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Steve at '240zRubberparts' shows a reproduction cable set as out of stock but they are available on the bay for the same price Steve was asking. I bought a set a long time ago and they are perfect. eBayDatsun 240Z Reproduction Battery Cable Set | eBayAt long last! A hand-crafted reproduction of the original style Datsun 240Z battery cable set. We've all waited a long time for this. For those of you who pay attention to detail and want to add th...

Not 111% certain on root cause yet, but 100% certain it isn't the ECU (cold solder joints or otherwise). The problem was very reproduceable previously by hitting the ECU hard enough at any time, not just when warm. During testing, I BEAT on the ECU with zero effect. What I did not do is whack the actual harness plug as planned, the pins simply were not secure enough. They did not slide out on their own, but any brushing of the wires in-situ would likely have caused them to slide out or lose contact. They were simply not tight at all. If you look in the photos closely you will see I have a rubberized tie-wrap wudged between the dual-bank wires to help them maintain contact. I don't have an official "pin drag" tool, nor do I have any pins that are the precise size of the ECU pins, except on my spare ECU...I tried a bit of googling about Bosch 35pin connectors to no avail but may revisit that. I should note though that the blade connectors I used are definitely thinner than those on the ECU. I had to really really push to get the female ends of the extensions on the ECU vs the harness connectors that could have been pushed in by an ambitious ant. At this point I have removed the 3 miles of electrical tape wrap that was over the rubber harness covering all the way down to the harness head. I did not have enough time to figure out how the harness head disassembles, so if anyone has one laying around and wants to give me some pointers that would be great. I've not had any time to give it a close look yet. The best I found was one for sale on EBay that has some useful photos. I have a large array of spudgers and other disassembly tools, so I'm sure I can get it apart, but it is always nice to have a look at the inside of what you are working on first. Old plastic is old. My biggest concern is that the problem might be an internal break in one of the wires that isn't discernable externally. Hopefully not though, all of the wires under the tape/rubber look like they were installed yesterday; they are that fresh and new. There is even some marking paint on them that is still pliable; mummies were less well preserved before burial. Another concern I have is when I get the casing open that all the individual connectors come flying out, leaving me to do wire-tracing to re-identify their homes. Hopefully they have individualized stays that are still in good shape. I don't know how I will tighten up / micro-crimp the female leads or if I will simply replace them. There isn't a lot of play in the harness so I am loathe to cut them shorter to get new ends on. I don't even know what these types of ends are called or if they even have a special name. I think they are the same as an injector plug and I have several spares of those, so next weekend I'll look into that. The adventure continues...

Do you want me to measure it? You'd be amazed the stuff I've found on EBay and Craigslist!

For the record, I just read that zcar.com thread and see that I might have actually borrowed the transistor replacement idea from ZXPastor. Not sure. I got the replacement transistors at a Fry's Electronics store before they shut down. Cracked solder joints aren't uncommon on the old Datsun electricals. The headlight and running light connections, on the top of the steering column, crack and break also. You might add some relays before those fail. Full lighting circuit current runs through them. They get hot. Will be following to see how things work out. You'll have three ECUs to swap in and out for testing and comparison. Good times.

So... While we're here. Anybody have an educated guess as to the gauge of wire used in the original cables? The common choices here in the US are 4-gauge, and 2-Ga. You can get others, but those two are the most common.

There goes Roo again showing off his ebay prowess. Your kung foo is the best.

Oh, and it's been many moons since I've looked at that connector on the end of the EFI harness. I assume the terminal contacts inside are replaceable? Have you looked into that?

Glad you found something. Are you sure you have identified the root issue there? Reproducible at will? Double dog sure? And as for the mystery about behavior, electrical intermittent connections are like that. Barely making connection by a molecule. Does unpredictable stuff.

I really, really want one of these. If my 289Z were fully restored and I had no need to spend money on it, I would definitely get one.

Don't overlook that when you have the connector disconnected from the board that the solder joints are probably less-stressed. I didn't see the common cracked solder joint problem mentioned in the thread. For some reason the internet is not picking up the old threads when I search. I only came across one. I've seen the others though.

RESULT: Loose harness connector(s). Now to figure out how to either tighten/tweak the harness connectors...or replace them 🫤 There is still a mystery (to me, at any rate) on why the engine would sometimes simply shut off like a switch and sometimes stutter-stop, and why sometimes it would re-start immediately and othertimes re-start 10-20 mins later. My hypothesis is that by simply getting in/out of the car while diagnosing I was re-wiggling the loose connector(s) such that they had good-enough connections, and the changing fault symptoms were a result of different pins or a different combo of pins losing contact. The end result is the same: Fix all the connections and do pin-drag tests on all of them to make sure they are sufficiently grabby. Thank you to everyone. I hope it was fun for you too.

I was very lucky to find a full set of 4 carpet clips in a recent parts haul. Never actually touched one, vaguely remember a thread here about them 74995-E4100 Qty 4 in the fiche. Three are nice enough to use, yellow zinc plating is pretty good, but one is a rusty mess. Usable, could just sandblast and spray yellow zinc. I see SS reproduction sets on some of the usual vendors. JDM-car=parts has a OEM refinished group of 7 for $99 USD. Asking $50USD for my set of 4 plus postage.

Keith buy a battery bolt and round off two of the corners with a grinding wheel, https://www.amazon.com/Wilmar-W1680C-Battery-Terminal-Bolt/dp/B0076EVKO8

My mechanic really sucks. Look at the way he set my timing. He argues that everything needs to be subject to trial and error. I know i have a schneider 274f cam installed but 20 degrees?

There was a solid clue during setup...when sliding the connectors into the harness...they are whisper-tight. Meaning: Not at all. Solid money is on worn out/loose harness connectors but we'll see if banging on ECU does anything after the normal "give up and die" timeframes of 20-40 mins.

Know this is an old thread. Nevertheless, while checking the su carb set ups and other things, i found out the last mechanic had set the timing as attached. I do have a schneider 274F camshaft. Shouldnt i have 14 degrees the most? I guess my timing is really out of spec. Mechanic set as as shown in the pic. Shouldnt it be lower?

The test is still running for the next hour....but so far here is the score so far: Team "Replace ECU": 0 Team "NOT the ECU": 1 8.mov

Test rig installed...

Great! Any suggestion on how to duplicate the bolt head? Thanks, Keith

Keith I picked up a NOS 240Z battery cable off EBay and it has the rounded head.

That said, the test rig is ready to roll. Time for quick bite and then, ACTION!

Because the curious mind must KNOW. For me, owning a classic car is really the journey. I get great satisfaction from understanding all the ins-and-outs of...well, anything. If I drive it, fly it, sail it, race it, ride it, eat it, grow it, run it in my house or office, or if it has moving parts or does anything that impacts my life in any meaningful way, I am driven to know how the thing works, and/or how to build/repair/grow/write/create my own. I like making things.

I’ve seen those bolts with the one flat side that keeps it from spinning when you tighten the nut. I remember having to wedge a flat head screw driver underneath to keep it from spinning.

I am in the process of refurbishing a pair of original battery terminal cables. After removing the terminal clamp bolt on the negative cable, I noted that bolt (6.0 mm x 1.00 mm x 1-1/4") had a rounded “U” head to match the profile of the terminal clamp. As you can see from the attached photos, there is no indication that the bolt head was modified with added metal to reshape a square or hex head bolt to form the rounded edge. Has anyone else seen a terminal clamp bolt with this rounded “U” head? Thanks, Keith

Patrick Bateman's favorite song.