TomoHawk

Very cool, Brice. I suppose that in time the LEDs will get 'smarter' and be easily dimmable, but by then, incandescent lighting will have gone the way of the pulse-dial telephone... LEDs will probably end up having 3 pins; one for the anode, one for the cathode, and one for the dimming control.

I talk to car people occasionally (over coffee & pie..) about things. One of them is the Dimmable LED bulb. I never thought of them as 'dimmable' in the sense of what a filament bulb can do, so I wanted to ask to get some information in the context of S30 cars. Are they useful for us? Do you need special wiring or controls to dim them? Should we even bother with them? The only place I would use the dimmable LEDs would e in the gauges, because it's really a PITA to change them every other year (I use the #55, 7V bulb for the gauges.) What are some advantages and disadvantages? If you 'Google' it, most of what you get, is for home-use LED bubs, like you use in your hallway or kitchen. I had over the last winter, replaced all the bulbs (except the gauges) on my '78 with LED bulbs, but I have since changed them back, because it just wasn't as bright as they were before (for the brake and parking lamps.) thxZ BTW- The 4W bulbs MSA sells for the gauges are GE 1816 bulbs (12V, 4.3W)

I put the HotRod article into a document you can read: Photograph Your Car.pdf

Ok, it sounds sporty, but instead of using the tailpipe for the video, how about something nicer like a girl? A tree maybe? There is probably a better way to record the exhaust sound than video-ing the tailpipe, like a microphone taped to the tail... I will try it if the weather cooperates; I have a quality digital audio recorder with a remote microphone.

That's right, the switch is within the steering column cover. The part you turn is just an extension to a convenient place near the steering wheel rim.

because of the proprietary nature of the connectors on the S30 cars built after about 1974, you'll be first cutting off the factory connectors and adding a custom "one-of" relay upgrade. Only the 240Z has the "plug-and-play" type upgrade, so unless someone has a supply of the original headlamp harness connectors, disregard any claims of "plug-and-play" for the 280Z from those aftermarket vendors. Dave Irwin's relay upgrade, is, however, superior to the cheap ones you find elsewhere, because he makes them specifically for your car or specific model, with your parts from your car. Because of that, it's still somewhat custom, but much more serviceable, if you need to replace any parts. In fact, Dave makes the relay upgrades for certain Z parts vendors.

First see if it is something easy to fix like a bad ground connection.

The headlamps are wired in parallel, so what happened to the car in the video is that the r/b wire was cut or had a bad connection with the high-beam switch, so the guy permanently grounded the low-beam side of the bulbs. So now the low-beams are always on, even if you switch to the high beams. I would not recommend you do it, because you will be using more current than just the low- or high- beams alone; you will have all four filaments on, and probably overload the fuses or the switch. In this situation, FIND where the wire or connection is open and fix that instead of adding cheap "fixes."

I dunno what kind of fuses it uses, but if you paint it to match, it shouldn't look too bad.

Yup, the headlamp fusible wire (red) on my '78 looks like an 18 ga. wire, and it's got a potential 20A to go through it. You wouldn't want it to 'pop' when you go to the high beams on a twisty country road, so you know those things are really tough stuff. The same is for the fuel injection fuse links (but I can't think of why you need three.) The (black) one for the cabin main & accessories supposedly handles 100A, and it looks like a 14 ga wire.

Can you get fuse locks with 1pair or 4 inline cartridges? If you set it up right, you may be able to make it look like the factory fusible link setup.

I'd like to see a write-up of how to route the fuel injector wires so they go along the firewall, then to the back of the intake manifold.

They still use fusible link in modern cars. My 1997 has all three kinds, regular blades, cartridges, and fusible links. I would rather use the cartridge than a Maxi fuse, They were designed to be more robust than regular fuses, like the fusible link. It's true that you'll need to diligently maintain the electrical system so fusible links can perform as they did when the car was new, but it easier than replacing the entire electrical system.

Maxi Fuses are bigger than the standard fuses, but still aren't the same as fusible links. Without re-engineering the wiring for fuses, you invite unpredictable results.

Filing is not good either. You can remove the most part of the built-up corrosion, but you should never file or sand away the metal of the interface. Use a good contact cleaner instead. My favourite is DeOxit D-100.

These flashers are supposed to have some kind of feature so you know if a bulb is out? What happens?

Did you try driving the car from the left seat? Ha haha!!

IMO, replacing the fusible links with fuses is a very dangerous thing. Who started all the fusible link- fuse equivalence stuff?? The fusible links are protecting some very important things that draw a lot of current, like the headlamps and the fuel injection system, and you will have instantaneous trouble if the fuses melted. Fusible links are like circuit breakers, so you would want to use those in stead. You can get circuit breakers that plug into fuse clips.

Keep a stock of DeOxit 100 (100% strength) handy, plus a test lamp (I also have a 12V buzzer tester,) and some kind of a voltmeter or multitester (you basically only need a 12V meter.) You will end up cleaning literally every connection on the car to really make your automobile- life pleasant.

The Amazon module looks nice, but I don't care for screw-terminals, which unscrew themselves . Instead, I'd like solder pads, so you can permanently attach your wires, then add train-reliefs.

When did they start using relays on the headlamps of a 280Z? Mine has none. Make sure "they" know well which model of car you are referring to... You have way too much voltage-drop. With the engine on, the battery voltage should be over 13V. If you take the cover off the steering column, you can measure the voltages at the headlamp switch, going in & out. Go back and start at the headlamp bulbs, and clean the terminals properly. Clean off the dirt and scrape off (no sandpaper) the built-up corrosion, then use a GOOD terminal cleaner like DeOxit D-100. Don't use WD-40. Radio Shack has cans of DeOxit D-5. Go backward all the way to the combination switch, then to the fuse box, then the battery & alternator connections.

It looks like they kept the rheostats until there was none left! I recently saw one in a 1995 Ford E-150 van. Also you'd be better off using the light switch to activate a relay for the parking lamps... From what I've seen about the 4-wire PWM things is that they are supposed to drive LEDs directly; 2 wires are for power, and the other 2 go to the LEDs in parallel.

They should take into consideration where you are from, or how far you drove to the event. there's no way you could drive over 100 miles and not collect bugs or probably paint chips.

I thought I'd re-read this stuff since the car was painted last winter, and maybe get a photo or two in the park- or elsewhere, while the weather is still nice. Has anyone else done some good work, or submitted the photos to a periodical?

If you wanted to hook up your engine & sensors to a electronic or computerized data logging system, would it be possible? Most of it is just resistance, but I'm wondering if tapping into the sensor might other the ECU to change its outputs. I would probably be interested in recording: Coolant temperature (resistance) air temperature (resistance) AFM (resistance) RPM (12V pulses) fuel injectors (12V pulses) I suppose there are some electronic data collectors all ready to use? I would probably use the data collection while the car is parked. thxZ