FastWoman

Ah, gee... Sorry to hear about pete. He's a cute little guy. He looks like he was well loved. My 16 year old kitty is a fixture in my lap right now. She's turning gray and can't jump anymore due to arthritis. She sends her best wishes to you and Pete, as do I.

If your tank drains empty, it would be a leak in the tank itself. Either that, or maybe your drain plug is dripping. If your tank leaks only partway down, you might check the filler neck. I used an epoxy patch on that Plymouth's pinhole leak, and it worked fine for the few years longer that I owned it. If I were you, I'd apply the patch with the tank empty. It's VERY easy to drain the tank by removing the drain plug. Be sure to sand the metal very thoroughly before applying the patch, and clean the area very well with acetone.

Thinking completely outside the box, I believe an amber LED, emitting monochromatic light, would still appear amber after passing through a red filter. For instance... 10 x 6K mcd High Intensity 5mm LED Pack DIY PCB Amber | eBay

Try this: Put a fuel pressure gauge on your fuel line. Remove the electrical connector from your cold start valve. Run the pump to pressurize the line, and then shut off the pump. Observe how fast the fuel pressure drops off. Then pull off the coolant temp sensor connector, and repeat the above with your foot on the accelerator pedal while you crank the engine. If your injectors are delivering fuel, you should see the fuel pressure bleed off faster than it did the first time. You can test your injectors individually by grounding them at the ECU connector. (You'll need to download the Factory Service Manual to find out how.) Same test: Pressurize your system, shut down the pump, and then ground an injector to see if the fuel pressure drops. Note: Resist the temptation to apply 12V directly to the injector. You need a drop resistor, or you can burn out the injector. To see if your injectors are getting electrical power, plug a Christmas tree light bulb into an injector connector. You should see it flash once per engine rotation. It will flash brighter/longer if you also disconnect the coolant temp sensor.

Interesting observation by Zed! Yes, ignition failure would similarly result in EFI failure. The EFI only knows when to squirt fuel by counting sparks. You might have a bad pickup or connection. An IM failure is usually either all or nothing, OR it's manifested by stumbling at high RPMs.

Well, your resolving the issue through connector shoving is a major clue. Wherever you're shoving, you have a bad connection or a short. If I were you, I'd open up the connector shell to examine the wire connections inside. And then unwrap that segment of the wiring harness to look for shorts or other weirdnesses. Obviously also look for bad grounds. However, I think the ECU is grounded through the case (maybe I'm wrong??), and you've already done an R&R of the ECU.

Another possible reason for your problem could be a cold solder joint somewhere inside the ECU, hence the issue being solved when you press really hard on the connector. You might open up the ECU and inspect the solder joints very carefully under a magnifying glass. You would likely be looking for a cold (fractured or separated) solder joint in the area of the electrical connector. Another approach would be to break out a soldering iron and to re-flow the multitude of solder connections (re-melt the solder at each connection).

Gremlins! FAIW, I once had a car with disappearing gas -- a '71 Plymouth. I thought someone was siphoning it, but in fact it was a pinhole leak in the bottom of the tank, apparently created by a flying rock.

Your idle screw won't turn? That might be all your engine needs.

Very cool! (Ok, bad play on words...) So does the ZX fan duct that wraps over the top of the valve cover not fit under a Z hood? Or maybe you weren't able to find one?

I had assumed someone transplanted a 350 under the hood. Damn, I got the year wrong, and was otherwise taken in by Hollywood trickery! What a hoot for the person who sold the Z -- to have a movie to remember the car by!

I had mine fixed, but it was so long ago I can't remember what was involved or how much it cost.

"hole in the pickup line" Yeah, that happens too! It happened on my '75 when the car was only 8 years old. It would only empty to a half tank and then draw air.

I've read of some people having success removing the tach through a full cap by using thin, metal shims (e.g. softdrink can material?) to shoehorn the tach past the dash cap ridge. It supposedly takes quite a bit of patience and finesse, but apparently it can be done -- at least sometimes.

Yes, 28 or 29 sounds fairly correct, depending on how you're measuring it. A much better way to measure it would be to pull off the little vacuum hose that goes to the fuel pressure regulator. When you do that, the fuel pressure should jump up to 36.3 (?) psi. The lower reading with the vacuum hose connected really depends on the vacuum reading. It might be correct, or it might not. You would really have to give us both readings. However, 36.3 with the hose disconnected (and hence zero vacuum) would confirm your pressure is right. Is your car still quitting on you, even after cleaning and coating the tank? If so, Wade is offering you some good advice. Where to spray the stuff? Well, an EFI engine is a bit tricky in that regard. You want to spray into the intake. I've sometimes done that by removing a vacuum hose from the intake manifold and spraying directly into the fitting. Pretty much any convenient orifice in the intake system will do.

My '75 from long ago had a removable ignition key for years, without any running problems. The ignition switch is actually a separate part from the lock cylinder, so you can wear out the cylinder without affecting the switch.

Interesting! I might have to try that! As I recall, there's nothing on the boards that would be damaged by water or alcohol.

I don't think it will pass emissions/inspection, but I'm pretty sure the car will run OK. FAIW, I think you can use a wide variety of junk yard canisters that would functionally be the same.

Hey, cool! I'm glad you found the problem! Often the best reputed mechanics don't have a clue what they're doing, and some of the shade tree mechanics are truly gifted. Often the very best mechanic is the owner, who knows the car better than anyone else. Anyway, I think you've found a carb specialist who you shouldn't let near your carbs again! If I'm ever in Arizona...

With the engine running, try shooting a bit of starter fluid into the front carb. If that makes the RPM pick up quite a bit, you probably have a fuel starvation issue of some sort in your front carb. Somehow something was checked out as "good" that wasn't. In short, fuel + air + compression + spark = running engine. A working carb would give you fuel+air. You checked compression, and that's good. You say you have spark. Therefore your cylinders should fire. The fact that they don't fire means either your carb is bad, you're not really getting spark, or you have some sort of compression issue (not likely). It's not a timing issue if your other three cylinders fire. I suspect it's also not the brake booster, as that line would come off of 4/5/6, wouldn't it?? When you pull the 1/2/3 plug wires and don't see RPMs drop, do the wires spark to ground? Are your 1/2/3 plugs fouled? Are you able to determine how much fuel is in the float chambers of your carbs? If so, try this: Start your engine, and let the carbs fill. Shut off your engine and check that both float chambers are filled to the same level. Then start the engine again, and cut of the fuel supply to each carb at the same time. Run the engine until it dies. Then check the float chambers. I'm guessing the rear carb's float chamber will be empty, while the forward carb's float chamber will still be full.

You've got a hole somewhere back there. The vacuum behind the car sucks exhaust fumes into the hatch area. Or maybe your hatch lid doesn't fit correctly. Or maybe you're talking about fuel fumes from a leaky fuel vent system? Either way, I agree with Blue. If you don't fix it, it'll probably fix you! FAIW, I've made a habit of ALWAYS having the fresh air going in any vehicle. Whether heated or air conditioned, whether in an old vehicle or a brand new one, I always have the fan going and the selector on "fresh air." On a lighter note, we had a little dog that died of old age a while ago. He LOVED the hatch of my Z. It was like the observation deck of a passenger train!

On March 17, drink lots of green beer, and sing a few sad, Irish folk songs. A little leprechaun might just take pity on you and help you out. I've never done the job, but I imagine your rheostat is just like any other. It probably attaches via a nut on the front of the panel (beneath the knob, which you would either pull straight off or remove with an allen set screw on the side. I suspect you don't really need to remove the thing. If you use a mirror, you can probably see the windings and an arm that slides over them. I bet the windings are just a bit dirty. You can clean them with WD-40 and a rag (don't spray it on surrounding dashboard materials), or with Deoxit if they are dirtier than that. Another time-honored method for cleaning them would just be to "exercise" the rheostat back and forth, back and forth -- maybe a hundred reps.

It doesn't sound like drift to me. Drift never goes back. It just keeps drifting in the same direction. It also happens gradually, not suddenly. It sounds to me like an intermittent sensor problem -- perhaps a shorted air temp sensor, shorted coolant temp sensor, or some weird problem with your AFM. I suppose you could also have an intermittent vacuum leak, although it seems rather unlikely. Perhaps it relates to mode settings on your HVAC system? (One of your pneumatic control tubes could have broken or come loose.)

Could you haul 300 casse of Coors in a Z? While it's amazing what you can fit into a Z (I recall carrying home a dishwasher in the early 80's), I don't think you could fit 300 cases of beer.... hmmmm.... unless you use a shrink ray!

Oh, come on... Didn't anyone watch it? OK, I admit I expected the Z to be modified like the DeLorean in a misguided attempt to achieve the impossible, and when the co-star stole some part from a research laboratory, I thought, "Ah ha! That's going to be his flux capacitor!" It turns out the time machine was a boat, not a car. The thing about the Z was that it said something about the time traveler. The reporter was scoping out the "reply-to" PO box to ID the time traveler, she kept saying, "Oh, that has to be the one!" whenever any oddball person approached the boxes. Ultimately it was some guy pulling up in a yellow Z, giving him somewhat of a "cool factor." (Of course he was also nerdy and somewhat goofy/weird.) But was he crazy? I won't spoil it.