I've got a dangling vacuum line, and I'm wondering if my 1980 Federal Model originally had the distributor with BOTH advance AND retard vacuum solenoids -- like the one I pulled at the junkyard.

Anyone know the history on the distributors, federal vs California, etc?

If nobody knows, I'm pretty sure that they're described in the Electrical section of the FSMs, by model - Fed or California. http://www.xenons130.com/reference.html

I thought they were only on automatics.

The dual I pulled off a junkyard car was a stick and at least APPEARED to be original...

I own 2 1980 280zx coupes. One is a GL the other a Deluxe. Both manual transmission. All 1980 zx used the dual type vacuum control on the distributor. The vacuum diagram in the manual is wrong. Its not the only place the FSM is wrong. Its rare, but it isnt the flawless word of god most people tout it to be. Ive never seen a working dual vacuum control for the 80 zx. I have 3 broken ones. They are extinct. Your only hope is to have it rebuilt, or route your emission system to copy another zx with the single port vacuum control on the distributor.

Thanks. I'm running a single vaccum type now. What were the two sources of vacuum for the dual advance/retard dizzy?