I'm new to Z cars and new to carbs. Thank you so much for all the info babalouie!

Another easy check since I didn't notice mentioned re-reading the thread. How does the cap and rotor look? Are the contacts corroded? Any carbon tracking inside the cap?

^good tip!

everything looks perfect. The carbs came off a 260z parts car I bought and was running fine. Bolted on to the 77 block and fired right up. It always ran fine for about 30 miles or so, then fouled some plugs. Now after sittin for the past 6 months, it just seems like a missfire. A fresh set of plugs always did the trick in the past, but not this time. Will get back to work on it asap. Once again, thanks for all the help. I've learned alot.

If you're going to do another round of tinkering, remember that the ideal carb settings are only "findable" when the car is warmed up and running cleanly. So the "get the damn thing started" settings will prolly have to be revisited and finetuned (eg the ilde mixture screws) when you do finally solve the issue.

now it seems that its only warm on 2 of the exhaust tubes. gonna change distributors asap. found one that doesnt have the module made on it, but doesnt look like points. has a 2 wires coming off and a plug on the end? any suggestions on wiring it up, or what else is needed to do so. Thanks, and sorry its been a while, not too much free time lately.

Photo !!!

http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributor/index.html

If your distributor looks like this, then it's the common E12-80 upgrade from a 280ZX. The link above has a wiring guide. I'd say if it works on some of the cylinders but not others, it might be a dizzy cap/lead issue.

Are the 2 "cold" cylinders on the same carb?

yes, and actually there are 4 cold ones, the front 4. cap, rotor, and wires all have less than 1000 miles of runtime. will try and post some pics, but not too savy at it. thanks guys.

alright, heres what i got. 2 wires off module. C is going to neg, B to pos. No ground wire off dizzy is present. never had the zx mount for dizzy, so after snapping off one of the mounting bolts, used a U clamp to hold it in place, due to it not lining up with the factory base. Wondering how crucial the grounding is on this system. Do I need to add a wire from the base to the body? Like I said, it used to run fine, other than always running rich. After sitting over the winter, just cant get it straight. Also, removed all 4 components outta the top of the carbs yesterday and poked and blew through, for what its worth. Thanks again.

Clever trick with that U clamp.

Do you self a favor, go back and work your way up.

Put the engine at TDC, confirm the rotor is pointing at cyl #1 and you have the correct firing order, check your coil to see if you got the right one, clean or replace your plugs.

Loosen your linkage so each carb will be independen of each other, back off each idle adjustment screw, turn them down, just to they touch the arm and give each a quarter of a turn, set your idle mixture screws per Barbylou's specs., this should get you started and give you some kind of idle, sync your carbs, confirm your ignition, i'm running 15-16 degrees BTDC " 800 RPM, havent confirmed my total advance yet.

Re sync your carbs, connect all linkage and check to see if your carbs still are syncronised, now you only need one idle screw to adjust your idle, the linkage will do the rest.

Time to set your idle mixture.

Chris