roger.svoboda

be sure your battery is in good conditiion and that all battery cables are clean and free of corrosion on both ends.

Or melted something in the fuse box itself. I'd unbolt that first and look at the back of it for damage.

If you have a cutting torch with a small tip you can blow the easy out that way. it will only burn out that which gets hottest first which is the easy out. I have even burnt out large bolts after drilling thru them without damaging the threads. Course the person using the torch has to be smarter than the bolt.

junkyard or try and fix the one you have. it is a small dc motor driving a vane pump. Body held together with tabs. Bend the tabs up and you can loosen the armature enough to get some electro cleaner in there. Usually the motor will work but too full of dirt to turn. DON'T JUST PULL IT APART. There are two small wires about the diameter of frog hair running from the armature but there is enough slack to loosen things up.

Make sure you got all your vacuum lines back on and tight. Make sure your MAF and connectors are all tight. You loosened something up and didn't get it back right if all you did was change out the manifold gasket.

You might call down to motor sports in CA they can probably help. 800-633-6331. Have you got the number off the plate by the battery on the firewall. MY 83 is 879C which is black w/seats as you describe.

any spst switch will work you can get them at Radio Shack and/or Schucks. Unless you are looking for original equipment. How did you manage to install a radio that doesn't have an auto antenna lead?

Harbor Freight has a digital caliper for like $7-8. accurate enough to determine bolt diameter but wouldn't want to do any lathe work with it. REal handy for sizing bolts etc.

Can't help on sourcing I'm up here in rain country NW. ISO does have fine and coarse thread but generally auto usage is fine thread. What I do is go to the junkyard find a Jap car and start taking off a bunch of bolts. Up here you can get a gallon zip lock full for a buck or two. Usually can pick em up off the ground around the wrecks.

actually all you have to do is look in machnery's handbook and look up the thread forms for ISO threads. It isn't like the old days when people just used whatever thread they felt like. Japs use ISO and Germans use DIN. That is why you find 13 mm heads on most M8 bolts you buy and in some places on Z's you really need the M8 with the 12 mm head. When you buy specify ISO bolts.

Yes I have had oil sender leaks so probably ought to replace.

try mouser.com they have a large selection of relays of all descriptions. You might try to find out the current draw of the fuel pump. Relays will burn out when you run too much current through them. Otherwise they are relatively bullet proof. try a relay that is more brutish and not so cute.

May be totally off but my 81 turbo did very similar. Diagnosed it down to the a/c compressor by rigging a switch to the compressor clutch. when it started if I deenergized the clutch the jerking and bucking would stop. As you are in florida it might seem that you have and were using your a/c. Easy way to tell is if it starts again pull the wire off the compressor clutch and then drive on. If problem is gone that may be your problem. I live in the NW so never got it repaired and have since sold the car.

Recheck the push on connector to the O2 sensor be sure it isn't corroded. If I remember right when i replaced the one on my 81 turbo I cut the wire to change the end connector and crimped in a new piece of wire to fit the new style connector. So I doubt that is your problem. I seem to remember also that the z will run fine even without the O2 unit disconnected. My 83 isn't running at the moment so I can't verify that for you. I think I would recheck all your vacuum hose and electrical connections to make sure nothing got pulled off when you were working in the engine compartment. LUck

81 dizzy takes the firing signal off the gear looking thing by the crank pulley. If this is not in correct place then your timing is off. You need to look at fsm and figure this out. too complicated to explain here. timing definitely off if you are getting backfire. she is firing at the wrong place in the cycle.

brakes are made to squeal when the pads are down to the nubbin. brake light on all time probably ought to check your brake fluid level. If not that then defective switch. Maybe should have put new pads in when you put them fancy SS brake lines in.

sure you got a good solder joint? Sounds like she went in to the limp home mode. check ecu codes also help to know what Z we talking here could be 280 thru z32

If you are sure you have spark and fuel then check the air supplly you need those three things to make fire. If sparking at wrong time then you don't get fire. Did you try cranking a long time with no fuel and throttle wide open. I don't mean two or three turns let it go 20 seconds or so. Look at where TDC is on crank pulley. Look at where rotor in dizzy is pointing. Should point to a mark on the dizzy body. Pull oil cap and look at #1 cylinder cam lobes they should both be pointing up and out kinda like bunny ears. You can also get a TDC on the crank pulley where the #1 cyl is actually on exhaust stroke finish. Remember crank speed is twice cam speed. Check the firing order in the fsm. something wrong with timing if all above correct and no fire.

try disconnecting the fuel pump. hold the throttle wide open and see if she fires. let it crank a good bit. I had the same problem and it was basically flooded from putting fuel in. Do you smell gas at the tail pipe? spent many an hour checking spark, timing fuel pressure etc. Wide open throttle no fuel pump and she finally cranked. If you get it to start do it again until you don't get any fire then reconnect fuel pump and she should run. If you get no fire this way then recheck timing, fuel pressure, plug wires. pull all the plugs lay then on the block and see it they are all firing nice fat blue spark.

might be you were actually experiencing the problem that sometimes occur where fuel is vaporizing in the rail due to high heat. Is your injector cooling fan working??? the guy with the vacuum advance thing is off because the 81 distributor is only that. no wires, no vacuum hoses it just sends spark to the correct plug.

that is why Lucas was named the prince of darkness on early limey cars. insufficient earthings as they say.

for the front there is a flat metal plate midships just aft of the engine which is a very good jack point to get the front end up then put your jackstands under the members that go to the front towing loops. Those are very sturdy. Saw a z lifted in the air from them after a memorable off the road experience. If you feel where the notch is for the factory jack you can feel the hard spot where the jack goes. I put a piece of 2x2 wood on that hard spot and use the floor jack with the wood between the jack and the car. There are four hard spots two front/two rear.

You could also look at bleach's post on zdriver.com. He just did a swap to an 83 2+2 about six months ago

Maybe I missed it but did you check the starter itself. Sounds like the built in solenoid is working but the motor portion is not. They do go bad.

If your oil looks like milk and water is coming out the exhaust You have a blown head gasket. not particularly hard to replace but you do need the proper equipment. Torque wrench must have. Way to lift the head or some strong buddies. I took off the head with the manifolds and turbo off an 83zxt. My son and I were able to lift it off the block with out too much dificulty. There are two schools of thought on whether to take the manifolds off with the head in place or just take out everything. I lean to the take the head off with manifolds in place cause not easy to get at the bolts to loosen the manifolds. Clean all gasket surfaces thoroughly before reinstallation. Make sure head bolts are clean and go freely into the threaded holes. Only way to get correct torque is with clean lubricated bolts. MOST IMPORTANT - stick a piece of wood like 7" long by 1.25" thick down between the timing chain to keep the tensioner in place. If you fail to do that you need to take off the timing cover and even more work ensues. Drill hole in the wood and tie some rope on it so you can pull it out when head is back together. A piece of 1x4 cut as above works well. You don't need it to be wedge shaped a rectangle will do. If you can't get it down there trim the 1.25 dimension down a little until it goes in snugly with a little force. the wood will crush enough and not damage anything metal in there. If you are not a particularly experienced wrench I'd get some help and/or advice. Any z clubs in your area? usually someone is willing to advise and help if asked. You should have good selection of sockets, open and box wrenches etc.