280zx Abnormalities?

[sek8031]

Here's a list of things that I think might not be right, but I'm not entirely sure:

1980 S1301. Oil pressure gauge - Once the car warms up, it pretty much hangs out at 0 while idling. When driving, the gauge kinda mimics the tach, rising and falling with engine speed

2. Slight whining noise in neutral when clutch pedal is not depressed. Pressing the pedal makes the noise stop, sounds like it's coming from underneath the passenger compartment. I'm pretty sure this isn't normal, just not sure if it has grave implications for my wallet or not.

3. Play in the shifter - even in gear I can move the shifter a fair bit in any direction (except back towards neutral). So in 1st there's about an inch of play to the left, right, and towards the dash.

[evildky]

#1, soulds like your engine rings are compresses, this happens after a couple hundred thousand miles, sooner if the oil doesn't get changed regularly, later if the oil is maintained, basically therings compress and won't seal tightly enough to build pressure at low engine speeds, when you speed the engine up you speed the fuel pump up and are able to build pressure

2, I'm guessing your To bearing is riding against the tines of the pressure plate, might want to try backing thoff the clevis ont he clutch pedal a bit and see if ti improves

3 these shifters sucked form the factory, assuming of course that your car is an n/a, you can replace the shifter bushings with chrystler door pin bushings, it's pretty simple

[sek8031]

Evildky, thanks for the quick response. The car only has ~58K miles on it, but I think it sat around for a long time (hence the rusted out fuel tank). Is there something I can do to verify that it's the rings and not something faulty with the gauge? As far as I can tell the car runs fine, but then I've never driven any other S130s so I don't have much to base that on.

[evildky]

you can disconnect the oil rpessure sender, and hook up a manual pressure gauge to verify the pressure

you can also do a compression test on the motor to seel what kind of comrpession you get, add a squirt of oil to each cylinder and resest, if ti brings the results up to normal you have bad rings

if it's a 58k mile car you might try shooting some wd 40 ro similar into each spark plug hole each day for a few days and see if it improves

so how on earch did you find a 58k mile car? that thing should be like new on the inside, and lets hope it was parked indoors and the outside is preserved as well

[sek8031]

Craigslist. The inside is in great condition except some kid had it before me and tore up a bunch of the carpet on the passenger side and in the back trying to install a stereo and speakers (kids these days right?). The headliner is also coming down, but I've got it half-assed back up with epoxy for now.

There isn't much rust other than underneath the battery and just below the windshield. Nothing really in the wheel wells or floor pans that I can see. Someone had it repainted and did a really ****e job - bubbles everywhere and big pieces flaking off to reveal the original (I think) paint underneath.

[sek8031]

Back on the topic of bad rings, I read somewhere else that if you have bad oil control rings, you can basically roll down a hill in gear, then give it gas at the bottom and expect to see some oil smoke. Since there are no hills in Houston I just got up some speed and downshifted, letting the car slow down with compression, then stepped on the gas again, but didn't see anything, and there's no sign of burning oil anywhere...could it just be that there's a bad seal or something for the gauge? I don't have any pressure gauges or compression testing stuff and I'd rather not go buy a bunch of stuff if I don't have to.

Also found another interesting issue today - when the fuel light comes on, so do the brake and door lights, although they work fine by themselves without lighting the fuel light.

Allllso that indicator light in the middle of the dash never shows anything but all red, which I believe means "System Check Indicated". Is there a way to clear this easily or find out what is causing it?

[evildky]

autozone has a loan a too program, you pay a deposit and if you return the tool undamaged you get your money back, they should have a compression tester and oil pressure tester available for use

as for your milage, how do your pedals, shifter and steering wheel look? they should all look new, if not someone might have swapped gauge cluster in fomr a lower miles car

[sek8031]

Some pics are here:

http://flickr.com/photos/skorb...38729/

Everything looks pretty good, but that's just me and I haven't been inside any other S130s to compare. If you think it looks otherwise, let me know.

[minnesotazcar]

Cool low millage car man awesome find. Your problem with the oil pressure gauge sounds more like a bad gauge than anything. Basicly to check for bad rings you want to do a compression check and compare all 6 holes.the first reading you take they should all be within 10% of eachother. Then do a second test with the oil you want to see the compression come up at least 10-20 lbs on the gauge if you put oil in the cylinder and see no or very little pressure increase on the gauge its a good indication that either your rings or valve seats are worn. I would be willing to almost bet its just a crappy gauge. Your second problem with the noise is more than likely a throw out bearing or pilot bushing that has been sitting for a while. With that car having such low millage i would almost bet one of those two parts has a little rust or corrosion in it causing the noise. I would try backing off the clutch adjustment like evil said.

[sek8031]

Well I tried to back off the clutch adjustment...I think. I moved the switch that the clutch pedal hits when disengaged back (not sure what it does, don't see it in the FSM diagram), and loosened the nut on the push rod to the master cylinder. The noise is still there but I can't move everything further without taking out that switch entirely.

Or did I completely misunderstand and adjust the wrong things? The manual said the adjusting rod should be at 6.10" and it looked about right so I didn't mess with that.

[evildky]

that swithc is your clutch saftey switch, won't let you start the car unless it's senses the pedal is depressed

so your noise you adjusted the pushrod at the clevis, did you move the rd forward or backward? the theory si that your TO bearing is resting against the tines of your pressure plate, meanign the rod is too far forward, so the rod would need to be moved back towards the pedal, not sure ont he pedal height measurement I just adjust the rod till there is no tension on the clevis pin

[sek8031]

Yeah moved the pedal/rod back away from the firewall. It took care of a squeaking noise that was happening when I pressed the pedal, but the whirring is still there. I'm wondering if that switch is messed up anyway, as I'm pretty sure I can start the car without pressing on the pedal, but I'll check when I get home and make sure. Could it be that the replacement master cylinder I got has a longer rod than the original?

[evildky]

if there is a tiny bit of free play in the clevis pin then your pedal is adjusted propery, if you still got a noise, time to pull the trans

[sharjt]

Allllso that indicator light in the middle of the dash never shows anything but all red, which I believe means "System Check Indicated". Is there a way to clear this easily or find out what is causing it?

The system check tells you what the problem is. When you press the button it goes through a a bunch of symbols. The red ones are problems. if there are no problems it will be green and say OK. Usually its just the Water symbol from the Windshield wiper bottle. the sensor is corroded and needs replaced or just wire the two wires togetther in the bottle. Other wise it's telling you that you have a light out or you radiator fluid is low.

[sek8031]

So that switch isn't working, which is a bonus because I'm going to take it out this weekend if I have time and move the pedal as far forward as possible and see if that helps.

If it still makes noise I'm just going to get AAA.

[sek8031]

So I take the switch out this weekend along with the plastic doodad that presses it, so that I can move the pedal as far forward as possible. Then I go to loosen the nut on the pushrod and this happens:

Awesome. So I said "to hell with it" and left it that way, went inside, and cranked out a bunch of spinach and 3 cheese tortellini, because at least I know I won't screw those up.

I think I'm going to stop messing with this shadetree mechanic nonsense until I can get a daily driver and a house with a garage.

Also, what the hell is this? There were two of them in the floorboard when I bought this car.

Front:

Back:

[evildky]

yup, pushrod is a bit long, either cut it down or replace it with the pushrod form your old master

[sek8031]

See where I broke the part that secures the pushrod to the bracket though? I'm just going to take it back to my mechanic in shame and see if he can sort it out. Should I insist that he do it for free since they should have picked up on that the first time?

[evildky]

ah, didn't noctice you broke the nut off the clevis, you can simply reuse your old one or tack weld that one back on

and the locks don't look like any factory part, might be an aftermarket t top lock?

[sek8031]

You're giving me way too much credit for mechanical know-how. I've never welded anything before and would probably set the whole car on fire. I think I'm done trying to fix things myself for a while, seeing as it takes me half a day to screw up something that a mechanic could have gotten right in 30minutes...

All I care about right now is whether or not it's ok to drive with the thing snapped like that (still shifts ok)?

[minnesotazcar]

yeah its ok to drive. you can actually back the nut you broke off back up against the bracket and use the second nut to hold it in place. if you are driving it and notice your clutch release point going further out or closer to the floor then the rod is backing itself out, but you should be fine.

[evildky]

it has the potential for the pushrod to come out of the clevis but unlikely, if it's a matter of getting it to a shop I'd drive it, and shift as little and as slowly and precicely as possible, I would not use it as a commuter with the pushrod in it's present condition