Captain Obvious

Glad the trip worked out as planned. My only comment is that I thought you were supposed to have the strap centered down the middle of the tire. The lower ratchet point moves inboard and out to allow for adjustment, and I think centered is desired. I know it doesn't matter for you now, but maybe for the next guy? I'm no expert on the use of those trailers, but maybe someone else more experienced can confirm / deny?

Yup. That's from either 1985 or 86. I had just started working a real job out of college and for the first time in my life had enough money to buy food AND a car. That Z is why I have my current one. Rest it's soul... It died at the hands of a tractor trailer on the interstate in 1988. I was OK, but the Z didn't make it. The Jag in the background was owned by the guy a couple houses down. He also had a Lotus Esprit, and a Ferrari 308. Both were engine fire salvage wrecks and put them back together.

I don't have to wait ten seconds for my Z to pick up. I saw you mention this in the other thread and was going to ask... I second Zeds question. What RPM are you stomping at?

There are differences in how the 280 horn pad and the 240 horn pad mount, but as long as you are using everything from the same year (ish), then there's no problem. Get the 240 steering wheel, the 240 horn pad mounting hardware and stuff, and a 240 horn pad. They'll all work fine together and will fit on any year column. All the column splines and mounting scheme is the same for all the years.

Actually, the black part is the core, typically called a "ferrite core". It isn't a good conductor of electricity, but it is much better at conduction magnetic lines than air. The metal end rivet looking headed things just to make electrical connections to the wire. I don't know how deep they go, but I can guarantee that they don't go all the way from one end to the other. Think about it... If there was a conductive nail right through the middle of that thing, then the coil on the outside would be dead shorted out and would be superfluous.

Datsun referred to that device as an "amplifier", and as Zed Head mentioned above, it controlled the actuation of some of the emissions controls starting in 74 (maybe 73?). There is a very small mechanical switch built against the speedo needle and that switch opens (or closes?) when the speedo needle reaches a certain speed (10 mph). The switch is very small and they use that amplifier box to control more current than the switch could handle directly. As for a regulator for the gauges, the Z dash gauges do not utilize an external regulator like some other cars. Instead, each gauge has it's own internally built in regulator. There was some discussion of that function in these threads: http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/44557-has-anyone-successfully-repaired-bimetal-contacts-in-a-dash-gauge/ http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/49186-curious-problem-with-my-gauges-question-about-wiring/ As well as this source that is Jeep related, but the theory is the same: http://civilianjeep.info/Strenk/Gauge%20web%20page/WebPageGauges1.htm

F.

SWMBO has a 2002 Boxster. I'm not a "Porsche Guy" and I know very little about it. Are we at risk for the IMS bearing issues or is that a different model/year? I don't want to work on it. Ever.

Hate to break it to ya, but a Z32 300ZX is challenging to work on even if it DOESN'T have the turbos. I sold my 94 and bought my 77. The 94 was a "better" car in just about every respect, but despite that, I've never looked back!

Been there too, done that too. Made up some new words too.

Nicholas, Glad to help and it was really nice meeting you. It was such a nice driving day that I took the long way home. It won't be too much longer before my Z is packed away for the winter. So the details on testing your ECU was that both transistors looked OK with just a meter test, but because of the somewhat unusual internal construction of the output transistors, testing them with just a meter might not tell the whole story. And that's what I think is happening with yours. Not that you should ever need to know or care, but the ECU output transistors employ an internal construction known as "Darlington", which means there are actually TWO transistors packaged together. And because of this construction, you can't always get a good handle on what's going on inside with that simple test. Here is where I think your transistor failed, and this failure mode can't easily be detected with just a meter: As for the replacement ECU, I'm sure glad I challenged you on that core charge from MSA... Bad that the price was higher than you expected, but good that you learned that before it was too late! Once you have another ECU, buy one (two would be even better) of those NTE247 transistors and I'll be happy to install them for you and make sure all six outputs are working. In the meantime... Get welding on that metal work!!

Yup. Measurement technique error. Measuring 12V between C and E makes perfect sense. I was figuring it was something like that. Zed, Both transistors bases are driven from the same source and I highly doubt there is a problem with that base drive circuitry. My guess is that the output transistor went belly up open circuit.

Haha! My pleasure. I'm just glad someone picked up the movie reference and doesn't think I've got an Anal Intruder here at the house. I think that movie was underappreciated. She who's bosoms defy gravity...

Took a look at the prospect of a ground fault taking out three injectors. It is possible, but very unlikely. And the fault would have to be inside the ECU itself, not a harness issue.

Hi marks Zed. The "B" leg is the actuator signal The "C" leg is connected to the injectors. Three injectors connected to each C. The "E" leg should be tied hard to ground. The voltage readings you got with the same voltage on both the C and E legs doesn't make sense, but I suspect it's a measurement method issue. Or maybe there's an intermittent ground issue. I don't remember the details of the ground scheme, but depending on how they actually did it, you might be able to drop three injectors with a carefully placed ground fault. I'll dig into that a little more when I get a chance. Just be very careful poking around in there with power on. One slip and you can let the smoke out. Nicholas, I'm about a half hour from you in the burbs. Send me a PM and we'll chat.

Have you tried one of these?

I would try to source a replacement ECU before I would try a component level repair on the old one. Those kinds of repairs sometimes spiral into unexpected complications and I wouldn't try it unless you had verified the failure first and had a backup plan in place. I've got a spare ECU (from a 77) if you just wanted to try one to see if it fired all six injectors. I was told that it gets squirrelly on hot days after it heats up, and I have verified that it tests fine on the bench when cool. Would work at least to confirm that your ECU is the problem.

If you got 11.9 on all six injector pins at the ECU with the ECU disconnected, then yes... It points away from a harness issue and towards the ECU.

I'm thinking ECU. The ECU has two big output transistors that fire the injectors in banks of three, and if one of those transistors burns open, you will lose those three injectors. There aren't a lot of other things that could cause you to drop three injectors like that at the same time. As you already noticed, the dropping resistor does four and two so that's probably not it. And while it is possible that the wiring to the front three of the injectors is screwed up inside the harness, I consider it unlikely. Why? Because each injector gets it's own independent wire from the ECU to the injector. So sure... It's possible that a PO cut three of those wires, but I consider it more likely that the ECU is the root cause. I'm in the Philly area if you get stuck. I'm no FI expert, but I know some stuff. PM me if you need a hand.

Volleyball and Z's? You go brother!! I played last night! Tough match against a good team, but thankfully we won two out of three. And now it's days like today that I wish I had power steering in the Z...

I'm not sure if picture hanging wire you would find at a hardware store is going to be good enough for this. You definitely need something pretty high quality for this. You definitely need something heat treated. Probably tempered back from full hard, but certainly not something annealed and malleable. Couple ideas: Last time I needed a cable for something similar, I went to a junkyard and harvested a cable from another vehicle. Didn't matter what it came from as long as it was longer than what I needed. I then trimmed the jacket and snipped the wire to fit and bent the necessary features on the ends of the wire. Other idea would be to support absolutely as much of the wire as possible. In other words... Extend the jacketing beyond the clamp(s) as far as you can before they start to interfere with the movement of the actuating arm. I don't know anything about the 240 control head as all my experience is with later designs, but it looks like you might be able to extend the jacket a half inch or more to help support the cable before it gets to the arm?

Need a screen? Use a couple handfuls of that swarf!! Nice machining work! Is that adapter aluminum or steel?

As with most cars, reverse is not synchronized. That means in order to shift into reverse without grinding, all the guts inside the transmission must be dead still before the reverse teeth engage or they will clash. When the clutch is depressed, even if everything is adjusted correctly there is often still enough drag on the clutch disk to keep it spinning with the flywheel and pressure plate unless there is something that makes it stop. This is even more prevalent when the tranny oil is hot and thin. The friction from cold thick gear oil will stop the spinning quickly, but hot thin oil may not. Shifting into any forward gear will stop the internals, and then a quick shift into reverse should go in without any grind.

Haha! Like the diff straps! Reminds me that I'm still running the original "temporary" one I made up before ZCON. I need to finish up that project and make a better one. At this point, I guess I'll just wait for the off season.

I think I understand the problem now.... The mounting bushing on the new antenna is not designed to be used on an angled surface like the original was. Or at least not as extreme of an angle? Any chance you could just use the old dome from your original antenna to give yourself the adjustment you need? Or is it dust? Maybe a belt sander to the bottom of the new bushing to angle the surface to better match the contour of the body? Could you do that such that the modified surface is hidden down inside the rubber seal? Some black or clear silicone schmutz to help with water ingression?