Captain Obvious

Thanks Jim, I know the early year info is a little sketchy... Hopefully I've got something for that.

I don't have any vacuum controls for the HVAC, so no worry there. I did. however, take the opportunity to replace my BEEP-BEEP warning buzzer with my polite "Ding-Dong" bell chime from an Integra. I even installed a latching push button switch so I can reach up under the dash and disable the chime if I want to sit with the door open and the key in the ignition. Just have to remember to re-enable it again when I'm done. I mounted the ding-dong right next to the dimmer. PWM dimmer on the left, I'm holding the Integra chime in the middle, and the original beeper-buzzer on the right. (Note that the dash is upside down.): Also note that in that pic, I had not yet incorporated the ON-OFF switch on the chime. Here's the switch: I've got it all mounted up, but didn't take a final pic yet. I'll snap and post one when I get a chance.

Good luck with the hunt and if you can't figure it out even with Retrosounds help, let us know. So what year is it that you're working on? I'll take a look at the wiring diagram, but want to use the right one.

They are power mirrors, but I'm not using the power capabilities. I have the wiring harness rolled up into a ball and stuffed behind the glass inside the mirror housing. Maybe someday I'll go through the effort to run some wires out to the door and wire them up. And maybe someday I'll go through the effort to paint them. I'm still trying to make my car work perfect. I haven't gotten to the look perfect part yet!!

Yeah, I think 16.8 is too high. Is this something that just started, or has it always been like that? Also, is this an internal or external regulator?

Thanks for the pics showing the alignment pins. They look just like the ones used on the flat top carbs. Hope you figure out why your float valve isn't sealing...

Bummer. I was hoping that it was just a simple mistake of swapping the wires to the radio. It's my job to ask. So if the wire that is supposed to be hot at all times IS in fact hot at all times, then in theory there shouldn't be anything that you could do with the ACC connection that would cause loss of volatile memory. And hence... That's why you're here looking for help. So where are you picking up the hot at all times? And where are you picking up the ground connection? Maybe there are some clues to be had with one of those connections. And when you are measuring your voltages as you change the key positions, are you using the exact same ground point as your reference point for the measurements? There's always the possibility that your ground is floating up, not your high side drooping down.

I'm running modified mirrors from a 96 Buick Park Avenue. They were also used on a couple other GM products from similar year range. I had to modify the mounting area to better match the contour of the Z door. They aren't fancy racing mirrors, but I think they look like they belong. Here's a couple pics:

Good point about the install difficulty. I don't think there's enough room to swing the rheostat out without pulling the dash. The lower left mounting bracket is right there in the way. I had a bunch of reasons to pull my dash, so I'm just doing it all at the same time.

dmoralesbello, Yes, I'm going to use my PWM module for the LED's. You just can't get good control of a mix of LED and incandescent without it. If you were running all incandescent, a low value rheostat will work. If you're running all LED, a higher value rheostat would work, but if you're running a mix of technologies, the only way to truly get good control range is with a PWM design. TomoHawk, Yes, that's a 1/8W resistor. With the resistor in the circuit and the LED current reduced accordingly, that resistor dissipates about 60mW, or about 50% of what that resistor is rated for. I haven't measured temp rise all bundled up inside the bayonet base, but I expect the metal base to act as a radiator for any heat generated. I can't believe it would ever get as hot as the original incandescent bulb, so I'm not worried about the heat. And about your $99/dozen above... I think you slipped a decimal point, right?

Haha! I've already made a couple of these. What price will the market bear?

I haven't looked at all the years, but on everything I've messed with the ACC connection goes dead when the key is in the START position. So it sounds to me that your findings where the ACC line goes pretty much to zero when you hit START is normal. It's probably not going completely to zero because it floats and will be probably be pulled one way or the other by some accessory or other device. As far as the radio forgetting when you hit START... Are you double dog sure you have the "hot at all times" and the "hot when you want to listen to the radio" wires from the radio properly identified and not swapped by accident?

dmoralesbello, Your white install looks great. Too bright for my tastes, but that's up to the individual. As I mentioned above, I'm using the five emitter towers and I find even them to be too bright. But to each his own. About the dimmer control. You'll never get good brightness control of LED's with the stock dimmer rheostat. Just a nature of the electronics involved. If you want good brightness range, you'll have to swap to a much higher rheostat value, or you'll have to change over to a pulse width technology dimmer module. I think pretty much every car made today uses PWM technology instead of rheostats and there was a bunch of discussion about such things in a thread a little while ago:

Yup, you can cut that top emitter off with no problem. Take a look at my crude hand drawn schematic and you'll see that the five emitters are actually in five parallel paths with current limiting resistors for each path. Taking the top emitter off just removes one of those parallel paths. Here's what I did for cutting down the brightness. Start with this: Desolder the center (positive) connection and the base comes off. If the glue bond hasn't already been broken, you will have to break it. But pull/twist, and the base comes off: Unbend the negative lead and pull off the white plastic ring. Same thing goes for the glue here. It's supposed to be glued on, but the quality of the bond is usually pretty poor and it comes off easily: I shortened the length of the positive lead and attached a resistor. The resistor in the pic is 270 Ohms, but I have since changed to a 240 Ohms to make it just a little brighter. I like my dash dim, so the fine tuning of the value is left to the individual: Slip the plastic ring and the base back on, feeding the resistor lead out the hole in the bottom. Solder up that center connection, clip off the excess, and you're done. Here's what it looks like before you solder the resistor lead: When you're done done, it looks like it did before you started. I didn't glue any of them together yet until I'm positive I like the resistor value I picked, but it's a simple matter to unsolder and resolder that center connection. I'm going to get the whole project done and then glue them up. About the green lens? I wanted white, so I just removed the lenses and tossed them in a baggie. If you wanted green, I think you can get the tower versions in green, can't you? Is that "too much" green maybe?

Tidy! My plan is to add some more white accents to the interior. I don't think I'm going to convert everything, but there are plans to do more to go along with the seats. This is a fair weather sunny day vehicle for me, and I'm trying to get my interior temps down some. The white seats already make a noticeable reduction. The Fiero community has one company who has the market cornered on quality replacement seat covers. I'll give him a plug here... Mr. Mike (http://www.mrmikes.com). You can get cheaper stuff on ebay, but Mr. Mike's quality is highly respected. Unfortunately, due to the shrinking market, the choices are relatively limited in both color and fabric. He offers leather and vinyl, but the only cloth offering he has is "stock" GM. I'm sure your choices are much wider with the 350Z seats. I was also looking into early Miata seats, but from what I've heard, the early Miata seats look better than they feel. The consensus is that they look the part, but really don't preform well. At one of the recent car shows near me, there was a whole bunch of Miatas and I talked at length with owners of several different years and they confirmed that belief. 90-98? (First generation) Miata seats aren't top choice while the second and third generation seats are supposedly much better. I was looking into second gen Miata seats, but decided to break the analysis-paralysis and go with the Fiero seats instead. Mr. Mike also does Miata seats, but at this time, he only does first gen. My seat install was one of the few times that I was wishing I was working on an earlier year without the catalytic convertor bump-out. Was a royal pain, but I only had to do it once. So make sure you take copious pics of the 350Z install. I like the idea of a Nissan product in a Nissan.

I've spent a bunch of time working on the LED conversion, and here's some of what I've learned so far. For the discussion, I'm going to call the style you posted at the top of the page "paddlewheels" because I think that's what they look like. I've found that the paddlewheels have very good light dispersion inside the gauges. The only problem I have with them is that I think they are too bright. Other people can't seem to get enough brightness, but I guess I like my dash lights dim. I've found that the five emitter tower styles are not as bright as the paddlewheels, but are still too bright (meaning that I don't think you would need to resort to ten emitter towers). But I also found that the tower styles created a "hot-spot" where the forward facing emitter shines it's light. My solution was to modify my five emitter towers into four emitter towers by razor knifing the top emitter off of the assembly. Now my towers broadcast to the sides only and do not broadcast directly towards the gauge faces. I think the light diffusion and dispersion is much better. In fact, once I cut off the top emitter, I find that the towers and the paddlewheels both seem to have about the same quality of light dispersion. My final hurdle at this point is dealing with the brightness. I've actually spend considerable time trying to come up with an alternative that is less bright and what I think I have decided to do is use my four emitter towers in the gauges and to insert a current limiting resistor inside the BA9S base to reduce the brightness. I've got a bunch of bulbs done and am almost done. It's a pain, but I should only have to do it once. Ever. And yes, I also disassembled all the gauges and popped out the green lenses. Don't forget about the HVAC assy. And I warn you... It's not a easy as the gauges because they glued stuff together.

They are all the same with the exception of the final year (1988). In 88 they changed the way the "listing" seams are done. On earlier years they used metal rods inside the seats to pull the seams down (just like the Z does), and on the final year, I think they used Velcro instead. I'm guessing that the Velcro method was cheaper to produce and easier to install. It matters because you won't like the original fabric cover and will probably want to have the seats recovered. I'm not sure if the available seat upholsteries work for the Velcro types. Not wanting to turn this into a Fiero seat thread, so if you do want additional details, PM me. I should probably make a thread about my install.... Here's a pic of my reupholstered Fiero seats in my Z. They are way way way more comfortable than the stock seats. Much more supportive in all the right places, and good side bolstering on both the back and the base:

Yeah, those look very nice. Thanks for the pic.

That is exactly the case. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Haha!! You mean like this?

I'm not aware of any easy to convert to the wedge sockets for the gauges other than stripping wedge sockets out of something else and splicing them into your dash. Out of curiosity, why would you want to? Just to get rid of the flimsy bayonet base on those LED's? If that's the case, epoxy would be a lot easier. Lot easier. It's not like you have to do a thousand of them. You only need seven. The HVAC is already wedge. Use the one you "broke" in the HVAC position. Problem solved?

Most of the LED's I've messed with are somewhat fragile. The one you pictured is interesting for another reason as well... If you look around on the web, you'll find a very similar bulb in wedge base as opposed to the bayonet base in your pic above. But now that you have pulled the base of one of your bayonet versions, under close scrutiny you'll notice that one side of the wedge shaped base is actually ground down (probably on a belt sander in China) to fit inside the bayonet collar. It's the exact same bulb as the wedge base modified to fit into the bayonet. One side has a solid wire to the positive connection, and the other side is soldered (sometimes not too robustly) directly to the bayonet base. If you want more mechanical stability, I recommend mixing up some epoxy and dripping it down into the base. Fill it all the way up to the top of the metal bayonet collar. That will help keep it from rotating in the future and breaking the soldered connection.

Those hub/bezel rings sound interesting. Have you got any pics of them installed?

I've never measured 350Z seats, but seat width is a critical factor when considering replacements for later cars because of the catalytic convertor bump out on the floor. The mounting points for 77-78 are also less "universal". Putting different seats into 240's and 260's is easier than putting different seats into 77-78 280's. I know this isn't a generic seat replacement thread, but I'm now rockin' Fiero seats. Most comfortable seats right out of the factory that I've ever pressed butt into. Have you measured the width of the 350Z seats?

Yup. The ability to use the same arm on either side went away when they changed to the 77-78 design. With the later design, the lock body itself is interchangeable to either side, but the arms are unique to each side. It's all because of the shape of the shaft sticking out the back of the lock body and the corresponding hole where the arm goes onto the lock. The shaft and hole on the early design is symmetric, but the hole on the later design is not. I'm not sure why they ever changed the shape of that linkage, but if I had to guess, it was because they were trying to fix the issue where the back of the lock body would deform and smear with use and not work anymore because it had become too smooshed. (The reason you used that coat hanger fix.) I would surmise they believed the new design was more robust than the early versions. I don't know about how many lock cycles you get for each design before they fail, but I do know that the later designs do eventually suffer the same fate as the earlier versions. It may take more cycles to get there, but they all eventually fail in the same sorta way. The big difference after all these years, however, is that you can replace your early design locks with cheap replacements. And until the new product offering from Zcardepot that was no replacement option with the later versions. So what may have been an advantage of having a more robust design is actually now a hindrance (until now) because you can't get replacements. I expect that Zcardepot's locks will fail in the exact same way as the early version locks did, but at least now you can repair or replace them when that happens. And you and I may be dust by the time that happens. As for how your modified arm fits onto the lock, I say it's not as tight as the originals because of the gaps on the sides. It's been a while since I looked at lock stuff, but I believe that the originals fit more snugly on the shafts. I thought the only gap was where the dead travel was needed. I have a box of lock stuff around here somewhere and I might have some of the new design locks. I'll take a look when I get a chance.