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I made it to Kingston! or... Limped into Kingston. Recently drove my dad's old project z across Canada -- Whistler, BC to Kingston, ON. I use this as a daily driver in the summer, and walking to work/school is over an hour... She has troubles: A) -Keeping a steady Idle -Delivering power to the wheels at any RPM -Will not coast in any gear before trying to cough and lug (1st is especially bad for this) -Will cough/lug in any gear at low RPM even if throttle is given gently mid RPM -Climbing hills in low-ish RPM (even 3rd) C) -Will backfire from exhaust many times if full throttle is given from pedal, especially at high RPM D) -Will clunk/shudder from below me (mid/rear), especially at low rpm when trying to give power to wheels. It sounds much worse than a miss, and is separate from the lugging. She has no problem: -Downshifting -Revving in Neutral -Coasting down a hill -Cornering without applying power I believe I have a few problems, which is why I've laid out the symptoms A-D. My thinking/solutions: A) New Distributor Cap for 280zx distributor. Plugs/Wires/Distributor is new. Coil appears to be giving good spark, but only if the main male terminal is held about 1/8 to 1/4" away from the female socket. When it is held like this, 1. you can see/hear every spark perfectly jump, 2. idle immediately rises by about 300rpm and is steady 3. the distributor cap was replaced last summer 4. No water/condensation/rust inside the distributor or cap, all looks good 5. Having spark issues driving here, all terminals to cap are coated in dielectrical grease. It seemed to improve spark, as I had the same "hold the plug wire away from the cap" problem coming across the prairies. Does this then point to the coil? I hope to god that this is solved with my solution to problem A, as it must be linked to problem B. I know, it sounds like a miss or a fuel delivery problem. But so much has been done to clean up fuel delivery recently C) Triple webers running too rich. I'm really out of my league when it comes to finding the correct jet's for my webers. They are apart and on my living room floor for a cleaning (I thought they might be dirty or something may be inside them.) They are not dirty at all. Plugs come out coated in carbon. Inside of tailpipe is coated in soot. Exhaust is sometimes black with carbon. Exhaust line is not cracked, broken, or loose. D) Diff/loose nut somewhere? I believe this is a 3.54 R180 or R200, and will put the car up on a hoist and just look for any nut I can find to tighten, anywhere near the diff/mustache bar/U-joints? I need to research this subject more. Weird, because there is less than 10,000mi on this diff. ------------------------- Car "went like stink" many times for 2hrs Whistler - Vancouver, with an altitude change from sea level to the mountains. I don't think the change in location messed with the carbs, and I don't know why they are running so rich now, and not earlier. L28 (slight bore) with triple webers, Webers are currently apart in my living room. New Noisier Carter electric fuel pump to replace the old Carter 4070. Regulated to 3.5 PSI Fram HPG-1 Fuel filter, just replaced the cartridge. Supposed to be very good for these webers. PS92 Ignition, 79-80' 280zx Distributor, all new wires and plugs. New 10w30 full synthetic. Not overheating, and only other problems are random electrical issues. I noticed that the distributor from the 280zx has a vacuum advance on it; should I attempt to hook this up? There is a possible location on the cannon manifold to accommodate this, but it would need to be drilled. The Ignition Coil has printed on it "For Use With CD Ignition ONLY" Guess I can look at the fuel strainers immediately before each carb... "Banjo" is what I believe they are called. Thank you all so much; any input is appreciated.