Noob fuel pump question

[Trousers]

The cables are brand new, though.

[Trousers]

After tracing the wiring close to the coil to see why were only getting 7V to the coil, we noticed some wires had been cut. What is this part? I don't suppose it came like this from the factory. At the same time, I noticed a little terminal that had a cap over the end. I can't see anything nearby that it is supposed to be connected to, so i'm curious what its for. Maybe for another option from the factory that wasn't bought on this car? (PIcture one is the mysterious terminal. PIcture two is the part with the stripped wires by the coil)

[ggzilla]

"new" battery cable may still need cleaning. Just Do It. Be sure to follow the step-by-step directions to forestall potential problems.

 

Z-car until 1978 didn't use a a full 12V at the coil. not a problem.

[Trousers]

Ok, throughly cleaned. Just a question, though: Is cleaning the cables supposed to help us get power to the distributor, or is it supposed to help us with our more recent problem of losing all power as soon as we try to crank the motor over/turn on the head lights

[ggzilla]

Both. You can get it done faster than we can talk about it.

[Trousers]

You were right. We now can crank the motor over without losing power, so we're back to square one. Is there something we could have done wrong when hooking + of the battery to + of the coil. Were we supposed to take it off before he turned the motor over?

[ggzilla]

Excellent. Progress is good.

 

Square one is no power to distributor? Or getting 7 volts to distributor. On a 1975 Z you won't have 12V to distributor under normal condition. Only while key to START.

 

For testing...

Temporarily run a jumper wire from Bat + to the coil + and see if the engine will fire up. Don't connect it for more than a minute like this as the coil will get too hot.

So what happens now when you try that? You take it off after you try to Start the engine. Turn key to Start, either it will or will not.

[Trousers]

Square one is 7V to the coil. For whatever reason, we did not put the multi meter into the distributor, but we plugged a spark plug straight from the coil and put it on the valve cover to see if we were getting spark and got nothing. We did not try running a cable from the battery straight to the coil today, as that was what caused whatever failure we just recovered from. I'm still a little unsure if we did it correctly. He hooked + to + and left the cable on while trying to crank the motor over. That was what cause the car to shut down completely. Did he do it correctly?

 

 

(Note: I'm still curious about that plug/other thing in the pictures. Can someone clarify what those are?)

[ggzilla]

7 volts to the coil sound correct. Remember it uses a Ballast Resistor, which cuts down on the voltage to the coil.

 

that was what caused whatever failure we just recovered from

That did not cause it. Dirty battery cables caused it.

[ggzilla]

What is this black box bolted to? It's hard to tell from the close-up photo.

[Trousers]

7 volts to the coil sound correct. Remember it uses a Ballast Resistor, which cuts down on the voltage to the coil.

 

That did not cause it. Dirty battery cables caused it.

 

 

Ohhh! Ok. I thought maybe he hooked the cable up wrong or something. We will try it again.

 

That little black box screws into the front drivers side section of the engine bay. It had 6 wires going into it (all with eye connectors), and 3 of the wires had been cut. Any idea what this part is?

[I'm BLUE]

Ohhh! Ok. I thought maybe he hooked the cable up wrong or something. We will try it again.

 

That little black box screws into the front drivers side section of the engine bay. It had 6 wires going into it (all with eye connectors), and 3 of the wires had been cut. Any idea what this part is?

 

Do you have a couple better pics of this mysterious box ?

 

Is it possibly a relay ?

 

Also Ignition switchs go out ALL the time on Zcars , thus cutting power to the actual ignition circuit momentarily ,,, rockauto.com has them for about $10 and nissan for $26,

 

I haven't worked on 280z's. But I have worked on 240z's and 280zx's

 

:)

 

Also ,,, NONE ,,, of your soft line fuel injection line should be leaking. Replace clamps with high pressure fuel injection clamps,

 

Another note ,,, if you didn't pay at least $3-$4.5 dollars per foot for your fuel injection soft line ,,, you possibly have the wrong kind installed currently !!!! Go back and ask for "High pressure fuel injection grade fuel line"

 

Quite a few people blame Nissan for an inferior grade injection system... I say it's Quiter talk ! It's all relative in the eye of the beholder ,,, people who know what they are ,,, know they are good systems,

 

Persistence and Patience with an open mind is the key to solving the problem.

 

Keep chugging along !

[I'm BLUE]

follow the link ,,, You want to click on the "Factory Service Manual"

 

for your year of 280z below

 

http://www.xenons30.com/reference

 

diagrams will help lots !

[Trousers]

"Also Ignition switchs go out ALL the time on Zcars , thus cutting power to the actual ignition circuit momentarily ,,, rockauto.com has them for about $10 and nissan for $26"

Are you saying this was our problem when we were losing all power when trying to crank the engine over?

 

As far as the mysterious box, I'll take a few good pictures next time i'm over at my friends house, and I appologize for this terrible picture, but it seems to be the best picture I can find at the moment (I found it online, it came up on google images and its from some other guys asking about his motor. The mysterious box we are wondering about is circled in orange, not red)

[I'm BLUE]

No... i may have confused you. Ignition switch itself going bad CAN ... cut the SPARK ... to the engine momentarily while the ignition switch is engaged in the "start" position.

 

Most the zcars i have owned have done this .. replaced them .. never a problem again

 

That little box looks famaliar ... i will glance at my zx and see if something similiar.

 

Each year of fuel injection is a little diferent ..

[I'm BLUE]

I just ran out to my zx and checked. Closest thin i can see on that side are relays and ignition hotspark box.

 

I will thumb through the fsm.

[ggzilla]

Bad ignition switch will not cause loss of all power. But it can prevent the car from starting. That is one of the things you are testing with the jumper wire. If you want, order the switch, wait for it to come and see if it makes a difference. Or test it, find out what is wrong, then replace the bad part (or maybe it's not a bad part, just a connection issue).

 

That box circled in orange is the Ignitor junction box I think. It doesn't match your mysterious box however.

Like this Junction box:

[I'm BLUE]

Bad ignition switch will not cause loss of all power. But it can prevent the car from starting. That is one of the things you are testing with the jumper wire. If you want, order the switch, wait for it to come and see if it makes a difference. Or test it, find out what is wrong, then replace the bad part (or maybe it's not a bad part, just a connection issue).

 

That box circled in orange is the Ignitor junction box I think. It doesn't match your mysterious box however.

Like this Junction box:

 

Thankyou ggzilla ^^^ ! That's exactly what I meant.

 

I agree 100% ... test everything you can .. it's the right way.

[Trousers]

Soo, a mysterious thing happened the other day. My friend has been in the process of ordering a new ignition switch, so we haven't been to work on the car in a few weeks. We went over the other day for a BBQ, and I decided to sit in the car and attempt to start it up. I"m not sure what changed or if someone did something while we were gone, but for whatever reason, we were getting spark at each of the plugs. We haven't touched the car in weeks, and when we last left it, power wasn't making it past the ignition coil. All of this strange and great news aside, the car still would not start. I now sort of think that perhaps the spark plug wires are in the wrong order. If its not that, does anyone else have any idea what might be wrong? I hear no combustion in any of the cylinders at all. I'm fairly certain that we are getting fuel in, because at one point a while ago, fuel was leaking out of one of the little rubber pipe joints along the fuel rail. Any ideas? Thank you :)