eec564

You don't need to get up on a lift just for me, I'm going to go ahead and pull my center console and boot off to see what I can fabricate in the way of a mount. I've got some microswitches from radioshack, part number 275-017 if you wanna see a picture of it online, they're single pole double throw, so they've got NO and NC. The tranny ears look like my best bet for mounting, a bolt with a nut through each of them to hold my mounting mechinism on. I can try and fab something out of odd scrap metal I've laying around, as long as it dosen't conduct too much heat, namely from the exaust, after a spirited drive I can feel a slight amount of heat in the metal of my shift lever. I don't know what temperatures and environments those switches can handle. My main concern about getting it high enough to trip easily no matter if it were in 1-3-5 or 2-4-R would be the body/transmission tunnel, not the shift boot. With a good hard launch, I could see the tranny twisting 3-5 degrees or more, or with a BIG bump, seeing as the potholes here in CA that are worse then many dirt roads in the midwest, smashing something up. I'm attatching a JPG made in windows paint (KISS) depicting a possible mockup of what I may try. A cage that slides foreward/backwards, staying evenly aligned with the tranny, tripping either microswitch, wired inseries using the normally closed contacts. If you can't see it, send me a PM with your email address and I'll send you a copy. Let me know what you think. -Eric edit: I'm not seeing the thumbnail in my view for my pic, so goto http://www.geocities.com/eec564/idea.bmp to see it.

Vinh, are you talking about checking the position of the shifter outside the tranny? There isn't much throw until you get higher up, but I can take some measurements and use normally closed switches wired in series. The remote start recives a ground signal to activate. If either switch (up/down or foreward/backwards, depending on how you look at it) were activated, it would be dissabled. I can go ahead and get my center console out easily and try mocking something up. Any recomendations with where to mount the bracket to hold the switches to the transmission? Also, thanks to everyone. -Eric

The pedal wouldn't help me, since this is for remote start. And I thought about using the light for my e-brake, but it isn't strong enough to keep my car from moving in first gear.

Grr, I guess I can try going another route. Does anyone know of an alternate method of protecting against accidentally starting in gear? Or should I just get my hands on a Borg Warner WC T-5 from a turbo?

I'd like to be able to use the remote start in my alarm with my '82 ZX, 2+2 non-turbo, but I'm not comfortable hooking it up without a neutral safety switch to only engage the system when it isn't in gear. The FSM says I should have a FS5W71B. That is, according to the model variation table in the FSM I got from carfiche.com, U.S.A. car, 2+2, T-bar roof, non-turbo, manual transmission. That also means I have an R200 3.9, which counts out correct with my speed at a given rpm. But getting back to my question. The FSM for the 5spd, non-borg warner WC T-5 indicates there should be a neutral switch on the transmission. I found the reverse switch (works correctly), the top gear switch (works in 4th gear) and the top O.D. gear switch (works in 5th gear). Only the reverse switch is hooked up, neither the top gear switch nor the over-drive gear switch are hooked up. There is no switch in place for neutral, nor can I find the mounting location. I wanted to check out one of the switches at a local parts store, they're supposed to be same same for reverse/top gear/od/neutral, but all the places near me have it as special order, so I couldn't just check it out for free without buying it. Can anyone tell me what I'm missing? Is there really no mounting location for one? Is the FSM I have wrong, the wrong one, or what? I'm fairly stumped here, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. -Eric

The position of the breaker plate assembly shouldn't affect the position of the rotor at all. The breaker plate only moves the stator, the reluctor and rotor only change position relative to the bottom of the shaft due to the mechanical advance. The position you JB your breaker plate in will determine your base timing, before you adjust it by moving the distributor. As long as you know the correct position in the star (turbo dist/oil pump) when re-installing the distributor you'll be fine, with a non-turbo it's nice and one-way keyed, so you can't miss it. I wouldn't like to try JBing it while it's still on the motor, especially if it's in the car. -Eric

I belive nissan still sells the stator and the magnet under it as one piece, it's listed in their computer as an avalible part. Should be less then 20$ but will take a while to deliver. Making friends with someone who works behind the parts counter might also be a good thing. Also, unless you want to lock the mechanical advance, simply not hooking up the vaccume line to the actuator/diaphram is the way to go IMHO for not using it. You don't have to heavily modify the distributor and you can go back if you have to. The return spring in the actuator is more then enough to hold the breaker plate in place. What did you do about the plastic race that is always broken? Replace it with a new one? I could only find it sold as a unit with the entire breaker plate assembly, for way more then I wanted to pay. Asside from that, everything else in my distributor was fine, just needed a bit of steel wool and sand paper. -Eric

Also, you should deffinately go here: http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributor/index.html'>http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributor/index.html And here too, for the main techtips page: http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/ -Eric

I used a thin coating of lithium grease on mine, very slick and oil/water resistant. Dielectric shouldn't be necessary, there's no electricity anywhere in the system. I suppose the easiest thing to do would be to use spacers (see my rampage further down) where the plastic race was, if you can't get a new one, and as long as they don't interfere with anything, then use the non-hooked-up vaccume advance arm to hold the breaker plate in place. There's no advantage to not having the vaccume diaphram/accuator in the distributor when it isn't hooked up, but as I said above, it can be used to keep the breaker plate from moving so you don't have to glue it, which gives you the major (IMO) advantage of being able to go back to using it some day, if you need to or wish. Food for thought: What I ended up doing when I got my Z and there was nothing left of the plastic race, was replace the ball bearings in the plastic section with precisely measured extremely thing washers I made on a lathe. Then I coated everything that moves with white lithium and re-assembled. Everything works as it should, except you need to get EVERY burr out of the washers otherwise the vaccume advance (I'm still using mine) sticks, then jumps to whatever position it should be in. Even then, never caused pinging or noticeable loss of power. -Eric

I like the attention to detail, and 80s styling in terms of the lines. The paint job may attract more attention then needed, but the interior is very nice.

Yea, I can try cleaning the injectors. I know none are leaking (when off) as I checked fuel pressure, and when I shut off the engine it holds pressure indefinately. I'll pull them out this weekend and find a local shop to backflush and clean, maybe a flowtest too. Or would I be better off running a high concentration of injector cleaner through, on a nearly empty tank, then filling up and driving a while more so the high concentration isn't sitting in my lines? -Eric

I've changed the oil, filter, fuel filter, spark plugs, wires are good, distributer cap, rotor, checked all sensors for correct resistance values, the entire wiring harness is in perfect shape, and it has a new (stock bosch , narrow band) o2 sensor. But it's still getting crap milage, and might even miss once in a while due to being so rich, according to what my smog report says. Think it would be worth it to swap to a 3.54 R200 rear end? It's got a 3.9 R200 (stock) right now. That's a direct bolt-up, right? -Eric

My completely stock 82 non-turbo 5spd is getting crummy mpg, namely 15 city 17 highway. My smog reports (stupid CA laws) say I'm running borderline ritch and barely passing. Until I have the time to do a full engine rebuild and turbo swap with megasquirt, I'd just like to tune for better milage. Adjusting the AFM seems like the best thing to do, with a wideband o2 sensor. While 200$ for the LC-1 kit is cheap, I was wondering if anyone knew a more cost-effective (aka cheaper) way to get a wideband. Also, if anyone had any AFR or general tuning tips, they'd be appreciated. Thanks. -Eric

You don't need to spend 200$ to get an accurate multimeter. For 40$ plus tax/shipping you can get a very nice basic meter from Jameco. It's the Metex M-3800, I've used them for a long time and they've always been great. Very accurate, measures resistance, voltage, current up to 10 amps unfused, 2 amps fused. Search for 3800 from jameco.com, or follow this link. http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&productId=27115