Water leakage problem

[76Datsun280z]

Thanks Enrique, I really appreciate the help and suggestions, I will print off your responses and talk to my dad about it. Taking the fender off sounds like a good idea. It would have to be a weekend job because I need to drive pretty much every day, but I'll talk to my dad about it and see what we can do. Thanks again!

-Austen.

[76Datsun280z]

Well guys, there's more to it on the electrical issue that I didn't already know about until today. When we had the rust fixed on my car, the body man of coarse had to take the battery out to do the repair work. When we got there to pick it up, we were a little early and he hadn't of put the battery back in the car yet. So, my dad put the battery back in and mistakenly put the battery connectors on the wrong terminals!:stupid: I guess it was only for a second, then he realized what he had done and then swapped them to the right terminal. When I went to start it this morning for school, the Optima jell battery was completely dead and just gave a click. We think that this mistake toasted the voltage regualtor, so we ordered a new which comes in tommarow. Since jell battery's are a lot stronger, I believe this is why I made it home from the body shop without it running out of juice. Hopefully replacing the voltage regulator will be the problem of this electrical issue, but we're crossing our fingers that it is. Also, before we ordered the regulator, we compared a few prices and each store carried the same different style of regulator that wasn't already in the car. This is what was in the car which doesn't appear to be the correct one? The one that each store carried was slightly longer in length, but had the same connector, but looks like it will fit fine. -Austen.

One that was already in the car, it is fairly new

This here is the one that we ordered, there is obviously a difference there

[Ramses]

Austen,

I had a similar problem when I was putting my '73 back together. She kept loosing charge. Before I stopped to think about what was wrong, I over zealously replaced the battery, starter, voltage regulator - twice. Come to find out - after I started to THINK about the problem and stopped trying to fix it, I had a leak in one of my grounds. Basically the electrical system was slowly draining the battery, because it was grounding out.

Do yourself a favor. Remove the battery and the starter and have them checked out. When replacing them, check the electrical connections to them and verify that you have a good, strong and clean connection. The solution to my problem was to remove the (-) battery cable, clean and/or replace both ends, clean out the bolt hole for the (-) battery cable where it connects to the chassis, add another (-) battery cable with a new ground to chassis connector and replace the connector to the starter that powers the rest of the car. My connector had one filament sticking out and was touching the (+) battery post on the starter, which was powering my accessories and the voltage regulator, thus draining the battery. A .50 cent fix which ended up costing me over $100.00.

Please learn from my mistake, think and solve the problem before you blindly fix it. These older z-cars electrical systems need some serious attention. A wire could be shorted out and give you the impression that something major is wrong.

Good luck

[76Datsun280z]

Thanks for the info, my dad is going to make an appointment tomarrow to take it in and have it looked at. We took the altenator off and had it tested, and it's charging fine.

[76Datsun280z]

Well we dropped it off at the shop this evening. We're going to have them not only fix the wiring problem, but go over the wiring in the car and fix up some of the corroted wires and connections which it seems to have a lot of.

[76Datsun280z]

Good news!!

This whole water leakage thing has been driving me nuts lately and has been a preventative to getting my car painted as my dad and I both want to solve this problem before we get it painted. Today has been a real nice sunny day so I thought what the heck, I pull the cowling off and have another inspection under there and thought that the sunlight would help out a lot. Surely it did, I found a rust hole next to the mount on the passenger side for the window washer motor on the side of it if that makes any sense. Any how, when I'd poor water directly over that hole with the hose, it would stream in into the car like no other. After calling my dad with the good news, I temporally filled the whole with silicone until we get it painted in a couple months here (yay), we'll have them repair the hole. Very very glad about this!!! LOL

[280z1975]

It's a great feeling when you have a crappy hard to diagnos and fix probelm and you are able to fix it! Good job now go have a beer (if you can drink )....

[76Datsun280z]

It's a great feeling when you have a crappy hard to diagnos and fix probelm and you are able to fix it! Good job now go have a beer (if you can drink )....

Thanks,

yeah, I'm under aged.