Six_Shooter

It's been swapped at some point in it's life. ALL '73s have the current triggered tach. The 280Z tach swap is a popular one, so I'm not surprised that it would be swapped in your car. Looking in the FSM for '74 looks to confirm what I thought that '74 also had the current triggered tachometer.

The only "difficult" part is if you want to retain the OEM tachometer. It's a current triggered tach that requires the ignition feed to the coil to be first connected to the tach and then from there run out to the dizzy to work. I'm also curious why you want to change the way the vehicle is wired.

For $5K that's a deal. Sure it's in dire need of improving the exterior looks. But a few cuts here and there and a couple replacement parts and it could look great. Either using OEM S30 parts, bumpers grill and proper valance, or going with something like an MSA type 2/3 air dam or full kit, could really improve on the looks of that car pretty easily.

You just need to get a RHD version. Japan, Australia, much of Europe would be good sources.

I get to the trio gauges by removing the heater control panel. The bulb in the SW should be a simple incandescent bulb that will interface with the stock wiring without issue. It will dim along with the rest of the gauges. If the lighting is white and not green, you can buy gauge bulb covers in a green colour to make the illuminating green. Auto Meter sells these. They actually include, or at least used to include green and red covers with their gauges. I have a bunch of these covers kicking around because of that.

My car, also a '73 had a leather or vinyl wrap on the steering wheel when I bought it. I have since replaced the wheel with a Momo, but still have that original wheel stored away. It's not like yours, more like a leather wrap, and then stitched on the inside. I thought it was factory until another Z friend pointed out that it wasn't.

The range is 8 ohms full and 90 ohms empty, or something very close to that, as suggested look in the FSM for actual numbers. I tried to quickly find the actual numbers, but didn't find them. I listed the approximate range to show something here. GM fuel level senders are 0 ohms empty and 90 ohms full (after 1965 to 1997). The range is almost exactly backwards. I had an Auto Meter GM fuel level gauge installed in my 240Z for a long while, mostly because I had it from a previous car. I just lived with it being almost exactly backwards. What I had planned to do was to get the fuel low and then flip the sender 180* to show the fuel level more correctly. I just never got around to and and ended up re-installing my original volt (from a 280Z) and fuel level gauge, mostly because the fuel level, narrow band O2 and volt gauges were taking up the radio slot and wanted to re-install a radio in the car. people have also use Ford ranged fuel level gauges and calibrated them using certain value of resistors. There is information on this at hybridz.org.

WIN!! I love it. The ELF touch is good.

Those pictures are NOT from Wangan Midnight. The blue S30 at the wreckers in Wangan Midnight is on the ground, and you see the left side of the car, not the right, though IIRC there is a close up of the right side front brakes and strut. It is also a 2+2. If you pay close attention, you can see that the hood that was on the blue 2+2 in the wreckers was later used in the movie on the 2 seater (the actual Devil Z"), after the scene where it gets crashed, to be repaired... again... Worst movie of all time, well tied with 200 MPH. The ONLY reason I did not shut it off after about 15 minutes is because it has the S30 as the main character car.

You don't need much of a heatsink, if you need one at all. When I first swapped to EFI, I retained the dizzy and used a GM ignition module, since I am also using a GM ECM to run everything. I used an ICM from an '86 or so 2.8L equipped S-10, mostly because I already had one or two of those modules on hand. I literally used a drywall screw through one of the mounting holes into the wheel well below the coil to hold it. I worked this way for a few months, before I parked the car for the winter and then converted to DIS the following spring. In the time the dizzy ICM was installed I made several hour long+ trips without issue. I would suspect that it would have worked great for many more miles beyond what I used it for. I have used these modules in GM cars for many years without issues as well.

You are wrong, you said the reason I wanted to use the live axle was primarily for drag racing, which is completly incorrect. yes I will be drag racing with my car, but that's not it's primary function. If it was there would be no question on the type of suspension I would use, but at this point I'm weighing the pros and cons of the different types of suspension styles and how that will effect the final assembly of the car, so saying that you are wrong in all caps was not "incorrect". LMAO, you still think that IRS is the BEST for handling, period, whihc is completly incorrect. Like I said, I've seen and been around live axle cars that flat out, out handled many IRS cars. most of those cars you mentioned are mid engine/RWD, and to intall a live axle would be nearly impossible, due to the physical drivetrain layout. F1 has very little camber gain through the suspension geometry, but is used to allow each wheel to move independantly over the burms they are frequently hitting, and again, physical fitment around the transaxle makes IRS more feasible. But debating whether these cars or the champ cars, or other mid engine car would benefit from a solid axle could never be answered, there just isn't enough space. To keep repeating the old idea that IRS is the only suspesion design to use to make a car to handle is thinking that is stuck back when these cars were first built, back in the '70s, on top of that, the IRS that is stock in these cars is a cheap design and is shy it was used. There is too much camber gain as the suspension moves through it's travel, to really be effective, to keep within a good point of the circle of traction. So in order to get a good handling IRS, you'll still need to swap to a different design, one that uses two controls on each, and upper and a lower to reduce the camber gain. Yes that's been done, but seems like a whole lot of work just to keep a rear end that is still going to break. The torque multiplication of the diff puts a lot of stres on the universal/CV joints, and can break when driving the car hard through corners. Your statement is far to blanket and completly incorrect, about live axles not performing as well as IRS. Both designs have worked well and poorly, and that's what you're wrong about, just because something has an IRS, does NOT autmatically make it superior to a live axle equipped car.

WRONG!!! My priority IS handling, since the car will spend most of it's life on the street, and only go to 4 to 6 races a year, besides test and tune, in Drag racing form. IRS is not the end all be all of handling, it's a way to make a suspension work for comfort IMO. My Malibu with IRS is much nicer to ride in than my Jimmy with a live axle, though the Jimmy has leaf springs as well. To make a more fair comparison, comparing my Malibu to a Mustang with a live axle, the Malibu is a little nicer ride, but there are other reasons for the comfort factor as well, the Malibu is a family the car the Mustang is a perfromance car. Now the Mustang compared to the 240, guess what, I prefer the Mustang, I can better predict how it will accept my throttle input and how it will go around a corner, smooth or rough road. But why would I be pushing it hard on a rough surface? I drive on paved roads and tracks, not off road through rally events. And honestly after pushing my 240 a bit on some gravel roads around here, I still prefer the live axle, the 240 is a bit unpredictable, IMO. Oh, you'd better tell those guys that race off road trucks at 100+ MPH that they had better swap to IRS, they will improve thier handling. My choice of live axle is due to cost, and my prefence in driving feel and input. I can build a live axle that will be gauranteed to live through HARD launches with high 3 digit/low 4 digit (If I get that high) horse power, for probably less than half of what it would take to build an IRS to handle the same power, and the IRS would still weigh more, and be more of a compromise in my opinion than swapping to a live axle, believe me, I've looked into using IRS, not just in my Datsun, but in other projects I've had, and it always seemed to be more expense and work than it's worth.

When this is said it always bothers me. I've been in, around and seen MANY straight axles cars go around corners just as well or better than many IRS cars. The set-up is important to making a suspension system work, that goes for both IRS and solid axle suspensions. You can set either up to work well or poorly for different uses. I will be swapping a staight axle under my 240, likely next winter if I don't grenade the current IRS sooner. I will be doing this for a few reasons: -Strength. -Simplicity. -Cost. I can build and swap in a live axle that is stronger than any IRS set-up for less money and know it will work well and predictably. I will be drag racing with my car, but handling is also important to me as well, and will be setting up the suspension so that it will work in a straight line or around corners. I may need to change the way the suspension is set-up for each usage, due to different anti-squat needs between drag racing and late braking into a corner, but I will be building that into the link set-up that I end up using.

Mine's also currently outside, parked in front of the garage, at least until I get the suspension back on the truck so I can get it into storage.

SCC wasn't that great anyway. I bought a few issues a few years ago, and wasn't impressed by them, nor any others I looked through at the newstands or that friends had. It was never about "down a dirty tech", and especially NOT about going fast on a budget. It was always about how much could be shown in each article of thier advertisers and sponsors, just like every other magazine. Turbo, as cited in the above post isn't much better than SCC, though it does deal with one of my interests directly, those hair dryers that make that sweet sweet sound..... But I've still only bought a few issues, when I do find some tech artical or feature car that could shed some ideas on going fast on a budget, but usually it's about the advertisers and how much of thier product can be featured.