Captain Obvious

I wouldn't plug that defroster into the cigarette lighter outlet, but if you cut the lighter adapter end off and splice it directly to the wires that go to the original defroster, you'll probably be OK. The reason for that suggestion is that the defroster circuit has it's own dedicated relay to drive the defroster (and only the defroster) As Zed Head already suggested, the current draw from that defroster is going to be ten to fifteen Amps and the defroster circuit is fused for twenty. Where I come from, a factor of two on a safety device is the limit, so you'll be pushing that, but it's going to be for intermittent use. If anything, I would expect that the relay would go up first and not the wires. Just make sure you have good clean tight connections everywhere. Last thing you want to do is burn up any energy in the connection points. You want all the energy in the heating coils, not the connectors.

I don't think that pic has been altered. I think the front is lighter than the rear and if you got the nuts, you can move it like those three guys in the pic. At this stage in life I wouldn't want to be any of those three guys, but back in my youth, I would have been any of them. Of course, that may be why I couldn't be one of them anymore. My spine aint what it used to be, and doing stuff like that in the past is probably why.

I'm going to be shoveling until April...

Nabbed this off the internet a couple years ago.

Dang... Your access to military grade tools is envious!

Duetto!!

I suspect a testing/semantics error... If it passed the first two tests, it pretty much MUST pass the third. Here's my interpretation of the test procedure... Put +12 on pin 1 and ground on pin 5 (and yes... the polarity matters even though they don't tell you that). Test 1A and 2A - With pin 4 not connected to anything, you should have very low resistance (less than one Ohm) between pins 1 and 3 and very high resistance (greater than one MegOhm) between pins 2 and 3. Test 1B and 2B - With pin 4 to connected to ground (along with pin 5), you should see the reverse of the above and have very high resistance between pins 1 and 3 and a very low resistance between 2 and 3. Now if it passes those two (four?) tests above, it tells me that both coils are working and there's no way it could fail the third test. So... What do I think is going on? I think it's a semantics issue maybe? They say "continuity", and that's an ambiguous term. It won't read as low of a resistance as the first two tests because you're reading through one of the relay coils, but that relay coil is intact, or you wouldn't have passed the first two tests. I'm thinking you've got your meter on a continuity test setting and the resistance of the relay coil is too high to trigger the meter's interpretation of "continuity". If that's the case, put the meter into a resistance reading Ohms range and see what you get. I'm guessing somewhere less than 200 Ohms, but more than 50. Or, maybe I have no idea.... That happens too.

I talked with Fastwoman a little while ago and she said that she was going to be stepping back from the computer for a bit in order to spend time dealing with a health issue with one of her family members. I hope things are going well and wish her and her family all the best.

Any opinions? I think you pulled too hard on the chain tool. I don't like the looks of the oil pan gasket either. I think you ought to keep a very close eye on a plastic tube filled with an organic solvent.

I made a 4 speed version but I didn't make one for the 5 speed because I don't have one as a template. Do you have a 5 speed knob on your Z?

Haha!!! That's good advice!! And I'll try hard not to drop my beer!

I think I had asked about something like that, but can't find it again. I wish I had a preview button too. If you find one, let me know?

The 72 carbs were different than the previous years in that they actually had coolant passageways in the body casting that directed water out of the intake manifolds and up closer to the fuel nozzle. Previous years only had coolant flowing in the intake manifolds, but in 72, they went that extra step and tried to get that flow closer to the needle and nozzle. You can tell the difference with 72 manifolds, carbs, spacers, and gaskets which all have holes in the faces to pass the flow. Datsun seemed to like the results too as evidenced by the fact that they improved on this practice into 73 and 74 with the flat top carbs as well.

Right. Pics or it didn't happen!!

I don't have anything technical to add to this discussion, but wanted to say that I really enjoy the investigative work.

Haha! Yes, it's 50/50, but don't go simply guessing to see if it works or not. If you get it wrong, you will short your "hot in start" signal straight to ground through the thermotime switch and burn something up. At least put a meter on it first and see what the resistance readings are to the case. I built a small relay contraption for my water temp sensor that would fool my stock ECU into thinking the engine was way cold when my key was in START. Provided the extra fuel boost to start the engine. I took it off this past summer when it was hot though.

Nice!! So at the next show, you'll be rockin the T-shirt with the tie? That would be a good look.

Just thinking that your thermotime switch is probably screwed into the block right now and taking it out to test it in a pot of hot water would be a PITA. You could run the engine to warm the thermotime up instead of a pot of water. One side should go open circuit to ground when warmed up. That's the side that needs to go to the CSV. And the side that still has resistance to ground even when hot would be the one that goes to your "hot while cranking" source.

Only the polarity of the thermotime matters. The CSV is just like any other injector and doesn't care. So as for figuring out which side of the thermotime is which... Hmmm. Without having the stock harness to trace? You could put a meter on it and you should have low resistance from both pins to the case ground. But one of them would be a direct short (zero Ohms) and the other pin would go through the heater coil (low, but non-zero Ohms) before getting to ground. I don't remember offhand what the resistance of the heating element is so I don't know how easy it would be to distinguish between the heater and a dead short. Failing that, you could verify low resistance to ground from both pins and then heat the thermotime up in a pot of hot water and test it again. The side with the heating coil wouldn't change, but the side that is supposed to switch the CSV should go open circuit. Failing that, someone with a stock EFI harness should be able to trace the wiring and tell you which side is which. I've got one and can do that for you if you can't get the other two methods above to work. I'm kinda surprised that the cranking pulse width feature from the megasquirt isn't enough. Did you try maxing out the pulse width to 100% at the min temp?

Sorry forgot to point out a detail... You do not need to include any additional connections to the battery ground. The ground paths are taken care of by the thermotime switch itself which connects to the block through it's mounting threads.

That wiring scheme won't work. There are two things wrong. First, you need to connect the correct side of the thermotime switch to "hot in start". One connection goes to the heating coil, and the other connection switches to ground when cold (and goes no-connect when hot). So you need to run your "hot in start" to the heating coil side of the thermotime, not the switched to ground side. The other issue is that since the thermotime switches the cold start valve to ground, you also need to run "hot in start" to the other side of the cold start injector. So one side of both the thermotime and CSV go to "hot in start" and the other sides of both are connected together. Just make sure you get the correct side of the thermotime. Make sense?

Wait... So it is assemblable?

Hahaha!! No, I had never seen that one. Oy, So someone actually has that on their arm? It's only funny because it's not me!!

Haha!! No kidding!! I'm not sure I would! No hurry on the sockets my friend. I'm off the road until next spring. And we all lived to tell the stories. Not only was the map on a napkin, but it was scribbled down AFTER the crawl started! Now THERE'S a recipe for success!

Haha!! Nice grip! I don't think of car tools when I see a grip like that.........