Noobie here needs Fuel pump help!

[JRSGTS]

OK...Thank you Sarah for all the input! Give me some relief about the Dist. and the AFM. First and foremost, I did the resistance check on #13. Good memory Zed. I had 3.53Kohms to ground. Guess that's continuity. And as I recall I tested resistance between the pins on the sensor before I installed it and it was right around the same. I could not find the "chart in the FSM, but did find the test. All it says is I should have cont. or suspect a bad CTS. I also went through and re-cleaned the connector,pigtails etc. Checked my plugs again. They must have fuel fouled bad, but between the 2 sets I got fire on all 6 before reinstalling. Barely ran. Couldn't even get it to clean out like yesterday and act like it was running on all 6...BUT, guess what.. Rechecked with the noid light..Back to super bright flashing!! The owner brought over another AFM he had, but it was from his 83 engine. missing pins 36 + 39 so that's no help. I'm pretty convinced it's not the problem now anyhow. Pm'ing Lenny about an ECU...

[JRSGTS]

Oh sorry! Just found the chart! Says 50 degrees F. should have between 3.25 and 4.15K ohms. So I'm good. It was about 33 out when I pushed it in, and it was only in the shop about a half hour before the test. So it was still kind of chilly! Think I need an ECU and ANOTHER set of plugs! UGH.

JR.

[JRSGTS]

Update! Finally some progress! Firstly, Merry Christmas to all. Hope everyone had a healthy, Happy one.

Many Thanks to Lenny for the ECU. We have a running car!!! Sounded pretty damn strong, ran up to temp, and right before I got to play with some timing.....Blew a coolant hose! . Not surprised... Just ran out of small clamps at the end of the day. I'll fix that Monday. Was feeling like the timing was funky, Idle too high, when it did go low it sounded like it was misfiring. So I still got some work to do. NBD. Just glad to hear it actually run! I was beginning to wonder.

Funny quick story...One of the many Fed Ex persons was here and wanted to check out the cars out front. I say sure. There's a 68 GTX and a 72 Road runner, and the Z. He goes right to the Z and starts laughing and carrying on. Turns out he bought this car in 1979 in Arizona!! Drove it out here in 84! Sold it in the late 80's To someone else. My customer bought it 3 years ago from someone who had it for like 7 years and hardly used it. So there's still a big gap in time of what this little Z has been through. It is far from the super nice "Western" car that the Fed Ex guy described! This car is rough!

Good news is he says it has the bottom end from an 81 so higher Compression. Also the 5 speed from the 81!! I had no idea cause I've never driven the car. So, once I get it running right, get the clutch and brakes functioning, It'll be great to drive!! Sorry this was so long!! Thanks again Lenny!! JR.

[grannyknot]

JR, now you have to post some pics! Don't loose contact with that FEDX guy, he can answer questions that you have and may save you a lot of time.

[JRSGTS]

JR, now you have to post some pics! Don't loose contact with that FEDX guy, he can answer questions that you have and may save you a lot of time.

Lets see if I can do this....HMMM I downloaded a pic.... How do I get it here? Wait, it's in attachments...Ha! got it! See it is definitely not a cherry western car anymore! after I have it running and driving right I still have a bit of sub frame to put under it...

[superlen]

JR

GREAT news! I missed your call yesterday & got tied up with family and was hoping you were calling with good news. So the new plugs helped out after the new ECU was in?

Lenny

[JRSGTS]

Yeah Lenny, as soon as I hit the key with fresh plugs it fired right over! Idled way high, My air bleed was cranked wide open. Settled the idle by bringing that way in, was just about to play with timing when the coolant hose blew. Still lots to tune I think. when the idle was low it kept trying to drop out some cylinders ( Like a miss fire) Give it a little gas and it came right back. Funny when it does that it sounds like The exhaust opens up close to the engine...I have some exhaust leaks so they must just be more audible with the miss...? What little I saw of the timing looked like it was pretty far out so that'll require some messing with. That Fed Ex guy said he had to lighten the weights in the dist. to get the advance in later because of detonation. I want to make sure I get that right..Detonation is a killer!

Going to play with it some this morning. Short day today though. It's my wife's birthday, And I still have another car on my lift that's been there for too long with barely an end in sight! No complaints. Thanks again though Lenny. I'll get both ECU's in the mail to you before the end of the week. If I'm having trouble dialing it in I may be calling...

JR.

[superlen]

Great. Sounds like you're finally making some progress. I'm glad the spare ECUs I have lying around helped out.

Lenny

[JRSGTS]

I think my Reman dist.'s F'D!! Can't time it no matter what. Won't run for crap below 2K RPM's and the it's pinging to beat the band!.... pulled the new dist. out, all the screws holding the pick ups in have grit in them and I keep finding "Media" floating around inside. The Vac advance is bound up. don't want to take it all the way apart. I want to try to send it back....Advance has another coming Thursday. $60 cheaper than Z car source. Really don't have a lot of hair left to pull out so this better work!

[sscanf]

Something to think about since you are replacing the distributor anyway: You can get a remanufactured 280ZX distributor which includes the ignition module from Rock Auto for $90 and a new OEM coil that goes with it for another $15. The conversion is dead easy. In a nutshell:

1. Discard/disconnect the old ignition module, coil, and ballast

2. Install in the new distributor and coil

3. Connect two wires from distributor to coil

4. Connect EFI sensor wire/tach (blue wire) to negative side of new coil

5. Connect two 12V wires (black/white stripe) to positive side

6. Profit!

Full instructions are here

Not sure if it has come up in this thread but does the tach work in this car? Mine was very jumpy and sometimes just didn't work at all. It turns out that this behavior is related to ignition module problems on this car (and they seem to be common problems).

There is also a related discussion here which ends, for now, how I started this posting and includes the part number.

[Zed Head]

I think my Reman dist.'s F'D!! Can't time it no matter what.

Is this the Z Car Source distributor? Good to know for future customers. They're going to give a refund, right?

As far as timing, if the engine is running you should be able to set static timing. The vacuum advance should be on ported vacuum and the idle speed should be below the start of centrifugal advance so nothing should be changing at idle. If you had bad springs and an advance weight flopping around you might get jumpy timing though. You'd have to pop the breaker plate out to see that.

On the ZX distributor swap - it is simple to do but if your customer wants to retain the car's original functionality you'll need to stick with the stock ignition module and distributor. 1976 Federal models have two pickups in the distributor and two circuits in the module, to bump timing up when the engine is cold. I don't have it on mine anymore and barely notice a difference but it can result in about a minute of lower than normal idle speed while warming up.

[JRSGTS]

sscanf, Thanks for the info. Really cool swap. I already have a reman. coming from Advance For not much more than the Rock one...I'll try it. The one from Z car was WAY more. If it doesn't solve everything, I might just do the conversion to rule out module problems.

Zed, Nah No originality issues about this ride.. Have ya seen the picture? If it keeps behaving this way it just might get small blocked!! Just kidding.. As far as timing goes, I Can static time it NP. It revs like crazy on start up and if allowed to idle below 1500 it starts dropping out cylinders...Sounds like a tractor...Crappy previous mechanics exhaust work. My vac. pump is broken but if I suck on the adv. can's hose I can't move the adv. mechanism. Not very scientific I know. With the car running I can't even find the timing mark. Looks like it's somewhere WAY ATDC....If I bring it anywhere near spec. It falls to crap. If the new dist. fixes it I'll talk to Z car. I doubt they'll give a refund though. No one stands behind there crap any more.

I'd be happy with store credit, but we'll see...I'll keep you posted.