Wade Nelson

'It was running when I parked it..." "The check is in the mail" "I promise I won't come in your mouth..."

Carry a can of starting fluid with ya. If it'll start on faux fuel, then it's an ignition problem. You've got to determine if it's on the fuel or ignition side before you can go to step 2. The fact that you JUST FILLED UP suggests to me you got a load of water in your gas, or debris which clogged the fuel filter. If faux fuel doesn't allow it to start, pull a plug wire and see if you get an arc. If not, check from the coil to the distributor. No arc out of the coil, check the connector on the distributor and see if it's loose.

Suggest you start by putting a vacuum gauge on it to make sure you don't have a sticking valve or other mechanical problem.

Wiring for the ejection seat squib.

I'd always assumed they were just a myth, some factory 1-off or 5-off and not a real vehicle.

No, you don't want to swap in an old, used harness. Out of ANYTHING! Go find a new GENERIC harness on eBay or whereever. You want brand new wires that are too long and not too-short requiring splicing. You want brand new insulation not cracked and heat-baked insulation on 20 (40?) year old wires. Buried inside EVERY old harness are hidden splices and "stuff" that will take you hours if not DAYS to figure out why 12V is showing up where it shouldn't be. You'll invest more effort debugging THAT than you would to build a new harness wire by wire. One single broken or melted wire in an old harness and you are SNAFU. Or you can proceed as planned and wring your hands later going "Some auto electrical dude on the Internet WARNED me against doing this...." Now go buy a heat gun and tons of heat shrink tubing and do it right so that running through a puddle doesn't short out your entire lighting system. And give EVERY single crimp you make the pull test BEFORE you heat shrink it! Good luck!

What did I find under the seat? A hole in the floorboard where the rear crosslink was supposed to be bolted up. Not good! Took a fair amount of fabrication and welding to put something in there STIFF enough to provide a good mounting point. That DID explain the cold drafts passengers complained about...

I know this is a Z site. But this beauty is about to roar her way into my garage. Always dreamed of owning a '68. The 4 slats on the side are the giveaway that she's a '68. I remember drooling over a canary yellow one as a schoolkid at Clayton Chevrolet in Arab Alabama, in 1968. Price THEN was $5200, SAME as what my father was paying for a behemoth wagon for my mom to haul schoolkids in. I BEGGED Dad to get the Vette instead! Needs a LOT of work although the powertrain is brand new, bored out 350 and Turbo Hydramatic 400, new fuel tank, exhaust. Machined heads, hardened seats, .060 over, starts on the first crank. New Deamon carb, (can anyone tell me anything about these?) Nothing else works, inoperative pass door handle, AC in a box, leaking brake caliper on one wheel, electrical a mess, vacuum headlights SNAFU, inop cowl slider to expose wipers, ... a lot to be done. A whole lot. Needs a nice paint job although from 50' away it looks good "as is." Rally wheels, Quadrajet, and OEM taillights (in good shape!) in a box...along with a lot of other oem parts... Numbers do NOT match....yeah, big deal, right? Who besides the $50,000 restoration crowd gives a RA about matching #'s... My goal is a daily driver...yes, despite her classic status, I buy these things to drive them, not to store (and prepare) them for the NEXT guy... I observe the vacuum advance on the dizzy isn't even connected, meaning there may be another 20-40 horsepower available for the price of some vacuum hose or a dizzy advance rebuild... coil is miswired with the ballast resistor sitting disconnected on the firewall.....clearly some amateurs have been at work here... But you should hear her roar. Manual steering and brakes. T-tops, rear window pops out for convertible effect... Beautiful (if non-original wheels with good rubber) Get this --- NO SEAT BELTS!!! Paid $10,000. What do you think? Deal of the century or am I a complete sucker?

If that's the worst mistake you make restoring a vintage sports car you're ahead of most of us. The thing ya gotta do is make some friends at a garage. Go down there, talk to them, take them pizza, donuts, beer @ 5pm. Never visit empty-handed. Even if they consider you a pain in the butt they'll welcome the food and tolerate your endless questions. Show them your progress. Take stuff down there you can't figure out how to take apart without breaking, or how to re-assemble. Then when you tell them you're gonna bend some new brake lines they'll offer to show you how and in 30 seconds you DISCOVER about double flaring... and they might even lend you their tool. Tell them EVERYTHING you're gonna do BEFORE you do it, order parts, etc. They'll give you advice that will save you a small fortune, direct you towards specialty shops, rebuilders, etc.

Start her up and have someone hold a big thick rag up against your tailpipe. See if you can hear any leaks. I find extending the tailpipe 8-10" beyond the rear of the car works wonders for both noise AND fumes getting sucked in, even ifyou catch your pants on it every time you open the hatch. But it allows you to have a louder exhaust system that gets quieter the faster you go.] I just don't think you should be getting fumes in the cockpit. How's the rubber seal around your shifter? Hatch seal. Whatever it takes, make it go away before it makes YOU go away!

Huntsville Alabama, white 280Z with no rear bumper, rocker panel stripes of some sort, headed into the GHS parking lot, I assume, for Baptist Church parking.

I know better than to get involved in THIS discussion, ....

With a properly sealed exhaust system you shouldn't have ANY smell in the cockpit. Fix your leak(s) instead. Put a new seal on your rear hatch, if necessary. If you just slap a catalytic converter (hereafter: cat) onto a vehicle not designed to have one, here's what'll happen. For a month or so it's gonna work great. It'll convert CO to C02 and N0 to N02. You wont' see black smoke or smell a thing. Then at some point it's either going to plug up with carbon (from running slightly rich) or else the core / pellets will melt down from running lean, and the slag may completely block your exhaust flow. That's why cars with cats have 02 sensors; to keep the fuel mixture (rich/lean) within a very narrow range to prevent damage to the cat. Some will intentionally run lean awhile, to accumulate oxygen in a 3-way cat, then utilize that stored 02 to "clean up" a rich mixture when accelerating hard, etc. The type of cat you have - 2way, 3-way, oxidizing, reducing...DEPENDS on the software programmed into the ECM. The two work in harmony, or are SUPPOSED to. This is one reason why AFTERMARKET cats so often fail when installed in OEM applications. Or only keep the check engine light off for a short time before it comes back on. Yes, there were a few early vehicles fitted with cats without 02 sensors. And no, they probably didn't last very long, and they were also probably of a very specific design, open flow, intended to accept mixture extremes. So in a word, FUGGEDABOUDIT! Fix your manifold or exhaust leak and quit gassing yourself!

I'd want to find out if there are any reasons WHY you keep springing leaks. Like electrolysis. Or a head gasket leak. An inoperative water pump or cooling fan. A misbehaving thermostat. I'd start with a pressure test of the system. That's where cooling system repairs should begin. Next I'd use some test strips to check my coolant mix (should be 50:50 or 60:40 water/glycol) along with pH. Perhaps you just have a worn out radiator. Or perhaps not.

You can't tune a car sitting in a garage. It's how much fuel that's getting delivered under LOAD that matters. Drive, adjust, repeat.

I'd love some more information on the altitude switch. Specifically, I'd like to know if ALL ECM's from that era are wired (or programmed) to accept inputs from an altitude switch, or just select ones. Why? I live at altitude but don't have the altitude switch in my 1980 ZX. I'd like to HARD WIRE the ECM to lean the mixture out, or put a toggle switch in, should I drive to lower altitude. Such an input could be used for other purposes as well--- for example using negative logic, turning OFF enleanment during hard acceleration. What do I need? Pin #'s, and someone with a compensator on their Z willing to take a few measurements, see if the switch opens or closes the circuit, etc. Thanks!

Doh! Oil from gasket/seal leaks generally flows downward and towards the rear of the car from the site of the leak. It generally does NOT flow upwards, against gravity, or towards the front of the car, against airflow. Seems fairly simple, doesn't it? If you've got a leaking rear seal, transmission rear seal, whatever, the oil can get slung in a circle AROUND that leaking seal, and perhaps drip back down, but it's generally pretty obvious what's going on from the road grime that sticks to the "circle of oil." Oil almost NEVER appears ABOVE the level of the leak, unless slung. Case in point, I take a 2000 Grand Cherokee Limited 4x4 in for a pre-purchase inspection. I observe the transfer case is covered in oil and road grime. Top to bottom, front to rear. I even take a picture of it. They diagnose a leaking "pinion" seal. They replace it. When they go to top the thing up THEN they find the crack in the side of the case. And expect me to pay for the repair/replacement despite THEIR mis-diagnosis. Case #2. Ford F-250, "apparent" leak from rear main seal. Oil dripping from bottom of bell housing. Working in the shop, I am told "REPLACE THE REAR SEAL". Carefully observe: I am NOT told to "Diagnose the source of the oil leak and fix it!" So I pull the tranny. Rear seal, inside of the bell housing is completely dry. Customer doesn't have enough money to do additional repairs. Shop owner wants me to "mislead or misdirect him" that the rear seal was leaking also and go ahead and replace it "anyway." (One more reason why I quit wrenching...) The oil was leaking from a turbo or turbo line ABOVE the bell housing. There would have been precious little way to spot it, short of knowing where to go fishing with a borescope ahead of time. It was indeed, very nearly invisible both because the oil was so clean AND the transmission blocked viewing the source. But had the tech / shop owner who "diagnosed" the oil leak looked carefully at the "spray pattern" they probably would have observed oil on the outside of the bell housing, where it was dripping down from the leaking turbo. What SHOULD have happened in both of these cases? Add some fluorescent dye, go drive the thing 10 miles, come back and put a UV light on it to see where the oil was actually coming from. Some people have eyes but can't see even if you turn off the lights. Don't think I'm on a high horse, I include myself in that group as well for numerous violations. But maybe I can save you from "joining the club..."

I appreciate the retro look, but I break the rule on car stereos. I want a modern stereo with HD FM, bluetooth, remote, MP3, the whole ball of wax. I went with the JVC. The controls seemed the most logical, AND you can dial the illumination around to any color and/or brightness you want. Like matching the 280-ZX's orange illumination.... Big round volume knob, DUH!!! You CAN, for $15, on eBay, buy a FM transmitter to plug into your Ipod and leave your antique FM radio right in the dash. With some newer, non-brittle speakers it might actually sound half decent. Or you could add an amp /EQ and actually make it sound real decent. Me, I'm driving a subwoofer and some monster speakers in the rear, 6x9's in the dope boxes, and tweeters on the A-pillars. I can really blow it out if I feel like it. The JVC allows me to CONTROL all those subs, crossovers, etc. The thing you rEALLY want these days is the ability to stream Pandora from your Iphone or Ipad into your car stereo. IMHO.

[caplock on] wHAT dID yOU sAY???

I see now why you chose "Captain Obvious" as a NIC. great post, btw. Nice to see someone willing to actually do some work, take some measurements and suggest a workable solution.

I was tasked to help install a "Painless" wiring harness in the engine bay of a '66 Mustang. Suicide might be painless, but installing one of those generic harnesses certainly is not! The results, however, given a lot of time and craftsmanship were, however, spectacular. The wiring and looms looked like a million bucks. I am glad, however, I quoted an hourly rate and not a fixed price.

Ok, I stand corrected. So the "cold" valve clearance setting on the Z engine is to ensure it will actually START when it's -20 degrees out. At zero clearance the valve risks staying slightly open, you get zero compression, hence no pumping action, so no charge to ignite getting sucked into the cylinder. Starting when cold is tricky business. A whole lot of the newer 1995 & newer Stanzas and Altimas would flood when cold started, particularly if the driver pumped the gas pedal while cranking. The excess fuel washes the oil off the cylinder walls. Compression goes to zero, and...vehicle won't start. Solution is to hold the gas pedal to the floor, the ECM senses this, goes into "clear flood" mode, injects ZERO fuel, and hopefully at least one cylinder still ignites and gets the motor running. Most cars today have "clear flood mode" programmed into the ECM. More than a few of these makes got flooded so bad we (at the dealership) would have to pull the plugs, use compressed air to dry 'em out, squirt of oil, then start. Along with giving the driver a lesson on proper cold weather starting. A tad off topic, but hopefully useful info to fellow motorheads when helping others.

Hoo boy that looks like a million dollars! You should start a service doing that for folks! Get a few spare parts to have pre-plated, valve covers, so you can turn 'em around in a few days. I'd gladly pay $500 or more to have my engine looking like that! FWIW, You can get new injector connectors on Ebay for a song. With a little black heat-shrink nobody needs to know they've been changed out.

My beloved Z sits in a bitter cold garage out in snowy Colorado awaiting my return while I putz around Huntsville Alabama taking care of family members. *sniff* Every time I see a Z of ANY vintage on the road, parked, or even in a hayfield I get a little sad. I visit Craigslist and search on Datsun occasionally just to reminisce. *sob*

I found the same exact thing; the switch responsible for turning on the injector cooling fan never tripped even after a hot soak on a hot day that clearly caused vapor locking. I searched Standard Motor Parts and others looking for a 10 degree colder thermoswitch. None was available in the same thread pattern. I wasn't ready to have a machinist build an adaptor. So I wired up a switch on the dash to manually run the fan after shutdown. What I really need is a "turbo timer" so it'll only run for X minutes after I trip it. Just haven't gotten around to it. When I manually run the fan for a few minutes it actually does reduce vapor locking. But cracking the hood open / up works even better.