dan280zx

The turbo distributor does not have a vacuum advance. I took it apart and checked all I could, cleaned the diode plate and wheel. The shaft bearings seem fine. It is firing #3 better now but still misses once in a while. Not even sure at this point that the problem is in the distributor. Interrmitent problems drive me crazy! Think at this point it might be best to find a used one to see it it helps. You mentioned "Chloe". Who or what is that?

Thanks for the info. The cap is new, and had the same problem with the old one. That sort of leaves it either bearings or something going on at the "pickup". I haven"t checked the connections were the wires plug into the "pickup" yet. Just maybe pushing on the side makes the connections move slightly. The shaft seems tight when pushing it side to side. Going to have my son crank the engine and watch for signs of wobbling.

This 1983 280zx turbo engine has had a ignition miss. While running the engine, I'm getting intermittent spark to #1 and#3 plugs. I pressed the side of the distributor housing with a large screw driver and the spark came back as long as I held it. Any ideas of what to think of this? If the bearing in the distributor is worn, is this a common result. Really don't want to buy a new one, MSA wants about 300 dollars. Also, I looked under the dust plate at the "wheel" with the slots in it. It looked ok. Any help would be great!

I think it is starting to make a little sense. I know now that my main problem is ignition. (turbo may be tired but new clues have surfaced.) Car is now running with good spark on 2,4,5,6 plugs. 1 and 3 get a spark about 10% of the time. I verifid that if was not the condition of the plug by leaving the plug in the engine, unhooking the wire and putting a screwdriver in the end and allowing it to spark to the frame of the car. 1 and 3 only get spark once in a while. Going to do some research if someone else has had this problem. My guess is that the distributor has a problem. I'm open to any suggestions on what to do next.

Forgot to include this. The guy before me had put on some antifoulers before installing the plugs. They were about 3/4" long and I guess they keep the plug away from the oil. Could this be a "cheap fix" for this situation? Not tring to be cheap about this, but it's my son's car and his money is limmited.

Put a scope on the ignition coil low voltage side. Was getting pulses of voltage with no misses. Put another new cap and rotor on. Engine started and ran pefectly. (no misses) Then I sped engine up, when the turbo spooled up ,got a bunch of smoke and the engine started to miss again. Plugs look oil fouled. Is it common for the turbo to leak into the intake and foul the plugs? Is there any "cheap way" to keep the plugs from fouling out. I put Bosch platinum plugs in when we bought the car a few months ago. I've read somewhere that some swear by the NKC plugs that were original. If it comes to a turbo repair/replace situation what is the best place to go? Thanks for the help!

Found out today that engine is missing also when cold. Checked a bunch of ground connections and connections at the transister. all seemed ok. Need some help. This is starting to make me look a little less smart in the eyes of my 16 year old son.

Have a 1983 280zx turbo. Car starts and idles fine when cold. After it warms up it misses at idle. Something is causing the spark to cut in and out as the engine is running. Using a timing light to see when it fires, it will fire a few times then miss one or two times and then sort of repeat this over and over. To make this even stranger each of the 6 plugs seem to have a different rhythmn. Some fire almost all the time, some are firing about half the time. I need some help! This is what has been done. Compression check-------all near 150 lbs. New cap and rotor. New plug wires. New plugs. Tried a new coil--no change. Checked connections at the dizzy. Checked AFM, throttle switch, engine temp sending unit--all ok Had the control unit out to test sensors and wiring back to it. all the connections looked good. I have a fsm, but its not helping me though this.

My 1983 280zx turbo that I just bought is not running well. I am starting to think someone has put the non-turbo afm in this car. The resistance tests that I just finished read more like the non turbo afm.The afm in the car is a JECS A31-630 840 2Z21 L28 Does anyone know if this the right afm. I have a factory service manual and am tring very hard to fix this myself. It does not give any part numbers. Any help would be appreciated.

Found a good used set of turbo injectors on ebay. Going to swap them out to eliminate the mixed set.

Hood sticker on my 1983 280zx turbo has 24 degrees btdc. My Hayes manual does not adress how the car should be set up to check the timing and how to adjust it if it is off. Is there thing that needs to be unhooked before using the timing light? Is there a better manual that I can get for this car? Hood sticker engine # is DNS2.8V5FBF7

Thanks Peter, Will take your advise and do some checking.

Hey Zcar people, I really need some help with my problems. See my post "mixed injectors" Thanks

280zx Fever, Thanks for wanting to help. Turbo shaft does not have any detectable movement up, down,side to side, or in and out. I'm reaching into the air intake side to test. Air cleaner is new, checked the throttle body boots and they look fine. Forgot to mention, the compression test showed 150 lbs + or - maybe 3 lbs on all 6. I have read other posts where the color of the injectors was the way to identify if they were turbo or not. This raised a major question in my mind. There would be no way this engine would run right if the injectors were of two different types. Hope your weather is better than ours. Ice everywhere!

Just bought a 1983 280zx turbo. Car was setting for 2 years on a lot. It would not start after replacing the battery, so started doing some troubleshooting. Found that 5 of 6 plugs were fouled out. After replacing the plugs, the car now runs. It idles pretty well, but is sluggish when given the gas to speed up. I have 2 questions: 3 of the injectors are green and 3 are brown. does this mean that 3 are turbo and 3 are not? The turbocharger does not give a positive boost like it should. The manifold gauge goes from negitive pressure to about 0 at best. I can spin the turbo by hand and it turned with very little drag. Is this normal? Could an exhaust restriction cause the turbo not to spool up? P. S. I called an injector shop about flow testing the batch of injectors I have. They want 25 a piece to test. (ouch!) Glad to be part of the Classic Zcar Club. This is so neat!:classic: