Electrical Snafu? Advice please!!

[sblake01]

My Z is driveable as it is right now... it just... runs like crap is all (as any 6 cylinder engine car would if it were running on 5).

I hope you've switched those two wires:classic:

[DatsunZsRule]

Yeah, I know of Tyson from way back when I used to be over at zcar.com Never met him in person but seems like a real nice guy. He should be able to figure it out for you. Tell him DZR says hi when you see him.

[KDMatt]

Ah, shoot, I was already over there. I'm going to send him and his wife a gift card as an additional way to thank him, so when I write the letter I'll be sure to mention your salutations, .

Anyway, the verdict? A faulty injector connection! We retested for spark, and it was okay.

The connector for the injector was green with corrosion ( :sick: ), so I took some cleaner and some dielectric grease to it as well as a steel brush and cleaned it off. Sure enough that fixed the problem. :stupid:

... Strange that something so simple (and probably a long time in the making) would crop up so randomly and suddenly.

I also asked Tyson to help me do a compression check real quick (we tested the #6 cylinder, might as well do the rest) and I'm pleased with the results even though he's got a leaky O-ring on his tester.

140 140 140 140 160 150 from front to back.

Oh, DZR. I forgot to tell you...

The big hubub on the ZOOM forums right now is that there are two 280z's at the U-Pull-R-Parts place down in Rosemount. I think they're both 77s... could be worth a look? One of them I guess was in good running condition when the owner brought it in.

[sblake01]

Glad you got your problem solved but in looking back at the first post, a corroded injector connector wouldn't cause the engine to die. It would only cause it to miss. You must have cleaned other connections also.

[KDMatt]

Ah, in reference to my original problem... yes, I believe I fixed it (or at least I'm on the right track).

I completely replaced the battery cables and VR with brand new stuff... I also cleaned up the fusible links and a couple of ground connections I could get my hands on. My multimeter shows almost no difference as compared to the + & - terminals on the battery, and the + terminal & body of the car.

Headlights are brighter, stereo's louder (yay)... we should all be so lucky.

So, would it be reasonable to chalk up my voltage drop out to extremely corroded battery connections?

...I'll probably keep searching for connections to clean anyway (i.e. the remaining 5 injectors)... but yeah...

Do you think dirty injector connections could cause a car to run rich?

[Walter Moore]

Glad to hear that you got it working. I doubt that dirty injector connections would cause a car to run rich. Typically that is caused by either leaking injectors, a plugged air filter, or a defective O2 sensor in the exaust pipe.

By the way, for all those interested, ALL cars sold in the U.S. have an EGR valve, not just those in California. The EGR valve injects exaust gas into the intake manifold to reduce the O2 content and lower the combustion temperature, thereby preventing the formation of oxides of nitrogen.

Even diesel engines sold here have an EGR valve, which is one of the reasons that U.S. specification diesel cars don't get anywhere near the fuel mileage of the European specification diesel cars.

[Tyson]

Sup Matt!

You forgot to mention that I opened up your plug gaps for you, the gap on all of em was a tad small which could have resulted in an incomplete burn.

Take some before/after pictures of your paint when you polish it....maybe put some masking tape down the middle of the car and do the before/after like the infomercials do

Lemmie know if you need any more help.

[KDMatt]

Yo Tyson! That's true, I forgot about the plugs, .

I'll get around to polishing it... soon... I think... right now I have some charging issues to sort out... O.O