I broke the wire off of this:

It's on the thermostat housing off of a 76 280z...what is it? can i fix it? the manuals don't seem to help!. Thanks guys.

Looks like the Thermo time Switch. Yes, you can fix it E-mail sales@courtesyparts.com and tell them the part that your looking for and they should have it.

Yep, looks like the thermotime switch. It'll still start and run okay while the weather is warm, but it'll be a little harder to start and warm up, as the weather gets colder.

Not an emergency, but should be replaced to keep the system operating properly.

Spdloader

That would be the "Water Temperture Switch" that is messed up. P/N: 22120-N4202 Runs about $53.03 from your local Nissan dealer. Red wire turns into the blue wire at the bullet connector just prior to the wiring for the switch, and the other black wire coming back out of the switch is the ground connection. The thermotime switch is the one behind it with the brown connector still attached to it...

webdawg1

right on webdawg :-)

Hmm, separating the men from the boys now it seems, hehe. I'm gonna head down to the junkyard tomorrow and take one out of another Z. Maybe the ones from the 280zx's work too, hehe. Do you think the sensor off a N47 head would work as well? I don't think there are any N42 heads left at the junkyard...

I found a "Reference" picture that shows the locations for the various sensors screwed into the housing.

webdawg1

EFI System Components.doc

Looks like that is something that is on the 75-76 cars. 77-78 doesn't have it so I doubt that you would find it on a ZX. What is it's function? On my 78, the water neck only has the temp sensor, the thermotime switch, and the thermal transmitter (for the temp gauge). The hole where you have the broken item is plugged on a 77-78.

Are you sure? that would SUCK. I don't want to have to pay $50 bucks for it, but if I have to I guess I have no choice...what do you think?

Geeze, could you find a larger picture? That one is too small... (j/k)

Yep, looks like the thermotime switch. It'll still start and run okay while the weather is warm, but it'll be a little harder to start and warm up, as the weather gets colder.

Not an emergency, but should be replaced to keep the system operating properly.

Spdloader

Huh? This looks like the electrical wire that runs to the sensor. It doesn't modify engine performance as far as I know. It simply sends a signal back to the guage in the cockpit. Unless I'm not aware of a something... Any more info on this?

The car should run just fine without this sensor, but, you will notice that your guage is not working.

-- MIke

I think it has to do with the emmision control system actually, the wire I broke eventually makes its way to the EGR solenoid, so I think my car will be running kinda rich actually... I just hope I can find one. The trick is getting a 21mm wrench in there to take it out, hehe. My car is one of the CA models with every sensor known to man on it to make it run cleaner. Any tips on getting it out? I guess I have to use a box end wrench huh?

P.S. I think that picture is worth...at least 2 thousand words, hehe...sorry for the kick in the butt 56K folks!