Mezzz

I need a pair of tail light bezels to fit either a 260 or 280. My car is a 77 280 but I beleive the 260 will work also. I only need the chrome bezels that surround the tail lights, not the finishers or lense assemblys. I plan on blacking them out so the chrome doesnt have to be perfect but still, in decent shape. thanks, Mark

I really doubt tha you will get the reply you are looking for. I called and spoke with Erin and my complaints went in one and out the other. My first issue was with the speedo/tach wired together. I noticed in the link to your post on another site, you show cutting the wire on the 2 guages. It would have been so easy to link 2 of the smaller gauges together since they are installed from behind. I read a post concerning this from almost 2 years ago and they were told by Speedhut the problem would be fixed. I was told by Erin that they are "yet" to rework the tooling. The easy scenario is to include a 2 into 1 adaptor so you dont have to cut the wire as you did. I actually installed the tach/speedo without cutting/splicing. I fed the wire through the tach hole and pulled it back out the speedo hole and installed the face while the gauge was in the car. Not an easy feat but it can be done. My next issue was with the voltmeter/ammeter gauge. I was told by Erin that he was unaware of the difference in model years. I then found a post from 6 months ago from a guy that had Speedhut "custom make" the proper face for a later model car with an ammeter. I think that Speedhut should specify a model year and send the correct face. Once again, I made it work, by taking out the red charge light and cutting the new gauge face but it isnt correct. On the needles not showing up, I cant really put the blame on Speedhut. Most newer cars have needles which are backlit and would be easily readable. I went through the same thing you are by not wanting to reinstall stock bulbs. I only had to do it to one as I tested the first gauge in the car before doing the others. I think they look alot better without the stock bulbs on but once again, if you cant see the needles, what good is the upgrade? I did this upgrade because of the obvious problem in reading the stock gauges. I thought this would be a cool and fairly inexpensive ($100 with shipping) solution. Overall, even though this post sounds negative, I am happy with the result. The product is VERY well made. If Speedhut would tweak the issues, I would do it all over again. BTW...did you tie the electric into your stock guage wiring so that the faces work with your stock dimmer as I described?

I had the same problem with the needles not showing up, I painted mine in bright orange. I then used stock bulbs (new) and removed the green lens from each gauge. I spliced in the power to the speedhut kit to the wires going to the clock. In doing that, I am able to use the stock dimmer knob and it controls both the stock dash lights and the speedhut faces. The dimmer for the gauge kit works independently as well. You can see the needles in the photos but they do show up better in person. They are not vibrant but they are more easily readable.

That would have been too easy. The switch had been removed long ago with just a wire nutted off and tucked up behind the panel in the dog leg area. It was typical case of doing too many little things at once and not tracking what I did so I could retrace the steps.

Jon, Didnt know you were on here. I still have ALOT of gremlins to sort, just one less now. I am hoping to get it up to you in the next couple weeks to weld up. I have the frame rail from Bad Dog and it looks very nice. Right now, I have the dash apart putting together the gauge faces I got from Speedhut. I am about finished with them, then I have to put on a dash cap and mount the new steering wheel. I am still having some motor problems, still seems to be missing and smoking a bit, hopefully once I get the pick-up coil installed and check out the timing, I can get those worked out. Paint probably wont be until next year at this rate, but I need that spot in the floor repaired so I can get teh interior finished up. I will call you when I am ready. Time(as always) is tight but I am off the week of 8-11 and hope to get it up to you then. Mark

Mystery solved! I had what looked like speaker wire or lamp cord (clear insulation/2 strands, one copper, one aluminum) running from under the dash around the ECU. It ran under the driver door and disappeared behind the vinyl panel where the stock speaker was mounted. I discovered this wire a few months ago when gutting the interior. I figured it was some hack job going to the stock speaker, although it was wire nutted off. All these months, I left it hanging figuring eventually, I would remove it. Last month, I rolled the car out of my garage, either to sweep the floor or maybe one of my many attempts to start it. I had the mystery wire hanging out and had rolled over it and the wire broke ff at the door. This week,I switched directions for a couple days and decided to install my Speedhut overlays. While at the dash, I decided to trace that mystery wire and get rid of it. It ended up, once I removed a BUNCH of tape, spliced into the harness coming out of the ECU and bridged into the connector attached to the ignition switch. Could that be my problem? I took a couple pics and with the advice of a trusted guy from another site, we figured out the P.O. must have at one time, had a kill switch installed. There is about 1/2 diameter hole down low on the panel with the speaker holes in it, probably where the kill switch was mounted. Anyway I twisted the wires together and she fired right up! Thanks Daeron for the advice, I can now go about installing the new pick-up coil, setting the timing and doing a compression test, etc.

I decided to resurrect this old thread after my dealing with Speedhut and the gauge faces I purchased from them. I finally had some time and bought a complete gauge set from another user so I had them to use for the overlays. First and foremost, I read a thread from over 2 years ago about the tach and speedo being piggybacked together, not a good way to go when you have to remove these gauges from the front. In that post, the user had contacted Erin and was told they were unaware of the problem and would correct it. Guess what? 2 Plus years later and they are STILL sending out ther overlays the same way. You are left with 2 options, one, cutting and splicing the wires, or two, installing one guages, passing the face and wire for the other though the hole in the dash and trying to install it from the footwell. Not good either way IMHO. Then, I have the same problem with my Ammeter/Voltmeter. They state on their website they make overlays from 69-78 model years, yet they are STILL sending out an ammeter for the later model cars. After reading your post about having one custommade, I had to reply. I contacted Erin earlier today and spoke with him about the problem. I told him about the ammeter and how the overlay was cut straight across the top and my gauge is actually dished out for the needle to move. I told him that the overlay prevented the needle from moving at all. I also told him that my gauge has a red "charge" light in it and they made no accommodation for the red light, it keeps the overlay from laying down flat. Erin acted like he had never heard of the problem before I called. I contacted him because I wanted to attempt to make these work. I was able to take out the red light so the overlay was flat and wanted to see if it was safe to modify it, using a Dremel to sand down the flat area to accept the needle. He told me to take an Exacto knife and carefully cut out the area I needed to have the needle clear the overlay. I also asked him about the piggybacked wires and he at least did acknowledge they were aware of that but have yet to change their tooling around. I told him about the post I read from 2 years ago and how I had emailed him when I bought the overlays 6 months ago and at that time was told, every installation is different, you will have to cut and splice or dremel out the gauge bodies. So, sorry for the long reply. The product is nicely made, please dont get me wrong. I just think that they have been aware of certain issues (obviously the ammeter dilemna) and have never taken any steps to correct it. If they made a "custom" voltmeter for you, they should have been including that on orders of later model cars. I shouldnt have to be told to cut up the face I just spent $100 on to make it work. That said, I did adapt it, hooked it up and it still worked after cutting it. I just think that Speedhut should address these issues. I told Erin that I post the good and bad in these forums, I give them a C overall.

thanks again for the replies. I had someone stop by yesterday ans we went over a couple things. Pulled the #1 plug and he told me the spark is weak. I have brand new plugs, wires and MSD coil. He told me to replace the pick-up coil in the distributor. I have a multimeter Daeron and will perform some test. I also have a fuel pressure guage and bought a noid light last night for the injector test, so you guys are right on track with me on my next steps...I will post my (hopeful) progress

Thanks for the info Daeron. An update on this issue. I have pulled a plug per your suggestion, yes, I get a nice spark and no, it was not wet or smell much like gasoline. I have in the past, hot wired the fuel pump and it did run and pump fuel to the rail. I could hear the pressure regulator as well but it still would not fire. Per the F.I. Manual, I did pull the wire off the solenoid and verified the fuel pump is running when I turn the key to on. I could not get the car to start before I changed the ignition coil either, so I dont think it could be the culprit. I just changed it out because the old one was too small in diameter and the P.O.(S) had a piece of wood shim holding it in place I am leaning towards an issue with the ECU or AFM or possibly the injection relay. I bought a circuit tester and checked the 2 plugs going to the relay under the dash. On the fuel pump relay connector, I have power on some of the wires, which kinda make sense as I believe the switch once the ignition goes from run to on. I had no power to the power relay connector when I checked any wire, either with the ignition turned to run or start. To recap, it ran well when I bought it for a short time and started to run rougher. Going through my mind, about the only things I did between buying it and the rough running condition was clean up the engine bay. I used ALOT of Simple Green and thought at the time maybe I sprayed some connection as it got better a couple days later, then started missing again. A couple weeks ago, before replacing items, it ran rough. After replacing wires, rotor, cap, fuel filter and plugs, it ran about the same. So I pulled the AFM to clean the connector and then I couldnt get it to fire after that. Logic would say the issue lies somewhere in that but I can see anything out of place, ground is clean, plug is tight and I did check the flap for smooth opening as well. I downloaded the F.S.M. awhile back and printed out the "EF" chapter Saturday, I have begun reading and trying to make sense of it all. Thanks for the tips!

I'm not too far away from Batavia , Anderson Township (Beechmont). Thats why I havent seen a Z around, you moved Thanks for the well wishes, I have a rare week off starting tomorrow, my wife does not, I have to pay for daycare whether my son goes or not (so he is going), so I have 5 days to do nothing but work on this thing! So, you ever coming back this way?

Thanks Daeron for the advice and words of encouragement. You are right on the injectors. I found them on Ebay and they looked like a good deal. They are reconditioned, check out the link and let me know what you guys think. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&viewitem=&item=190231310169 On the spark plug isssue, no, I havent pulled one since replacing them. I did use a "go between" test light on each plug and it registered current. I will try to pull one per your suggestion and arc it. I do have a F.S.M. on my hard drive and I printed out the 280z Fuel Injection Theory and Troubleshooting manual yesterday, hole punched and in a binder now. The F.I. manual will be a great place to start, very well written and fairly easy to understand.

That looks nice. I am in the process of redoing my floors as well. I took up all the old insulation using the "great" dry ice method. I then started the tedious process of stripping the paint off because I planned (and bought already) using POR15 and Dynamat. I have heard of using the bedliner after I already got far along on this part of my project, its nice to see a pic of it. I have a found a couple small holes in the pass. floorboard where it meets the firewall, right above the framerail. After digging some more, I opened up about a 2 inch hole in the floor and an inch hole in the frame rail. I just got a fram rail from Bad Dog last week. Unfortunately, I can weld so I hooked up with a guy to cut and put in the new metal, weld up the rail and then while he has it, weld up all the rivet holes from the body side moulding. Keep us posted on your progress, I may change mid stream and go your way vs. the POR15 as I have heard of it peeling up if not perfectly applied.

I found this site awhile ago when I bought my 1977 280Z but somehow forgot to save it to my favorites list! Well, I found it again today and it has been saved right at the top of the list. I bought my Z on Ebay last fall (long, sad story) and have been slowly but surely trying to get it back up to the condition I hoped it was in when I bought it. I have only seen 2 1st generation Z's on the road in the past few years here so I had to go out west to find one...BTW...any Cincinnati members on here? I would really like to meet some fellow enthusiasts! I've had a heck of a time getting it to start and I'm in the process of reviewing the Fuel Injection manual in hopes of tracking it down. She ran fine when I bought her. I didnt drive the car much as the P.O.(S.) took 2 months to get the title to me(another saga in the Ebay story). I let it sit a week here and there without starting, it started missing and then finally wouldnt fire up. I did the stupid and expensive thing by starting to replace components. I figured they needed repalcing anyway as most looked to be very old, worn and filthy. I put on new Taylor Hi Pro wires, correct NGk plugs, rotor and cap. Replaced the small ignition coil (held in the bracket by a wood shim!) with a MSD Blaster 2 coil. I then replaced every vaccum hose and the PCV valve. While I was in there I figured I might as well replace the fuel injectors and connectors (connectors were cracked and loose) and I put on a new fuel pressure regulator while I was there. Replaced all the fuel line with injection hose and clamps. I finshed with all this yesterday and when I went to start it up...it just cranks. I can get it to start for a second using Starter Fluid. I checked for spark and have it at all 6 plugs. Next on the list is a fuel pressure test. I thought it might be a clogged gas line/tank but I wired the fuel pump direct and have gas and I can hear the pressure regulator. So its on the the Injection manual to try and figure this out. I have also cleaned as many connectors and grounds that I could see. I am thinking it might be the fuel relay, A.F.M. or the E.C.U at this point. I've looked at every wire and hose, looking for a missed connection. Regardless, sorry for the long intro. I look forward to any advice/encouragement at this point as I am getting a little discouraged right now ! Any Cincinnati/Northern KY members on here, I would like to hear from you.