Zed Head

It's still odd that only three cylinders were affected by the breakthrough in to the EGR channel. All six intake runners are exposed to the channel so all six should have had excess exhaust gas coming in. The EGR ports in to the runners of your intake manifold might be messed up also. If your band-aid fix is to disable the EGR entirely, you'll probably get back to balanced running, but it might be worth checking the individual EGR ports, if you can get the plugs out. I've never seen one myself so don't really know how much gas they flow.

That's for sure a new one. Have to remember this for future people with "low intake vacuum" problems. I wonder how many other corroded EGRs are out there. I got curious and just went out to the garage to take apart a 1978 parts intake I have. The EGR channel was totally choked full of caked carbon residue. Interesting that your was the opposite and apparently still letting exhaust gas through, although in excess.

Have you confirmed that you have power at the coil + with a test light or voltmeter? If you have power, you can try tapping a wire from the negative side of the coil to ground which should give a spark if the coil is good.

Not really clear what you're doing. The "shocks" are actually inside the strut tubes. The spindle/wheel assembles are attached to the struts. The rotor is attached to the spindle via the nut that Coolv... refers to. The calipers are bolted on to the strut assembly. I might have my terminology off a little bit myself, but what is it you're trying to work on? Changing shocks, new bearings, etc...? Maybe you have the nut loose but the calipers are still bolted on?

Check voltage right at the alternator positive wire with your negative probe on the case, then check at the battery terminals, to see if it's the alternator, or the wires and connections. You might get over 14.5 volts at the alternator, since the regulator is regulating to what the S wire sees. The guy at the auto parts store should have done that - one, to determine where the real problem is, and two, to sell you an alternator if yours is bad. He might have been just following a standard procedure though. Edit - you should take measurements at idle and higher rpm also, about 2000 RPM should give full charging voltage. Edit 2 - Reading your first post, maybe the auto store guy was telling you that the alternator is bad, but your terminals are dirty also? Either way, confirming where the problem is won't hurt.

I realized after I posted that there is an issue for 1976 (and maybe 75 and 77) owners if they go the HEI module route. The stock Nissan ignition module has another circuit in it to use the second pickup coil in the distributor if the engine is cold. It advances the timing about 6 degrees, I assume to keep the idle up while cold. So you would lose that feature. It's described in the engine fuel section of the FSM. The GM module does require some extra wiring to install, it's not a drop-in replacement. 1977 Camaros used the 4 pin module. This writeup is pretty good, it's for a 510 but the idea is the same - http://dimequarterly.tierranet.com/articles/tech_hei.html Here's another - http://www.sonic.net/~kyle/hei.html The same referred to from this forum - http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?878-GM-HEI-Ignition&highlight=gm%20hei It's just an option for you if you're on a tight budget or just want something that's readily available. It helps to be comfortable with auto wiring.

Those are the exact symptoms my 1976 had when the ignition module went bad. If you don't want to pay the high cost of a new/rebuilt stock module, or can't find a used one, you can use a GM 4-pin HEI module in it's place.

Here's the link to that story about the vent line. It was just a couple of weeks ago, by Bruce Palmer - http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?42008-fuel-system-closed - Post #7. tlorber, 5th didn't actually say his tank would only take 7-8 gallons (unless I misunderstood his description). He said it only took 7 (6) after the gauge showed E. Any news?

There has to be a little voice in your head saying something's wrong with the sender, right? But subconsciously, you're thinking (hoping) it has to be okay because you just worked on it (and it was a pain to get to). If the tank is undamaged and the gauge reads E after 6 gallons, that's the only logical conclusion. You could drain the tank contents to confirm that E is or is not Empty. I would siphon first since there is most likely about 10 gallons in there when the gauge says E. Shake the car back and forth and see if it feels/sounds like 1 gallon or 10 when the gauge is on E just to get more information. Indications are that the gauge sender you just worked on last fall on isn't working correctly anymore.

I have read stories of tanks collapsing due to people inadvertently hooking their vent line up to intake vacuum. Any chance your tank could have something similar, or a had a blocked vent as things got cold over the winter and contracted, or somehow had the tank crushed over the winter? Have you examined the outside of the tank?

Drive farther before refilling?

What year? Some advice - a little punctuation and capitalization goes a long way. I know it's old school, but the old school guys have the answers...

A torch used to heat up the area around the fill plug makes a huge difference also. Might have saved you a crank...

Blocked tank vent? Engine used enough gas to pull a vacuum and the pump couldn't get fuel? Did you take the gas cap off while working on the highway? I can't determine for sure how that would apply in the closed loop of the "inlet line/pump/regulator/return line/tank" but maybe since the vacuum is pulling against the back of the regulator, the pressure imbalance shuts flow down.

I had a similar situation and found that my head gasket was leaking at the very back of the head. You could see the coolant residue right above the starter and a water trail down the block. No leakage in to or out of the cylinders though, just some steam and syrup smell from the back. I fixed it with some Barr's leak stopper (don't hate, my car is a rolling experiment in how things work, a reason to go to the auto parts store or roam the junk yard. Every "problem" is a new adventure). After about half of the bottle of sealant powder extruded itself out of the gap [a couple of months], leaving a pile sitting on the block at the back of the head, it sealed up.

I have a 76 and I believe that they're the same. I think that you need to remove the tachometer from the front of the dash, then reach in through the hole the tachometer left to unscrew the fitting. It is designed to screw on and off by hand but might be tight after many years, requiring some small pliers to get it loose.

What I'm reading is that Robin260z feels vibration through the steering wheel and brake pedal when he applies the brakes. He is focusing on the front brake system, but also suspects that there might be something wrong with the wheel balance or the wheel lugs and lug nuts. If you think that the wheel balance is incorrect, you should also check your wheel bearings, and your steering assembly. I had a bad front wheel bearing and the steering wheel would vibrate occasionally, although it did not get worse when I applied the brakes. While you have the front end jacked up, grab the wheel at top and bottom and try to move the top and bottom back and forth. You will feel play in the wheel, and hear it, if the bearings are loose.

Can you give a better description of what your brakes are doing? This is hard to understand - "They are shocking when i brake. I feels like your rotor is bended. not straight."

If you just had a small spark from the main batter cable to ground you probably didn't do any damage. I would just remove the starter from the car with the big cable still attached, so that you can work on it, and see what you're doing. It's just two bolts and it drops out. Then you can take it to a parts shop and have it tested. Worst case, they can test it with the cable still attached. If it's bad, you can just cut the stud or nut off off with a hack saw and not worrt too much about damage. If it's good you can take more care in getting the nut off.

Blue, good point, I was referring back to what I thought was one of the original problems, car dieing and then waiting to restart, but to be honest, I might have it confused with someone else's problem. argniest is all over the forum! (not a problem, just hard to track the various threads...). I think that the thought now is that misfires are causing plug fouling, which looks like rich running. I do agree though, if the injectors come out again, verifying proper flow is worth doing. argniest, I think this has been mentioned before (by me, I'm a big FSM fan) - the FSM will give you the same test procedures as the "Bible" but with much more information specific to your car (like how the electronic ignition system works). You'll need it if you replace your magnetic pickup in the distributor, for instance. You're on the edge of the old "replace and hope" slippery slope...

Are the parts Borg Warner or BWD? Borg Warner makes power train parts like transmissions. BWD makes electronic parts like those you mentioned. I use BWD and have found that the parts are of good quality, and at least a small step above some suppliers in materials, like brass electrodes over aluminum for the rotor cap. I don't see plug wires on your list, have they already been replaced? The ignition module on your car is up under the passenger dash by the fuse box. Your initial symptoms fit ignition module problems to a degree. I had my 1976 module go bad, it started cutting out and misfiring if I went above 3500 to 4000 rpm and would not stop misfiring until I turned the key off and restarted the engine. But the module's don't seem to all fail the same way, they have different symptoms. From what I've read, usually the engine just dies, then will restart after a few minutes, sometimes longer. Ignition pickup coils don't seem to go bad that often, you might wait on replacing that part. It would be worth checking the gap on yours though to be sure it's right.

It sounds like the threads on the solenoid post are stripped, or the nut itself. You might be able to get the nut to grab again by sticking a thin bladed screwdriver under the nut and prying it away from the solenoid while you unthread the nut. I hope that you have the positive at the battery cable disconnected so that you don't short it out while working on the solenoid.

The numbers look like those of the common 2.8 liter engine used in the 280Z. My 1976 L28 block, with N42 head, has number 071155 stamped on it so your block is newer than 1976. In the states, they started using the N47 head in late 1977, but maybe the N42 was used outside the states. Where do you think the engine came from, Japan, US or Europe?

The GM 4 pin module has to be electrically grounded through one of the mounting holes to function. I have read that they can be damaged if they lose ground, so yours may be damaged if you tried it without. Some people (me for one) run a dedicated ground wire from the mounting hole to make sure they have a good connection. The heat sink and the ground serve two different functions.

I've not heard of "light-duty" KYB shocks. How are they described? I do know that the GR-2s are now called Excel-Gs. It's on the KYB web site. They say that they are the same except for color and name. http://www.kyb.com/technical/faq/faq06.php