motomanmike

I hate waiting for parts, 2 more days.

On the T plug, did you make any modifications? The one that plugs into the back of the alternator? Test it with a voltmeter. Top of the T and bottom, one should have constant voltage,the other gets 12 volts from the key switch. I'll go out in the garage in a bit and look which ones. I didn't modify my old regulator at all just left it plugged in. Report back what readings you get where. Your alternator requires a "sense" the top of the T plug, I cut the wire, installed an eyelet, and bolted it directly to the main battery stud so it has constant battery power. It also has an "activation" wire from a 12volt feed, and i'm not sure on a 76 but I think will need an inline diode but i might be wrong I installed one on mine, without it the car would not shut off. Either way, the up and down portion of the T is your switch power, should be 12v when key is on, the diode should let power flow to the alternator so orient it accordingly. Your alternator is not activating. Your alternator will wear out faster if you do get it to activate and do not charge that battery on a battery charger before letting it loose on the alternator. Alternators are battery maintainers, not battery chargers. Your yellow wire coming out of the alternator is a "tach" terminal, typically is molded into the housing of the alternator but yours oddly enough is not. You will not use that wire.

Big Phil you've got one awesome Z!!! I've watched alot of your videos, trying to see what kind of set ups you are running. Kind of hard to get all that RB30 to the ground it seems.

I ordered the coil driver mod kit, BIP373 from DIY. I'll see how it goes. I'm sure it will work, most others have gone this route. I keep telling myself i'm sure it will work, one day I won't be lying to myeself. Again, thanks NewZed. You've been reading my posts from the very noob beginning. I've had a crash course the past three months and have more useless knowledge of fuel injection systems and datsun cars than i'll ever need !!!

No, it isn't configured for anything. I'm not currently using it either.

I couldn't wait until morning. Pin C stays to cranking voltage around 10.7-11 volts. The trigger pin is the curious one. I have my 1k ohm resistor right at the end tip of the wire on the 5v ref. Currently I removed everything else from the 5v ref to test (tps sensor ref) With the spark output S1 of the relay board hooked up to the trigger wire on the opposing end of the 5v ref, end of resistor. visually you would have in flow 5v ref to 1kohm resistor other end of resistor to trigger wire to HEI and S1 spark out put from MS. With the S1 wire hooked into the picture the voltage drops to 11 milivolts at rest or cranking with key on really odd to me. Unhooking the S1 spark output and immedietly the voltage jumps back up to 4.89 volts on the other side of the resistor and for a split second the sparkplug fires. I thought maybe the resistor was bad so tested with a new one. Same result. As soon as you hook up the S1 output or spark output the plug fires one time, and the voltage drops from 5v to 11 milivolts. This might not work, well apparently it won't work I guess. Other posts i've read about the stock ignitor and it didn't work either. Hmmmmmmm

I'll check in the morning and report back. I researched this set up and chatted with quite a few people including Matt and it was theorized this set up would work with MSII v3.57. The HEI worked with the old ECCS but they are different signals I think. I'm also wondering whether a stock L28ET ignitor would work without modifying the MS at all since it is a different design than what an HEI was designed for? I'm not too keen on soldering on the MS board. I did the connections on the relay board pretty cleanly but its just not my fortee, I don't like doing it because my hands are pretty shaky I could never be a surgeon. I'd probably send it out again Its really close NewZed. I've gotten everything else done. Just need to get fire, and tune. Its odd to me, I had spark before I sent the MS back to get the injector driver fixed. Wired just like this. To the point of if I sprayed ether in the breather she'd fire up. In the downtime i figued i'd clena up wiring and bought the relay board and harness and redid all the wiring. Cleaned everything up nice, now i've had to pull it all back out and test and make a mess of it all. I'll get it firing before I clean up anything again, that is for sure.

I just got my MSII back from DIY. They fixed an injector driver. Thanks again guys! Matt has been really great to deal with. I thought I had my relay board all ready and I might be able to fire this car up today but i was wrong. I have good injector pulse. While the starter is cranking my noid light fires on all leads. My fuel pump works. It kicks on and primes then cuts off. While cranking the fuel pump kicks on. Currently I am using the following items 1982 L28ET distributor wired up using the mobythevan's writeup. MSII v3.57 pre assembled board with no mods. It is how it was coming out of the box. MS relay board with assembled harness 4 pin GM HEI module(used to replace a burnt stock ignitor on my old stock ECCS setup and worked that way) Stock 280ZX coil I have good cranking pulse, rpm sits at roughly 200rpm when cranking. I see the timing advance needle move in tunerstudio so all seems fine there. Tunerstudio recognizes "cranking" Other than using the L28ET distribuor I have my coil wired up with a 4 pin HEI like in the picture below the picture below uses a VR sensor, I didn't go that route. I have the 1k ohm resistor on the 5v ref, feeding the pin G on the HEI with the spark output tied to the pin G on the HEI. Pin C going to coil - Pin B going to coil + being fed with switched 12v. Pin W going to body ground When I turn on the key, tunerstudio immedietly recognizes MS is plugged in and shows the values. As soon as I turn the key on I get 1 fat spark. As soon as I turn the key to crank I get one fat spark. I get no spark while cranking but the noid lights flash or blink. I verified my 5 volt ref stays steady with voltage while cranking, and keyed switched signal to the relay board stay above 11-10.7 volts while cranking. I have my output going LOW, normal. I really don't want to have to modify the board to direct drive a basic coil. I bought this board reading and asking questions beforehand because it was supposed to be able to create spark in this fashion out of the box. Please help me guys. I'm starting to get really discouraged.

I'm back. Well please disregard what I said I had on my post because I got my ecu back and have no fire. When I turn my key on and MSII gets its initial power from key on, I see one spark, when I go to crank I see one spark but nothing after that. Strange thing is it had spark the day I sent it back to get looked at i was having injector problems. Have you made any headway? I'm trying to get fire on mine with an off the shelf assembled unit, without modifying or jumping anything. I'll keep trying and let you know if I get any further.

Do you have a stim?

Well, DIY turned that around very fast and now my injector pulse is great. Noid light fires bright while cranking. I just need to get spark now. Thanks again Matt.

Wow, that guy in your signature friended me on FB awhile back. I havn't even thought about buying anything from them but I won't now. I'm guessing you got burned pretty bad. As for the exhaust, i'm sure you can tuck it up above but it would have to be pretty precise and may require a flex pipe up towards the motor to minimize any possible movement. Good luck. I'm curious myself. That car is LOW man.

Glad to see you finally got it going. Be easy on her until you get that wideband hooked up. Awesome job!

Softopz I really appreciate the information. I did open the MSII case and look at the particular spots it noted in the megamanual on the injector banks and it appeared to me maybe one of the diodes wasn't oriented right but I may be wrong. It was a pre assembled board. Its still at DIY and i'm awaiting the verdict, either way I just want to get it hooked up. In the mean time, I bought their pre assembled relay board and re did ALL of my wiring. The relay board made it a breeze to install everything. I was able to cut the original assembled harness, and install the relay board and re route all the wiring in a solid 4 hours or so. I havn't loomed everything but it looks 100% better than it did and should make troubleshooting any issues much easier down the road. Also it gives a dedicated power and dedicated ground which hopefully will eliminate the "noise" I had on the TPS hopefully we shall see. I'm still on the fence with the CHTS sensor, I feel it may be a more accurate value of the head temp, but there is calibration involved. I'll probably use it temporarily, it is wired up but I can't put the values in megatune until I get my ECU back, it won't save them unless you burn them on the spot it seems. Either way i'm anxious to get things going. Are your injectors grounded all the time too? Or are you having firing issues?

How many pin HEI module are you using? What distributor are you using? I'm curious myself, I have a 4 pin HEI on my car, i'm waiting on my megasquirt II to come back I had to send it away for repair/evaluation and I'm curious what is wrong with it, my injectors were staying open. In the mean time I bought a relay board and re did all my wiring. Currently I have everything wired up and from what i understand on my setup i have to tap into the 5v ref signal out of the relay board and my spark output from MS relay board goes to the trigger on the HEI, also tapped into the 5v ref. I've read if you don't use the 5v ref with the trigger wire the signal out of MS isn't strong enough to make the HEI fire the coil but I need a solid answer myself. I'll have to go out in the garage and see what the pins are on the HEI. I currently do not have the spark ouput connected to the relay board until I get a definite answer on what slot it goes to and what setting in megatune I use, whether I use Low or High inverted. I think I need low i'm using MSII pcb 3.57

I'm in the same boat, I bought 2 el cheapos and ground them down, test fit. Heated them with a heat gun and tried to reform them a little bit with no avail, close, but still looked out of place. I'll try a few others. I like the set ups posted. For an S30 there really isn't much room on the pillar. I'll let you guys know if I come up with anything that works.

I don't think you want to run any wires under the intake anything on an L-series LOL.

Coming from a guy in phoenix I get your point, however us here in MD are hard pressed to find a rust free car but this one is pretty bad. I agree with everything you say. There is more hiding. Especially front supports and floor into the firewall area too i'm sure the spare tire well is probably bad also. Bestlo Depends on what you want. Do you want a show car, or do you want a beater to drive? I have 2 Z's and my 1 Z isn't quite as bad as yours in those areas but in some others its pretty similar. I've driven 20k miles in it since I got it running and love it. I made it safe first off, new brakes, lines, tank etc etc. Welded a patch panel on the side. Didn't really do any body work and its my favorite Z. It just rides so nice, doesn't look fantastic but it wasn't what I was going for. Up to you but if you don't have body work skills, you are setting yourself up for defeat IMHO because it is an ART. Cool to see another guy out of MD though. Good luck Send some more pics i'd like to see the whole car. I thought I was the only guy in MD with an orange Z hahahaha

Just a status update for the group. This is my only hold up on the system currently. Everything else seems to work fine. I'm undecided on a temp sensor so I don't have one installed just yet. Wondering if that is the issue but I wouldn't think so. I think i'll use the stock CHTS sensor but have to calibrate it which I need to read up on the set up. For now here is what I have installed and here are my issues. 240SX TPS sensor. Works on tuner studio but is VERY glitchy, the needle jumps around, values vary 3 points sometimes, will sit idle for a second then fall below, or above 0. I have calibrated it numerous times. One time its closed value was 0 and its open was 28, one time is was closed with a value. It is wired with red to 5v ref, black to ground and white to the grey tps signal wire on MS LC-1 wideband 02 sensor wired up and programmed. Values match MS gauge to LC-1 display gauge exactly (i know this has tripped some people up I guess I lucked out) IAT sensor calibrated and works as far as I can tell, showed 75 degrees yesterday which was about right I have it mounted in the stock J pipe, right before the 90 bend. L28ET distributor wired up with the guide from mobythevans write up. Works, shows RPM when cranking accurately so im fairly certain things are good there. 4 pin GM HEI module, I had replaced my stock transistor awhile back so decided to use it as a cheaper alternative. My board isn't modified to drive a coil direct I currently have spark. I have it wired per the write up on here, for the L28ET stock system, I have my trigger wire hooked up from the MS being pulled up I guess from the 5v ref with a 1k ohm resistor per the write up on DIY's links. Works either way. Problems still. Injector banks are directly grounded when the MS boots up. Instantly. So my injectors click open and stay open. TPS fluctuating Connections to Tunerstudio with the car harness plugged into MS is glitchy. It takes a bit for it to come online. Sometimes I have to power cycle. Sometimes just go clean up in the shop a bit and come back and its up. Plug the stim into MS and boom instantly comes up. All grounds are good, direct to the battery via a ground block. 12v feed is a separate feed wire fused tied into my main relay for the power of the MS, and also feeding power to the distributor on a separate fuse. I have a small fuse block installed under the hood with 4 fuse slots. 1 feeds MS with a fuse. One feeds the power to the optical sensor in the dizzy with a fuse. I have a separate fuel pump relay with fuse. It is currently tied to switched key ignition because I couldn't get it to trip the relay via MS. I'm not sure if its enough power to trigger the relay I'm using or a problem with MS, not too concerned about it but maybe I should be with the issues i'm having. On a side note, how do you guys imbed the MSQ files on this forum. I emailed Matt mine directly, I tried to post it on here and it said file type not allowed?

Matt i emailed it to you direct. I couldn't figure out how to upload it on here, it said file type not allowed.

This is what it looks like with the stim plugged in. Ecu on my table hooked up in tunerstudio. Strange thing is now with the stim it lets me burn that value below 40. I've got alot more reading to do. I can't make sense of it all just yet.

Output test modes work on both bank 1 and 2. Bank 2 doesn't click when you turn the key on as the injectors stay closed. Bank 1 as soon as you turn the key on you hear the ijectors open and stay open. When I check continuity with ground meter beeps solid. The megamanual says If you have low impedance injectors (less than 4 Ohms), set the: PWM Time Threshold to 1.0 msec, and PWM Current Limit to 30% in most cases (all V3 main board with active flyback installed, and all V2.2 main board with flyback daughter board installed). Set the initial PWM% to 75% if (and only if) you have low impedance injectors and have NOT installed: the active flyback circuit on a V3 main board (assembly manual step #69), or the 'Flyback Board' daughter card on a V2.2 main board). If I try to adjust my PWM to 30% IT ERRORS AND SAYS VALUE CAN'T BE LOWER THAN 40. However it will let you in output test mode. This was the preassembled board, states that it can use low imp injectors. When you hover over the ? on the pwm description it says to set values recommended between 10-25 on injector PW period. confused on that one. Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm not going to go too much farther trying to get spark until I figure this out not much point if part of it isn't working right. It doesn't seem good though. the IDL led does not light up on the stim but all others do.

I imagined you could. I did some further reading and found the calibration values. Now I just have to keep reading until i know i'm 100% on the rest of the wiring.

I got my megasquirt II today and soooo excited to get it all hooked up. Hopefully i'll have it all hooked up by Sunday and can report. I hooked up my laptop, loaded megatune. Hooked up my stim, made sure my laptop would communicate with megasquirt and that all the functions work right with the stim. Everything seems to be good. I took my J pipe to work and put the bung on it for my intake air temp sensor. I made a custom fuel injector harness last night to use. I hope this works out. I'll keep you guys posted. I've got to get a temporary set up for my temp sensor, i'm just going to go to ACE and get some barbed fittings and a 3/8 T fitting and T the sensor into the heater hose for a temporary set up. Once I get it running and feel good about it, i'll pull off the J pip and get an intercooler and tap the thermostat housing for the sensor. Its getting closer

Cost out the door was 185k with bells and whistles and bells morphed with whistles, lots of carbon fiber and nice sewn lether, whatever options he could get he did its just the way he is. He isn't really a sport/supercar kind of guy though, he collects old vintage Mack's so it was weird to me he bought one. But man that thing was nice. The seats felt like you were laying in heaven, just wrapped around you sooo nice. It is the V10. Awesome day at work though, got to drive an R8, my boss bought me Five guys for lunch and I got to sit in front of my gopro all day and make training videos for our computer system we use. As for the driveline, it is smooth for the most part but putting around the parking lot or where ever slow it had some clunk like the gear box wasn't sure what to do. He's only logged about 2k miles on it and says its gotten better over time. Apparently they are like that, I wouldn't know. Thats the most expensive car i've ever driven and what a blast it was. I was blown away by how fast that car was and just as straight as an arrow. Not once did I feel it was anywhere near a point it would lose control or traction. Amazing car I must say i'd buy one if I had that kind of means. Maybe one day, just not today Thanks for looking guys, I love my Z's but man what an awesome car that is.