SteveJ

Document the process carefully. Take lots of photos. I'm curious, too. And let the people you work with at Nostalgic know that people are watching and interested in Datsun solutions.

https://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun/Z-1969-1978/electrical/air-conditioner Note there are 3 illustrations at that link. Also cross-check against the FSM. Driers are NLA. You will need to source a condenser, and it is likely to be a generic one, so you'll have to adapt the fittings. The expansion valve is likely to be problematic as we noted earlier in the thread. Unless you can source a relatively intact parts car that has AC, you'll pay a pretty good amount of money for 40+ year old parts. I thought about going down that path before. I have a 260Z evaporator and control panel that a friend stripped out of a parts car. It has been sitting in my garage for several years now. There is a better chance that I'll strip off the control panel and do something like work with Nostalgic AC to fabricate the system. It will be newer parts. The AC will probably work with the defrost, and I'll have a new heater core. To me that's a win-win-win situation.

Make one more call. First, take a careful look at @qz16's article on the Vintage Air system. I linked it earlier in this thread. To me the evaporator he used looks almost exactly like the ID-260SC. Ask the person at Nostalgic AC if the dimensions are different. I'm just thinking that it might be easier to utilize what qz16 learned.

I went to here: https://nostalgicac.com/evaporator-units/indash-evaporators/id-260sc-in-dash-ac-heat-and-defrost-unit-with-floor-vent.html Under Control Options: Used Factory Controls (Must send Controls to our Facility)

One offering I noticed on the Nostalgic AC site is that they offer a service to convert your control panel to operate the AC controls of their product. That has me curious. For my 260Z, I have a spare vent control mounted to a stock evaporator. It would be nice to have the controls integrated.

The thought for threading the bolt into the housing and the strut would be to hold it in place. I don't remember how much the struts weighed, but it was not insubstantial. I bought the bumper brackets from Datsun Spirit, and those brackets allowed me to mount the 240Z bumper at the correct height.

Drill a hole at least 6mm while the shock is compressed , tap it, and run an M6 bolt into it. Just a suggestion. I removed those boat anchors when I swapped over to a 240Z rear bumper and used some mounts designed to affix 240Z bumpers to 280Zs.

Frankly I like the units from Nostalgic AC and Vintage Air that combine the evaporator, heater core and defrost. S30 heater cores are NLA. @Captain Obviouswent through an exercise adapting a Ford heater core for his car. I do not know if the defrost setting on the aftermarket kits engages the AC compressor, but that would be another bonus if it does. That way you use dehumidified air for defrosting/defogging.

Not the relay for the second set of points. That is near the front of the car. It's the relay for the inhibitor switch. The green wires go to the seat belt buzzer. One black/yellow wire is from the inhibitor switch. The other two black/yellow wires complete the circuit to power the starter solenoid. When the automatic transmission is in Park or Neutral, the contacts should be closed on the inhibitor switch. When the key is in ON or START, this energizes the relay called K-18. The contacts close on the starter solenoid circuit so that the car will start in the ON position.

And the part number matches the part I was referencing.

The risk with that is winding up with a bad expansion valve. I don't know if anybody has found another expansion valve that will work with the evaporator and fit in the form factor.

I think most people look to Vintage Air for aftermarket systems now. Nostalgic AC offers a compressor and mounting bracket they claim works on the Z. They offer similar parts to Vintage Air, but I don't know much about their quality/support. In the knowledge base there is a nice write-up for AC controls into a 73. The control panel is different, but it should give you some idea of what is entailed.

From the 73 FSM...since the prior year FSMs don't document this circuit worth a darn.

Jim, ask your friend to clean the wires and identify the colors of the wires/stripes. The FSM shows that there is something branching off the wiring going to the wiper motor, but it fails to say what that branch is going to. Also, see if he can take a closer photo of the relay. I can't quite make out the part number. And after searching the interwebs and digging through the wiring diagrams, I found the answer...on this website: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/36059-372-240z-automatic-transmission-what-part-hooks-to-this-connector/

Actually the location is shown in Figure BE-1. I don't think it's the thermotine relay. The FSM says that is located on the driver side fender well.

@Mike - This user, Grudge, may need to get the ban hammer. No posts and apparently came on this site to scam people. https://www.classiczcars.com/profile/34926-grudge/ Care to defend yourself, @grudge?

The black fusible link carries the current from the alternator to the battery. If you haven't done so already, download the EL chapter of the FSM: http://xenonzcar.com/s130/FSM/1982/EL.php Also check the resistance from the battery negative post to the ground post on the alternator. Bad grounding can cause lots of problems.

PM sent

What do you need done?

How old is the battery? Can you post photos of the fusible links?

Start by swapping out the incandescent bulbs for LEDs. Here is some trivia I documented on this site, and no one seemed to notice. The bulb spec in the FSM calls out bulbs that appear to be NLA. Pretty much all of the BA-15 bulbs these days are 1156 and 1157. They are a slightly higher wattage (and more current draw) than the 1034, 1073, and 67 bulbs called out in the 74-78 FSMs. The added current draw is not enough to blow the fuse, but it is enough to warm up all of the areas where some corrosion might have built up over 40+ years. Adding to that, IMHO, that circuit does not have the proper gauge wire. It's protected by a 20A fuse! In the control circuitry that my company manufactures, we never go above 10A fuses for 14AWG wire. After you swap out for LEDs, you might need electronic flashers. I have been using this type for many years: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F1M9579 Also change out the parking light fuse from 20A to 10A. The current draw with LEDs is a small fraction of where it was before. The 10A fuse will protect the wiring better. (This is experience talking here.) Here's the link to my post on current draw for the parking lights:

Actually, I think leaving the coil wire off caused a flood condition. Because I kept smelling the gas, I thought I still had fuel. I'm not sure whether or not I had a bad ignition module, but I did find the erratic spark while troubleshooting. The stator in the replacement distributor was in better shape than the one I had in the car. After seeing the strong spark with the replacement distributor, I started wondering if I had a fuel problem. That is when I found out about the "flood code" generated from the TPS signal. I also wanted to verify injector function, but I didn't have a noid light handy. I should have that by Wednesday. I cleared the "flood code" by unplugging the TPS with the key in ON. I also have a new battery on order for the Windows 7 notebook computer so I can have WinALDL software handy for the next round of troubleshooting. It's not fun to run diagnostics when you don't have the right tools on hand.

It works well as long as I don't do something stupid like leave the coil wire off the distributor. The up-side is that I found some good diagnostic info on the GM TBI system to help me if I have problems in the future.

In the drawings of the system I downloaded, I found two injector signals. Having said that, there are photos on the Patton Machine website showing triple TBI setups.

The throttle bodies are SU carburetors. The domes and float bowls have been removed, and the nozzle is plugged. The injectors sit in adapter plates that replaced the domes. The kit is from Patton Machine (http://www.pattonmachine.com/) using a GM ECU from Affordable Fuel Injection (https://affordable-fuel-injection.com/). I used -6AN fittings and hose in the engine bay and selected a Walbro fuel pump because it fit better on the fuel pump mounting bracket on the 260Z. I had to run a tap into the throttle linkage for the shaft that operates the TPS. The headers already had an O2 bung hole courtesy of the gentleman I purchased them from. I was able to tuck the ECU on the firewall in the passenger footwell on the firewall. I utilized many factory connections in the wiring, so it ended up being fairly clean. The GM TBI also runs at low pressure (<15PSI), so you don't have to swap everything over to high pressure hoses. Another benefit is that there are TONS of GM TBI parts available along with plenty of information online. I believe you could also work with Rick Patton to integrate a MegaSquirt ECU into the system to give better flexibility in tuning. I totaled up the cost of swapping in 280Z FI parts and MS. It was more than this kit. This kit is also different from what you'll typically see in Z cars. Only a handful of people have done this kit. I am tempted to do this on the 240Z when I make it a priority to get it running again.