LostxSoul

I know this is an old post but Google Old Air AC. The company is Old Air. They have a lot of the duct hoses that are flexible. I'm not sure on pricing but they do sell some under dash units as well for pretty inexpensive.

I have a 77 as well with the drain plug in the rear. Maybe yours was changed at some point? As far as I know, as long as the fluid capacities are above minimum requirements and you don't have any clearance issues/bolt pattern issues, I'm with FastWoman on the location of the plug.

Get it back up to speed, say 65mph when the issue normally happens then drop it into neutral and see if it still makes the vibration issue. This should take the load off of the driveline for the most part. Although it'll still spin even out of gear there is a load on it when you back off the throttle in gear. When you take it out of gear if you still get the vibration, your DL might be out of balance. I don't think it's that expensive to get it balanced properly, plus a good driveline shop can tell you if it's out of balance in the first place. Differential issues usually show up as humming noises (gear issues). I think if the mustache bar and diff strap were bad you'd get a bit more issues as you accelerate and run through the gears but I could be mistaken.

It does sound like a driveline issue but in reality if I remember correctly it should make noise under load or acceleration if there's an issue rather than after you let off the throttle. Now for clarification... "looks tight"? You shouldn't have much if any "slop" in the driveline or half shafts. Give them a good twist and see if they rotate much back and forth. You can unbolt the driveline and turn it 180 degrees and that rotates the driveline around so the weights are on the right side for balance. If someone took the driveline off (previous owner) they may have forgotten to mark it and just threw it back in with the weights on the opposite side. Does it vibrate from the front (feel it in the steering wheel) or the rear (feel it in your seat)? If you just bought it, it might not be a bad idea to get her up in the air and give it a good once over. I've had to pull my driveline twice in the last couple months due to a leaky output shaft seal. It was on a lift and still kind of a pain. Unless this is upgraded most of the drivelines on Z's out there are staked drivelines. Meaning you can't service the U-Joint. You can look around for an upgraded one with servicable U-Joints but it's best to find the real issue first before throwing money at it. I think they run about $250 or so. Give it a little bit, someone more knowledgeable than I will probably give you more ideas and other options to look at.

Alright, Just under a week later I'm finally finished it. Combo switch doesn't get hot anymore and my lights have turned into a white color from a dull tan. If I wasn't so tired I'd do a heel click.... haha! Dave, I wish you would do a kit for the 280Z wiring harness because I had to do a lot of "customizing" on mine and I swear I cut just about every connector off and reconnected it. The kit is straight forward and on paper, it looks like it's plug and play (it is for a 1st gen RX7) but communism looks great on paper too!! At any rate, if anyone is thinking of this upgrade, just watch the video on what I ended up doing to make it work. http://youtu.be/HxriwIEqrOo Steve, Thanks for your great advise!!! It helped out a ton and I did the best I could. It's ugly but it just needs to get me until winter when I'll be looking at rewiring a lot of the car.

Question for anyone here. Attached is a picture of my current setup on my 77 280Z. I got it this way from the PO so I'm not sure what the deal is. I'm looking at the FSM and comparing it with this thread and my car. My car is the one that's different here. I'm wondering if the vent hose that is plugged into the Valve cover, running to the AFM to Throttle Body boot is correct. I replaced the boot, so I know some vehicles had this setup as my old boot had this same valve cover elbow and the previous hose was hooked up there. Is this something that just some owners changed, or was it factory?

Zed Head's method works like a champ. I'm sure asuly already has this done but I'll pop in my 2 cents. Torque spec on those driveline fasteners is very low, in my opinion so they come off pretty easy first time. I soaked for a day with PB Blaster. Screwdriver in between the Rear U-Joint, trans in neutral and box end wrench on it the fastener (10MM?). Don't forget to mark the driveline mount with the companion flange so the weights line back up in the right spot or you may have to pull it apart and rotate it 180 degrees if it's out of balance. Also, it says in the FSM that the Exhaust needs to be unbolted and swing away... I was able to get mine out by sliding it all the way to the bottom of the slip yoke, angle it towards the rear passenger and over the sway bar. It's a tight fit but after snapping off a exhaust bolt I figured it's easier this way. Then to echo what sblake01 said, SAFE!! Last thing you want is being under one of these rust buckets torquing on a nut and it drops. asuly, keep us updated. I wish I was your age when I had my first opportunity to pull a motor. Count your blessings, some of us never have pulled a motor, myself included.

If the seal is really bad, it's just a quick temporary fix. If you're doing a ton of driving, I'd be careful. Nothing worse than being broke down on the 5 or the 405 at 6pm on a weekday. I picked up my ex who broke down on the 110S in Carson at 2am... it was still crazy. Ask around for a FSM, some of these guys have them for your 240. I'll take a look as I have three but I think they are all 280Z, not sure the differences in removal procedure. Trans aren't too bad to pull either and the seal should be less than $15. If/when you change it, change the output shaft seal from the trans since you have to pull the driveline anyways. And don't forget to mark the DL too. Good luck man!!!

Steve, Thanks for reminding me about the inline fuses. Picked up parts today, which ran me another $30. Thanks for the tips. I'll have to continue the rest of the project tomorrow but progress was made. Thanks again, Colin

Steve, Thanks for the info, you were right. Question here... I'll need fuses? So I need an in-line fuse for the wires coming from the Positive terminal? What Amp should I use? Also for the relays, what do you mean? You replaced just the relay or the relay and the plug?

Haha, well I have a reputation to uphold so no video proof will be available at this time. At the rate this quick "Plug and play" kit is going I'll be lucky if I don't throw a brick through the windshield. I think I've eaten, breathed and gotten in my eyes enough rust that I may get lock jaw if I don't get a shot soon. Off to the local ACE store to see if I can get some necessities to finish this.

Just got the Black Dragon wiring harness and started on it this afternoon. Realizing now that in order to fit the 3 prong upgraded harness, it won't come out through the light can, so I have to cut and connect the wires after fitting the new harness socket into the can. As for the drivers side, I need to still use the old harness so should I cut and butt connect the wires from the old harness to their right place on the old harness before connecting it up? Or is there an easier way of getting around this? Also, I don't want those wires rubbing on the headlight can opening, so any idea on a good way to alleviate that risk? Thanks in advance. P.S. For anyone looking to use the Black Dragon wiring harness, it's better used on the RX7 and a much better fit. I realize now that the way the 280Z is designed, it's not very friendly for this upgrade.

Congrats and welcome to the Z family! I have a 77 280z, original paint was green on mine but it looks like someone took a paint brush and a bucket of interior paint to it before I bought it.

My '77 has a similar issue. I changed the fuel filter, some fuel lines, etc. just because they needed it but in reality my issue was solved when I pulled the cold start connection from the thermotime switch at the cold start valve. I have to get a multimeter to test for sure but when I pull the switch that leads from the thermotime to the cold start valve AFTER I start it up (Approx 8-10 seconds) it'll idle well enough to hold indefinitely without stalling. You may want to try that and see if your problem is solved. From what I've read on this forum it's supposed to kick fuel in based on coolant temp for about 8 seconds instead of having an old choke to help on cold starts. I've ruled out replacing the cold start valve ($80 special order) because some people say they rarely get stuck open. More often than not they will be stuck open because of a bad thermotime switch which tells it to stay open. Thermotime switch introducing extra un-metered fuel could cause the stall from what I understand. Anyone may correct me if I'm wrong, as I don't want to mislead anyone. This is just what I've gathered from my research on my issue. I've attached two pictures as well to show what I'm explaining. Let me know if I've mislabeled anything. Fastwoman, could tapping on the thermostat housing cause the Thermotime switch or coolant temp sensor to act up? That seems plausible in my opinion but I'm a relative noob when it comes to these cars.

Thanks to all for the good tips!! I just ordered a the relay upgrade from Black Dragon, now if I can put it all together I'll be happy. Also, if it fixes the heating issues I may even do a heel click.

Well, cleaned the hell out of the fusable links and the heat took a little longer to arrive but it showed up again. I'm over it, I'll just upgrade! Thanks for your advise Steve, I may ask a few questions later on when I get the kit in hand, if you don't mind. I feel so lost when it comes to electrical stuff.

Blue and dcruz, thanks for your replies. I'm going to switch over to the Black Dragon relay setup next weekend, too broke for Dave's. This isn't a daily driver, just need to get it to pass safety and get tags for now. Today I'll clean the fusable links that are problematic and the rest next week. Have a Thermotime switch, that I think is giving me trouble too. Maybe cleaning the connection will solve that issue. I'll post my results later on today and let y'all know what happened.

Dave, Thanks for the input. I was reading through quite a bit and did find that they never ran relays, which surprises me for how advanced these cars were for their time. At any rate, the best option is just to upgrade instead of finding the potential problem? Or is the problem most likely all the juice running through the combination switch? Thanks Dave for your input, it's most appreciated. I'll let you know if I can round up the cash for your Headlight Harness, which is a fair price. Times are a bit tough for a student these days so I may have to run with the Black Dragon one. Thanks, Colin

Well folks, here's my first post. I've spent the last two hours trying to find an answer to my wiring issue and another 2 trying to diagnose it. So when all else fails, get some help from those who have LOTS of experience. 1977 280Z. PO "fixed" the combination switch for the headlights. After my drive home (lights off) I realized that they didn't work. I noticed the Red wire FSM says it runs to the fuse box, I think, was off. I put my finger over it and pressed it back onto the connection and it the lights turned on. A month later I'm finally getting to the issue of soldering it back on. I soldered the connection back together on it's pin. I turned the lights on and they work fine, out of curiosity I touched the connection and it's heating up, hotter than my finger can handle. I didn't let it sit like that for long and checked the other connections, for heat while the running lights were on. Nothing else was even hot, or warm. I double checked the connection. It's not touching any wires, housing, etc. Checked the fuse box, no burned out fuses. I suck at electrical issues (next semester I'll be signing up for that class) but from what I can see, doesn't look like there's anything too out of the ordinary. Recent electrical fixes are as follows. Headlights (New, PO installed them) Short on Black and Green ignition wire (jumped to passenger side connection before it connects to the 8 or 12 pin connection. (PO did this but I had to clean it up). New Pos and Neg battery cables. Starter wire that goes to the solenoid. (PO soldered them half a$$ so I cut, cleaned, crimped and wrapped them). A picture is worth 1000 words. Attached is the pic of my crappy soldering job and the combo switch that's problematic. Thanks in advance!!! I've read some really awesome threads and learned a lot so far but have a long way to go.