LA_phantom_240

Okay, heres the dillio, I bought my beloved 240sx when i was 14 years old. It is a black 1991 with a 5 speed. I got it from an auction, and when i first went with my dad to pick it up ( i had never seen it until then), it ran fine, but made a strange noise almost like a diesel. We got it home, and tore the fromt of the motor apart, and it was a stuck timing chain tensioner. Slowly, over the course of about a year and a half, i put the car back together, but didnt run it. Another year passes by, bringing us to the present day. Getting tired of my acura legend's incessant money pooling problems, i decided to revive the 240. I walked out to where it was parked in my yard, and went to see if the battery had any juice, though i doubted it, seeing as it was so bad when i bought it we had to jump it 3 times to get it home, 40 miles away, and didnt like charging. anyways, i opened the hood, and the negative battery cable was on, but the positive was lodged somewhere underneath the battery somewhere. I put a charger on the car, on 40 amps, and started the car for the first time since its been fixed. It ran worse than anything ive seen. i went to rev it, and it died. I started it again and still no throttle response. I thought the fuel filter might have been plugged, but it wasnt, and i could hear the fuel pump running. I decided to see if the windows and everything still worked, and when i tried to roll them either way, it would roll down. when i would roll it up, as soon as i let go of the switch it would roll back down. Also the brake lights stay on all the time and the headlights wont go down electrically. Some of the plastic inside was messed up so i figured one night someone tried to steal it and crossed the battery wires and shorted the ecu. What do you think? i need some answers. I took the ecu out, and didnt see anything immediately wrong on the circuit board, but im no expert. thanks for any help

wikd240

sounds like mice were eattin your old project... i would suggest draining the gas tank first off... there is no telling how old the fuel in there is... then i would bull the fuel injectors and clean them... then replace the fuel filter just in case... fill it up with good gas and then try again... if it still runs like *** replace all the vaccume lines and then check the timing and make sure that is right... do all that then let me know what up...

LA_phantom_240

well the thing that makes me think its the ecu is alll the other things that are acting up, such as the dash lights, brake lights, and such. About mice, i wouldnt think that is a serious comment, but ive checked all visible vacuum lines and such. Besides, i already have an ecu coming to me via eBay, so if that wasnt the problem then it would be prime cut for a jim wolf makeover. thanks for the info though

wikd240

i was serious about the mice and other rodents that happen to find their way into cars that are sitting for a long period of time... the wiring tastes good to them or something...the brake lights dash lights power windows and other simple systems are not controlled by the ecu... neither are the head lights or the parking lights... as far as dash lights go... do you have a digital speedo with the heads up display??? if that is the case there is the reason why your dash lights dont work... i will bet that your hud does not work either if you have one... the digital speedo is known to go out... there is a thread a few months ago about how to fix it or you can get a new speedo from nissan...

and as i said befor gas goes bad when sitting for only a few months let alone a few years... and if the battery terminals were crossed then check every fuse and relay in the car... there is a fuse box on the passengers side shock tower... there is a relay box under the air cleaner housing... and the fuse and relays under the dash in the drivers kick panel... from there i would say wait for the ecu and try that for the poor running motor... beyond that i dont know if an internet solution is going to help you with the electrical system...

LA_phantom_240

As far as gas goes, i completely agree with you. As far as mice, i highly doubt it, because for a while it was in my driveway, and there are no traces of mice anywhere. It doesnt have the digital speedo, so theres no problem there. Ill go ahead and check all the fuses and such, and as soon as i get it started again i need to hook my timing light up and i belive that the timing is also off. I wouldnt have thought that the crossing of wires would blow fuses, but then again ive only been working on cars for a few years now and havent done much with electronics. My dad once had a station wagon in our back yard about 10 years ago, and it had rats in it like you suggested, but they were also in our attic as well. we got rid of them about 8 years ago, and my cat, Amy, takes care to kill every living thing in sight. I see dead birds, roaches, rabbits, and a couple of mice on our porch that shes killed and brought for me, so i doubt the mice. Also in the station wagon, they made a nest on top of the carburator, and left droppings everywhere. Theres nothing like this inside the car, but I will check more thouroughly just to eliminate that possibility. Ill post in about an hour, once i give the car a quick checkup. thanks for your info

LA_phantom_240

well, after an analysis via voltmeter, all fuses i checked were fine, and there was absolutely no sign of mice... this has me puzzled. I could have sworn that the ecu regulated functions of the car. I knew it didnt control them, but i thought it regulated it, like giving the accessories permission to function ya know? anyways, any more info would be greatly appreciated

LA_phantom_240

well today i deided to take action on my 240, so i went and got a new battery, put my old ecu in, because my new one hasnt gotten here yet, and put the mega-awesome battery charger i have on it. I set it to 40 amps, to make sure i didnt damage any electronics, and fired her up. after about 15 seconds i shut it off and filled up my coolant (i havent run it since i had the whole front of the engine apart), checked my oil, and then fired her up again. I loosened my dist cap, and tweaked it to where it ran fairly smooth at idle, but when i went to rev it up, it wanted to die, so i had to rev it slowly. As soon as i can move it out of my yard, which is a mud pit right now, im gonna get some fresh 93 octane gas, new fuel filter, spark plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. I think when to motor got put back together, the distributor got turned maybe 2 teeth off, which is why the timing still isnt quite right, even with the distributor cap turned all the way... Is there any easy way to remove the distributor assembly without doing major deconstruction of the motor, like when i had to fix the timing chain tensioner?

wikd240

there is but i have to get to work right now... i will help ya after noon today on this question.. dont think i forgot about ya... i had to work 5 shifts straight thru...

LA_phantom_240

yeah i figured out how to get the distributr out... so simple..im such an idiot, it just slides out!... anyways, i wanted to know if you could tell me any reason why it would idle high... when i start it it idles at about 1300 rpm, then when i hit the gas, it will idle about 1800 and then after about 20 seconds it goes back to the 1300. i thought maybe i had advanced the timing too much, but when i moved the distributor, i couldnt quite find the right idle without it sputtering more than it should... i think it has to do with the gas, but i dont think its the only culprit... im trying to run it as much as i can so as to try to run the gas through, because i have no place to drain the gas... but i still havent figured out the brake light issue... I think when the wires got crossed, the brake light switch shorted... or something to that effect. I was also wondering if you knew where to put some r-12 in the car, the a/c still works pretty well, but like in my moms 94 maxima, when the freon is low, the compressor wont come on when you set the a/c fan on 4. anyways, thanks a bunch for helping me out.

wikd240

if you have r12 in there you are lucky...lol... if you have access to r 12 then you are even more lucky... r 134a is all we can get these days...we as the general masses...i dont know how to charge a/c systems anyway... but i know that the r134a fitting will only fit one of the 2 hoses in the car... so that is a place to start.... i ditched my ac for now...

LA_phantom_240

what do you mean "if you have r-12 youre lucky"? Like lucky that its still in the system? well yeah if thats the case, but r-12 isnt THAT hard to get... I even have about 6 cans layin around in my grage... In fact, my dad still has a canister of it that looks like a small propane tank LOL ... if you need to know how to charge a/c systems im pretty fluent on that.

LA_phantom_240

today got me thinking, and i thought to myself how the brake light worked... well the switch at least... and i decided to look up where the switch is; in front of the brake pedal. so i decided to disconnect the switch connector, and when i did the brake lights shut off, as if i had removed the fuse, so i started feeling up the brake pedal... remember the plastic i was talking about being on the floor on the drivers side? well at the time i thought nothing much of it, but when i could feel the switch from the other side of the brake pedal, something in my head clicked... i went and did some research, and found that there is a plastic stopper thats supposed to be there to push the switch, which makes the light turn off... DING DING... THATS where the plastic came from... the stopper literally exploded... i dont know why or when, but it did... when the wires got crossed, the brake pedal became concrete unless the car was running... so i figured that when it did get crossed, something caused the brake pedal to force backward, and the metal surrounding the brake light switch shattered the plastic stopper... ill try to get some pics of whats left of the stopper... any ideas as to how i can fix this without getting a new pedal? i was thinking i could just take the pedal off, and go to work one day and use the welding machine to weld a small piece of rod just big enough to push the switch... any better ideas? if not, then "Case: closed" thanks for all your help with this. if you need any info just hollar

wikd240

ummmmm put in a new switch... it is plastic and on a 14 to 15 year old car... it gets brittle and brakes... just put in a nwe switch... when you say the pedal became concrete you mean it went to ground right??? either way... put in a new switch and it should all be good... have you gotten it out of the yeard yet??? get some fresh gas in there so you can tell how it is going to run... add some fuel injector cleaner or sea foam as well to the tank... clean out anything that is bad in there...

LA_phantom_240

yeah i got it out of the yard, but i needed my dad's truck to do it lol. The pedal is sitting just like it should, but the plastic stopper that pushes the switch got brittle in the heat and busted, so the switch is still intact, i even got my mom out there with me, i pushed the switch while she stood outside and she said it turned the brake lights off, so the reason they stayed on all the time was that there was nothing pushing on the switch.. if youd like i could post a diagram to show you what piece broke. Anyways, i got it idling where it should be, but i think the gas is what is causing it not to have any power, it will idle around 800-900, but when i push the gas it takes a second to respond... i think its the gas. Im going to get my dad's trailor and tow it to work, drain the gas, put some new gas in, and load it down with a couple bottles of fuel system treatment, or i may use that slick50 fuel system treatment... anyways that should be about everything on the car that needs to be done... except register and insure it... lol

wikd240

cool at least you got it together...and now i am understanding what you were saying about the brake switch...