SteveJ

And.... After doing car repairs, the first rule of troubleshooting a new problem is to inspect the stuff you f***** with. Pay attention to the bend radius.

Fortunately, it is. I'm looking around the house right now, trying to find any energy I can use to go out and work on the car. After I get the car up in the air some, I can maybe get a clue. The good thing is that I stocked up on fuel filters a few years back, just for such an occasion.

He hasn't contacted me in a while, so I don't know if he made that trip. I'll check at the carburetors, but it tends to pull nicely in the lower gears.

Background: I removed the rear bumper from my early 260Z. In order to do this, I had to drop the tank. The larger vent hoses had been replaced some time in the past with regular fuel hoses. Before putting the tank back into place, my friends and I replaced the 5/16 inch lines and fuel filter, the 3/8 inch vent hose and the 1/4 inch vent hose. Apparently I cut the 1/4 inch line a little short, but we got it to the expansion tank. I put the fuel back into the tank and filled it later in the evening. Today I was driving the car around 60 MPH when I noticed a change in the exhaust note going uphill. This was accompanied by a lack of response when I pressed on the gas pedal and some decrease in speed. I stopped the car for a few minutes and tried to get back onto the road. I drove a couple of miles on a surface road. At first the car pulled fine uphill, but it did start losing power later. The engine recovered, and I tried to continue my trip. The ramp was downhill, and the car accelerated nicely to about 74. That was followed by an uphill stretch. The car was losing power and would not respond to throttle inputs. I got off at the next exit, and when I pushed in the clutch, the car died. It restarted immediately, but hesitated a lot. I drove the car around for the next hour to detect trends. It would do okay on the surface roads, even going uphill around 65 or so, but it would lose power going uphill on the freeway with a characteristic lean sputtering sound in the exhaust. I'm going to put the car on the lift and look for kinked fuel and vent lines. Are there any other suggestions from the peanut gallery? Thanks!

I believe there is some truth in what you type. A couple of weeks ago I was getting gas for my 260Z. When I went in to pay, the young man who was the cashier asked me what kind of car it was. I told him it was a Datsun 260Z, and he replied that he thought it was a Ford Pinto.

Well, they are only worth that amount if someone will pay it. Otherwise, they aren't worth a plug nickel.

I just remembered someone else I haven't seen in a while, @IdahoKidd. His profile said his last visit was about a year ago.

First - Diagnose the problems. Do not just throw money at parts at them. Second - With those symptoms, do not try to start the car again. Don't risk hydrolocking the engine (That is when you have water in the cylinders. Water won't compress, so you tend to bend things at that point.) Water in the oil could be a blown head gasket, a cracked head, a cracked block, or even corrosion between the oil and water jackets. You'll need to pull the head and check.

The wiring for the fuel pump is in place. I know Carl Beck has commented on it in the past. There just wasn't a fuel pump in the North American cars, much like we didn't get 5 speeds or AC.

I would tend to agree with Chris' answer. All of the FSM wiring diagrams I have show the BW wire branching off before the fusebox, going through an inline fuse and coming out of the fuse as a green wire. The green wire goes to the fuel pump.

I said I have a collection of springs, and I found one that would keep the door from locking when it's not supposed to lock.

Thank you. There have been many times when I've read where people only did visual inspections of fuses. I have seen a fuse (parking light circuit) that only had a hairline break. You couldn't tell with the naked eye. Now that you have determined that you have voltage at the fuse, go to the hazard light switch. Pop off the connector between the hazard light switch and the dash. Contort yourself in ways that would make a yoga instructor jealous, and look for voltage to ground on both of the green wires on the dash side of the harness. You'll find the green wires on a 6 pin connector, just as I illustrated on the circuit diagram. If you don't find voltage on either side, it's a good chance someone has hacked up the wiring "trying to improve things."

The hazards can work fine, but that doesn't eliminate #3. Did you check the fuses with a meter? Visual inspections don't work. The best way is to pull the fuse and check with an ohmmeter. I linked guides to go by. They have detailed instructions. One includes a wiring diagram of the full system you are diagnosing. Read them and attempt follow them. If you have questions about the guides, ask.

My fix was not a drop-in replacement. I dug through my collection of springs to find one that could work. It doesn't take too much tension to keep the car from locking automatically when the doors close. The change in the door lock was in 77. The 75 and 76 door locks operate like the early Zs.

Probably causes of no voltage at the green wire are 1. Bad fuse (3rd down on the left side) 2. Disconnected hazard switch 3. Dirty contacts/bad hazard switch Here's a guide on the early hazard switch. Ironically, I have not done one on the 73 despite the fact that I have an extra lying about somewhere in the garage.

I believe the part is NLA. ZCarSource has them for $230, so used isn't a viable option for you. The small tension spring that keeps the door from locking itself does break. It's not too difficult to replace it. The time consuming part is in taking the door apart to get to the door lock.

Yes, the spring can be replaced. I have done it in my 260Z. Your neighbor found all of the problems I was describing. The door lock needed to be cleaned & lubed, and a new spring needs to go in to prevent the "auto-locking". I have a door lock on lying on the garage floor. I'm working late, but I might be able to remember to take a photo of it.

If you carefully read the write up at the link I posted, it gives diagnostics on tracing out the circuit. There are also articles on the blog on the turn signal switch and hazard light switch.

Are you talking about re-wiring your car to move those relays elsewhere?

Those are relays, not resistors, and they aren't that bulky compared to standard automotive relays.

If you are worried about a single wire on the turn signal switch side, the green wire on the switch goes to a white wire. The individual wires on the combo switch side that I can recall off the top of my head: White/red - incoming headlights Red - goes to fuse box for headlights Black - Ground (10 or 12 AWG) The wiper wires, parking light wires, and horn wires should be in a 9 pin connector IIRC. The wires for the key buzzer are probably one green and one black (14 or 16 AWG). As Pete said, use the wiring diagram to match things up.

Read over this, do some diagnostics, and tell us what you find. https://fiddlingwithzcars.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/hazard-switch-brake-light-turn-signal-circuit-analysis/

By the way, unless something changed, Mike only accepts checks as payment. Don't let that stop you, though. I've never had a problem ordering anything from him.

I believe Randy Jaffe is planning on shipping his BRE tribute car out there.

Click on the thread above.