Guest Anonymous Posted October 12, 2000 Share Posted October 12, 2000 I'm gonna rewire all lights. Am I correct in understanding that there are no headlight relays stock? Can the headlight switch be sucessfully disassembled and cleaned? Or is it sealed or something like that and can only be replaced? Re-wiring seems straight forward, I found the contacts on the headlight switch for park lights and headlights, and figured out the turn signal. Seems easy enough to me! ------------------ Morgan morgan@z31.com http://carfiche.com http://z31.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted October 12, 2000 Share Posted October 12, 2000 That's right, no headlight relays! Yes, you can disassemble the headlight switch, clean, lube, and flip the rocker parts around to use unused parts of the contacts as well. (there's very few parts on this car I haven't disected ). Check my site for an article on adding relays to the turn signal circuit to keep the lights working and the switch from taking the brunt of the lighting current. I used the stock headlight switch and hi/lo beam switches, but wired them in series, sending fused power out on the low and high beam wires. I did away with the wire from the common of the headlights back into the cabin, and grounded the headlights to a big cable going to the battery. I ran a realy off of each of the high and low beam wires that go from the hi/lo switch and ran large gage wire from the altenator (with fusible link) to the relay contacts, and then to the hi and low beam contacts on the lights. Yeah, the person(s) who designed the Z wiring studied at Lucas Electric, I believe! Pete http://members.home.net/pparaska [This message has been edited by pparaska (edited October 12, 2000).] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 12, 2000 Share Posted October 12, 2000 Cool. I'm replacing it all, all wire, connectors, everything. I saved all the wiring and plugs from a 300ZX I recently bought for parts. Got a few miles of quality nissan wire and a box of connectors and a relays. Keepin' it all Nissan! There are 6 wires going into the turn signal... We could only find out 3 of them - 1 always hot for power, and 2 other wires, 1 for right signals and 1 for left signals. What are the other 3 wires for? (hazard lights I would guess? brakes?) My problem is even more confounding since the turn signals and brake lights use the same wire to the bulbs, it must be the turn signal switch or something in the dash preventing the LR turn signal from working. Oh well, replace it all and be happy So, the other 3 connectors on turn signal are for what? Where is the hazard flasher? Anyone feel there might be a problem with making the high beams turning on both filaments in the headlights instead of just the high filament? Only thing I can imagine is overheating(?) the bulb if that's possible... Why are the wipers do &%@#*$^@#$ slow? They move real slow... like, 2 seconds for 1 round-trip wipe! No difference between speed settings. Is the motor weak? Weak wiring giving low voltage to motor? Or is this not a common problem? ------------------ Morgan morgan@z31.com http://carfiche.com http://z31.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 12, 2000 Share Posted October 12, 2000 Good question on the wipers, my 72's are so slow its rediculous. It does have two speeds, slow and is this thing on? I thought it was just mine doing it. Anyone else have this problem and if so whats causing it? Lone ps: the only plus is it will work great in a really light mist/drizzle.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted October 12, 2000 Share Posted October 12, 2000 Morgan, you are right about the turn signal switch. If you look at my second page on turn signal switch mod you'll see what these wires go to. The Green w/ Yellow (GY) stripe (on my 73 anyway) goes to the brake switch. The turn signal switch interupts power from the brake switch (GY) from going to the bulb that is being used by the turn signal flasher. You can see that from the schematic of how the turn signal switch works on that page. Here's an excerpt from my page, telling you what the 6 wires go to: Green-Black stripe (GBL) : Right front turn signal & dash indicator bulbs Green-Red stripe (GR) : Left front turn signal & dash indicator bulbs White-Black stripe (WBL) : Left rear turn signal bulb White-Red stripe (WR) : Right rear turn signal bulb Green (no stripe) (G) : Flasher output (other side of flasher is +12V) Green-Yellow stripe (GY) : Brake switch (closed when brake pedal is up) Wipers: Pull the cowl panel off that's infront of the windshield and pull the wiper motor and arms out. You have to feed the wiper motor wire and grommet through the firewall. It's tricky to get in and out. Just move it around a few different ways. Now see if the pivots and housings that bolt to the car near where the wipers go on are corroded. The part that bolts to the car with 3 screws is aluminum, and the shaft for the wiper that goes through it is steel. Yes, galvanic action. There's a tiny c clip that holds this together at the top of the aluminum piece. I was chicken to take that out as I thought I'd spring it and it wouldn't fit afterwards. I just kept soaking the part in Kroil and moving it. TONS of read rusty liquid came out forever. I then lubed it with WD-40, and then soaked it in 10W30 oil. They move nice and free now. This is usually why the wipers are slow. While you have it out, grease all the joints in the system. I left the bag on the motor, some people open that up and lube things. Yes, I've disected the entire car. It's an illness that I've yet to seek treatment for . ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 13, 2000 Share Posted October 13, 2000 Thanks. /me bows humbly before pparaska ------------------ Morgan morgan@z31.com http://carfiche.com http://z31.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 13, 2000 Share Posted October 13, 2000 On that note Pete....... Why keep the original light pattern? It's so convoluted just get rid of it! Just FYI, but my plan is to replace all the wiring and light sockets with a pile of 300ZX wiring, relays, and plugs from a parts car I bought. I plan on putting dual filament sockets in all 4 lights on each taillight. This makes all the bulbs one type(minimizes required parts inventory!) and allows you to not have dual-function filaments(like 1 filament that does brake and turn signal duty) as well as greatly simplifies wiring and reduces the # of parts. I'm gonna wire mine like Z31 lights - top 2 bulbs are taillights and brake lights, bottom red light is turn signal and brake light, and 2 filaments for backup lights(Brighter and 4 filaments to burn out instead of 2). That gives you more brake light wattage, only 1 spare bulb type to keep, eases wiring, etc, etc, etc. On that note, some tractor trailers have LED lights on the trailers now - they never burn out, take less power, light up faster when turned on. Was thinking about dissecting a taillight and molding in LEDs to do this, any opinions on that? ------------------ Morgan morgan@z31.com http://carfiche.com http://z31.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted October 13, 2000 Share Posted October 13, 2000 Hey now - there's a relay article here on the headlight too ya' know I'm interested in the LED conversion too. One of my next tricks is to hopefully wire the side markers so that they blink with the turn signals in an alternating fashion. I spotted a 510 article for doing this but was a touch confused on how to move that over to the Z and nwo can no longer find the darned article! If this is of interest I'll look again but basicly they moved the ground for the side marker lights I think..? Hrm, what other toruble can we get into with this? P.S. Using relays will slow the high beamlow beam flash to pass type action. Not a biggie but there's some hysteresis in there (shrug). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 13, 2000 Share Posted October 13, 2000 Use my personal search engine at http://z31.com/htdig to search the dime quarterly site for the alternating blinker thingie. Actually, I was going to make high beams be both filaments, not just the high beam one. So no delay ------------------ Morgan morgan@z31.com http://carfiche.com http://z31.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 13, 2000 Share Posted October 13, 2000 They use the LED arrays alot in custom Harleys/Other makes and some Roadsters as they flush in nicely. I havn't located a source in the Roadster crowd (honestly haven't looked yet) but heres a URL for J and P cycles that has the arrays (sorry its a long URL, I had to use a search to find it and well its a pretty good sized string): http://www.jpcycles.com/jpcyclestore/product.asp?mscssid=18WJBWMG06S92M7G00S7N4BU56DKDWG2&idProdLine=3&idProdDept=145&idProdGroup=3315 'Tole ya it was long.. At any rate, yeah they are really bright, but pretty pricey a 6-3/8" x 5/8" , double row runs like nearly $105.00 . But I've seen them in the back of WIDE fenders on Harley customs and the look REALLY good. Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 13, 2000 Share Posted October 13, 2000 Almost forgot, Thanks Pete for the tip on the wipers, I have to take that cowl panel off (or so it looks in my manual) to eventually replace the front fenders with fiberglass like I want to do, I'll look over the wipers then. Much appreciated. Lone ps: If anyone is interested, I have a price list Smoothline sent on fiberglass composite parts. Factory direct, they're not much more than stock steel. I can post it if interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Bayley Posted October 13, 2000 Share Posted October 13, 2000 I just wanted everyone to know that I "feel their pain." When I bought my 260Z, all electronics worked just fine. Within a month of driving it, EVERYTHING shorted out. The only stock switch I managed to save was the turn signal stalk (I really had to work for that one too). Every inch of wire except the harness going to the rear lights had to be REPLACED. What a headache!!! If a small problem arises, take care of it immedately... more are sure to follow. Pete, it would not surprise me the least if Lucas "Prince of Darkness" Electronics designed the wriring for these cars. After all, they made Jaguar of the 80's the reliable car company that it was. I knew it was time to leave TRW when they announced they bought Lucas Varity. They were working on electric steering. Now "that's" scary! -Andy [This message has been edited by Andrew Bayley (edited October 13, 2000).] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted October 13, 2000 Share Posted October 13, 2000 Morgan, thanks to DrewZ, I now have the Euro tail lights I've wanted for a long time. So wiring all the lights in the housing of theses the same would do away with the yellow for the turn signals only (I think the Europeans have a great idea with yellow for the rear turn signals) That said, I really want to do something about the low amount of light that comes out of the tail lights/ back of the car. I have a buddy that had his 240Z rear ended on the DC beltway 3 times in 3 years. He is and excellent driver, and knows that his Z could stop shorter than the average SUV, and knew to leave distance between who he was following. All of the hits were many seconds after he had started braking. He feels that the low amount of light coming from the brake lights was the culprit. I agree. That said, I want to brighten the both the tail lights and brake lights. SInce I have the Euro tail lights (that I've pulled the lenses out of and polished up) I'd LOVE to put LEDs in the housing to get faster and brighter light. I love the quick response of the LED lights. But it would be VERY expensive, in my opinion to get enough LEDS in the housing to really make a difference, and they would need to be white to make them bright enough through the dark red lenses of the Z. So my first attempt will be to use some reflective aluminum paint on the entire inner housing of the lights. One tail light has aluminum reflectors that are polished and the other never were polished. Weird. Anyway, I will paint them with Eastwoods reflecitve aluminum and cover it with their clear diamond crystal paint to fight oxidation and dulling of the reflectors. I'll just go ahead and paint the entire inside of the housing hoping that it might enhance the output of the housing. I may try brighter bulbs, but I fear melting the housing or lenses. Has anyone come up with a good center mounted brake light for the Z? I'd like something to go at the top inside of the hatch glass, but not to tall as to not block rearward vision. I think a single or double high strip of bright red LEDs would be great! I'd love to hear any ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 13, 2000 Share Posted October 13, 2000 I also briefly thought about making the 3rd light from a 87-89 Z31 fit on my 240. Looks like it'd be at least somewhat straight forward to graft it on top of the hatch glass. The hatch on a Z31 is bigger, so that top piece of trim should fit just fine. That black strip that houses the 3rd light is stainless just like all the other trim, so it could easily be stripped and made to match the rest of your 240 trim. As for the taillights, I was thinking of cutting the back off(where the bulb socket plugs in) and getting some screen/drain material/whatever to align the LEDs and just molding them into the taillight myself. You can get a roll of red LEDs at a surplus place for a few bucks, the rest is just work. Of course, with good wiring(ie. not 30 year old stuff that was marginal to begin with) the lights should be just as good as any modern car. I was thinking about some different taillights, but that's bodywork that I can't do myself and don't want to pay someone to do, so oh well. ------------------ Morgan morgan@z31.com http://carfiche.com http://z31.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike kZ Posted October 16, 2000 Share Posted October 16, 2000 Found this site about LED replacement bulbs. They replace regular bulbs like 1156 & 1157, single and dual function bulbs. http://www.hitechledproducts.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted October 19, 2000 Share Posted October 19, 2000 Hrm, no luck on the mods. I vaguely recall what they were and may just play a bit - hope I don't fry anything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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