Zed Head

Sorted means fixed? Who knows, when the problem is on the edge of being full time, maybe simple stuff like humidity plays a part. Spark doesn't care how it gets to ground, it's just gotta get there. Another memory from my super-economical past (high school) - I used to carefully lay out the old crusty spark plug wires on my chevy engine to keep the misfires away. Plug wires were too much money.

Just realized that it may not be the weights that set maximum centrifugal timing, but the the slotted plate instead, which seems to be part of the rotor shaft assembly. The numbers are stamped on the plate. It might be a matched set with the weights.

Before you chase you might just check the basic ignition parts, like the cap, the rotor, grounds, module connections, etc. What type of electronic ignition is it? Consider bad gas or a clogged fuel filter also. A solid overall tuneup before getting carried away might be a good idea. I remember once spending hours working on a car before realizing it might just need new spark plugs, Which turned out to be the problem. In your case, those plugs are pretty dirty. The carbon is a short circuit for spark. Once they foul, they're hard to get clean. I'd do a tuneup first.

Blue's car is carbs, the one you listed is EFI. What do you plan to do with the car after you get it?

There's nothing about mileage or engine/transmission condition. Title - clear or salvage. Last time it was registered. Passed emissions? Lots of unknowns. Just a 78 Z that sat in a garage. I would ask a lot of questions.

Thanks for getting back. Burned by the old "more is better" hopes. Were the old injectors a purplish-brown color? Turbo injectors without the turbo parts. "Turbo" has to be better.

Probably. But you never get just one. He has boundary issues.

Gap depends mostly on ignition system. Not cam shaft.

Too much information. I looked at some pictures and don't find anything with intermediate in the name, let alone a plate. Don't forget also, that there have been many types of distributors used on the Z's and ZX's over the years.

I had a collection of odd problems all happen in one day, hot start (unclear why), stuck fuel pump relay (had to use my pump switch to get home), and brake pads grinding on the disc (caught just in time), and one of them, just to confuse the overall situation, was that my tachometer stopped working correctly. It would just bounce around between zero and 500 or not move at all. I pondered living with it like that for a while after I fixed all of the other problems, because changing tachometers is a pain, but remembered that I had had to install a condenser on the negative terminal of the coil years ago, when using the GM HEI module with a 300ZX ignition coil. Since them I've installed another engine, a different module (same brand after I damaged the old one), and replaced the 300ZX coil with the proper GM HEI external coil. But never removed the condenser, even though I thought it might be unnecessary now. So I got out the meter to start checking circuits and instead found that the wire to the condenser had broken. It was just hanging there. Spliced it back together and the tach is back. Lots of words just to say that sometimes these old tachs just need some signal filtering. Maybe it will show up in someone's future search. I don't know why the condenser works, maybe one of the gurus can say, but it definitely does. I still have a good condenser, the stock configuration, on the coil positive. But without that extra one on the negative side, the tach refuses to behave.

Are you using a phone and can't see the pictures and drawings? I don't see how an airplane mechanic could not be able to get this done with what he's provided. Here's a link to several Factory Service Manuals. Open any Transmission chapter from any year, up to 1984, and you'll find many more excellent pictures. http://www.nicoclub.com/datsun-service-manuals Just saying - EuroDat laid it out on a platter with some nice garnish, and now you're asking him to cut it up and feed it to you. Seems a little much.

A KYB deal. Doesn't seem to matter where you buy them. $10 per. http://www.kyb.com/40-for-4/

I've had this nagging thought that I should check the wear on my front brake pads but haven't done it. Recently I started hearing a mild crunchy noise while braking, especially at low speed. I tried braking with just the parking brake and no noise so took a wheel off. And decided it was time to install my new Posi Quiet ceramic pads. See pictures. The Posi Quiets have their own, already glued on, shims and are not supposed to need more. So I left the factory shims off and haven't heard a peep except for a touch of squeal when braking in reverse. But the stock shims did that too. So if you have squeal and can't get the factory shims, these pads seem to do the job. Everything needed is in the box, pads, pins, cotter pins, and anti-rattle hardware, and the shims are already attached to the pads. The Beck Arnleys did work great with the factory shims but squealed badly with the shims they came with. I got maximum usage from them.

Perfect time to measure. If it's 13.15, you'll know a late 77 or later half-shaft will buy you .39".

So that's you? It reads like you've already installed it in a 1976 280Z. Since coil charge time is still the limiting element, it will go to single spark at a certain higher RPM, just like MSD's system. Might be a little cleaner running at low RPM though. You'll need the coil they recommend also to get full benefits.

There's this - https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151884802416671&id=143989191670 And there's a note in Humble's Restore book about Nissan allowing more extended length in the half-shafts in May 1977, by removing some internal parts. U-joint centerline distance increased from 13.15" to 13.54". Nothing about compressed.

Looks interesting. Someone from Canada with a 280Z has tried it, fairly recently, and seems to like it. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/crn-6000-6300/reviews/ http://static.summitracing.com/global/images/instructions/crn-6000-6300.pdf

Jerk forward or backward? What RPM? Stock 280Z EFI, all parts intact? Could be fuel cut at 2800 RPM.

From the coil. You can actually get the injectors to fire by turning the key on and grounding the coil negative terminal three times. It's a trick you can use for checking the ECU and its Pin 1 circuit.

If it is a typical facility, it's empty most of the time, and all you have to do is cut the lock to get in to anyone else's unit. It could even still be in the facility, just someone else's spot. He should put up his own cameras and he might catch a view of it eventually.

I wonder if it might not really have flat-top pistons. That would change everything. The dished pistons came with the turbo engines and P90 heads, so unless Jasper was mixing engine parts, the stock P79 configuration would be flat-tops.

Who is Jasper, and why was the engine built this way? Who made these choices?

On second thought, it could be the angle of the photo. Maybe check the ends for paint. But you can see that the last few inches of each end are normally bent to offer a flat seat on the perch instead of the point of the wire end. In your picture, the gap looks like the seat area is gone.

Those springs have been cut. Both ends should look like the top. A new set, uncut, might do the job. Word is that they drop height 1" from stock. The shock re-extending just means that the gas charge is intact and the seals are good. Hard to tell when shocks are bad. But if you mean that the shocks aren't damping bumps, allowing too much travel, maybe they need replacing. On the other hand, if they don't move fast enough, giving a harsh ride, maybe you need a softer shock.

Here are a couple of shots of what I mean. The 9.5 is a 1978 Dist. I have and the 11's are 1976.