Zed Head

I think, but am not sure, that one of those red wires is a dedicated ground wire for the EFI harness. The other is the power wire. If that is true, then you don't have a complete circuit for some of the components of the EFI harness. I think that you can confirm which is which by finding one of the components that is fed by the white wire in your wiring diagram and testing continuity back to the one of the red wires. But, yes, I think that you should have one red to positive and the other to negative. I just looked at my 76 to be sure. I wouldn't connect anything until I knew which red wire was which. From what I've read, it's not uncommon to be fooled by the red ground wire. Edit - I just looked at Saridout's wiring harness diagram and the red ground wire is shown leading from the battery negative. It should be also connected to body ground so you should have had a direct short if you connected your battery cables with those wires connected like that. Unless it's already been damaged in the past. According to the diagram, the red ground wire also connects to Pins 16, 17 and 35 at the ECU connector, and one of the legs of the water temperature sensor circuit. Don't guess and connect. My harness has some charred wires from POs' wiring work. 2nd Edit - actually it's shown in your copied wiring diagram also. A wire from the negative through a connector and on to 16, 17 and 35, etc. Both "R" for red.

You picture doesn't show where those wires connect. One of those red wires supplies your EFI harness (injectors ECU and relays), the other is a ground and connects to the negative post. The one from the positive terminal should have a green fusible link. If you can't get a link, consider an inline fuse holder. The green link is estimated at 40 amps. I would first determine which of those is the ground and which feeds the EFI harness, fix them up right,then continue testing. I don't think that you can test the circuits right until you get power to the relays.

When you say "axles" do you mean the axles that "clip" in to the differential or the drive shafts (commonly called half-shafts)? I believe that the 280Z axles will work if the 4.11 LSD has the groove and circlip in the splines. Some of the R180s uses bolt in axle, with a threaded "button" in the center. If yours has the groove inside, the 280Z axles will probably work, but I'm just guessing, I've never had an R180. There are some writeups on Hybrids about converting an R180 to the bolt-in style. You might do the reverse. Read about half way down the page here - http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/49194-differential-cv-lsd-hp-torque-r160-r180-r200-r230-diff-mount/ The whole thread is worth reading.

Tach needle drop first like rock or follow engine speed as car dies? Ignition versus fuel.

Nissan went to a solid all metal fuel rail in 1978. The only hose used in the rail is to connect the FPR, which is also a new design with only two ports instead of three, so if you find one you'll need the FPR also. It will bolt right on to any of the older 280zs. Not perfect, but simpler than the three piece design with all of the hose pieces and hose clamps.

There should be two fusible links more that are fed directly from the battery positive post. They are the the ones that supply power to your injectors and ECU. They're green.

Since you're looking for WAGs, how about the E12-80 module. From what I've read, and experienced, the electronic ignition modules seem to show different signs when they fail, but they all seem to have high RPM in common as a mode to bring on the failure signs.

Use search term "brake booster". All will become clear.

It might be just twisted and stuck on the mounting bracket or has undercoating gluing it in place. Wire brush the accumulated crud and give it a hard wiggle and it should pop free. But your picture does look a little odd. I have a 280 so don't know what the 240s look like, but my 280 doesn't look like that picture. It looks like there is some kind of sleeve over the end of the mounting bracket. Maybe even with a tack weld on it. Someone might have modified it so that they could tighten up the fitting. If the hose turns in the mounting bracket it can be a pain to get things tight.

There is actually a square-shaped piece of metal mounted to the the distributor body that fits in to a square hole on the bottom of the cap. The cap only fits one way. Apparently you only got one clip to lock. If the cap has been beat up while you cranked the engine, you might have done some damage to the rotor or the cap. Better take a close look at it. zKars is right, you'll need to understand a little more about the basics of the fuel injection system before you get it started, let alone running well. When was the last time the engine ran?

I'm not sure how the FPR mechanism would allow your fuel pressure to jump that high when you remove the vacuum hose, maybe some debris in the orifice, but that is very high fuel pressure. If that reading is correct, that is the pressure the injectors would see whenever you press the gas pedal to accelerate. It won't hurt anything to let the pressure sit at 40-50 psi. You should recheck it with the vacuum hose off to confirm. Without the hose it should be in the vicinity of 36 psi. I would check the FSM procedure for testing the water temp sensor and test it at the ECU. For some reason they split the tests up in to one description for continuity at the ECU, and another with actual readings at the sensor. Just take the resistance readings at the ECU and see if they fit the temperature chart in the FSM.

Fuel pressure just under 30 at idle sounds okay. Why didn't you give a number for no vacuum hose, instead of "really high"? The 1977 FSM Adobe file is harder to use than the other years since it's not broken in to chapters, but if you can find the Engine Fuel section, there are some great diagrams of where to place the probes at the ECU connector (with a numbered pin picture), how to set your meter, and what resistance values you should see. The 76 and 78 test methods are the same so you could download one of those FSMs to make it easier. Practice measuring resistance across a light bulb filament or similar if you aren't familiar with using a meter. There might be a water temperature switch up there also (there is for 76, not sure about 77). Make sure that you have the right bullet connectors. The switch is either open or closed based on temperature and determines which pickup coil the ignition system uses (if you have the dual pickup distributor you should have the water temp switch).

If you had read the Emissions section of the FSM, obtained from the links sent or the offer to send one directly to you, you'd know that the valve circled in yellow is part of the EGR control system. There's pictures and everything.

Sounds like your Foreign car machine shop guy knows too much about the wrong things.

Use the search function. Read a lot more. Be as descriptive as possible in your posts. Put some effort in to good grammar and spelling (i hav do direct wire it), you'll get more help. Download the FSM and read the Engine Fuel section - http://www.xenons130.com/reference.html Do the tests that fit your problem. Good luck.

I took apart an N47 manifold from a 78 parts car a little while ago and I was surprised at the "sand" also. There was quite a bit inside. Wasn't really sure if it was casting sand or some sort of exhaust residue. I searched around and have seen it proposed that it was actually lead residue but that seems unlikely since they started phasing lead out in the early 70s. Maybe there are other gasoline components that will deposit in the exhaust system. If you take out of one those allen head plugs you'll probably see a small port in to the intake manifold passage. There is one below each runner. They're very difficult to get out though, I never got one loose. Many people just close the EGR passage off and use the manifold, but the hole to close is much smaller. I blocked mine but haven't reused the engine yet.

I'm not positive for the early blocks, but I think that if you look at your engine block, right above the starter, just below the head/block interface, you'll see a flat pad with some letters and numbers stamped in to it. L24, L26 or L28 are usually the first three symbols. The engine serial number follows. If the numbers match those on the ID plate on the strut tower, you have a "numbers matching" engine/body combo. If not, at least you'll have an idea what engine you have.

These manifolds don't have a heat riser like small-block chevy engine carburetor manifolds do, for example. That passage is the EGR gas passage, if I'm looking at what I think I am (the closeup view makes it hard to be sure) and if you don't block the hole, you'll have a vacuum leak directly in to the intake manifold. Someone else on this forum had a similar problem, but the hole was not that big. Same effect though.

One possibility is your water temperature sensor. Resistance in the circuit will lead the ECU to adjust for a cold engine and dump more gas. Another possibility is your FPR. My 1976 car's FPR regulated pressure high when it got hot. Measure fuel pressure when the engine and FPR are hot, but be aware that the oil-filled gauges can be inaccurate when they're hot so make sure the gauge is cool.

It's a 3.9 open. Came from the same ZX as the 5 speed. I'll be spending more time in the low RPM range. I don't think that I've had my engine up to 6000 RPM, let alone 6500. With my stock 76 280Z setup, it's time to shift at about 5500 if you're really pushing it. I do feel the bog from 2 to 3 though with the 78 transmission.

Good news. By amazing, you mean the tighter, more evenly space 1 - 4 gears? Are you still using the 3.54 differential the 1976s come with? I have an 83 5 speed that I'll be putting in soon, but mainly because the 78 5 speed I'm using is making some bearing noise. Still debating on 3.54 or 3.9 rear gears, I have each. My gut says I should find a 3.7 though.

Somebody has to have a four speed sitting in the garage, left over after the typical five speed swap. I know I do, but I'm in Oregon. They usually go for cheap, I just saw one on the Portland CL for $25. You should be able to keep your pressure plate, throwout collar, and fork combination and be good to go. Just swap the transmission. The other critical dimension would be the distance of the fork pivot ball from the slave cylinder, which you should be able to verify before installation, but I'm not sure if it changes after they started using the F4W71B case. The distance was the same on my 76 4 speed, 78 5 speed and 83 5 speed. From my reading it seems that all of the trans swap problems come from finding the right combination of pressure plate height and throwout bearing collar. If your combo works, keep using it. You might need to change the speedometer gear if the the donor car had a different rear gear ratio. The speedo gear needs to match the differential.

The answer to that question is on Hybridz also. Hard to miss. Some of the relevant posts come with a cool picture.

By "shop manual" do you mean the FSM? The FSM has a big wiring diagram in the back and a smaller wiring diagram n the Electrical section that should show you where the wires are attached, with drawings and descriptions of what the components do. A 1979 or 80 280ZX FSM should show the E12-80 module. You will probably find that you only need a jumper from coil positive to the module positive and the coil negative only connects to module negative. The module controls current through the coil by "gating" the flow through the negative terminal of the coil. You would only need to modify the ballast connections if you are changing the coil. But you can do that as a separate operation. An ohm/volt meter is useful also for determining what wires are grounded and which have power. Typically there is a black ground wire from a distributor mounting bolt to ground, to ensure a good ground for the module. Your question doesn't tell where the black wire comes from. You could also search a little more, I'm almost positive there's a write-up out there about putting the ZX distributor on an early 240Z.

I took Blue's suggestion on the AtlanticZ site and beat the pin back and forth with a hammer to get it started, using an old mag wheel lug nut (same thread as the pin) on the ends to save the threads (at least that's what was proposed but apparently he actually cut it out with a Sawzall). Squirted PB Blaster in the lock pin hole and around each end and just worked it back and forth. It got looser and looser with each beating (and I do mean "beating"). I did destroy a couple of old lug nuts though, in the process. After that, I didn't have a puller, so I used a long bolt with the end ground down to a blunt point to save the threads and beat it the rest of the way out. FWIW, I also found that one big problem with beating the pin out, which the puller doesn't have, is that if it's stuck in the bushing (not the strut housing or knuckle), the rubber of the bushing will pull it back in the hole after you get it moved. If you're replacing the bushing, you can just use a torch and burn the rubber to get it out. But that's off-topic - The puller holds the pin in place after it moves so you won't have that problem. But people should be aware that the pin can get just as stuck in the inner bushing as in the cast iron housing. At least one of mine was. PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench for all pin surfaces.