ZR8ED Posted October 13, 2004 Author Share Posted October 13, 2004 All battery wires are brand new, new bat, all of the starter wires, grounds etc have been cleaned and are tight. Jiggling wires anywhere in the engine bay or under the steering column and ecu does not make the car stall. At least not repeatably. I tried the coils today. No fix. Car still stalled 3 times on my way to the garage. On the note of the rear brakes. The analysis was correct. Siezed up tight. I had them checked and they are fixable. They are being worked on as we speak. The rest of the car will be ready for cert, and yet the stalling problem is still haunting me. I will be trying some spare distributors from a friend tommorow or the next day. I'm hoping that that will be it. I'm starting to consider how to "hot wire" the damn thing to keep running. 1 Could I just run a pos wire from the bat to a switch in the car, and then to the coil? Would that keep the car running? (assuming its not the dizzy?) 2 There is something that looks like a resistor close to the coil and is attached to it on either the pos or neg side (can't remember now) does it go bad slowly, or just fail? 3 what if those wires were reversed? I noticed the black wire was on the pos side of the coil, and the blue wire was on the neg side of the coil. (I don't have a fsm for a zx. I have one for my 78 and for the 300zx vg engines, but no 280zx stuff. 4 Is the black box on the side of the dizzy replaceable? I'm running out of things to check, and its making me nervous.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted October 13, 2004 Share Posted October 13, 2004 The black box is the module, and it is replaceable. It unscrews from the dizzy and there are either 2 or 4 wires that attach to the module. I think the '82 has the 4 wire module but I'm not sure. I know the E12-80 module is supposedly preferrable, but I can't recall why right off the top of my head. They are pretty common in the jy's, just take it off and look at the number molded in on the lower right corner of the module. Get the same module and you should be good to go. You can get them from Nissan, but they are something like $150 I think. I've bought the whole distributor from a jy with the module attached for $30. Here's another page to check out. If you're going to change the dizzy or try a new module, you might want to go through this stuff just to make sure that the bushings are ok while you're at it. I'd be willing to bet your vacuum advance mechanism is broken. Haven't seen a ZX dizzy where it wasn't. http://www.jrdemers.com/280ZX/distributor/distributor.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunlover Posted October 13, 2004 Share Posted October 13, 2004 Just a thought.. is there a way to check ecu codes in the 280zx? I still say it's got to be the dizzy box, or the wires going to it.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZR8ED Posted October 17, 2004 Author Share Posted October 17, 2004 UPDATE Car seems to be running well since I swapped the little black box on the side of the dizzy. I will drive it for a few days and post again to let people know that this may be the first thing to check after checking obvious loose wire/corroded wire stuff. It seems in my haste to fix this thing, I have knocked out my headlight and running lights and heater/blower. Not sure If I have jiggled one wire too many or what? Any thing to check? all running lights and headlights were working, now none. signals/brakes, hazards all work. Scott. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZR8ED Posted October 18, 2004 Author Share Posted October 18, 2004 Well another update. I've had the car out for two much longer drives, and its been 4 drives in a row with no issues with cutting out. It seems the ign module was the culprit. Well I have checked the park and headlights up front, and they all still work..still no parking lights or headlights using the switch on the column. I'd like to check the wires from the switch, but I don't know which coloured wire does what. No heater/blower either??? both went the same day... working one day, not the next... ahhhhhhhhh Scott. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonsZ Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 Your car is possessed. It's ok, it happens quite commonly. Two of my cars are posessed. Yes, and usually the spirit is quite benign, it just likes to irk you off sometimes. What I do is leave a few thinkg broken and complain about them a lot when I'm in the car, but never fix them. My A/C switch broke and I replaced it. then it broke again, and I bypassed it with an entirely different switch remotely positioned, then THAT switch broke . So I hard-wired the A/C wire and the A/C was on all the time. But then the same day my heater control lever broke, IN THE HOT POSITION!!!. I fixed the wire and then the heter core started leaking within a week ! The day I replaced it, the lever broke again , in a different place IN THE HOT POSITION ! So I bypassed the heater core all together and the A/C fan stopped working so I had to disconnect the A/C pump . This all happened in a 3 month timeframe. After being used to working every saturday on a new problem, I just gave up, I didn't touch anything, and just didn't have any climate control. Car has been driving like a dream for 3 years since. Kinda sucks on a hot or cold day, but who cares. I know that as soon as I try to fix that stuff, I'll no doubt be calling a tow truck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 No heater/blower either??? both went the same day... working one day, not the next... This might be way too easy, but have you checked the fuses? Is there one that controls the heater and parking lights maybe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonsZ Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Or the fuses, could be the fuses... I agree. "BOO!" But if not that, perhapse an exorcism would help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZR8ED Posted October 23, 2004 Author Share Posted October 23, 2004 Well just another follow up. Anyone who is looking for Stalling, Stalls, Stall with an L28 280zx Dizzy, Distributor will hopefully find this thread and gleam some info. Car is still running fine.. Not one problem with the car stalling. I have rewired the headlights with a new switch on the dash.. headlights and heater blower and dash lights are all working again????? Go figure...I think I will leave well enough alone for now.. Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunlover Posted October 24, 2004 Share Posted October 24, 2004 Hey man, good to hear! I was thinking about giving you a call tomorrow and maybe hooking up, but I had a call about my truck for sale, so I have to stick around here.. got some cleaning/organising to do in the garage to.. Anyway, I still want to get down there sometime to meet you and talk Z's, ect. I think I will try to get a hold of that zx turbo, cause well... circumstances make my V8 convo kind of impossible/not do-able, and the turbo will be fun to crank up.. Hope your zx hangs in for ya! I'll be in touch... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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