DuoWing

In my 76 280Z I don't have any section for the white wiring running to the starter motor post either. I'm not sure what happened to it. Maybe those fusible links aren't even doing anything.

Can someone give me some advice on this one. On my 76' 280Z I've managed to get everything working. Turn signals, headlights, dash lights, tail lights, brake lights, etc. The only thing I can't get working are the license plate lights. I've put new bulbs in to no avail. Anyway I pulled that little license plate bulb socket sub harness and was testing it. The power wires are fine and gets the power right up to the socket. The ground wires seem to be ok, but I think the inside is corroded or not making contact when the socket is depressed by the bulb. Is there anyway to take these apart and clean them out? Should I just look for a replacement on ebay or something? Thanks guys.

I thought that wire was for the rev limiter?

Well I took my 300ZX out for the first time in a while last week as the weather was finally getting warm. The clutch is finally about toast it was slipping really bad if I began to give it even moderate throttle in a higher gear. Full throttle runs or even hard accelerating is something that is not possible. Even getting on the freeway wasn't too fun. Well anyway I went ahead and ordered an ACT Street Performance Clutch Kit for my 87' Z31 Turbo. I got a gallon bottle of Redline MT-90 to refill the tranny with while I'm at it. I was curious if you guys had any other suggestions on things I should do or get?

Yes it will. On my car I'm using the Fidanza Aluminum 240mm flywheel and a 240mm ACT Street Performance clutch. This was all bolted up to my L28ET and then mated to an early 5-speed Z transmission. It works fine. The car originally had the 225mm clutch/factory flywheel.

Can anyone tell me what triggers the start signal for the ECU? I was trying to test the car by putting the key in the ON position, then using a screwdriver to jump the terminals. It seemed like my fuel pump started working as my pressure gauge was building pressure and it seemed more steady than before, but the car didn't start. Also my batter was quickly dieing so I didn't get far into this test. Does anyone have any ideas of things to test. My car when it runs runs/idles fine. So I don't think there's anything wrong with my ECU/EFI wiring. I'm just having issues starting. Seems like the ECU is pulsing the fuel pump or something. Making me think I was losing or having itermittent power to the ECU during cranking.

Well went to go pull the barrel out of my car. Anyway I removed the electrical connector from the switch and I noticed that the barrel was held in by one screw and it was loose and I could kind of rattle it around a little. Anyway I took it out and I pulled the other out from my 280ZXT. I was messing with them, they seem alright, but the one from my 76' which has starting issues seems finicky. Like it seems like it'll have power to ignition when starting, but kind of sketchy, and then when you let off to go back to ON it won't have continuity to the ON position unless I move the position of it just slightly. Where the other one from the ZXT had no real issues. So I'm going to throw the one from my ZXT in there which had no issues with starting or the ignition, make sure it's held on with both screws tightly, and try. Hopefully that takes care of my problem. Thanks for the info in this thread! Very helpful!

Thanks for the tip. Luckily if I do require a replacement for the time being my 280ZX that I took the motor out of has a known working ignition switch. So I could probably swap that in as like you said, they seem to sell the same part for all the L-series Zs.

I'm beginning to wonder if this is my issue. My car seems to work fine in the ON position, but it seems like it's kind of random where it will start quickly, take a while, or just plain not start when in the Start position, but has no issues cranking. How did you test the switch, via the connector that hangs down under the column? Just checking to see if at some point it would drop power?

The gauge on my pallnet rail is a liquid filled gauge. Did running a damper at the rail help smooth it out? I may do that and run a damper over in the engine bay or right at the rail before or after the filter. The old damper seemed to not be doing anything for me. By the way, what kind of FPR are you running?

Am I not able to go back and edit messages after a certain amount of time? Anyway does that stock damper need to be in place? It doesn't have any sort of check valve in it does it? The factory damper I took off I could manage to blow through it both ways so if it had a check valve in that, it no longer is of use.

Ok well to start I wasn't sure where to post this. This thread kind of goes along with this: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=154198 What I got out of that thread was that my fuel setup, pump, etc is fine and there's really nothing wrong with it. Anyway I have a question related to the electrical. This is my 76' 280Z with an L28ET that's been converted to a Z31 ECU/MAF setup and then NIStune was added to the ECU. This was all running properly on my 280ZXT before it was pulled. Anyway I've noticed something else when messing with the car. This is just kind of separate, but part of my theory. When I have the car on I can connect my Laptop to my Nistune consult with no issues, when I go to crank the car my Laptop will lose connection. There's ways to diagnose that, but I'm not going to get into it. Anyway then one other thing I've noticed is that when I prime I will hit the 40psi then after the prime cycle stops it will quickly drop to 0. Now one time I had another person crank it to start while I watched the Fuel Pressure gauge. I noticed that even once it started cranking the fuel pressure gauge sat at 0. After a second or two all of a sudden the gauge jumped and suddenly built pressure and finally then started. I'm wondering if this is an electrical issue. Maybe the ECU is losing connection momentarily from the ignition switch? When I go from ON to Start, and hence why I lose my connection to my ECU consult? Sometimes it will start and othertimes it won't. Once running the car idles fine, revs fine, and will idle and run all day long. One other thing I noticed is that when I'll be cranking and say it won't start I'll let off so the key will be back in the ON position and I'll hear the fuel pump run it's 5-second prime cycle again. My Z31 doesn't seem to do this. I read another thread about where a guy's ignition barrel or the connection was worn out so he wasn't having a constant power even while cranking or it wouldn't start. Something to that sort. Any ideas here?

Money for junk that's doing nothing but taking up room is always awesome!

But with an electric pump you'll probably need more hosing and have to purchase a regulator as was mentioned which will raise the price anyway. Not to mention then having to wire it up. You'd probably want a relay with it too. I'd say go with the mechanical, it'd be much easier and less headache even if it did come out slightly more expensive.

In case you haven't figured this issue out. Here's my input. My dash lights, tail lights, parking lights, turn signals, etc were not working. I took apart the Hazard switch, cleaned it like in the write-up and put it back together. This helped my situation. I had some lights working. I checked my fuse for my parking lights. Even though it looked ok, when I pulled it out the fuse was old and falling apart. I replaced it and now my parking lights worked. I pulled apart the turn signal switch on the steering column and cleaned that up. It helped to improve my situation, but I still had issues. Finally when I replaced the flashers and all the bulbs everything worked as it should. One of my Flashers looked rusted as if water had gotten into it. It was causing my lights to do some strange things. Go through all of these steps. If this doesn't fix your issue then I'd say you may have a wiring problem.

Thanks for that info. I'll have to look into that. The GM socket I got works, it doesn't fit perfectly, but I was able to cut one of the tabs off and get it to fit in. I'll take a look at Honda lights sometime and splice that in if it's a better fit. At least for now the GM socket is in there and gives me a working brake light.

I was using that pipe thread sealer with teflon and apparently that doesn't work too well. It seemed like the gas would eat through it.

Bah, I'm having that same exact problem with my FPR. It uses the NPT fitting, and I've had so much trouble getting the fittings to properly seal into the Fuel Pressure Regulator.

Alright well today I messed with my car. I cut up the old factory 76' fuel pump bracket to mount my Walboro 255lph or whatever pump. So right now I have a completely refurbished/cleaned out tank. The feed line from my tank to a Fram G3 Filter, into my Walboro, then the walboro into the metal line that runs up to the engine. I took out the old factory fuel damper, which seems to have made no difference as to the shakiness of the needle on the gauge. Anyway from there I have the line running to the engine bay up to the fuel filter, then into my pallnet rail. From there I have a line running out of the pallnet rail back towards the firewall and into my FPR then to the metal return line. As far as I can tell this should be correct. It still doesn't make sense though. The pressure will hit 40, but then drop to 0 really rapidly, in about less than 20 seconds, but if it's as you guys say. Then maybe I have an issue elsewhere. My regulator looks exactly like the Aeromotive, except it's Blue and uses NPT fittings instead of AN fittings. It's by Professional Products or something. Also my Walboro fuel pump is ridiculously quiet. I've always heard people say that the aftermarket pumps are louder.

That doesn't look too bad. I've always liked the early 280ZX lights as I thought they looked more S30ish vs. the later 280ZX lights. I'm not sure what would be required, you'd have to get a pair and start matching it up.

I think the biggest problem you may have with converting to EFI and trying to use a stock harness or EFI setup from a 280Z or 280ZX will be that you probably won't have some of the needed sensors in place. Depending on the motor that was used for your 3.1 it could be easier or harder. You'd almost be better off building a standalone. The wiring can seem daunting at first, but if you work with it, study wiring diagrams, you'll understand it soon enough.

Forgot to mention that the fuel filter is brand new, but it's possible that it's clogged. I had the tank fully cleaned out, and before I put the tank back in I used a can of kerosene mixed with fuel injector cleaner, and connected the feed line to the return line, and cycled the clean stuff through the pump and through the fuel system straight into a separate can that caught the dirty crap. How well this worked I'm not sure.

Hey guys I have an issue with fuel pressure. 76' 280Z. I've swapped my L28ET into it, I've got it wired up. Right now I have the stock 76' 280Z Pump in there. It does run, but getting it started is an effort in itself. Anyway I'll flip the key to on and my Pump does the prime cycle before shutting off. During this time it'll hold pressure. Then once the pump shuts off the pressure will rapidly drop to 0. Sometimes it will slowly drop to 0. Sometimes it will drop about 10-15psi and stay there. I clamped off the return line and the pressure shot way up and stayed there. So I thought it was the regulator. Got a new adjustable regulator that says it's factory set at 40psi. Anyway when the pump is priming the pressure shoots up hits 40psi, then once the pump stops it just slowly drops. I have a pressure gauge on my Pallnet rail. Two other odd things. The pressure dropped, then what I did was to help get more fuel which helps to get the car started, I put vice grips on the return line, but only so it was partially pinched. This helps get the car started. While I had my friend crank it, I watched the gauge. The car was cranking, but it took probably a couple of cranks before I even saw pressure start building on the gauge. Finally when the car is running it seems to idle fine, rev up fine, etc. Except the needle on the pressure gauge will be rapidly shaking like it can't seem to hold steady pressure. I'm thinking it's a fuel pump issue? I can't find leaks anywhere. One other question I have. The 280Z has the line from the tank to the pump, then the pump line runs up into what looks like some sort of regulator then on into the metal line towards the front of the car. I'll have to go grab my Haynes guide, but what is that? I don't seem to remember anything like that on my 280ZX. Should I remove this when I install my Walboro?

I cut the wire before it went off into the fuse box, and then just rerouted it into my Fuel Pump Relay. It didn't affect anything. Works fine. I didn't try this, but if you want to. One of the connectors that hangs down under the steering column that gets disconnected from the EFI harness(this is going off my 76' wiring) has a connector with a lot of the necessary wires. Like the wire for the fuel pump, the ignition switched wire, etc. Saves time when it comes to hunting these wires down.

Don't take my word for it, but I believe the cam towers and the cam from the P90 will swap over to the L24. I've heard of people taking the older style cam towers with spray bar and putting them on the newer head. So I'd think you should be fine. As far as what would happen, I'm thinking a slight decrease in power, as I've seen people switching the turbo cams out for the N/A cams to get a bump in power. As far as running goes you should be fine.