astewart

Fantastic! Thank you so much Steve!

Okay. Checked the high beams and you were right. They work. Clicked them back down to lows and looked again, just for grins and my lows work now. So, this just means that I need to get inside the switch and fix it, correct?

So to make sure I have this right: if my high beams don't work either, then the switch needs to be fixed, right? Because it's keeping my lows from working. What if the high beams don't work also? Hypothetically since I failed to check.

After much looking and getting distracted and more looking, I have come to the conclusion that there isn't another thread on here that has answered the question to my problem so here it is: The headlights don't work. I have owned the car for several years now with no problems yet with the headlights. They have always worked and come on when I asked them to. This time, however, they didn't. The parking lights, hazards, break lights, running lights on all sides work, but not the normal headlights. I will admit that I failed to check high beams. Checked all the fuses and they are fine. None blown. Even checked them with a test light just to make sure. Sure enough, they are all good. Next moved onto the actual wiring leading to the lights. unclipped the wiring harness up there and tested for grounds with the lights and ignition off. good ground. Next turned the lights on to test the positive. Those were all good too. So because the lights are getting power when the switch is turned on, I came to the conclusion that the switch is working properly. Not really sure where to go from here. Any advice would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.

The last time I drove my car was a little after Christmas 2008 once the roads had cleared up. I had let the car sit for only about 2 weeks while the roads were completely unmanageable for this car. The last day I drove her, this is what happened: She started up just fine like she always does, I noticed she was sputtering a little bit but I contributed this to her not running for a little while and also driving her cold and not letting her warm up properly. I got roughly a mile from my house when I came to a red light. As I sat there I noticed her starting to sputter a little more. I assumed that she was having a carbon build-up so kind of revved her coming out of the light. Got through the light and she was running even worse, so I pulled over to the side of the road and turned her off. Got out, checked the oil because this car eats oil (not leaking). Not bad, but enough that I keep oil in my car all the time just in case. Anyway, when I checked the dipstick, it was low, so I put some more oil in her. Buttoned her up, got back in the car and started her up. She started right up and ran fine long enough for me stand up so that I could close the hood. As soon as I stood up she just stopped running. I promptly sat back down to start her again. I turned the key and she cranked for a couple roatations then backfired. At that piont, I knew it was out of my hands for the moment so I phoned my friend to come down with his pickup to tow me home. In the meantime I hoofed it home since he is REALLY bad with directions so that I could direct him there personally. Good thing it died sooner than later! Anyway, we got it towed home and he got it started long enough to drive it into the parking spot. That was 11 Jan 2009. And she hasn't run since Since then, I have had a more knowledgeable friend of mine take a look at her and see if he could maybe figure out what might have gone wrong. This is so cliche but the only weird thing we seemed to be able to find (besides it not running) was a clicking sound coming out of where the red arrow is pointing in the diagram below. I feel like I have done just about all the research I can about the fuel injection system but I can't seem to find ANYTHING that tells me what that is supposed to do or why it might be clicking or even what the name of it is. If anyone has any advice or help (or can just tell me how to get my car started ) that would be great! Thank you!

Thank you so much Bruce. I will definitely give those guys a call! I appreciate the wonderful suggestions, Bob, but I would prefer to do it without having to have filler if at all possible. I really don't like filler as I've seen what it does after years of being on cars and it tends to only cover up the stuff I don't want to see. Like I said, I have a few leads on some parts cars, so I may just see if they have any rear fenders for this my '78. I don't know. I guess I will have to just see what the extent of the damage really ends up being once it starts getting hammered out. On the up note, I did buy a toyota pickup to get me around so that I can now park my z until she is drivable and also this season is behind us. A little stress off my back because now she can be in a shop and I can still get to work Thank you everybody for your comments and suggestions!

I am in the the Puyallup area.

So let me start from the beginning as there is a little bit of story leading up to..the incident. First off, all your northerners know it is snowy up here really bad this year for so early and I have been treating my car accordingly even though it is my only vehicle at the moment and I HAVE to drive her as much as I hate to in this horrible weather. Ok, now for the story... I just moved here and have no family on this side of the state, so a coworker invited me to spend Christmas Eve with his family. I went. On the way there and right before we pulled up, I got a flat in the passenger rear. Not too big of a deal. I don't have a spare (yet) but his dad had some of that foam flat fixer and we had to put that in there to drive it the relatively short distance back to his house at the end of the night. I was driving extremely careful considering the conditions of the road and now the condition of my car. We get back to his house safe and sound and I park my car out of the way in his yard for the night while he takes me home. I had to work Christmas night (i'm an overnight stocker), so my friend was awesome enough to come get me and take me to work the following night (last night). And all come and get me from work this morning so that we could go back to his house and tend to my flat tire now that the stores are open again. When we arrive at his house....he breaks the new....his roommate supposedly SLID INTO MY CAR! Gah! I have been soooo careful with her and actually calling into work when I felt it wasn't good to be out in her and now through absolutely NO FAULT OF MY OWN she is ran into....while parked Here's the damage and you will see why I have a hard time that they only 'slid' into my car. Again, I parked it out of the way.... Can you see the multiple waves in my fender all the way up to the door?!? Ugh! I can't even believe this. I couldn't even fully vent because my friend knows how much this car means to me and he already felt like dirt because it even happened. So...how bad is this really? I know I need to find a REAL body shop for true metal cars (like ours), but I don't really know where to start. I have yet to get quotes because I need these real body work guys to be the ones giving them to me. Also, it just happened this morning and I have to work tonight still. I may also have a few leads on some parts cars. Comments, suggestions, especially anyone on the west side of WA state....I am open to driving her somewhere to get her fixed properly. Right now that huge pinch is compromising the inner fender well radius.

I will let you know for sure. Hopefully I will be able to get to that this weekend, since it's kind of a 'work on my car' weekend. hehe (this weekend means sun, mon, tues for me)

By the way, Jeff, I haven't been back on here since your last post to me but I just had to send a HUGE thank you!!! to you for helping me so much in fixing my heat. That vacuum canister under my dash completely did the trick! But I got to thinking and is there any way to fix that canister so that it works properly or will I just need to order a whole new part?

Ok. Well, I fixed that vacuum line, but it didn't fix the problem. In fact, I didn't notice any change at all. But! Now to just replace all those lines and then I will KNOW everything is complete. I went to that website that Friar-Tuck gave me and I AM IN Z CAR HEAVEN! There is so much stuff on there that I have been trying to find the information for! Thank you so much for giving me that address! And thank you too, Jeff, for giving me such detailed possibilities! You guys are awesome and I really appreciate all your help so far!

Hey, your by me! Aren't you?

Ok, I can already tell you that I only EVER get air coming out of the middle vent. No matter what setting it is on, I've never had air come out of the defroster vents and honestly just figured that here were no floor vents because I have never felt air coming from there either except for the outside air vent. Second, I actually found a vacuum hose that was disconnected, but don't know if it is related to this or not. I noticed it this summer, so I connected it again, later turned on the A/C and the RPMs shot up to about 6000 and stayed there, no matter if I was moving or parked. So, I disconnected it again. I will check this again here in a minute and see if I can't see any other cracked or disconnected hoses. Is there any specific place I should be looking for this hose or is it different every time?

She survives just fine. It's more like how do I survive the cold winters without a heater! :classic: Although, since my mazda decided to die on me this summer, I have to be looking for some winter tires this time around. Last year I just drove the mazda (yes, THAT heater works!) Yeah, I used to be stationed down in San Antonio, TX and I would call my mom up here in WA and tell her how nice the weather was down there compared to up here. She would turn around and tell me how nice it was in the summer, so she got to get me back on that one.:cheeky:

I live close to the Puyallup area. Just moved over here from Wenatchee, WA