Captain Obvious

For diagnostic testing, you can completely eliminate the hazard switch from the system. I did this once or twice to drive around with no center console while still having functional turn signals. Goes like this... There are two large connectors near the passengers feet that connect to the console. On the wiring diagram, they are C-7 and C-8. The one in question is C-7 and it contains the supply and return wires that lead to the hazard switch. Unfortunately, C-7 and C-8 are both black, so I can't use color to distinguish between the two, but for ID, C-7 is a ten cavity shell and has all (or almost all?) locations populated, while the other connector C-8 only has maybe five of it's cavities populated. That should be enough info to identify C-7. Disconnect C-7. You should be able to do that just by pulling the rug down. You don't need to take the console out. Just move the rug out of the way. On the car side of C-7 (not the console side, but the car side) jumper the green/yellow to the green no stripe. Note that there are two green wires, and the one you want to jumper to is on the same side of the connector as the green/yellow. By disconnecting C-7 and jumpering those two locations together, your turn signals should be getting full power even with the hazard switch completely removed from the system. Should help narrow down the fault location. Here's a pic showing what to jumper: I've had problems in the past with corrosion creating intermittent and poor connections on C-7 and C-8. I suspect it was instigated by moisture from a heater core leak sometime in the past before I owned the car. I cleaned up all the contacts in both those connectors and my problems went away.

I don't know anything about the ZX axles, but I can provide a little input about greasing. I think a zerk would be overkill, and I found from experience that you can actually over-grease the housing. First time I did bearings, I packed the entire inside of the housing with grease. I even used a long needle and injected grease into the recess after the whole thing was together until it oozed out from between the bearing balls. It was "stuffed full". Completely full. It was a mistake. It was very very stiff and hard to rotate. So stiff, in fact, that I ended up taking it apart again and removing most of the grease. If you look at the amount of grease they put in there originally, you'll see that they didn't "stuff the housing full" of grease. I don't know if my experience is typical, but I packed the balls and added a little more for good measure and called it a day.

The wire colors on the side of the connector you are probing aren't the same as they are on the other side, and it's the OTHER side that are called out on the wiring diagram. In other words, the wire colors change at that connector and the colors on the side you're probing are not what are shown on the diagram. That can be very confusing. I believe that green wire you are probing is actually white on the other side of the connector, and is the supply side to the turn signals. The two white wires to the right of that green (white/red and white/black) are the two outputs from the turn signal switch. And again... the colors change at the connector to green/red and green/black. Confusing. So for the first mystery... Yes. That green wire (on that side of that connector) should go hot when the key is in the ON position, and it is supposed to supply power to the turn signals. For the second mystery... When you turn a signal on, that wire goes to zero. The reason is that green wire is being weakly pulled up to a little over 10 volts. So weakly in fact, that when you apply the load of a couple very low resistance light bulb filaments, it drags that wire to zero. That green wire should be getting pulled to a healthy battery voltage, and yours is not. Could be a weak battery, a bad flasher, or a poor connection anywhere between the battery and where you're probing. My money is on a bad connection somewhere or a continued problem with the hazard switch. Knowing nothing else, I would start at the large(ish) connectors that lead to the console and supply power to and from the hazard switch. (Connector C-7)

Something else I see on those pics is that he removed the rubber bumperettes from the front. I wonder what he did about the holes... I wonder if he welded them shut and had the bumper re-chromed, or if he just used something like a chromed headed carriage bolt to fill the hole. And I would like to know what he did about the rubber ends. If he made those from a mold, or cut and bonded the originals. I've done a little silicone molding, but I don't think I'm up to the task of something that large. rossiz, I was thinking the exact same thing. I think the 280 bumpers would add a lot more protection. Still nothing compared to todays energy absorbing designs, but certainly a lot more protection than the "only for show" 240 style.

Yeah, I really like the look of the front. I think It retains the soul of the 280 while improving the lines. I'm not so sure about the back though. I like the front more than the back.

Vacccuuuuuuuum Taaaaaaaaabble... Build it. You know you want to.

On my 77 280 there are several different ground connections to the harness, and they do not all connect together inside. Some do, some don't. The ground scheme is the battery cable to the starter bolt and then they use the engine as the distribution center from that point on. There are a couple places where the engine is connected to the body through the harness, but there was no small wire going directly to the battery (exception being for the fuel injection, which you do not have). So I can't be positive without taking measurements off your harness, but I bet the concept is the same as my 77. I bet there are couple ring lugs that connect to the engine block, and within the harness those connections star out to things like the turn signals, marker lights, coil, etc. as well as connect to the body. But there may be more than one star point. I think my 77 had two of them... One on the pass side area, and one on the driver's side area.

Very sorry to hear this. My condolences.

Thanks for the input guys. I know something would have to be done about the black rubber bumper ends to shorten or remount them accordingly. At this stage I'm just wondering what it would look like. Zed Head, that last post you sent me to has some good stuff in it. Thanks for that one. I did a little searching here for the topic and came up blank. I found numerous threads at zcar.com about the topic, but all of them were for people who installed 240 bumpers, So if I can figure out how to reattach an attachment from a previous thread, here's what the front of a 77-78 can look like with the stock bumper pulled in closer to the body. I like the look: And here's a pic of the back. Looks like not only did he take out the accordion ribs from the bumper ends, but he also sawed off and smoothed the bumperettes:

I've read a number of threads about how people collapse their later model bumper shocks before installing 240 bumpers on their 260s and 280's, but I have a slightly different question... I would like to know what it looks like if I were to move my 280 bumpers closer to the body, but I'm not yet ready to throw in the towel completely on my original bumpers. So anyone got any pics of a 280 where they've collapsed the shocks but are still running the original bumpers?

Yes, I was referencing Cheech and Chong. I think I first heard that skit when I was in my teens. It's still funny now, but just imagine how funny it is to a room full of teenage boys. "Uhhh, I think he's gonna show ya JR." Thanks for that BGM. I had no idea. I thought it was all comedy.

Oh, right. So you got that part covered... I'm Blind Melon Chitlin.

That large round hole was originally connected to a hose that sucked warmed air off the exhaust manifold. I've always called it the "heat riser" connection. It's unfiltered at that point, so the only thing you have to worry about would be critters. However, if critters are looking for a warm spot to make a nest, they could simply crawl into the other oval hole at the end. Both those holes go to the same spot which is the dirty side of the air cleaner.

I'm just looking for common denominators and the black fusible link fits that category. Strongly. The reason the headlights still work throughout this ordeal is that they have their own independent fusible link separate from everything else on the car. Rear outboard red. The reason the engine still cranks and runs is because those functions are supplied by the other two red fusible links. The black one supplies power to all of the "hot at all times" fuses, as well as everything powered by one side of your ignition relay (like the flashers and the gauges). So, I'm sure you've already checked the fusible links, but you have to start somewhere. Turn your lights on to create the problem, and then while it's screwed up, wiggle the black largest fusible link. The one closest to the passenger strut tower. And also try wiggling the harness below the fusible link blocks, as well as anything area you worked on when you did the internally regulated alternator mod.

Not any more I don't!! That was many moons ago when I was young and indestructible. At this point, if I got one of those "live or death" adrenaline rush events, I juuuuuussst might be able to roll it off my chest before I passed out from the pain.

You've clearly got a bad connection somewhere. Turn your lights on to create the problem, and then while it's screwed up, wiggle your largest fusible link. Should be the black one. Closest to the passenger strut tower. If that doesn't do anything, try wiggling the following next: Remainder of the fusible links. The wires that go to the starter. Any wire you can reach.

Exactly. I got a similar 3-4 boxes! Maybe what we need is a trading thread where I can trade some of my box contents for some of your box contents! The contents just can't be identical, can they? Maybe a thread where you just list what you have. Not a for sale thread, but a list of what you have surplus, and what you'd rather have?

Huh? Who said that?

I don't remember if that 15 emitter came from Superbright or ebay, but yes, that's the one. As for details on CANBus, I haven't looked into it.

I think it's because everyone all wants the same small set of difficult to find parts. Everyone wants five speeds, wood(ish) steering wheels, straight early bumpers, and SU carbs. Nobody wants four speeds, another squishy steering wheel, another set of ripped up seats, or a space saver spare. Sure there's always the little stuff that people are looking for, but it'll take a long time to make back $1500 with the little stuff.

Sloshing around dangerous chemicals while wearing masks. In the middle of summer. Sounds like a scene from Breaking Bad!

That's gonna make you go blind, you know.

I'll mess around with my camera settings and see what I can come up with. Maybe I could put the incandescents back in the tach and that could provide a common point of reference? Tach is pretty easy to get in and out.

I was going to mention the same thing about the seat belt anchor positions. On the original configuration, the seat rails and mounting locations don't have to handle much force in a front end collision. But if you move the belt anchor to the seat itself, you have changed all that. I'm sure the Z's are terrible in accidents by todays standards, but you could still make matters even worse.

Haha!! Chuck, you're right about that. That thing is so bad that the usual places no longer even exist! I'm not so sure about parting it out and making money... There's a guy here on the forum who recently bought a rusty car with the intention of rebuilding it, but everyone here convinced him it was too far gone to rebuild so he decided to part it out. Everyone talked about how much money he could make if he parted it out, but I think he's still sitting on almost all of it. He's posted a couple times trying to rouse interest and sell stuff, but people just aren't buying?