FastWoman

Jenny, my 1975 (from long ago) didn't have an EGR, and I guess the '76 is very similar. On my '78, the HVAC vacuum line fitting is very small diameter and is closer to the brake booster vacuum line than anything else. Look at my engine picture in post #41. The HVAC vacuum line is the small red line in the lower right of the picture. From there, the line travels along the firewall, across to the opposite side of the engine compartment, to a vacuum valve assembly. It's quite likely you don't have these magnet valves. One of them feeds a high idle acutator on the throttle assembly (that returning yellow line, next to the outgoing red one). Instead, I bet the vacuum line goes through your firewall through a grommet. It would feed to the heat/vent mode switch above your center console. I suppose it's possible it's not vacuum actuated. Check your FSM. Anyway, the vacuum would be used to open and close air handler doors to divert airflow here and there -- but that could also be done with cables and levers. Try moving the mode selector back and forth without the engine running. If you hear/feel doors opening and closing, your air handler probably isn't vacuum controlled. If you don't feel/hear much of anything except the sliding/clicking of the switch mechanism, it's probably vacuum controlled. Someone else here should be able to tell you whether you've got a vacuum controlled air handler. (Someone else????)

Very cool! I checked your profile to see if you're a graphic artist of some sort, and you're NOT! (That's a compliment.)

Zedyone, I had a '66 Mustang with perfect paint. I can assure you it wasn't a fun car to own for that very reason. A ding in the hood or a tiny rust spot at the bottom of a door makes the car a whole lot more fun to own. It is a gift and a blessing, and we should regard such minor imperfections as beauty marks! Congratulations, and Merry Christmas!

Oddly, the aforementioned bimmer was only serviced by the dealer before I bought it. Whenever the "check engine" light went on, it went to the dealer. I think the nearly $1000 in new tires (to pass inspection) was the straw that broke the camel's back for my neighbors. So I got the car in approximately decent shape, except for a few little engine problems that had to be diagnosed -- probably from setting up so long. I also had to clean a lot of varnish out of the engine and fix the leaky top. On another thread, someone mentions $150 in oil change parts/supplies for a bimmer M. Wow! (I bought aftermarket filters, which were still quite expensive.) He also mentions always lubing up really well before going to the dealer, because he knows what's coming. Yeah, I can imagine. Even Volkswagen owners complain about expensive parts, which are markedly cheaper than the Porsche parts, even when they are the same part under a different label/number. I'm sorry, but precious, antique, almost NLA, genuine Nissan parts are way cheaper than recent-production bimmer parts. No contest.

Arne, my neighbors sold me their BMW because they could no longer afford the maintenance. Literally, it had been sitting in their garage for a year because they could not afford the necessary repairs to get it through inspection. I bought it rather cheaply with the idea of fixing, driving for a while, and flipping. Sticker shock started with the tires, which were designed specifically for THAT car. No garden variety tires would fit. They were something like $200 each, and they were expected to have a service life of something like 15,000 miles. Then the temp sensor, which was about $70, being integral with the plastic thermostat housing. Then a hardtop... I picked up a used one cheap, but the dealer install price would have been $3000. Then an intake boot -- about $150, as I recall. Fuel filter $70. Crazy prices for tiny plastic pieces -- for instance over a buck each for tiny plastic caps that covered interior screw heads (which were almost always destroyed upon removal). These are all parts prices. I did have to take my car to the dealer to fix one very expensive problem (for free, because it was a liability issue) that I'm not allowed to discuss (because I signed an agreement). While the car was in their posession, the steering angle sensor died. They wanted $700 to replace it. After a protracted battle, I got them to fix it for free, as I think they broke it, and they had a hard time denying that. All this would have cost me another $3000 if I had paid for it. I finally sold the car for about what I had in it. It seems to fall in the "toy car" category, and its worth had dropped rather dramatically with the economic downturn. Anyway, total maintenance over the three year period between when the car was retired to my neighbor's garage and when I sold it would have been about $6000, or about $2000 a year if I had gone to the dealer for service. This would include staying on top of numerous water leaks in the top. This greatly eclipses everything I've spent on my 280Z and is roughly equal to the combined lifetime maintenance on my 1992 Saturn, including one engine and clutch rebuild, one rear-end collision, one sandwich collision, one deer collision, a $150 alternator, brake pads, an R134a compresser, and oil/filter changes. Yeah, expensive.

Yes, with the fluids (and a full tank of gas)... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curb_weight

E-HUG!! My '78 suffered a scratch and a ding, secondary to two transient kutzery events, so I'm one ahead of you.

The best way of preventing problems with E10 is to keep your car dry, drive it frequently, and/or don't keep the same fuel in it for more than maybe a month or two. Also minimize temperature swings, e.g. by keeping your car in a garage. Your biggest problem will be corrosion in your carburetors. The ethanol attracts and soaks up water when exposed to moist air (e.g. through the carburetor vents), and then the water/ethanol mixture can become very corrosive, particularly if it settles out (with the absorption of quite a lot of water). You might need to adjust your carbs to run just a tiny bit richer. You should fight this. Scream at your elected officials about it. There's nothing good about E10. It ruins engines, it makes fuel more expensive, and it's bad for the environment. It's a scam.

Whew! Quite a few things raised here! You've done quite a lot of work. (Kudos!) Coz has already addressed most of your questions. I'll add a couple of things: Distributor: Perhaps the "capsule" is the timing pickup coil. It's the plastic part with wires coming out that you will see when you pull off the distributor cap. My AutoZone Duralast distributor came with that part included. It didn't come with the base plate, though. That had to be transplanted. Removal: Remove your distributor cap, and note the direction the rotor is pointed. Clean any debris off your engine around the base of the distributor. Completely remove the screw you loosen to adjust the timing, and just pull the distributor out. Transfer any needed parts from the old distributor to the new one (the base plate and possibly the pickup coil). Put the rotor on the new distributor, and point it in roughly the same direction as it was pointed before you pulled the distributor. Put the distributor down into the hole, and turn the rotor a little bit back and forth to seat it in the notch. Alignment isn't really a big issue. It will either go in well in the correct position or poorly 180 deg in the wrong direction. Once the shaft drops into the notch, just put the screw back in, put everything back together, and set your timing. Easy job -- really. Valve cover: You might rip the gasket, or you might not. It might be good to have a valve cover gasket on hand anyway, just in case. Clean any debris from around the valve cover first. Loosen all the bolts just a bit at a time, to avoid bending or warping the valve cover (which would cause leaks). You'll eventually retighten the valve cover the same way. Lift the valve cover slowly, to make sure your gasket isn't about to get ripped. Once the valve cover is off, marvel at the beauty of a flat tappet inline-6 valve train. To me it's the prettiest part of the engine. ;-) You'll need a set of feeler gauges and a couple of wrenches to do the lash adjustments. Oil filler cap: Mine has a hard plastic O-ring on it. I only discovered it when I made my own O-ring, and it stuck to the plastic O-ring, pulling it off of the cap. Prior to that I thought it was just part of the cap. If it seems tight, it's probably tight enough. Vacuum line to air conditioning system: It actually controls much more than that. It controls all the air doors in your air handler under the dash, affecting both A/C and heating. There should be a small vacuum line going from your intake manifold, along the firewall, and around to your two magnet valves mounted near the wheel on the other side of the engine compartment. (Well, yours might be a bit different, being a '76. Check your FSM.) I agree with Coz that it will be very important to pull off your AFM and check it out thoroughly. That's the heart of your EFI. It's got to be healthy. Remove the 3 bolts (being very careful not to drop them). A plastic bag tucked under the AFM might catch them if you drop them. Just loosen the bands on the air boots, shove the boots off of the AFM's lips, and pull the AFM up a bit. Then work the spring off the connector on the bottom, pull the plug off, and lift the AFM the rest of the way out. This will give you a chance to do the spring tension tests on Atlantic Z (with the beer can). I wouldn't adjust the spring to change your mix, though. Just get the tension to specs if it's out. Clean the thing up with carburetor cleaner, spray a bit of WD-40 where the flap hinges, etc. Be sure to shoot carb cleaner through the air bypass passage in the bottom. Inspect your boots for any cracks -- particularly the one between the AFM and throttle body. Cracks and splits in these things will mess up your mixture. Now do the yogurt cup test! It's really very easy. Then do the electrical tests. Once everything passes, clean up the connector, and put it all back together with some dielectric grease. ... and they +1 EVERYTHING that Cozye (Eric) said!

Kats, it's pretty much the opposite here. American car parts are cheap, and labor is inexpensive. Breakdowns are a bit more frequent, though. I think with all things considered, maintenance is about the same whether American or Japanese. Now, the GERMAN cars are EXPENSIVE to keep on the road! (At least my American made BMW Z3 was.) FAIW, I do find the Z a bit more expensive than my '66 Mustang to keep in repair in modern times, but it's a more complicated car. More parts = more to break!

Graphx, The PO of my first car had apparently painted the brown vinyl top with a green vinyl spray paint. The very harsh Texas sun eventually got the best of that coating, and it started to wear off. However, it looked pretty good for a while. Maybe you could put a vinyl butter scotch spray coating over black? (I don't know where you'd find it, though.)

Wow! Yeah, I remember buying my first 280Z as a graduate student. My advisor admired it, and we would often talk sports cars. Before long, he bought a Porsche 944. He would occasionally tell me how much money he would spend in parts and labor on the thing, and it made my jaw drop. I think he once spent $600 on a major tune-up. All the while, my Z was very reliable and affordable, and it was very easy to work on myself. So yeah, maybe there's something to the "poor man's Porsche" notion. I'm cool with that.

I remember selling a really clean and nicely cared for RX-7 when it was only 2 years old. It was a lemon. It was the next owner who completely tore it up.

Approximately on the same subject, I had a '66 mustang that was Firemist Blue (a 1970's GM color), but the engine compartment was painted black, with the blue on the underside of the hood. The paint job was awsome -- done by the PO. The car was definitely not done to resemble stock. I rather liked the way it was done. Anyway my Z is in need of some body work (and then obviously paint), and I'm evaluating my options. I thought the blacked out engine compartment worked well for the Mustang. I'm wondering whether I should consider doing the same for the Z. I would probably be changing body color to a non-OEM color like a deep metallic red. Would a black engine compartment be a turn-off? Perhaps a semi-matte surface (unlike the Mustang, which was glossy)? Opinions?

Very nice! Just curious: How much fender clearance do you get when you turn the wheel? I was rubbing with 215/60's and skinnied down to 195/60's.

Dunno, Cadillac and Chevy are divisions of the same car company, but there are quality differences between the two. That's not an unusual thing.

Firestone? Dunno... I'm sure Firestone makes some good tires, but I just don't trust them. When I bought my '92 Saturn new, it came with Firestones. I think they might have been the Firehawk GT. (Did they exist back then?) They handled fine. I ran them for 20,000 miles and then ditched them, because there were problems at that time with Firestones falling apart and tearing up people's fenders. Back in the 70's there were some big issues with their 721 (?) radial doing the same thing. Their claim to fame is cheap original equipment tires on American cars. Let's not even talk about Firestone's service centers, where they'll take your money and give you back your car with nothing done on it! I'm currently running some Potenza Grids that I like a lot.

Yeah, the life of a daily driver... I'll have my car garaged in perhaps a year's time. I think you're going to have to be pretty careful about tire rubbing. My 215's were approx. stock radius and rubbed on the leading lip of the right fender arch. You might need a lower profile tire with a lowered suspension. Dunno... FAIW, I found a local tire shop that had a 30 day ride satisfaction guarantee. If I wasn't satisfied with my tires, I could exchange them for free. I asked if that included wheel rubbing, and they said it did. I actually didn't pay much more than tirerack prices -- less than $5/tire, installed. BTW, my speedometer reads about 10% high anyway. I wish there were a way to adjust it. At least 10% is an easy number (e.g. 55 is 50, 66 is 60, etc.).

Wow, you learn something everyday. I thought the OEM was 15, not 14. Cozye, FAIW, I'm running 195/60R15 Grids on 15x7 Panosports. The PO had 215's on those rims, as I recall. I had to go skinnier to clear the wheel well. Anyway, I don't think the narrower tires look weird on my 15x7 rims, and if they don't look weird on mine, the same width shouldn't look weird on 14x7 rims, particularly with approx 1/4" greater total tire radius: I wish I had a better pic for you, and I'd take one, except my car is covered in snow.

Well, just to be clear, you should probably only spray a 1-2 sec shot of fluid in there. But also do try sparking the coil wire against a shock tower bolt to confirm you have a good spark out of the coil. Once you confirm that, the next step would be to check firing order, timing, etc. But for right now, it's important to be systematic. Let's figure out which systems work and which ones don't. I'm still not convinced the ignition works. After all, miswiring an ignition module could kill or severely cripple it. I'll believe it works when Sledge is able to see a series of healthy sparks. Assuming you really have spark, then move on: When you put the new dizzy in, did you leave the spark plug wires connected to the cap, or did you remove and then replace those? If you left the wires on the cap, the same way they were when the car was running, then your firing order should be fine. You can double-check, though. It should be 153624. Do this to get your engine into rough timing and proper firing order: (1) Bump the engine until the crank notch is at the 10 deg BTDC mark and the front two cam lobes are pointing upwards (visible through the oil filler hole). Confirm the #1 piston is TDC by looking through the #1 spark plug hole with a flashlight. You should see the top of the piston right there. Open the distributor cap. The rotor should be pointing forward (towards the radiator) and a bit to the side. If all this checks... (2) Remove the rotor, and note the alignment of the protrusions on the magnetic spur. One of them should align with the bump on the pick-up coil. If not, turn the distributor and make it so. (Note: This is only approximate.) Most likely, this will be in the middle of the adjustment range, as Zed Head suggested. (3) Make certain the #1 wire is on the post where the rotor is pointing. Then make certain the other wires are in the correct order as follows: http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c140/mwh5150/Firing-order.jpg (4) Put everything back together. That should get you close enough to start the engine off of starter fluid, provided you really have a working ignition. If you still can't get a rev out of starter fluid, then confirm spark at each of the cylinders to rule out any ignition shorts or bad wires. The easiest way is to attach each wire to a spare spark plug that you set atop the valve cover, and crank the engine. You should see a spark between the electrodes. If you have spark and STILL can't get your engine to fire off of starter fluid, you have much more major stuff going on. I can't imagine that would be the case. That should keep you busy for a while! Keep at it systematically, and you'll find the problem.

Well, he got at least "a" spark, but I'm betting his ignition isn't really putting out like it should. The fact that his engine tries to fire every now and then is evidence of at least an occasional spark, but I suspect it's only occasional -- or very weak. I'm not convinced the ignition system can deliver a longer series of healthy sparks. I've never shot starter fluid into an engine with working ignition and gotten anything less than a short rev.

Ah, gee, I really thought it might work. OK, then, we did this test for a reason. I suspect your ignition still isn't working. Could be timing, though (but probably not). OK, try pulling the center wire off of the distributor and placing the end with the metal about 1/8" from a tower bolt. Weight the wire with a tool so that it stays there. Then crank the engine for several seconds. Do you get a continuous series of sparks or only just a few? Are the sparks reasonably strong?

1. Black Dragon 2. No idea how hard, but you should be able to pull the SS trim. If not, Black Dragon has new trim too.

Sounds like something's out of tolerance. Maybe there's too much wear on the piston? If I were you, I'd send the entire carb back for replacement.

Well, yes. At least from what I've seen, the prices of these things have really exploded recently. I remember lower 5 figures, yes, but not 6. Moreover I don't think the stock restorations have appreciated nearly so well. I admit I don't follow that market niche really closely, though.