mayolives

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/a35432585/datsun-240z-fairlady-z432r-history/

This is an originia five speed car sold new in CA. Sounds like I need to start with the ignition switch and then the ignition relay and go from there.

I did try to start the car today but had a fuse problem. I'm using some in-line fuses to replace the original fusible links and as soon as I moved the ignition switch to the on position (not the start position) the front inside fusible link position blew the 30 amp fuse that was installed. I tried again with a 40 amp fuse with the same result. I know that position on the fusible link block controls the ignition switch. Should I try a higher rated fuse? Was the 40 amp one strong enough to support the ignition system? I'm reluctant to go much higher and then do damage. This car has be setting for a couple of years. The ignition switch doesn't move very smoothly so I suspect it my be causing this problem. I do have a new ignition switch on my shelf but I don't like tossing parts at a problem before I have an understanding of the cause. Any thoughts?

Following SteveJ's and Zed Head's advice. I disconnected the ignition module in the passenger foot well and removed the green and black w/ white stripe ones at my coil. Also, I took a closed look at the Fast ignition module instructions and discovered that the original ignition module needed to be disconnected. I sure missed that when I installed the system. Also I discovered that when I was testing my fusible link connections, my headlight switch was turned to the on position for the parking light setting and the wiper switch is now stuck in place and is set on the first on position. I'll need to address the wiper switch (combination switch) situation after I get this thing running. This was Zed Head's response to me asking what the "small box with six sides" was that is mounted near the coil. Should I disconnect the wiring for this trigger now that I have the Fast system installed? I haven't tried to get the car running yet but I believe I'm getting close to this point.

SteveJ...........Per your advice, sounds like I should disconnect my ignition module and test from there. I'm supprised that Fast's instructions didn't give me a heads up about this. They only mentioned bypassing all ballast resistance. Is disconnecting the TIU just as simple as unplugging it?

TIU ? What is that?

I'm always concerned when big companies take over the smaller ones. But it's just what's going on out there these days. We almost must live with it or do without!

The coil is the I91 series. The Fast tech person told me to use it. The included instructions for my Hitachi distributor had step by step instructions for removing the original stator, reluctor and other internal parts befor installing the new Fast parts. My distributor is a new (rebuilt) unit and it's part number was the correct one for this car.

Yes Fast is the "new" Crane and is now part of the Holley products line up. Good wiring instructions were included with the ignition system. This is the second Fast system that I installed on L6 engines. The first one worked fine. This one is the XR3000. It has an ingition module that I mounted futher back on the inner fender, and the optically triggered parts that replaced the original pick up parts in my Hitachi distributor . The installation was straight forward and I installed it according to the instructions. I used thier I91 coil that a Fast tech person said I should use with this system.

I have too many z cars so this 78 280 is an outside project and weather has prevented me from completing some suggestions of what I should test next. However, I'll respond to a few comments listed in this thead. My ohmmeter does autoscale. I haven't found any other things like lights, etc that are truned on and causing a drain. But I haven't hooked up my battery again since I smoked the fusible link. The fusible link connection that I had the readings on (1.84 and 1.032) was the black one that is to the alternator. The photos below are of my alternator wiring, starter wiring at the starter, the other two connecters with green wiring in holders mounted on the side of the relay box, and another unrelated photo of a device mounted beside my new coil. It's in the right top portion of the photo. It's the small six sided plastic box with two wires. What is it? I can't locate it in my FSM. My next steps for tests will be removing some fuses in the fuse block and unplugging connector C-9. Thanks for all the advice thus far.

Steve J...QUOTE: That aside, @mayolives, here is one way to test: Disconnect your battery at the positive and negative terminals. Disconnect the alternator wires. Make sure you pay attention about which wire went where. Remove all 4 fusible links. Make sure you pay attention about which link went where. Use an ohmmeter to measure resistance from the connector at the fusible link block to ground. Put the probe on the connector that goes to the white/red wire on the underside of the block. Record your readings. Do that for all 4 positions. Report your readings. Use the post by @Captain Obvious to indicate which reading was at which fusible link position. Repeat the above steps but with the alternator connected. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ I completed the above test with my ohmmeter buy I'm not sure what the test has revealed. With the alternator disconnected the only reading I had was at the outside front fusible link connection that is for the alternator. It read 1.84. The other three connections had no readings. With the alternator connected the alternator connection read 1.032. The other three again had no readings. What does this test tell me? Is this new alternator bad? Also, I checked all the fuses in the fuse block at the passenger foot well. They were all in good shape. Although I have made up inline fuse holders to temporarily replace the fusible links, I have not tried to start the car until I determine what caused the links to "smoke" when I last tried.

Quote: What are you testing for? Are you looking for short circuits, or are you trying to find out how big of a fuse you can put in the circuit before it blows? All the above. I'm going to test with my ohmmeter for shorts and also try to determime what size fuses will work. Eventuall, I will install a fuse block to replace the original fusible link set-up. I do know some about it's history and it did run good not long ago. This car was non-running when I purchased it and had so many items removed from under the hood. I'm taking it one step at a time to not create more questions until I get it running. It has great compression, fresh valve job, new injectors and ignition system so it should run really good. I'm stall puzzled about why the links failed when I first tried to start the engine but hopefully I'll find the reason soon.

I researched the topic at Hybrid Z (2018) and found a discussion that New Zed and others commented on. This is what I found: Based on wire size alone Based On member "dmoralesbello" trials AWG 12 fuse up to 20A 60 amp in the largest wires position AWG 10 fuse up to 30A 30 amp in the other 3 positions (wanted to use 25 amp but could not find) AWG 8 fuse up to 50A Others felt that 25 amp fuses should be used I 'm still undecided about fuse sizes but seams like 25 amp is a good place to start but I'm really open suggestions and thoughts from those who know more about this subject.

Perhaps my question just above was not very clear. Fusible links are shown in many, many diagrams in my FSM. Also the fuse block shows up in many diagrams. The FSM shows the fuse amp rating/sizes for the block but does not show the fusible link amp ratings. I'm using blade type fuse holders to plug into the fusible link connections under the hood in order to do some test without blowing my new replacement oem fusible links. I don't know what size fuses to use for my test. Any idea of the fusible link ratings?

I check my alternator and starter connections and they are good. Also I purchased curcuit breakers to continue my test with. They have small male ends that would need to be adapted to the wide male ends where the fusible links plug into the car. Too much of a pain in the a## to deal with cobbing together by soldering, etc. The easiest way for me to protect the circuits and not waste my oem fusible links is to just link the curcuits together with blade type fuse holders for each of the four curcuits. I'm not sure what amp fuses to use because I can't find the amp ratings for the oem fusible links in my FSM. Where are they listed?

After looking at my Body Electrical System diagrams in my FSM for ever and a day, I haven't found what fusible link protects what circuit. These are the ones on the left front fender under the hood and have white plastic covers. Look like the black one position outside/front was in the worst condition. I sure would like to find this in my FSM or have some advice.

I believe my new alternator may have been one of the new parts I received with the car because I don't have a purchase reciept in my file. I did compare it with the old one and all terminals were in the same location, etc. Hopefully my new links will arrive so that I can carefully go about tracing some wires before giving it another try.

Quote. "All 4 were smoking? They are on different systems so that is odd." It looks like the black wire was the hot one due to the discoloration on the white plastic cover. I ordered a set of new fusible links from Zcardepot. I used the original battery cable that were in good condition. I suspect that I may have wired the new alternator wrong. Thanks for the advice. To be continued.

I'm back to work on my 78 280Z. It's from an estate and many items were removed under the hood by previous owner who wanted th "clean up" some things. I do have some history of the car having helped the owner in the past. Although it ran and passed a leak down and compression test withflying colors it had a number of things that needed attention. The major things i've done so far are installing new starter, alternator, distributor with fast xr3000 ignition module with distributor internals and matching Fast coil along with new plug wires, etc., new water pump and radiator, hoses, belts, removed all the old air cond. system parts under the hood, blocked off the ERG system, etc. I just picked up where previous owner left off and really cleaned up along with some painting under the hood. Upon attempting to start the engine for the first time the fusible links under the two white plastic covers on left side produced some smoke so I stopped trying. I removed the four fusible links and they all tested good for continuity. I suspect that I should replace them because even though they tested good, some of thier insulation looked somewhat melted. But, I still need some ideas of what may have caused this. Could I have wired the alternated wrong? I can't imagine this problem being related to the new ignition system that I installed. Where else should I look?

Yes, I've been around here for many years but never needed to post a picture and can't find a thread about doing so. I need a little help.

Quote From Sed Head (above) "I've never had a spark plug get stuck or stripped a head thread. Seems like a solution with no problem. Anyway, many plugmakers and automakers recommend keeping the threads clean." https://ngksparkplugs.com/en/resources/5-things-you-should-know-about-spark-plugs Thank you. An old dog learns another new trick. I've been using anti seize, the silver stuff that always ends up where it's not wanted, on NGK spark plugs for a cazillion years. Of course I've never read what NGK had to say about not using it, but I will change my ways today!

Your distributor looks like it's in rough shape and needs attention. Good luck finding that magnet. I searched from here to Japan and only found it to be "nla". I located a good 78 280z distributor along with the GM, HEI parts. It's an easy install and it all worked well. There are rebuilt 280z distributors out there, for not a bunch of dollars, if you do some digging.

Flipping it was my first thought. But the male hi tension plug's height will not allow flipping it. You can flip it front to back but when doing so the pos & neg terminals are even closer to the bottom of the bracket because of the "cut out" area only being on the front of the bracket. You would think that Holly (Fast) could have put a little more thought into these parts and had come up with a better mounting bracket design. This aint no social crisis, just a little bump in the road that I can deal with.

SteveJ......The orientation that you suggested is just how I will mount it. But the positive and negative terminals are so close to the bottom side and also the body (fender) area. I thought about using 1/2" spacers under the corners that will put a little distance between it and the body and be sure each terminal wire is well insulated.