Zed Head

That's right, it "backfeed"s to the fusible links on the way to the alternator. I went and looked at mine and the white and the bat. pos. both connect to the outside lug. So move that white wire over to the same lug the battery positive is on and you should have power back. Which may or may not be a good thing. Also, the missing link is one of the Ignition circuit links, I'm not sure what it powers, but probably something to do with the engine running. madkaw solves a piece of the puzzle.

You are correct. The white wire charges the battery through that connection. Many things wrong here, I can almost smell the burning wires...

I wrote a whole long post expanding on PastorMike's comments but the site ate it when I opened a picture. Bummer. But I see in Post #10 that you're missing some fusible links. You need all of them, that might be the "current" source of your problem (that pun never gets old). And you can't just replace them with a piece of wire, you'll fry the rest of your harness. Put down the jumper wires, replace those links and use a test light or VOM for future testing.

You'll need to be more specific, for your own testing and for describing what's going on. You said the harness shows juice, but what does that mean? A couple of sentences before you said "no juice". If you're using a jumper to apply power to various spots, that's not good (as you've found with the blown link). Are you sure the ECU was heating up? It's rather big and the components would have to generate a lot of heat to heat up the whole thing. Maybe you meant coil or some other component? No offense, but it looks like you're in unfamiliar territory and could do some damage while you're learning. If the battery is hooked up correctly (don't trust the colors of the cables, verify that negative goes to ground and positive to the starter lug) and the fusible links are intact, you should at least get dome lights, radio, heater fan or something. The headlight dimmer switch is notorious for killing the headlights so "no headlights" after two years doesn't tell much. Good luck and be careful with that jumper wire.

It started, stayed running and didn't overheat! It has potential. I do think it's only running on 3, 4 or 5 cylinders though. The spark plugs will tell.

One of the contacts in the connector on my 76 lights got so hot that it melted down in to the connector, losing contact with the bulb. I assume that it started with some corrosion, creating resistance and heat. A visual check should tell you, but a voltmeter will too.

If the ZX distributor was correct in the ZX engine then the Z distributor should be also. Did you swap the ZX mounting plate for the Z mount? Maybe the shaft and rotor are right but you've just run out of rotation space. Here's a link showing the difference, from the ever-popular atlanticz site - http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributor/index.html Go down to picture #6. Of course, after reading through the link you might decide to stick with the ZX distributor.

A very informative report just came out regarding the ethanol/gasoline blended fuels. Typical of a government programs, the original reason for the program is lost and warped, somewhere between Energy Independence and Security (US Energy Independence and Security Act, passed in December 2007) and "green" low emission level fuels, with the EPA citing both needs as the reasoning, but with no mention of the "corn farmer lobby", in the NY Times article. Here - http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/a-new-skirmish-in-the-ethanol-wars/?hp Here's the report itself, lots of good information in it - http://www.crcao.com/reports/recentstudies2012/CM-136-09-1B%20Engine%20Durability/CRC%20CM-136-09-1B%20Final%20Report.pdf Of course, even the agencies can't figure out what's what, whether E15 is harmful or okay, since they said it was okay a year and a half ago - http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/BF822DDBEC29C0DC852577BB005BAC0F Not to get too political, the main reason for posting is the effects on the engine and the tune. Ethanol leans out the fuel, so the more they add the leaner the older "open-loop" EFI systems and carbs will get. Plus more wear on the valves and valve seats. Can't wait...

A member here, who also spends some time on Hybridz, has made up a replacement kit. He seems to know what he's doing and took the advice of some Hybridz members on sourcing the connectors with the attached spring-wire clip, instead of the connectors with the separate clip, which can get lost. Might be worth a PM to see if he's still doing them. Here's his initial thread, with pictures - http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/thread44788.html

I had a similar problem (almost exactly, actually) when I got my car. The calipers were on the wrong sides. The bolt pattern is interchangeable, but they have to be mounted with the bleed valve on the top. If that's the case, just swap them quickly without letting the master reservoir leak down, give a quick bleed on the fronts only and you'll probably be golden.

The interior is the hardest part to get nice on these cars without spending a lot of money. Motor pieces are available and you'll have lots of options, but for that price I would want a good clean rust free (meaning no long-term leaks in the past) interior. If you have pictures, post them.

That's a good idea, I might try that. Probably better than just disconnecting the power and waiting for the coolant to get warm. For such a primitive device, it's surprising how long they kept using them. My 1995 Pathfinder has one.

Have you driven your Z yet with the engine it came with?

I often think about replacing the automatic AAR with a manual valve, that would work like the hand throttle levers on the very early 240Zs. Manual fast idle control. The problem with the AAR is that it has its own heater so it is not very well tied in to actual engine temperature. Between the time that the AAR heater closes it and the engine coolant flowing through the heater plate under it heats it, there is a period where you can have a low idle.

Actually, any Z from 1974 on (I assume from the big bumper 260Z) gets cheap rotors. It's the 240Zs that have the expensive ones. But it's still not clear what the difference is between the two.

Wade's on a roll, it's hard to keep up... Rock Auto - http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/thread46074.html Edit - but it seems the sub $25 price is only for the later Zs. Which is odd considering a previous discussion about whether or not the 240Z and 280Z hubs and rotors are different. Edit 2 - Still not sure that they're different, not sure why Rock Auto has two parts and two prices... http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsunS30/DatsunZIndex/Axle/FrontAxle/tabid/1728/Default.aspx

The ECU provides idle enrichment fuel when the TPS is on the idle circuit, independent of the AFM vane position (as I understand things). Could be the AFM, that's where I would start looking. You can remove the black cover on the side without removing the whole AFM and look for corrosion on the carbon trace or contact and/or spray it with some contact cleaner. If it looks okay, you can also check the connection to the wiring harness, underneath. The AFM will have to come out. You'll need some kind of pick to get the wire spring retainer off, it's a little bit difficult. You might also check fuel pressure beforehand though if you have a gauge available. Should be done anyway after eight years and probably easier to do than removing the AFM. Edit - cbuczek brings up a good point about timing and the distributor, that could save some future aggravation. If you start taking things apart, take the distributor breaker plate off and make sure that the ball bearings under the plate haven't rusted to the bearing surface. They get stuck, then the plastic frame holding them breaks when the vacuum advance tries to move the plate.

I haven't experienced it myself, but I get the impression that these engines will idle without the AFM connected, although your car should have a fuel pump relay switch in the AFM that won't allow that. Have you checked the AFM and its connection? Seems AFM or TPS related. A little more detail on "bogs out" will help your quest also. Could mean many things.

I think that the cam mark in that position would actually be advanced, and it's about where it should be according to the FSM (the "after adjustment" position). Was the timing mark exactly on the zero, and did you get it that way without backing up the crankshaft? If you rotated the engine forward then nudged it back to hit the TDC mark, the slack in the chain wouldn't pull the camshaft back with it. I had a coolant leak on my last engine, at the back of the head. And an oil weep at about where your water leak is. Barrs Stop Leak might fix the water leak, it helped mine but it eventually came back.

You've described the "after" but haven't said much about "before". How did it run before you installed the header? How long did it sit between the last time it ran and now? If it runs but not smoothly, it could be something simple like a misplaced plug wire. And the running rough problem might be totally separate from the odd noise.

If you have extra hose, you can put a loop in it. I think that I have loops on both sides of my fuel pump. It makes for a nice stress-free connection at the pump also.

Not my idea, but packing grease around the perimeter of the piston will allow you to do some grinding without getting the chips where you don't want them. Pack the grease in, do your work, scoop the grease out with the chips embedded. I think that I read about it from people doing valve reliefs in their pistons.

You might consider getting a used head or used engine to use while you figure out which way you want to go. All four options described above will give a different type of car. The engines are surprisingly durable compared to 70s domestic engines, and used parts still have a lot of life in them, even with lots of miles. You could probably get back on the road for under $200. I bought my car not running because I thought I might put a V8 in it. But after I got the stock engine running well and drove it around, I lost the urge. A V8 car is a totally different beast. By the way, I think that you'd get more feedback if your thread didn't have the huge pictures in it. I don't even want to open it anymore because it takes too long to load all of the images.

Coincidentally, this thread came up on another site - ECU question - HybridZ Referencing this page - XenonS130 - ECU Information

Thanks mjr. Kudos are hard to come by... Good luck with the car, it's not exactly clear what exactly you fixed though. Was it just the timing being off and a vacuum leak? Bad distributor? Just needed a good tune-up?