Oddmanout84

Possible. But my car has no provision for an inhibitor relay besides two holes in the bracket where it would mount to. My harness does not have an unused plug where it would go to, because if it did, it would interrupt the ignition circuit. You can tell your car had AC because on the passenger side of the engine compartment there will be a load of extra crap. And by that I mean a black metal bottle looking thing sitting vertically (reciever drier), a "white or clear" plastic bottle, and a small metal panel of interesting looking cylinders. My descriptions are horrible, I know. And don't forget the compressor on the driver's side, approx under the distributor. Here's something else interesting; that blue wire that you're wondering about that's coming off the harness around the IGN coil? According to the diagram I just looked at in the AC portion of my FSM, there is a wire (labelled "BLUE") that is shown to be connecting to another wire off the AC compressor. It even uses a bullet style connector. This may have even solved one of my problems, come to think of it. I had always wondered where the wire off my compressor was supposed to connect to. This and the fact that I found my system had no refridgerent in it would explain why my AC has never worked...

So basically you're saying it was punishment without calling it punishment... slick. Lol. I think I agree with Dr_Hunt.

I think its definitely possible that I received some "incorrect" parts. Its really hard to say though. The kit is designed to fit 240Z-280Z, but there are quite a few differences between the two and a half (I consider the 260 inbetween) models. I think that this is the weakness in the kits, because with the upgrades over the year a few things changed between the models.

I think the "Blank" title is a sort of "punishment"...

OMG!!! Tell me about it!!! I first got into RC helos when I was in Iraq (needed some toys to try out just in case I didn't make it back) and man did I spend some money. They were fun as hell, but if you screw up you were done for a few weeks until the parts came in. Me and my friends also had to watch out for the convoys coming back on base, because the radio jammers they usually had would make your transmitter absolutely worthless and your helo would be beyond your control. That usually ended in a pretty epic wreck. I think I still have a stash of spindle pins and spare control rods somewhere... Stop talking about fun RC stuff... you guys are making me want to break out the toys again.

... And if it IS an inhibitor relay connector, this could be why your car is not starting. The AT cars were made (as pretty much all AT cars) to start only if the gear selector was in P (or N also, I believe). So if your car is manual now, the fact is that electrical current has no relay to pass through will not allow your car to start. If your car is manual, follow the wiring diagrams and figure out how to jump those connections together. If your car is auto, buy another inhibitor relay, and make sure the inhibitor switch on your transmission is operating correctly. I'm not an expert on automatic Z's, I'm just making judgements based on what I've read in the FSM. its a great tool.

That may be for an inhibitor relay, if I'm not mistaken. Only installed in automatic transmission cars. I think the AC relay is also a 4 prong, but I'd have to go double check my car. Looking at my '78 FSM, those are the only two solutions I can come up with. Either someone removed the AC relay because it was bad, or they removed an inhibitor relay because they were converting it from auto to manual.... Or they pulled your wiring harness from an auto car. What kind of transmission does your Z have anyway?

If you pull that off you better film it! lol And it takes about a day or two worth of the process to completely clean a rear LCA, so factor that in as well for the time you need for a whole car!

Ah yes, that's the link I followed when I did my brake install. Very helpful. I think my car must be "special" though because towards the end of the install I have a hard time finding parallels between the two. Maybe its because I have a 280Z instead of an earlier model. Both of the braided lines I have here are about exactly the same size, neither long enough to snake out of the wheelwell and under the car like yours seem to on one side. And crossing the E-brake cables FOUR times?!? The cable looks like a twizzler now, but at least the length is right. It worries me... I wonder why no one else had these issues before...

I'll keep them in mind for the next time I head up to Mass. Thanks for the heads up! Its a long way from home (I live near the NY border), but its an area I definitely travel through once in a while.

I hear ya! In Jan '05 when I was at Pendleton the rain in January made part of a nearby hill slide down and flooded the first floor with a few inches of water... all within a few hours of one night! The Z's floorpans became lakes. During the few rainstorms I drove in while I was there I was constantly ducking water drops leaking in from where my weatherstrip would have been, and from those crap T-Top things. I really need to get this kit before I hit the road again...

Hopefully this all works out for you in the end... Best of luck!

In order to find anything of that sort, a bit of travel time is needed. Sure, its only 45 min-1 hour to NYC from here, but that's if there's NO traffic. HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! Seriously though. I don't know any of those shops well enough, and I already burn up quite a bit of gas just running to the local (smaller) cities... Now if I were still living in CA, around the Oceanside area, I'd probably be singing a much different tune.

I got an email back from Modern about my concerns. Their customer service is great (when they're there), and now that I know the reason for the delay, its understandable. Still though, even the notes they pointed to about the rear disc installation still don't address the issues with the lines/fittings included with the kit. According to the notes, you also (in addition to the calipers) need to acquire "a 20 inch long metric male to metric male fitted Japanese hardline" for the driver's side. Uhh... I don't see this helping at all with my previous issues. There's already a nice line installed there. From examining the fittings on the new braided steel line, I'm almost absolutely positive that the problem can be solved with a -3 AN to Metric 10x1.0 female adapter w/ reverse flare. So I ordered a couple from Summit today (FINALLY found them!). If I've learned anything from this experience, its that there are a LOT more ways to measure a pipe fitting other than SAE and M. And that its damn hard to find anything but SAE fittings locally without special ordering. So, nothing much else new today. The clutch still works, much to my delight. Also nice to find out that I didn't screw up the bleeding by doing it all myself.

Wow.. you're damn lucky!! Mine only has SAE, and a poor selection at that!

Its almost hypnotic, isn't it?

Now I feel really burned up. I had to cross my E-brake cables over 4 times to get the desired length... and they still look a little bit long! But the great thing isn't that. After I was finished I went to install the braided brake lines I got from MM with the rear disc kit. This is what I found. Passenger side Wow, that looks great. Even has a provision for the clevis pin to keep it in place. Driver side WTF is this? Not only is it different than the other side, but its also completely and utterly wrong. The adapter is threaded on the outside. The flares are incorrect. Why??! So once again, thanks MM. You've taken another few years off my lifespan and edged me closer to having an aneurysm than anything in recent memory. Not one purchase, but twice in a row. I can liken your products to a bowl of cheerios. Cheerios are great, I love them and they're good. But if there's one pea sized lump of crap in my bowl of cheerios, I don't want to eat them anymore. You pooped in my cheerios.

Yeah seriously... I can't believe how much of a pain it is to find even the simplest parts when you have a metric brake system. You'd think with metric cars EVERYWHERE, it would be a common thing...

its about time they came out with a Z shaped shell (besides the old one, which was custom made and cost $$$$). I need to stay away from this hobby though... Already put waaaay too much time and money into them in the past.

Did you put in a headlight relay harness as well? That might help your brightness by feeding power directly from the battery to the lights, as opposed to through the steering column stalk.

I'd also like to see how to identify these. I say this because the only number I've found is a serial # on top of the bellhousing, not a part number. The transmission was removed at some point in this car's life, because the bottom half of the plate that seals the tranny to the engine is missing. I have no clue if the tranny was also replaced, all I know is that its a 5 speed. I don't know if there's any difference between the "A" type and the "B" type, or if the shifter hookup is different between the 280Z and 280ZX. I want to purchase a short throw shifter, but I don't want to drop money on something that's not going to fit. I'm pretty sure this isn't a Borg Warner T5 in my car...

Lol, I don't care how many wheels power is going to, when you break loose like that only a decrease in inertia is going to give grip back to the wheels! Wow! Good thing he was only dazed from it...

Awesome. Its not as extreme, but when we had a malfunctioning component, our (the crewchief's) first action to correct it was usually to beat it senseless with a 1 inch wrench. You may be surprised how often that works...

So today I went about happily bleeding my clutch and brake system. But I'm totally lying about the happily part. What a pain in the ass it's been. Without a partner to help out, I've been doing everything myself with a one man vacuum bleeder. The clutch should be good now, but I'll see when I start grinding gears if its good or not. The brakes still need to be bled, the system is still empty but I did reinstall the master cylinder and hook up my lines. I hate to say it, but Modern Motorsports has me bent around the axle lately (no pun intended). Not only was their "complete direct replacement, no modifications needed" proportioning valve kit a bust (two incorrect NPT-to-SAE fittings supplied), but I also found a few minutes ago that the E-brake cables don't fit the rear calipers. Now, I know about the trick for switching the cables by crossing them over each other. Did that, the cables are still way too long!! Damn it!! And they're dangerously close to the half-shafts. I guess this second problem isn't really MM's fault though, it my car that's the problem. Everything else in that kit is perfect. Its just really annoying after checking length, switching them, then checking length again to find that they're still too long that has me really annoyed. I'm going to try crossing them over again. Maybe it'll work. If it does, I may be able to take the car for a test drive tomorrow (up and down the driveway, its nowhere near street legal yet).

Even if you just give them a leak or mess up their controls a little, its still a win... because you know you made them mad, lol.