240z8

I swapped in another ammeter yesterday and it fixed my problem! Now it's time to research the fuel pump circuit.

What a coincidence, I'm staring at a ~76/77 280z volt meter right now comparing it to the 240z's gauge. Time for a little research. I'm fixing this Z with plans to drive it for a while and sell it, so I might as well make sure everything works right. I need the money for my 302 project. We bought a 92 YJ Wrangler with a Chevy 4.3 V6 and a Muncie SM465 that's nearly perfect minus none of the gauges working right; I figure if it irks me this much, it's going to be worse for someone that buys it and has to deal with the mess that I knew how to fix but didn't haha. Wiring is love/hate relationship for me, but it's worth it in the end.

Alrighty, that narrowed everything down significantly. I may have been complicating this problem a little too much it seems haha. I figured the white wire powered the car when I first saw it coming off the positive terminal on the starter solenoid, I just needed clarification on how. I suspect the actual gauge is my issue. I have 12V on the white wire at every point I can get to, including at the ammeter, but I get a no reading whatsoever at the negative terminal of the ammeter where the W/R wire attaches. I'll bypass the ammeter tomorrow and see if it solves my problem. I've got a few spare gauges laying around too, just in case of situations like this.

I picked up a 1972 240z a couple days ago and have had a bad time working with the wiring. The harness that plugs into the dash wiring, then goes to the back of the car for all the lights, was 90% chewed through by field mice. My friends and I have about 20 hours into cleaning up the wiring so far. We tried replacing the ignition switch, the voltage regulator, the fuse box and the accessory relay to try to get electricity into the dash with no avail, so we started cleaning. Plugs and terminals of any sort under the dash that we could reach were sanded, given a little dielectric grease and reconnected. Nothing happened. We break out the multimeters and the Chilton's manual and start tracing wires. We found out the large gauge W/R wire feeds power to basically everything I'm trying to figure out now and started making sure it didn't have a short anywhere. With all good fuses, we got a reading from each point that it connected from the alternator to the ignition switch. After pulling the dash out a little and examining the wiring harness further, we didn't find a single spot where the wires had been chewed through. The glovebox light wires were taped up out of the way and we found three wires just going to NOTHING. On the section of harness that goes from the passenger side, over the glovebox, and to the fuse box, there is a W/B wire, a BLUE/W wire, and a W wire. The W and W/B wire, I believe, are part of the turn signals, hazards, and brake lights and the BLUE/W wire is part of the wiper motor's electrical system. After finding all that and realizing we had gotten sidetracked with stuff we should be doing later, we went back to the "no power to the ignition switch" issue. I replaced the fusible links going from the starter to the large WHITE wire in the engine bay harness and the fusible link from the alternator to the large WHITE/RED wire which, again, changed nothing. Then I got the bright idea to run a 12v line from the battery to the W/R line right where it enters the passenger-side firewall. Unplug the connector, attach the hot wire, turn the key, and BAM! EVERYTHING WORKS! Not everything, just the stuff we were trying to figure out for two days straight haha. We spray some ether in the carbs and get a gas can with a couple hoses ready, and the car that has been sitting in a field, with mice living in it, sand burying the front crossmember, and wiring being chewed up for 14 YEARS started on the first try! I'm not leaving my wiring rigged like that; I just need help understanding the power circuit throughout the car. How does power go from the battery, to the starter, to the rest of the car? Where does the large gauge WHITE wire make a connection with the WHITE/RED wire to power the dash assembly? My first total guess was "Maybe it goes through the ammeter!", which is why we pulled the dash in the first place, but looking at the diagram further, it looks like the large WHITE wire splits off towards the front of the car, from the starter, to the voltage regulator, then out of the voltage regulator, to the alternator, out the alternator, through the fusible link I replaced, and into the WHITE/RED wire. Do I have that correct or am I just making wild guesses here? Is it possible that I have a short somewhere in the engine compartment between those components? If the voltage regulator is malfunctioning, can it keep power from getting back inside the car? Do I have the concept of that all backwards? I've found a lot of good stuff on this section of the forum that's gotten me this far, but I can't find what I'm looking for exactly. Any input is appreciated.

Yeah, I still have it. I kept everything I didn't use for just this situation haha.

I feel like a total idiot... When I rebuilt it, I didn't put the little umbrella thing back inside the accelerator pump diaphragm. I didn't see it in the rebuild instructions so I didn't put it in, but I definitely remember taking one out. It only sat a month, that's why I was confused. I must have only imagined it working before.

Mini update. Got a full dash cap and headlight covers. Got the new water pump and thermostat on. Carburetor still has some problems. I've pulled the carburetor off and apart multiple times and I still can't find out what's wrong with it. The gas still isn't coming out of the primary bowl. I've checked the jets, the accelerator pump, the accelerator pump discharge nozzle, and all of the passages inside the metering block and body, but nothing has fixed the problem. No gas comes out of the discharge nozzle when the pedal is pumped. I have no idea how it goes from not working, to working perfectly, to not working again... What else could be the problem? I can't get the car to stay running because of this stupid little thing... Overall, the carb worked well before the water pump blew and it sat for a while. Other than that, I've only found a few more problems. I saw some rust on the driver's side floor and decided to give it a swift kick; from about 5 inches in front of the seat rail to the front of the floor pan is rusted through, as well as the front of the floor pan. That shouldn't be a hard fix. There is a rust hole about 5 inches square underneath the driver's seat. Only 2 small rust spots in the passenger floor. The exterior lights don't work on the car. I suspect the wiring is messed up. I'll probably need a new turn signal switch assembly; the lever for the turn signal was snapped when we got the car. The exhaust has a bad leak underneath the floors somewhere. When I had it running, exhaust was coming up through the floor. It'll get new exhaust soon enough, but it's still a problem now. Hopefully we can get it running soon.

I used a hose cutter, it worked fine. I think the line broke when I bent the line a little to get it in a position where I could cut it. The line was sitting barely a half an inch away from the intake so I couldn't get the cutter around it. I think it is broken closer to the fuel pump rather than close to where I cut.

I used a hose cutter, it worked fine. I think the line broke when I bent the line a little to get it in a position where I could cut it. The line was sitting barely a half an inch away from the intake so I couldn't get the cutter around it. I think it is broken closer to the fuel pump rather than close to where I cut.

Update time again! I took the primary bowl and metering plate off the carb, cleaned them again, blew out all of the passages in them, made sure the accelerator pump worked, but when I put it all back together, there still wasn't any fuel getting through the carb. I took the accelerator pump discharge nozzle off and it seemed to have a little bit of gunk clogging up the openings. I cleaned it out and it works like a charm now. Earlier today I got the car running very well, but I look at the engine bay and it was spraying out a bunch of fuel from the line between the two bowls. It turned out that I split the little rubber washer/seal on the primary bowl and had to get some new ones. After that little setback, I started the car again. When I cut the fuel line so it would work with this carb, I must have split it further down because there was a puddle of gas underneath the car. I'll see what damage I did and try to fix it tomorrow. But at least I can get it started and keep it running.

Worked on the car more earlier. I got screw down hose clamps instead of the stupid squeeze type that came with the fuel filter, that fixed my fuel leak problem. We got the car running for a while earlier, but it had a 3000 rpm idle when my foot was on the brake and a 3500 idle when my foot was off of the brake. It turned out to be that the throttle cable was too tight and was holding itself open.When we had it running, the engine started smoking everywhere like I had an oil leak or a bad gasket somewhere. I don't think I have an oil leak because there in't any oil on the ground under the car. It might have just sat too long, I don't know. The newer carb we put on yesterday seems to have a fuel delivery problem. Gas is definitely getting to the carb, but it isn't coming out of the primary bowl. What might be wrong with the carb?

The engine is a 1985 Mustang HO 302. Transmission is a 5 speed, presumably stock. R200 differential. The previous owner said it has a hydraulic clutch out of a 1982 Toyota truck. I haven't found the VIN on the block yet, but the stamps on the intake, heads, and stock carb say E5, which I believe is '85. I don't know if there is a VIN on the tranny to see if it is stock, but I'll look for one. If anyone knows exactly where the engine VIN is, please speak up. I've read that it is either above the starter or on the back of the block below the heads. If you have any more questions, fell free to ask. I'll try my best to answer them.

Earlier, we put in new gas, put the fuel lines back together (connected the lines to the new fuel filter), and tried to start it up. We got it running for a few seconds again, but it wasn't very smooth. It only ran for a few seconds by itself until it died. Then, we pulled the stock 600 cfm (I think that's right) Holley 4 barrel and put the rebuilt 600 cfm Holley 4 barrel, from the '71 build, in its place. We had to cut the hard line so we could use the newer carb. The stock Ford Holley's fuel comes in straight from a hard line, where the other goes from a hard line to a hose to the carb. We only tried to start it a couple times before we went inside for dinner, but it seemed like no fuel was getting to the carb. I think that there might be a fuel line clamp that I didn't tighten all the way. I'll flange the cut line tomorrow and hopefully it might help solve the problem. I'm hoping to get the car running in the next few days. It shouldn't take much more, hopefully, to get it running smoothly.

My dad and I have had our eyes on this car for over a year now. We stumbled on the car a while back in Farwell, TX out on the edge of town. Around 9-10 months ago, we finally got the chance to talk to a relative of the owner of the car. We had gone to buy a 260z from a junkyard (which also turned out to be his, but the junkyard crushed it for no reason. It had only gone in to get worked on, but paperwork was lost.), but when we got there with the trailer and all, the people running the junkyard decided not to sell it to us right then. When we left the junkyard, I remembered this Z about a block away and we drove there and finally got to talk to someone about the car. A few months go by and it is November 13. I remembered the owner's relative's name, found where he lived from the phone book, and went to talk with him. After talking for a few minutes of talking, he called the owner of the car. He talked with the owner for a while, and told me to go to his house to talk with him. I get to the man's house, I see a white 280z and a black 280zx parked in his driveway and get a little excited. He normally drives a really nice white convertible Corvette and the Z's are his projects. We talk for a while and he gives me some information on the car. He says he bought the car with the engine in it and had planned on swapping the engine into a better body. He told me he'd let go of the car for $200. My dad called him and finalized the deal. A week later we went and got the car. We had a bit of trouble getting the car onto the trailer. Over the last few years, the key was lost and the wheel was locked in place. We got the trailer positioned and pushed the car onto the trailer with only a little trouble. The car didn't go on totally straight so we had to jack it up a little and tip over the jack to get the car centered and all the way on the trailer. When we got the car home, the first thing I did was swap the ignition from the other '73. I needed an ignition with a key to start the damn thing. Thanks to ModernS30 for telling me how to get it off. I had to use an air cut-off tool to make the headless screws into basically flat-heads. Then I cleaned the car out a bunch. The old carpet was nasty, falling apart, and sticking to things. I threw all of that away. I vacuumed it out and generally cleaned it up. Next, I had to smash up the old oil filter to get it off the block. It was hitting the engine mount when I tried to get it off so I crushed in the bottom of it. We put in a new oil filter after we rounded out the bottom of it with a hammer and then we put in new oil. We got the car to turn over when we sprayed ether in the carb and got it to run for a few seconds before it would die. The gas has probably been sitting since the car was last registered in September 2002, so it was too old to use. I drained the gas tank, blew out the hard-lines, blew out the line going through the engine, and blew out the carb. I just replaced the fuel filter earlier, and we should be trying to get the car running better soon. Now, for some pictures! Most of this dirt was from the engine bay and under the cowl. Most of the bad looking body is just cracking paint. There isn't much Bondo. The radiator is mostly stock. The water outlets (I think that's what they are) are swapped to the opposite sides on top and bottom. This is the oil filter relocation kit and some Seafoam to clean out the fuel system. These are the rims that came with it: Hopefully, when the car is running well, it will replace this as my DD. For some strange and unknown reasons, I only get roughly 13 mpg in it. The rims and larger tires are messing the the speedo and odometer so I'm probably getting better gas mileage than I thought. I really hope this Z gets better gas mileage than this.

I'm talking about both I think. I'm not really sure. I'm not sure what exactly #6 is pointing to but I think it is pointing to the little thing on the end of #7 but I could be wrong. I need to take the differential out along with the shafts so I can get the suspension into two smaller assemblies that will fit better in the garage. I can't get the rear suspension into the garage yet because there isn't enough room between the cars to drag it up. When I refer to the Suburban being old, I meant it is a car my parents don't drive much anymore. Hell, the Suburban is as old as me. My dad has the '00 Camaro Z28 he usually drives (it has been dead for like 6 weeks now because the starter went out, battery went bad, we had to replace the crank position sensor, and overall figure out what was wrong with it. The new starter should get here soon hopefully.), my mom drives her '07 Prius, and my dad has been driving the '01 f150 mostly since the Camaro has been parked. I just meant it has been replaced as a daily driver for them. Also, anything better than 13mpg-15mpg would be nice lol.