Brake light issue

[Pomorza]

Hello all

After three weeks of being away from my Z I returned last night. This morning I bought a brand new battery as the old one was well, um not exactly good any more. (leaking all over and such). Put battery in the car (negative terminal first then positive) and started the Z after three weeks of sitting. Not to my amazement the car started and ran perfectly. Once warmed up I revved the car a number of times and then took it for a nice ride.

Later that evening I was driving home from a friends. Noted two things. One the warning flashers (emergency lights) no longer work. Push down the switch and nothing. Blinkers still work fine but the emergency ones do not. Secondly brake lights are gone. Press the brake and no lights at all. I do have driving lights (as the rear lights turn on with the lights on) but brake lights are not there. Any ideas on above problems.

Thanks greatly

Jan Lentowicz

[DatsunZsRule]

Start with the simple things -have you checked the fuses???

[Pomorza]

I check the fuses earlier and found them to be all OK. I guess I was blind as the one for the STOP lights was clearly blown. I replaced with a 10A fuse and rear lights now work. Thanks. The flasher fuse looked nice and clear but I'll replace and see what occurs but not now as its fairly dark.

Thanks

Jan

['73_240Z]

Hey I have the same problem but all my fuses seem to be fine. What else could be the problem?

[Zs-ondabrain]

Wiggle your turn signal switch and your hazard switch. I think the brake lights go thru there. Couldn't hurt to try it and check ALL fuses and the brake pedal switch as well.

Dave

[SledZ]

I put in a dash cover years ago and noticed that my flashers did not work after that, turned out that the switch didn't have enough "throw" to engage the contacts because of the hole of the flasher switch. So I had to bend the dash cover a bit by the switch so it would engage all the way. If I remember right, that flasher is tiied to your brake lights.

[Mikez73]

Put battery in the car (negative terminal first then positive)

I'm curious why you connected the cables like that...and why you pointed it out. Did someone tell you to put the negative on first?

[Zs-ondabrain]

I don't know why, or what the reasoning is behind it, but I've been told on many occasions by several people that "You're supposed to Disconnect the Negative First"

Especially in a Z. Considering when it's installed correctly, the positive needs to go on first, then stuff it in the corner, then the negative. If you try and lift that Positive clamp off the post and it grounds on the frame, you're up shitcreek. With a big spark and meltdown.

[Mikez73]

Yeah I was taught that as one of the basic rules of owning a vehicle...negative off first...on last. I forgot it... once

Not a big deal I guess but since the OP specifically mentioned the opposite as if he thought that was the correct way

/shrugs

[Pomorza]

Check all the fuses again mate. Check all the bulbs and check all the connections. With this electrical problem (like many others) you have something causing a break in the line between the switch and the light. It can be something as simple as a blown fuse or something such as a shorted wire a bad connection or a bad switch.

From my experience with this problem the flasher and the brake light use the same fuse (or in my Z it did), so look at that first. And just because it "looks" good does not necessarily mean that it is good.

Hope that helps

Jan

[tlorber]

The hazard flasher and the turn signal flasher are completely different on the 240. I would imagine they are independent on the 280 as well. The hazard flasher on the 240 is on the passenger's side right interior above the kick panel. You may want to check the contact there as well as the flasher itself.

[Pomorza]

The hazard flasher and the turn signal flasher are completely different on the 240. I would imagine they are independent on the 280 as well. The hazard flasher on the 240 is on the passenger's side right interior above the kick panel. You may want to check the contact there as well as the flasher itself.

On 280's there are two different flashers for each function.(i.e one for the turn signals and one for the hazards). Good call, check those also and see if the connections there are nice and good.

Jan