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After adjusting the valve lash a couple times, I timed the distributor which was really close. I tried my hand at tuning the carbs. This video VHS and flowmeter came with the car. I backed everything off, but still was getting a 1,000 rpm idle. Seemed a bit high. I would put the flow gauge on the front carb and adjust it so the ball was in the middle. Then go to the rear carb, the ball was way high, no way to back down the idle screws anymore. I figured there must be a vacuum leak somewhere. I squirted brake clean around but didn't make any noticeable difference. I couldn't get them the same. The next day, while fiddling around with it, I grabbed my broken stethoscope, and started poking 1 of the hoses around when whaaam! There it is. The rear carb is leaking around the throttle shaft. These carbs were just done by ZTherapy 2 or 3 years before the car was parked some 22 years ago. I had a chat with them, boxed them up, and they are now in their hands. I hope it's an easy fix.....

Excellent!! Im hoping I'm only a couple of weeks behind you

@SteveJ Thank you sir!

Time to put gas in it and build fuel and oil pressure. As I was siphoning gas into the tank, I decided to check the fuel gauge, turned the key, and watched my oil pressure gauge slowly rise. The fuel gauge did nothing. After freaking out a little bit thinking did I mix up the wires somewhere? Got my spare gauges out and the connectors on the back are the same, but the oil pressure/temp gauge has 4 wires instead of the 3 wires going to the amp/fuel gauge. So I stuck my head up behind the dash with a light and saw they were connected correctly. I unhooked my oil pressure wire at the engine and now I had no oil pressure showing. This car came with a NOS oil gauge press sending unit that I had installed. I put my original sending unit back on and now the gauge zeroed when I turned the key. I moved the connectors a bit at the tank, now my fuel gauge worked. The NOS gauge I had is part #25078-32200. Found out that's not for this car, maybe for a 280z. If anyone needs it, I don't. I removed the spark plugs, the valve cover and cranked the engine over. No oil getting to the cam oiler, which is a Michael Yoes upgrade. I did a little research here and someone mentioned galley plugs. That's the first I've ever heard of them. Were they removed and if so were they replaced? I don't know. I called my machinist who did the block and asked him if he removed the galley plugs. He said, "of course I did! it's standard procedure!" I asked him if he replaced them, "Of course not, that's the assemblers job!" Oh no! I don't remember anything about galley plugs, did they come in my kit? So, After a little more research I found out there are 2 galley plugs, 1 in front, 1 in back. I found a picture I took of assembly, the timing chain, and aha! there's a galley plug in it. Found a picture of the back and the plug is there. They were never removed, thank God! I did not want to pull the engine again. So, I found a great tip here, which was to remove the oil filter. Get a piece of clear hose and stick it in the hole to the galley and shove it as far forward as it will go. Get a small funnel, and fill it with oil until no more oil will go in. I did that, re-installed the filter, and the valve cover and cranked it over. I immediately felt a change, I had oil pressure, my pressure gauge went up. I guess I had to prime the pump. Next I took a vacuum pump and sucked fuel from the tank to the filter. I removed the fuel pump and connected a hose to it into a jug of gas. Back filled it with gas and let it soak in a bit, then pumped with my hand. I had gas squirting out in force! Reinstalled the fuel pump. Cranked it over a bit until I had gas in the carbs. Got some distilled water and started filling my radiator. Used just water because I didn't want antifreeze everywhere when I found the hose clamps I forgot to tighten. Turns out, the water pump seal had dried up and water came pouring out that little hole. Several day later, which was only 2 weeks ago as of this writing, I get my new Aisin water pump from Rockauto and install it. Fill up the radiator, no leaks. It's time! I turned the key and It didn't even make 1 revolution and fired right up! Wow! It started revving up so I shut it right down. My linkages needed adjusted. Got the idle down and after adjusting the clutch a bit, drove this thing out of my shop on it's own power. Yahooo!

Black/yellow - 12VDC switched from key in START. Black/white - 12VDC switched from ignition relay. The ignition relay coil is energized by the key in ON.

Hi gents I'm redoing the wiring harness in my Z and hope someone could help. I've come across these wires - which used to connect to the ECU. Here's what I know Green -> goes to the fuel pump Red/White -> 12V from the battery The two that I don't know are the black/white and black/yellow. From this diagram it looks like the black/yellow goes to the ignition switch among other place and the white goes to the ignition relay and the "IG" part of the fuse box. So would these be 12V switched? I am a bit confused. I've attached photos of the wires themselves as well as the part of the diagram where they are. Any help would be wonderful! Thank you Jan

Any time! LOL

Thanks everyone. I’ve identified #4 as p/n 30501-K0401. Still available through Nissan. Should have it by Friday. Still available since it Fits later model cars and trucks. I’m running the T5 transmission from a 83 ZX 280et. I’ll report back once everything comes in. Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

Here's an old post from TerrapinZ with good measurements. Just noticed that posts don't have numbers anymore. Bummer. It's about 1/3 down page 12 if the link doesn't take you directly there.

@mayolives Thanks my friend! Now I need to find the Nissan P/N.

@Patcon Do you know where I can find a listing of the collar lengths?

😇Good ole Blue! I miss that rascal.

I should have mentioned the distributor itself also. They are known for worn bushings allowing the reluctor wheel to contact the stator ring, breaking things. If it won't start with fluid, it's not going to start with gasoline. Good old Blue wrote up a thing about them. The magnetic pickup can fail, there's a test for that. The air gap can be off, there's a measurement for that. Described in the Electrical chapter. https://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributorrebuild/index.html

Fair enough. Not by the car now but tried starter fluid yesterday and it didn't do anything. All the tests at the ECU checked out except the voltage test for the air regulator on pin 21 so I know I probably need to do some harness tracing. Do you know of any tests for the icm? The coil seems fine but I'll probably just buy a new coil since they're not to expensive just to make sure it's not that.

You said but you didn't describe. Try starting fluid. If it starts but runs poorly, it's not fuel pressure.

Sparks not particularly strong, coil seems to test well, not entirely sure how to check the module. Just finished doing test at the ECU connection via the fsm and about to check fuel. Relay due to a bad air regulator read. Like I said in post I know the fuel pressure is due to check valve on the fuel pump side so I'm not worried about fpr failure

Is the spark strong and blue or weak and orange? I had an ignition module go bad and it showed spark. But the engine would only start with starting fluid. As far as fuel, the fuel pressure regulators tend to start leaking down if they sit for a long time. The seat n the FPR gets corroded. They will maintain pressure while the pump is running but leak down quickly once it stops. The simple test is to clamp the feed or return lines and see what the pressure does.

She had problems with the valve and after a bunch of back and forth finally found one on E-bay from somebody like "sam the fuel guy"??? Her's is a '78 280 but it will be the same as far as I know.

Hello all I have a 1983 280zx na that sat for a while and in February I went to get it going again. It started but didn't drive for crap went through all the diag in the bible and the fsm concluded the fuel pump wasn't up to task, replaced it and all was well. Due to unfortunate circumstances I had to leave it until this Monday and it started right up then immediately started acting up if I rev it to like 3-4k I can get it kinda steady but when I stop it slowly peteres out and wont start up again, then it did it again yesterday same exact thing. Sparks there gets fuel to pressure. The only thing I can find wrong diag wise is on a pressure leak down test, with the pump running it stays at 40 with the car off (can't see pressure gauge from in the car during the 60 seconds of running I get as im by myself) and as soon as pump stops it's drops to 0 within 2-3 seconds I know it's leaking back through the pump and not anything on the fuel rail. Since I know it's gets to correct pressure I can't understand why it won't start back up after the initial crank idk what I'm missing and it's driving me crazy. If the check valve on the pump being bad can actually cause this issue can someone please explain why. This is my first time ever going on a forum of any kind so if I didn't follow a protocol of sorts or I was to long winded I apologize, any help would be greatly appreciated please and thank you

The mice chewed the warped spare tire cover, so my daughter and I went to home depot and bought a 4' x 8' sheet of 3/16" pressed hardboard. It looks identical, might be a hair thinner. Traced my old one and made a new one

Honestly, I really tried hard to get everything correct for my build date. I came pretty close, but at a certain point I got what I could because financially, this car was eating my lunch. Just because it was a 240z part, the price was 10x the normal. Brake wheel cylinders for example. One of the parts not original to the car, is this bullet tip antenna. My 6/71 came with this tip, I think, unless it was switched. One of the first articles I read on this site was how to fix these antennas using weed trimmer line. I couldn't figure out how to get the tip off, I ended up cutting it off...nooooooo.😣 oh, it unscrews.... The second part is the radio, the one I found is too early for this car, like the antenna and brake master cylinder. It's the red light radio, mine should have came with a green. I would possibly consider trading somebody for the correct pieces........😏

Haha!! Very nice! I'll PM you! Thanks!!

Unless you're really worried about authenticity for your specific build date, I wouldn't worry about it. Basically, it appears there were two versions of that early master cylinder, but the only difference was how they marked the "F" and "R" output ports. Up until around August or September of 1970 the masters had the output port locations stamped with the letter "F" or "R". But then after that, they went to "cast-in" identification marks. I jokingly called them "early early", vs just "early". Haha! The bottom line is that the master cylinder you had rebuilt was used on cars before the fall of 1970, so it's "too early" for your build date. There was some discussion about the changes in the early style master cylinder here in this thread: Page 3 https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/65579-brake-master-cylinder-46010-e4602-up-to-91971/?page=3

I used piggy back connectors on the nail head studs on the top of the sending unit. Coverd it all with liquid electrical tape. Worked good for me, the rubber boots fell all to pieces on my '72.