SteveJ

I don't think the 9V battery will have enough energy to drive the ammeter enough to tell you anything useful. Also, if you wire it wrong, you could damage the meter. For the fuel gauge, you would hook up the positive of the battery to the positive side of the gauge. From the gauge, one wire would go to the negative side of the battery, and another wire would go from the sender side of the gauge to a potentiometer and on to the negative of the battery. You would vary the resistance to see if the needle deflects. As for the value of the potentiometer, you would have to search through the FSM to see the resistance range for the sending unit in the fuel tank.

Actually there is a Ford fender retainer that is available on ebay for about $13 for 50. It's VERY difficult to tell them apart.

I like the looks of it. It certainly eliminates the look of a kludge factor.

And Matt, if you need replacement retainers, I have a bunch.

Matt, are you pushing the pins through first? Stock retainers have a pin going through them.

Did you use a conductive material between the HEI and metal plate to act as a heat sink?

The TIU case would provide a nice heat sink for the HEI.

It was another Caffeine & Octane day. There were almost as many S130s as S30s today. Among the highlights for Z cars was a black pearl with original paint. It shined up nicely, too. Steve's CARtography | Combining a love of cars and photography

You noticed that, too? I know the HEI would work with the ZX, but I didn't want to go into all of the permutations given the OP's lack of experience. I would just suggest swapping in a new ignition module at that point.

The TIU is on the passenger side footwell. The picture you posted is part of your AFM. Please post a picture of your distributor before you go the HEI route. Many owners have swapped in a ZX distributor. That has the ignition module mounted on the distributor. If a previous owner did that to your car, the HEI is superfluous.

You only get 8 V because the circuit goes through the ballast resistor as I said in post #4.

When the clip is in place, you cannot see the slot. It still fits snug, and you still need pliers to pull it off.

The turn signal switch can be removed without removing the dashboard. You only need to take off the plastic shroud over the steering column. Here is a tutorial on cleaning the turn signal switch: Turn Signal Repair | Fiddling With Z Cars.

Zoom in on the pictures: Front Struts | Fiddling With Z Cars. Tim McGovern showed me his method. 1. Cut a small slit on the bracket. 2. Bend the flaps in opposite directions. 3. Pull the brake line through after removing the caliper from the strut. 4. (My preference) Zip tie the caliper to the TC rod.

I have to respond just so I don't miss updates to this thread. Thanks, Kats.

It doesn't look like much was done under the car such as bushings, etc. The trim pieces are missing on the door. The engine bay has the lazy black paint job. The seller is asking too much money for the effort put into the car.

Uh oh. That sounds like you reversed the terminals on the battery.

Is there any chance someone did a change out to an R200 differential. IIRC, that one does utilize CV joints, doesn't it?

Look at a 1982 Celebrity with a 2.8L V6 @ Rockauto.com. Here is one part number: AIRTEX / WELLS Part # 5A4. You want a four pin HEI. Then Google HEI 280Z and look at the images. Be sure to unplug the transistor ignition unit in the car when you hook up the HEI. Have you tried spraying in starting fluid to make double sure that it is a lack of spark and not a lack of fuel? Of course, this does assume that a previous owner did not swap in a 280ZX distributor. Post pictures of your distributor to confirm.

You test for resistance with an ohmmeter. A typical multimeter will test for resistance, as well. You compare the ratio between the new readings. It will be about the inverse of the ratio of primary to secondary voltage for the coil. The primary voltage is 12 VDC. If the secondary is supposed to be 20,000 VDC, that ratio is 1:1667. Therefore you would expect the resistance on the primary side to be 1,667 times the resistance of the secondary side. Transformer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I never said anything about shotgunning new parts in. I told you to try an HEI if you thought the transistor ignition unit was bad. You can get an HEI for about $15 + S&H from Rockauto. I doubt you can find a tester for the transistor ignition unit anymore, and $20 is much less than taking the unit to an old Datsun mechanic if you can even find an old Datsun mechanic. I also gave you trouble shooting steps to eliminate other possibilities.

Also, if you think the transistor ignition unit is bad, you can get an HEI module pretty cheap and wire that in for testing.

The 8V reading is about right. The voltage gets dropped by the ballast resistor.

What is the voltage from the positive terminal of the coil to chassis when trying to start the car? What is the resistance from the postive terminal of the coil to negative terminal? What is the resistance from the center post of the coil to the negative terminal? Remove the coil wire from the distributor cap and look for signs of deterioration or burning. Remove the distributor cap and look at the contacts in the cap and the contacts on the rotor.

Of course, it was, and stop calling me "Shirley".

Boy, Road Atlanta has really changed over the years.