Maniac

As a motorcycle rider, I know what you mean. A little rain and those things are worse than the ice at a hockey game. Sorry to hear about the car, hopefully she's not horribly screwed up.

Just stumbled onto the site a few days ago, and after lurking about a bit, decided to join up. Currently I don't own a Z-car, although I am looking for something to replace my Mazda 3 which is for sale. I can't justify the payment, considering I'm just driving it maybe 20 miles a week. Also there is the fact that I've been bitten by the AutoX bug, and while the 3 performs well, I miss RWD. I've always thought the Z's were a beautiful car, so maybe now is my time to get one? I'm not a total mechanical newbie, I've helped my dad repair the family chariots a few times, and rebuilt a couple of old dirt bikes and an old Chevy Pickup in my younger years. Recently I kept a half-dead Suzuki Bandit 400 running for a year and a half before she was stolen by a repair shop (bastards!). So, I'm just kind of hanging out, trying to absorb what I can while keeping my eyes peeled. One of the guys at work who AutoX's his WRX seems to think a 280Z (what I want) isn't going to be any good for AutoX, but personally I think he's just afraid I'll pass him. :laugh: I see no problem owning a car that is a few years older than me, as long as I'm willing to get a little dirty every now and then. The only stipulation is that I have a carport, not a garage, and I'm going to need a car that can occasionally do a 1200 mile cross-country trip (once a year?). Definatly going to have to keep an eye out for the rust...

You aren't getting spark? Well, if the coil tests good, it's time to move further down stream. Looking at your coil to distributor wire, it looks pretty old, I'm guessing you haven't put new plug wires on her in a while? Keep in mind I don't own a Z, yet, so this may be -way- off base. After looking at pictures, though, they look like standard cap/rotor vacuum advance distributors. Try this, pull the distributor cap and disconnect the coil, have a friend crank the motor. The rotor on the distributor should spin freely as the motor cranks over. Check the rotor to make sure the contact on the end of it is still attached, in fact, check all the contacts in there. They should be shiney and nothing should look broken. If in doubt, replace! Rotors and Caps aren't particularly hard to do and, for most cars, aren't super expensive. Take the wire that connects to the cap and ignition coil, grab a multitester (cheap at radioshack) and measure it's resistance. Should be minimal! If nothing registers, then the wire is broke, and needs replacing. The wires in the pictures look pretty old, so that might not be a bad idea anyway (the coil->cap wire should come in the full spark plug wire kit). Last, but not least, if the plugs are old, get new ones! Ok, I was wrong, this is the last. Make sure the spark plug wires are connected in the right order. Trust me, this is easy to do, especially if you think "that can never happen to me", because trust me, it can! :paranoid: