Captain Obvious

Easy if you the have hands of a surgeon.

Yes, it's supposed to have a little spring loaded door over the hole, but most of them have fallen apart over the years. The springs rust and it falls apart. If you're lucky, the door and pin is still there but has just fallen open (always open) so you can't see it. In other words, it's in there, but off to the side. The little rusty nub is what's left of the door spring:

That's not controversial to me at all. I completely agree 100%!! I'll check on those round air cleaner filter gizmos for you... Tagging @GGRIII . That's his car and he bought the air cleaners. I don't know where he got them, but I remember something about "cheap clones of the expensive ones". Hopefully he come in and shed some light. And hopefully they might be cheaper on your end of the pond as well.

So the glove box uses the same key as the doors? If that's the case, then I would agree that it sounds like the ignition lock was replaced. Not unusual at all. The hatch though... Seems a little unusual for the hatch to be replaced before the doors are. Maybe the hatch lock DOES use the same key as the doors and glove box. Maybe it's just all frozen corroded up inside. Taking the hatch lock out is not complicated, and after it's out of the car, taking the hatch lock apart is not difficult. It's probably one of the easiest. I'd take it out, clean it up, and see what it looks like inside. Failing that, a locksmith would make short work of the problem.

Haha!! Excellent! Then I've accomplished my mission! So you could try a bead of silicone once you're sure you've got everything else dialed in and hopefully won't have to be taking the domes off again every other day. More hidden than the foam. Just as long as there isn't some other second order effect from the foam thickness that makes a problem come back. In any event, it's just great to hear it's running so well and I'm happy for you! I think that turbo-esque whistle is the air blowing across the holes in the bottoms of the pistons. Like blowing across the opening at the top of a bottle, or a flute. I had never noticed it until the original air cleaner was replaced with smaller individual ones on each carb. I think the large mass of the original air cleaner housing and the fact that the stock input snout pointed forward towards the radiator muffled the whistle. And good work with the FBTT!

Wow. I'm impressed! Mind like a steel trap! Yes, he's the guy who gave us drink tokens. I was just happy he didn't call the cops on us! I bet he locked that door after we left! Haha!! The planks hold "flights", or "tasting flights". And yes, I remember that map. Showed it to her and she's like "Wait... The only thing on here is directions to beer?" You remember at one of the other stops on our tour... The two guys who were reluctant to give us a recommendation for BBQ? You remember the detail behind that?

Have you checked the glove box lock? In my limited experience, I've found that the glove boxes get the least amount of use and are usually the original key pattern for the vehicle. You may find that neither the ignition key or door key work in the glove box. That would be an indication that both the door and ignition locks have been replaced, and if that's the case, I bet the glove box and hatch share a common key (that you don't have). And not that it's a big deal, but locking the hatch doesn't make it impossible to press down. The button still presses in fine, but it misses the internal target linkage.

Hope that's the end of it! Send some of that heat our way please? We're running about 20 degrees below normal and I'm ready for some warmer weather. I'll be sure to send the heat back west to you before July so you don't miss out.

Right. Sorry. I got hung up on your alignment issue (see what I did there?) and incorrectly translated that to a potential altitude change as well. Thanks for the nudge back to reality. I'll go back and cross that out. I've messed with flat tops more than the round tops, and from what I've seen, the machining quality got better. The precision machined sealing surfaces on the flat tops are pretty good. The bead of silicone I used was on an early set of four screw round tops. I've not had to do that on the flats. So how did you determine the surfaces were off? Lay it on a flat-ish surface and you can actually see gaps? As for the whistle, I would suggest it's perfectly normal. I believe that's air rushing past your venture and you should learn to love it. I traveled to Zcon last year in a flat top powered 260 with small aftermarket air filters, and when you punched it, that whistle was very pronounced. Sounded like a turbo spooling up. And the car felt like it too! Just think of it as your round top turbo!

I've had a situation or two when I wasn't confident in the seal between the dome and the base. I just used a small bead of silicone sealant at the base of the dome. Worked great without changing much else about the mounting. So with the thickness of that foam, I'm wondering if it was a seal issue, or did the thickness of the gasket change your needle station positioning (On edit, forget this. This is not the case.) ? In other words, I'm not sure I know what it was that caused the improvement.

Yeah, I gotta admit... It wasn't as classy, but it sure blended in. It's like my daily driver... I want it to be invisible. You remember that one shaky looking neighborhood when we ended up startling the guy in the brewery? Him, clearly startled - "Woah! Uhhh... Can I help you?" Us, being a tasting flight up already - "We we're looking for beer." Him (thankfully) amused - "Uhhh, OK. We got lots of that, but we don't sell it here." Hahaha!!! We could have easily ended up in a cell for that one! I think the only thing that saved us was your trustworthy face!

@Dferr17 So where were they listed? On ebay? I think those panels are for 76 only.

Coolness! You've reached the point where the tools necessary for working on your motor are more like an electronics tech than an engine mechanic! What's in the little tub? Flux? That's not the acid based plumbing stuff, right?

Well most of that behavior is completely normal. The alternator output can (will) drop if the RPM's get too low. And if the alternator output drops far enough, the warning lights are supposed to come on. There are two things that concern me a little though, and that's why I was suggesting keeping an eye on things. 1) The alternator output might be dropping off at an RPM that's higher than normal which may be a sign that the alternator may be having some sort of internal problem. I don't know what the specs are, but on my car with an internally regulated alternator, my alternator output seems to be able to keep up easily at 700 RPM idle, even with the headlights and blower motor on. In other words, even with the headlights and blower motor on, I can let my RPMS drop to idle (700 RPM) and my warning lights don't come on. Might be a warning sign that yours do 2) The other thing that concerns me is the "latching" of either the VOLTS or BRAKE lights. Even if the alternator output does drop off at low RPM's, both those lights should go back out when you rev the engine. Every time. So if one or the other of those lights ever "latch" on, it might be another sign of impending doom for your current alternator. Makes me wonder if your brushes are worn to a nub and are making intermittent contact. Or your internal regulator may be failing. In my experience, things like this are warning signs that something is brewing. Might not be critical. Yet. But something's going on...

Well put, and while it would be neat to mess around with it, I don't think I'm going to be pushing that limit that far. Haha!

From: https://www.nissanpartsdeal.com/parts/nissan-knocking-sensor~22060-w1502.html Part Fitment for 22060-W1502: Nissan 280ZX 1980-1983 L28ET Nissan Pulsar NX 1983-1985 E15T From Wikipedia: The L28 is a 2,753 cc (2.8 L; 168.0 cu in) 12-valve engine. Bore and stroke is 86 mm × 79 mm (3.39 in × 3.11 in) The E15 displaces 1.5 L (1,488 cc) from 76 mm × 82 mm (2.99 in × 3.23 in) So much for the 1800 / bore circumference. Haha!

Thanks guys for the part number info. I'll poke around some and see what I can learn. I always thought knock sensors were piezoelectric elements. Hit it with a voltage, and it changes shape. Hit it with a change in shape, and it produces a voltage. And yes, they often (always?) have a resonant frequency. Was never a topic of study by me, but I'll dig a little. 1800 divided by bore circumference seems too easy. Maybe that works for old Volvos? Harvest the igniter piezo out of my grill lighter and bolt it to the side of my engine and measure the voltage out? Or I could just not get greedy with the timing values.

Haha!! Sounds like a plan! I'd keep an eye out for weird behavior for a while too. I'm not really liking the timing of the failure of the VOLT bulb. Just too coincidental. Keep an eye on your voltmeter for a while.

Great! Glad to hear at least part of the problem was a simple fix. So are you "whole" now, or is the brake warning light still giving you troubles when you put the relay back in?

Thanks Zed. Do you have a part number for that knock sensor? I poked around and didn't find anything. And I remember that Whisper 2000 thing! Back in the dark ages, us guys the engineering department would sometimes pool some money and buy stuff that we thought were funny or scams. Perpetual motion machines, X-ray glasses... That sort of thing. For entertainment. The Whisper 2000 was one of the devices we purchased for our collection.

Yup. Moore's Law in action. Coupled with the rise in fuel prices and the desire to reduce emissions? I found a few references to knock sensors being added to cars which did not originally come with one. But they were vague and I didn't find anything that came to successful fruition. Granted, I didn't look very hard though. So the 280ZX had a knock sensor? Is that the turbo version? I don't think the NA had one.

Nice! I didn't even know they were available like that until I started poking around. I thought they were all built at "the factory". Glad to see they aren't. Adds credibility to the open source and community "heatkit" vibe. Good work.

Well that, and it's a shoe.

That operation with the relay removed is correct. There are three possible ways to light the warning lamp and they are "in parallel". If any of them connects to ground, the light comes on. By disconnecting that relay, you have simply removed one of the possible ways to connect the lamp to ground. The parking brake handle still works because it's still able to pull the lamp to ground even if one of the other paths (like the relay) have been completely removed. In fact, you said you have disconnected the brake fluid level switch as well, and the parking brake lever still lights the light. Same thing for the warning relay. Does that make sense? I'm trying to describe things for someone who doesn't do a lot of electrical work. Hope I'm not oversimplifying and or insulting...

@jonbill, Did you put the Speeduino together as a kit, or buy something turn-key? @AK260 I was looking through some of the speeduino and megasquirt documentation and saw they often use the MPX4250A sensor for MAP. Is that what you used? Nevermind... It's probably built into the 123 device. You didn't put it in.