Xenn

Yes I meant alternator upgrade, sorry, im going to upgrade the distributer this tax return. The battery is only a year old, but one of the diodes on my old alternator went out and wasnt charging it right, that might have killed it, but I didnt think it could kill it in that way, Ill have it checked out tomorrow. Edit: Also keep in mind the problem is intermittent, it does it more at night when cold when i put a heavy load on the battery without the car running (turning lights on and such). But has not happened in a day or so.

77 280z 2 seater, I recently did a distributor upgrade, bypassing the voltage regulator and my car was running much better, however Ive noticed an as issue my car has been having a few times and it is becoming more frequent. whenever i put a strain on my battery (such as turning the lights on), my voltage drops to 0 lights turn off, nothing comes on, however, my car still turns over and starts, after which everything works fine, but its charging at 16 volts with the charge light on like the bat is disconnected, then when i stop, turn everything off, and remove the load, the bat reads 12 volts and everything seems fine, until i put a load on it again (sometimes even a tiny load like my interior LED lights). I checked battery, starter, alternator, fuseable links, and fuse box, all SEEMS fine (its the middle of winter so i havent had a chance to check with a volt meter yet no broken or lose connections though) but im not sure where to go from here. I dont wanna fry my electronics by driving with a high voltage everywhere, or have my electrical connection die to where i cant start my car. Any idea where to start with this issue, im going to go out and recheck the terminal connections tonight to make sure theres no rust under it, but other than that given how my car reacts where would you start? Also i dont have maxi fuseable links yet. A second issue i have is my heater core is undergoing electrolysis and getting holes, where are common electrical grounding areas that can cause this, and whats the best way to fix it?

Maybe, but it wouldn't explain the accessory loss though.

I didnt say it was intermittent in my first post because it wasn't intermittent at the time, its only after i went back out after a few hours that the problem went away. The battery was reading 8 when the car was on and running (no charge light), and 0 when off, but the starter would still engage and get the engine running, though the voltmeter read 0. As for my ACC, the ignition on a 76 looks like lock/off -> acc -> on -> start. So the reason i was so confused, voltmeter would read 0, i would turn my key to acc and my fuel pump, which is wired into it, would not come on, but my engine would turn over, and when it fired up, my alternator would keep my fuel pump running and my voltmeter would read 8. Also, my car used to run at ~15 volts when on, after repairs, new battery, and some other general electrical work it dropped down to normal 13-14 when running, now its back up to ~15 so this problem might also be causing my car to overcharge my batt, could be unrelated though.

Ignition relay sounds like a likely culprit, i get runoff from inside my fender Ive seen leak there. I wired my fuel pump into my accessory because i couldn't get a new relay at the time and mine is dead, ive left it like that since because it does no harm to me. Accessory being dead meaning when i turn my key to acc, the coil doesn't become energized. Did not remove and test impedance of links, I made sure they were still connected, not loose, and didn't fall to pieces when stressed, they were, however very corroded, hence on the "verge of dieing". Checked battery connections to make sure they were tight and not corroded, battery is 3 months old. The problem with the fuseable links is when they go, they burn out on the inside and usually dont melt the casing. I would just take my multimeter out there and go check them but the problem is being intermittent, when i let my car cool down (while i spent the last few hours looking up information on what happened) and went back out, the voltmeter read fine, and i was able to start it and idle it up to normal operating temp without any problems. This happened when i did something i normally dont do, get on the freeway while my car was cold, i can understand that stressing the system, but even if the problem has gone away for the moment, it just means when what ever is going wrong, is soon to go out. I just wanted to know where the furthest point forward in the electrical system that links both the voltmeter and acc and then work up from there, Ignition relay sounds possible, but i donno if it going out could effect my voltmeter, if not, then the problem is further back. If its not that im think one of my links got unusually hot and broke the circuit, im just gonna replace my whole fuseable link box, im just wondering if this means its the time to do so. I posted this yesterday but it didn't go up it seems, thank you auto save.

Interesting electrical problem developed today. 76 280z When off, my battery seems to be disconnected from half the functions, my Accessory seems to be dead (and thus my fuel pump that is wired into it) , my fuseable links are good, , battery connections are good, it seems like a wire is on the verge of dieing, the battery shows on the voltmeter sometimes, but when i try to put a load on it it drops to 0. When running, the voltage reads 8 and varies with rpm (im guessing its only alternator then) My question is, has anyone else had something similar happen? I'm thinking it is one of my fuseable links, just it doesn't look broken (and isnt fully yet), I just dont know if my voltmeter is wired into my accessory function, (it stays on when the car is off, but could be wired in before the ignition. Someone who knows the electrical system better than me where does it sound like a break may be?. Also my accessory functions work when my car is running. I just didn't keep it running at one point, and now dont have enough fuel pressure to get it started again.

The glove box lock is actually a really simple one to pick, 4 standard pin, doable with a paperclip in like 5 min sort of lock, if you know how, just DONT spray wd40 in it, use lock lubricant (carbon dust, you can get it at fredmeyer). Try the key again first, if it works on your doors, ignition, hatch, it should work on your glove box too, for me it was my zx that had separate keys for doors and ignition. If that doesn't work try and remove the door, pull it straight down to avoid getting it caught on the lock. If that doesn't work call a locksmith. With a car as old as yours, buying a new glove box door will cost more than a locksmith, especially if you go to them.

I live in bellingham yes, ive been looking into it more, and there is a 4 bolt AFM and a 3 bolt, i have the 3 bolt (im assuming non turbo), and then the style changes again in 79 with the zx, i found a place online that does $200 with a $100 core charge, which is the cheapest i can find anywhere.

I moved both the carbon chase and the wiper to try and adjust the gap as much as possible, im gonna rip it out again tomorrow and see if i can adjust it the other way, i thought about putting a drop of soder on the tip of the wiper so it could have a further out contact point but i donno how well that would work. The 77 had all its egr ripped out, no catalytic converter, all the egr stuff in the intake manifold was disconnected and removed (as well as the ac, heater vacuum lines, the right gas tank, etc, etc, i kept the 77 distributor because one is internally regulated and one is not, i kept all the efi stuff on my 79 engine and just plugged the 77 electrical harness into it, which worked fine, pretty much all i had to do was disconnect all the electrical connections, undo the mounts, and swap both engines/transmissions across, other than the distributer it worked out great.

That's what i did (adjusting the potential meter wiper) and it worked well for a bit, but its incredibly hard to get it to touch without digging in, with that little room to bend it its either all or nothing. The other problem i found was that i could only really move it further away from the ECU, which while allowing it to make contact, the current would still have to travel around the break, most likely grounding into a different pin at either side of the groove. Also; thanks for the link, it was a good link, and told me what i wasn't able to figure out on my own.

I ripped my MAF out, cleaned it up, and it worked better but slowly degraded, the main problem is on the inside under the plastic cap, the black conductive area that tells the computer where the position of the flap is has been worn away by the copper contact points, so it doesn't read position at low airflow. Im starting to think the only real difference between the two are how they bolt in.

So I bought a 77 (made in 76) 280z that was dead and stuck the engine/transmission from a 79 280zx 2+2 into it, the thing is, its always had an issue where it would idle really low at a rest,more so when warm, around 500, when i have the idle set to around 1600 when hot just to combat this problem. Anyway i figure out it was most likely the MAF so i ripped it out, cleaned it up, put it back in, and it was working almost perfect for awhile, but now it seems to have died completely. The point of this post is; it never did really work quite right, and my zx engine is slightly different from that of the 76 i put it in, so which MAF do i buy? Will one for a 79zx work better than one for a 76z, or will it even be compatible with the 76's computer?