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Jumper cable mistake...

800 views 10 replies 10 participants last post by  scared0o0rabbit 
#1 ·
Recently, I made the mistake of reversing my jumper cables to my 83 280zx, and managed to fry the fusible link, in the black box right next to the battery. After replacing it, the car will now start and idle just fine, but when I accelerate it stalls as if it is starved for gas. Could there be another component in the electrical system that got fried? After reading other posts here of people with similar problems, it seems that the ECU might also be shot. Anyone with any insight?
 
#2 ·
i have seen that happen 3 times and all 3 times the ecu was toast
 
#4 ·
It is widely known (for about 30 years) that hooking up the cables wrong would fry the ECU. Dealers back in 77 said dont jump cars with the Z. It was one of the first cars with EFI in the US and they didnt know why but knew it would be bad for the "computer" if something went wrong.
 
#5 ·
Er....

"It was one of the first cars with EFI in the US"

Er, 1968 VW Type 3, and by the time 1975 rolled around every VW Bug had EFI, matter of fact, the 411 and Busses had EFI as well. The Rabbit had a Carb, but all the Air-Cooled Stuff was EFI.

Not to mention the Eurotrash that all had EFI by then.

By the time the Z came with EFI, it was old technology, third generation Bosch Licensed stuff!
 
#6 ·
Ya I should have thought of that. My 75 Rabbit was carbed but yes my 77 was EFI (the Rabbit was one of my favorite cars to work on and easiest). I was thinking of the american cars of the day. EFI was rare.
 
#7 ·
Yeah. The 1st EFI car I ever drove here was a '70 or '71 Saab. Much better than any carbed car in bad weather up to that point in time. Many other EFI cars from Euro-lands after that. As usual, US marks were slow to adopt it...only thru the EPA forces at that.
 
#10 ·
Yup my 71 914 Porsche "VW" had the Bosch jetronic injection. It was a fairly simple efi with the computer triggered by a second set of points in the distributor. I believe Tony is correct as that was a type 3 VW motor and the 914 was introduced in 70 and VW's had used the motor prior.

Jim
 
#11 ·
When I was 17 I tried to jump an old toyota pickup we had and I reversed the cables on accident. It let the magic blue smoke (you know, the magic smoke that makes electronic devices work) out of the stock stereo, but aside from that there were no side effects. I feel pretty fortunate that I didn't damage the car worse lol.
 
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