mdbrandy

No problem. It does have a little "revised" note. I don't know if that statement was there in the original or not. Oh well, doesn't matter :classic: . I thought it was interesting too to note that the car doesn't have a windshield. And is sitting out in the rain!

Really? So what does "It does run and drive, however" mean to you? I suppose it could have run before he took it apart again...

I never contact buyers, but I've contacted several sellers advising them of errors in their "Z" parts listings. Just this week I got a nice note back thanking me on one, and they corrected the listing. That's happened several times. A few times I've gotten nothing back, but more often than not the sellers are appreciative. I generally pose the correction as a question, with information showing why I'm "confused". Maybe that helps, or maybe I've just been lucky.

I wonder how he knows how much power it has...I can't tell where it's taking it's induction from - where the airflow meter usually is on an injected engine, there is nothing there. I'd assume it isn't running given the picture...

If you want new ones, you can try Chloe at www.midwestz.com. She has supplied quite a bit of hardware to various people in the past...

No problem. I assumed. I watched that one, and if I could have been there at close, I might have sniped at it too, but I probably wouldn't have paid more than it went for. Since I couldn't be there at close, I let it go. I wasn't too impressed with it being "sandblasted" either. The pics weren't good enough to tell if they had damaged it with the sand or not. Even fine sand can eat Aluminum quickly...

I agree. If I can be at the computer when an item ends, I snipe. This has two effects: since I bid at the last second, I put in the max value I am willing to pay. Thus, if I am willing to pay more than anyone else, I win. If not, then it keeps me from doing anything stupid :stupid: by getting caught up and overbidding, since the auction is over before I can do it!

Were you just bidding on that sandblasted one? It went pretty cheap ($41 ?). If you aren't going to snipe, you just need to enter your highest bid and hope it's more than anyone else is willing to pay. If he paid more than you were willing to pay, then it doesn't matter if he sniped you or not. (And no it wasn't me). Probably a reseller if he's bought 3 recently. I got sniped on a series I parts car fairly close to me recently by someone that was obviously a reseller. But he paid more than I was willing to, so...

Make sure you pay attention to Daniel's advice. If your battery is internally shorted (it does happen), you'll never get it jumpstarted, even with a good starter and solenoid.

However, the air flow meter does have fuel pump contacts that only allow the fuel pump to run when the engine is running after the ignition switch reaches the "ON" position. Thus, it sounds like something, maybe one of those relays sblake is talking about is causing the car to think that the ignition is "ON", and since the engine isn't running, the fuel pump won't either. Pushing on the airflow meter flap makes the car think it's running (by changing the fuel pump contacts in the airflow meter), and thus allows the fuel pump to run, and the car to start.

Comes down to finding the right buyer at the right time. The car I bought had been listed on e-bay with a reserve that wasn't met. That reserve ended up being the price I paid the guy off e-bay since the car was close enough that I could go see it after the auction was over (I didn't bid on it - he e-mailed me after the failed auction to see if I was interested). You're right that lesser cars undoubtedly have gone for as much or more. If you've got the time to wait, you might get it. On cars like this, value is essentially what you can get someone to pay...

Anyone not local to you has to add $800 or so for shipping or some way to get it to them, so your asking price is really around $6000 for anyone not local. I picked up a similar '78 280Z for significantly less (was a CA car that hadn't seen midwest snow), already back here in the midwest, although it does not have the rebuilt motor or the upgraded suspension. But then again, you never get back what you pay to do things like that....

According to the FI video I just watched this week by Kim Blough, there isn't an O2 sensor on the '78 280Z - there wasn't an O2 sensor until the ZX.

Banzai Motoworks

I noticed that when I checked the price after the auction. It went pretty high again - more than I would have paid, but I wondered what happened to you .

True, it didn't. At the beginning of the thread, I was really just trying to find out who the e-bay member was. Mark

Yes, I know that the one from last night was a hatch emblem. and the flying 240's (as I called them) are the ones with the round disks. You're right that the price wasn't too out of line, but it was for a used emblem, and I already have a full set of NOS emblems for my 240. And I have a lot of other things to buy and can't spend too much on collectibles versus usables... Have fun with your incognito bidding. :tapemouth

I don't know if you've followed the threads on the "chrome Z", but what I was talking about was a '240Z' emblem where the 'Z' is chrome colored instead of white. They are apparently only on very early cars, and not on all of those, and are quite hard to come by. There are versions of the hatch "240Z" as well as the "flying 240Z's" on the pillars behind the quarter windows. These are not of any interest to you (since you have a 280), and are really only of interest to 240Z owners who like to collect the very early, odd, rare, etc. stuff.

Don't know if it'll help, but... I was just watching a Z-injection video from Z-Therapy yesterday with Kim Bough from Idaho Z-car. Apparently some of the latest '78 280's (and ZX's) used a circuit involving the oil sending unit and the alternator output as a kill switch for the fuel pump. You can tell if the oil sender uses the two spade plugs instead of the single bullet plug. This system replaced the airflow meter kill switch on the earlier FI system. I believe taking the oil sender connector off (and the alternator plug, I think) was the way to test it. That would at least explain the oil sending unit connection to the problem...

Looks like I need to dissassemble a glove box soon....:cross-eye :classic:

I'll put it on my "things to do" list. I might actually try to take apart the original one from my car (which the PO cut a huge hole in the back of), since for patterns, you really just need the outlines of the pieces, and I think those might be intact. I'd get better patterns off a taken-apart box. I'll see what I can do...

I think I gave up on that one, but I did finally get one from Bob Zola that was used, but only a couple years, and is in essentially new shape. It was't cheap, but less than $50. I've thought about making them myself, since it is just cardboard, but I have had better things to do with my time! Maybe I should make patterns and post them or something...

No, there's certainly no problem with bidding against someone on the board, and I've done it several times. In fact, I got a message back from kats and found out that I won some NOS braided heater hoses the other day that he wanted, but I got! However, if I know I'm bidding against someone on the board, and we communicate, if I don't REALLY want the thing, I'll back off and not run up the price if I can. If I REALLY want it, then to the highest bidder goes the spoils!

I answered my own question by looking up kats profile. It's him. At least another club member might get it...

Anybody know e-bay datsunz903? I was bidding against them for a chrome Z emblem, but it's getting a little too rich for me. Their profile says they're from Japan, so I thought it might be kats.