Roblaw

It is a T-top. Do the floors get wet from them leaking? Is the cowl rusting out a common problem like in an S30?

I looked a '82 ZX today and I liked a lot of things about it but one. It doesn't run but that does not concern me. It has minimal rust, headliner is falling. Here's the rub, both floorboards are wet and it smells musty inside. I've owned a 280zx that leaked after a new windshield install. I currently own a 280z that leaked from the cowl rust around the intake chimney. Question. What is the most likely location of leak on one of these? One clue could be the forward edge of the dash is surface rusty. The price is right but I don't want to rebuild another cowl. I appreciate any input.

Here's what I'm dealing with.

I looked at the spring rate for the Chevette coils on Rockauto. They were close to the OEM rate Zed provided but the spring lengths were a little shorter. Steve, is the 280z rear end heavier than the 260z? I'm thinking the Chevette coils are pretty close in rate to OEM for a 280z, maybe a little softer in fact. Unless the Rockauto numbers are arbitrary. They are real cheap. I may just get some and see how it goes.

Zed, thanks for that.

Hey all, I've been searching for new rear coils for the Z. Really sags back there and front looks like a "gasser" in comparison. Seems aftermarket only offers all 4. I've read about Chevette springs but unsure about going that route. Anyone know of a good source to get stock height rear coils?

FYI. I ended up using Frost King self adhesive foam with aluminum backing for the air recirc door on the blower housing. It was just the right thickness and form fits to the door openings on either side.

Thanks but I have the parts, I just need to re-cover the air recirc flap door in the heater box and I'm ready to go.

I am going to investigate for a cowl leak.

Here's my old heater housing. That flap door with the metal plate sandwiched between 2 padded vinyl cushions has a gaping hole in it. It has pretty much disintegrated. The vinyl makes it appear intact. Any ideas on what to replace the flap's vinyl cushions with on my "new" heater housing? They are peeling off and not in very good shape. I thought about putting tile shower floor lining on it with contact cement.

Update. Got the old water control valve (formerly water c*ck) cleaned up and installed. Did not have to remove dash. Put the wire back on adjusted it, installed new hoses, clamps and tested it. No leaks, the heat now will adjust and turn off. Just waiting on the Ebay blower housing then I'll button it back up. I'm thinking about getting a belt for the AC compressor and see if I get AC too. It spins freely with my hand. I don't know why the PO disabled it but he did a lot of Jack-leg things to this car. He apparently didn't care if the car had heat or defrost, so who knows. I still need to get new tires before it's really road worthy and I'm having a dilemma: it has old Enkei rims 15x8, 0 offset and dry rotted 225/50 tires. The rear tires rub on fenders when going over bigger bumps. From what I've read, people have had success with this tire/rim combo. Do I buy the same size tires and hope they don't stick out as far past the rim as these do, or get new rims and tires I know will fit? Any thoughts?

Got the water c*ck out. Not a horrible job and I have been dreading it and finding other things to do besides IT. Other than really stiff lever movement at 1st, it has really freed up and moves quite well now. Internally it looks really good. It hasn't moved in 20 years before I bought it. I think I'm gonna reinstall with new hoses and clamps. I already ascertained that the vacuum c*ck works when I restored vacuum to it. Wish me luck.

I accomplished some Z things today, thanks to Corona-quarantine. I finally have heated water going to my cabin. I tracked down the vacuum issue for the vacuum part of the water valve (AC car). Bad part is the water c*ck lever does not operate right (difficult to slide). So, I cannot control heat. I think it will either be full blast or not at all unless I fix water c*ck. Captain O, I saw your write up about mounting one in the engine bay, and I may do something like that but I can't use the vacuum hose hole already in firewall. Plus the hose routing would be different unless I take the vacuum water valve out of the equation. Anybody work with a generic water valve that was easy to install? I guess I'm gonna have to get it working correctly. I do have OCD tendencies. Still waiting on my Ebay blower housing and switched gears a little, so recovered my seats. I had the passenger seat out anyway so I could get by body under the dash. Now all my fingers hurt. If you've ever done seat covers, you know what I mean.

There are 2 for $70 ea. shipped. Seems pretty reasonable. One with the motor but no vacuum pot, the other no motor but has vacuum pot. I'm leaning towards one with motor for redundancy reasons.

Yes, the extra wire connector goes to blower housing. Research tells me it is the heater resistor wire. My car came with AC (doesn't work) and the connector is longer and flatter, with 5 blades in it. The ones I see on Ebay are square with 4 blades. I assume they are from non-AC cars and maybe I have an extra blower speed. Anyway, it appears I can just put my resistor into the Ebay bought housing and be on my way. I will also have to transfer the vacuum pot for the fresh air door. Anything I should know about the blower housings? I think they are the same with only add on accessories for AC.

Took my fan housing off to get to the heater **** and found the housing all rusted out at the fresh air intake and flap. Looked at some on Fleabay and found some that looked like they only had one wire connector to assemble. Mine has 2 connectors. Is there a difference between AC and non-AC fan housings?

Siteunseen. I routed my PCV hoses like you did yours. Pretty cool, got rid of a small metal tube with bracket and about 4 hose clamps. Also discovered I still had the flame arrestor in my original hose. Thanks for that.

Got some under hood time with the BCDD. With key in on position and touching solenoid wire to connector it would click. With car running and wire disconnected, car would idle up at ~2k rpm. Hook the wire back up and it would settle back down to 800rpm. Turning the screw on bottom of BCDD had no effect on the high idle when solenoid wire was disconnected. Took it for a drive and the rpms would stay up when shifting and coasting, worse than before. I could pull up the pedal from underneath and it would drop, but pretty hard to drive that way. I thought I was going to have to take the TB off and clean it but when I took the linkage off it, it seemed to slam close pretty good disconnected from all throttle linkage. I checked the throttle linkage and found the FPR rubbing on the linkage. What a pain getting that to move enough for it not to rub. I cleaned up the linkage, and the balls and greased them. Low and behold, rpms drop now when letting off gas to shift. I don't know if the BCDD works or not, but it's driveable now. Also discovered I don't have dash pot on TB either.

Here's what the nut looks like. I can't turn it with my hand but it will plunge into the body of the BCDD with some resistance. It feels spring loaded or like pushing against air pressure. When I let up, it returns to the down position.

Finally reinstalled the exhaust heat shields last night after clutch install. Then I started fiddling with the BCDD and found the bolt on the bottom hanging down moves in and out freely about a 1/2 inch, kind of floppy. When pushing in, there is what could be described as soft resistance. However, the bolt can not be twisted with just my grasping fingers. Is this normal or has the bolt been completely backed out which I believe would render BCDD inop? When I get more time, i'm going to pull the TB and clean it up.

Thanks to both of you. I'll be cleaning TB in the next couple of days. Zed, funny you mentioned the PCV routing change. When I was putting the engine bits back together, I looked at pictures of 280z engine bays and noticed the PCV arrangement was different then mine. So much to learn. At least my other car obsession (Ford Maverick Grabber) is a simple beast.

My mistake. When I pulled the plug wires, all cylinders stumbled the engine except #4 cylinder.

I must have heard myself talking when I said "feels like it's missing a cylinder". I pulled plug wires one by one and engine stumbled on #4 cylinder. The wires were all shocking me too, even with rubber gloves on, super fun. So, pulled the plug, burned it with a torch (old dirtbike fouled plug trick) cleaned it up in the plug cleaner, regapped it, shot it with contact cleaner and blew it off. Drum roll please........... the car finally ran like I remember a Z running ?. So, I cleaned all the other plugs the same way just for good measure. Also going to get new wires, don't really expect that will make it run any better but at least I won't get shocked anymore. Now, on to the next problem. The car idles real high when pulling up to a stop. If I pull the pedal up with my foot, it'll calm down. Doesn't stick like this revving in the driveway. Seems like I read some threads that address this problem.. The 15 degrees max advance at idle still has me puzzled but at least it runs good now.

OK. Got some more time under the hood. When I suck real hard on the vacuum advance hose, I can hear the arm actuate in the dizzy and my tongue will be sucked in the hose and stay there until I pull it off. Seems good. With the light hooked up, revving the engine, timing advances from 8 degrees at idle to off the timing scale. Seems good. So, I advance the timing. It maxes out at 15 degrees at idle with dizzy turned to the stops. Took it on a run with this timing and no appreciable difference in power. Idle was a little higher but no seat of the pants pull/torque. Revs past 5K without issue but slow getting there. Feels like it's missing cylinder or multi cylinder inputs. Engine wants to stall when oil cap is removed. Does any of this spark anyone's brain synapses?

Zed, it may be running rich. The plugs are black/sooty but not wet. It was running pig rich or more like not really running at all after warmup until I changed the CTS. So, this is definitely progress. It idles flawlessly, kind of stumbles off idle when driving and is not pulling very hard but will rev out. Gutless is my word to describe it. This is the 1st time I have driven this car but I have had other Zs, so have an idea of what it should feel like. Compression is good in all cylinders, actually better than I expected. Vacuum seems tight and other than leaky PVC (changed out), have found no leaks. I have not pressure checked it though (no gauge). Distributor vacuum diaphragm is intact. I'm thinking about advancing my timing. Should I do it with vac advance disconnected?