RayG1988

Don't remember the exact dates but the easiest way to know which type you have is that the early model looks a lot like the 240z and it's a lot lighter. Meanwhile the later model has the bigger 280z bumpers and can be confused for a 280z. I believe you have an early model.

Thanks for the pictures and videos.

Hmm, seems to be down right now. Let me see if I can find it here (I'm at work), I downloaded it and I believe that I put it in the recycle bin. If I find it I'll up it on mediafire.

http://carfiche.com/manuals023/cars/82_datsun_280zx.zip Full service manual off carfiche, I downloaded it a few days ago and it has everything.

Oh man, I know exactly what you mean with old owners and crappy wiring. Trace every single one and make sure none of them are burned, if possible replace those retarded bolts with actual fusible links or upgrade to maxifuse like I did. Hope you can get your car working.

You should be fine then. Just so you know it's not just bolt on, but its not hard to do either.

She's fixed. I was overthinking everything, the maxifuse writeups weren't worthless. JUST DIFFERENT. I'll be writing up another one for the 240z and the 260z with an L28et since it's a common swap in some places. Thanks for all the help, hopefully I can give back to this forum.

Depends. The early model 260z was very similar to the 240z, while the latemodel 260z was basically a 280z.

Man, even if I did nothing wrong I'd still be like WTF? if I got questioned by those guys. Pretty cool though, now you can say you went through a SS interogation and lived to tell about it.

Crazy story! What was your initial reaction when they started to question you?

Man, congrats! Can't wait to get mine running, just need to get rid of all these electrical problems. I have n00bitis.

It's cool, none offense taken. Downloaded the 82 FSM here at work. Really tempted to print it out but I may get in trouble.

Thats definitely how the new 370z should have looked. I'm pretty disappointed with the new 370z, sure the power to weight ratio is a lot better now. But I was hoping they'd make the car at the most 2800 pounds.

Ran into some problems...Looks like rain killed what was left of my s30-z31 Chilton's, long story short I don't know what fuses I should use. I searched online and I know the alternator is like 60a, but the thing is I found out that the previous owner had actually wired up the alternator straight to the battery...So unsure on whether I should put it on or not. Here's the mock up for my maxifuse box, probably different since mine only had one fusible link box as oppossed to the two that most people who have done the conversion have. Notice that I had yet to connect the starter wire at the top, the white wires were what used to direct the current to the fusible links, I believe. My fusible links box only had the ignition switch fusible link and the alternator and ignition relay fusible link. Currently downloading the 82 manual from carfiche, so I guess I could find out what amperage to use in replacement but I'm still confused on how having the alternator hooked up directly to the battery will affect this.

I wanted to see the rest of the pics but I don't know japanese to go around the album. Can you post the actual link thats related?

What color do you need? I don't have a chart or anything, but I do own a silver one and IMHO it's the best 280zx factory color there is. If it's what you're looking for I can go look it up.

Thanks you've been a big help. If all else fails I was actually able to find someone with an extra harness.

Okay, bought a Maxifuse box. Only has room for two fuses, all the writeups I've found use the ones with four but thats because they've all been made with 76+ Z's all of which had two fusible link boxes. Meanwhile 74-75 (don't know about earlier) had only one fusible links box. I couldn't find my Chilton but the writeup on AtlanticZ shows that the 75 and it's the closest thing to my Z. It shows that the fusible links ables should be green and black therefore I need a 40amp and an 80amp. Does this sound right? Or should I just get fuses of the same color? I plan to do a write up since it looks like no ones done it for my year so wish me luck. P.S. Here's a picture of the one I bought.

I have a Chilton's manual with diagrams for the 240z up until the 300zx, I think I'll be covered for the wiring, at least I'd hope so. Everything on the 260z is stock except for the stock L28et which also has the wiring harness with crappy wiring. Other than that, the only other thing would be the boost gauge a CD player along with two door speakers and an electric fan which is actually connected up directly to the battery with a relay inside the car. Instrument panel harness should be the original, unless it's a staple to change it during the L28et swap. I believed he followed the guide step by step.

Thats what I originally intended on doing if I couldn't swap over everything from the 280. The thing is I can't find anyone selling maxifuse locally and I didn't want to send money to Canada because of delays at customs, etc. (Atlantic Z) I was pretty sure that was the problem but Steven kind of scared me when he told me the whole harness might have gone bad. Again thanks for the quick responses, I seriously hope I can make myself useful on this forum. For now though I'm still a major n00b.

Gah...yeah the wiring is poorly done. Mind you I bought the car like that and I've slowly been trying to fix a lot of the wiring issues. Guess my best choice is to get one of those custom harnesses so I can actually know what everything is. Problem is I'm low on money right now. I'll try unwrapping it and seeing what I can do. Again the help is very much appretiated. Over by the 10/12 gage wire theres no current, meanwhile the fusible link underneath still get current so theres hope for the Z yet. Problem is the box thing that holds it is burned out.

Thanks for the responses. Replacing my harness is exactly what I didn't want to hear because it's pretty hard to come across an L28et wiring harness here in Central Florida. And going through it piece by piece is just as hard to do. I appretiate the responses though.

Just wondering if this is a really rare problem so it's hard to diagnose, or if no ones answering because the 260z has an L28et and this is a "purist site" '

They're functional.

I own a 1974 Datsun 260z w/L28et out of an 82. I'm currently overwhelmed with electrical problems. I've had quite a few in the past, but this one's the worse. My fusible links recently burned out. I traced the problem to the distributor and I replaced the cap as well as the rotor which were pretty much melted. I figured I would just swap over the fusible links from my 79 280zx and call it a day and get back to having fun with the 260z. However, I don't think I can swap them at all. I currently can't start the car at all, it doesn't even crank up. The starter is brand new and spins just fine (the old screwdriver trick). There's no crank whatsoever, all you hear is a really faint click. I tested for current, and while my fusible links look burned out and rusted the light from the tester still turns on indicating that they still work? I just can't seem to find the problem. I thought it was the fusible links, but as messed up as they are they still test out okay so I refuse to order maxifuse (short on money) until I know for a fact they're the problem. Here's some pictures of the fusible links: Can anyone help me with this? The 260z is my DD and I've been having to bug my dad everyday as well as bug my friends and I really don't like relying on others for my transportation. I've tried everything in my power to try to fix these but my knowledge just isn't vast enough to cover my current issues. I thought about switching everything over from the 280zx: But after I got everything ready I couldn't pull it off the car so I proceeded to attempt disconnecting it from the inside of the car. Which I haven't been successful at btw... Sorry if I offended anyone, I'm not demanding help. I'm just completely overwhelmed and I tried searching on hybridz as well as zdriver and this site for answers and I just can't find any so I figured I'd post this up. Thanks in advance to any of you who decide to lend a helping hand.