luseboy

Thats what I had thought but wasn't sure. Thanks very much for the reply. I was reading on pertronix's website and they show that you should use the flamethrower coil with the pertronix if using an msd box, but based off what you're saying, it really shouldn't matter which coil I use as long as it can handle the msd box, right? So the blaster SS coil should work fine, as long as I'm not missing something vital here? I know most people use the blaster 2 coil but I like the look of the blaster ss and it's basically the same thing internally. The other one I was thinking of using was the crane LX-91, not sure what the best bet between these 2 would be though. Thanks again for your help.

I've been restoring my '73 Z for the past 2 1/2 years, and have finally gotten to the point where I am close to being ready to fire it up for the first time. The engine is a f54 block with a P79 head that I partially disassembled, cleaned up, and replaced the gaskets on. The engine came with what I gather is either a euro or pre-emissions 240z dizzy with a pertronix kit already installed. I've replaced the cap and rotor, and (after 3 tries) gotten the distributor/oil pump shaft timed properly. I am currently about halfway done with re-wiring the car with an Ez-Wire kit and have started to think about what I really want to accomplish with the ignition on this car. I was originally planning on just using the pertronix with the recommended flame thrower coil and no ballast resistor (car had no engine harness when I bought it anyways), but have recently started thinking that an MSD or mallory ignition box might be a good idea, since I haven't done wiring yet anyways. I was wondering if anyone has used an MSD box or similar with pertronix, and if so, what they did about the ignition coil. I know you're supposed to have resistance going into the pertronix (hence why the flamethrower coil has built in resistance) but was wondering how important that really is. My plan was to use the Mallory Hy-fire 6A with an MSD Blaster SS coil (https://www.msdignition.com/Products/Coils/Street/Strip/8207_-_MSD_Blaster_SS_Coil.aspx) but wasn't sure if I would fry the pertronix with this set up. I have heard of people using two ignition coils with the MSD unit but have never found any concrete explanations on why this is necessary or how to wire it up, but maybe this would be the answer for me? In any case, if this will work I was also hoping I could get some advice on which plugs to use with this set up. I've already decided on magnecor wires (not that it really matters for the sake of figuring out the best set up) because after researching they seem to be the "best" out there. Hopefully that didn't sound too convoluted but I'm hoping someone has some advice for how to make this work properly, or if the ignition box is even worthwhile (though the general consensus is that it is very worthwhile, from what I have found). Thanks! -Austin

I'd say it's most certainly an msa type 2, the type 3 is a bit different.

That's interesting, I'll have to read up on that. Very cool set up in general but the ignition specifically caught my eye.

Looks awesome! Wondering about the distributor, is it just a "normal" z dizzy with pertronix to make it pointless? I've been curious as to whether a pertronix set up and an msd box would play well together.

Sounds like you're doing it the right way! I just wanted something simple and easy, too many other things going on with the car for me to really give it a whole lot of thought. I chose not to add a flasher simply because they annoy me when i'm driving behind someone with one at night, but I take it that that's the idea in the first place.

I used this one on my car: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&vxp=mtr&item=390756129712 It would be simple enough to add a flasher unit into the wiring if you were really after that feature. I figured that most people drive suv's these days and probably can't see the tails of a lowered z too well, so a third brake is a reasonable idea. For install I literally just used two self-tapping screws and mounted it up high in the hatch.

I also had great dealings with Justin at Z force. In my case, I bought a G nose which is a little more complicated obviously. It's a great piece and it came at a great price. He's checked in with me a number of times since I purchased the G nose to make sure I like the nose still. I would have gotten his "BAMF" flares as well but had already gotten some that were wider than standard off ebay for cheaper.

The N/A bellhousing can go onto the sx transmission but it's not a dead simple swap. You have to bore out the holes in the front of the bell housing to fit the larger bearings, among other things.

That appears to be the correct ignition. The dangling wires are only there to activate a buzzer when you open the door that tells you the key is still in the ignition, you might as well cut them off right at the ignition.

No worries, good luck with it!

You can re-drill your shifter ears and mount the short shifter available from msa. http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/65467-280zx-short-throw-shifter/page-2

It is quite funny . I still have to figure out the ignition switch, engine wiring, etc. so I personally have the defrost on the back burner but would love to have it figured out. To make this painfully clear... One side of the grid gets grounded, and the other side gets positive current with an inline 20amp fuse powered off a relay so you don't burn out the switch? And maybe even with a 15 minute timer built in to turn it off if you forget to. Just want to make sure we're all on the same page here, as I'm not sure if that's correct.

Sounds like I may be mistaken on the 6v... Do these things use up a lot of amps? Is it worth powering them off of a relay? I need to look at the wiring diagram and find out for myself but I'm more focused on the important wiring stuff at the moment...

I am also looking into this as I just started doing the ez-wire conversion in my car. I seem to remember reading somewhere that the defrost works off of 6 volt so you have to somehow get it to convert to 6v. I don't, however, know what else is involved. I'll look into it and in the meantime hope for someone else to chime in.

Thanks for the replies, I think I've got the ignition almost figured out with the help of 5thgen's post. I don't have the piggyback for the ignition switch, and was planning on just running spade terminals onto the terminals on the switch. I'm now thinking about just buying a piggyback and going from there. I also decided to get rid of the stock combo switches. I ordered a universal turn signal switch, a floor mounted dimmer switch like those from an old GM car, and a heavy duty toggle switch to turn the headlights on and off. I have yet to think over the wiper set up, so that may be tough. I'm still trying to figure out where the battery actually makes its way into the harness, but I'm sure that will be more clear when I start wiring in the engine bay. Anyways I'm starting to get my head wrapped around the wiring so it's beginning to all make some sense.

Wow I made this a long time ago. Well since October of 2011 when I made this I have gotten quite a bit farther along with my project. At this point I have all the suspension in, as well as the engine. Just today I started getting more serious about the wiring. I went with the EZ-21 kit with a normal sized box. It is way too many wires honestly, but at least I'll have plenty of extras for other additions, you never know what I'll want to add in later on. Anyways I've now got the wires seperated out as to what goes where, and have just been trying to figure out a couple things. I already wrote out my questions in a facebook datsun group, so I'll just copy and paste here: I was wondering where I actually connect the main battery + cable to the harness? Or does the battery + only connect to the alternator, and then the wiring from the alternator connects to the harness? I apologize if that's a bit of a dumb question but I'm trying to figure out the wiring thing as I have never re-wired anything in a car so this is proving to be a steep learning curve. Other than that, I'm trying to figure out how to do the headlights and ignition switch. I am considering putting a universal headlight switch in, so that may be figured out. As far as the ignition goes, I have "IGN Switch ACC", "IGN Switch Power" (which is spliced to come out as two wires), "IGN Switch Start", "IGN switch IGN" and "IGN Switch Coil" on the harness, and "R", "IG", "A", "S", and "B" on the switch. Obviously, the "IGN Start" goes to "S", the IGN ACC" goes to "A", and the "IGN switch IGN" goes to the "IG", but what do I do with "IGN Coil" and the two "IGN Power" wires? I'm assuming that I only need one IGN Power wire, and that goes on either the B or the R and the coil goes to the other one, but which goes to which? Appreciate any help, thanks! As I said, this is my very fist venture into car electronics, so hopefully I can figure out this harness without too much trouble. I have already bought shrink tubing, electrical tape, etc. I'm waiting on a soldering iron and crimping tool in the mail, and I will go out and buy some un-insulated terminals and some extra wiring from an electronics store soon, but I should be able to get this all going soon enough.

Well I wound up fixing my transmission so I no longer need to purchase one.

Sending you a PM!

That sounds like what I did wrong, at least I hope it's something simple like that. Hopefully I didn't bend any shift forks in the process of trying to get it to shift...

Hello, I am looking to buy a 5 speed. I live in the north bay. Open to A or B trans, have an A right now that I seem to have messed up. Only interested in one that I don't need to take apart, and that is known to shift fine and not have any major issues. Let me know what you have. Thanks, Austin

I guess I didn't put enough info in my original post mostly because I wasn't willing to face that something was up with the transmission. When I got it originally it had been neglected, and I decided to pull the housings off and take a look to clean it up, replace the seals, and paint the bell housing. Unfortunately, it seems I have messed something up when I went to put it back together. At this point, I'm going to have to drop the trans, and take it apart again to see if I can get it right this time, or just replace it with a known good trans (anyone in the bay area have a 5 speed?). I'll update this thread with whatever I figure out. Sorry this turned out to be kind of a lame duck but at this point it seems that something is wrong. I can partially engage 5th and reverse but it takes a lot of effort. I tried putting the driveshaft in and turning it and it wouldn't move. I then tried turning the motor over and the driveshaft moved with it, so even though it seems that the shifter is in neutral, the trans is not. In addition, it doesn't seem to want to move far left enough to engage first or second, and I can not put it into 3rd or 4th. If anyone has any insight as to what I did wrong on re-assembly, I'd appreciate it as I will be dropping the trans and inspecting on my next day off work. Thanks, Austin

Been a while since I've posted on here. I've been resto-modding a '73 z for the past 2 1/2 years, and have had pretty slow progress up until recently. Yesterday I "dropped" my engine and trans in (bolted the bell housing to the block out of the car and dropped them in together), aside from switching around the motor mount brackets, it went in without a hitch (the second time anyways). I went with your typical F54 block/P79 head, and 280z (or as some of you know it, A) 5 speed. Both have been taken apart partially and cleaned up/put back together with new gaskets (not professionally, I did it myself with the help of this forum and others). When I got the trans it was somewhat seized and wouldn't shift into any of the gears but after cleaning it up and what not it seemed to be functioning just fine. It has sat without any fluid or any input shaft rotation for about a year now, and after installing it I put my shifter back on, but found that it would not engage any of the gears except for reverse (or could be 4th, hard to tell). What I'm wondering is if this sounds like a problem (maybe I re-installed the rear case wrong and messed up the forks?), or if it's more likely to be just a matter of everything being bone dry and the trans having sat for so long (don't know when it was last used in a car, I bought it on it's own from craigslist). Any insight? I know there's no way to say for sure, but I should be able to get my engine up and running soon enough so hopefully I'll have a better idea then. Appreciate any insight. Thanks! -Austin

I've reused very few pieces of hardware so far with my car and have just been ordering assorted stuff from mcmaster. It adds up really quickly, I'm not even near done with my car and have already spent well over $1,000.00 on hardware.

Hahah I wasn't even born till 8 years after 1985!!