datsunlover

You've been busy lately! Just thinking... would a 280zx brake M/C + booster be of any use to you? I happen to have one here... oh, and a pair of 3 screw SU's in pieces too.. (I'm trying to clean up the garage a bit ) Soo... what are you up to on the 30th?

Oh yah, the motor ordeal finaly got worked out, and she's alive and driving. (I'm enjoying the driving stage now after two years of the project stage!) Just need's the front end looked at and a little driveshaft issue resolved I'd love to take her, but I fear taking a long trip in it.. On top of that, it's a PIG on fuel (only burns premium) so I'm contemplating a switch back to FI. I just picked up a 92 pathy for parts (3.0 V6, snaped timing belt) that I had thoughts of using the FI system from on the Z. I still have the original FI intake, and have some confidence in myself that I could figure out the wiring harness. I just finished sorting out a Chev TBI harnes and making it work in a Mazda RX7.. Nissan to Nissan couldn't be THAT hard! As for your warning light, I don't have any clue as to why it'd have power with the key off, but I'd make sure to wrap it with tape (if you havn't yet) to prevent a possible short/fire hazzard.. Anyway, I think I'm in T.O. on the 30th again, and the girlfriend has just informed me she wouldn't mind wandering through chapters if we were to hook up... 10:30 AM is the appointment time though, so I don't know if that will work out..

Well, I think your car has too many problems now.. you should sell it to me for cheep.

Um... what? Does this actualy ADD anything to the topic at hand? Or did I miss something... ?

Just think.. he may be doing those 'things' right.. now...

Heck man, I'd take a 15 year old BMW over your average 5 year old domestic! Cool daily driver AND a well put together/handeling car... The 350's are something though...

Reminds me of a few years ago.. A friend who was living with me decided to brew his own beer. In the closet.. It was awefull.. but WOW it had some kick!

I was under the impresion that ALL half shafts from the 280z up to 280zx were the same.. (possibly differing on the turbo zx's?) And I base that on the fact that I have 1982 280zx halfshafts and r200 in my 75 280z.. no mods, just bolted it all in.

Ok, I think I actually have an idea whats hapening.. Someone posted a link a while back about alternator wiring, and the site offers a kit or conversion I believe.. they go into a little discription of the GM alternator, and explain why a 'three wire' is better than a 'one wire' system. I was interested in it (and read through) because I was trying to figure out how to wire up my alternator (GM) to a mazda rx7... go figure.. Anyway.. from what I understand, the '3 wire' alternator has one wire to 'sense' voltage, and will adjust the regulator depending on demands placed on it (stereos, fans, lights, ect) basicaly changing output on the fly. The thing is, if this wire is hooked up to say.. the starter (like a typical GM would be) and you add say.. a high powered electric fan, but power it from somwhere else (battery, fuse panel, ect) it will cause problems. I don't pretend to understand this compleatly, but I assume that if the draw comes from somewhere else than the 'sensor wire' is hooked up to, it doesn't 'see' the drop in voltage, or doesn't sence it properly, causing the whole electrical system to get draged down. Even a slight voltage drop can cause sensors to missread, and the ecu to become 'confused' which seams to be what's hapening to you. The site makes reference to the 'dimming light' phenomenon you see sometimes with high powered stereos in cars, which is the same effect. (you know, the civic with the huge subs, you can see the lights dim every time the subs thump) I'll see if I can find the link... EDIT; Here it is... Alternator wiring site

Ah.. what about the toyota 4x4 caliper/300zx rotor swap? The 4 lug rotors are NOT cheep (trust me; I changed my mind on the swap, but I'm stuck with the rotors as it was an 'order in' and therefore not returnable) and if these are anywhere near good, I'd take em...if it runs well, you might be able to sell the motor.. same motor as the pathfinders and trucks.

Actually, I think he got out of the Altima a while back.. I seam to recall him driving a *ahem* honda now..

I call that 'CARma' man... always comes around. Good deal! I'll have to come check that out sometime.. I may be down there the end of the month. Not in the Z however, as it's in need of a front end/brake re+re and the driveshaft is going to fall out of it. I might have the V8rx7 going by then though.. Oh btw.. need a spare set of 3 screw SU's for that baby?

Doesn't own a single metric tool? Wow.. how does he work on ANYTHING newer than mid 90's domestics? From what I've seen, they're mosty metric now... Oh I've had a guy tell me that about struts too; It's not gona work buddy, those little crapy struts won't hold a V8 and it's gona handle like s&!t.. You're wasting your time. I take comfort knowing that he will never see any money from me, and anyone I can tell about his.. behavior, will hopefully go elsewhere too. Frickin tool...

So I'm almost ready to put my V8 rx7 on the road, and need to get it safety checked to get plates/ect. My boss's son just bought a $300 '94 cavilear, and took it to a little shop localy to get the safety done. One guy operates this shop, does evrything himself. The guy called the e-brake cable, and an exhast flange/seal at the cat. convertor. Hmm.. sounds like a good guy for me to try, seeing as he somehow TOTALLY MISSED the leaking gas line, the other 3 exhast leaks, and a few other minor issues. I say this is 'good' for me, as I have a V8 in a mazda, and ussualy most shops won't even touch something like this, or they'll call all sorts of crap. Anyway, I stoped by today to talk to the guy, and see what he thought. (I'm driving my truck, so he hasn't even seen the mazda) I asked him if I could bring a car over sometime for him to look at for a safety check.. Get a load of this a$$; "Well what year is it?" "1986 mazda rx7" "No. I won't even touch it, too old." "uh.. huh? Why not?" "TOO OLD!! They get all rusted and evrything." "Um.. not this one, it's actually in really good shape, seriously.. it spent a lot of it's life in Hawaii and.." "NO. I'm not interested in looking at it." The REALLY stupid thing is that when I walked in, he was under the hood of a 60's Mustang!!! I guess it didn't cross his mind that I might have restored this rx7, or heck.. maybe it's just been well kept! (which it has, save for me craming a 350 in it) I didn't even get to explaining what I'd done to the car, and that I wouldn't have done it if the car was a rust bucket!! Just pisses me off..

I was going to say that.. brazed, not welded. I'm not an expert, but wouldn't that be even weaker than a welded diff?

Heh, I can beat that one Glen. My first V8 rx7; Got it together, hacked as it was, with my chev 10 bolt rear all bolted in (that I bought, cause I couldn't weld yet..just like the engine mounts and tranny x-member) got it running, and went for a few test drives. After 3 runs, the rear started making a strange noise... hmm.. wonder what that is.. WHAM!!! Screeeeee...... Oh crap... the rear tires are locked up. Car skids to a stop.. Yup, NO oil in the dif. Big mess, so much for that nice posi unit.. Here's the kicker; I was literaly TWENTY FEET from my driveway. Had to pay a tow truck $50 to drag it 20 ft. He laughed. I swore... I am getting better though.. That project took me over a year, and was really as basic as you can get... (crusty 305/350th) ...and not very well done.. actually, downright dangerous. 30psi fuel pump runing to a carb, rad fan hard wired to a switch without even a fuse, battery bouncing around/blocked in with pieces of wood behind the seat...The thinks you do when you don't know squat.. In comparasin, my current RX-V8 is a newer TBI 350/700r4 that I have succesfully wired, (first start up today.. yehaw!! ) instaled with my own fabricated mounts, has a custom alternator bracket/tensioner that WORKS, and it's only taken me ONE MONTH!!! Amazing what you can do when you have some knowlege and a bit of patience. Although I should have cut the mazda tranny mount back a bit further cause the stinking spedo cable is really tight in there.. doh..

Same thing is going on up here in Canada as well.. at least in Ontario. Never mind we pay the most taxes, have the highest car insurance rates, and have about 20 hoops to jump through JUST to get any used car on the road, than any where else in the country.. The cops are 'cracking down' on us the same way and here, and it IS at the officers discresion to say how loud 'too loud' is. I know several people who have had to pay tickets for just that, and while their cars were not whisper quiet, they were nowhere near as loud as some bikes in the area.. I know plenty of guys that ride too, never heard of them getting a ticket for being too loud.

I gota say If a mini dress wearing chick is sitting in front of me, the only.. 'member' I'm thinking about is MINE and.. uh, where I'd like to put it...

Well, this is sort of an apples to oranges comparasin, but I just spent the last week or so figuring out a chevy FI system. (I'm puting it into an 86 rx7) It's an older TBI system mind you, but it is still quite advanced compared to a carb, and will start/run/drive the same ALL the time.. My 75 280 has dual SU's and they work.. it runs a bit rich, sometimes it is hard to start, sometimes it bogs and pops a bit.. I'm going to leave it alone as it is prety much original, and for now, still runs/drives well. If you're gona do a V8 swap, I'd go with FI over carbs.

I'll second the AFM thought. I'd say run it EXACTLY as it was stock before looking elsewhere for the problem. When I was messing with my 280z's afm (when I was still trying to figure out the FI.. I eventualy went to carbs cause it was simpler) I noticed some weird things with the afm fliped over, or moved around. At one point I had it on it's side (rotated about 45* from original location) and the engine ran smoth as a babys but; Only problems was it idled from 700-1500 up and down, up and down... as if I was slowly bliping the throttle.

Ahem.. For starters (no pun intended) I'd try to use proper english.. it's easier to understand, and will ussualy get you more help.. What you just wrote (well, the way you wrote it) is likely to get you flamed more than I would guess you have a problem with geting power from the key to the relay. There will be one wire on the back of the key cylinder that will go 'hot' (put out 12 volts) only when you turn the key to 'start' and that will go to the relay. Sounds like your ignition switch may be the problem.. although, it may be a power conection/clip going TOO the relay that has gone bad.. Time to get the milti meter out.

Well, after all the misfortune here lately with Z's getting mashed, and a little episode tonite, I'm not putting it off anymore. Too much time and $$$ invested to have it suddenly dissapear.. I was driving down a pretty much deserted road tonite in town, coming up to an intersection.. signal, brake lightly, just driving slow.. I see lights coming from the right.. no prob, I'm turning left, and the road that I'm turning onto has a stop sign both ways (IE; I have the right of way hands down.) so as I start my turn, this little civic comes screaming through the stop, and stops in the middle of the road. AAHHGGGG!!! I didn't know if he WAS going to stop, so I had cranked it hard left and jamed the brakes almost to the point of lockup... The 4 kids were LAUGHING!! So, still rolling slowly, I get it in first and start to pull away, with the horn going and my girlfriend yelling at them. The little bastards then GUN it! Heh.. I don't think so. I could see this getting worse if they get beside me, or in front.. So I step on it and watch the headlights disapear. They pulled over, and turned around, I continued on my way.. wishing I'd see a cop.. Just a little too close for my likeing.. if I would have been going straight through there, (not braking and starting a left turn) they would have hit me right in the passenger side were my girlfriend was sitting. Normaly I'm not a violent person, but If that had happend (assuming I was not knocked out in the crash) I probly would have been going to jail, as I'm sure I would have draged that stupid punk kid (driver) out of his car and beat him to death right there...

This has happened to me too. A few years back I had a 2wd Nissan p/u (V6/auto, STOCK) that I lowered a little and put some nice tires and rims on. (Oooo.. 15"s!!! ) Nice looking truck, not slow.. but not reelly.. fast. There was a kid I'd see evry once in a while in a mid 90's ford Probe GT. First time, we lined up at a light just by coincidence. I had a loud stereo, and I guess because he didn't yet (had a trip permit on the window; obviously just bought the car) he figured he'd show me up.. rev.. rev.. Light went green, and wouldn't you know it.. he cant drive 5 speed too well! I killed him easy, and got a laugh. So a few weeks later, the same basic scenario happened again, but this time he'd gotten better with the shifting, and it was pretty much neck and neck... at 30 over the speed limit, I backed off.. So at the next red light, I looked over at him with a grin; He says "So you couldn't keep up eh?" Yah, thats it... Anyway, the same thing happens AGAIN and this time, the guy gets the drop on me, obviously knows the car a little bit now, and kills my truck pretty good. He stops for a red (same one.. heh..) and I'm going left this time, so I get beside him. He says "What, you can't stick with me?" with a smug look. I told him that he SHOULD have beaten me, cause after all I AM driving a bone stock pickup! Never mind his obvious exhast/intake, suspension work, and the fact that his car IS a SPORTS CAR after all..

Yah I actually stole the fire extinguisher from our appartment to put in the Z.. I guess that makes me a little parinoid too, as I feel the car needs in more than the house.. Note to self.. buy two more of those things tomorrow..

I always liked those.. except for the rear runing lights sticking out from the sides (just wrong IMO), I think they are a really 'mean' looking car, right from the factory. wide, flared, and really nice seats.. They do bare some similarity to the Z31's, and even more to the mid 80's 200sx's (85-88 I think) which isn't a bad thing.. kinda square, but with style. Funny story.. I had an 85 200sx years ago, and got out of a speeding ticket once because the cop wrote 'toyota' for the make of vehicle. Have fun!