SteveJ

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.

Your circuit drawing is correct. Let's go into that a little more. Attached is a simplified drawing of the stock circuit. The White/Red wire is the 12VDC+ source from the battery. In the Start position, it connects to the Green/White wire on terminal 5 and goes through the tachometer to the coil. In the Run position, it connects to the Black/White wire on terminal 2 which goes to the ballast resistor and over to the Green/White wire. Technically, you could jumper terminals 2 and 5 together and that would bypass the ballast resistor. The bottom line is that with the ballast resistor bypassed, the B/W and G/W wires are electrically the same. To test your wiring, look for continuity between the G/W wire at your ignition switch and the Green/White wire at the tach. Look for continuity between the B/W at your ignition switch and the G/W at the ignition switch. With the tach unplugged, look to make sure you DON'T have continuity between the B/W at the switch and the B/W going to the tach. If you do have continuity there, you managed to bypass your tach. The car will run, but the tach won't get a signal.

Keep going, Jamie. When do you think you'll be able to put it back on the road?

I didn't realize that they didn't make it easy to follow. Here are the links to all of the parts of the story: http://hooniverse.com/2012/07/11/time-to-introduce-the-datsun-drive/ http://hooniverse.com/2012/07/17/datsun-drive-meet-the-machine/ http://hooniverse.com/2012/07/25/datsun-drive-the-route/ http://hooniverse.com/2012/07/27/datsun-drive-prepping-for-the-journey/ http://hooniverse.com/2012/07/30/datsun-drive-day-1-enter-the-dragon-furnace/ http://hooniverse.com/2012/07/31/datsun-drive-day-2-the-rain-is-a-welcome/ http://hooniverse.com/2012/08/01/datsun-drive-day-3-random-cadillacs-a-random-car-museum-and-random-technical-issues-wvideo/ http://hooniverse.com/2012/08/02/datsun-drive-day-4-fuel-is-pumping-enginesburning-hard-loose-and-clean/ http://hooniverse.com/2012/08/03/datsun-drive-day-5-the-easy-day/ http://hooniverse.com/2012/08/06/datsun-drive-day-6-this-is-the-end-beautiful-friend-this-is-the-end/

A trip across the country in a 240Z. http://hooniverse.com/2012/07/17/datsun-drive-meet-the-machine/

It's even better since I took care of the vapor locking issue. When are you going to have your car out there, Jamie?

Actually, there is usually a pretty good contingent of new Zs, Gs & Skylines at Caffeine & Octane, and many of the owners do have an appreciation for the older generations. At past events they were just fine with me parking in their group.

I don't put too much into the cosmetics of my cars. I try to keep up mechanically and electrically, and that's pretty much it. My 73 once received a 3rd place trophy at a show. Yeah, there were only 4 S30s present. You should have seen the rolling collection of rust that was the 4th car. Anyway, I was at Caffeine & Octane yesterday. It's incredible how many great cars show up month after month. I was hanging out with some people from this board & some Georgia Z Club members through the show. Most everybody had left, and I was getting ready to leave when some people came by to admire my car. They even wanted to get their pictures taken sitting in it. It's nice to see the appreciation for the cars, so I let them. I've never seen so much interest in my old beaters. Maybe when I'm not working all of the time, I might even put some effort into making the old Z cars look good again. By the way, for you Atlanta area people, try to come out for Caffeine & Octane. You'll be glad you did.

Are you talking about the lights on the gauges or the gauges themselves? If it's the lights, they are on the same circuit as the running lights. Look for damage to the green wire with yellow stripe in your steering column. If it's the gauges themselves, check your fusible links.

Dang, Phil, I wish I had known you were on the market. We've been hiring.

Julio, what kind of engineering? Are you willing to relocate? Send me a PM.

What if the PCV is stuck shut? Couldn't that raise the pressure from the buildup of combustion gasses?

Yes, the damage to the head gasket could be worse between an oil passage & a water passage.

That, sir, is milky. IMHO, stop running it and get the head off. The oil doesn't lubricate well when mixed with coolant.

Randy, Here's a link with the meeting details: http://georgiazclub.com/events/details/92.html. Eddie Radatz is over in Kennessaw. There are others on this board who could vouch for him, but I doubt they'll post anything since they are a bunch of sissy lurkers.

Randy, If you can make it to the Georgia Z Club meeting this Thursday, I will introduce you to someone who can work on your car. He's at almost every meeting. Meeting details are on the club's website.

Have you seen a link where someone did the swap with a 280Z? I've only seen it with 240Zs. The housing may be different. If you go for it and need help, let me know. I'm not that far away from you.

According to the parts catalog, yes, they are the same.

Jeff has a good point. You can see what they look like here http://www.zzxdatsun.com/catRequests.php.

Upon further review, it kind of looks like a diode on the right side of the picture in series with the resistor.