galloguy05

Alright guys. I havent been able to work on this problem yet because of being busy and what not. But i did find out something new to add and want to see if you guys have anything else to give as far as advice. I noticed that the shaking only happens at 45 mph or higher. Would that still be a drive train issue or maybe a balance issue on the wheels? or both? Just trying to get an idea of where to look when i do find the time to start taking care of this problem

Ok well i have a 75 280z and everything is stock including transmission my problem is this....when driving the car 1st and 2nd gear drive alright but once i get into 3rd and especially 4th gear the car shakes violently when i accelerate. Also when i push in the clutch to come to a stop, once i get down to around 15 mph and slower i can hear a tapping sound (seems to be coming from right behind the end of the tranny) that decreases with speed. Also when i take a look through the shifter hole i do see quite a bit of oil and/or grease all over the place down there. So tomorrow im going to take a more detailed look...but for you more experienced guys, can you tell me what might be the cause of this and/or possibly tell me how to just fix it all together. I have no experience working with drivetrains so im not going to tear anything apart unless i can see something obviously wrong. ive also done a search and know that i should check the u joints but im not sure how to tell if they are bad or not..... Any help will be greatly appreciated!

alright everyone. Im somewhat ashamed to tell you what i had to do to fix the problem with my Z. If any of you have read the back story to this then you will be pleased to know that i have the Z on the road again. I went through everything trying to find the problem. Thought it was the timing at first. Thank god i didnt try doing anything with the timing yet. lol Then i thought it was the afm or some stupid sensor that likes to go out.....it wasnt that. I was HOPING it wasnt a burnt out ecu or something like that. So after a few weeks of not being able to work on it i finally made time today. MY grandpa told me to check and see if the fuel pump was turning on or not. so i crawl under the car expecting everything to be fine but i was going o humor him anyways and check. I was positive that it wasnt a fuel problem because i could smell a bunch of gas coming out of the tail pipe. Turns out that that was just the remaining fule left in the lines. So anyways i crawl under the car and i see a wire that comes from the fuel pump just hanging loose and a connector attached to another piece of wire going to the front of the car. As soon as i saw that i said "oh Sh**" because i knew that would fix the problem. Sure enough it did. So two lessons learned today. NEVER trust a cars wiring job unless youve done it yourself and know its right. And also........Wisdom comes with age no matter how much us young guys want to admit it and think we know everything. Theres always an older and much wiser guy out there to help out as long as you are just willing to listen. thanks all for the help. Now on to planning future mods again!

hmm ill have to check out that regulator once it get light ouside. Also going to check the timing and see if the number 1 piston is at tdc in unison with the valves being closed and the distributor cam pointing at the number 1 cylinder. if that all checks out and everything is fine.......well then ill be back here picking everyones brains some more......

they look to me like BBS Air II CY rims. maybe an older version of them? because the newer ones do not have that middle hub thing on them.

I was kinda rough on it before it died. not Right before it died though and i never reved past 5000 i dont think (if thats considered to be rough, im not sure) plugs are not fouled they are brand new and gapped properly. it is sucking in air like it should The cam gear has no score lines or broken teeth on it either. i checked to see if there was spark by the old fashoned way of putting a screwdriver in each plug wire and arcing it on the side of the car somewhere. i just went out and bought a timing light so im going to check the timing with that and see what happens.

Ok.....yes the tail pipe does smell like gas when trying to start it. ill check the fuse and power for each injector. i do know that i used a test light to see if they were getting power and it indicated that they were but that doesnt mean they were getting enough so ill check that out. the cam spins when trying to start the car because i took the valve cover off and turned the car over and it spins like it should. im just going to have to get a timing light and see how off the timing is. the question i have about that though is.....is it possible for the timing to jump THAT much in the middle of driving it? it was starting and running perfectly once i got the new battery and then just cruising down the road it lost power seemingly for no reason. so idk im pretty stuck on this and ill check out the timing and the injectors once again

alright so i got the z home today and started wrenching on it. The distributor turns like it should and its not skipping so im ruling out a broken distributor grear. the timing chain is still very tight on the cam gear so im wondering how hard it is exactly to spin that gear 180 degrees while driving but yet have the chain have no slack in it. Seems impossible to me. The cam gar has all the teeth in it nd they arent scored or anything. so that furthers my thought against the chain jumping and putting it out of time. i took off the afm and tried putting starter fluid in it and the same thing happens. i did notice though that theres a little box underneath the coil that clicks when the key is on (like if u leave it in the accessory switch or whatever) and it sounds like there is also a clicking sound that happens somewhere in the throttle body or maybe one of the injectors. this little box that im talking about also seems pretty hot to the touch. Im not sure if its normal or not so maybe some of you could help me out. if this has ANYTHING to do with it not starting? sorry for the crappy quality but i have to use my phone to put up pictures. on the very right hand side the nut on the terminal that the wire connects to is very hot also. Again i dont know what this box is or if its normal for it to be hot or for it to have some kind of clicking sound kinda like a relay or something. so if any of u could help me out id gladly appreciate it!

Yeah that's why I thought it wierd because it turns over ad there's spark but it doesn't try to fire AT ALL. It doesn't even sputter and backfire. And for that to happen the timing would have to jump atleast 180 degrees (wouldn't it?)...and that's unlikely. So I'm thinkin maybe something happened with the distributor?... Also I'm not leaning towards the afm because when I was trying to get it started before when I was having other problems with it (which ended up being water in the tps connector) I unpluged the afm and the car still started but it died right away so that's why I'm not wondering if the afm is bad....

ok so bigflatblack and i finally got the ol' 280 running and we took it out for a drive last night. when we get out in the boondocks of central valley country the car dies!. We figure we ran out of gas so we have a buddy bring us gas. we try to start the car and nothing!. it turns over and we have spark and fuel but it will not start. We have spark at the coil and at the plugs and fuel is going to each cylinder and all injectors are working. Im thinking that maybe the timing chain jumped and the timing is off now? Is there any ideas you guys have as to why it wont start? i wont be able to work on it until thursday so i just wanna know things to check out that may take care of the problem instead of taking the front of the engine apart and checking the timing. thanks in advance guys

Hmm alright guys. I only ask because I may e coming up on one for free so just tryig to figure out if it'll fit before hand. If I don get it I'll probably just order the 280z air dam from black dragon seeig as it's priced pretty decently at $199

just have a quick question. I tried to search this but didnt find anything concrete. I may be able to come up on a 240z front air dam for free or really cheap. Will this air dam fit on a 75 280z? i know that the black dragon catalogs have air dams listed as the 240 and 280 as different air dams, so does that mean that the 240 wont fit on my 280?

http://s230.photobucket.com/albums/ee80/mattissofine87/280z/ theres the link to the album. hope it works

Yeah teusday most likely....I gotta go visit the grams for a lil bit cuz I missed mothers day but I'll pick up the new line on the way back...I'll let u know a more set time tomorrow night some time. Cuz I get off at 6 in the am and dependig if I fall asleep or not will decide what time I start....lol

Haha....WTF is blondie doing in a datsun forum?!.....I knew he was converted once he drove the car...LOL

Nah I'm just going to wear a tuxedo tee shirt so that everyone knows that I want to be formal, but I'm also there to party. You know....lol

I think we just found the theme song for bigflatblacks car!..haha. Since he says we have to cruise mine blasting journey in denim jackets he has to cruise his playing that song...lol...got a deal bigflatblack?...haha

thanks. Yeah i just left it unplugged and it ran great! so i decided i would go through and replace the fuel lines because they were in pretty bad shape. One was so bad that they actually broke apart as i was loosening other lines. So i had bigflatblack come by and help out because we had planned on working on it anyways today. Turns out i had the wrong size line and now i have to wait til my next day off next week to put the correct fuel line on. Ill also be getting a new battery so i dont have to keep jumping it. Going to see if there is a draw on the battery too because the battery looks fairly new. heres a few pics just for funzies bigflatblacks car with mine another of the 2 cars Lunch of Champions

Haha ill make a note of that! Im fixing the small dents and minor rust first (just like everyone else does) then ill worry bout what i wanna do with the current paint scheme and nasty looking "hood scoop".

I found the problem. It was the tps after all. i unlpugged it to check it and dry it out and then plugged it back in and tried revving it and see if that was the problem and it wasnt. So i ruled out the tps. But as a dummy i forgot to just try revving it with the tps all the way unplugged and i did that and it revs perfectly and runs smooth with out the tps. Thanks for the help!

i disconnect the maf and all the car does is ilde but when i give it gas it sputters and dies. so im guessing the maf is good....what else should i check?

alright i'm off to try that out. Thanks for the info. ill post back with the results

now i searched here and the other thread said if I simply unplug the tps while the car is running and then rev it and the car revs normal then the problem is the tps. Can i do the same with the MAF just to see if thats it or does it have to be completely replaced in order to tell?

well if you all were following my last post about getting my car, well i finally did. I had a friend drive it home for me yesterday and we just tinkered around it but didnt do anything really. All i did was take it around the corner and wash the engine bay and what not. the car was running strong yesterday with the exception of a bad battery. Now with that being said, this morning i get in the car and take off to go to a buddies house to do some real work on the car and problems arise. the car shudders violently when i hit 2500 rpm. I think thats because the engine basically loses power after 2500 almost like theres a rev limiter on the engine. Ive done a search and checked the tps and afm but the car still will not rev past 2200-2500. Im at a loss for things to check besides maybe the fuel pump? maybe its bad and cant keep up? maybe the altenator and battery are bad and cant keep enough spark to the engine after that high rpm? Any suggestions to get this thing on the road?

ok heres the new links guys. hopefully they work. take with them the descriptions in the other post and kinda match them up yourself. im too lazy at the moment. http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee80/mattissofine87/280z/IMG_01031.jpg http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee80/mattissofine87/280z/IMG_01041.jpg http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee80/mattissofine87/280z/IMG_0106.jpg http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee80/mattissofine87/280z/IMG_01081.jpg http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee80/mattissofine87/280z/IMG_0109.jpg http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee80/mattissofine87/280z/IMG_01101.jpg http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee80/mattissofine87/280z/IMG_01121.jpg http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee80/mattissofine87/280z/IMG_01051.jpg