hotsho111

I measured the hole that the spring slides into and thats 3mm so I'm probably going to try and find one that size, under the assumption that the ball gets recessed in it a bit

Hey, the turn signals in my 73 240z have been intermittent and I finally decided to bite the bullet and try and separate the turn signal assembly and I noticed that the little ball that's supposed to be on the end of the spring was missing. Basically #2 in this picture Anyone have any idea what size that is? It might just guess and try and buy a few small ones

I connected a ground strap to the ignition switch and that grounded the column and the horn worked then (which is how I ID'ed it being a grounding issue). I also agree in that I'd expect the center shaft to be grounded via the bearings since they are metal. American cars of the period would use a metal bearing in a rubber sleeve so it makes sense why those needed a grounding strap. I don't know if the housing was painted or what as it doesn't seem to be grounded through the housing

I definitely thought the same thing but it looks like that coupler is a pretty common ground approach for 60s/70s vehicles (American ones at least). The column might get ground from where it's bolted to the firewall as it looks like the steering column bearings aren't rubber coated like some other steering columns from the period so there should be some contact there I know the entire column is isolated from the dash mounting bracket as that mount has a rubber gasket so it shouldn't touch the column housing

Taking that resistance reading with the ignition in the lock position it reads .2 ohms. With the key in the ACC position it reads about 8 ohms The car was restored in ~2010 and they painted a lot (which is why I've been trying to track down what should be the source of ground). I was poking at the steering coupler and the column does have continuity through the coupler but it doesn't have continuity to the input shaft to the steering box (that does have ground though). I'd guess it's because a bunch of this stuff has been painted over I've attached a picture to try and help. The red circled bolts have continuity with the steering column. The green part has continuity to ground. I think there should be a connection between the two where the steering box input shaft is bolted to the H section of the coupler. The H plates have been painted blue so I'd guess that's why there's no continuity there. I think the "proper" solution is to probably take those coupler plates off and make sure there's not paint preventing contact, but the easier solution (and what I'll probably do) is just buy a short grounding strap and connect them that way

Finally had a chance to get to this today. The ground strap is there but it's connected to the starter starter but there are a few small ancillary grounds that do go to the body. @SteveJ I tried checking for continuity from the spots you indicated on the column and no bueno. I'm not sure if the column ground is supposed to come from where it's bolted to the firewall, the metal bulkhead, or from the steering coupler in the engine bay. I thought the columns were generally grounded through the steering coupler joint as the column was generally isolated from the column tube. I'll have a little more time tomorrow and might start poking at that

Thanks for the explanation @SteveJ, I'd been doing some research today and went over something similar with a buddy so it makes more sense now. Thanks for the ground check spots. I can try checking that tomorrow.

Thanks @cgsheen1, that's what I initially thought. I can't confirm if the frame ground is intact but I would assume so. I know it was common to ground columns around that time via the rag joint for the steering column so I was going to look into that next. The rag joint parts and the column are painted so I was gonna check if something wasn't able to ground because of that. Another question I've had some trouble trying to confirm looking at the wiring diagrams: should the red/black wire that connects to the brass arm that touches the steering wheel have 12v power or should that be purely ground? Mine has 12v so when I press the horn button (grounding the "column" via the ignition switch bracket) I get a small spark which makes sense in that context, but I would have thought that would all just be a ground circuit with no power

Ya, I checked that and there isn't continuity I'm just not sure how the column is supposed to be grounded

For the column grounding, is it generally grounded via just being bolted to the body or is there supposed to be an actual dedicated ground wire? An easy solution would be to run a ground wire from the ignition or turn signal/light stalk to the metal dash bracket which is grounded. Something else I noticed is there's a slight spark when the column is grounded and I press the horn plates together. That makes some sense since the red/black wire has 12v that touches the back of the steering wheel, but I would have thought that's just completing a ground circuit and there wouldn't be a spark. Any idea what's going on there? (I'm mostly just curious and definitely not an electrical expert so it just seemed a little unexpected) <- Thinking about it more, that makes sense. I figured I'd leave the info there if it helps anyone else though

I took a look and don't see any loose wires. That was mostly looking at the column itself. I didn't get way into the footwell to look under the dash

Circling back as I've finally had a chance to look at this. I can confirm the horn relay works. If I remove the ground (GB wire connected to the S terminal on the relay) and directly ground it the horn works. I also independently tested the relay and it worked as well So the problem appears to be the ground path isn't being completed. There is continuity from the GB wire at the relay to the horn switch (I checked the black wire on the front and the flexible brass arm on the back). I don't remember how I tested the column originally but I can confirm it *doesn't* have ground. If I ground the steering column (just clipping a ground wire to the ignition switch from the battery) and hit the horn it works as expected. Does anyone know how/where the column is grounded? Is it just by being bolted to the frame or is there an actual ground wire that should be connected somewhere? I would assume its the former and so maybe there's some paint or corrosion preventing that

I got under the car and took a look at some of the other hoses and while not leaking look a bit cracked. The OEM hoses are a bit too pricey for me so I'll probably drop the tank at some point and replace all the hoses with off the shelf fuel hose

Thanks guys, this car was restored around 2010 but was sitting for a while before the last owner sold so I don't think all the hoses are quite that old. I understand how the hoses run and how to replace them, I just wasn't sure if I could replace just that rear evap hose without dropping the tank and couldn't find an answer on that. The job itself doesn't look too bad outside if the hassle of it haha I was looking at using a unicoil to make the 180" turn for the rear hose. I don't think I want to spend the 80 bucks on a oem (ish?) replacement

Hey, I went to try and fill my 240z to a full tank for the first time and after putting in ~5.5 gallons (from a little under 1/4 tank on the fuel gauge) noticed a decent amount of fuel coming out the bottom of the car. I got underneath the car and noticed it was leaking a lot from the evap hose at the top/rear of the tank. The hose looks a little kinked and it looks like it was pouring out from where it was kinked. It was leaking down from that spot to the front corner of the tank and down from there. I *think* that's the only source of the leak. The car leaked for quite a bit before it finally got below the level of that hose and stopped. The fuel gauge is sitting at just under 3/4 of a tank now. I've been reading through a few threads and haven't quite found answers on these but I have a few questions: 1). The car is pretty new to me so I don't know how accurate the fuel gauge is but if it's leaking out of that evap hose, that basically means the tank was fueled to full right? Was it overfilled at that point? 2): Can I drop, but not remove, the tank to replace the hose? Thanks!

Just wanted to circle back on this as I wrapped this up today. Someone has definitely been through this switch before. I really wanted to take the switch box apart and just adjust the contacts inside, but the tabs already looked a bit cracked and I didn't think they'd survive another round of opening and closing so I was looking for a different fix. I could peak through the opening and things looked pretty clean and fresh though so it might have been refurbed by the PO I got the stock on the bench and first thing I noticed was the 12v supply had a terrible contact (you can see it hanging on by a literal thread here). That's the 12v supply so I wonder if that impacted the relay at all A simple way to test this is hook something up to that 12v source wire (the solid green wire there) and as you move the switch at the bottom you should have continuity between the left and right signals. After fixing 2 more bad contacts everything was working well with the box on it's own but after I installed it back in the stock not all the signals were working After fiddling for a bit I noticed that the turn signal stalk itself wasn't traveling the full length of switch so it wasn't activating the signals like it was when I tested it on it's own. I could really push on the stalk and it would activate them but it didn't feel right or natural I eventually noticed that this spring, which butts up against the turn signal reset mechanism (the gold ratcheting bits you see in turn signal assembly but they are removed and to the right here), was what was limiting how much travel the switch could make. I initially started by grinding the bottom pin a bit to give it a bit more space which helped a bit, but it was still intermittent. Eventually I just took the spring off and bent it to loosen the tension and that resolved the issue! The switch is now super easy to activate and all the signals are working.

Perfect, thanks.

Hey, next up on the electrical list is the horn and I've hit a bit of a wall. If I push the horn I get no noise and no noticeable relay sound. First thing I did was check and swap the fuse and no difference. My column does have the brass arm contacting the steering wheel and I do measure 12V on the red wire connecting to it. I tried measuring the voltage at the horns alone and didn't get any voltage but I'll try and confirm when I can get a friend to help I also confirmed that when pushing the horn button that the horn switch does get grounded. To me it seems like an issue at the relay which I want to check next. Looking at the the FSM it says the horn relay should be in the right dash side panel bracket, which I assume is the set below. I don't have much access to that side of the car, but if this is the right area, which of these switches is the horn relay? I think the bottom one is for the wipers. The left is the front of the car and you can see the closed passenger side door card on the right Thanks!

Cool, thanks for the suggestion. Thanks again for the help too. One electrical thing on it's way to be sorted and then on to the next thing haha

Thinking it might be a contact issue I went back out and decided to push and pull the hazard switch a bunch of times and try again and got the signals working. The voltage is 11.5v now but it's enough for it to work. The rear left still isn't working, which was what I noted at the start so I need to take a look at the turn signal switch but hopefully that will resolve that issue. I at least know what to do there. Once that is done I might be back with a new thread to get the horn working

After a shipping snafu courtesy of UPS finally got the charger in I charged the battery overnight and the battery is sitting at 12.9v right now but still no luck on the turn signals working. The voltage at the turn signal relay is a little higher now. Fluctuating between 10.75-11v but that's as high as it's getting. I'm testing this by turning the key to the ON position but not starting the car. I was able to test the signals before like this before they randomly died while I was testing them Could that be a result of a bad contact? I haven't checked the power level at the flashers yet but the flashers work fine

Hey, I have a 1973 240z and I have what I believe is the original key. I wanted to get a replacement made and the code on the key is just a 4 digit number (5XXX) with no prefix. I thought the keys generally had a prefix for the type of cut? The key does work on everything (ignition, both doors, glove box, and trunk) I took a look and there is no glove box code sticker. I attached a picture of the key (with a repro blank I was hoping to use) to show the style (and edited it a bit to remove the last 3 code digits and some of the key length) Any idea what might be up? The key is super worn so I was hoping to avoid having a duplicate made directly from the key

Yeah, I did a bunch of reading of the wiring diagrams since I checked the first time and was planning on double checking at the column before diving in, but it was easy to check again at the connector before diving in Awesome, thanks. I was looking at getting new leads for my set anyway and having alligator clips would be great I'll circle back once the new charger comes in and I can move on to the next thing haha Thanks again for the help everyone. I appreciate it

@SteveJ unfortunately not at the moment I do have some other news though, after reading over the wiring diagrams I was checking for voltage on the wrong pin on the flasher relay connector 🤦‍♂️ (for anyone who stumbles across this, check the green wire). Checking the voltage properly this time it's getting 10.5 volts (and basically none when the hazards are on). It looks like the low battery might be the culprit there. I only have a 750mA charger at the moment but have a 4amp charger on the way and can get that hooked up and circle back

Thanks guys. Thanks @SteveJ, this instructions are perfect Taking a look at this now, and to the earlier question, I started the car (to check something) and after turning it off and waiting a minute the battery was at 12.45 volts