no lights!!

[fl327]

hey there guys and gals

man i have a situation over here

my lights have been giving me a problem

for some time now, with the connection being loose in the steering colummmn

well, one night im on the freeway and the column starts smoking, and now whatever i do

or try they will not come on again, its crazy

do you guys have any suggestions?

the chilton manual is out of help for me

and i really need to fix this quick

any help would be greatly appreciated

thanx a bunch

Leonard

len168@onebox.com

[Guest Locutus]

You need to pull the cover off the steering column and take a look at the wiring and the switch, follow it back to the fuse block as far as you can. check for burnt or broken wires. After that get a test light and check to make sure the right wires are getting power to the switch. (Haynes makes pretty decent manuals with wiring diagrams). If you are getting power to the switch, then operate the switch and see that the power leaves the switch on the right wires(also have to reference the wiring diagram). If everything is fine in the switch then you have to trace out to the lights till you find the problem. Also make sure you have checked fuses, and fusable links. It sounds most likely to be the switch that fried, Mine were both problematic and finding some good used switchs fixed the problem. I recomend used ones unless you have the money as from the dealer they were a couple hundred a piece(headlight and turnsignals)

 

 

Mike

PS Different years used different connectors for the switches and parts. So a light switch from from one year, may not work on another year car of the same type.

[Guest Fast Frog]

FL 327:

 

While following Locutus' advise, check out the "thumper" switch that activates your hi beam/low beam for your headlites. Occassionally, this switch gets stuck "in between" and neither beam works. This has happened to me a few times on several of my Z's. Also, if your total lighting goes out, check your fusable link connectors located in front of your battery.

[BLKMGK]

I went through this myself for the first time on Thursday. Worse, the parts car I've got has a switch with a different connector on it and they're supposed to be the same year (72).

 

Anyway, as was said pull the column cover free. The switch on top of the combo switch controlled my lights. The one on the left was for parking, the other was for headlights. The wire on each switch nearest the driver while sitting in the seat was the "hot" wire - check it with a volt meter. If it's not got power follow it back, check fuses, etc.

 

On my car it had power but when fliped forward only the parking lights worked - the forward wire on the far left side got power but not the right side far forward. I unplugged the combo switch and removed the whole assembly - there will be some seperate heavy guage wires and some smaller ones in a plug. The heavier ones are what apparently get smoked as mine had been repaired previously. This time though it was the little copper seesaw in the combo switch. I knew voltage was going in but not out so I removed that single piece of the switch and cleaned it - three screws is all. there are some small little rubber nubs with springs in them - be careful of them when you take the swtich off the top of the combo stalk!

 

Since you smelled something burning you may have smoked a wire or the little copper seesaw things. Be careful and check it out closely as it sounds like something might have grounded - electrical fires are bad news! Make sure you solder in any wire you splice in as it seems that high resistance connections on a Z are bad news judging from the fusebox and my experiences with the combo switch. Consider a relay which is what I'm going to use myself - see below.

 

My switch was brand new from the previous owner and still gave me problems. He had installed H4 headlights which have apparently upped the amperage enough to heat the switch up (plastic cover slightly melted and it gets hot). I'm going to be changing this such that the switch only carries the load for a set of relays instead. Painless Wiring sells a kit for H4 lights and I'm going to try it out on my car. Is anyone interested in this being a tech article? I don't know how hard it will be to splice in but I'm going to try and not hack up the harness too badly. My headlights ought to get more amps and be brighter too - bonus!

 

Let us know what's wrong with your's as it seems this is a common problem on the Z car...

[fl327]

thanx guys, ill look into it,

the wire i believe to be smoldering is

the right side away from the driver on the

sterring column box there , as it is not

soldered on as the other wires are, my column

has smoked up twice and my lights are kaput

tell me how the H4 conversion with the painless

wiring setup looks when you get that done, man this red hot fuse problem with the z

is real!!!!!

ill try and try and try.

Leonard, grounded for a short time on

planet reality....

[BLKMGK]

Ordered the harness today from Jeg's. $89 with handling, ouch! However since it says it's for the H4s I figure this will make it a little easier to wire.

 

If that wire on the right side isn't soldered then yeah it got real hot. Mine has a BIG ball of solder on it! Right side away from driver - correct? That's the wire that goes towards the lights - the one nearest the driver on the rightmost side carries the juice from the batteryfusebox.

 

Anytime a high amp circuit sees resistance it'll heat up. The way the fuse tabs on the Datsuns were done they get corroded, resistance climbs, and heat becomes an issue. You want to try and keep those high amp loads down if you can. Replacing headlights with higher wattage beams like my H4s just makes this problem that much worse. I was a bit ticked the previous owner didn't put relays in, he had to have had problems. The little switch doesn't have real good contact even brand new, it's no surprise this part heats up when we add more amps or age corrodes the contacts...

[fl327]

hey guys, thanx for your help, lights on

and im back at the dragsss.....

here is what happened, and it took some

fabrication on my part and my friends part to

rig the lights back on

ok, there are these three rubber nubs with

springs in them that make it so the switch to the light clicks on or off, mine was burnt out, the rubber nub i mean, so that i would not activate the lights, the wires are fine and i resodered them for exactness

ok... those rubber nubs with springs were replaced with these plastic ventilation plugs

for a ford which can be found in any kragen

or generic autostore, usually in the universal part section where the nuts and bolts are located, i cut the tops of the ventilation plugs, which are very small

and placed them where the rubber nubs were

and boom.....lights on!!!!!!!

and tonight i just smoked a drop top five oh

with crome pony rims and flowmasters, im back guys thanx for the help

zpower forever, thats what time it is

Leonard, the fairlady rides again.;..

[BLKMGK]

Heh, that makes sense! I didn't even stop to think about how hot those little nubs must get when the switch heats up! I'd better get that harness in quick or I'm liable to have the same problems you did. Glad to hear it worked out but I'd still watch the amperage on that sucker - it's got to be getting hot in there.