New owner of '77 280z from Upstate SC

[rossiz]

[the_tool_man]

So three good things happened this week.

1. I found a color wiring diagram for my car here.  It includes connectors and pinouts, and is much more legible than the photocopied FSM I've been using.  One with this detail only seems to exist for a '77.  Lucky me.  Got a buddy in the office upstairs to print it out on a large color format printer for me, for free.  Like I always say, if it's for free, it's for me.  Hopefully this will motivate me to press on with the electrical issues resolution.
2. A car very similar to mine in age, mileage and condition just sold on BaT (Bring a Trailer dot com) for $8400.  It even has the same wheels, aftermarket sunroof and side moldings.  The only difference is an aftermarket '70s era turbo conversion.  I'm taking this as good news that I didn't do too badly buying mine for $7800.  Yeah, I know.  One car isn't a trend.  And BaT auctions tend to bring top dollar.  And that car runs, though with electrical issues of its own.  Still, I'm trying to be optimistic here.
3. Latest blood test pegs my cancer probability at only 33%.  That's much better than the 100% I was led to believe before.  Biopsy scheduled for mid June.  It feels good to have a plan.

The glass is half full, right?  Excepting rossiz's definition, of course.  I might just add that to my sig.

Edited May 20, 2016 by the_tool_man

[Mark Maras]

 #2 was the "good thing". #1 A very good thing. #3 is a fantastic thing. Your "glass" got filled this week. Congrats.

[Patcon]

That all sounds good

[dmorales-bello]

Congratulations on all counts. I'm glad you've kept your Z.

[the_tool_man]

Hi all:

Well, I'm still alive.

Getting the personal stuff out of the way, I don't have cancer. It took most of the summer to get through all the diagnostic junk. But that's all behind me. I also got "promoted" to a new role which takes up a lot more of my time. The quotation marks indicate there was no pay increase, just an increase in responsibility. I turned it down, but was told it wasn't a request, lol. I've been dealing with a lot of other crap I won't bore you with. But things are starting to look up.

So. The car. I've replaced the battery cables and cleaned up all of the electrical connections I can get to. Since the car has been sitting for seven months, I drained the tank and refilled it with fresh gas (I love that the tank has a drain). Recall I performed the fuel pump functional test in the FSM and verified it would build and hold pressure back in the spring.

It starts and runs again, but no better than before. The fuel pressure drops to nearly zero after starting. It chugs at idle and will rev sluggishly with careful application of throttle. But that's it. I'm kinda bummed that I went to all that trouble to replace the FPR for no reason. Oh well. One less thing.

Over the summer, my neighbor introduced me to a guy who lived a few hours from us. While visiting my neighbor, he brought his Z over and took me for a ride. His car is highly modified, and runs and handles great. I had a blast. Even better, he loaned me a known good AFM and a fuel pump to try on my car.

I plan to try the AFM first, just because it's easier. I'm hoping the current one is misadjusted or had a bad fuel pump contact, even though my testing showed them to be okay on the bench. That reminds me. I also have a new set of FI connectors. So I can replace the AFM connector if necessary. If all that doesn't work, I guess I'll replace the fuel pump. I'm open to other ideas.

Wish me luck. The law of averages would indicate that I'm due for some, lol.

 

[Patcon]

Glad you are still working at it. Keep us in the loop...

[the_tool_man]

I swapped in the new AFM. The car runs much better now. Fuel pressure holds at 30psi, give or take. It still misfires and eventually dies if I let it idle for more than a minute. But I was able to get it to run long enough with judicious application of throttle for it to warm up to operating temperature. No fuel leaks, either.

My takeaway from this is that a successful bench test of an AFM may not rule out an intermittent contact. I think it was shutting off the fuel pump. Some of you suggested that. But I didn't believe it because the contact measured good on the bench. At least now I know the FPR and injectors are good!

I'm going to assume at this point that fuel delivery is good. Now to diagnose the ignition. More to come. Thanks for sticking with me.

[the_tool_man]

Here's a vid of it running on its own.

VID_20170122_144735687.mp4

[the_tool_man]

Progress. I was able to adjust the idle speed a bit and get it to idle long enough to use a timing light. I found that the ignition is skipping on all cylinders. I inspected the distributor cap and interior. They look brand new. However the coil lead to the distributor has a bunch of shallow slices in the insulation and electrical tape wrapped around it in one spot. Going to the parts place tomorrow and get new wires. I'll pick up a set of plugs too while I'm at it. Any particular brand favored?

The coil is an Accel brand unit. The coil bracket is MSD. So I assume this car is on its third coil, at least. Do they not last on these cars? I'll test it this weekend. But if it's bad, what brand does everyone recommend?

Sent from my XT1254 using Classic Zcar Club mobile

[the_tool_man]

Pics of distributor. When I say they look new, I'm not exaggerating.


Sent from my XT1254 using Classic Zcar Club mobile

[S30Driver]

2 hours ago, the_tool_man said:

 Going to the parts place tomorrow and get new wires. I'll pick up a set of plugs too while I'm at it. Any particular brand favored?

The coil is an Accel brand unit. The coil bracket is MSD. So I assume this car is on its third coil, at least. Do they not last on these cars?
 

Without fail, request only NGK plugs from the parts store, the copper ones, nothing fancy like platinum.  People like NGK's wire set as well.

The right coil will last a very long time, depends if the ballast resistor has been bypassed and other factors.   The cap does look good, made in Japan ...