280ZX Help
 

I just received a 1983 280ZX from a neighbor who was moving. After replacing the battery and the battery terminals all the accessories in the car work. When I try to start it I get just a single click sound. Once out of 25 times the starter comes on and the engine turns over but does not start. I hooked the battery directly up to the starter and it works fine. The fuel gauge is at E and the fuel light is on but I know there is gas in the tank. Once when I first started working on it earlier the fuel gauge went to 1/4 of a tank, but has been at E since then. For some reason turning the key is not activating the fuel pump and starter (except for once out of 25 times the starter does kick on). Does anyone know what the problem could be? I'm guessing there is an electrical short. The car had been sitting up for about 5 years and my neighbor told me last time he tried to start it about 2 years ago it cranked but smoke came out from the top of the dashboard.

make sure you got good connections to the battery and the starter motor...

Since your neighbor told you he let the magic smoke out...I'd start there. See if you can verify any burnt wires in the dash. You may have burned up some of the wires coming out of the ignition switch.
You may also have a bad connection at the starter from the ignition switch input. I have had that before...the solenoid was coming apart internally and I had to jiggle the spade connecter at the starter until it made a good enough connection to start.

yeah i would go over the wiring diagram again...check the fusible links in the engine bay the relays and the fuses inside the door panel..also make sure the ECU clip is on nice and tight..

Does the car leak ??? it could of easily been something else besides a electrical short out.

Can you tell me where the fuel pump relay is? Reading over some threads I have heard of it being under the hood, under the passanger seat, behind the glove box, and to the left of the steering column. Also, where is the ECU clip? And no, it does not leak, the body is in amazing shape. One last thing, where can I buy some replacement fusible relays?

Would this require taking out the entire dash?

Fuel pump relay should be on the right fender well and should be green in color. Mine is next to the fusible link box on my car.

You need to get the car turning over consistently before you do anything else....it won't run if it can't turn over. Have a friend help you and take a test light and verify that when you turn the ignition switch to start that you have power every time to the starter solenoid. Also if you have a big voltage drop across your cables the car will have enough juice to crank due to the gear reduction starter but not enough to run the fuel injection. Those starters will still crank at only 9 volts.

This may require dash removal, but start with the covers under the dash and see what you find. Do this after verifying power to the starter solenoid wire...especially if you don't have any.

also, where is the efi relay located?

oops, that was the EFI relay that I mentioned. Let me see if I can figure where exactly the fuel pump relay is hidden.

Ok. Im getting closer. I replaced the contact on the wire going to the starter and now it always cranks. The only problem I think keeping it from starting is the fuel pump. The fuel gauge continues to remain on E. If I rearrange the relays in the relay box under the hood I can get the fuel light to go off but the fuel gauge still is at empty. In the relay box there are 4 relays, 3 blacks and 1 green. I can get the fuel lite to go off by putting the green one in the middle. I dont know if thats a good or bad thing. Do you know where the green relay should be?

Well now make sure you got pulse !!!

get either a test light multimeter or a LED globe stick a end in the injector clip not the injector the clip that plugs into it turn the car over and it should flicker if it doesnt then reset the ECU by taking the battery of and on a few times try again if still no differnce go through check the lot if none of them work.....


BURN IT!!

My service manual doesn't designate which color of relay goes where. Those relays in that box have nothing to do with the fuel injection or fuel pump, so you need to go else where.
Remove the fuel line from the front of the fuel rail and verify that you have fuel getting there while cranking to be sure that the fuel pump is working. If not you need to verify that you are getting power at the fuel pump when cranking. Get these ruled out before messing with the injection or computer.

P.S.
The fuel pump relay is located under the dash above the fuse box and should be the relay that is closest to the firewall.