Captain Obvious

LOL!!

What are the critical features of that part? Is it the kind of thing that could be hogged out of a solid chunk of brass or aluminum? Is there a reason it must be plastic?

Annoying for me because it was so littered with ads and crap that I couldn't even get through it! There were ads on top of some of the answer buttons and I couldn't make them go away. Then the whole thing ground to a halt and restarted. I gave up when it did it a second time. I don't know how many questions there were in total, but I was doing 100% before I frustrated enough that I decided I didn't need something like that to evaluate my automotive prowess. I got better things to do.

LOL. I blame aliens. Good luck with the project and keep us informed as to the progress!

I don't think you should be able to get the car to even run if the linkage is all the way pulled off. I think if the adjustment screws are all backed out so far that they aren't making contact, then the butterflies should be shut so much that the engine can't even get enough air to idle. I'm wondering if something is put together wrong, or if someone messed with the "never adjust these" stop screws on the carbs. Can you take a couple decent res pics of the linkage?

Those switches just snap in with little plastic fingers kinda holding them in from underneath. Most times they aren't in there very tight and you can just pull them out from up top. If the console is out of the car, you can reach underneath and squeeze the plastic retaining fingers and make it easier. But even with the console in the car, they usually aren't that tight. I'm thinking that someone spilled some Slurpee some years ago and they're stuck in there from sugar syrup.

Yup, that capped off nipple just behind the dome is where the distributor should be connected. And, since you're in there.... That same nipple is also where the control line to the CARB canister is supposed to be connected. That ported vacuum source off the front carb is supposed to drive both the distributor and the carbon can. So if you're in there messing around in that area, you might as well plumb a new line over to control your canister at the same time? As for the dyslexia and the fast idle control device... The engine idle RPM will drop when you turn the A/C on because of the additional load, but I don't know if it's enough to cause a problem. The original designers thought it was an issue though, as indicated by the existence of the device. However, I don't know if they were just trying to keep the RPM constant, or if they were trying to bump the RPM's up to do something else like improve cooling by pulling more air through the condenser and radiator. In any event, if connecting it up correctly is a PITA, then I would just try it the way it is and see what happens. If your engine stalls when you hit the A/C then you'll know you need to do something else?

Well I certainly won't claim to be an expert, but I have some input anyway. Yes, your throttle opener is plumbed incorrectly. You have the input and output switched on the control valve. I wouldn't know for sure if the throttle opener control valve would be bi-directional, but I doubt it. I (like you) suspect that with it connected the way you have it, it's not doing anything at all. And same for the vapor recovery carbon canister system... With the control signal capped off over at the can like you have it, the purge function is disabled. Not mission critical, but sooner or later, the activated charcoal inside the can will eventually saturate and no longer be able to contain the fuel vapors. Neither of the above have much (if any) performance impact or affect the engine running in any way. So, other input about things you didn't ask about? The thing that concerns me the most is that you have your vacuum advance for the distributer connected to the wrong source, and if you set the ignition timing like that, then it's set incorrectly. The vacuum advance should be connected to the small vacuum nipple right behind the round dome on the front carb. It's a ported source, not a constant source and there will be no vacuum present at idle. Other than that... The thing that concerns me the least? It's not "FCID"... It's FICD. Stands for "Fast Idle Control Device"

Their estimated value of the vehicle is $33,000!! That's awesome!! Mine must be worth at least twice that!!

@heyitsrama , You got any good board stories?

Almost done. Infinitely better than what I have on the car now!

So in summary.... There aren't a lot of different donut spare sizes. The only 14 inch version I found was T115/70/14. (Don't get the 15 inch spare. Won't fit.) You can get the space saver with the correct lug pattern and probably use it on the rear right from the yard. But it probably won't fit in the front. If it doesn't fit over the front calipers, your choices are to move the tire to a different wheel (like I did), or in the event of a front flat, move one of your rear wheels up front and use the space saver on the rear.

Haha! You like that? Here's another shot so you can get the full visual impact of that donut: But the important part is that even when fully inflated, it fits in the 77-78 spare tire well:

I put the reworked donut spare on and drove around a little bit. Nothing scrapes. Now don't get me wrong... The car feels terrible with that spare installed and the steering wheel doesn't even sit straight, but it would get me to the next exit in the event of a flat. And it looks so sexy!!

I'm an excellent driver.

The typical donut spares are fully inflated when not in use. Pull 'em out and slap 'em on. And that's what I have with mine. Assuming mine has been holding air properly since the last time I looked at it, it should be ready to use without having to inflate it when I pull it out. And with the stock brakes, that was an option with the space saver spare that I bought from the junkyard. Right out of the yard with no mods, it fit OK on the back over the rear drum, but wouldn't clear the front calipers. So if I had a flat on the front, I could have pulled a rear wheel first and then moved that rear to the front. But the last thing I want to do when changing a wheel in an emergency situation is to have to do it twice. Along the side of a highway... once is bad enough. So for me, it was worth the extra effort and piece of mind to move the space saver rubber over to a different wheel that would fit on either front or rear.

I don't know, but the guy with the skull shirt looks like Jesse. I'm betting that Walt is in the camper cooking.

Haha!! Seriously though, that pan looks great. Way more effort than (even I think) necessary, but that's clearly how you roll.

Sorry for the delay. I haven't been on-line much over the past few days. Some details about my spare tire project... What I ended up using was a 115/70/14 tire from something in a junkyard. I don't remember what it came from, but it was probably a Nissan product. Older Sentra or Maxima probably. I bought it because it had the right 4x4.5 lug pattern. Problem was... I tried it on my car and it fit OK on the back but wouldn't clear the front calipers. So I took the tire off the space saver spare and had it remounted on the narrowest wheel I could find that had the correct offset and would clear the front calipers. The wheel I used came from an early (65) roadster) and it is four inches wide I didn't move the space saver tire over to the 280 original spare wheel because I was worried that the 280 spare wheel was too wide. The space saver tire was originally on a four inch wide rim and the original 280 spare wheel is five inches wide. I wasn't comfortable stretching that narrow tire out to a five inch wide rim. I think you could use a 4.5 inch wide rim, but since I was in there messing around anyway, I took the opportunity to make it as narrow as possible so I could drop the false wood floor down and gain some more cargo head-room back there. I ended up dropping the floor level about an inch-and-a-half.

@Av8ferg Working on it. I'm thinking with enough time, it won't suck.

Nice. I'd hit it.

Absolutely. Just don't get your hopes up for something awesome. I can definitely make something infinitely better than what you and I already have, but that's the only promise I'll make.

Thanks G. Haha!! I started messing around with it last night. About a half hour into it. I'm not expecting perfection, but I should be able to come up with something that will be a million times better than the non-existent labels I have now. In fact, (since it's a divide by zero error) anything I come up with will be INFINATELY better than what I have now! :

Can you take another pic of the label(s) with the lettering upright? Is there even a label on the front block?

Yup. Nice pic. That fits with the previous discussion about the 77 and 78's. You can see where someone wrote "REAR" on the 24020-N4701 block (the one for the headlights and EFI and ignition relay). And you can see the larger gauge R/W wire on the other 24020-N4700 block where the larger black link is installed.