SteveJ

Can you clarify something here? First, was the coil getting hot even when the ignition was off? The coil should only be energized when the ignition is on. Of course, the battery dying and the coil getting hot are related. You have a big time short. I don't know enough about MSDs to say one way or the other that it could be the cause.

Here's a quick update... I finally got around to putting in the front turn signal lights. When I was putting in the driver side bulb, I didn't push and twist enough for the bayonet to lock in. The end result was that the bulb fell out of the socket as I was lining up the socket to go back in. Getting the bulb back out of the housing wasn't fun, either. Instead of taking off the housing (in of itself being a monumental task due to the rust on the bolt), I tried fishing it out by grabbing it with a parts grabber. I might as well have been trying to grab a greased pig. I eventually put tape on my finger so the bulb would stick to it, and when the bulb was finally within reach, I grabbed it with a pair of long nosed pliers. Upon getting the bulb properly seated in the socket, I re-installed the socket. I put the car in run and tried the left turn signal. As expected, it did not blink. Having learned from my mini-ordeal with the driver side, I installed the passenger side turn signal light with no drama. The next challenge was to find the electronic flasher units. Having searched many liking hiding places, I asked my wife to join the hunt due to the fact that she has a finding gene that I have never managed to locate within myself. After describing the packaging and when the flashers arrived, we set about to track them down. Eventually, my wife mentioned that she had put some parts in the passenger seat. Of course, those parts were the flashers. I installed one flasher and tested the blinkers and hazards. They did not blink. I installed the second unit, and the lights flashed at a rate faster than I had ever seen on either of my Z cars. I consider this a good thing and recommend that people experiment with electronic flashers even if they have the standard incandescent bulbs. I did not take pictures, yet. It was just too cold today for me to go outside and play with a camera. Maybe I'll take some next weekend or during my Christmas time off. However, subjectively, I'm VERY pleased with the results.

First, what kinds of issues are you having? Download a copy of the factory service manual at the XenonS30 link in my signature. There is a LOT of good troubleshooting information in there. If we can't help you figure it out, you could try contacting the Oklahoma Z Car Club or Albuquerque Z Car Club. No, they aren't that close, but you're almost out in the middle of nowhere. And that's coming from someone who used to live in Wichita Falls.

Another way that works well is to have a friend add fluid while using a vacuum pump at the slave cylinder. I used a large mason jar as a reservoir for the vacuum pump. It worked great for me.

Start reading at Zhome.com. You can learn a lot there, too. And to answer your question, stock 280Zs were all fuel injected. Just remember that any 30+ year old fuel system is going to have some issues, especially if it wasn't maintained very well.

If you replace all of the 1157 style bulbs (dual filament), you'll need electronic flashers for the turn signals and hazard light circuits.

I did a search for LED headlights in Google Shopping. Most of the offerings weren't for actual LEDs. There were a lot of products that had an LED halo around an H4 light. The few times that I saw a completely LED headlight was for a product from Trucklite, and it was about $300 for pretty much anywhere. I'm just not ready to fork out that much, especially for the gains that can be had with H4 lights and relays at less than half that cost. As for relays on LED headlights, I think it depends in part on the health of the wiring and combo switch in the headlight circuit. Relays will always only draw in the milliamp range and should be good down to 8VDC or so. If you recall from my write up 10 years ago on relays in the headlight circuit, I saw 9 VDC in my 73 at the headlight plug before installing relays. Even LED headlights would draw more current than relays. Relays would move the true power burden over to new wiring. You would get better voltage and probably better light output. While I haven't ever tried hooking up LEDs to a power supply to quantify response, but I do know there is some sort of proportionality of light output to voltage levels.

I have a set of relays for the headlights. They are from Blackdragon. However, I'm waiting on replacement sockets so I can use standard SPDT relays instead of the hard-to-find SPST relays the kit comes with. After I get the relays operational I MIGHT then consider headlight upgrades. The big driver for the LED parking lights was the fact that when I changed out the combo switch on my car, I saw significant damage to the connector due to the parking light circuit wiring overheating. After spending the time to replace the harness side connector, I decided to reduce the current load on the circuit to prevent future melt-downs. Considering how many 240Zs have melted the fusebox for the same circuit, I'm definitely planning this for my 73. It's cheaper than an MSA replacement fusebox.

Since your current switch is broken, try contacting some place like Zbarn and see if Roger has a combo switch he can pull from a car with your build date or close to it. You may still need Dave to service it, though. I noticed you're profile says you are in NAPA. Try Autogator in Roseville. I'm not sure if they still have many old Zs. I used to get parts from them 15 years ago when I was at Travis AFB.

The 9 connector plug is for 73 and later. As Chris suggested, it would be better to contact Dave Irwin (Zs-ondabrain) to see about a refurbishment of your current combo switch. You could do it yourself, but Dave has been doing for a while, and if the switch can be rebuilt, he can do it.

My bad. I didn't read closely until I got toward the bottom of the thread. The only reasons to replace the handles are for cosmetic purposes or for the handle breaking toward the outside.

Putting the door handles from Blackdragon shows me a price of $39.90 for both with $10.75 S&H. Higher prices that Jeff referenced, it would be pretty close to what it would be to order from Singapore. The different prices for BDA are even more surprising when you consider that they are for the exact same part number. Something strange is happening with their web page. I'd say to order the door handles from BDA.

I went with the wide beam pattern. From a subjective standpoint, they seemed to be at least as bright as the incandescent bulbs. Andrew - Did you look at the Superbright LEDs website? They have a good description of their lighting patterns. I'll try to remember to take a picture of the tail lights, and I'll put a couple of the incandescent bulbs in to see if I can demonstrate a difference. To me, it's difficult to capture a decent picture of automotive lighting, especially with a digital camera. I'm not too worried about the LED fade. My car is garaged, and about the only time I drive it with the lights on is when I'm going to a club meeting. Even then, I frequently drive my daily driver to the meetings. Unless the previous owner put in electronic flashers, the car has the thermal ones. I have electronic flashers in the package, waiting to go in. However, with only the front lights to go, the blinkers still work with the old flasher. I will update again after I replace the front bulbs. FYI - Notice the current drop that I mentioned in my first post for the parking lights. The reason why thermal flashers have trouble with LEDs is because there isn't enough current to heat up the metal strip in the flasher in a timely manner. See How Stuff Works for a demo of a thermal flasher unit. The power consumed by the resistor is proportional to the square of the current flowing through it. A turn signal operates 3 bulbs: front, back, and interior indicator. Using power ratings of 23W for the exterior and 3.4W interior, the incandescent bulbs generate 3.5A per side (at 14V). The LED current draw for the bulbs I'm using (per Superbright LEDs) is 60mA. Just replacing one exterior bulb doesn't increase the resistance in the lights to prevent the resistor in the flasher from heating up. However, replacing both bulbs means that the lowest resistance leg of the blinker circuit would be the indicator light. I won't be surprised if the thermal flasher stops working at that point. Maybe I'll get real geeky and do all of the calculations.

I have purchased from the seller in this auction. Delivery isn't fast, coming from Singapore, but if Black Dragon is higher, this is the way to go, IMHO.

I took the plunge and purchased LEDs to replace the exterior lights, except for the plate lights. So far I replaced all but the lights under the bumper. I'll probably get to those this weekend. I did check the current flow with the LEDs, and it is now 2.6A. I didn't measure the current before the switch, but I estimated it to be approximately 7.9A. (For the record, I was expecting about 2.9A at this point of changing out the lights.) I purchased all of the bulbs from Superbright LEDs. Here is what I selected for my 260Z Front side markers - 67-A9 Rear side markers - 67-R9 Rear stop/tail 1157-R12 Rear turn 1156-R12 Rear tail 67-R9 Front turn 1157-A12 Reverse lights 67-W9 License plate 67-W9 Of course, you need to make sure the electrical connections in your car are in good shape. Also, check the sockets of the side markers. They can and WILL get rusty. I have some replacements sitting in my garage. They will go on my car VERY soon.

Yeah, you sure aren't the first to do that. I saw that in a car that was owned by someone who used to come around here. I made a shunt to bypass the ammeter and run the car until he could get another one. I don't think he did that, though. As an alternative, you could replace the ammeter with a voltmeter. That would take makeing a permanent shut in the ammeter wiring and running wires to the voltmeter. You could just get the positive side from an unswitched source in the fusebox and run the negative to ground. If you choose to keep the ammeter, contact Roger at ZBarn. I'm sure he could dig up a good one for you. By the way, did you have the battery connected when you were messing around behind the dash?

You remove the originals. It might be a good idea to purchase the foam & webbing for the seats depending upon their condition.

Scott, if Dave Irwin will build you a relay harness for your 280Z, I would go that way.

You might want to email Mike. I'm sure he has used these on some of his restoration work.

If you have any questions or want to bounce ideas off of me, let me know. I use a lot of control relays in the designs I do at work, so I've built up a pretty good knowledge of them.

That means a 6 mm body.

1. The wire colors are listed on the FSM and in the diagram that Zed Head linked to. For the fuel pump and relay, I just found the fuel pump on the diagram (It's on the left of the diagram about 2/3rds of the way down.) and traced the positive wire back through the diagram. (Black is almost always ground unless it is a black wire with a colored stripe.) 2. Asking about a bunch of different wire colors/sizes isn't probably going to get you far. We don't have them memorized except for the odd color here and there. There are just too many wires to know them all. Also, we don't know if a previous owner hacked into the wire harness. If that is the case, we won't know what color wires were used. If you look at/print out the BE section of the FSM, you'll have pictures to match up to the components in your electrical system. That is one way to figure out what you have.

Sure it's okay, but if you have a typical S30, the issue isn't so much what type headlights you're using but how much voltage you're getting to your lights. You may want to consider installing relays into your headlight circuit. You may see people posting about the relay kit that Dave, aka Zs-ondabrain, sells through Motorsport Auto. IIRC, it wasn't designed to fit into a 280Z. Blackdragon also sells a generic kit. I purchased one for my 260z, but I'm not installing it until after I replace the relays with standard automotive relays and weatherproof the connections. Converting to relays will increase the voltage at the headlights and greatly improve the light output.

Has anybody run across good reproductions for the 260Z/280Z crowd?

That's what I was thinking, Sarah. However, that is a worst case scenario. I mentioned it to Eddie Radatz, and he said it could also just be a loud altenator or a water pump going out.