Captain Obvious

Glad you got things working! Just make double sure you have the terminals in the correct locations. The common is easy to find, and depending on how good your Ohmmeter is, you might be able to identify the HI and LO filament connections as well. I did have this drawing in my files. Might help explain some of the issue Seems almost evil of them to have done this? About the fuses, if there is only one fuse, I'd use 20A (instead of the 30 the harness came with). If you somehow get the harness manufacturer to give you something with two fuses, then I'd use a pair of 10's (just like the original Datsun configuration). And as for the different harness upgrade options... The other already available plug-n-play harness options for the earlier years are much simpler to install since you don't need to have access inside the headlight buckets. So there's the tradeoff. For the 240 and 260, the other harness is plug and play without taking the bulbs out. Makes it easier. You, with the 280, don't have that as an option. Compound that with the fact that you were already planning to replace the headlights with something newer and were going to have the bulbs out of the buckets. Wasn't going to be any additional work for you. Different strokes.

zKars and I were saying the same thing. He just said it with a Canadian accent, eh. Haha!!

Yes, you are still using the stock system, but here's the difference... From the factory, the stalk switch and all the original wiring sent power to the headlights. Now with the harness you just installed, the stalk and original wires send power to the relays instead, and the relays switch the power to the bulbs themselves. So the trick is that the relays only draw like maybe half an Amp total, while the headlights will pull almost ten Amps. That reduction of current through the column switches and original wires relaxes the load on the old tired dirty system. Then where does the high current come from to actually run the bulbs? That's the new fused connection(s) that you tie right to the battery. With those new connections, the relays will pull current directly right from the battery, pass it through the bulbs, and then return to ground with the two new ground lug connections you made on the upgrade harness. The bottom line is that with that new upgrade harness, the relays do the heavy lifting, while the switches on the column just tell the relays what to do. Lets see. What else? I'd be surprised to learn that they moved the connections around between the old sealed beams and the H4 bulbs. I didn't look into it, but wanted to challenge you on that. They swapped hi and low beams? Not saying they didn't, but kinda surprised if they did. You sure about that? Yeah, I forgot about that fused cable jacket inside the bucket. They heat fused all that stuff together in an effort to seal the harness jacket against water coming in. Sounds like you handled it fine. When I went through this, I made the holes in the back of the buckets a little larger and used larger grommet seals. Just large enough to be able to pass the connector shell through the housing without having to take the contacts out again. About the fusing - You plugged the new harness into one of the original headlight bulb connectors. The fuse for that side (right) can be replaced with a 1A instead of the original 10A. And the fuse for the left side can be removed completely. Empty slot. And I'm a little unclear about the 30A fuse in the new harness. I'm thinking that maybe it's a dual fuse? Their drawing shows two fuses, and two wires? Can you take a pic of that part of the upgrade harness to make sure there's no confusion? I loved your little descriptive story. I understand completely! That's exactly how I feel when I approach anything to do with body work. I can deal with the electricals and mechanicals, but I'm in cold sweat mode when it comes to the body!

Yup. Plug it into either one and tape the other stock side up. Doesn't matter electrically which side, but you have already correctly identified the better choice of using the pass side (right) because it is closer to the battery. Good luck, and I'd replace the original 30A fuses with something smaller. I'd use 20A's for a final value, and I'd even use 10s or 7.5s until I was sure things were working properly. 30 is way bigger than you need there. Unicorn riding a rainbow unicycle chasing a Z logo in the sky! Haha!!

" I just need to know where (location wise) and what wires will allow me to connect the 3 wires from the generic harness" In short... The three wires to connect the generic harness exist at the three prong connector at the back or either headlight. Right there at the glass globe. Inside the headlight bucket. You can't see them without taking the fender liner out and removing the headlight bucket from the back side of the sugar scoop and then taking off the retaining ring that holds the headlight bulb in place. OK, so not so short?

What's that? Do I see a Z logo in the sky?? Haha!! I don't have a lot of time right at this instant, but I'll try to add some quick value where I can. First, for reading the wiring diagram... The "O" means "makes a connection", and the line between "O's" shows you where that connection is made. So for example with regards to the headlights... If you look down the OFF column, there are no "O's" because there are no connections. Then when you rotate the switch to the 1 position, there are "O's" in row's 4 and 5 which are connected by a line. This means that "In position 1, wire 4 gets connected to wire 5". Progressing to position 2, "Wire 4 is still connected to wire 5, and in addition to that, wire 6 gets connected to wire 7." In English: "When in position 1, your parking lights are on, and when in position 2, your parking lights AND your headlights are on". That's how that diagram works. Second, that harness (with some caveats) is truly plug and play. It does not attach to anything under the dash, nor does it plug into any proprietary or unusual connector used just on the 280's. It makes connection to the three prong connector right on the back of the headlight. The intention is that you pull the three prong plug right off the back of the light and connect in that harness instead. Now for the caveats... First caveat, as you discovered, is that the length of wires between the two headlights need to be long enough to reach from one bucket to the other. If this thing was designed for a go-cart, that may not be the case. The second caveat is that you need to be able to actually physically get the wires into place, and here's where the Z's are a little difficult because of the way the headlights are physically mounted in the buckets. Problem as zKars alluded to is that the hole in the back of the headlight buckets isn't large enough to pass any of the connectors through. Your choices are to make the hole in the back of the buckets larger, or to take the contacts out of the plastic connector shells and pass them through the bucket and then snap them back into the connector shells. Not too difficult, and if I was going to use this type of harness, that's probably what I would do. Hope some of that helps, and if not, I'll mess things up even more when I get more time!

Nicely done! Thanks for the pics.

Thanks for the additional info. Jim, When you get a chance, I'd be interested in some pics of your soldered on ball at the pedal end. So out of curiosity, has anyone done anything that did NOT start with a Lokar kit?

You give me way too much credit. Sorry you couldn't prove me wrong on this one. I was really hoping you could. So much work for two stupid little screws! I've pulled the dash a number of times, and I agree. It's not really that difficult, just awkward. The A/C evaporator in there really crowds things. If it weren't for that, you would probably have been able to get to it from the front. Anyway, glad you got it out, and here's hoping you're back on the road in no time!

My pleasure! I was going to tell you that based on your measurements, it was time to try another relay and you beat me to it. Here's hoping the next electrical glitch is solvable as well!

Well that's really a bummer. Not to mention the effort and more money you're going to put into a tranny that you though was ready to go. Don't do it now though... Spend your time getting ready for the storm.

Yeah, those things! That's where most of the problem was on the cars I've been into. Cleaned and greased, went from 10ftlb to darn near zero!

Thanks guys. I've recently cobbled an alternative throttle body onto my EFI, and it's working great. Fantastic even. Smooth as butter. I modified the throttle body to work with the stock linkage, but it was originally set-up for a cable. For proof of concept, It was faster for me to convert the throttle body to work with the stock linkage than it was to convert the whole linkage system over to cable. I'm getting ready for my off-season modifications, and the cable mod will probably be one of them. Mike, when I went digging, mention of your conversion came up, but for some reason I thought you attached in the engine compartment. Do you have any pics of the details under the dash? How is the cable jacket held in place?

I've been into two cars now (my local buddies, and then mine) and I believe the most problematic part of the whole system is where the arms pivot right where they poke through the cowl. Make sure you pop off those little C clips and take those parts apart and clean and grease everything. One all (both) cars I've messed with, those pivot points were very stiff, and they shouldn't be. They should be almost free spinning. There is a little wave washer that takes up the slack, but there should be no rotational resistance other than a tiny bit of friction from the wave washer. I suggest the ZCCA judges use the existence and proper working of the park function as a tie-breaker at future judged shows. Z trivia!

Yeah, it sounds like that relay isn't switching the way it should. A little surprising to me though, since it really isn't that much current we're talking. That coupled with the fact that you already replaced that relay once before because of a burned wire. Makes me think there could be something else going on, but making sure that relay is working properly is the next step. You could electrically test that relay in place by measuring the resistance between the G and the diagonal L. With the relay connected normally, you could*: Make sure the blower speed switch is OFF. Connect an Ohmeter between the G and diagonal L on the relay. (Stick the probes into the back of the connector going to the relay). With the key in the OFF position, you should measure infinite resistance (no continuity) between the G and the diagonal L. Then with the key in ACC or ON, you should hear the relay click closed, and you should measure nearly zero resistance between G and diagonal L. Like less than one Ohm. Or you could open it up and have a peek inside. Whatever is easiest. * Note that this test method assumes that relay doesn't power a whole bunch of other stuff other than just the blower motor. I didn't dig through the wiring diagram enough to know for sure, but I think this should work.

Oh, and forgot the real point... Unless you're really digging originality and crave the park function, I would just clean everything up and put it back together and forget you ever saw that spring. Make sure you take apart and clean all the crusty grease and corrosion out of the wiper stalks. That's where the real problem probably lies. Use waterproof grease and get new rubber shoes-booties.

That spring is a rotational "clutch" that engages when the motor rotates in the reverse direction to "park" the arms. You might ask... Rotates in reverse? Park? WTF is that all about? Z Trivia - An almost long forgotten feature of the wipers is the "park" function. When you turn the wipers off, the motor spins one extra final rotation in reverse and that spring clutch engages (like a Chinese finger torture grabber) and "parks" the wiper blades in a lower position than they normally wipe in. However, at this time, everybody's springs look like your do and have the little tab has rusted and snapped off, and the park feature no longer works. At this point, I believe just about 100% of Z owners has had his wiper arms off for some reason over the years and they all have just repositioned their wiper arms so the at rest position is where they want it, and never even ever knew there ever was a park function. Why and how do I know? Because a buddy of mine and I went through the same thing a couple months ago and he dug into it and turned up the existence of this long lost function. He re-formed the broken off tab on his spring and I bet at this point, his park function is the only one on the planet that works. There are a coupe old threads on-line on one of the forums (don't remember which) that talks about the park function. Might be someone who changed over to the Honda wiper motor and was wondering what all the wires were. There is also some talk about it in the FSM.

Haha! Yeah, that works, but the one I was thinking of was: Have you ever noticed how anyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone driving faster than you is a maniac? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWPCE2tTLZQ Long live the Carlin.

Haha! Have label maker. Must use it! Just kidding. I feel that you can't have too much explanation. I've opened things up sometimes and seen scrawled writing inside things like that relay. And the scary part is... it's my handwriting, but I don't ever remember being in there before. At least with a label maker, you have plausible deniability! So if the relay is clicking when you turn the key to ACC, now I'm almost ready to condemn the relay. I suspect the contacts inside are burned up or so dirty they can't supply the motor with the necessary current. You can probably open it up. Most of the relays of that era have little bent in tabs on the underside that you can easily unbend to pull the shell off. But before you do that... Are the contacts on the other mating half of the relay connector as clean as the side in the pic? If so, they look fine.

I'm considering a throttle cable upgrade and I'm soliciting input. I searched around a little and the ones I've seen attached to the throttle linkage in the engine compartment. That works fine, but has anyone gone whole hog all the way to the pedal? Has anyone connected the cable directly to the gas pedal and completely eliminated the stock linkage? (PS - I know this is a fuel related question and I put it in general. I didn't want to put it in the carbs or FI sub-forum, because what I'm looking into could pertain to either.

A fresh set of eyes often brings new insights. The best solution would be for ramsesosirus to knock out a bunch of OEM shaped shims with the laser table (even though he is out of the woods with his squeal gone). Then offer them to members. I can bend the tabs myself.

OK. Just checking. It's my calling.

Captain Obvious wants to know if you remembered to put oil in the trans after you were done with the install.

Yes, to you and all the others in the path of this upcoming storm. Stay safe, and I hope everything is OK. Now is when you are glad you didn't buy that place right on the beach, huh?

Yeah, a little creative license there. I was guessing from the on-line pics that the shims went all the way to the bottom of the pads. Give 'em a try! Might be enough coverage! Can you tell (from memory?) if they are thicker than the originals? They look thicker in the pics although it might just be a burr from the cutting process. Or the paint?