HuD 91gt

Thanks Zed. I didn't actually think the 240z had a light, that's why I'm wondering about the resistor. Maybe it does and I'm just out to lunch? That first link you sent made me worried is it says without a resistor can damage the alternator.

Wow, thanks for the quick reply. I wasn't able to use any writeup actually as I have an alternator from a heated windshield car which has 4 prongs as apposed to 3 in all the writeups. The 4 wire alternator has the 4 that zed head posted. If I connect the switch the F for the L, will I require a resistor? I was reading so many sources, I confused myself. Surprised that diagram never showed up in my searches as I was looking for exactly that.

I am attempting to upgrade my '71 externally regulated alternator to a CS144 alternator. Ive used the MSA converter plug which rearranges the appropriate wires, and includes the diode required. I connected the 12v constant wire (yellow on T plug) to the S "sense" wire on the 4 prong alternator output. I connected the other wire from the T plug "switched" to the F "field" plug. I start the car and I am not getting any charge. It's sitting at ~12.5volts. All the documentation out there talks about 280z, these have I believe a discharge lamp. This is considered an excited correct? Does a 240z require some sort of resistor in it's place to "jump start" the alternator? FYI, I've decided to upgrade as I am installing megasquirt, and I figure and upgrade would be required.

I've just seen bits and pieces of this on Facebook. Nice little restoration.... Although it doesn't seem like it is so little after all! Glad to hear he is going with White. Should look great!

I snagged one rear bumper and a laundry list of other items. I had both bumpers on my list, but they must have ran out. It now says backordered. I believe in good people, but having paid for a back ordered items which will never get ordered from a company closing down gives me the heebie jeebies. My full seal kit got backordered too. Sigh.

Well, my 12v source directly to the battery did not work. I tested the voltage drop while starting the battery on this new direct line. It is still down to 10 volts or so. I was looking back at my emails at Retrosound stated a voltage drop of less then 12v can mean a dying battery (Mine is new), and may lead to the stereo not retaining it's memory. I have 1/0 gauge (Yup, thats right) battery terminals leading to the engine ground, and the starter. What else could this voltage drop be caused from?

Hey guys, Sorry for the huge delay in status updates. I was having engine rebuild issues but finally those are dealt with and back to the minor issues I was having before. I just took the radio out once again. I did a small test on the voltage from from the yellow constant 12v wire. When I turn the key on to ACC, and have my electric fans on, and the fuel pump on the voltage would drop to ~11.95v. If I did the same test, with a wire directly from the battery it would read 12.2v. I also tested the drop while start the engine and it was down to 10v on the wire I'm currently using (I did not test with the direct 12v source from battery) but i'm hoping the drop may be enough the radio is losing power. I will run a temporary line to the starter, and connect it to the yellow content. Fingers crossed and hoping for the best. For now it's lunch time. Update to come.

I rounded off every nut when doing it. Torch, proper wrench's, everything. The only thing that got them loose were heat and some good vice grips. I ended up bending all new lines using Fedhill products, and bought some stainless flexible lines. You can try flaring the old line, but I they will split, or leave a rusty flare connection. There is no harm in trying though.

As for your rear carb requiring more turns, that could quite easily be float level causing that difference.

I recently did a comparison with my SM needles and stock '71 needles on the stock L24. I had been running the SM needles for the past year or so on some freshly rebuild SU's using the ZT kit. My SU reading's are similar to yours, besides at idle where I have to run them at 10.5:1-11-1 at idle to get a good mixture to redline. When I did this with the stock needles, everything was quite a bit more lean. The SM needles are definitely going in the right direction, but still need to keep a similar profile, except at the base where i'd like to see them thicker for a leaner idle (Or thin out everywhere else). You have a larger modified motor where i'm sure they are much too lean. Time to start searching on needle modification, or try adjusting where the needles are seated (I used the ZT method of holding the choke tube up into the carb, while dropping the piston and needle down. Pull the piston out and tighten the needle where it sits). I've heard of some people fiddling with the needle height to get different results.

That is exactly what I used on my automatic console when I adapted a 5 speed boot. Works great!

Just a quick update. Replaced the coil, rotor and plugs and then I had spark. Didn't have luck starting the engine so I swapped in a HEI module (suspecting weak spark) instead of the e12-80 ignition module. No change. With the help of chickenman over the phone, we realized my timing was way off (way off). He told me to take a look at where the rotor was pointing under the cap. I never thought of doing this and it caught the error. The engine fired right up after setting the timing properly. Thanks everyone.

Thanks for the quick replies guys. It's really useful in times of chaos. Sorry for the short replies yesterday. Im working out at a friends house without internet service (complete boonies) and a single bar of cell service. By the time I had posted this I was scouring wiring diagrams and researching everything on this silly device. It was also the point in time where I decided to call it quits and had a few wobbly pops. Anyhow, I drove into town early this morning to catch the parts store opening. Taking this time to do a little research at Starbucks and steal their wifi. I don't know the brand of cap and rotor, but I bought them online and I would put money on the fact they are beck and arnley. I will compare resistance with the old and the new and see if there are differences before installing. I really hope hope it is one of these items. I suspect the prolonged cranking without being grounded did some damage. To what, I guess we'll find out soon. Unfortunately if I don't get this figured out this morning, the new engine will sit for about 2 months before I get the chance to try again. I'll be out of town for work for the next 2 months starting this afternoon. fingers crossed

It was tested by disconnected the wire from the distributed and turning the engine. Blue spark, arc from over an inch. I never tried any further.

thanks for the replies everyone. That is good to hear, as I was thinking similar in my head. Spark seems strong at coil wire to distributor. Easily jumps when wire is over and inch from ground. Unsure of rotor and cap brand but there is one locally available at lordco. I will pick it up tomorrow. I have NGK wires, but the connections are suspect. These are also in stock. I'll update tomorrow.

I finished rebuilding my engine and am starting to swap it in. 280zx distributor, MSD coil. The setup ran fine 3 days ago on the L24. Now with the new L28, I have very weak spark. Spark from the coil to the distributor is strong. It is intermittent and weak from the plugs. Will the oil drive spindle being in the wrong position have any effect on the timing of the spark in the rotor? We we tried a new MSD coil and no change. The other option could be wires, ignition module, cap, rotor or plugs. Everything is new or less then 2000miles. i ran the ignition for a while testing oil pressure without the plugs in. Without them being grounded, is it possible I damaged something?

A capacitor makes sense to me.... The diode talk, that's way over my head. Haha and yes it's a '71.

For constant 12v, i'm using a light blue wire which the other radio was hooked to. I'll have to dig up a wiring diagram to see exactly what it is. As for the ground, I have been using the same ground the radio is hooked to for all testing. It is grounded to a screw on the cigarette lighter. Heading out of town for a few days so no more updates for a bit. Retrosound thinks it's a wiring issue. He's getting me to start from the beginning and connect all wires directly to the battery to test radio operation. I think that's a bit silly as we know it works when all leads get power. As per the fact the radio turns on and off in ACC. The issue arrises from ACC to Engine ON. With the power transfer of On/OFF/ON again. But i'll do what he says and go from there. Next on his list is grounds.

I've tripled checked the wires. 12v constant hot to good old yellow. Acc power to red wire as required. When I was fooling around with this this afternoon, I noticed it only loses it's memory when the vehicle is in ACC, for a second or more, THEN started. If I go from ignition off, to start right away I don't get the memory loss. I'm guessing something to do with the power on, to off (12v loss when started as Captain Obvious states) back to On is causing an issue. It may be a radio issue after all. I will probably run a direct line to the battery as trouble shooting, just in case. Thanks for the replies.

Hello, I purchased a retro sound radio recently. Works great. Kind of. it loses all it's memory after starting. I contact retrosound directly, they figure it's from too much voltage drop during start, or a bad ground. Tested on an old battery, and new. The following stats are from the new battery. 12.2v off. During start, my constant power wire is showing a drop down to 10.5v. After reading online, this seems normal. Retrosound says the constant is the one which usually causes this issue. initially I had the radio set, so the switched power was connect to the "on" portion of the ignition. Meaning, my fuel pump runs as well when the radio was on. I didn't have any issues with it set like this. I tested this voltage drop. It's the same as the constant 12v. When I connected the switched 12v to "acc", meaning I can listen to the radio without my fuel pump buzzing I get a much deeper drop. My voltmeter shows down to 1-3volts. Is this normal? It's funny how the change from the accessory wire started this issue. Ymir shouldn't have any effect on the memory of the radio. Anyhow I've forwarded my findings to retrosound and will update as the updates come in. But I'd still like to know why I get such a large voltage drop on start with all my accesories. I tried a second acc source and it gets the same drop as well.

I should also note, they were actually quite difficult to remove, which is why i'm so cautious about putting them in. If it takes half the force to put it, as it did to knock them out, it would be easy to damage some metal. Maybe all I need is a warmer garage? Or a heat gun.

The cap is in the same cool garage (8-10 degree Celsius, or guessing about 48-50 for y'all Southerners) as the block. Temperatures would be the same (If not very very similar). My issue seems to be lining the cap up, before tapping it with a hammer. If it's not perfect it's obviously going to go one way or the other.... The both of those options are not into it's recession! I read an idea to put the caps in the freezer first. It's funny though, you can search this question on all the forums and nothing really shows up. I think I must be putting it upside down or something else ridiculous (Joking obviously). I'd feel much more comfortable tapping the caps in, if the edges were bevelled. Straight sharp edges, and force just makes me cringe of creating sharper edges in tight tolerences that are supposed to be as smooth as a couple babies bottoms.

Thanks for the pictures. Do you have any pictures of the exhaust with the liner removed, and no other work done? i'm curious what it looks like. I have an N47 with one liner loose. I might want to play around with it too.

I finally got my block back form the machinist. It's painted, core plugs installed and ready to go back together. Having never done any work like this before, i'm having an issues installing the main bearing caps. The How to book's don't give a great description on how this is done and I am afraid of doing damage using any sort of force. The tolerances seem very tight. The how to book's recommend first filing any burrs on the edges of the caps (I've yet to do so). I've tried lightly tapping them in place with a rubber mallet. Should I place some old rod bolts in, to line the caps up, then tap? Freeze the caps? Should they be oiled first? If someone could list their steps for installation that would be great. It's probably very simple, but i'd rather be cautious rather then buggering it up. My head will be complete from Whitehead performance on Thursday, and i'd like to get this bottom end back together.

Am I the only one who can't understand the manual diagrams? The front I use the crossmember. The back, i've always used the small, let's say 2" wide frame rains which run to the sides of the car from the diff area. But yes, mine are dented