SteveJ

Round two for the 280Z. I filled up the back of my wife's station wagon and drove over to Jai's house. I put in the battery hold down bracket I fabricated (and my wonderful wife painted). No more twine holding the battery in place. Those are M6 wing nuts holding the two parts of the bracket together. I figure that if a wrench is needed to get it apart, make it a 10mm. Then I put fuel pressure gauge in downstream of the fuel filter. (Thanks Cliff!) There was no pressure in the line when I removed it to splice in the pressure gauge. The car started up and idled fine. The pressure was around 30 PSI. Around the time the thermostat should open, the pressure went up to around 34 to 36 PSI, and it ran rough. I checked the block temperature with an infrared thermometer, and it was around 180 to 190. After a few minutes, the engine smoothed out again, and the pressure was back to 30. It went through this cycle a couple of more times. During the last time, we tried to give the car some gas, and the engine stalled. The fuel pressure dropped rapidly. We tried to restart the car. The fuel pressure went back up, but it didn't fire. I put an inline spark checker on #2, but it looked a little weak. The fuel pressure dropped slowly after cranking, taking about a minute to drop to 0. Thanks to Jonathan Russell, we had a set of plugs, plug wires and a cap. I pulled #2 first. It was black and looked a little wet. It was a couple of minutes before I pulled the other plugs, and with the hot engine, I am thinking they might have had time to allow gas to evaporate. Number 6 is the rusty plug. I talked to a friend and all-around Mensch, Tim McGovern, who advised me on how to adjust the AFM. I first thought the spring needed more tension. I adjusted it, and didn't like the results. I adjusted the spring to have less tension, but the screw that holds the cog in place would not tighten sufficiently. I took the screw out a couple of times, trying to get it to seat, and then it happened. The rectangular piece that locks into the cog's teeth fell off...into the gravel below. I uttered the appropriate cuss words and felt about two inches tall. Jai tried to search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, but she wasn't having much luck. We pushed the car back and searched some more. I thought I'd give my hand at fabricating a replacement, so Jai produced an old colander. I used my wire cutters and snipped off one of the feet. Zing! It also disappeared into the gravel. I managed to catch the second one I snipped off. I grabbed my metric bits and drill and drilled the correct sized holes. I trimmed off the excess material, using my memory to guesstimate. At that time, Jai managed to find the original part. Luck was on our side. For grins, we compared my fabrication to the original. It was almost spot on. I do think it would have worked. I took a stab at the spring tension and got the holding screw securely in place (after scraping off the silicone around the mount). I adjusted it counter clockwise a couple of more times to lean it out enough. I would give it some gas, and there was some lean backfire. However, it kept running. It even did well on a short drive down to the paved road and back. Out of curiosity I did experiment with clamping down the return line. The pressure went up to around 60 PSI, and the engine was humming. It responded to the throttle nicely, too. One thing I did not touch was the sensor at the thermostat. It is brittle where the wires come out, and the ground wire look pretty much like toast. I am pretty sure that it's not sending the signal to the ECU that the car is up to temp, causing it to run rich. (I also unplugged the connector for the cold start valve.) Tim said he may have one. I am thinking it needs the parts linked here: http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=951105&cc=1209226&jnid=428&jpid=11 and http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=4673250&cc=1209226&jnid=450&jpid=1 Anyway, I sealed up the AFM with a little bit of clear RTV. The pressure seemed to be dropping VERY slowly. Jai let me know that she checked the pressure about 3 hours after I left, and it was at zero. I'm going to look back at the thread created about a week or so ago where someone was asked about pressure leak down to see what else I can check for. I did not replace the FPR at this time. The next couple of pictures were taken a few minutes apart. I am hoping to go back in a couple of weeks to replace the sensor and implement any other prudent suggestions.

Frankly, after finding that some of the less expensive LEDs were wired in reverse, I bought wedge sockets and swapped those in. That way if I had the bulb in backwards, I knew that I could get it correct by flipping it around.

Well, that 1157 socket won't work without modifications. I'll need to take some measurements to say how much. I found some 1156 sockets that went in but did not lock. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AKX8MSO?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00 Then I found this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K833BS2?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00 I will get those on Tuesday.

Look at the EF section in the FSM. I believe it will have a diagram of the vent hoses. It's likely that either the filler hose or a vent hose is leaking.

Ha. I already ordered a set and should get them Friday. Being 3 time zones ahead of you, I have the advantage. I shall have my results FIRST! Maybe my wife is right about cutting back on caffeine...

The ones I found in my garage don't fit, but they are different. The one in the original post looks like it will fit. I bought a couple of sets to confirm. Here are photos of the ones I have and the 240Z taillight sockets.

If there are some big rust flakes, they could get caught against the fuel pickup, blocking it. The car stalls and the fuel pump stops. The rust flakes fall off the pickup tube because the pump isn't drawing, and the car will start right back up.

About half an hour after I get disgusted from working too much.

Well, I have some of those in my garage...somewhere...The rear panel in the 240Z is off, and I have some 280Z lights taken apart in the garage... Oh, hell. I'll probably forget about this thread by the time I get home tonight.

Check for rust in your fuel tank. Install an inline fuel pressure gauge under the hood and check the pressure when it's acting normal and when it's acting up. Clamp off the return on the fuel pressure regulator and see if it maintains pressure. The symptoms sound like not enough fuel from the pick-up or pump getting clogged, though.

Send a PM to Dave Irwin, aka Zs-ondabrain.

Contact these guys about when they have their meetings. Go to a meeting and ask around. http://okzcc.com/

Yes, you should fuse it. That way if you have a short circuit, you take out the fuse and fuel pump but not the ignition. The 73 will still run without the electric fuel pump, but it will be more vulnerable to vapor lock if you still have the flat top carburetors. As for the inertia switch, you can find them on Amazon, eBay or Rockauto. You could also go to a junkyard and source one.

Yes, it requires re-wiring. Power the fuel pump off of the ignition circuit and have an inertia switch in that circuit to act as a cut-off in case of an accident.

One - For accessing value, pictures are key. Otherwise we're talking about a $750 parts car for all we know. Two - People who sell their "baby" think that their emotional attachment is worth something. It's not. That can make negotiations difficult. That's my $0.02.

Philip, rust isn't an issue in God's country. You KNOW you want to move to Georgia. Great roads, great food, Southern hospitality, and you can drive your Z year 'round.

About how much clearance is there between the valve cover and firewall. It looks kind of tight in there.

I fixed the sharing issue with the photos. Jai - Caffeine & Octane is a free monthly car show on the first Sunday of the month. Costs are paid for by sponsors. According to a Facebook post by the C&O people, there were about 2,500 cars today.

We had a pretty good Z car turnout for Caffeine & Octane today. There were 15 S30s and S130s in the main group, and there were another couple of early Z cars scattered around. I would say there was easily over 1000 cars there. Joe Travis, Pat Carr, and Pete Thomas from here all brought their cars out. You can find the rest of the photos here: https://stevescartography.wordpress.com/2015/08/02/caffeine-octane-august-2015-edition-175-photos/

You are on the mark. https://fiddlingwithzcars.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/hazard-switch-brake-light-turn-signal-circuit-analysis/ https://fiddlingwithzcars.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/turn-signal-repair/

I think RockAuto has a Bosch model for $65 + S&H.

Dale, I was reading this thread today: http://www.zcar.com/forum/10-70-83-tech-discussion-forum/377666-260z-su-conversion-run-coolant.html. I think it might answer your question.

http://www.pure-gas.org lists 3 Fuel City stations. Two are in Huntsville, and one is in Hollywood. I saw at least one other on my last trip. The EtOH free gas was about $0.30/gallon more, but my 260Z sure seems to like it better, especially in the heat.

I like how the poster flipped the photo in a couple of the ads and resized the photo, too. The area code for the number posted in several of the ads is for the northern part of Kansas.

Dennis, you're reminding me why I don't miss California.