral wound vs the flat section. Will cool off a bit and test again (so hot that it hard to hold onto stuff when sweating in feels like 100f heat).

Still getting hot, thought I had this worked out, but nearly blistered my finger on it today. the fuse box looks good on the under side, no corrosion etc... the contacts were polished with some very fine sandpaper (500grit IIRC) to make sure I had good contact there. Seems nice and tight, so think I have gotten all the heat generating resistance contact points, leaving the fuse itself and the motor. I don't have an ammeter that I can use that goes over 10 amps so a direct reading is out of the question. But if I did what should I expect? I seem to recall seeing 160watt somewhere maybe on the motor. if that is the case I would be expecting to see about 12amps max at 14v. I would think a 20amp fuse should be plenty to handle 12amps max?