I recently purchased a '77 280Z that will become my son's car. It's a one owner with 95,800 miles. The car is in great shape for it's age with little work needing to be done to the outside. However, I need help/advice on an idling issue. When you crank the car it will idle at 800 RPM as per the manual. But when you drive the car and shift gears either up or down the engine stays at a high idle, roughly 2,000 RPM. This lasts for about 2 seconds and then it will idle down. As this is the first Z car that I've owned I'm trying to find out what is causing this or if it's normal. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Is it a 'California' car? If so, you're having trouble with the altitude switch. Let me know and I'll look up the procedure for checking it.

Sorry, forgot to include but it's not a California car. I'm in Chattanooga, TN.

When I said 'California car' I meant one that was originally designed for sale in California. Some of the equipment would be a catalytic converter (though it could have been since removed), an altitude compesator (the switch I spoke of in my previous post), and a 'floor temperature' warning light (in the heater panel to the right of the map light). Does your car have any of these items?

Matt,

Make sure the the throttle linkage is not sticking or hanging up. You can check this with the engine off by slowly working the linkage.The linkage should work smoothly when opened by hand and should return to a completely closed position.

Also, the throttle valve in the throttle body may be sticking due to deposit built up.

Ron

Sounds like the BCCD.

If it is bad the quick fix is to attach the wire that leads to it to the "IGN on" terminal on the ballast resistor. This will keep the BCDD turned off.

I think once you do this the problem will go away. Still might want to find another one that works. I took mine apart and tried to fix it without success so wiring it as stated above was the next best thing.