New Gremlin in my voltmeter

[lemonlips]

I purchased my brand new 280Z on April 2, 1977. The car was stored for 12 years. I'm in the process of making it ready for the road again. My problem is that the volt meter stays on 12-13 volts when the ignition is in the locked, and or off position. The volt meter will go to ZERO (0) when the fuse to the hazard lights is removed from the fuse box.

Any thoughts? Is this a relay problem? It was fine until the car overheated. The water pump and fan clutch and themostat have been replaced. Now here comes the electrical dilemma. Kindly help.

Dianne

[240260280z]

That is normal. It is on all the time and does not consume much power at all.

[Zed Head]

The voltmeter will always read the battery voltage, key on or off. Is that the "problem"? Maybe you just never noticed it before.

The overheating, and its after-effects, might be your bigger issue. The head can warp if it got too hot. You'll find out when you get it going again.

Did it overheat 12 years ago, or recently? If it's been sitting 12 years, there could be a lot of hidden problems with fuel and electrical components. They don't like to be un-used for long. If you haven't tried to turn the engine over yet, you might want to take precautions before you pump rusty gas through your fuel lines and filter, and maybe even your injectors if the filter internals have fallen apart. You can save a lot of later trouble, with some foresight now.

Have fun and good luck.

[lemonlips]

Thanks for BOTH replies. I guess I never noticed that it was alway on. It's been a long time since I drove the Zapper with any regularity. The car has been started many times, and I drove it a couple of weeks ago and it ran GREAT but we did find problems with the water pump. It had an amazing amount of rust on the impeller and would catch when it was turned by hand. I changed out the fan clutch as i figured i may have let the car sit too long and the silicone may have dried out, and so I just changed it. i also changed the thermostat. The car had a good tune up in 2007, gas drained and replaced, lots of hoses replaced, new plugs, wires, filters, etc. Was scoped and found to be in pretty good shape considering all. Drove it several weeks ago into the city to get new tires. It also has all new brakes, new brake booster, etc. Car was fine, but I noticed the temperature was 5-8 degrees higher than normal and i attibuted it to the hot day.

Next day, drove it again to the doc's office about 8 miles away, on the return trip it over heated but I found NO leaks from the gaskets and so i'm hoping no damage to the head (ie warping). I'm also 7000' elevation. I'm not sure if the elevation has anything to do with the temperature of the car. For now, I'm putting everything back together and i'm waiting to hear from another former Z driver about his parting out of his car. I need some interior parts that have broken over the years. But I will get this back on the road.

We're hoping to tow my Z with us for winter trips to CA and NV. We'll see how things go.

I do appreciate the quick responses and feel a little dumb that i didn't remember the voltmeter staying "up" with the ignition turned off. in any event, I'm happy to have found this site and these forums, and apparently a bunch of people that really do care about each other and the delimmas of owning an OLD Z car. But without trying to sound arrogant, i like mine better than the new models!!!

Thanks again,

Dianne