chaseincats

Do you mean that the bullet connectors are inside the storage area behind the seats or that they might have been chopped off when the PO played with the wiring?

Hi guys, I'm trying to find the bullet connectors for the fuel pump to splice in a cutoff mechanism and cannot seem to find them ('78 280z). I looked under the passenger side carpet (behind the seat) and under the seat itself but cannot seem to find any bullet connectors. I attached a couple pictures showing the wires I'm looking at. Picture 1 shows an aerial view of the wires under the carpet (behind the passenger seat). Picture 2 shows what is under the passenger seat. Am I looking in the wrong spot? -chase

Hi guys, Any idea if the rubber grommet for the dome light switch (the switch mounted in front of the door) is still available somewhere? The one on my driver's side door crumbled when I went to change the dead switch out and am having difficulty finding a new grommet online. -chase

Not sure when they broke - the head has not come off while I've owned it. When I changed the valve cover gasket I noticed the front passenger-side bolt had its head sheered off so I easy-outed that and changed it (the bolt's head was resting behind the timing belt tensioner which was terrifying). The second broken bolt is 1 of the 4 cam tower bolts which is broken to this day because it is apparently snapped way deep in the head/block. I only noticed it while re-torqueing the head bolts when I was going through the engine tuneup chapter of the FSM.

To throw a bit of contrast in here I don't think the broken bolt is the problem here. My car had 2 broken bolts and ran for years without overheating.

gotcha - ill give it a shot, thanks!

Something must be out of alignment on mine, if that's how its supposed to look ?

Hi guys, Having a tough time figuring out how to center the HVAC selector trim piece. As you can see from the image, the trim piece is not centered within the vent panel frame once bolted in. If I forcibly center it by pushing the piece right, it will turn the fan on - so basically I'm in the situation of always having the fan on low or having the panel be off-center. Any ideas? -chase

Gotcha, thanks. The new alternator shows up Thursday. I'll get it on the car Friday and report back.

Unrelated to the alternator - since the '78 doesnt use a ballast, would upgrading to the 280zx distributor not do anything? The appeal of that upgrade is connecting the distributor directly to the coil right? Since the '78 does that already, would changing to the ZX distributor be moot, or are there other benefits im overlooking besides bypassing the ignition module for fun?

Why aren't my fusible links blowing if the current is high enough to fry the ignition module?

So all these odd gremlins suddenly appearing can be due to the alt overcharging?

The temp gauge didn't peak out, it only scooted up a bit. If I think about the temp gauge as a clock face where 9pm is cold and 3pm is max hot, the gauge went from 7pm (where it usually sits at op temp) to about 5pm within the span of 15-20 seconds after turning on the cabin fan and headlights. Does that visualization make sense? The oil pressure gauge wasn't affected btw.

Gah So there are not any 100% brand new alternators for these then? Thanks for the tip about oreilly's I just called and it should be at their store by Tuesday. I've had bad luck with their alternators but lets see how this one goes. The first didnt fit because they didn't line up the hemispheres so it couldnt bolt in, the second had a bearing whine and i guess this one is overcharging...

That's a reman? It says new in the product title, no?

Gotcha, I'll give it a look and report back. It might be good to grab a new one anyhow - I have an oreilly's re-manufactured one in there. This one should do, right: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KY0CN0Q/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1?

Is it common for internally regulated alternators to overcharge? I thought this was an externally regulated issue.

Alright, I'll give it a test the next time the gauge is looking high. Do I just put the probes on the pos/neg battery terminals to test it? I'd think that would tell me what the battery is at rather than how much juice is being thrown into it, no? I also noticed a weird phenomenon - the temp gauge will sneak up (not too high) when I start using a lot of voltage (cabin fan, headlights, etc). The temp gauge goes up almost instantly which wouldn't make sense, right? Sounds again like something electrical, again this could be due to it overcharging? When it has been overcharging (according to the gauge) in the past, I've put the headlights on to lower the voltage gauge - is this helping at all?

Ya - i quickly removed that edit after I scampered to the garage to look. How was the PO able to remove the ballast without changing to a ZX distributor (there is an aftermarket coil on there named "Jacobs p/n380672" https://www.ebay.com/i/283558856457?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=283558856457&targetid=595069534683&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9026920&poi=&campaignid=1689799120&mkgroupid=66574332155&rlsatarget=pla-595069534683&abcId=1140466&merchantid=6296724&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8oa58JbW4wIV6f_jBx0T7w82EAkYASABEgJD-fD_BwE)?

It's the stock electronic 280z ignition to my knowledge. The only difference is it has an ignition coil that apparently required the ballast to be removed by the PO.

Hi guys, So something odd started a few days ago. I drove the car to and from zcon this year and it was perfect (about 1200 miles in total) then I get back and of course theres some sort of gremlin that was waiting for me (but luckily it hid for the duration of the trip haha). I was driving today at highway speed (70ish) and the tach jumped from 3.4k to 4 and then later in the drive jumped from 3.4k to 6 (the engine speed didnt budge, just the tach). All of those hops were only for a split second and I've never seen it do that before. I noticed also sitting at highway speed a couple of times I felt the engine power diminish for a split second and then come back. The car will also overcharge when driving at highway speeds for 30 minutes or more (at least it does according to the voltmeter as it reads maybe 15ish volts instead of the 13ish it reads when cold (those numbers are very abstract of course since its just a needle)). I took a look at the clear cone fuel filter that sits between the pump and tank and that looks clean. I jiggled the cables by the coil too but everything seems solid. Any ideas? -chase

It's cool, don't worry about it. Unplugging/capping the fresh-air dashpot's vacuum line did the trick, thanks though!

Just gave the FSM a look and you were right about the vacuum direction. That's an interesting idea with the cable. Yep, I'm there now - will probably head to the event lot and pull/cap that vacuum line in a few minutes because the zcon cruise is tomorrow morning.

Sounds good - will do. Are either of you at zcon now btw?

Hi guys, Figured I'd keep both in here instead of making two posts. #1: It seems my 'mode (heater) door' is not closing fully. When I look under the dash via the driver side footwell, i can see that the mode-door's vacuum pod is fully closed (down/retracted/no vacuum to the pod) when "vent" or AC is selected, I still can feel a little bit of hot air coming out from the hot air vent under the dash. Is there a way to fix this or are they all like that? #2: Is there a way on an s30 to get recirculating air rather than strictly vent? The reason I'd like this is that when the AC is running, it is pulling/cooling air from inside the cabin but when I switch the AC off and just want to have the fan run (for MPG savings) the "fresh air door" vacuum pod is relaxed and the cool air in the cabin is invaded by the hot/humid air outside when I select "vent". I'd like to have the blower run with the air from inside the cabin. We have two heat settings, "heat" and "recirculate heat" so is there a way to do this for the cabin fan? I was thinking about connecting the fresh air vent vacuum pod directly to the intake manifold which will always keep the fresh air door shut - would that work? -chase