280Z Dies Sudenly

Travis writes:.

Doc-
Travis here(Zonc #98029), in Fresno. I have a problem with my 1977 280z which I can not figure out. It started today. Just driving down the road the car shut off, I disengaged the clutch and it started right back up. I drove it home only about a mile. Tonight I drove it to FSU and it shut off 3 times on the way there, while it was cold and running at temp. I just hooked up a test light to the fuel pump and drove the car. The light is inline with the pump so when the pump is getting power the light is on..

Well when I drove the car the light shut off and IMMEDIATELY the car died. Its like I was driving down the road and just turned the key off. The car has new plugs, dist cap, rotor, fuel filter, and air filter. Any ideas as to what it could be?.

Thanks for your time and expertise.
Travis .

Doc replies:.

Hi Travis,.

Doc here, I think that you need to check the two wire connector under the upper radiator hose. The ivory one. Make sure that it is not green. That is the easy one to check. The next probable cause is the connector under the airflow meter, so make sure that the connection is good and not green. If you drive it again watch the tach to see if it goes to zero.
If the ignition module, (Black Box) (located under the dash above the right kick panel) has a transistor starting to quit it will stop the spark signal and then the computer shuts off the injectors without a spark reference signal...

Also you might want to check the battery connections and the fusible links too. On you particular model there may be a combination EFI Ignition relay, so to check for it you look above the steering column at the bottom side of the dash, between the tach speedo gauges. This may just be the cause, but sometimes it is necessary to drive the car with test equipment in place to narrow down the culprit..

If you are still having problems, keep me posted and we will try to get the car to my shop in Mariposa so that I can test the components. I also have spare parts to do the replacement tests. Known good components, or new ones replaced one at a time by the individual owner can be a costly guessing game..

I hope that this will help you............

ZDOC OUT.