77 280z Restoration

[Av8ferg]

Congratulations on this great looking ride.  Very good inspiration for me!  I used these same headlights on another 70’s vintage car and I was also very pleased with the result.  

Thanks, my car was in need of a of work. More than I anticipated but what sold me the day I bought it was the lack of rust. It only had some minor rust on the passenger floor and otherwise it was clean. Even in the usually places it was clean. I think it spent most of its life in the CA Central Valley.
This is what it looked like the day I bought it. Jan 2018 it had a seized motor and no interior or seats. It then sat 2+ years before I could bring it home. I’ve been full bore on restoration since this past Dec. I forgot to add…there is NO WAY I could have done this without the help of the great people on this forum….




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[Av8ferg]

I forgot to post this dashboard emblem restoration I did with a “liquid chrome” pen I bought on Amazon.   This dash emblem was totally black before I did this. Took all of 5 mins to complete.     I should have taken a before pic.  Here what it looks like now.  
 

 

[siteunseen]

That looks as good as everything else you've done Ferg!

My Man @psdenno turned me on to these when I was doing my OE radio and the console in the 240. They work great too. Sharpie silver oil based from Hobby Lobby.

 

[Av8ferg]

Cliff, that picture is almost X-Rated. [emoji23][emoji23]


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[Yarb]

Just a touch Hairy!!!

[Av8ferg]

So after driving a couple hundred miles with success I discovered my brakes aren’t up to snuff.   I have stock rear drums and Wilwood calipers and rotors on the front and a stock 7/8” master cylinder.  There was a lot of brake pedal force required to stop the car and I couldn’t lock up the brakes when I tried.  The booster was under suspicion.   I pulled the line off the intake that goes the brake booster and put a vac pump on it.   Nothing….couldn’t  get the needle to move on the pump.   I double checked for hose leaks and couldn’t find one.   To confirm my findings, I plugged up the nipple on intake line that the brake booster hose normally goes on and drove the car.   Brakes were exactly the same with the booster not attached.  I also had to adjust my engine idle screw after warm up to get the idle right which make me think the intake was seeing a vacuum leak with the booster connected.   So I pulled the booster and sent it off to Power Brake Exchange.  Should be back next week.  $120 plus $40 to powder coat it.   I considered just buying a new one but these guys warranty the booster for life and the crap you get at the local auto stores like duralast (duratrash) and cardone don’t inspire me.   Car is off the road for a week.  I knew I’d be working out kinks these coming week and slowly expanding the car’s operating sand box.  
Also seeing a intermittently low oil pressure readings.  After teases him I realize I have a Oil Pressure Sending unit from the wrong year.  Mine should have a single bullet connector and the sensor on my block has 2 spade connectors in a “T” shape.  I had to modify my wire to attach it  when I put it on.  I’m wondering if this is my problem,   I just ordered the proper one and will see how that works.  If it shows similar readings, I’ll have to dig further.  
Side bar question.  Does anyone know where you can get the replacement rubber boots that go on the brake cable right where the cable connects to the rear wheels (one per side).  Mine are dust. Thanks 

[280Zrewind]

Re the oil pressure, my thought is that the wrong sender would give a consistently bad reading.  I’d suggest more likely the sender is intermittently bad (which will be cured by the replacement) or there’s an electrical connection somewhere that’s not the best.  If the problem persists with a new sender, consider hooking up, temporarily, a direct reading pressure gauge, the kind with the little oil line.   This would be for piece of mind just to make sure you don’t have an actual oil pressure problem like the oil pressure relief valve occasionally hanging up.  

[Av8ferg]

In a previous post I mentioned I was concerned with low oil pressure.  Even after buying a new sender it was still reading low.   I took advice from a few of you and installed a gauge off the block to check my readings.   First, the gauge and the adaptor recommended worked perfect.   On start up the block gauge show 50 psi (cold engine, cold oil).  At operating temp it was stable at 30 psi.  Revving it goes up linearly with RPM.   Saw as high at 65-70 psi.  
I’ve been working like a dog recently, operation baby formula has eating up plane cargo capacity so they’re not letting people drop trips.   Once crisis after another.  
I haven’t been able to work on the car for a couple weeks now.   Soon it’s going to hot and humid as hell out and without my AC up and running it’s going to make engine break in driving a little sweaty and not fun.  Texas AC (windows down) doesn’t work enough and make the interior more prone to exhaust fumes too..    

 

[Av8ferg]

Okay, I’ve been out of pocket for a few weeks.  With a combination of work and getting COVID I’ve been MIA on the forum. 
Covid was a 10 day ordeal, had it last year as well.  Was worse this time but was just a really bad cold.   The worst part was my wife putting me in double quarantine in my own house. 
So, I’ve been working a bit on the Z but it’s been minimal.   I had been working on a turn signal problem that I’ve mostly resolved.  I had 3 problems I found when troubleshooting . 1. Corded contacts inside the combo switch.  2. Bad Flasher. 3.  Two front turn bulbs that had burned out filament.  So now the turn signals work normally but there are still some problems.  One is I cannot hear an clicking when I select a turn in either direction and neither bulbs in the tach work.  The bulbs are good, contacts are clean on the receptacles.   I had been told that the hazard switch and it’s circuit effects the turn signals.   So the Hazards didn’t work either.  I discovered I had a bad switch and replaced it with another one I had in my parts bin.  Now the Hazard lights only work on the passenger side of the car .  I can also hear them clicking but the arrows in the tach gauge do not illuminate So I still don’t know what’ the problem could be.  Bulbs are all replaced, including tach bulbs My next plan is to get a new hazard flasher and see if this helps.  
Does anyone have any idea how I should proceed?  
Thanks 

[SteveJ]

LED or incandescent bulbs?

Electronic or mechanical flasher relays?

I hope someone else can help you with the circuits. I'm busy this week, so I don't have as much time to devote to reading the wiring diagrams.

[Av8ferg]

I have a mixed bag of bulbs.   Front turn signals are incandescent, backs are LED.   The hazard flasher is OEM.  Turn single was on zcardepot for $6.99.   Bulbs in tach for turn signal lights are incandescent.  

Was considering buying an EF-32RL flasher for hazards and for turn signals.   No sure is I need you can use the same one in both locations? 
 

BTW, here is a pic of the inside of my hazard switch that didn’t work a bit crusty.
 

[SteveJ]

7 hours ago, Av8ferg said:

Okay, I’ve been out of pocket for a few weeks.  With a combination of work and getting COVID I’ve been MIA on the forum. 
Covid was a 10 day ordeal, had it last year as well.  Was worse this time but was just a really bad cold.   The worst part was my wife putting me in double quarantine in my own house. 
So, I’ve been working a bit on the Z but it’s been minimal.   I had been working on a turn signal problem that I’ve mostly resolved.  I had 3 problems I found when troubleshooting . 1. Corded contacts inside the combo switch.  2. Bad Flasher. 3.  Two front turn bulbs that had burned out filament.  So now the turn signals work normally but there are still some problems.  One is I cannot hear an clicking when I select a turn in either direction and neither bulbs in the tach work.  The bulbs are good, contacts are clean on the receptacles.   I had been told that the hazard switch and it’s circuit effects the turn signals.   So the Hazards didn’t work either.  I discovered I had a bad switch and replaced it with another one I had in my parts bin.  Now the Hazard lights only work on the passenger side of the car .  I can also hear them clicking but the arrows in the tach gauge do not illuminate So I still don’t know what’ the problem could be.  Bulbs are all replaced, including tach bulbs My next plan is to get a new hazard flasher and see if this helps.  
Does anyone have any idea how I should proceed?  
Thanks 

The clicking should come from the flasher unit. With the mix of incandescent and LED, it may not be drawing enough power to click in the flasher though it can still blink when using the turn signals. (Speculation and no proof to back up my speculation)

For the bulbs in the gauge, there is a common ground wire. It also grounds the tachometer circuit. The color diagram is missing the dot that shows the junction. That's the common point for both of those bulbs.

When the hazards are on, G/L wire should be connected to the G/R wire (left turn signal bulbs) and G/B wire (right turn signal bulbs). That indicates a problem with the hazard switch. It might be letting some current flow, but not enough to light up the bulbs.

4 hours ago, Av8ferg said:

I have a mixed bag of bulbs.   Front turn signals are incandescent, backs are LED.   The hazard flasher is OEM.  Turn single was on zcardepot for $6.99.   Bulbs in tach for turn signal lights are incandescent.  

Was considering buying an EF-32RL flasher for hazards and for turn signals.   No sure is I need you can use the same one in both locations? 
 

BTW, here is a pic of the inside of my hazard switch that didn’t work a bit crusty.

This is the flasher I have for the turn signals in both my cars. I like that it's adjustable. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0811GTVH2

You can use the same unit for the hazard lights. You would need to run a ground wire. The EF-32RL has the ground wire attached already, but it may be too short to run to a convenient ground.