Zed Head

It would be interesting to know if your ring gear/flywheel is set deeper than it should be. Need somebody with a working setup to take a measurement. Maybe a previous owner didn't know about the automatic's flex plate spacer and built their own hack to get the flywheel mounted. Good luck. Seems like a lot of work but a fun project.

Google read my mind and placed the video in front of me. I added the effort of clicking and wrote some words. Anyone who tries this must make a video and post it.

Darkness can help diagnose spark loss problems.

Already posted. Where's the link to your store? Not enough info here to buy...

There are two. The plastic one is hidden. https://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributorrebuild/index.html

Do you mean the propeller shaft? The driveshafts are the two to the wheels. It's a Nissan thing. Find a wrench that fits the nuts tightly and will wedge against the body if you turn the shaft. Then turn the shaft to break the nuts loose. You should have the D head bolts so all you have to worry about is the nuts. Find wrench, fit wrench in right place on nut, stick screwdriver in u-joint to turn shaft, wedging wrench against body. X 4. Once you get the nuts off you might have to tap/beat on the flange to break it loose. There's a raised centering circle that fits a recess in the diff. It's a tight fit.

I had a socket melt on mine. They get some corrosion and will heat up enough to melt the plastic. The contacts end up touching and you get a direct short to ground.

No other ports for a switch? The 4 speeds had a top gear switch, my 76 had one. It activated the vacuum advance solenoid. The ZX 5 speeds had several switches. Looks like some had top gear and OD switches, for some odd reason. Maybe they did the same thing. For some reason Nissan didn't label the switches in the 280Z chapters. But I think that they'd be about the same as the ZX's.

That would not cause a miss, I think. Does anything change if you move the wires around while the engine is idling? Too many pages in your other thread and can't remember what you're using for ignition. All kinds of odd things are possible. You can even put the wires on in reverse rotation and the engine will start and run. I did it once, by accident. Got #1 right but the others were all backward. It ran like crap.

What is the material and how did you make it? Nothing wrong with posting a link to your store.

One of my somewhat early experiences realizing that authority figures did not necessarily know everything was when my freshman physics teacher told us that dead bodies floated because the human body was less dense than water. He was trying to teach the concept of density. I said "then why do I sink to the bottom of the swimming pool and stay there if I exhale all of my breath". He argued that it was not possible, got upset, and moved on with the lesson. Best to get as much information and as many opinions as you can and figure out which make the most sense. https://covidactnow.org/us/florida-fl/?s=22441170 https://covidactnow.org/data-api#faq

Wonder what the difference is? https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/nissan,1976,280z,2.8l+l6,1209226,electrical,starter+motor,4152 p.s. if I had a spare engine a bunch of flywheels like I used to I'd go take some measurements. Yarb might have hit on a solution. Trade your starter in for a 1978 or ZX gear reduction starter. Maybe it has more throw for the gear. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/nissan,1978,280z,2.8l+l6,1209260,electrical,starter+motor,4152

Found an image of a Sachs. Quite a few mm difference by eyeball. https://www.ebay.com/itm/293381977250?fits=Model%3A280Z&hash=item444eedb4a2:g:Yb0AAOSwkwxd-Umn

Might be that the flywheel is sitting too far from the block. A measurement from the back of the flywheel to the dust cover (the thin metal plate) would be good. Somebody could compare to theirs if they have an engine handy. p.s. the ring gears are press fit on to the flywheels. Yours might have moved. Hard to tell, that's why a measurement to the flywheel will be best to compare to others. If that shiny flywheel surface is flat, that's a lot of space that might have been covered (Edit - added red lines for emphasis). I'll see if I can find an image of the back of a flywheel.

I think that your ring gear might be shot. The starter gear gets driven in to the ring gear only by the strength of the starter solenoid magnetic field. It's designed to slide smooth teeth in to smooth teeth, not crunched teeth in to mangled teeth. You can get new ones, but a new flywheel is almost the same cost. Hard to find a good picture in a product listing but I did find a Google remnant, below. https://zcardepot.com/products/ring-gear-for-starter-flywheel-240z-260z-280z

Doesn't matter much really, because you're obviously not reading the posts with the facts and the links to the facts. My posts and CO's posts are from the CDC web site data. You're right, we're all free to believe what we want to believe. I'd hate to be working in healthcare in Idaho though. Looks like you can't get care there, no matter what you want to believe. https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/coronavirus/article253905873.html This guy is just a CEO of a large healthcare provider. Not sure where he gets his facts. This is from yesterday, not last year. https://www.primaryhealth.com/blog/urgent-care-clinics-over-capacity “I’ve been in urgent care and primary care for 30 years, and it’s inconceivable to me we’re at a point where we can’t see all the patients who want to see us,” Dr. David Peterman, CEO of Primary Health, said in a news release. “Our health care workers are exhausted and working hard to see every patient and answer every call. But at some point, it’s just too much. This is a serious crisis.”

Relay questions...

The part about the ECU is the entrance to the rabbit hole... Link this thread in your other thread. Then it's all contained.

It's just courtesy, to let people stay focused on the reason they started their thread. For example, I could post here in your thread about whether I should use Bosch relays from a wrecking yard or the cheapest from O'Reilly Auto or Rockauto. Seems like a valid concern and "on-topic". Then we could have 20 posts discussion about it. Personally, I like the wrecking yard Bosch relays. They're cheaper and probably of higher quality, even used. Designed to last the life of the car. $8 new can add up. Still, might be worth it, new Bosch. https://www.amazon.com/Bosch-Automotive-332019150-Relay/dp/B0010ADJIE

It's just courtesy.

That conversation has been going on for decades. I think that regional fuel quality might play a part as well as altitude and temperature, plus timing and other tuning factors. You won't really know until you try it, basically. I'd just make sure you're conservative on your ignition timing, including the fine details like the rate of centrifugal advance and vacuum advance. There are many variations in timing curves out there in the world of Z distributors.

Trimpe.bob is still around and you've kind of hijacked his thread. I was going to suggest that you put the details of your car in your signature but something has happened to the site settings and that option is gone. A person used to be able to Edit their profile but the Signature option is missing now. @Mike Study ground loops. Sometimes you just have to add and disconnect grounds randomly to get rid of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_(electricity)

I linked an article about the need for the trucks. People are definitely dying from COVID-19. It's definitely hard to keep up with what's happening in the world. There's a lot going on right now.

https://tabcoparts.com/amfinder/