badjuju Posted November 21, 2005 Share Posted November 21, 2005 Temporarily of course. Sorry for the long post, but I hate it when people ask really generic questions. I'm driving to Oregon for cheer practice, and at the Toledo/Vader (yeah, both stupid names for towns. I know.), my stereo shuts down. This is a problem because a. We were listening to the Apple Cup, and due to us not being able to finish the game, the Huskies lost. and b. I just installed a new alternator. My stereo shut off because it wasn't getting enough power. Which means the charging system isn't working. So we're on the side of the road, and a Washington state highway response team is driving by, he stops and jumps us, we make it as far as the offramp of that exit, and we pull off and call my uncle, who lives in Portland. Strangely, my tach, temp meter, and gas meter stopped working after we were jumped. My uncle drives up to exit 60, Toledo/Vader. (exits go 0-300 going south to north from the Oregon border). He brings us a spare battery. We put my battery in his van, put his battery in my car, and it starts up fine. We drive until the battery dies again, by then my battery has been charged by his car, so we swapped them. We did this about 4 times from the "oh crap" point in our journey. My tech question is as follows: What the heck is going on?! The only thing I can think of is: When I swapped alternators, I went to a GM alternator. The plugs were different, and I had to cut the splices off and redo them to change their configuration. (the hitachi alternator had a -| looking plug, and the GM had a -- looking one). Now the reason I replaced it in the first place is that all of the sudden my seatbelt sensor and e-brake sensor lights would just turn on, and what I beleive to be the fuel relay, just started buzzing, and this was seemingly random at first. Then it seemed to be happening at high rpm, then it just started happening all the time. Towards the end of this happening, my battery stopped charging. So I replaced the alternator, because my friend told me that the sensors just turning on sounded like my voltage regulator was going bad, because it only happened at high rpm. Then it started happening all the time, and then the batt stopped charging. I thought we diagnosed the problem thouroughly. Well when I first installed it, I took it for a ride around the block, and the same things happened; lights turning on, buzzing from under my dash board, and by the time I got back around the block, there was hardly enough power to fire the spark plugs, and the car was sputtering, all kinds of not-good things. I switched those two plugs that I mentioned earlier, the -- GM ones, and the problem stopped. So I assumed everything was fixed for my trip to Oregon. Now I know someone's gonna call me stupid for driving it to Oregon anyways, but I wanted to try it. I'm just thankful my uncle is the guy he is. Anyone have any idea what is going on? Why the charging system seemed to be working great and suddenly stopped? And why would the tach, gas meter, and temp sensor just stop working? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed260Z Posted November 21, 2005 Share Posted November 21, 2005 If I'm not mistaken the the 280ZX has Shunt connected in the chargeing system. It sounds like that is what might be causing you all of the trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted November 22, 2005 Author Share Posted November 22, 2005 schunt? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed260Z Posted November 22, 2005 Share Posted November 22, 2005 I double checked the wire schematic for a ZX, and they stoped useing a shunt in 78. I'd double check the 4 Fusible links, and make sure that they are in good condition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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