Alfadog

Wow, the original owner's original birth certificate? Cos I could imagine they may want that back!

Interesting! Thanks for the input Art ... Sorry, but to clarify (in Layman's Terms :knockedou ) do you mean get a new (280ZX) coil, and run a new lead directly from the battery to the coil is the best way to get full (12V) power? And reconnect the capacitor obviously.

Ooh ok, I'll see if I get any noise with the radio (had it turned off when testing it of course ). An electronic dizzy's coil......... best to just get whatever Bosch makes for the 280ZX I guess?

I believe (oh Lordy not again!) Art has already named the dealer and has stated that they are no longer open. He does not have records of it and if I understood his posts correctly, he is one of the "old timers" who was there at the time! And I'm saying nothing more!

Sounds like a real headache Miles. Just goes to show that kind of runaround happens in every country!! Congratulations on finally getting the car back. I understand how you feel. Bloody subcontractors!!

Hello! Well, at the Prince Nationals in Bathurst Bruce (240K&Beyond) and Steve (?) were talking to me about my engine and said that basically the first thing I should do is convert to an electronic distributor! I somehow missed or skipped this topic back in 2004... Anyway, in a cruel twist of fate as I drove over the Blue Mountains to Sydney my car developed an odd problem, and started coughing, spluttering and generally sounding "out of tune". The tacho was bouncing around every now and then - and that was the clue. The old distributor had announced its plan for retirement!! I guess it overheard us badmouthing it previously... I did make it back up to Queensland (it wasn't much of an issue at anything over 2000rpm) as I thought I should save my money for the upgrade rather than fixing the old thing. Luckily, there's a wrecker nearby which had a 280ZX still with distributor. I took that off and away I went. I should have read this topic first. I made a few of the same mistakes as Tom did - mainly I didn't take the "pedestal" off the 280ZX. I didn't realise it was a removeable piece (it was quite hard to remove the distributor alone as I had to stand on a bonnet and lean over and into the bonnet of the (fender at shoulder height!), while it swayed around on top of a 1980s Corolla......... Anyway, I soon worked out it wasn't going to work with the old pedestal and timing plate, but if I rotated the dizzy around so that no.1 was pointing forwards the car would start up! So that was good... the dizzy just wasn't attached. Anyway, after going back to the wreckers, I got the pedestal aswell. Also got some new spark plug leads as the ones that were on I had not even changed since I got the car, so who knows how old they were. Tom informed me that you can get it to work using the old pedestal and timing plate but I felt I may as well get the pedestal as well since it was only 5 minutes away. It started right up. EUREKA! So the 15 minute swap only took 3 days, that's not that bad. I know how to do it now, and if you have all the right bits in the first place it would be easy as !! So thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread, and also especially to Bruce for helping me out via PM and phone. Not sure if it's just my imagination, but the car feels much better now! Sounds a lot smoother and "cleaner" I feel... Here are some pictures. I disconnected the small cylinder below the coil to attach the other wires to it..... what is the small cylinder there for?? After reading the posts here, I'm not sure if I will be OK using the old coil or not? Is this ok?

That Gloria looks absolutely gorrrrgeous. Reminds me, Jim, do you have any pics of Laurie's Gloria? Good news with your car Miles, let's see some more pictures of that!

That's cheap! I'm sure they wont last long L28 has been spoken for I assume

How about this??? http://page13.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/r23985883

Maybe they came in different types or maybe I just haven't noticed, but what's that flying-saucer thing on the top of the manifold?

I had always thought it was after seeing a musical too... Not that that proves anything - other than stories like these are very hard to bust!!

Post a picture?? I have the owner's manual and the radio instruction manual (AM Radios can be tricky apparently!) Original keys too of course

Pic #10 is a McLaren F1 What was the grille from??

39.. That "grille" shot is impossible :|