elkarin1984

I know this is an old post, but i did on my 78 the alternator upgrade to a dodge monaco. It bolts in the same spot as the original location on the 78. No real alterations required, i also replaced the alternator bracket with a turn bubuckle to help tighten up the belt. Just gotta get the connector to the new alternator, and find wich wire goes where. I do not re call where i got the info for the swap but it was fairly easy and not as steep on the pocket as that upgrade being sold for 200+. The new alternator is rated at 90Amps,and i got the alternator pulley from pepboys...the "chrome" kits they sell. A firestone shop helped with the pulley swap... It works great, wipers perform better than before (im not talking about the blades, but the wiper motor), lights also benefit from this, but it was not nice heading to work at 5am and the alt going out on me.

Are there still openings for the raffle, I would like a set of door panels (for 78) for the cost of shipping!!!! By the way, do you have them in Carbon Fiber? Would you be interested in doing some? If so i work and have worked at several aircraft repair shops and have come to acquire left over pieces of Graphite as well as "expired" pieces ( I don't know how that stuff could expire). If interested i can mail the stuff to you, it would be more useful for me and others to have you make me a set of door panels on CF than having me try to do something else that i might not have the time to ever get it done. I don't know how many plies of glass you use on each panel, but the CF i got is thick, so you might be able to use one or two plies of CF between two plies of FG to stretch out the amount CF being used. I Have a piece that i was told it's about 25', could be square ft, but none the less its a big chunk. You might be able to get a couple of panels out of it and a couple extra bucks out of each set. Please let me know if you are interested. Thanks

I was wondering the same thing, the Z i bought came with a air dam that has a few holes drilled into it on the center section, but since there is no support under it, when i tried to install a set of hella fogs on it i could see the light go up and down. But I was not really looking into reinforce it with fibers, but if you do, make sure you get enough fiberglass and it can be lay up alternating the orientation (ie. some at 0*, 45*, 90*, and -45*) to make a stronger reinforcement. I work at a composite repair shop for helicopters now, prior to that at a composite repair shop for aircraft part, and thats how it was done.... Of cource it is easier to work with pre-preg material that dry materials, since you cut the dry material and it can warp after being soaked. The best way to do it is cut big pieces so that one mat will be used for each orientation and place them in release film (i don't know what would be suitable to keep the glass soaked in resin to bond to a regular plastic bag, maybe alcohol wiped onto the bag) butafter you have the glass at in the bag, pour the resin, sequeeze really good and then mark the strips on the outside of the bag and cut (you'll be using the bag to keep the fibers from warping) just be sure to remove the bottom film (bag material) to lay it onto the piece you want to reinforce, once its in place remove the outer piece of bag and lay your next strip the same way.... Key is to make sure no bag is left between plies other wise teh bag will peel out along with everything lay-up after that.... Sound like a lot, but a little bit of research on the mater and it becomes a piece of cake. Now on my behalf, is there a reinforcement bar that can be placed on the under side of the aftermarket airdam to keep it from shaking???

Hey guys, new guy here and new to the Z forums and community. First of all i don't want to anger anyone, i just want to share my experience and how a few issues got solved, so i hope Im not writing in the wrong section or reposting. To start of i bought a 78 280z last year, the guy had bought it from another person who had damaged the engine, so the newer (prior to me) owner thankfully installed a F54/P79 in the car from an 83zx. The day i went to check it out the car did not want to start at all, sounded like a car running on carburator and lots of black smoke. So went home sad and the a couple of days after he called back saying he got it to star, because he used to drive it daily before he said it was strange it did not start that other day (i just taught the Z did not want to go home with me). So we checked it out and, ran and sounded good so i took it for $2800 (he wanted $3200 but due to the start issue he dropped the price) since he said i might need to spend some cash to figure it out. Well it ran pretty good for a while then suddenly it did it again, randomly and stalling while driving on the freeway. I could not figure it out and it was really frustrating, because it would stall and start right up after a couple of minutes. so to make things short it got to a point where it was more often than i would like for it to happen, since it is my daily driver to work, it happened to be that the harness to the ECU was not properly connecting. It clicked good, seemed to make good contact to the ECU but any hard bump, or vibration would cause it to stall and have problems re-starting. I started by pressing the harness to the ECU and noticed it would start right up, but would die a while after letting go (it happened once while driving on the street so i had to put it on second, press the harness with my left hand, start it and drive with the right hand, so you can imagine how i was positioned jejejeje) I had to take the ECU out of the car and the tab that holds the harness to the ECU was the problems, due to age and use it was not putting enough pressure to keep the harness from loosing contact. I drilled a small hole across the tab into the ECU while the ECU was open to ensure no electrical components where damaged. Screwed in a small screw and that is all it too to fix a lot of headaches, and almost selling the Z as well due to that... So there might be a lot of guys and girls out there having some "gremlins" that cannot seemed to be solved, try this out and you might save yourself a lot trouble/cash/green hair trying to figure out something that could be RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE. (of course i spent the cash on other things trying to figure it, but ended up with new BOSCH type connections on the car now) I dont have any pictures but it really is not that hard, it might sound scary but there is plenty of space in there to do the rig that i had to do.... Come on, there are other things harder to do on this cars, chop off, or modify, so don't be scared!!!!

Well this are a few pictures of the interior of my 78 as I bought it, as far as i know the person i bought it from bought it from another guy who damaged the engine and the guy I got it from thankfully replaced it with a F54/P79 L28E. The hatch area floor boards that cover the spare tire and behind the seat where in really bad shape, someone tried to instal 6x9's on the board right behind the seats, and the one covering the spare was already separating into each individual laminate. So i have been working on a replacement this past week, since I have not come across a replacement or anyone who makes them (but it could just be that i don't know how to search for them), or maybe no one really uses them anymore. So here's a few pictures.... I know its a mess but slowly but surely it will be getting better