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Haha! I actually fade in and out of consciousness on the forum. You just happen to catch me at a time when I'm actually on-line and logged in. I spend significantly less time here than I did before the last couple software upgrades. Hope that trend does not continue.

It has been a serious while since I was able to put some actual work in the car. I had some urgent projects on the house to complete, and then I managed to injure my hands, but now I'm back at it again. First, I had to re-install my tank. Since I sold my new fuel tank including rubbers and straps at the Japanclassic, to help somebody get is car running again quickly, I had to wait for a new one to arrive from S30.world. Unfortunately, new straps are currently not available anymore, so i had to go through my set of existing straps to get the best ones for temporary usage: First i had the rubber insulator blocks installed on the tank: And then had it all wrapped to avoid scratches on my brand new tank: And then everything installed. Thanks to my new transmission hoist, this was a lot easier than last time. And last but not least, i had the drain plug installed, which comes with the tank: Next? Front end work. Ever since I had my wobbly bent EU spec front spoiler installed, I was wondering myself which route to go. EU-spec corner valances with the mounting holes for the spoiler, but no holes for the Lower turn signals or other way? After thinking about it for a while, i decided to take the best of both worlds. Some might call it sacrilegious, but I decided to go what appeals the most to my eyes. US spec lower turn signals, but EU-spec front spoiler (which also helps stabilize the car and is not just for the looks). My original thinking was that the US-spec corner valances need to be modified with that "loose-nut" mounting brackets for the lip, but when checking my EU-spec valances, i realized that on the corner valances (unlike the center valance) there is only a simple hole. So the modification of US-spec valances to fit the EU-spec spoiler is simply to drill a 5mm hole in the right place. To get the right place, i made a nice little template from tape. Transferred it from the EU- to the US-valances, and drilled / cleaned it. Unfortunately, I found that on the LH-side somebody had previously drilled holes in the wrong places, for whatever reason. Probably they had some different spoiler installed? I'll leave that to the bodyshop. So everything set to install the spoiler completely? Almost. As you can see, the brackets on my worn out spoilers are quite bent. Some were even completely missing or "fixed" with a bit of backyard-engineering: After I bent all the existing brackets in a more-or-less correct position and installed it back on the car, i have to admit it looks quite good, even though it's still just a completely temporary mock up. I also had my replica US-spec turn signals installed (I will look for some good OEM-ones, as these lack the mandatory E-stamps on it). Which made the iconic, but also a bit ugly, EU-spec turn signals obsolete. Even though I don't think the look is too bad, I always have the feeling that they were just slapped on the car in a hurry, and are held on the bumper with only one nut, so they always look a bit off in their position and are hard to get it right (see previous photo). So I had them removed. The US / Japan spec turn signals always looked much sleeker to me, fully integrated under the bumper. Like intended from their designers. So for the moment, I'll stick to this setup. But I might change back to full EU-spec, if required. During this work, I was also able to fix two previous issues with the front bumper alignment, which is great too. From my point of view, the front-end (everything in front of the radiator support) is completed now. Next I'll focus on some other points. My 2-do list is getting smaller, and I'm happy with every task I can check off. I expect DHL ringing on my door with some nice stuff from Japan every moment, and i have some more things on the way here, so expect another update soon.

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.

Seiko Watch CorporationThe Datsun 240Z and Prospex Speedtimer: New collaboration...

I think you would be surprised at the low amount of insertion force required to mate one of those female contacts onto the male tab. They do that on purpose because by the time you get to 35 of them, it adds up. So if you aren't 111% sure that you have a contact issue, I might keep investigating. But if you are looking to replace some contacts, i believe everything involved is old Amp (became TE) "Junior Timer" series. JT. There are many different categories within that family, but I believe the contacts used on the harness side are specially designed to be a lower insertion force. And yes... there should be a retainer tab on each contact. You should not have to worry about all the contacts come flipping out by accident. I think. ☺️

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

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.

Come on now!!!😂

I probably had a few hundred kms on it like that. It kept spitting off the belt and I couldn’t sort out why

I do have some used dampers. Happy to send one your way, Early 240 2 pulley or later 280, again 2 pulley I recently purchased a Dayco damper from Rockauto. Pic below. Option 3 is send yours (or mine) to DamperDocter.com for rebuild

With the hood and bumper installed this is the best I can get for pics, hope this helps.

I was talking about a different problem. You'll know it if it happens. On the loose pins, if it was mine I might put a slight twist on every male pin in the ECU. Increasing effective width. I'd have to check the contact points to be sure it would work though. On to the next problem. Might as well get ready for the failing ignition module. It's a high probability.

Here are the original Nissan parts fresh out of their bags. Note the negative side only has the protective rubber cover. Yazaki was the supplier and their name is screen printed on the cables, just like on original spark plug wires.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Patrick Bateman's favorite song.

Most of the components in the ECU would be available generically. Caps, resistors, discrete transistors... No problem. The integrated circuits, however... Nada. You should be able to get pretty much anything but the ICs at Arrow and Mouser. But before you condemn the ECU, I would suggest try to isolate the problem. Even if it's an electro-mechanical issue, it would be important to know if the problem is in the wiring or connector to the ECU, or inside the ECU itself. So, the first thing I would try, would be to slowly and gently wiggle the wiring harness to the ECU and see what happens.

I was directed to this forum to see if someone has a harmonic balancer for sale in Canada. Possibly @zKars Mine has cracked