Free280Z

I was looking into why it runs good cold then doesn't. I put in a new cold start valve, that helped a lot, the old one was leaking steadily. I had the great idea of adjusting the AFM. If you don't hold on to the "gear" part in the back you make more work for you self when you loosen the bolt, ask me how I know. Nmad! I finaly got that worked out. I found my nemesis! The rubber elbow that is attached to the automatic transmission for vacuum signal from the intake manifold had a big crack in it. I replaced it and got good engine running and the transmission now works correctly. Now I have a weird "reed" sound at idle, like "errrrrrrrrr"(imagine a clarinet, I think its in the key of at idle. If I adjust the idle up it goes away, if I adjust to low, it goes away. I think I need to take it apart and clean it. I need a new Idle Air Regulator, I have the classic "turn in off and if you start it again soon, it acts like it is missing for 20 seconds then smooths out" issue. I had already cleaned it. Need new one. I recently took the car on its first interstate shake down cruise. I was going 70 in line with traffic. I was pleased with how if you breathe on the accelerator you will pass all those cars. On one "passing event" I looked down and was going 110, I should have been paying attention. I recently bought a front/rear rebuild kit form ZCar for the suspension. I am saving up for the struts and stuff. I bet that will make one lleh of a difference going down the road.

I have the old girl humming along now.

The picture above that has the caliper on the stove illustrates how clean you can get them if you wash them with a brush and mineral spirits and then wash them in soap and water. I baked them at 200 degrees when the wife wasn't looking (as if she uses the stove) and if they are truly clean a little fine surface rust is unavoidable. Directly above, the third picture is supposed to illustrate ANTI-SEIZE EVERYTHING. I find it trippy that the rear wheel cylinders have one piston so it has to slide back and forth for pressure contact. Now, imagine me, a complete N00b, putting the wheel cylinder one and trying to figure out what is wrong. IT SHOULDN'T MOVE!! Yes, it should. Really ingenious, saves weight and performs the correct function. That is why the dust cover is so big. By the way, if another N00b is reading this a little silicone lube at the right spots really helps getting it into place. That and not forgetting to put it on when you install the cylinder.

Messed that one up too. Check out that old caliper! One pad has no friction material left. I went cheap with the parts for economy reasons and figured the initial front pads were sacrificial anyway as I had no money for new rotors and bearings.

This is the initial scene, not much Cow Bell.

ooooo, I messed that up. Y'all know what your look'in at though.

Notice the color difference once I cleaned them with mineral spirits

You can't tell from the picture, but the bumper ends are cracked in the accordion section in a couple of places so I didn't save them. I didn't even think of using a rattle can cap to cap the fuel tank! That is a good idea. Time has passed and I got a large gift card from where I work so I was able to put brakes on it about three weeks ago. It went better than I expected for the car's age. But before that, a buddy helped my put some strip rubber in the rack and pinion mounts and it really drives a lot better. It's not enough to compensate for the tire's 14 year old flat spots but it took the shimmy out. I had been driving it around town on the hand brake just to keep everything working. I haven't had any fuel issues, yet, and the pre-pump filter is still looking good. I have put about 25 miles on it lately now that I have full working brakes! woo hoo! I tell ya, even though the suspension rebuild will have to be next, it drives and has the road feel I hoped it wood. Oh yeah, right after I put brakes on it, I put some used tires on it. That was like stepping into a different universe as far as road feel goes. mmmmm round tires that have been balanced.... I also did some research here and replaced the coolant temperature sensor and am getting a LOT better gas mileage. Runs better too. I'm still tracking down a weird miss though. Idles smooth as cat tihs when cold, then it warms up and get an intermittent miss. I am initially going to look into air regulator issues, fuel pressure test/fuel regulator issues and a possible vacuum leak at the evap canister. Other than that, it runs great going down the road. Man is it low geared though (coming from a modern car perspective), but you roll into the throttle and it just goes! It really scoots off the line if you get on it. It's three speed automatic transmission shifts high too, that just makes it sound cool what with a couple of holes in the muffler. Should it have to get to 4500 rpm to go into third? I bet y'all that have Z's that in very good working order have a hell of a time driving around. Well that's the update. ON TO THE PICTURES!!!

I have been driving it around it is running good. I have to save up some money and put brakes on it. Then it will be on! Once I get the brakes straight I will start to work on the suspension..... or maybe put the 5 speed in it. Here are some pictures of the '77 that I had laying around.

At night idling with lights on. It was a big deal. I made every one come and look. Only the wife appreciated it.

This is a picture of the the disposal drain plug I cut up to use as a seal for the fuel sender hole. The black thing in the fill inlet is a ball **** (?) for a toilet that has the flush mechanism that pulls straight up through the cover on the tank. Both of these solutions will not provide a 100% seal on the tank but will work better than you think to control the acid during the "acid flush" method of removing rust. That method work very very well for me. I wish I had the time to take pictures at the time but I was concerned about the acid over burning the tank. The one picture is of the tank masked up when I went to spray it with some duplicolor undercoating stuff in a spray can.

New injectors in and some rubber lines replaced. Notice the bullet connector that go to the water temp sensor. When I cleaned these it started running correctly. This was also before I used black silicone to seal some fine cracks in the AFM to throttle body bellows. I'm not sure if it help but it couldn't have hurt.

This is a picture of an old injector, it was so rusted it cracked the plastic. Still worked, sort of.

That picture took way to long to upload. It is, however a picture of the injector seals being old and clapped out.

here are some pictures. Maybe I can figure out how to put words with them. Your going to have to wait. I took pictures with an i(idiot)phone. I will have to resize them so they aren't so large.

NCOLZ :The use of vise grips on a tubing wrench to prevent flexing is absolute genius, I will use that tip.

I put 400,193.2 miles on a 1991 honda civic DX hatchback and gave the still running good car away to a friend. Castrol 10-w30 was the only oil used. I gave it away because I got a different ride and after you have that much seat time in a car you do get sick of it.

Mean while 3 months later. . . . . I put the tank back in. I found some duplicolor brand "undercoating" spray at my local Freds store. I brushed/sanded the tank down good and gave 'er a good wipe down with some thinner, sprayed it and put it back in. Since it's back in I have had the luxury of firing it up when ever I feel like. I have been doing it every week to keep things going. I put in a fuel filter before the pump, just in case. I also replaced the vent hose and the hose that goes to the evap system. I used CLR on the fuel level sender and it worked out find, the gauge works. . .if I had to do it again I may have just filled it up with CLR. And so it goes. The other day (about 4 weeks ago) I had it running and decided to run it around the yard. The hand brake works. . . . . . I had done that a few time ( the wife does not appreciate my experiments regarding a independent rear suspension pulling on both wheels despite not having a locker) so I decided I may run around the block. I got to the corner, about 400 ft, and it died. I towed it back and removed some gunk from the pump. Yes, I know I put a filter in, but what you don't know is what happened before that. I'm not telling that story. The next week I drove it around town on the hand brake and a 14 year old tag. I can't describe my enjoyment. It shimmys like hell at 60 because it has worn rack and pinion bushings but it was fun driving it. So here I am at the next stage. Brakes. I had considered doing the toyota/maxima bracket upgrade but I am going stock. I will have to save up though, so stay tuned. I think I will do the Maxi fuse upgrade also. Hard to tell. I have got to get some tires in the mean time also. I have ultimately to put 16x7's on it with 215 50/55's. It seems like a conservative combination. If that sounds stupid let me know.

I also vote for a bad ground.

What's shaken bacon. Ahhhhh, so spring has sprung. The small diameter lug on the fuel pump is the positive. . . . Got it running! The original injectors where completely shot. I got a new set of injectors, full tune up, new thermostat, air filter, fuel filter, oil change and new radiator hoses. I got all that stuff at Rock Auto and got a free injector upgrade due to their mistake. At around this same time I finished finding and replacing ALL rubber lines under the hood. I purged the fuel system and it ran better than it ever had. Initially I had a rich running problem so I searched around here (classic Z cars) and finally did the computer harness test procedure as is recommended in the fuel injection manual. Guess what, bad connection to the temp sensor. The De-Oxit product that you can get at radio shack does work as advertised on corroded terminals. Once I got that handled it fired right up and runs absolutely great. It is a feeling of a type of elation when it fired off. It just started up, and idled. I let it warm up and revved it around some. I guess me fiddling with the head light switch knocked some gunk off and now the head lights work. I have been starting it every weekend on the lawn mower gas can to keep everything working. It really runs Great! It has a hole in the second muffler and has a nice raspy sound at 5800 rpm witch I'm sure the neighbors can appreciate <humor>. Absolutely thrilling. I put it in gear with the hand brake on and the trans does engage in all positions. But what about the gas tank with the 14 year old fuel in it you say? And the 45 day time frame. Well hope does spring eternal doesn't it. Long story short, I did the muratic acid flush followed by the phosphoric acid flush. You can find directions to do this in a million different places on the 'net. It works. That is enough said. I didn't let the phosphoric set in long enough on all sides though so I have to redo that part. After the treatment, tank had been sitting in the shed for a week before I checked on the rust situation. The part where the phosphoric sat long enough on the bottom of the tank is still primer gray but the top has light surface rust. I really am impressed by the effectiveness of the acid method on getting the gunk out. My tank wasn't the worst, but pretty bad. I could put back on the car and put in a pre-filter before the pump and all would be well but I have it out and it's too easy to redo it. Also, once I redo it and get it running on its own tank I really could drive it around the block on the hand brake. I put some brake fluid in and I have the smallest amount of pedal. I hope it's enough to bleed the system. I don't care if the seals leak right now, it would be good to have some brakes on the initial cruise through the neighborhood.

Got out there and finished putting fuel lines/injectors on the car. The fuel pump is seized again, so instead of messing with it I bought one from AutoZone. Its no OEM so there are some differences. The new pump's terminals are the same size, you have to cut the original stuff off and put on the supplied terminals. Does anyone know, off hand, if the small or the large terminal is the positive? Can you believe that I took this whole week off to fiddle with the car and stuff and broke my foot on Monday. As a result I won't be working on it for a while. . . unless I can get my wife to help, that's why I ask about the original terminals, she can do it but I can't under there to test which terminal is power. Any help is appreciated.

My brother and I were driving down the road. . . we were getting out of the house while a baby shower was going on. A 260 passed us so we followed it. There was an impromtoue meeting of Japanese cars. I got a contact for local people who have parts and stuff . Very cool. I have completed the replacement of vacuum lines under the hood as well as 60% of the fuel lines so far.

Thanks Kenz240z Today is November 13th. I am off next week, so is my wife. If you knew her you would be jealous, she is very good help. Tomorrow, Saturday, I will hook up the injectors but not connect them to the engine so I can see if the are firing. I have been able to save up some money, I should be able to replace them all if need be. . . ( I have removed th injectors and soaked them). It is late on Friday night, or more appropriately Saturday morning. . I do fear that I have been bitten by the Z bug. I have a lot of work to do the car but I am driven. Once I have it idling properly I can move on to bigger things. I do appreciate any one responding to my posts. If I get it running good enough on Saturday, I will drive it through town using only the hand brake I will let you know how it goes.

Ola Amigos, I know its been a while since I rapped at 'ya. Well. . . . Over the Labor Day weekend my friend and I got out there and completed the changing of the hoses. We were purging the fuel system and IT FIRED UP!, accidentally. Rough idle. Runs good over 3800 rpm. I haven't had time to work on it. Last week I put a salvage tire on the left rear so I could push it around. I got to looking. . . these things are notorious for being sensitive to vacuum leaks. Well under the hood its all vacuum leak. I have been changing hoses ( fuel and vacuum ) , this weekend I will fire it up and see if it runs better. I had been thinking that may be I have a stuck injector or two, but with all the vacuum leaks I found I think I may try it again. ( The line to the distributor advance was hanging loose) I hope that vacuum leaks were making it run poorly at idle/low rpm.

So, last Saturday I took the fuel pump out and and soaked it in a 50/50 mixture of Sea Foam and gas, disassembled of course, for about 3 hours in a disposable bread baking pan. Cleaned up every thing and the pump runs. Unbelievable. It had what looked like tar in it. I tried cranking it after I put it back in and replaced SOME of the fuel lines and didn't get anywhere. Hopeful try. I took the intake hose from the pump and put it in the lawn mower gas can and turned it over until clean gas exited from the disconnected line in the engine bay. Cool. Then I removed the return at the engine and did the same. I discovered the return is clogged somewhere from the engine bay to the tank (probably at the old line going back into the tank) but I tried to start it anyway. It was trying to start! I went back to the pump area to make sure things where OK. I had a massive fuel leak in the dampener to hard line hose.I mentioned I only changed SOME of the hoses right? Welllll, I was sick of smelling 14 year old gas and me smelling like old gas so I "buttoned it up" (connected pump to tank, put lawn mower gas back, etc.) and was going to have a shower when I remembered that I had seen pecans in the intake tube of the air box. Yes, pecans.... and some acorns. So I took the filter out, with the pecans and other stuff and tried it again. It actually hit solid (remember the pump is hooked back to the gas tank that doesn't seem to be passing fuel at this stage)! It REALLY sounded like it wanted to start. I know what I am going to do next weekend. Sooo, what is the tar-like stuff. I think its degraded fuel line. Does anyone have any experience here?