madkaw

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.

Sorry but the automatic stays. This is my daughter's car and she doesn't do 5speeds. I bought this car for her, but I told her that she has to give or sell it back to me when she is done with it, so I can have the engine. With only 90k miles the engine is barely broke in and I can tweek the motor while it is in the 280zx. This plan may backfire though, because she loves this car so much, I might never get it back. The auto performs well too. I am impressed with the performance of this car being a 1981 vehicle. This is the first 280zxt I have actually ridden in and besides some aging squeaks coming from the suspension, I like the ride.

I buy my interior stuff from the "yourautotrimstore" off the internet. I ordered their sample packet and then matched it up the best I could. As far as applying the vinyl, it is a lot of trial and error. I did spend the money and bought a real glue spray gun( a 20$ plastic one, but specific for spraying glue) and I bought a gallon of the glue. The vinyl is not too expensive, but you will probably waste some at first. It takes a lot of patience and a methodology. Unfortunetly there isn't much learning material on this. Books are vague, but maybe you can find some DVD's on "how to". I put the interior together today and it looks good. As far as the fasteners for the rear panel, I realized I had 2 different style plastic nut plates that go into the rear strip. It seems the fasteners I had grabbed one type better then another-is there different fasteners for this rear panel? It looks like one fastener might be slightly bigger(thicker) then another. Anyone have some extra tan fasteners around?

Thanks on the confirmation on the sucky fasteners. I thought it was just me. Maybe that's why all these panels are tore because of the owners fighting with them. That drivers side one was a real pain in the ass to get out.

Well I woke up today determined to find out what ups with the crazy idle on the car. I started it up cold, and she idles pretty decent, pretty smoooth, but gets worse as she gets hotter. I pulled the ems and started ohm testing everything. My chts wouldn't test good by wire, but the component check showed that it reacted to temperature in a proper fashion. It seems that the chts is working , but the signal is not getting to the EMS. I'm not sure what to do now, do I chase the wiring? ( I did clean the connector) As I let the car idle outside it hovers around 700rpm , but surges and sounds like it's missing. I swear it's a vacuum leak, but I take the valve cover cap off and she dies. I finally start disconnecting crap, and the EGR is the first to go-wow -what a difference. Then I just take the whole VCM out of the system-pull the wires and all-and it runs better then it has since I bought it. Any comments?? Then I moved on to body work, and about finished up the metal work on the drivers rear quarter-pictures to come. After that, the daughter had to go on an errand, so I quit on the bodywork and moved on to the interior stuff. I decided to try and recover the rear panels since that was the the one bad point left in the interior. I already installed the new carpet and the panels would really make the inside look great. I am proud of the way they came out-for an amateur. Tomorrow I will tie it all together and get some pics of the whole interior

Well I went after those dreaded rear panels on the zx, you know the ones that are tore up on every 280zx out there. I ordered some vinyl and got lucky on the color match. The rest of the interior on my daughters car was pretty nice, but those panels sucked. Now she looks good-if I might say so myself. What's up with those panel fastners. The taillight panel fastners are hard to get locked, and I think I am missing the correct plastic nutplate for the big plastic screw-anyone have an extra????

Vin, are your clips embedded in a rubber strip? That's what it looks like on the windshield now. I haven't recieved the clips from Black Dragon yet, so I'm not sure what they look like, but I will post a pic. islanddozer, I will check that out thanks.

Okay, I called black dragon and they sell the rubber molding that actually has the clips already molded into it. I thought I saw a piece of rubber molding when i took the SS trim off, but it was deteriorated pretty badly to be sure. Black dragon sells the upper and lower strip -50$ each- that I guess gets gued in place and then the trim snaps down on it. This repair is going to be costly and time consuming. I will try and take pics to document the repair for future reference.

I could only find one thread on this, but it sounds like that it is nearly impossible to get the chrome trim off without tearing up the clips. It also sounds like it is impossible to reinstall trim in the factory method. I have the similiar problem of rust around the windshield that I need to fix. I pulled off the top trim and not much was identifiable as far as clips. The side trims seem a little more stubborn and I was afraid to pull to hard until I posted here for some help. I would gladly take some recommendations from folks that have successfully done this manuever. I only want to do this once, but I believe the water leak by the gas pedal is coming from around the bottom of the windshield because of rust issues.

Jon, have you found anything yet? It sounds like your car is running the same as mine, so if you come up with anything -please post. You can use the old screwdriver to the ear trick to listen to the injectors. I am going to try some seafoam this weekend to see if the injectors are clogged. Search and you will find a FSM somewhere on this site and get out your ohm meter and start testing everything. There are a days worth of ohms tests that will help eliminate stuff. Good Luck!

Well I'm sure I found the exhaust smell getting inside the car. I was installing the antenna and I realized that I could see my garage floor from the INSIDE of my rear quarter. It is time to jump on the bodywork. So the other day i got out the cut-off wheel and welder and started to hack away. The rust isn't really to bad for an Indiana car and I will be able to just fab up the lower quarters pretty easy. I need th get this exhaust issue sorted out . I also noticed the muffler was shot and holes in several places that made the fume issue even worse. Then I started looking at the pipe from the cat to the muffler and thought-crap-I'll have to replace that too. I guess I will order some pieces from summit and weld together a set up to duplicate the factory, except with mandrel bent stuff. It looks like magnaflow has a SS muffler for about 80-$ that should fit in there just right. As far as the idling issues I got all excited the other day because I thought I found the source of a vacuum leak , the crank hose to the pcv was cracked badly. I replaced the hose and the car seems to idle even worse now. I had taken the car for a spin early(I have to pry the keys from my daughters hands), and the car excellerates very hard in my opinion. The car is very quick comparing it to what I drive, which is a turbo Baja Subaru. I say that because I can't imagine it is anything too bad or it would run worse. If you are in park(automatic) and slowly raise the rpms it sounds like ther is a miss or something because the rpms are not very smooth-regardless of rpm speed. I haven't replaced the wires and cap, but they both look good and new. I am going to try some seafoam or something to see if it might clean up any injector issues. I know I need to get my OHM meter out and do some more diagnostic work AFTER I get the exhaust issue dealt with.

I didn't find much searching mufflers on this site and others. I am looking for a reasonable replacement for a stock 81 280zxt. Maybe some of you guys have found a good source for a stock replacement and want to share that info. I want to find something that doesn't require me to reconfigure the whole system to fit. I guess an adapter is okay if that gets me a better deal on the muffler. I'm not in the postion to buy a SS set up right now, I just need something to get her going.

Well I have major improvements to this car since I purchased it. I got a fender on and painted and replaced both headlight buckets and painted them along with the front bumper. This car is now at great 10 footer. My daughter LOVES the looks she gets while driving this car. I believe I scored big with this car. Hell, she actually washed the car without me asking. She has driven it for a couple of days now and I think I cured all the leaks on the car:mrgreen:. Even the AC works great. I only wish I could get the car to idle better. I still have some trouble shooting to do, but I am trying to cover the basics right now. I checked compression and all cylinders were 130+ Install NGK plugs and they show a lean burn Temperature runs good. Oil pressure is great Replaced afm and O2 sensor I am running fuel injector cleaner Injectors all sound good I believe I have a vacuum leak , but I can't seem to find it. I have been reading posts about bccd, maybe an internal leak?? Anyhow,here are some pics

Well I have been busting my a$$ to get this car up and going for when my daughter gets home from college for the summer. I have made significant progress, but still many unknowns since I haven't driven it since I bought it. I was waiting on an AFM so long I had to make other progress so I started on the cancer. Every golf ball size spot turned into a small patch panel worth of work, but all in all this car is in pretty good shape for a midwest Z. I had a local sheetmetal shop bend me some 18 guage to make some "caps" for the frame rails. The damage was mostly cosmetic but i wanted to prevent further cancer. This car was hit pretty hard at one time in the front and this has led to some of the corrosion in the panels-plus a leaking t-top I am sure. After the cancer removal I moved onto checking the engine out. It idled very badly and it fell on its face at 4000. I removed all the connections that I could find and cleaned the all electrical connectors and coated them with electical lube. I found the wires broke to the TPs and went to the junk yard and found another one to splice on. I pulled the radiator out and to have some pin holes fixed-40$-for a flush and fix. I noticed when spinning the clutch fan that the water pump was shot-and I mean shot, I don't know how it was staying together or making noise. I also found the major oil leak which turned out to be the oil pressure switch. This was all done AFTER I spent 2 hours and a gallon of degreaser to degrease the engine compartment. I also found while looking around the original(I believe) brakes hoses on the car that were ready to break in half. This car was a ticking time bomb:shock: I also managed to find time to install a new carpet kit in the car. Man what a difference that makes to the interior. The right fender had huge rust holes in it so i got another one from Dannys Datsun (great guy) and had it painted up. I also found a better front bumper here on the site and I replaced the metal backer under the rear bumper. It was completely disengrated to a rusty powder. I tried doing a better job on fixing the the front enf radiator core support then the hack body guys did the first time around for the PO. I por-15 everything and i hope it lasts for a while. I would like to see my daughter and I get some fun years out of this car. I will post some pics of the progress now and then to show the car coming together.

Found!!!!

I need a scoop for the passenger side off of a 280zx. It must be without defect(black would be perfect ). First one that can ship one out pronto gets the sale, I need it for the painter. I also need one chrome 280zxt fender emblem thanks Steve 317-979-9929

Found one!

I have a nice shifter(bwt5) and inner and outer boots that I would trade for your auto shifter.

I am still needing the bracket that bolts to the afm so you can secure it to the car. I sent mine in with my afm for a rebuilt unit, now I don't have a bracket for my car. My afm has 3 tapped holes for the bracket and the bracket has two other holes to sit on some pins to keep it in place. I need this asap guys so if you have it, I'm ready to pay-help!

Call this guy, he is friendly and has both side new for 400$ 815-562-7978

If you go on the MSA site and pull up the kit, it shows what part# goes to what seal.

thanks for the heads up!

I found this parts # searching the Z sites nissan # b4340 n-4205 is for a connector kit for the tps. 15$ delivered to my house