PapaSmurf

I stripped the wires on the fusable link gizmo and spliced them together to make sure there was no resistance due to the melting, still no power. does anyone have any ideas? I'm at a loss here

and for the smart asses out there... YES I tried jump starting it lol the battery is not dead ... When I bridge the power and the little ground wire the starter turns the engine but it does not stay on. damn this is pissing me off I just want my Z to run

Ok guys, I just replaced my starter in my 1978 280z, I hooked up the power and ground wires to it and tried to start it up... nothing. The voltage meter is at zero and the little red light does not come on... I've tried everything cant seem to find the cause of my trouble. I looked under the little white fuse covers and lo and behold there were no fuses some dumb bastard decided to go cheap and just bridge the connectors and one of the wires was melted... is this likely my problem? or maybe that one wire was just not thick enough, the other is ok... what do I gotta do I need this car running it's my daily driver. any suggestions?

Did you ever solve this problem? I found a coolant leak in exactly the same place on my 78 280z with the n42 head. I just replaced the gasket on the thermostat housing that leads to the radiator hose today, I believe it was causing the problem as whoever replaced the gasket last time did so with a gasket that did not fit at all. it was entirely the wrong shape. I had coolant leaking out of that and through my valve covers bad gasket and also through my intake manifolds bad gasket... this made for a rather unhappy engine. anyways good luck

anyone have any pictures of what this area is SUPPOSED to look like

these are the stock size, 16s I made the mistake of being in a hurry to drive this thing and went to wallyworld for them. 4 douglas tires, worth their weight in used toilet paper but they were cheap. One blew out on me the day after I bought it :S The tire pressure is good though this thing has always been a bitch to turn thats what the previous owner said, I crawled under today and looked at everything I could find attached to the front wheels and found some rather dead looking bushings as for lubrication I could find no trace of it haha where should it be? I'm not experianced with these things but I'd love to learn so bear with me

http://www.nolimitmotorsport.com/prod/ED686550 what do you guys think? I've been told that stainless steel lines make for better braking is this true?

my 78 280z steers like a barge, and it's like pushing a barge to get it to do that much! Naturally I know it does not have power steering but even then it shouldnt be this hard to turn the damned wheel, I can not drive without both hands and forget about turning the wheels when the car isnt moving it is IMPOSSIBLE. What are some things I should check? *edit* also looking for a replacement hose that goes between the passengers side rear drum and brake line that has failed does anyone know the dimensions of it or where they can be found online cheap?

hey guys I'm having second thoughts about what may be causing the oil burning in my engine. I just went through the engine and replaced the valve cover gasket, which was dead as a gasket can be, there were bits of gasket in the workings it was so bad, I got that all cleaned up, and found that the hose that goes from the radiator to the intake manifold was leaking from ITS gasket. I unbolted it and found that the gasket was not even the correct one for the piece, it was completely the wrong shape so water had been leaking out of it pretty bad over where the intake manifold bolts into the head. SO in sumation water and oil were leaking over the intake manifolds gasket for a while and the intake gasket seems to be leaking! There is also exhaust coming out of the header's gasket so the question is do you guys think the burning oil could be coming from that? I have so much blue smoke coming out of my tail pipe you'd think it was aladins lamp. Now that the gaskets are replaced I'm gonna see how she runs and if the problem clears up at all but the oil that got into the intake manifold and into the cylinder may stick around for a long time gaw I just wish there was a FREE way to test if its my rings

awesome thanks a bunch!

damnit all to hell I gotta either buy a kit or pay for a machine shop to do it for me? I was told it was "easy as pie" hell how much do machine shops generally charge?

awesome thanks a million *edit* hey where can I find these O rings to buy and how do I refil this thing with oil? What oil do I use? I couldnt see anywhere to add oil to it but it's probably on top (duh) and I cant really get to it from underneath can I? Do I have to take the whole transmission off in order to refill with oil? It's been rather hard to shift since I got it, almost toooo hard so I'm worried about damage!

Hey guys I was crawling around under my car today looking at my U joints when I noticed some serious leakage coming from my transmision. It looks to be oil and it's coming from the portion of the transmission nearest the driveshaft directly under the shifter. It looks like its actually coming from a Hose that goes up and into my engine compartment but I couldn't trace it all the way. Does anyone know what this hose's purpose is for? Does it share oil between the engine and transmission? I have no experiance with manual transmissions so pardon my ignorance *edit* This is a 5 speed by the way

I just got my new halfshaft joints in the mail today for my 78 I jacked her up took off the wheel and had me a look. I'm going to try to perform the operation on wednesday on one halfshaft and friday for the other because those are the only days I dont have an evening class so I'll have the whole afternoon to do it. If you have any insights into this process please share them with me this looks like it's going to be a challenge!

finally got the new U joints in the mail today cant wait to get these bad boys installed!

I took her into a shop today paid um 5 bucks to lift her up so I could see the underside. My Halfshaft U joints are toast! My driveshaft joints arent in good shape either but since they are nonreplacable it looks like I'll have to live with it for a while until I can find me a new driveshaft, one of those aluminum ones with replacable joints on MSA might be nice but I dont really have 300 bucks for it right now gonna call some bone yards. The car has been backfiring like crazy today after I cleaned the spark plugs! I used injector cleaner to clean them and made sure they were dry and lint free before I put them back in but damn it's going off like a damn machine gun. I'm worried for it. I checked the differential mount and I have declaired it to be the ONE non broken part of this car haha so it's definately the U joints! hopefully the half shaft joints will fix the problem a little bit if not the whole way! Yeah I do have a rather badly leaking valve gasket I tightened the cover down to try and fix it and am running 10w40 to cut down on the leakage for now. What weight do you reccomend I dont wanna go to heavy because the darn thing has enough trouble starting. I gotta have the accelerator held all the way down to start it and even then it's hit and miss. I read somewhere that that was a sign of a bad mass air sensor? where can I buy one of these new? I looked on msa and found nothin. I gotta post a pic of my ignition you guys'll get a kick out of it, the previous owner somehow found a way to break the key in the ignition so I'm using a makeshift method which only aggravates the starting issues. I gotta get some money into this poor thing!

yeah some pics would be great! well shoot now I gotta buy some driveshaft U joints too since they are probably bad as well. This poor thing is better suited to being a parts car than a project car! I'm looking all around for some diagrams on the vacume system too it looks like some fool went crazy with disconnecting all the vacume hoses he could find... Shes burning oil too I'm getting a ring job done next week and I'm praying that will fix it for now, my goal is to eventually build a 3 liter stroker engine for her but thats when I get me some moolah together for now I just gotta make due with what I have

Hey guys I'm a brand new Z owner I just traded my old grandma car (1991 pontiac sunbird) for a 78 280z straigt across! I'm looking for some information on U joints as I keep getting mixed information. I know that my U joints are bad I feel slack in the drive line when starting out and if I'm in a low gear and let off the accelerator it'll thump. I've been told that a 78 has ONLY half saft U joints by someone and that it also has U joints in the drive shaft as well by someone else. I've also been told that it is nearly impossible to replace halfshaft U joints by someone and that it is easy as pie by another person! I have 4 half shaft U joints in the mail to me and I'm nervous! Will I be able to replace these or will I have to take it to a mechanic :S I like to turn my own wrenches and can not afford a mechanic to do it! plus I hate it when someone I dont know has got his hands on my baby! So the questions were do I have drive shaft U joints as well as halfshaft joints and can I replace the halfshaft joints in my 78 Z