My car.

[Daeron]

This sub forum seemed best suited, since this isnt exactly a "project" thread by any means yet. The main purpose of this thread is to provide something to link the words "fusible links BLOW" in my sig to. any responses are more than welcome.

 

The title of this story is:

Why Fusible Links Blow.

 

This is my 1975 Datsun 280Z.

She was my daily driver from July of 2000, when I bought her for $300 cash, until October of 2004, when she had a small electrical fire. This is the story of why she was taken out of commission, and my lame ass excuses as to why its taken well over 2 years for me to do anything about it.

 

In early October of 2004, Hurricane Jeanne stormed through Southeast Florida. She wasn't a major storm, but since she came only a month after Hurricane Frances, and there were still large amounts of uncollected debris in piles on curbs, Jeanne did pack something of a wallop in terms of electrical outages. After 3 weeks in the heat, the power trucks made it to my neighborhood. The third day, they seemed to be working in our area. We wouldnt know until they quit for the day, and re energized the sections of grid they had repaired. At 7 o'clock, when the shift changed, those guys cleaned up and left, and for fifteen minutes my landlord and I rode around in my Z looking for evidence that power may be back on in other homes, but not yet ours. At some point, my landlord must have inadvertently kicked something by the fuse box area, because something shorted out and the car died. I jiggled the battery cable and it cranked up, but it didn't take long for that something to short again.

 

The second time, I blew a fusible link. No sweat, I was right down the block from my house.. we pushed the car home, I got another fusible link, replaced the first, and we were good to go. Drove around a bit more, without any problems at all. However, I was in for it; the fusible link I had blown was black in color. It was NOT a black fusible link, but it had been stained over time. The fusible link I plugged in to replace it, WAS in fact, a black fusible link. Can you see where this story is going? For the record, our power WAS turned back on that night.

 

Later that night, I went to run to the grocery store. Hop in the Z, pull out, after a block things all of a sudden start running AWFUL, the headlights go extremely dim, and I could barely keep the engine running to turn around and drive home. Take landlord's car to store, fast forward to next afternoon. I hop in the car, crank it up, runs fine. I drive around the neighborhood with my stereo on, AC fan blowing, and headlights on trying to draw as much juice as possible; nothing. Drives fine, runs fine, ammeter shows proper charging. I drove past some kids playing baseball in the street, and pulled into the driveway, puzzled. I turned off the car, put the keys in my pocket, walked back inside, and inadvertently left the front door open.

 

Fifteen minutes later, I walk out of the hallway and into the living room, and one of the kids who was playing ball in the street is at my door trying to figure out how to knock on an open door. He meets my eyes with a baffled look on his face and says, "Uhm, I think your car's on fire." As he was saying this, I looked past him to see smoke drifting out from under my hood, and my windshield wipers immobile, and halfway up the glass:

 

 

I shat a brick.

 

Long story short, the short recurred, I guess. The fusible link didnt blow; it heated up, because it was a much higher rating than it should have been. It melted the plastic block cover that I had JUST FOUND A NICE NEW ONE OF in the junkyard, and set the fusible link block on fire. By the time I got it out, the entire fusible link block itself, and all associated wires, were toast all the way down to the point where they integrated into the main wire harness... BUT no further. The damage was fortunately limited to the block sub-harness, and the main harness was in no way harmed.

 

However, I had no hopes of finding a fusible link block like it in the junkyard, and the part was not to be found in the family parts hoard. (Mostly 240 stuff.) Knowing what I know now, it would be a simple matter to have repaired this; but the car had many other issues with electricity. In addition, I have a complete MSA twice pipes exhaust system and header to install; my injectors always leaked; the car always ran rich, the fuel pump was re wired the ghetto way; the turn signals didn't work; the rear brakes were an open system!; I had front strut cartridges to install; rear disc brakes to install; and a five speed to put back in. (The car currently has a four speed in it; I got a wrong clutch master, and couldn't disengage the clutch, we thought it might possibly be internal tranny issues and tried the swap, I never got around to re swapping afterwards.) This Daily Driver needed a trip to the spa in a BAD way, and after two hurricanes, and the resultant missed work and spent money, I was totally financially drained and had NO resources to do any of these things to the car.

 

 

In desperate need, and with thoughts of all the work I had never been able to do to my only car and daily driver, I wound up putting timing belts on my brother's old Subaru and he gave me the car for free (seen here in the background.) Shortly afterwards, I was fired by a crazy office manager. Since then, I have had six jobs (currently on my seventh) and spent a total of about six months unemployed, and had an eight month stint with no driver license due to lack of insurance. In other words, it hasn't been good times.

 

I am currently trying to get to working on it; as many parts as I have, and as much restoration work as the car needs, I certainly have funds for the minimal shop supplies needed to do ALOT. Work and domestic issues have taken center stage, blah blah blah insert sob story here. Plans are to stay with the L engine, build a mean P-90, and maybe ultimately go twin turbo with an interesting twist, and also hopefully LPG injection. THAT is certainly a nice modest goal, don't you think? Anyhow, thats the lofty goal, more short term is just to get the thing running, MS it, and experiment with dual TBs and SU intake manifolds. The P-90 head will come in somewhere along the line, but we shall see as far as actual "projects" shaping up on the car. I don't want to talk a huge talk right after explaining why the car has been allowed to rot outdoors (I DO keep it covered at least) but that is what I have in mind.

 

Here are a couple more photos.

 

 

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me. The spot welds between the corner panel window opening and the hatch opening are OK on both sides, but starting to show rust. The rear face panel needs some work from two separate incidents; there is typical cancer starting to show in a couple of spots. The frame rails need serious attention, but there is no one thing very major on the car.

 

 

This is her bad side; the rear quarter panel may be in need of replacement. You can also see a nice little dent behind the bumper in the middle; I had the bumpers off for a couple of years but a cop made me put them back on. The worst cancer spot is right at the corner of the rear quarter window opening.

 

 

Here you can see, propped up in the crack between hood and fender, a chunk of the 1/4 inch or more thick paint and bondo that is chipping off of my fenders; Thanks, PO!! In the pictures posted above, of the front of the car, you can see the 240 bumper I have "in storage" resting on the stock bumper; nothing fancy, I just found a good lace to put it for now, thats all.

 

Yes, I have a LOT of work ahead of me. Yes, I made several poor decisions that led directly to this car's "de-commissioning" as I put it. I was under a lot of stress from living in the post hurricane world in urban south Florida; Grumpyvette can attest to what kind of hellhole this place became with no traffic lights or air conditioning. EVERYone was in a foul mood, the bad vibes got to me and I cannot make any excuses for my behavior that led to my fire; it was six or seven stupid moves in a row. Almost comical, but for the tragic outcome.

[Daeron]

oh and I have a complete set of both style rims.. i put the one ZX rim on because the tire on the other AR mag stopped holding air.

 

Anyone like those rough mags? the wheels are in great shape, and I have hated them since day 1. Just not my thing. If anyone wants them, make an offer. 14x6.

[280zxcoastie]

QUITE a bit of work you got there buddy. It should be worth it tho....

[sone]

i was going to ask you if you knew anyonwe else with a z down here, all the z clubs i know are all 350's

[Daeron]

me, my family, our old neighbors.. and a few random people I have met like yourself. off to work now, PM me and we can talk more.

[Guest ibjuan]

Hi,

 

Sorry to hear about your car but it sounds like you're on track to get it back in great shape. I just got a '76 280z and one thing I've never liked on old cars are the fusible links. What do people with these cars do about updating that fuse box? I come from the RX-7 world and people use the 2nd generation RX-7 ('86-'92, fc3s) fuse box on their cars '85 and older as an upgrade. I'd like to do something about the fusible links but the Z world is really new to me. I have lots of reading/catching up to do.

 

Thanks

[gokiburix]

uhh...please use one bumper or the other...not both please. hehe

[Shift]

Car looks crooked. Was it in a front end collision at some point?

[Daeron]

uhh...please use one bumper or the other...not both please. hehe

 

Kinda like pinball, right?

 

Car looks crooked. Was it in a front end collision at some point?

 

Possibly; I hit a mustang at about 2 mph (feathering clutch, I thought she had already turned out from in front of me) with no bumper on the front.. (I had made that hood PERFECT, too... oh well, scratch that one! time for hood three!) but I think you're seeing a combined optical illusion from 1: shitty camera (two pics snapped one after the other, in the same spot, and the car had somehow morphed its shape a tiny bit) 2: halfway open hood, that may not be aligned perfectly and 3: front bumper that DEFINITELY isnt aligned correctly, AND has a 240 bumper sitting on top of it. The bumpers were thrown back on hastily by yours truly to comply with equipment laws so I could resolve a ticket shortly before the big futz.

 

Regarding the fusible link block, blue's techtips page http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/ should have a write up on removing the fusible links, replacing them with a maxi-fuse block, and simultaneously converting from an externally regulated alternator to an internally regulated alt like the Nissan Maxima 90 amp or a GM 100 amp unit.

 

It always comes as a surprise to see this thread resurface, cause i just wrote it to make the term "fusible links blow" in my sig a link BUT, its nice to get the odd drop of encouragement from you folkses.

[badjuju]

I gotta say man, that's a hilarious story (the first part... not so much about the unemployment sheyit)

 

You'll get her back on track, keep pluggin away. Got an update?

[Daeron]

The closest thing I have to an update runs thusly:

 

My beloved family somehow still nags me to get on my car, yet some random guy gets to park his 94 S10 at the shop before I get to bring my Datsun up there.... It seems my brothers can play racecar, one of them gets to leave his mustang there instead of finding a fuel leak, my old man can futz on his 280 while driving his nice 98 323is, and Dave can leave his chevy truck project (several years in the making itself) sitting there, but I can't haul the only S30 anyone in my extended family had on the road for four years in for a spa treatment.

 

This *may* cause a bit of a scene at my parents' this christmas, quite honestly.. I was LIVID when I pulled into the shop Thursday and saw that stupid @#$%ing truck there.

[JSM]

This *may* cause a bit of a scene at my parents' this christmas, quite honestly.. I was LIVID when I pulled into the shop Thursday and saw that stupid @#$%ing truck there.

 

Family hypocrisy has not limit! Just don't pass it on to your kids, when and if you have them.

 

Good luck!

[zredbaron]

oh, man. reminds me of an electrical fire i had in a '71. never did learn what started it. melted harness bad.

 

and uh... seriously... why the *hell* do you have two bumpers!? doubling up doesn't give you any more protection!

 

haha.

[Daeron]

oh, man. reminds me of an electrical fire i had in a '71. never did learn what started it. melted harness bad.

 

and uh... seriously... why the *hell* do you have two bumpers!? doubling up doesn't give you any more protection!

 

haha.

 

I had a 240 bumper in the shed, and it was in the way. I needed to find a place.. and just set it there. It fit so well I left it there under the car cover, with the other bumper. That is just put there, I forgot to move it for the photo.

 

I pored over a hard copy of the wiring diagram for the car last night and traced out the entire circuit associated with the fusible links. I have a maxi fuse panel I snagged out of a caddy in the JY, a relay box from a BMW (both covered, nice looking pieces) and an internally regulated alternator.. I need to repair the burnt wiring, replace the old externally regulated alternator with the IR unit, replace the alternator wiring, test and inspect the old alternator, the combination switch, the keyswitch, the ammeter and shunt, and probably a few other circuits that I am forgetting right now....

 

..and THEN time for a quick FI component check, a ghetto rig of fuel supply (tanks been sitting EMPTY for THREE YEARS, have to do something about that before I use it) and a spin around the block!!!!

 

I feel like a little girl!

[Daeron]

I ran a search on "air conditioning" and for some reason this thread came up first.. so I may as well update it with the news that I have patched in a Maxi-Fuse panel out of a 94 Caddy Deville into the car, but thus far have had zero success in finding my short. Must work on it more tomorrow; I ran out of daylight the other day.

[HowlerMonkey]

Is your battery held down such that it cannot either tip or slide to the point at which the positive battery terminal touches the body?

[sone]

Any updates on your Z Daeron?

[Daeron]

Well, the cover I had on it got shredded by the hystericane that just blew thru.. but that hardly counts as an update. (any time the newbies get all panicky about a storm lower than category 2, and I see multiple people filling multiple gas cans, it qualifies as a "hystericane." I spent this hystericane flying a kite. )

 

 

I am going to need to inflate the tires to move the car in the next couple of weeks, because I appear to be moving within the next month. Fun times.

 

Believe me, when anything happens the thread'll get bumped

[BRAAP]

...

I am going to need to inflate the tires to move the car in the next couple of weeks, because I appear to be moving within the next month. Fun times.

 

...

 

Where you moving to?

[Daeron]

bah, my parents' place, about 15-20 miles away from where I'm at now. I've been renting a room from a guy, and he's pretty much losing his house, soooo... no more room, heh. LONG story. even compared to this one.