well ***. ok last night i pulled over on the side of the road to break the bleeder valve (i have to do this every once in a while or else the brakes lock up). when i took off afterwards the car clunked really hard and died. completely. my dad came around 1AM and jumped me off. the car was in neutral (manual) and when i turned it over, it jumped and stalled. so, neutral was 1st gear. after a re-jump, i took off in neutral/1st and 2nd and 3rd wouldnt work. got it in fourth and 5th wouldnt work. so i went home in 4th and i put it in neutral, expecting it to be 1st. it was 4th. and now it sits halfway in my garage. any thoughts? i kinda figured my tranny is FUBAR, but any reasons why? oh and i drank last nite until it made sense..... it never did, but i have a hell of a hangover.

 

Automatic or Manual?

 

give it one more read through lol




my idea is check the clutch fluid level, i bet its very low, idk how messing with the brakes would change the clutch fluid level unless you accidentally mistook the slave cylinder for a brake caliber :P

 

Clutch fluid possibly low.
Tranny fluid possibly low, but I doubt it. I fret about tranny fluid because I trashed a good s30 4 speed by running it low.

You should definitely fix your brake problem while the car is down.


Oh, and it's not just you. It's all of us. That's the joy of owning an old car... getting stranded on the side of the road at midnight! Welcome to the club lol.

 

yah it has nothing to do with the brakes. thats just why i was on the side of the road. will try clutch and tranny fluid and im waiting for the caliper. it's a manual. thanks guys and i'll keep ya posted. yup i joined the club when my alt. popped on the z31 at 12:19 AM.

 

Damn, that's what I get for getting up so early...

 

same crap happened to the T5 in a turbo Z I had.

sell the whole car, that's what I did. So much for a "low mile" T5

 

worst situation i have been in was 11 at night driving in the rain, last speed on my wipers dosen't work and my pick up coil decides it wants to start to miss.... fun times

 

Did you try to bleed your clutch slave cylinder? I will bet that is the problem. Happened with me quite a few times. It could be bad. It is one of the parts, that wears in just a couple or so years.

 

If I read that right it sounds like you may have bent/broke your shift rod thats why you land in random gears.

Probably jumped out of gear hard enough to bend/break it. That what that sound may have been, but its also just a guess.

As for the clutch part I would bleed the system just to be safe.

 

i will bleed the clutch. damn i hope that fixes it.... im buying a freakin truck next. but i won't give up on my babies...

 

dude, your gears are all messed up. The transmission is toast

 

thats what i was afraid of. damn. oh well. that tranny wouldnt of supported my master plan anyways. *cough* v8 *cough cough*

 

The n/a vg tranny can take more power than you think...

 

i thought 280zx's came with L28s? idk i could be wrong...

 

oh, my bad. I keep looking at the avatar seeing a z31 and I get confused hehe

 

Hey my 240Z has left me standed 3 or 4 times....but none in the last a year or so. Hmmmm.....I'm due

 

I still think its the shifter, I'll pull it out and check.

And as for getting stranded in your Z? Ive been stranded once but it was my own fault lol I didnt tighten down the clutch bleeder screw all the way and it let out all the fluid.

Then today in my driveway a fuel line burst. So ya.

 

It's odd. It seems like I've heard more stories about the T5 blowing up, going out, whatever than people who are running a stock Nissan 5-speed out of a 280Z or 280ZX on a high horsepower motor.

 

I joined the club when my '81 280zx's drivers side rear wheel bearings went out while driving down the highway at 70 mph and the car started fishtailing all over..then after replacing that and the whole assembly they went out again while way far from home at night, so i drove it home the whole way and had to stop every once in a while cause they got sooo hot the whole space behind my rim was glowing bright orange like lava...cool looking at night...but when the tire caught fire that was a bit too cool looking. lol

 

thats crazy!^

i checked the tranny and clutch fluid, both were full, but the clutch fluid looked darker than usual. idk if that means anything, or it coulda' been the light. i'm still in drink until it makes sense...

i think this is the orig. tranny and if so it's been 250,XXX miles so its a good run. it slipped out of 5th when it did run.

yah the vg30 tranny is awesome. just not the l28 for me.

how the hell do you take all the crap apart to get to the damn shifter??? on the z31, it was simple. oh well.

yah and i need to change my avatar to a 280 since this is why im on this forum in the first place. thanks everyone for the help.

that sucks about the fuel line. yah these cars are hard to use as a dd.

 

you just have to take the center console out

the 3 screws in the center glove box then pop off the 280zx emblem with a knife remove the 2 screws under that, slide back the console, turn it side ways, remove the connections for the power windows (if you have those) then it should come out... then there's a little base plate around the shifter with 4 screws on it that holds the shift boot on and i think that's it

 

cool. easier than i thought. it lips under the center dash part with the radio on it and i thought i had to take that off. those screws in the center box are being ********. i need new tools. my $1,200 craftsman set got jacked.R.I.P. in a pawn shop somewhere.

 

o ya its real easy to get the center console off..now trying to find another wrist pin that holds the shifter in place is something else. my buddie was drivin my z and somehow it just fell off. he was driving and he said it just slipped out of gear and wouldnt go back in. i met him on the side of the road and found out that somehow the pin just disappeared. and now i have a horse-shoe type lock on it. just holding it in place. it works but shifter is real loose lol

 

dang. before it messed up it jumped out of 5th when i let off the gas.