NewZed

Opportunity to keep the picture-editing skills in shape. 1995 Pathfinder ratios. Edit - of course the 4WD's transfer case would be an issue. Better check overall transmission length also, Nissan likes to make the truck transmissions shorter.

The most common cause seems to be high resistance on the coolant temperature sensor circuit. TPS stuck on WOT and CSV leaking seem to crop up occasionally.

The one on the 280ZX alternator will probably swap over.

When you say "track" do you mean open pavement to "drift" on? And have you hit any curbs since the work was done, or let someone else drive your car that might have? Did you bottom out the shocks, or do they bottom constantly like a bad Honda? The work definitely looks bad, both in design and execution but the failure mode looks like there's more to the story. That gap at the failure point is big. Does the gap close when the front end is lifted or stay open? And have you checked the inner control arm mounting points to see if there's not something else broken? Was the lip of the fender bent when they did the work or did it get bent when the failure happened? Hard to believe nobody told you that worked looked terrible. Fair for a home garage first-timer, but not from a professional shop. Thanks for sharing though, it's a good story. Post more pictures.

Stock what? You're in the L6 forum and haven't even ID'ed your car. If it's a 280ZX turbo system your tach might already be using a square wave. Maybe you can tap in to that line. Your ignitor uses a square wave also, I believe.

You probably make a GM HEI module do the job. Details on your engine management system would help.

No problem. z240 is right on the 92 mm number. Several people have concluded that independently. Seems to work. Edit - It's funny how many odd numbers Nissan has in the FSM's. Won't help you but they show that the 225 mm 1972 pressure plate is 44 mm from friction surface to diaphragm surface, 1976 is 33-35 mm. They don't give the throwout collar distance though. Just a curiosity.

The pressure plate height is the key. Apparently the earlier 240Z's had a tall 225 mm plate, the pressure plate got shorter for later 225 mm clutches, and the 240 mm has a taller pressure plate. Easy to get a mis-match of parts. This link illustrates. You can see the early Type A 4 speed has a short collar. The later more common Type B uses a tall one. And there are variations in between, and after. Not really clear what Nissan was doing. http://zparts.com/zptech/articles/trans_swap%20parts/4tobear_specs1.html

Forgot your picture...

Hope it's not the case, but it could also be the wrong, short, throwout collar. You can get an idea by looking at where the fork sits in its hole, and its angle, when it's pressed against the collar. If it's angled back and sitting at the back of the hole, that's a problem. Could also be an issue with the fork pivot pin, though that would be uncommon.

Which manual are you using? The 1972 diagram seems pretty simple and straightforward. There's not even a relay to figure out, just three wires from the switch to the motor, a ground, and a power wire to the fuse box. If you have the switch and the motor, all you need is wire. Even the later models with six wires have everything shown and labeled, 1976 for example. You just have to work through more connectors, the ignition relay and the intermittent amplifier. Talking about the Factory Manuals, not Chilton's or Haynes.

360 HP is 90-95 300ZX. You'd be looking at the 81-83 ECU replacement. They all look like scams though - "The results are proof positive" - then they don't show any results. Surprised to see MSA selling those. Seems like they're going down the "new customer born every minute" route. They'll be selling gas mileage improvers by vortex technology soon.

Maybe the problem is in the transmission. You never said if you tried to turn it by hand, but since the engine is out it should be easy enough to remove the transmission and give the engine a spin by hand. If the transmission is still attached do a before and after test.

Take the valve cover off and see if the eccentric is intact. Crank the engine and see if the pump lever moves.

CR would be about 7.7. You probably won't be able to take advantage of the bigger valves, even if they don't hit the cylinders due to the smaller L24 bore. No more power, more problems. You could probably trade that P90 head for a complete running L24 engine.

I have an 83 5 speed in the garage. It has four switches. Attached a picture. My 1976 had two switches - top gear and reverse.

1979 is more like a Z then. The 81-83's have a bunch. Popping fuses to find the bad circuit might tell you something. Good luck.

Check the wires to the various switches at the transmission. Maybe one is shorting or you connected the wires to the wrong switch, lowering voltage enough to kill your gauges and the turn signals. The turn signal flasher requires enough current to heat up and flip the circuit, low voltage might not get it there. The ZX's seem to have a lot of transmission switches.

See if it's repeatable. If you let it cool down, then restart and drive and the same thing happens, it's probably something overheating. If you let it cool down and the problem is still the same as when you shut it off, it's probably something that came loose in your ten mile drive. If you start randomly replacing parts new problems could pop up and you won't know if you created them or they're part of the original problem. Also, read up on how the gauges work. I think that they depend on 12 volts to work right, if you're getting weird readings it's probably because base voltage is changing, either high (bad alternator regulator) or low (short circuit somewhere).

The Nissan dealers still carry the nylon bushings for the Z shifters for a few dollars (no need to go brass if you're not in a hurry). Wouldn't be surprising if they still carry ZX shifter parts also.

Apparently the ratios are different depending on 4 wheel drive or 2 wheel drive. So it would help to know that, to start. If the transmissions are out and he'll let you examine them, you could do some measuring/counting. Always good to spin things anyway to see what shape they're in.

Describe the repairs you did - battery, transmission, etc. - and maybe someone will notice a possibility.

Yoga pants and stance? Really? I'm afraid to click.

Take a battery and see if the injectors click. Take a meter and see if one side of the injector circuit, at the plug, is shorted to ground. Might tell you something.

Do you have a volt/ohm meter, or even a test light? If not, you're in a bind. No way to figure out what you're dealing with. Even with a good diagram and set of instructions you need to test the wiring to make sure things are as they should be. You can't just connect wires and hope, that rarely works. It's probably what burned your wires in the first place.