SteveJ

Check the weep holes on the water pump. (I can't remember whether or not the S30 water pumps have them.) I would not be surprised if your water pump was giving up the ghost.

George, the ground for the headlights goes from the switch for the turn signal over to the combo switch for the headlights and back into the wiring harness from that connector.

Dave told me it was a rebuilt alternator. Overheating in the bearings could break down the insulation in the windings, leading to grounding of the windings. In power generation, monitoring bearing and winding temperatures is a critical function.

If you had a properly sized fusible link, you probably had little other damage. Check the wire connectors for the fusible link. Check the connectors for the voltage regulator and alternator. Check the connectors for the white/red wire at the alternator and fusebox. Also check the white and white/red at the ammeter. Those are the most likely areas for other damage. If you replace the fusible link and alternator and the car still won't start, that would indicate you blew the ammeter.

Did you connect the positive for your fog lights to the battery? If so, my first guess would be catastrophic failure of your alternator or regulator. Look for my PM.

You are right. The start and ignition circuits in the 240Z never power a common circuit at 12VDC. The fix I proposed to you is basically what I did to my 73 when I did the ZX distributor swap.

Jim, Call me, per my PM. I think I might have a solution. Edit: On second thought, try this: 1. Move the black/white wire at the resistor over to the same terminal as the green/white wire. (See attached picture. The B/W wire is marked by the arrow.) 2. Put the positive lead of the Ignitor (red wire) on the positive of the coil. (Make sure you have a 12VDC coil, or you may burn out the coil since you bypassed the resistor.)

But there is an article available. http://backissues.com/issue/Car-and-Driver-July-1978 Plus there is the book I linked in my first response... You just won't find it for free, that's all.

Cesar, the 280Z panels are different from the 240Z panels. It would be an effort to make them work.

Cool. It's great to hear that it got to your house safely after the last fiasco.

I actually saw a Turbo Tom setup a few months back on CL. The seller wanted $3000 for a car that wasn't currently running. Here's some more trivia. Back in 1984, one of the car mags did a comparison test between an 84 300ZX turbo and a 74 260Z with a turbo added to it. IIRC, they liked the 10 year old car a lot.

To my knowledge, there are no kits from any major vendor for Z car parts to add a turbocharger to a stock engine in an S30 car. The reason why you saw many references to hybridz.org is that there is plenty of information on turbocharging there. Just be sure to read through the site before asking questions. They don't take kindly to spoonfeeding there. With a carburetted car, you have to make a decision with regards to turbocharging: blow through, draw through, or ditch carburettors and go with fuel injection. There is a lot more you have to consider about the fuel system that I'm not going to type up, either. In other words, you have plenty of research to do before attempting this. Consider doing some old fashioned research. Buy some books on turbocharging.

I had no problems with the Black Dragon covers. I did replace the wire bracing that goes inside the covers instead of reusing the old wire bracing. Heavy duty metal coat hangers work great for that.

Put the key in the run position. Put the positive lead of your meter on the wire that goes to the sending unit (with the unit unplugged). Put the negative lead on a chasis ground or negative battery terminal. You should see some voltage. It probably won't be 12 VDC, but I would not be surprised if it's around 9 volts.

I don't think any of us would like to hear that you burned your car up because you decided you didn't need a fusible link.

Bryan does have a point. Unless you have limited mobility in your hands, it's not that difficult. I did it myself over the winter, and I was really happy with the results. You can get new foam from Banzai Motorworks or Classic Datsun. I opted for the Black Dragon Auto seat covers with the velour inserts. Those are nice for the summer days.

Did you want a simple answer, or did you want a good answer? You didn't give us much to go on, yet the second response to your post gave you a link to the wiring diagram. You said you gutted the engine bay. To many of us, that means you could have removed critical components, such as fusible links. Without the fusible links, you wouldn't have 12VDC to much of anywhere in the car. Don't come in with a chip on your shoulder. We want to give you good answers that will prevent you from having more problems down the line.

Why don't you describe more about what problems your car is having electrically? I suspect you're taking the wrong approach.

He could try Banzai Motorworks, but be forewarned, Mike McGinnis doesn't do anything on the cheap.

Nice story, Alex.

Thanks doing the research, Pete.

My guess is that the wires are joined elsewhere. Resistors tend to fail open and not closed. If you have about 12VDC at the coil, you're fine.

You could just move the B/W wire to the other side of the ballast resistor, so they land on the same terminal.

Did you leave the ballast resistor in place or did you jumper it out? With the ZX distributor, all the ballast resistor does is reduce your spark voltage.