Zed Head

I've removed a couple of those gears. As Darrel says, a small drift or punch is needed to get the pin started out. I had to use pliers to finish pulling it. It's pretty tight. You kind of skipped the step of removing the pinion gear assembly/housing from the transmission. They can get stuck also. A big flat bladed screwdriver in the slot will break it loose but large pliers or vice-grips might be needed to completely remove it. Pad the plier jaws, there are many gear housings out there with ugly teeth marks on them. The metal is soft.

Not much detail, can't even tell if it has an engine. But looks kind of interesting GTO Project Car - Awesome Project

To the basics of the original post - I like the find on the alternative AAR. I've seen the newer designs and pondered if they could be adapted. I'd probably get one from a wrecking yard if I went that way, but the one I have works fine, and I have two more that I've cleaned up and are ready for use if needed. Nissan changed the PCV hose routing in 1977, because of AAR and throttle blade fouling. The newer AAR could have the same problem if the 76 hose configuration is still in place. rcb, the OP is in Canada. In Oregon, I only have to pass idle emissions. All of my AAR's are stock 70's time-frame.

I didn't say the gases weren't checked. I'm just wondering what you meant when you said that it's still too rich. It doesn't matter how many modifications you make if you keep tuning those modifications to the gas analyzer, and the gas analyzer specs. are too rich for your nose. You can tune to the analyzer, or tune to your nose. And, no offense intended, but you should have seen the questions coming about the bypassing the AFM, with all of your experience. "All air must pass through the AFM" is one of the fundamentals of the EFI system.

The stock EFI system is a collection of parts that were all designed to work together. So, with the cam, you're out of spec. anyway. I can't help but point out the contradiction in the above statements though. What you're really saying is that the gas analyzer specifications are too rich. For your nose, I assume. Good luck with the tuning. Not sure why you want to remove the PCV anyway, since it actually cleans combustion byproducts from the crankcase, leading to a cleaner engine. Unless you're looking for that little bit extra of clean air and power that the PCV gases are taking up in the intake air supply at full throttle.

Have you tried the tapping/beating on the ECU trick yet? I've seen it described as working for several people. I also had the transistors in an ECU go bad and they are usually heat sensitive. The final step in the FSM trouble-shooting is usually "replace ECU". Maybe you can find a used one to try.

Shine some light on the damper pulley and its timing marks.

How about a link?

The first gassy problem sounds like the typical hot injector hot start problem. The stall right before you got home could be several things - ignition module, ECU, fuel supply. Did you try to start it right after it stalled? Did it smell like gas, did it restart, if it did did it run well or poorly? Did the tachometer act oddly right be fore it stalled? When you tried to restart, what did the tachometer do? Your mechanic will be stuck with no clues when you take it back to him. You might be to the point of trying replacement parts, like ECU or ignition module, or just leaving a fuel pressure gauge where you can see it when you try to restart. You need to generate more information, and the best information is right when the problem happens. Hopefully you tried to restart it when you landed in the driveway, otherwise the opportunity was lost. Or, if you're lucky, the engine won't restart and the part, whatever it is, stayed broken. You should put a camera in the car with streaming video so we can ride along...

Isn't actual measured clearance what matters? Actually I missed a zero and you might be too loose. 10 thousandths versus 1 - 1.8 thousandths spec. My mistake. (3.410" - 3.390") /2 = 0.010" The ring gap looks okay though.

Never been that far in to an engine myself, but all of those numbers are in the Engine Mechanical chapter. Nissan was very thorough, they even have the .50 and 1.0 mm oversize numbers. Bores, pistons, ring gaps, the works. No 0.750 though, you'll have to split the difference. Looks pretty good from a words and numbers perspective.

And don't forget the green ones. There's still something weird about the "squeezing and taping" that made things work again, in your first post. The blue ones might be fine. After seeing the wire nut, it could be that there's nothing wrong with those links at all, the problem is somewhere else. Maybe that wire nut just needs another twist. You should still make them better, but don't be surprised if they're not the problem. At least you know more about your car now.

You can't damage things by going smaller. Did you find one that was bad? Sometimes you can tell by feel. Or use the meter and measure resistance.

Your dilemma now is to figure out how much downtime you can take with the car, and if you decide on a temporary fix to get by, how to do it. I would disconnect the battery and drag all of those wires up high and dry. Then, for a temporary fix, replace that wire nut with a large crimped connection and some heat shrink or solder and heat shrink. Figure out which circuit is broken among the blue wires and wire in an inline fuse, or a fusible link of the correct gauge. If that blue wire is plain old wire, best to replace them all with fuses or fusible links of the correct capacity. Here's a typical fusible link replacement - http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/fusiblelinks/index.html

Just saw the wire nut in #15. The PO has made a mess. You have some work ahead of you.

Sorry, my mistake, I didn't really look at those blue wires. I thought they were just wires to the pressure sender and other things. Disconnect your battery before you start moving things. No need to melt new wires trying to fix problems. The PO probably though he was cleaning up the engine bay when he did that. But they're down in the dirty wet area of the engine bay. Plus it looks like he either used plain wire or links of the same gauge. You might consider pulling those wires up to a clean safe area, and replacing the blue with the correct links, or wiring in a Maxifuse block. Looks like a pretty good cause for your problem. Check your voltages there.

I can see the white wire that you want to follow, in your first picture. There has to be something at the end of that wire. If your main fuse or fusible link is blown, or the Ignition link, then the EFI relay won't work and you won't have power at the ECU. You have to find out what happened to those links, they are the key. Maybe the whole block came unbolted and is hanging down below the oil filter.

Not sure what you're saying. You said that the voltage went away. "Checked the fuselink and i have a positive 12v current on the pins from the terminal, but i have no continuity from the other". Plus you're getting continuity (resistance) and voltage measurements mixed up. Good that you're measuring but it's easy to get things confused. You could very well have a light connection inside the fusible link that opens up as soon as current flows. And voltage is not flow, it's just the impetus for flow. What do you see with the key On? On the pictures - those are just wires. Google "280z fusible link" and look at some pictures to see what you're looking for. You might also follow the thick white wire back from the start to see where it goes. It also used to be attached to the fusible links block. Here's one picture - Post #6. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/electrical-s30/22763-78-280z-gauge-problems.html

The collar does not match the transmission. It must match the pressure plate (aka clutch cover). This stuff is all over the internet, numerous threads about major problems when parts get mismatched. You might browse around a little before you put things together.

As I said, the fusible links can fail with no visible outward damage. They're designed that way to avoid fires and melty stuff. Your two green fusible links are either bad or have bad connections. You need to replace them, they can't be fixed. Follow the white wire from the alternator's B terminal. You'll probably find a Maxi-fuse block, or some inline fuses,or the fusible link block. That wire used to go to the fusible link block when it was bolted to the side of the relay cover. The fusible links look a like a short piece of wire with a female connector on each end.

I think that you have the change direction backward. Timing is advanced when cold, and goes to the set point when warm. So if you set it to 10 when warm (using a timing light), it will advance to 20 when cold. Advanced timing gives more time for the cold fuel-air charge to burn. If you set your timing to zero, that could affect engine performance. It would be very sluggish.

You didn't give enough detail to give a good answer. Can't tell if the coupe is the L28, or the turbo, or if you have two cars, or just one car and two engines...etc. The flywheels will all bolt up, but the pressure plate, clutch disc, and throwout bearing collar all need to match in order to work properly.

You have at least one bad fusible link, maybe more. But, the only links I see in your pictures are what might be the EFI harness links (two green ones), which would power the injectors and the ECU. They fail internally, so squeezing and taping them won't work, they have to be replaced. I don't even see the other four links. Did someone replace them with fuses? I don't see year of car either so I just copied a picture from 1978.

Article, not a survey... Manufacturing moving from China to US: survey

I've never done any of these. But here's a few comments for discussion. 1. remove the head and check it and the pistons/rings - removing the head and checking its parts for wear should be pretty easy. You can check the cylinder bores for wear, at least the ones that have the pistons down, but you can't tell much about the rings and pistons with just the head off. This is assuming that you plan to do only the head and have locked the tensioner in place, so can't spin the crankshaft. 2. re-ring the pistons - requires removing the oil pan and rod end caps to get the pistons out. But, ideally, the cylinders would be honed, which, ideally, means the crankshaft is out also to make room and keep things clean. People do replace just rings, but it's a halfway job. 3. rebuild the head - depends on how worn things are. Valve seats, valve guides, valve seals. 4. refresh timing components - easy, it's all bolt-on stuff. 5. full rebuild - what patcon said, but from what I've seen on the various forums, it's hard to find a shop that really knows what they're doing. Many seem to make mistakes on shaving the head, installing the cam and rockers, keeping parts in order, etc. Plus the fact that aftermaket parts don't seem to last very long. Just some thoughts, open to criticism. I keep seeing threads from people who seem to know what's needed but can't find a shop to get the work done right. "New" engines or assemblies destroying themselves in relatively few miles.