SteveJ

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.

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.