Guest triple_threat311 Posted March 27, 2002 Share Posted March 27, 2002 Okay, I have been having the wierdest problem lately with the electrical system on my 78 280z. It all stems from a brilliant person who put a red wire as a ground wire and left the stock black one as the positive. Then after I bought the car, I, another brilliant person hooked up the battery backwards. THat caused a great deal of problems, the first two were two blown fusable links on the firewall. I replaced those links and my car starts fine and seems to do well. But the problem comes when wanting to do my headlights. I recently replaced the whole headlight assembly and they function perfectly. But only my parking lights would turn on. I swapped in a different switch and still no luck. I could not figure out what was going on. I traced wires per the wiring diagrams and nothing seemed to be out of order. Eventually, by accident the headlights started to work. But that was only when the switch was turned onto full windshield wipers and the windshield wipers were forced to stop. This is even compounded by the fact that there was not even a fuse in the windshield wiper in the first place. These problems point to a problem with a ground somewhere I am assuming, but I haven't the slightest idea where to look. Or is this problem something else? Any help would be appreciated. thanks anthony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted March 27, 2002 Share Posted March 27, 2002 Check the ground from the engine to the chassis (near the starter) and you'll have to go through and start checking all the other grounds on the engine and dash wiring harness. If the battery was hooked up wrong there's a good chance one of the other grounds got cooked before the fusible links blew. Also look for old wiring that has that green/white corrosion at any junction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted March 28, 2002 Share Posted March 28, 2002 Another problem might be something arced when the polarity was reversed. This could deposit copper/metal dust inside switches shorting them out from contact to contact or to ground. Also if you blew fusible links then there was some serious overcurrent going on. this could have overheated insulation in a wire causing it to break down. No easy answers, just need to trace the wires and check each component one at a time. Harbor Freight sells a tool that is suppose to help find shorts in auto motive wiring. Here is the link http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=33779 I have no idea how this thing works. If you buy this (only $18) be sure and let us know how it worked out. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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