tommy260z

Also, working without a wiring diagram I'm unsure what wire would be the ground for the headlights and I'm cramping up a bit from looking!

I don't think so, the lamps worked when I bought the car. It was only after tearing apart the steering column for turn signal issue (which is fixed) that the lamps ceased functioning.....

74 Datsun 260z. Have no headlights. Guage lights and marker lights all work properly, just no headlamps. I've pulled the switch, rebuilt it and I have power to all four points when the lever is all the way in the on position. But no lights. So I'm going to look at the ground wire and hopefully that's it. Anyone know what color it is and where it grounds to the body/frame?

Hold the phone! I have two turn signals. I figured if I had a right I should have a left and if the test light was setting the left off all it was doing was completing the circuit. So I pulled the switch out again and had a look. When the lever was in the down (left) position it wasn't coming far enough to push that little arm to complete the circuit. So I filed the beacket holding the arm in place down a touch on the left side and presto! The circuit is complete; two working signals. Man, what a pain in the ass! Now I move on to the headlight problem and mechanically and electrically I'll be done. Time to start a new thread...

(Some) Success! I have a right hand turn signal. At your suggestion I took apart, cleaned and reassembled the hazard switch - it was looking pretty haggard - and when I did my right hand turn signal started to work. The left I get nothing. Unless I put the test light on the contact - then the left works too! I'm pretty electrically dis-inclined so that really confuses me. Anybody have any idea what's happening there? Doc, I also tried wiggling the hell out of the turn signal switch to no avail. So I have a working right signal and a dead left. Unless there's a test light on it. This makes me think the switch is drawing power from the test light and working which means the left side isn't getting power. Tell me if this is wrong. Even if that's correct I'm not sure where to go from there....

I disassembled the turn signal box (bending back the tabs and being careful not to drop that tiny ball bearing!) and cleaned the contacts inside. I took pictures as I went along and re-assembled the switch the way it was before. From there, I'm stumped. I'm confident the switch is back together properly and all the connections are good. On to the hazard switch I guess. And I meant a 74 260z, the 71 got in my head from a 240 I looked at at the same time. It sounds like we have identical turn signal problems. I'm going to spend the weekend with the wiring diagram and the car and see if I can't figure out what's going on. As for the headlights, I might have pooched the ground upon reconnecting. Got to look at that too.

Right I knew that, must have been backwards in my head at the time.

Yes, the hazards work. That's the frustrating part, the bulbs are all good and the signals work, just not when I engage them with the turn signal lever. But I pulled a wiring diagram off the atlanticz site and now I just pray the wire colors will match!

This is the car. It's the only pic I got before the snow started flying and she's not much for a winter driver.

Howdy, I've got a 71 260z that I'm chasing down some electrical gremlins in. For starters, the turn signals don't work. They do run when the hazard switch is engaged but I took the signal switch out of the steering column and it is getting no power. I cleaned the contacts on the switch just to be safe. There is power on both sides of the fuse on the panel. So that leads me to believe the problem is a ground. Does anyone know where the ground runs from the switch to ?? I have a wiring diagram from the appropriate Haynes manual but it is so tiny I can't read it. As a side note, since I took the harness on the steering column apart, the headlights stopped working. This again makes me think it's a common ground problem. But I hate electrical work as I'm generally pretty useless at it so any help here would be great. These problems are the last mechanical ones for the car as the body and motor are done and tip top. Just the interior to do.