Hello everyone, my name is Daniel. I’m a longtime car enthusiast with a particular appreciation for classic Datsuns. About 15 years ago I owned a 1969 Datsun 510 project. It was already fully disassembled when I bought it, and after discovering extensive body filler and juggling life with two young kids at the time, it became more than I could realistically take on. I ended up parting it out, but always intended to return to a Datsun someday.

Recently I picked up a 1977 Datsun 280Z, 4-speed, complete and running. The car is largely stock and in decent shape, but it does have a few issues I’ll be working through — mainly electrical cleanup, fusible link replacement/upgrades, EFI power questions, rust prevention, and general reliability items.

I joined ClassicZCars to learn from the experience here and to approach the car the right way, with an emphasis on preserving what makes these cars special while improving reliability where it makes sense. My goal is a clean, dependable driver rather than a rushed or heavily modified build.

I’m looking forward to learning, contributing where I can, and sharing progress as I go. Thanks in advance for the knowledge and guidance.

Welcome Friend, A ton of knowledge here.

Here's a tip that might help for future posts. Add the details of your car to your signature. It will show up at the bottom of every post.

Under Account Settings, if you click on your avatar at the upper right of any page when you are signed in. Don't forget to scroll down and "Save" after entering the information.

https://www.classiczcars.com/settings/signature/

Congrats on the new Z!

6 hours ago, Zed Head said:

Here's a tip that might help for future posts. Add the details of your car to your signature. It will show up at the bottom of every post.

Under Account Settings, if you click on your avatar at the upper right of any page when you are signed in. Don't forget to scroll down and "Save" after entering the information.

https://www.classiczcars.com/settings/signature/

Appreciate the heads up, I’ll update my signature with the car info.

@dtejada Congrats and welcome! I think you'll find this forum to be pretty awesome and to be a great resource. I joined a long time ago (when my wife gave the okay to start looking for a project car), and I bought my 280Z about 3 years ago. I have learned a tremendous amount in that period of time. Whatever you run into, there's a good chance someone here has had that or a similar experience. I'm a little behind on documenting things as life, kids, etc. tend to help push things to the right on the schedule. If you have not already, get an FSM and a wiring diagram for your model year, those documents have been life savers for me, as well as posting here when I get stumped or hit a snag.

Welkom to the forum!! If you need any help or information just ask! Most information has already been posted but sometimes it can be hard to find or people just don’t read the question properly and sidetrack the whole post.

I can’t find the original post at the moment but I did find a complete wiring schematic for a ’77 280z a while back, I’ll attach it to my post. This might help you clean up the wiring harness a bit.

As for the EFI system check all the sensors for the correct measuring ranges, the coolant temperature sensor and AFM in particular. The coolant sensor is easy to come by if it’s bad but the AFM’s are rare and rebuilds are expensive. I did find that an AFM from a Mazda 626 / Ford Probe will work with some adjusting. Alternatively upgrading to a Fast EFI for a stock replacement or fully programmable ECU setup might be a good choice if the stock, and to be honest pretty outdated setup, gives you too much trouble.

All in all the 280z and all S30 Z’s are pretty easy to work on with a ton of information and aftermarket parts available online.

N77ZCAR-WIRING.pdf

On 2/28/2026 at 11:52 AM, Paulytunes said:

@dtejada Congrats and welcome! I think you'll find this forum to be pretty awesome and to be a great resource. I joined a long time ago (when my wife gave the okay to start looking for a project car), and I bought my 280Z about 3 years ago. I have learned a tremendous amount in that period of time. Whatever you run into, there's a good chance someone here has had that or a similar experience. I'm a little behind on documenting things as life, kids, etc. tend to help push things to the right on the schedule. If you have not already, get an FSM and a wiring diagram for your model year, those documents have been life savers for me, as well as posting here when I get stumped or hit a snag.

Thanks man, I appreciate it. Already seeing how helpful this place is. I’ll definitely grab the FSM and wiring diagrams — sounds like a must. Looking forward to learning and getting this Z sorted out.

8 hours ago, Mitchel0407 said:

Welkom to the forum!! If you need any help or information just ask! Most information has already been posted but sometimes it can be hard to find or people just don’t read the question properly and sidetrack the whole post.

I can’t find the original post at the moment but I did find a complete wiring schematic for a ’77 280z a while back, I’ll attach it to my post. This might help you clean up the wiring harness a bit.

As for the EFI system check all the sensors for the correct measuring ranges, the coolant temperature sensor and AFM in particular. The coolant sensor is easy to come by if it’s bad but the AFM’s are rare and rebuilds are expensive. I did find that an AFM from a Mazda 626 / Ford Probe will work with some adjusting. Alternatively upgrading to a Fast EFI for a stock replacement or fully programmable ECU setup might be a good choice if the stock, and to be honest pretty outdated setup, gives you too much trouble.

All in all the 280z and all S30 Z’s are pretty easy to work on with a ton of information and aftermarket parts available online.

N77ZCAR-WIRING.pdf

Asking I will, really soon lol