Zmanco

I'd be careful with reflowing solder joints unless you have a good reason to do it. Soldering, like many things, requires the right amount of heat. Too little or too much are both bad. An analogy for those more mechanically inclined is torquing front wheel bearings. There is a window of proper torque. Too little AND too much are both bad, albeit for different reasons. If you think some of your joints are cold, then by all means reflow them. But if they look good, why do it? You run the risk of damaging the component or board by applying too much heat. And if you add more solder, then you increase the chance of bridging to a nearby lead. While that's technically true, the parts used on MS boards, if properly installed (protected from ESD and soldered without too much heat), are going to last for a very long time. Plenty of other things on our Zs are going to fail long before.

I just tripped across the original version. I think he looks rather proud of himself as heads back to the pits, almost a little smug

Ha, thanks for pointing that out - I missed it the first time. And I understood her perfectly even though I don't speak a word of Italian I think Riccardo was smiling ...

I didn't know Autozone had this much reference material. Thanks! But ... I glanced at the diagrams for my 73 and there are errors, such as the inclusion of a "cooling fan (early models)". I don't think any 240Zs came with electric cooling fans. I'll guess that the diagram is from a later model so just be careful not to put too much faith in these if they don't agree with what you see on your car.

The Avid W4S is an all-season tire. A few years ago I had that tire on my E36 BMW (albeit the tire has probably evolved since then) hoping that I could use it in mild snow days and still not give up dry road performance. I was very mistaken. In the end I had a tire that really wasn't any good at anything. So I'd suggest you take that tire off your list and if any type of snow is on your agenda, go with a second set of tires for the winter. As for a dry weather high performance tire, this summer I switched to Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec and have been thrilled with them. Although I only have 1 track day on them so far, they held up very well and barely show any wear. Their grip was comparable to the Kumho MX I had on before but the side wall seems stiffer and steering is a bit more crisp. But both of these tires are really dry weather only. Those big tread blocks with no siping aren't very happy with any amount of standing water.

I have a copy of the 82 ZX FSM. I know the CAS is different, but maybe the rest is similar? PM me with your email address if you're interested and I'll use a site to upload it so you can d/l it.

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=24867 She is one good sport! What a great sense of humor! Does anyone know what this was about? Was it just a gag or something to do with Honda?

I recently installed a centerforce II clutch/disc in my NA L28 and with the exception of 1 big issue, have been very happy with it. The good: - no issues with grip, although given I'm NA I'm not surprised with that. - the engagement is very smooth, as good as any stock clutch I've ever driven. - the effort is no different than a stock clutch The not so good: - engagement begins pretty close to the bottom of the pedal movement. In other words, the clutch pedal needs to be completely depressed for it to fully disengage. The bad: - there are vibrations that come and go at various RPMs that I am guessing are due to the weights moving around on the fingers of the pressure plate. So far I've not seen anyone else with the vibration issue and will probably be pulling the tranny over the winter to rebuild a syncro so will check it further then.

Before I solved my reset problem with new plug wires I too tried swapping to a new (rebuilt) alternator. I was sure that the 1 year old Autolite I had was the source of the spikes. Checker exchanged it under warranty but there was no change. The spikes were still there as were the resets.

FWIW I had MS installed for several months before I began to have problems with resets. Initially they were rare and only occurred under hard acceleration. Later they occurred more often, sometimes at idle too. Since switching to the magnecor wires over a year ago I haven't had any unexplained resets.

Where did you measure 1 psi? Was it at the hard line where it enters the engine compartment? Or at the outlet to the front carb? If it's the latter, I'd be curious to hear what it is where the hard line enters the engine compartment. Otherwise it's pretty simple. The hard line runs between the engine compartment and fuel tank. You probably have the electric fuel pump in line between the hard line and the tank. That's all there is.

I'm running MS2/Extra and tried autotune early on while my maps were pretty coarse and it was of little value. Unfortunately automatic mixture control is not supported on Extra so I don't have much experience with it. But I did notice that with Autotune (which I believe is the same for MS2 and MS2/E) that it often was too far away from a datapoint to make changes. It seemed to be worse when I switched to the 16 x 16 tables. I know the parameters can be changed in the .ini file, but I just haven't spent the time to mess with it yet. I know that's not much help, but didn't see anyone else replying so thought I'd share what I knew so far.

The only noise filters I've ever seen at auto parts stores are in-line. They usually come in a few sizes based on the max current they can support. If you're switching the fuel pump off the same feed make sure you buy one that can support the combined load. I'll be curious to see if an inline solves your issue. I hope it does, but I'm doubtful. It's usually much better to eliminate a source of noise than to try to filter it out. Also, the other wires in the engine bay that connect to MS (sensors, CAS ,etc) are also susceptible to EMI. Filtering the power supply may help, but it may not be enough. Again, I'll be curious to see if it solves your problem, or if in the end you have to go with the Magnecor plug wires. My guess is it will be plug wires...

A few things: Is the battery "not holding a charge" due to a failed battery or is the charging system just not recharging it? The other day I saw a post where it was suggested that parts stores like autozone and checker can load test a battery. You might want to do that to make sure it's still good. How did you determine that the regulator is "fried"? What else have you done recently to the car? Any other work that might have had some impact on wiring? Given the alternator is a rebuilt, you might want to test it at the parts store as well. It's not uncommon for a rebuilt to fail shortly after being installed. As for where to look for a ground problem, as nismopick said, it's really not possible to give you a specific list. More than likely one of the 3 devices (battery, regulator, alternator) was the cause of the failure. Even though the wiring on our early Zs isn't all that robust, unless something is done to it (such as a wire is crushed/damaged/shorted to ground/etc) it rarely just "fails".

The part number I listed for the Magencor wires in my first post worked great on my NA - I don't see why they wouldn't fit a turbo application. I bought them online as there was a wide range of prices. Sorry, can't help you with plugs for a turbo...

A few thoughts: 1) The next time the front carb "stops working", pull the hose off at the carb and crank the engine. Does fuel come out of the hose? If so, then the fuel supply is ok and the focus should shift to the carbs. 2) If you can, the next time the carb stops working pull its cover off and see if there is fuel in the float chamber. It sounds like right now you're using the absence of fuel coming out of the accelerator pump jets as an indicator that there is no fuel at all in the carb. While under normal conditions that would be a safe assumption, before we continue to assume that you should verify it. 3) Is there anything near the bottom of the front carb that might be preventing the accelerator pump linkage from moving freely? It's been a while since I looked at the DGV carbs, but IIRC there is a lever that is driven by the throttle shaft linkage that depresses the accelerator pump diaghram. Perhaps a heat shield or something else is preventing it from moving? (I think I'm reaching on this one, but hey, it's brainstorming...)

Yes, but make sure you can remove the fill plug before you drain the oil. Often those plugs are over-tightened and it's a bear to get them out. Unlike the tranny which can be filled via the shifter if necessary, there's no other practical way to fill the diff while it's in the car.

I'm sorry, I missed that the problem stayed with whichever carb was in front. If you can get the problem to occur again, you might try opening the hood to cool things and see if the problem goes away. It's sounding like vapor lock only on the front carb, although I have a hard time believing that even as I type it.

"Great minds think alike" or "Misery loves company" Pick one. Seriously, glad it worked out for you.

Something isn't right here: HP = (Torque x RPM)/5250. 253 lbft at 8000 rpm equals 393 HP.

Hi Mike, Sounds like you guys had an adventure getting home after the Shine n Show Sorry to hear that. Can you be more specific about what you mean when you say it stopped spraying fuel? Are you talking about seeing fuel come out of the accelerator pump outlets when you move the throttle? Or is it something else? Since the problem seems to follow the carb when you swapped front and rear I'd focus on the troublesome carb and less on the fuel supply. As we had discussed earlier, it sounds like your fuel tank has rust/crud in it and perhaps a few small pieces made it past the filters/screens? That shouldn't happen, but the symptoms sure sound like it. You may need to tear that carb back down and soak it in cleaner again. Just some thoughts... Of course, you're going to have to deal with getting the tank cleaned up too otherwise I suspect this will be a recurring issue.

The point the MS manual is making is that you need to connect to a point where you have battery voltage BOTH when in the crank and run position. Some accessories such as a heater fan do not get power during cranking. I don't know the specifics of the later 280z models, but why not tap off the +12V supplied to the coil? That will be hot for both crank and run. Or you could test the various leads coming off of the ignition switch via trial and error with a DVM.

I've found it easiest to refill from above via the engine compartment. Get 2 feet of ~ 1/2" clear tubing at Lowes/HD. From under the car insert one end of the hose into the fill hole on the tranny and route the other up towards the battery. Then just put the nipple of oil container (I'm assuming you're using a 1 quart bottle) into the hose and squeeze. If it's cold you may want to soak the bottle in warm water beforehand to make it flow better. It's easier and neater than doing it from under the car.

Very cool shots Paul, and I'm sure your daughter will remember that day for a long time! Hopefully this isn't too off topic since they're not my pictures, but here are 2 sites that are all about exploring old and abandoned sites. Careful, you can loose a few hours before you know it http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=265602590&blogID=398532326 http://vanishingpoint.ca/

On my 73 there is a connector in front of the bottom of the radiator for the headlights. One night I lost all headlights close to home (luckily!). Turned out the connector wasn't firmly connected any more. Pulling it apart and pushing back together solved it. It may not be what's causing your issue, but I'd double check it anyway. The other issue could be that the contacts and plastic that holds them is worn. Try wiggling the switch with them on. If they flash on/off for even a second, that's the most likely issue. I've already cleaned the contacts, but the plastic is so worn that I suspect I'm going to have to find a replacement.