Oddmanout84

Heh... mine would be too if it wasn't taking up half the garage. That last storm a few days ago was great, and I had to take a car ride to the MV ferry in Woods Hole during it! Work is slowly progressing, but at least now I have a kerosene heater to warm up the garage while I work. Hopefully I'm in the last legs of the suspension work. My crossmember is out and being derusted and prepped for painting, and I want to put it back in asap. That jack/jackstands combo has been holding up the engine too long, and it worries me. with luck it'll be back in place in a few days. Still a lot of cleaning and work to be done in that area though, as I'd like to kill the rust and coat the area under the fenders first.

You know, I was thinking about getting something to dress up the rear of my Z once the bumper is gone. I think I'm going with "no" after this one... I guess its not as simple as the urethane front I bolted on..

Well... you could always get rid of one of your other cars...

Well, today's the day. As I hope everyone know's already, I'm not going to half-ass the work on my car, as long as its within my budget. So in keeping with my suspension overhaul, I'm going to remove the crossmember along with my steering rack. Since my home made skateboard trolly jack is insufficient for this, I think the time has come for me to get a real one. I don't trust my little 2 ton bottles holding up my engine! opefully the process goes smoothly as I don't want to have the engine hanging on a jack for too long. Other stuff; More mouse nests were found!! The sneaky little jerks had homes under the rear shock tower supports, which I found when I removed the vinyl. These guys look so old they belong in a museum. And these ball joints look pretty compromised. I'm seriously thinking of trashing them, because from the looks of it the years of wear and neglect have taken their toll. They still pivot, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Add that to the massive list of things I want to replace . Wherever I can I try to refurbish the old rather than buy new, but some things I just think it would be more cost/time effective to buy replacements. Once this suspension work is done, I'll almost have a rolling chassis... almost. The master brake cylinder is still off and soaking in a bucket of brake fluid. I need to find a decent way to blow the old lines out before I connect anything new. It would be pretty stupid to foul the new brakes with old contaminents still left in the system. I wish I had pictures, but when I unveiled the car a few months ago, what was left of the old fluid in the MBC had turned to green grease. Gross. Luckily The valves and seals were still good, they just needed a good cleaning. As for the proportioning valve, well, I want to get an adjustable one from Modern Motorsports anyway because of the rear discs. I can't seem to crack the old one open to clean it out anyway...

Heh. I doubt highly that its a remote start system. I think it was part of some rudementary car alarm. The loss of the flywheel cover still concerns me though, and I will be addressing it.

Onion? I prefer snail.

Oh, and I second that comment about the jackstands. Better play it safe than sorry, or you won't be around to enjoy the Z later. Just run down to the local walmart and pick up a few, that's what I did. Haven't failed me yet.... and they're cheap. Bodily injury is not.

You're 15? Bwahahahaa! Unless that's someone else in that photo, I thought you were at least as old as me! Good thing you're starting at that age. With luck, you'll be able to have it streetworthy before you're old enough to worry about the other things in life. That, and you'll get to know your car a lot better. Seeing those photos makes me really miss the desert too. Even if the dust gets into everything, the year 'round *mostly* dry climate is a lot better for the car than up here in the northeast. Just make sure you replace that weatherstrip for when it does rain, mine is all dryrotted from the majority of the car's life in the southwest. Good to see you're ambitious enough to take such a project into your hands. I wish I could have started mine while I was in highschool... Just keep up the good work and don't get discouraged!

Installation is final. I'll have to wait and see if there's anymore tweaking to do. They fought against installation a little bit, but in the end I won. No modifications other than paint were needed. Looks like they went in straight, but I have yet to take a level to the tips to see if its exact. Only thing I don't like is that they go almost directly under th diff and once I remove that bumper they're not going to be flush anymore. I mean, they're going to stick waaaaay out!

Because of my love of troubleshooting (ha, yeah right) I have ordered a multitude of components to help narrow down my search for the elusive gremlin. Another expense, yes, I'm not too happy about it. But I am sick and tired of searching around and chasing ghosts. New dust boots for the steering endlinks and steering rack were ordered as needed, but in the process I grabbed a few other things "while I was at it". Among these were several new relays, for the fuel pump and efi system. Other items include a new distributor and a "working" EFI computer from ebay ($25, couldn't pass it up). Lets hope these lead me to my problem. If not, I'll have spares.

Oh believe me... I zone out thinking of its orange and black brilliance every day at some point. Orange may not be my favorite color, but in my opinion it is the best color for an S30.

Don't forget the episode where they became chicks with full blown stubble.

threads like these give me hope that I'm getting close to my problem's solution

Well, I haven't had a TERRIBLE time fitting them. I definately think they should have provided a hanger or two, but so far I've been able monkey them into place without scratching the paint too much, heh. Take your pipes off, scotch brite or wire brush all that rust off and use some of the VHT ceramic paint on them. You should be able to do it within a day, quick quick like a bunny. The VHT flat black dries fast, but I'd give it a few hours. From there the curing process actually involves you driving the car to heat it up so it fully cures! But yes, if you could send pictures of your setup I'd be most appreciated. It will help me decide where I should put the straps, cause right now the system goes directly under the diff for the best fit.

Yes, a bad ign switch is something that's crossed my mind several times. However my z will die after its 2 seconds of fuel is used up regardless of key position. Not ruling it out as a possibility, but so far my methods for troubleshooting generally have me checking from the end back to the beginning (i.e. starting from spark plugs back to the transistor ign box). I'm still a little way's from the key-hole

Oh! And I almost forgot... Now that the twice pipes are hooked up, I got to hear a few notes out of them while my engine attempted to start. It was no symphony, but I can tell that it will be some sweet music!

Nope, its not the AFM. Just made a temp fix to my ign relay. Strangely, it didn't seem to work at first. Then when I took a test light to the relay, all of the sudden my warning buzzer and other electronics started to function. Even stranger, the effect lasted even after the test light was removed! Weird... So I tried starting, same effect, only runs for a second then shuts off. Unplugged AFM, attempted start, same effect. Plugged in L28ET BAMF AFM, same effect. So interestingly enough, its not likely the air flow meter due to my testing results. Good news because I'm narrowing it down, bad news of course is that I haven't located the problem. I think I have a bad ground somewhere, or possibly another relay is toast. I'll be ordering a few replacement relays soon if I can't get positive results out of what I have. Its looking more and more like I have a bad ground. The fun is locating it.

Interesting. I cracked open the side cover and the inside looks immaculate, but I'm assuming that that metal strip you speak of is the small "arm" that contacts the points on that small circuit board. It looks like its touching but I will try bending it (hopefully without breaking!). I was hoping to test the Z with AFM unplugged, but I still have yet to fix the ign relay. Your mention of this "angel switch" is interesting. A couple times while trying to start the car I could actually hear the fuel pump running after the key returned to the "on" position, even with the engine stopped. This effect was intermittent and would only happen once in a while. The flap doesn't stick anymore, so I know that's not it. I'll try to keep troubleshooting inbetween my other work, but I really need to finish this suspension work so I can get her off of these jacks. Once again, thanks for the input.

Now here's an interesting question... Today at the shop I work at we recieved a ford crown vic (taxi cab, '00 model) that had the same starting issue that my Z has. It has spark, it will start, but only runs for a second. After several people scratched their heads for a while, one of us suggested unplugging the MAF plug. Guess what, it ran. Obviously we had to order a new MAF sensor to fix it, but it made me think. With our EFI Z's is it possible to unplug the AFM to bypass the signal in order to troubleshoot? I can't test it at the moment because my ign relay is still messed up and I need to make it a new ground. If anyone has any useful information it would be helpful.

Motorsport (thezstore.com) also sells an engine grounding kit which they claim takes a lot of noise out of the electrical system. I've been thinking about it myself...

So minty my mouth tingles..

The sad thing is at the moment this thing will beat my car in the 1/4 mile, by a 1/4 mile...

But I really can't worry about it too much now, because my main concern at the moment lies in fixing up the areas not noticed as much (like the suspension, interior, rust killing). Its like eating an apple backwards, only it makes sense.

I was toying with the idea of painting just the inside of the scoop black, then installing the clear headlight covers. It would give a similar effect to installing smoked covers, maybe. My decision still isn't final though.

Since it'll be a while before I attempt to start the Z again, it seems like my time will be better spent finishing the bottom work that I started. Good news; I found that there are a few online suppliers of various parts for the Z, ones that MSA and Black Dragon didn't offer! Woooo! They even supply distributors, new, but OEM, and they're in stock. I figured previously that mainstream support for these car parts was dead, but am pleasently proven wrong. The bad news; The one relay of mine that's known to be compromised (ign relay) is not in stock ANYWHERE. I'll either have to fix mine or find a Datsun mechanic with a 280 shell I can... erm.. rape parts off of. Maybe I'll get lucky and the local Nissan dealership can aquire one. Check out this ign relay. I'm pretty certain that its not functioning due to the broken ground, which is next to my thumb. It still clicks, but power is not transmitted. I'd much rather source a new one than fix this, it just mitigates the risk of it failing later on. As you can see, the rear suspension of the car is nearly complete. All I have to do is hook up the brakes and insert the pads, as well as install the sway bar which will be later tonight. My wheels barely clear the calipers, its scary. I may even have to remove some of the balance weights on one of them. But that's ok, its only a short drive to the shop I'm working at, and we have a balancer where I can fix it. Twice pipes are also being installed today. Nothing is final, but I do need to do some wiggle work to get them to sit right. Yes, I have a screwdriver holding up the tips from the rear mount! Getting them straight so far wasn't too hard, but I don't like how low they're hanging below the diff. I need to find some way to support them in the middle. So far though, it wasn't as much of a hooker as everyone said they were to install. But I could be wrong later when I do the final fit. Coating is flat black VHT ceramic spraypaint. My other baby is in hibernation for the winter... Makes me sad... Meow