Zed Head

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

Dig in to the FSM a little deeper. There is a section on testing at the ECU plug and a section on testing the dropping resistor and injection circuit at the plug.

Regarding injector wiring and injector testing - don't forget that the Zs are batch fired. All of the injectors fire at the same time so you can move your injector plugs to any injector you'd like (if the harness will stretch that far). So if you know that 3 is firing, you could move it over to 4 or 5 to see what happens, or vice versa. If your plugs are fouled it might not tell much about the 4, 5 and 6 cylinders, but if you put 5 on 3 and it runs the same (when removing 3 causes stumbling), you could be confident that the #5 wire was putting out an injection pulse. Just another angle (if you don't have the Christmas tree lights, although I do like the idea).

You should check your fuel pressure before you do too much more work. Hook up the gauge, start the car and pull the vacuum hose off of the fuel pressure regulator. Pressure should sit at 36 psi. Reconnect the vacuum hose and pressure should drop to ~26 - 30 psi depending on intake vacuum. Without knowing that you have good fuel pressure, you risk spending a lot of time and money on the wrong things. Testing will tell you if the pump and FPR are working correctly, whether your lines or tank inlet are clogged, whether or not pressure is changing over time, etc. A few less things to guess at...

I had a similar problem where the air flow would not hold the AFM flap open far enough to get it off of the cutoff switch, so the engine would not idle at low RPM. It ran fine, just wouldn't idle. If the fuel pump keeps running when you hold the AFM flap open as you described, you should be able to keep the engine running by holding the throttle slightly open after it starts (which should open the AFM flap), or turning up the idle speed with the idle screw (same effect). If this works, then you might have a vacuum leak, which is letting too much air past the AFM flap. Find that or the adjust the fuel pump cutoff switch mechanism. My problem started when I advanced my timing. The engine needed less air to maintain idle speed so the AFM fuel cutoff switch started killing the pump at idle. I ended up bending the switch mechanism so that it would stay closed at lower air flow. You can see the cutoff switch and how it works underneath the black cover on the side of the AFM.

Your results show that the parts you tested work correctly. The fuel pump runs when cranking. When the engine starts, you let the key go, but the AFM flap is open now from air flow and the fuel pump keeps running. If the engine dies, air flow stops, the AFM flap closes and the fuel pump stops running. So no problems with your fuel supply to the fuel rail, at least from the fuel pump outlet. Is there another problem?

If you post pictures of the mechanism cover that you have and the seats you're trying to fit, you'll probably get many more responses from those of us who can walk out and look at what we have.

5th gear tells the story. Look at Post #2. Use white out to make a couple of marks and turn the input shaft one turn.

palladin over on zcar.com figured out a rebuild procedure and wrote it up. It seems pretty popular, especially for those on low budgets. http://www.zcar.com/70-83_tech_discussion_forum/heater_valve_repair_895221.0.html

You might be able to take a thin fairly stiff sheet of something like Mylar (transparency sheet), make a tube of it, wrap it around the speedometer body and get the speedometer to slip back out. Lubricate with soapy water or Armorall. Or take some packing tape (again smooth material, with lubrication) and tape up the lip that it catches on when trying to push it back out. You could even build a small ramp of tape up to the lip on the dash cap. Anything to turn the lip in to a smooth transition. The cap is probably flexible enough to expand out if you can get the body of the speedo over the lip. Or wrap tape around the front of the speedo face to take the edge off and give something to wedge it in and pull it through the hole. Again, with some sort of lubrication. Get the idea? Just some options.

Doesn't the brake line enter in the middle of the piston cylinder? Is it possible to swap bleed valve for brake line?

Bleeder screws at top of all four calipers? Easily overlooked, it just happened to a guy over on Hybridz and he wrote a whole page about it. I have also read that the Toyota calipers sometimes need a little extra work to get the bleed screws oriented correctly, but I can't remember if it was Toyota on the front or back. Worth double-checking. If they're not at the very top of the internal cavity, there will be an air pocket.

For your future reference - JMortensen (aka "Someone") posts on classiczcars quite often also - http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/99447-trans-diff-identification/page__pid__932664#entry932664 The internet seems huge but it's really pretty small.

Thanks Zedrally but I kind of over-reacted. Zcars.com doesn't allow soft porn so this kind of video is not all over their site, but there is a bunch of other nonsense that goes on. I had hoped that the guys from zcars wouldn't bring it over here when they defected. bgm, can't you just keep this stuff over at zcars? It doesn't really fit this site.

Mods, please don't let classiczcars.com go down the same path as zcar.com. This crap (the French Maid video) is all over zcar.com and is a big part of why it sucks.

I have some KYB GR-2s coming tomorrow so took the front struts off tonight and found that I still have the original piston/cylinder setup from the factory. The oil in the struts smells like the old California oil wells that were still active in the 60s. Are these worth anything to anybody? It's a 1976 so not quite a classic but someone might appreciate original. If so I'll hang on to them.

If your car has a newer 4 speed it might also have a different differential. You might check your rear gear ratio before you go, just so you know what you're working with. Plus, if you are still stock, that 3.36 ratio will be in an R180. The ZXz will probably be R200s if they are manual, which will be more work to swap in. And the 78 Z 5 speed most likely has the same first four gear ratios as your Type B 4 speed. Using it would give you the same ratios you have now, plus one more. There's a variety of combinations to choose from.