madkaw

I bought a Actron fuel pressure test kit and it is a 100psi guage. I installed the guage on the return line and I get the same reading-basically off the scale. I would think hooking in line with the return line would suffice being after the FPR-right? The fuel pressure reading are AFTER the Walbro install. The Walbro pump is doing the same thing as the stock pump-- as far as making noise after a few seconds. I didn't have a guage to test my stock pump so I ordered the Walbro on a guess that it was the problem. I was obviously wrong. The guage was to help determine whether this is a cavitiation or a blockage of the fuel line. I would say that I am not cavitating.

Guys I need help. I installed a Walbro thinking my stock fuel pump was failing in my stock 81zxt. I know I did this backwards but I installed(that I just purchased) a guage in line to test fuel pressure. Turning ignition on primes pump and the pressure goes off the scale of the 100psi guage. When I start the car the pressure remains high off the scale and after the a few seconds the pumps starts to whine like somethings not right.(I then shut it off) I earlier pulled the return line from the before the FPR, and I disconnected it at just before the tank ,and blew air threw it and it was clear. Should I suspect my fpr is bad? The car was dying mostly in a decelerating condition, and the stock pump would whine like it was clogging or cavitating. The car will start right up and idle good initially. Any suggestions would be appreciated

I actually called the Walbro headquarters since I wasn't having any success contacting anyone and would NOT recommend walbrofuelpumps.com or expressfuel pumps. Come to find out they have no affiliation with Walbro, just a vendor. Walbro-which is called something else now and I can't remember-gave me the number to VE peterson in Ohio-1-800-537-6212 and they sell all the hardware kits and fittings. They have the exact size 12mm and 9mm bundy fitting to fit the stock line on a 280zx.

I bought a walbro, but I'll let you know if it doesn't work out-thanks

Bobby C, thanks but those are probably just 3/8" fittings that won't work on a stock 280zxt. Bo-I'll check them out tomorrow-thanks

You have probably noticed from the other thread that I have fuel pump issues and i have ordered another fuel pump. I wanted to relay my experience to see if anyone else has had the same issue. My daughter told me the car was dying on her, but it always happened on the other side of town and I couldn't duplicate the problem. Well it did it again and I went to rescue her and I drove her car home this time and the car died on me 15 times in 10 miles. You could always here the constant hum of the fuel pump in this car-I guess that's normal(81 280zxt)- and I noticed that before the car would die ,the pitch of that hum would get higher ,as if the pump was straining or something, and then the hum would about disappear as the car died. The car would not immediately restart, but within 30 seconds it would run again. This only seemed to happen when the car was slowing down to approach a stop. The car never dies at a full cruise. Sometimes when I got the car going again after dying, it would be very sluggish. It almost acted like the fuel line was clogging and whatever clogged the line would break loose after the car stopped. I have been in side the tank and it is very clean. I replaced the fuel sending unit with an extra clean one I had laying around-the symptoms happened with both sending units. The old one had a good amount of rust in the pick up tubes. I removed the fuel pump to see if the inlet was clogged. The small screen was not clogged, but when i pulled it out I noticed shiny metal shavings on the back side of the screen. I figured the tolerances on the pump were going away and it was spitting metal from the gears. It wasn't a lot of metal, but it was there. So I have ordered a Walbro to replace the fuel pump because honestly I am HOPING this is the issue. I don't feel good about the stock pump because of the shavings, but I may be way off on this analysis. The car has 91k original miles. I have replaced the fuel filter, checked the fuel tank and replaced the fuel pick-up assembly. I would think if this was an electrical issue(relay) then the pump would be more of an instant on/off issue. The fact that I hear the pump acting differently tells me that it is not electrical, unless the pump is locking up or getting hot and kicking the relay. Any thoughts?

Your right, it's 5/16" and 1/2" inlet. If you look at the Walbro site they have the 12mm and 8mm barbed fitting, but damn if they will answer their phone. I ordered the fittings and I can only hope they send them since they don't answer their phone. If not I will find some adapter fittings to go to NPT. It's never just cut and dry-is it?

The ad doesn't specify whether the pump comes with fittings or not. 3/8 fittings would not work for a zxt stock application. Stock is an 1/2" and 1/4" fittings. I believe I will have to get some adapter fittings to go from metric to NPT. Walbro has yet to return a phone call:icon8:

Well I decided to replace my pump with a Walbro since everyone seems to like these pumps on this site. My stocker is bad(I believe), so I went with the upgrade/replacement. I ordered from Summitt because they have locations in the Midwest and I figured delivery would be a day faster. The problem is that summitt doesn't carry the fittings for these pumps since they are metric thread. Since this is going back in a stock application on my 81zxt, I don't want to reinvent the wheel, I just want to hook back up to the stock hoses. The only place I saw the proper fittings was at the actual Walbro site, but they don't answer their phone, or return calls. I ordered there fittings with paypal on their site and now I will only hope I get the fittings? Does anyone know where I can get the proper fittings besides Walbro incase they fall thru. I called my local Napa, but they said they didn't have the metric thread fitting. Now I wish I bought a different brand pump with NPT fittings.

Don't know if that will work.

I need a fuel pump asap for my daily driver-please Steve 317-979-9929 sfinnerty@indy.rr.com

Well I got the car back long enough to do some work on the interior and bodywork. I finally got a chance to see the interior all together with the new panels and carpet and my great find on some original seats. I think when I get some of the more important issues dealt with I will repaint all the plastic in the car. The body work is also coming along. I was able to finish off the drivers lower rear quarter and I started with the back panel and passenger quarter. The passenger rear quarter was much more of a challenge because of the spare tire panel. I spent a lot of time making patterns for the sheetmetal for the inside panels. As you can see the spare tire area really ballooned out when I started looking for good metal to weld too. I only gave myself a day and a half to do all this and really had to rush to get it done. After getting all kinds of sh%t in my eyes(yes I do wear protective eye wear) and mig burn I was able to weld close all the holes before the daughter had to take the car to work again. This is a tough way to do a partial resto-I feel for you daily drivers trying to do this. The next major hurdle is the front windshield. I ordered the clips for the moldings and I have my por15 ready, but still debating whether or not to have someone else do the removal and installation. I think I have the skills and it would cut down on the logistical stradegy of getting someone there when you need them for the install.

Sorry for the slow response, but I pulled another late nighter and worked when I should have been sleeping, so I layed down after posting. I loose my A/C just after I start reaching boost and the doors DO change from the vent to floor Tony. I don't doubt I have vacuum issues, and it sounded logical for what was happening. Cygnusx1, thanks for the visual, I will put a valve in place there when I replace all the rubber lines on this car-which will be soon. Tony, the leaking reservoir that you refered to is a resevoir for the HVAC specifically? I will look at the FSM after posting here.

So I likely have a vacuum leak somewhere?!

Another issue I have been dealing with on my 280zxt is oil on the sparkplugs-mostly seen as wet oil on the threads. It is not running down off the valve cover and the engine has been thoroughly cleaned. The cylinders are all reading about 135. I haven't had the car very long, but I have not noticed any major oil consumption or smoke. I have checked the pcv and the hose is dry between the valve and the crank case. After searching(I haven't found too many threads about oily spark plugs), I suspect noe the turbo oil seal is not holding. i am going to remove the return line to check for obstruction of the return oil-maybe building excessive pressure? Any ideas?

I noticed on my 81zxt that when I throttle up into boost and if I have my A/C on, the cold air will stop coming out of the center vents and hot air will start coming out on the floor. It's like the boost triggers a switch to change my A/C to Heat-what's up with that? Is it my compressor belt slipping( I checked it and it seems tight) or is ome kind of vacuum control not holding under boost situations? I'm not even sure where to start with this one.

This is the info I was needing guys , thanks for your inputs. Like I said I don't know much about the zxt's , so I need to be schooled. Ruzn, what hoses were you refering too specifically? Roger-thanks for the correction on the guage, now that you mention it I now remember that it was not lbs. I also read about the rod adjustment, but it sounds more like a rod replacement. I now how bigger problems now though, since the car died on my daughter yesterday on the highway. She said it was cruising nicely, but in traffic it died. She also said it made a whistling niose at around 70 and it growled when idling-so it sounds like it might be giving me it's first problems.

So full boost would be what? I am not familiar with these l28et and I don't think the manual tells you anywhere what your boost guage should be reading under full throttle and max rpm. That's why I am looking for input from other l28et drivers as far as what their stock 280zxt operates. This info would also help me determine whether the engine is performing correctly. The car seems to accelerate well, but the boost guage never exceeds 3. I have nothing to compare to but from what I read on this site and I don't know anyone that owns a 280zxt to ask.

I know there isn't much interest or talk about the auto trans , hence little info to search. My daughters auto seems to work fine, but I don't know what is normal shift rpms under hard acceleration. I figure I would post and hopefully get some feed back to learn some of the idiosyncrasies of this car. Her car under hard acceleration the trans shifts at about 4750rpm-does that seem right? I'm not sure about these boost guages, but hers never goes over 3lbs of boost. So neither the rpm or boost gets anywhere near the red on the guages-is this also normal? I was reading about changing the rod length to alter shift patterns, but it sounds like a non plausible solution for me. I appreciate any feedback.

I guess I will run it like it is since I sold my other diff I had. In the end it is my fault for not insisting the seller take pics of the inside. If your going to pay this much money for a used part, check it out thoroughly and ask for lot's of pictures.

I believe they are worse then .0005, maybe .0010. Do you really think I should sand them? What would be the worst scenerio for this situation? I would have noise or it would cause a stress crack?

Well I just got around opening up the LSD I bought. I wasn't real happy to see the ring gear had some pretty bad pitting. Someone let this rear sit around without oil in it -I guess. I paid 700$ for this rear and now i wonder if I will have issues from this pitting. Please look at the pics and let me know what you think. The rear turns very freely and the outer axle bearings looked good. Do you think I will have any problems from this pitting?

I been trying to figure out my bad idling issue on my 81zxt. When hot especially-the engine idled like crap and surged slightly at most rpms not under load. I say not under load because during cruise the car seemed to run well. After checking many basics on the car I decided to start pulling stuff and see how it effects the running of the engine. I pulled the EGR vacuum line and it immediately ran better. I diconnected the anything to do with the VCM, electrical and vacuum and the car runs better then it ever did. The idle smoothed out and the slight hesitation off line got better. Before doing this disconnect process, I pulled my relatively new spark plugs and they looked like they were fouling under idle , but the cleaned up themselves after driving. I say that because the end threads has some carbon deposits, but the electrode almost looked lean. Except for color left by the injector cleaner I am running, the plug was petty clean. Also noted: is that doing all the OHM tests according to the FSM, the car passed except for the CHTS. At the ECM the CHTS failed the ohm test, but the sensor component check seemed to look good. My connector looks servicable and I cleaned it also. Maybe my problems are all tied together here, I don't know enough about EFI to say.

I obviously have the tan interior and I am trying to buy a SEM color to match. I purchased the Buckskin color from the SEM chart, but it seems way to light to match the plastic trim pieces. Now I am leaning towards the Palamino, but at 12$ a shot and shipping, I would like to hear from someone else that has done this.

Warren, I realize that there is a difference in that one fastener is a half turn lock and the other is an actual screw thread, but my issue was that the half turns worked on one type nutplate and not the other, though they looked very similiar(not screw type). So either they(the nutplates) are wore out or their was two different diameter half turn locks. Sounds like the plastic nutplates were just wore out. Thanks for the compliment and info. Also, I need some pics of how the rear hatch tie down straps are configured. I started from scratch and the new hatch carpet has no slots for the straps, so I need a little help on where to cut. I debated on doing this, but I can't allow those heavy t-tops to flop around in there and possibly hurt someone in an accident.