Reverting back from an electronic ignition

[JohnnyO]

I am planning my restore and came across a Hays ignition that was installed in 76 by the PO. What is involved with reverting back to points and condensor? The first pic below is the ignition mounted on the drivers side wheel well.

The second picture is of a box on the passenger side wheel well. Every picture I have seen of other series 1 z's dont have this box (relay???).

And the third picture is of the fine paint job that was applied over the gold paint by the PO. It just flakes off in some areas. I wish it would all flake off and get me back to the original color.

I am trying really hard to get the car back to all original. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks, John

[Zs-ondabrain]

Just for fun, Use a few strips of duct tape on those areas, press it down evenly and remove it quickly, like a band-aid. The paint should come off with ease.

Follow the wires coming out of it and see where they go. I've never seen that either.

[JohnnyO]

That sounds like fun. I'll try it tomorrow and let you know how it goes. Beats a wire brush any day!

[JohnnyO]

Anybody out there that has reverted from electronic ignition? Anybody?

[JimmyZ]

The points ignition is very basic. It really depends on how much of your distributor's hardware is still in there. Take a pic of your coil area and of the distributor with the cap and rotor removed. They may have taken the points backing plate out and substituted a proprietary part,. (Prob not tho) You may not even have a stock cam in there. It mau have been replaced by the aftermarket sending unit.

You will also need a ballast resistor and a coil which is made for points ignition. You can use other coils but the entire setup is designed to be matched for long life on your points. The points and condeneser have to handle the switching and asking them to run a beefier coil will upset the balance that the designers intended. Hopefully you still have your harness wires for the ballast and coil. There is also a small harness that runs one wire to the distributor and one to the water temp sending unit. (Two wire harness)

On my 2/71 240 The coil "+" terminal has a single black w/ white stripe wire. The "-" terminal has a solid black wire. The ballast resistor has a Black w/ white on the firewall end and a green w/ white stripe on the opposite end.

If you can't find the aforementioned wires try working your way back on the harness. (Towards radiator)

Be sure that your distributor shaft has no/minimal play in it. Points won't work well in a sloppy distributor. Do a search on this site for this issue. Also do a search for tachometer wiring on early Z's. There were two different tachs. (To my knowlege)

Here's a link to a page I made for 240Z ignition...

http://warbuddies.homestead.com/240Zignition.html

Hopefully this will be a good start for you.

Edited November 9, 2008 by JimmyZ

[ChrisZ]

Just for fun, Use a few strips of duct tape on those areas, press it down evenly and remove it quickly, like a band-aid. The paint should come off with ease.

Follow the wires coming out of it and see where they go. I've never seen that either.

give your car a brazilian or maybe a bikini wax

Chris

[JohnnyO]

Thanks for the input Jimmy. I have attached some pics as you requested. It appears that the "guts" are MIA although much of the wiring as you describe it is intact.

In the distributor picture you can see the inside of the distributor, the second shot is of the wiring coming off the coil. The yellow and red wires appear to come off of the harness that is attached to the Hays Ignition. Of the 5 wires that come off the Hays the red and white go to the coil along with a black/white wire from the harness that looks like runs from the radiator. A black wire from the Hays harness runs to the firewall and is the ground and the green wire and yellow wire run to the distibutor. It looks like the wire that runs to the thermostat sender is there but was taped up like they cut a wire off and taped it up. Maybe the old wire that runs to the distro is in there?

Under the coil is what looks like a resistor of some sort. It is a ceramic block with connectors on it. A thick black wire goes closest to the firewall and a Green wire goes closest to the radiator. You can see this in the pictures.

In the picture of the wiring near the distributor you can see where the Hays harness plugs into the existing distributor harness. It takes the yellow and green wires from the Hays and connects them to the Green and Red going to the distributor. I also unwrapped the tape and found a connector inside. It appears to be black in color but I dont know where it would go.

Well, I will go back through your post and see what I missed. I will post back here after I go through your link.

Thanks for the help.

[JimmyZ]

Good to see that you have the original ballast (white ceramic) and wiring.

It would be best to order a new distributor anyway. Black Dragon has one on sale for $109.95 Part # 70-701-R

You just need some points, proper coil and a condenser after that. I made a post about some excellent/premium points I found at CarQuest. (If you want to search) It seems that NAPA can also get them. There is a difference between the premium and regular points.

Jim

Edited November 10, 2008 by JimmyZ

[Zealous]

I just recently swapped to Pertronix ignition in my series 1 Ill upload the before photos to give you an idea when I get to my home machine tonight.

[JohnnyO]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you guys. I'll be pulling the engine this week as part of my restoration. I should probably line up the parts soon so they dont hold up the project.

Jimmy, is there any way of telling if the PO replaced the distributor or just gutted it?

Zealous, That would be cool if you could.

John

[Zealous]

Sorry about the delay things have been a bit hectic here at work. Here are the pics of the pertronix install. I plan to do a write up with photos for everyone because I had to tease all the bits and pieces to get it done.

The first shows my distributor as is, I have a series 1 240z but somewhere along the line the motor went and it now has a 1972 L24 which I am guessing the PO took that distributor. The second shows the points taken off and the third shows the naked distributor.

[Zealous]

OK ignore this if you wish as this is some unasked for advice. I drove my Z for a few months with points and found that although it ran well without adjustment to the points to get the most smooth running, fuel economy and power out of the L24 I was always resetting the points. Spark and timing is a big part of having the L series run well. I know you wish to restore but some upgrades like electronic ignition really make sense. Ill bet that if you rewire a pertronix like setup you could get it to look almost complete stock with same colour wires spliced into harness etc (unless someone took the distributor cap off) and get the added benefit of electronic ignition without the constant hassle of resetting the points. Sorry for the unwarranted advice. My question is unless you want a perfect Gold restored Z car why not stay with electronic ignition? But that is my opinion and it is your car do what will make you happy.