'76 280Z Question on dist/manifold vacuum, dist timing, fuel pressure, brake booster

[FastWoman]

Hi Jenny! I'm writing from the Amtrak. Waaaaaay better than a plane!

I'll try not to be seduced by pretty red paint.

[Zed Head]

Hmmm...any other options? 280ZX distributor?

You could make a 280ZX distributor work, but the only way to save money would be to get it from a salvage yard. They are very expensive. But it would probably have the same problems that yours does now. 34 years old is not that different than 31. After 1980, the advance curves changes a lot as all cars got EGR, cats, and computer controlled timing.

I missed a couple of things in my last post - you can probably keep the vacuum canister that you have now. The mechanical advance might be different but you can work with it. The stores just want the distributor body for a core, and it's usually not the canister that's bad, it's the bearings in the breaker plate. Unfortunately, I've only seen one place that sells breaker plates and they were very expensive too.

Also, rather than take the breaker plate apart, you might be able to free it up just by spraying some WD-40 or similar on the moving parts (six ball bearings) and wiping the rust and crud off with a rag.

If it is the vacuum canister that's messed up (leaking), then the salvage yard is the place to go, or someone out here might send you one for free or a small price. They're floating around everywhere, still attached to their old gummed up distributors.

Have you had the distributor out yet? It comes out with one screw, the timing adjustment screw. Just remove that screw, take the wires out of their holders along the frame, remove or free up the vacuum hose and slide it out. If you want to take it all the way off, disconnect the green, red and tan wires from the black plastic junction area, and take the whole thing out. The wire ends are sized so they only go on one way so you can't really get lost there. You can leave the cap and plug wires hanging in the engine bay.

There's a few words...

Edited January 7, 2011 by Zed Head

[Jennys280Z]

Thank you Zed Head! I wasn't aware of the wires I had to remove but I was questioning about this earlier in this thread in fact. Seeing the rebuilt distributors with wires sticking out confused me. I'll take a much closer look at it.

That's a very interesting idea of servicing/rebuilding the distributor I have now Zed Head, and I see the worthwhile of attempting to. I can always buy a new one anyway. And put it in and tinker with adjusting it while I also have my old one in my hand and can leisurely tinker with it.

Do people change their carbon canister filters? I suspect mine still works and doesn't leak but shouldn't I change the filter so it works better?

My new brake booster is on. yaay! The satin black paint looks gorgeous!

I could finish the job tonight but I am looking down at my frame rail (or whatever that is) and noticing that it's dirty and grimey and probably slathered multiple times with fluids of all kinds but especially brake fluid which has eaten away the paint in large spots. And where the paint has worn off there is rust begining to form on the surface.

It's always stuff like this which sloooooowwwwsssss me down but one of the reasons why I do stuff myself is so I know it was done well.

I'm going to clean the rail with soap, water and a rag and a good rubbing. Then dry it and see how bad it looks. If I see anything that's the color of rust I'm going to sand it off. Then I'm going to prime it. And if I'm feeling "spanky" I'm going to hand-paint it in the original blue color ie. my touch-up paint!

Thinking out loud is so much fun!

I included a few photos for posterity. Inside the front of the AFM, at the golden door to the throttle body, down at my new booster (notice no EGR on the intake), and straight down at the gnasty frame rail thingie.

None of the fluid leaks and general nastiness are my fault. All that mess has been made by professionals, ie other people. It's cold outside and I don't want to clean it now!

Since I'm going to put this off till tomorrow....how should I seal the plate that attaches between the master cylinder and the booster? I have some high temp RTV silicone gasket sealer (dark gray) should I just use that?

Edited January 9, 2011 by Jennys280Z

[Jennys280Z]

I'm wondering if using some slightly beefier springs in my Autozone distributor from the ones used by A1 Cardone would help "advance" the curve more to my liking? I wouldn't have to do this before installing it the first time just to get it working but something to consider for later... What do y'all think?

[Jennys280Z]

Hi Jenny! I'm writing from the Amtrak. Waaaaaay better than a plane!

I'll try not to be seduced by pretty red paint.

they do have that gorgeous red paint. I hope you're going to take it for a test drive, or at least a test ride.

That car won't come to you, and you have to check it out first, so you're making it happen. Go, you!

[cozye]

I haven't changed my charcoal canister. Not sure there is really a need. As the charcoal gets older it will be less effective in soaking up gas fumes, but it shouldn't affect how the car runs. That's my understanding anyway.

heavier springs in your vacuum advance will go the wrong way, you would want lighter springs.

FWIW, I pulled the advance mechanism out of my distributor while the distributor was in the car, I pulled it apart completely and cleaned it, then reassembled. There was crud in there and it didn't move smoothly, although it was working. It's easy to pull apart, just take pics though and be very careful with the orientation of things. I went by memory and nearly had a panic attack when I got confused on the reassemble.

Edited January 9, 2011 by cozye

[Zed Head]

That is another way to get the job done. I almost went that route but I've had the whole thing out so many times I just took it out one more time, and worked with it in the engine bay (didn't want to remove the pickup coil wires). If you go that route, J2Z, don't forget to take the little screw out from the back that holds the pickup coil wires against the distributor body, if you need to. It's hard to see, but it might be difficult to get the pickup coils off if you leave it on.

Another FWIW - I just bought a salvage yard distributor a few days ago, because it was there, and cheap, and in decent shape, that had the same curves as my original 76 distributor. I took the breaker plate apart, cleaned it up, put the whole thing back together and installed it. My mixed parts 1978 Frankendistributor worked okay but had a marginal breaker plate. So I'm back to 1976 stock parts now.

I'm running about 16 degrees of static advance and really like the way it runs. I use 92 octane fuel and hear no signs of knocking or pinging, although it is fairly cold here right now. I think of my car as a rolling experiment though, so keep that in mind once you get everything working right on your car.

Any silicone sealant should be fine between the master cylinder and booster, and might not even be necessary. I seem to recall though that there was no sealant at the bottom when I took mine off. I reasoned that it was left out so that if your master leaks, the fluid will have somewhere to go besides back in to the booster, plus you will see signs of the leakage. It's up in a dry spot in the engine compartment anyway. I didn't seal mine, although I did seal the booster to the firewall.

[FastWoman]

Hey Jenny, nice work!

I don't recall ever seeing a master cylinder sealed with caulk to a booster. I suspect if that junction needed to be sealed, there's be a gasket for it. Caulk between the booster and firewall would make more sense, but even that might be an optional sort of thing.

Regarding the distributor, you can spend a lot of time trying to keep those funky things in repair, but all I have to do, if one acts funny, is to pull it off, take it in, swap for a new one under warranty, reinstall, and re-time. That's $100 well spent, IMO. I don't know if I have the right advance curve, but it seems to work just fine in my '78. No knocking or pinging. Just sayin'.

Hey, we did get the red '94 Miata. It wasn't all I thought it would be, but I think it was a good enough deal. The car runs like a top and has a pretty decent paint job. The body is straight, with one replacement fender and the rest original. It has some mild underbody rust issues (nothing structural) and will be having lots of fun with cosmoline this spring. (I'll also be rustproofing many parts of my Z.) Oh yes, and it has a couple of leaks in the ragtop seals, just like every other convertable on the planet. I'll have to fix those too.

[Jennys280Z]

Hey Jenny, nice work!

I don't recall ever seeing a master cylinder sealed with caulk to a booster. I suspect if that junction needed to be sealed, there's be a gasket for it. Caulk between the booster and firewall would make more sense, but even that might be an optional sort of thing.

Regarding the distributor, you can spend a lot of time trying to keep those funky things in repair, but all I have to do, if one acts funny, is to pull it off, take it in, swap for a new one under warranty, reinstall, and re-time. That's $100 well spent, IMO. I don't know if I have the right advance curve, but it seems to work just fine in my '78. No knocking or pinging. Just sayin'.

Hey, we did get the red '94 Miata. It wasn't all I thought it would be, but I think it was a good enough deal. The car runs like a top and has a pretty decent paint job. The body is straight, with one replacement fender and the rest original. It has some mild underbody rust issues (nothing structural) and will be having lots of fun with cosmoline this spring. (I'll also be rustproofing many parts of my Z.) Oh yes, and it has a couple of leaks in the ragtop seals, just like every other convertable on the planet. I'll have to fix those too.

No sealant, it is, then!

Well if the Miata runs great that's what's most important I think (aside from the body being straight with nothing more than surface rust). The engine in that thing is interesting too. Something that will be fun for you to look at I think. The car is fun to drive so you couldn't have made a bad decision.

Little update: My master cylinder is on yaaay

I didn't put any paint on that framerail at all, just some industrial grade primer. I cleaned it with a rag and could see where patches of blue paint had come off. I put some sandpaper to it but wasn't lifting anything up off the metal surface. It looked pretty grey as opposed to looking rusty. No rust came off on the rag when I cleaned it, or on the sandpaper when I tried to sand it. So I just painted primer over it with a brush and called it good. Paint would have been more permanent but I want to find out more about how people restore these places on their cars. Obviously stripping everything off and giving it a proper paint job would be ideal, but I don't have the ducats for that.

[Jennys280Z]

In the picture of my master cylinder, does my clutch fluid look too dark?

[Jennys280Z]

cozye, there's a little circular filter that they sell for $3 that goes inside of our carbon canisters, isn't there? I wondered if anyone replaces that filter and how to do it.

[Bonzi Lon]

In the picture of my master cylinder, does my clutch fluid look too dark?

Yes, if it were mine, I'd change it. One of those 'while I'm at it'.

Bonzi Lon

Edited January 10, 2011 by Bonzi Lon