Nicksoccer22's Build's

[nicksoccer22]

Hey Hybridz, been browsing for about 4.5 years after seeing some videos on Youtube of sbc swapped Z's. I'm 22 in college and this is my first major car related project. 

My first Z, 72'. Bought her right before I left for Army basic training in July 14'. Bought it without brakes, a cut, spliced and mangled wiring harness, and it was missing the panel over the wiper motor and the body panels under the front bumper. I was told they were still getting paint, but when I called the paint shop they said they never had them,  when I went back to the previous owners place I was told he left the country. Over the last 4 years not much has been done other than saving money and "fixing" the brakes. 
Short term goal is to get it running again. Fall of 15' the wiring harness caught on fire while driving and it hasn't ran since. 
Hopefully by the end of summer 18' I'd like to get it running, refresh the suspension, and upgrade the brakes. 
Long term goal is an LS swap that can be a fun summer daily.

I'll probably post just big updates on Instagram, If you want to follow I'm @nick.steffens.s30

Edited July 26, 2018 by nicksoccer22

[nicksoccer22]

My second Z(First pic), a 71' with great interior and most importantly, a prefect wiring harness to swap into the 72'. My biggest regret with my cars so far was getting rid of this one. It had a lot of cool history behind it. It was owned and raced by a doctor on the east coast. He took it to Panama in the winters to race. It was relatively stock other than bigger sway bars.

 

My 3rd z, a 78'. I bought it for less than I could flip the wheels for and I figured I could use more parts. Car is now resting (for now) in a farm in North Dakota. Hopefully be a drift car some day. 

Wheels are now on a fb rx7 set of offset work equip 02's. 

[nicksoccer22]

So the car was rear-ended at some point in its life. And the person who repaired it did not want to do it right (that's why my taillights are goofy if you were wondering). I also think they replaced the thin metal panel the interior plastics mount to on the passenger side with a new one, because there are weird welds and a copious amount of seam sealer around it. 

 

Another bright idea that they had was to fill the area between the thin metal panel that was replaced with a TON of insulating spray foam, and in doing so encased the part of the wiring harness that runs back to the taillights inside of the foam. I tried to yank on it first, didn't budge, couldn't even feel the tension on the other end of the harness. I sprayed acetone and brake cleaner on a chunk that I peeled of off the shock tower and it didn't dissolve it at all. One thing they tried to do was add connectors to the harness down where it goes into the foam by the rocker, what they failed to do was leave enough room to actually plug stuff back in. I cant get my hands in there enough to plug what I had back in. So splicing my 71' harness and connecting it to the 72' harness that's in the foam isn't an option, plus the rear of the harness is already pretty horrible and spliced on the original harness.

 

So Hybridz, any suggestions on how to get the foam out of there/ get the new harness ran in there short of cutting out that panel? I plan to do it right eventually, but I'd really like to get it running by the end of summer and I don't want this to be a project that means I can't drive it before the Wisconsin winter sneaks up on me.  I ended up swapping to my 71' dash and harness last night after work and for now I just have the rear section of harness running on the outside of the wheel well.

 

 

Edited July 26, 2018 by nicksoccer22

[walkerbk]

Try some gas... something will eat that foam.

[seattlejester]

Just run a new harness. If that harness is compromised and heats up you are are going to be providing it with a lot of fuel being enclosed like that.

 

If I remember it is only a handful of wires for the tail and reverse lights.

[nicksoccer22]

I'm terrible at wiring, but I've made progress. Nothing I could find could get rid of the foam, gas, acytone, break cleaner, a mix of all of them... I broke off a bit I could reach and just for fun I tried to burn it and it wouldn't even do that until I broke out a propane torch and it still took a while to melt. Ended up running the harness along the wheel well inside the car for now. 

 

so here's where I'm at after swapping from a 72 harness to a 71. 

 

When I turn the key, I hear clicking on passenger side from one of the flashers? I used a cheap little wire tester that lights up if there's power, All pins have power on the flasher, and the starter/solenoid always has power. I don't have a multimeter right now to test how my juice it's all getting. Sounded like the fuel pump kicked on after the first turn of the key then hasn't made a peep since. I used a screwdriver to jump from the hot wire to the solenoid and the starter kicked on.

 

I've tried 3 key switches, but I've never tested if any of them work. They all make the flasher click, but that's it.

 

From what I've read I'd have to guess that the wires going to the solenoid have broken along the way, or corroded enough to not get enough power to the solenoid. Does that sound right? Or am I missing something?

 

Tried 3 Head light switches, all did the same stuff, turns on the high beam light on the gauge, but there is no power to the connector where it connects to the head light. Again a broken/corroded wire?

 

3 Turn signal switches, no power to either lights or gauge lights.

 

My hazards work great.

 

Brake lights work.

 

Any suggestions? Is there a flow chart for troubleshooting of sorts to help diagnose these problems for someone like me who doesn't have the best grasp on how this all works?

 

Anybody near eau Claire WI wanna give me a hand in exchange for some beer?

[seattlejester]

The turn signal pads on the combo switch are known to get burnt, bend, or a myriad of other problems. 

 

I wonder if you have the fuse box properly powered up, the fuse box also is problematic in that it is poor solder and the terminals can burn off on the back side.

 

Buy a cheap multi-meter, or get one for free with purchase of anything from harbor freight with the coupon. Get a set of long wires with aligator clamps in a heavier gauge and an inline switch and you have the best tool for checking wires. You pretty much only need one setting for this and it is the continuity setting. Learn how to use it, it will take maybe 5 mins and will be super useful the rest of your life. Stop guessing or assuming with this kind of stuff, it is pretty straight forward.

 

Check continuity between the item you are curious about (headlight) and start tracing, leave a clip on the power side of the headlight and keep tracing back until you loose continuity, your break will be between the last place you had continuity and your current location. No need to guess. Test sections at a time and you will be golden. Pull the fuse and test from the fuse box to the light and you can see if there is break from the fuse box to the light, check from the other side of the fuse to the combo switch to find out the same. 

 

 

[Pharaohabq]

Seattlejester has the right idea. But keep in mind it's quite possible that you've got shorts too, so when testing continuity on "hot" wires eg, from fusebox to the headlight, Use the FSM (Xenons30) to make sure you're following the correct wire, but test not only the wire, but also test to ground.  That'll tell you if it's shorted too.  

 

Being that your harness was hacked and burnt, I'd suggest you pull a donor harness and use that, or get the Painless repacement harness. That'll save you a massive amount of headache.

 

Phar