SteveJ

For the battery, get a trickle charger to maintain its health in the winter.

Yeah, there's nothing like a strut coming apart. One time I had the wrong size spring compressor on a strut. As I compressed the spring to put the strut back together, the spring sprung. I could have been severely injured, but fortunately it hit me in the head. Needless to say, when I resumed work on that strut, I carefully inspected the spring compressor to ensure it was the right size.

As E wrote, you only need the electrical portion. If you REALLY want to replace the whole thing, the link I gave has about the best price I found. Of course, I just now looked on Amazon. I bought this for my 260Z last year, and the priced has dropped to $61 and is eligible for free shipping.

$70 for keys and all from eBay. You can get the electrical part of the switch from MSA and others in the $35 to $40 range.

Contact Dave, aka Zs-ondabrain. If the switch can be rebuilt, he can probably do it. Oh, and don't forget to search eBay.

Why are you looking to put on carburetors? Is there something really wrong with the fuel injection?

So does that mean you've made some progress, or are you just waiting until I can make it down your way?

Okay, that's bringing back memories. I think I used an impact wrench the last time I did struts.

Some states will allow you to run old plates that match the year of your car's production. Those plates have the year stamped on the plate. Alabama used to change the color of the plates each year, too.

It has been a few years since I've pulled the struts off of any car, but IIRC, I usually break the nut loose before compressing the spring.

Dan, There is a fusible link. It comes off of the starter. That being said, follow Dave's advice carefully.

Mike, if you get rid of your flat tops, let me know. I might take them off of your hands.

I'm already planning my vacation...

Despite the widespread hatred for the flat-tops, I have to say that they haven't given me any problems in the three years I've had my 260Z.

Basically in your car, the headlight switch completes the ground for the headlights. As Sarah said, that causes a lot of stress on the switch contacts. Please note that there is not a relay in the stock configuration. Your test results indicate that the switch in your car isn't working. While WD-40 or contact cleaner might remove some of the build up on the contact, it may require disassembly and light sanding with emory paper to remove enough debris to ensure good contacts on the switch.

Note: the 260Z/280Z taillights have the reverse lights separate from the rest of the lights. If you want to put in the 240Z taillights, there is also some fabrication. Remember to inspect carefully under the car for signs of rust. If you go to Zhome.com, you can find good advice on inspecting a car. The car you linked does look nice in the pictures, though.

The results look good to me so far. Boy, that gives me some ideas for some other projects.

To clarify - You had an internally regulated alternator, but you did not removed and jumper out the external regulator. That can cause overvoltage conditions, and it sounds like it may have burned out your MSD box. Hence, E's statement was quite correct. You (or a previous owner) messed up the electrical system. By the way, I have done that myself in the past, but I fixed it after only blowing out a headlight. However, unless the MSD also gets an unswitched 12VDC+ source, your solution doesn't address the previous problem of the coil having voltage with the ignition off. Also, with the internally regulated alternator and electronic ignition, be on the lookout for feedback through the charging system keeping your car running after you shut off the key. The solution is to put a diode in the alternator circuit. If you search through Zhome.com, you can find the details.

In the US, the 73 240Z gained weight from the regulations that required heavier bumpers, but I'm not sure where you got your weight range from. Here is data collected from various US magazines over the years. In my humble opinion, I wouldn't worry about horsepower ratings for the L24. They are about 40 years old now. Also, most of the ratings you will find are SAE gross horsepower. With that method, they did not have any accessories attached (water pump, alternator, smog pump, etc.). Eventually, the ratings came out to SAE net horsepower. That method has accessories attached. (Text added...) In addition, emission requirements were reducing horsepower. Emission requirements drove Nissan to increase the engine displacement, creating the 260Z, and add fuel injection and additional displacement for the 280Z all to get power back. (End of added text) A rolling dyno gives you rear wheel horsepower which accounts for drivetrain losses. Anyway, after about 40 years of wear, unknown maintenance habits, unknown modifications, etc., it is difficult to know how much horsepower an engine produces without the use of a dyno and a trained operator.

For incandescent bulbs, light output will drop proportionally to voltage. According to this reference, dropping the voltage by 5% drops light output by 20%. That means you're getting 80% of the light at 13.3 volts that you would at 14 volts. It's not unusual to have a 2 to 3 volt drop at the headlights. That's a drop of 14 to 21% in voltage. (Attached is a chart I pulled from this study.) If you're going to drive at night in a 40 year old car, add relays to the headlight circuit! For LEDs, light output is also proportional to voltage up to a point, so a parking light relay harness can improve light output. (For the record, I have no idea at what point a voltage increase does not increase light output.)

Here are his other threads: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40533 http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40219

I moved away from that area 11 years ago, so I don't know anything about the car. However, the seller does not seem keen on selling out of the country.

There isn't much of a need to do the parking light relay harness AND LEDs for exterior lights. The LEDs drop the current load so much that there is not much of a load on the circuit. Also, once either LEDs or parking light relays are installed, there isn't much need to change out the fusebox unless the fusebox is already damaged. Most of the fuseboxes that melt down do so on the parking light circuit.

Amazing! He saw a Datsun 240Z in a dealer lot over a year before it came to America. By the way, I told Nissan that I didn't like the styling of the concept they developed in 1999, and sure enough, they ditched that design.

Upgrade the headlights with relays. MSA sells a set designed by Dave, aka Zs-ondabrain.