My car.

[Pharaohabq]

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.

 

 

Sucks to have to move... Tho maybe you'll get your Z running. I can't imagine how bad a wiring issue would be to fix on the scale you've got. My Z has a slow voltage leak I haven't found yet, so I just disconnect the battery when I'm not going to be driving. You've got me worried about my fusible links and fuseblock now tho... Maybe I'll swap mine out. It'd be easier to find fuses that way too. Seems like a lot of work to fix something that ain't broke... yet.

 

Phar

[Daeron]

Sucks to have to move... Tho maybe you'll get your Z running. I can't imagine how bad a wiring issue would be to fix on the scale you've got. My Z has a slow voltage leak I haven't found yet, so I just disconnect the battery when I'm not going to be driving. You've got me worried about my fusible links and fuseblock now tho... Maybe I'll swap mine out. It'd be easier to find fuses that way too. Seems like a lot of work to fix something that ain't broke... yet.

 

Phar

 

Heh. the move was an adventure, but all is essentially resolved; my car is now at the shop, where my dads to-be-re-turbo'd 78 is, and my brothers's racecar with a blown engine is. The three vehicles should be commencing more or less simultaneously, as my car has one man driving it, pops's has another, and the racecar is my two brothers' so each vehicles has at LEAST one whole man on it.

 

I am hoping for some of that synergy stuff, positive feedback kinda vibe. The racecar _is_ being done, and in a timely manner, so me and pops get to hitch our inspiration trains onto that while we help, and in turn get stuff moving on the two 280s.

 

 

 

BANZAI!!!!!!!

 

 

but your comment made me think "heh, yah, thats exactly the mindframe I had about my car before my wee fire." So, in short, my problem oribably isnt as bad as you think it is... but let it scare you at least that much, because its a healthy fear

[blue72]

Oh great, now you've got me concerned about the wiring in my Z too. I've got a slow drain on the battery, and a wire that fried itself a few months ago. Thanks for the hysteria and good luck with figuring out your own wiring woes.

[Daeron]

learn how to use the ammeter portion of your multimeter. Knowing how to test for various electrical problems is a VERY subtle and detailed skill, and chances are you need to expand your diagnostics knowledge.

 

Try going to a library and see if you can find an Auto Mechanics textbook; I have a high school text that my dad got because the school went with a different publisher, it is one of the most valuable tools I have.

[turbonissanzx]

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.

 

 

 

Think you may have more luck using this junker as a parts car especially if it has already caught on fire well you should at least keep a fire extinguisher if you drive this clunker.Good luck

[Daeron]

 

Think you may have more luck using this junker as a parts car especially if it has already caught on fire well you should at least keep a fire extinguisher if you drive this clunker.Good luck

 

There is no if about it- I drove it ever day for five years and (estimated) over 60,000 miles. It will be again, but it wont get restored... this car will be one of those band-aid restore jobs that look pretty but have lots pf fiberglass patches and BS like that. Eventually I will scrap the chassis, but until a day when I have more money, this is MY Z.

[cali260Z]

thats right budday! and what are you gonna do about it/

[Pharaohabq]

Heh, That's the right 'tude Daeron, It's YOUR car. don't let nobody tell you what to do.. I think it's awesome you want to preserve her life, just just watch how many layers of makeup you put on, makeup doesn't fix what's underneath. sometimes "plastic" surgery is required... hehe

[thrustnut]

Ya man, keep your head up. I dont see anything on the car that would not be fixable with a little cutting and welding, POR15, and some fiberglass. Unless the frames shot you should be OK. My car sat for over five years with no engine or tranny while I got my stuff together. I drove it for the first time about two weeks ago, and man I felt like I was in high school again. Talk about a time machine. KEEP IT ON THE ROAD!!

[attworth]

Reminds me of my car....