A lot of wierd stuff going on.....

[ZDrifter]

Please read everything so you can correctly help me.

 

Ok short story first...

 

Im sitting in the taco bell drive thru and engine shuts off. Try to start it and it cranks. My fuel pump is loud and I cant here it. So the pump isnt running, WTF. Keep trying, pump jumps back to life and I start the car. Not 2 min later same thing happens. So push it out to the parking lot and Im messing around with it for around 10 min and finally the pump kicks back on. Now the cars running but I have no dash lights, no brake lights, volt meter isnt reading.

 

Ok now to get some things clear. I had washed the car about a hour before. I drove the car after that for around 15 min before stopping at the taco bell. Then things started happening.

 

Specs:

1978 Datsun 280z RB25DET

Still has original harness for everything except the engine harness.

Walbro 255lph pump hooked up to stock wiring

 

Now to narrow this down I am looking for a junction where the dash lights, volt meter, fuel pump and rear lights get power because most likely water is getting in there. I still got power at the ignition switch and was able to turn the car over and still had headlights. Also when the turn signal is turned to left or right the hazard lights come on. WTH is going on!! So I havent got into too far because my damn food was getting cold and its getting late but Im gonna start looking at battery connections and go from there. My real question is if anyone knows of a plug or connection that would have the FUEL PUMP, DASH LIGHTS, REAR LIGHTS, and VOLT METER.

 

Another thing I need to mention is that when I got the car home finally with no rear lights, no dash lights and no volt meter I was sitting in my garage and suddenly everything came back to life. The only thing that stayed wierd was the turn signals turning on the hazards.

 

Any help will be greatly appreciated, Thank You. ~Spence

[skib]

crazy man, sorry Im no help but I thought Id leave a post anyway. wiring anything but a sterio pwns me.

 

 

well you have got 2 weeks to fix it lol

[Blown77Z]

From what I remember on my 77 Z the plugs for the dash wiring was the blue and black plugs underneath the passenger side of the dash. It sounds like you have a loose/bad ground wire somewhere......

 

I would check ALL your ground wire connections first.

[ZDrifter]

Thanks for your help. I will start there.

[mario_82_ZXT]

Have you checked the basics? A fuse runs the voltmeter. Also, I believe the dash lights are on the same fuse as the parking lights.

 

Check to see if you have parking lights, if not, there's a good chance that one of the bulbs in the parking lights, turnsignals, tails, could be so corroded it's blowing the fuse.

 

Mario

[ZDrifter]

Everything came back to life at the end of the night so thats why that rules out fuses. Its either a bad connection or corrosion.

[ZDrifter]

Alright. Did some work on the z tonight. Took almost every connector apart on the passenger side under the dash and cleaned them out. I found two that were dirty with crap. Cleaned them out and put some electromagnetic gel in there for good measure. I also found that the connection with my fuel pump was poor in one of the connectors so I had to pull it out and seperatly connect it away from the connector. Everything seems to be working normally while it was idling in the shop and the fuel pump was running very strong, probably the strongest Ive ever heard it. I just have one more question. If someone has a factory manual and they can look up what else is in the connector with the fuel pump wire. It is the connector that is just inside the car near the firewall. Thanks for the help.

[zcar?]

I have a book with the diagram in it if you need it

[WizardBlack]

The cowl panel has a drainage pipe that runs inside the car (under the dash) to make a 90* turn and then out to the area inside the fender to drain water. That's about right where a bunch of wiring stuff is at.