Nissan bucks when it's cold and wet outside

Sounds electrical, you're on the right track. Finish plug replacement and make sure you are using the correct plugs and gap them properly. I am sure you replaced the rotor as well as the cap, but just checking. Give the engine a good visual check, making sure that they placed and routed all vacuum hoses and electrical connections correctly and securely.

I would start by replacing all the ignition wires, they are the number one source of cold/wet running problems. Also test and if not too expensive replace the ignition coil(s).

Last make sure the connection from the air filter to the engine (usually just a large plastic hose) is secure and that there is no way for un-metered air to enter the engine as the engine moves back and forth.

Unfortunately, after searching harder in Usenet, I think the symptoms match "bad fuel injector" and it leads to a pretty rotten decision tree. Around 175,000 miles, some of these Nissan Z24 engines just do this - eat the fuel injectors => buck when cold, start "safety" faltering at around 3,000 rpm.

This car has throttle body fuel injection. Two injectors. Bunch of itty bitty harness parts. After calling a couple of local dealers, I got estimates all over the map, they really want to make it impossible to repair, IMHO. They'd rather sell you a new car.

I'll head across the border, at least the labor hours will be lower. The parts are predatory enough -- it ranges from around $300 each to over $400 each, depending who you call. I can't even turn the car in when it's functioning so badly.

The whole car is barely worth the price of what these guys want for this single repair. The rebuild cost over $2,000 and is barely a year old. I won't make that mistake again.

After years and years of car crazies, I think I'm through at last. There's no practical way to keep up an older car with so many proprietary parts. Entire industries conspire against it. If this were an elderly Ford truck or Chevy, I could choose from 9,876 parts sources. Because it's a Nissan and never did sell anywhere near the leader's numbers, I can only buy from Nissan itself.

This is bad news for sure. It's a killer. I have a car with a literally brand new engine - that's going to end up in the junkyard because I can't see putting another $1,000 into the fuel injection. I figure the fuel injection parts cost maybe $50 to make. Tops.

Diagnosing cars over the phone is not an exact science, perhaps that accounts for some of the variations.

Not really. The parts and service departments are independent of the sales department.

Why on earth would you put $2k into a worn out 1987 with 175K miles - and then expect that everything else was going to be in perfect condition ?

I'm not trying to be a smarta$$ but you have to consider that the accessories are just as worn out as the engine itself.

I wouldn't bet on that.

Your estimate. I'm guessing guess you never owned a factory. Perhaps you want to amortize the cost of making those parts in 1987 and then keeping enough of them in a warehouse since then to meet demand for

I'm sorry to hear that. Is there any way of getting a used assembly and use the parts you need off of that?

I'm in agreement with Fred on this one. Sounds like classic ignition problems. That business of the about being worse in wet weather is usually the tip off. If the wires are more than a few years old you are about due anyway.

The ignition wires are less than a year old. New spark plugs. I'm diming out on this one. I guess another $25 won't kill me but really, I paid for all this in the rebuild.

The symptoms resemble EXACTLY the symptoms of fuel injector trouble and it will cost around $500 to install, even if I could get used parts, which no dealer will install. Most garages won't either.

California is a crazy place. I'm going across the border. I found a repair shop there with old Nissan-trained mechanics. Maybe they will install junkyard parts or find some others that fit.

What annoys most severely is that I'm SURE I could use other parts but I can't get the specs to find them. One could find cheaper injectors that fit, I'd bet. But I haven't the resources. I had hoped the Internet would be such a place but the search engines are all for sale and you get 9 kajillion hits -- the first 10,000 leading nowhere productive! Who has time for this? Instead, I found a Tijuana repair shop. It was easier than looking for parts.