Zed Head

Logic. https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/29/louie-gohmert-coronavirus/ U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, he said in an interview with East Texas Now where he speculated that he may have caught the virus from wearing his mask.... “I can’t help but wonder ... if I injected the virus into my mask when I was moving,” he said in an interview.

Well, I guess the converter is meant to slide all the way on to the shaft. But here's a way to tell if the problem is with the transmission/converter or the engine.

Doesn't the torque converter slide on the transmission input shaft? 3/4" seems like a lot but maybe it's right. You should be able to slide it forward to get it bolted on. What does the FSM say about it? Here's a drawing of parts. http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun/Z-1969-1978/engine-280z/piston-crankshaft

I have this problem when buying socks. Not kidding! Store light and "real" light are not the same.

If you don't have support under the transmission it might be dropping downward to the amount of play in the bolt holes. Get support under it so that it's not hanging on the back of the engine. Then fiddle around with alignment, get it all squared up, and give the transmission some wiggling while you press it forward.

Spend most of your time sliding back and forth under the car and crawling out from under the car and looking at each side of this gap. The two sides have to be parallel. If they are parallel then the input shaft will be centered. Close is not good enough, make it exact. Take measurements if your eyeball is not calibrated. It's important. It makes all the difference. Use the bolts to get the gap straight but not to pull the transmission in.

So, eventually, we'll have the nation-wide shutdown that should have happened 100,000 ago. But still no plan to reopen in a controlled fashion. Open-close-open-close... https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2020/07/27/kentucky-gov-andy-beshear-order-bar-closures-covid-cases-spike/5517328002/

I haven't watched Dave's video (sorry Dave, no time yet), but found with my old hardened 280Z seals that water would leak in to the channel/gap between the glass and the rubber then run down that inner channel to the bottom corners of the seal and leak in to the car. I realized what was happening one day as I was driving around a corner and saw a drop of water magically appear at the inside corner of the inner seal, break off and run down toward the ECU. It was reproducible. Left turns produced passenger's side water, right turns produced driver's side. I ended up running a thin bead of black RTV completely around the outer intersection of glass and seal. I even had to do the top edge, surface tension was apparently enough to drag the rain over and in to the gap. That was my short term fix. This was in rainy wet Portland Oregon. Nissan illustrators even left a tiny gap there in their drawing. I'm sure it gets bigger as the rubber shrinks over time.

Here's an interesting site. Kayak. I never really knew what their ads were about but, apparently, they are a travel promotion site. Pretty detailed and some good graphics. You can see how patchwork everything is. It's amazing how far the US has fallen in just a few short years. https://www.kayak.com/travel-restrictions/united-states

Washington D.C. has a 14 day quarantine for non-essential visitors now. I wonder if reporters are considered essential.

It's happened before. It's possible to install the linkage upside down or backward. Pivot points on the wrong side or something like that. Remove the linkage and install it "the other way". It's not the wiper motor it's the linkage.

So much of the early electrical systems on cars were(was?) developed around a deep understanding of the fundamental properties of the materials. Today, it seems like everything is handled with computer code. So, the ballast resistor works on the same principle as the filament in the bulb of the fuel light, I think, right? Using that increase in resistance with current for a control purpose. Here's a stretch, another cross-reference. Would a condenser/capacitor on the headlight circuit damp the spark across the headlight switch contacts, like the condenser on a set of points in a Kettering type ignition system? Just testing my brain, the switch will still get hot and break the solder joints just from the current, over time, I'd guess, so a relay is the best solution. But the pitting might be reduced, which contributes to the heating effect.

Thanks. But I have to confess that there was some calculating behind it. I knew my numbers and what should be left. Still, it was thrilling...

I've always wondered why the low fuel light on my other Nissan, a Pathfinder, would start very dimly then slowly get brighter and brighter as the fuel level got lower when I got down past "E" (sometimes I like to live on the edge). I could never figure out how it did that. Seems to make more sense now. That was a 1995 model. I'd guess that modern cars still use the technology, it looks simple, effective, and cheap. But, I still don't really understand why it would suddenly turn off, then begin the dim-brighter-brighter cycle again. Maybe it has something to do with that knee. Or maybe it was just a slosh of gasoline.

Long ago the high school kids in my area used to go to the coast in Washington every year for the Fog Festival. https://www.star-telegram.com/news/coronavirus/article244478462.html "At his own venue, Polone said a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved germicide will be fogged for extra safety."

One downside to using thread locker is that you can't retorque or tighten up the fastener once you use it. So if your exhaust gasket compresses a bit and you'd like to snug up the nuts, too bad. And, I don't think that Nissan used any threadlocker on those parts. I don't think that any manufacturers use them today on those parts either. Just an alternate view. Also, if you don't use it on the studs in to the head then those can loosen up anyway. But if you do use threadlocker on the studs then you can rip the aluminum threads out of the head. Then, ultimately, when you do eventually remove the exhaust manifold, you'll be removing the studs from the head but under tension. Which is not good for the head threads. Just seems like one of those keep it simple areas.

The dip stick confirms proper oil level, it doesn't measure quantity. Your 7 quart oil pan holds more than 7 quarts. Keep adding oil until the level is correct. Edit - unless you also installed an extended oil pickup tube with the bigger pan.

If they're the same you have one to experiment on. Results should translate. Today's electronics manufacturing processes are all about process control to produce identical parts. For that type of part you really shouldn't see a defect. I wonder how many they have sold, and how many have actually been installed. You might be the first. p.s. I say they but I think it's just one guy. I wonder if some of the delay is due to all of the metal surrounding it. Might be fun to hook it up to a battery and see how warm it gets.

I used to go the one in Wilsonville, by Portland. It was well-stocked but it's been years. Maybe they're dying too.

It's "new". I assume that the offending part is shown here. Maybe it has numbers on it. Just noticed that they put "copy of" in the url. https://zcardepot.com/products/copy-of-fuel-tank-gauge-sending-unit-sender-240z-260z-280z-70-78?_pos=3&_sid=b7ce84965&_ss=r

Fry's is like a super duper Radio Shack. Georgia is close. https://www.frys.com/ac/storeinfo/storelocator I'll bet that zcardepot used a battery to determine which thermistor would work, and didn't consider alternator voltage. Seems like at this point it needs to be determined if you're trying to find a fix that you can live with or trying to show that ZCarDepot used the wrong thermistor so that you can get a refund. Or go even farther and determine the right thermistor to use for the application. A cheap "pot" would be the easy experiment if you just want to know the answer.

That thought popped in to my head too. Maybe use the fuel tweaker trick on your fuel light. A potientiometer (isn't it actually a rheostat, as it's used?) that you can tune until you get what you want. http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/tempsensorpot/index.html

Told you I didn't really know how they work. Mine never went on, I've never seen it. Here's the bulb specs. Maybe.

I thought it was worth a check. Most of today's regulators regulate about 13.8 to 14.3 so yours looks right. Edit - The following is wrong... Since "open circuit" turns the light on, maybe check your wiring connections. There might be one that is by something that gets hot when the engine is running. Maybe by the exhaust system or on the floor or even back by the tank. I know somebody that had a BMW with a fuse holder in the trunk that would get hot and go open then close when it cooled. It killed all electrical, he'd just have to wait to get going again. Took him a long time to figure out.

As I understand those sensors they are resistive elements that heat up to actuate the light. I don't really know how they work, but when they're covered by fuel they stay cool and when they are exposed they heat up. Something like that. I might be completely wrong. So, one thing that would cause more heat would be more current. And when the engine is running you'll have alternator voltage instead of battery, so, more current. You might check your system voltage with the engine running. Maybe your alternator is going bad and overcharging.