Zed Head

I looked for maintenance information on the wheel bearings but couldn't find it. But now I see that it's also in the Owner's Manual. Since becoming an FSM advocate I almost never look in there anymore. Thanks for the tip. By 1976, maybe earlier, they were down to 25,000 mile intervals. As your link points out though, one cause of failure is contamination during repacking. It's a dilemma. Probably worthwhile to get one of those grease packing device to reduce handling if you're going to do it.

The non-turbo transmission does not require a new driveshaft. The turbo transmission does. The turbo transmission has a very different shifting mechanism. The non-turbo will look almost identical to what you have now. That's one way to tell, if you're already sure that it's an 83 280ZX transmission. The extra switch wires can just be left disconnected.

The front bearings are tapered roller bearings, the rears are ball bearings. May not matter. Seems like the automakers would have installed a Zerk fitting if it needed it. I don't think that re-packing the front bearings is even a maintenance item either. I remember re-packing the front bearings on my 78 B210 a few times but in retrospect I don't think it was necessary.

Hard to tell what's really going on then. How do you know the rears are great? They lock up but the fronts don't? That's typical of air in the front calipers. Can you pump the pedal to get it high and the brakes working? If you can pump them up then you have air in the system. If they just start braking with the pedal low and there's no change with pumping, then you have an adjustment problem. But you should not have bubbles in the reservoirs. Did you install a different master cylinder also? The stock system shouldn't have any problems bleeding the brakes.

Many, many people have problems bleeding the brakes after installing calipers on the rear. Many. Quite often they have to remove the caliper, install a block of wood between the pistons and hold the caliper so that the bleed screw is at the top. There are people on this forum who have spent weeks. maybe even months, trying to get their rear caliper conversions bled.

So what you mean is that you can't get a firm high pedal. The pedal drops too low before you get any braking action, or you have to pump the pedal to get any brakes. ??? One pretty common error that people make is to put the calipers on the wrong sides. They will fit either way. The bleed screw needs to be at the top of the caliper, not the bottom.

There's a spring that brings the pedal up. Can you pull the pedal up by hand?

Datsun 240Z/260Z/280Z Rear Brake (Drum Brake) (To Jul.-'76) The Service Manual is always useful. Better drawing too. Looking at the pictures and having worked on similar things, I think that the seal you're trying to replace just slips off over what you're calling the metal disc. The "metal disc" is actually the top of the piston (as CO suggests above). It's all one piece. Slip a thin screwdriver or pick under the rubber and it should peel off. It's doughnut shaped.

Not quite. You probably have other problems besides the ignition module. Meter, meter, meter, meter. You have the meter and you'll have to crawl up by the fuse box anyway. You can actually take the voltage measurements at the ignition module before you disconnect it. Which you will have to do anyway if you install an HEI module. If you disconnect the blue wire at the ignition module and still measure 8 volts when the battery has 12+, then your problem is elsewhere. Turn key On, measure voltage on blue wire at module to ground, turn key Off, do same.

For future reference, that is your TPS (throttle position switch). There is one other very simple possible fix, maybe short-term, for your ignition module. In your case (no offense) it might be a quick easy way to test. Your 1977 car probably has two ignition circuits in the module, like my 76 did. It may be that one is damaged, but the other is okay. You could disconnect one,leaving the other in control. But you really need to confirm that the problem is in the module first. You could easily damage the HEI module when installing it (they're sensitive to wiring) and you wouldn't know any more afterward than you do know. The meter will tell you what you really need to know before you make any changes.

We're on a do-loop for picture taking. Actually, the GM HEI module can be made to work with the ZX distributor. Same red and green wires, just contained inside the distributor. If we pull enough of these teeth, this engine will eventually run.

8 volts implies that you have a short circuit, maybe in the ignition module. I assume that you're measuring from one of the terminals on the ballast or at the coil, to ground. 8 volts would happen if current was flowing. Your coil would probably get hot also. Disconnect the blue wire that comes from the harness (going to the ignition module, on the ned in your picture with the brass nut showing) and connects to the ballast and see if the 8 turns to 12. If it does, then disconnect the blue wire at the ignition module (inside the cabin) and reconnect the blue wire at the ballast and check again. If you get 12 again, then you can be fairly certain that your ignition module is shorting out. I think that the mystery blue wire connects to the condenser/capacitor. It's a small silver can-shaped thing that usually bolts to the coil bracket, I think. It's not necessary and having it disconnected takes it out of the picture as a problem source.

Could be something simple like a plastic bag in the fuel tank. Floats around until it hits the outlet to the pump, gets sucked over by the flow, kills the engine, then floats away when the pump turns off. It would be good to know fuel pressure when the problem happens. Get a gauge, and use zip ties to hold it where you can see it while driving with the hood partially open. If you have full fuel pressure when the engine dies you can stop looking at fuel supply and start looking at other areas. Edit - I overlooked the part about smelling gas. Knowing fuel pressure is still important, but the sudden dying, then restarting, with a gassy smell is what my 1978 ECU did when it died. I had a 78 parts car in the garage that I could start and let idle until it was warmed up with no problems. One day I put the 78 ECU in my 76 driver just to verify that it was a good spare, drove about one mile and it coughed once, then died. It restarted, went about 1/4 mile and died again. It did the same about two more times until I decided to run home and get the other ECU. Reinstalled it and drove home with no problems. Just a possibility. It's not common but it does happen. Eventually, just to see if I could, I replaced the two main transistors in the ECU and it worked correctly. I think that the transistors can go bad just like they do in the ignition modules, causing extra activity on the circuit. Too many sparks for ignition, too many injections for the ECU.

Purty. Is that garage art? I see you got the obligatory toe shots in also, stealthy shadow mode. Nice. If you jack the right rear of the car up maybe you can swap the elbow for the plug without losing any coolant. Worth a shot.

That looks like a good way to do it. The picture shows it with the clip out. How is it with the clip in? If the clip is tight, it should be fine. It can't go up or down because the fitting is slotted in to the bracket and it can't force the clip out because the gap is too small for the fitting. The line can only come out if the clip comes out first and the fitting moves up.

Sorry site, I think I looked at your first picture wrong, I'm confusing things. I thought that was a T at the head with one port blocked and one straight back to the pump inlet. Apparently it's a line looping around the block and up to the carbs?beerman knows what he's talking about. On plugging the hole in the head - if you have a spare block, the coolant drain plug in the block is the same thread size as the fitting in the head. I know it is on the L28. There's two parts listed but looks like the dealer might have them. They're cheap, buy two. Looks like maybe they just changed the head of the plug, not the thread. Datsun 240Z/260Z Cylinder Block & Fitting L24, L26 (To Nov.-'74) PLUG-DRAIN :: Nissan Parts, NISMO and Nissan Accessories - Courtesyparts.com PLUG :: Nissan Parts, NISMO and Nissan Accessories - Courtesyparts.com

Came across that thread coincidentally this morning - 240ZCVhalfshaftConversion

This picture might help you visualize how the big hose connected directly to the back of the head and back the water pump inlet can short-circuit flow that would otherwise pass through the head. A single overheat can warp a head. It's not just a steamy inconvenience. Just saying, why take a chance. I would leave the small hose to the carbs, and block the big hose back the pump inlet. Win-win.

Coolant is also bypassing the head, just looping back around to the pump inlet. The effect is like having a smaller water pump. You might just clamp something on to the long hose to reduce it's internal size. Create a flow restriction or block it completely to force the coolant to travel through the head where it can do some good.

I've wondered about the side loads put on the bearing when the axle is installed. They should be comparable to the loads seen when a puller is used to remove the axles. Seems like the design leads to high loading on the balls during installation, but the races seem to survive it. Even the use of the car puts a high load on them although that's a rolling load. Spinning the axles while removing the bearing might save them.

For the money spent, installing a complete L28 will probably get you more power. More displacement + bigger valves = more power. It's the same general concept that leads to stroked engines, but you can get a stock L28 for a lot less money. Just a thought.

I have read several accounts of Eiji's work on this forum and they've all been very positive. But who are you?

Glad that you can take some constructive criticism. Look at picture #4 in Post #1. You can see the negative sign above the positive cable and the positive sign above the negative cable. Steve was right. I'm guessing that picture was taken after the sparks flew? It's not uncommon. My car has some burned wires in the harness, probably from the backwards connection. I'm not sure what damage occurs when this happens but there are many cars out there that have recovered. It will take some time with the meter to figure out what's right and what needs fixing.

Didn't notice the missing pull handle on the driver's door. It also has the classic purple stripe of worn off plating. That exhaust system really looks bad the longer you study it. Piling on...

That's better, thanks for clarifying. It's great that you're diving in to an area you're not familiar with. In your first post you said that you removed the battery, and installed a new one. Maybe you got the connections correct the second time. There are actually five fusible links. There's one more on a line directly from the battery to the EFI system. It's green and has a white plastic connector on each end. It's inline on a wire directly from the positive terminal. You can see it in picture number 4 in your first post. On terminology - continuity is measured between two points in a circuit. So "continuity on the pos and neg of the coil" doesn't really mean anything. Continuity between those two points is normal, but what you really want is resistance between those two, and continuity between others. Also, voltage readings from several areas would be very helpful. Do you have a meter? If you do have a meter, one test you could do is to turn the key on and see if you have battery voltage at the negative post of the coil. Maybe you already did that and that's what you meant by continuity? You really need to post a picture of the top of the coil and the ballast resistor all in one frame.