Zs-ondabrain

Actually I had the misfortune of putting one in for a fellow Z owner and let me tell you..................... The "heavy duty" portion of it is crap. The thickest I saw was 14 gauge wire. We had to completely tear apart the headlight bucket in order to "plug in the VB harness" In order to do that properly, you have to take the VB harness apart at the plug in order to fit the wires through the small hole in the headlight bucket. then re-assemble the pins back into the plug before plugging it into the headlight. The harness was clearly made for a headlight that has an exposed plug, Unlike the Z-cars. The wires were too long and had to be rolled up and tucked away. and a little reminder that "the longer the wires, the more resistance, the more power required or bigger the gauge of wire needed" All in all, it took me and him (BOTH EXPERIENCED ZCAR MECHANICS) 2 1/2 hours to remove 33 year old screws, tear the car apart, tear the harness apart, and put it all back together. And after all that the new H-4 conversion lights were not that much more brite than stock AND THE NEW HARNESS'S WIRES STARTED GETTING PRETTY DAMN HOT!!! The new lights were your basic 50/60 watt H-4 lights Thats my experience with the VB "heavy duty" harness and the main reason that I designed and built the harness that I sold for over a year and a half. Dave.

I finally got a responce from the buell guy, He said and I quote "I do not have time before it end sorry" Translation, "what? are you nuts? I don't want you to actually see the car and THEN bid on it (or not). or even worse, tell every one whats really going on" Sorry guys, I tried. Dave.

I just requested a "personal" viewing from Buell to see the car, I'll have to wait and see If he thinks I should see the car. Do you think that my e-mail address will give me away? (wolfin32Z Me e-bay name is wolfin240Z that might do it too.

I agree w/ Arne on the groove thing and I'd hate to order them at $6.45 a pair and $8.00 S/H for a total of $15.00 to find out that they are the wrong ones. Tomohawk, Unfortunatly, the connectors are closed connectors and don't allow for the type of piggy-back connector you're speaking of, Nice try though:D I'll check with my guy tomorrow. I'll bring a spare headlight switch so I can make sure they are exactly what I'm looking for. He does'nt charge me for shipping. I get charged 0.25 cents per terminal and that eagle site wants about .49 cents each, plus shipping. (10 male or female terminals for 4.95 = .49 each)

Hey Wayne, Do I detect some sarcasm in there? Thanks for the heads up. I'll look into it and go from there. Dave

Here's the problem. We are trying to introduce a larger, cleaner power supply into the parking lights but in doing this, 1) the better power back feeds into the switch 2) the contacts are transfering even more power, wires get even hotter,THINGS MELT!!!! The process I wrote about earlier will severly reduce the amperage flowing thru the fusebox, headlight switch, and reduse the reduce the power flow from the battery thru the stock power wires to the fusebox. In order to Make a harness that ties into the system via. stock plugs, I'd have to FIND A SUPPLIER, ORDER PARTS, CHARGE FOR GAS, INCREASE THE PRICE OF THE HARNESS. And the list goes on. If cutting one wire, connecting one wire to one side of said "cut wire" seams like too much damage to your stock harness (as if the last 30+ years was'nt enough) then find me a good supplier who'll deliver to my door for cheap. I would need the male and female plugs that go to the headlight switch (6 pin, 1.5" X 1/2" plug and 6 male and female pins) Dave.

The General Lee IS the definition of RED NECK

Simply, my dear Watson. Although the headlight switch is no longer pulling nearly as much current thru the fusebox and the switch, The wiring is still 32+ years old and the parking lights still go thru the headlight switch. The switches contacts still get weeker with every turn (on/off) The fuse still gets hotter than it should and so does the wire related to that fuse. The power for the parking lights still comes from the battery to the fusebox, then to the switch, then back over to the passenger side kick, then out to the front and rear of the car, all via old wiring. Boosting the power just after the switch will help increase the output to the lights by over 1.5 volts, which we all know is a lot when it comes to Datsun lights.

All I want to know is what is a good price? For all the research, building, selling, etc etc. $25 sounds good to me, what do you think?

We don't smoke any thing up here. But I there's a whole lot of suckin on the tailpipe in his back yard. I think he locked lips with his muffler before writing that ad. I live right down the road from that guy, I should go check it out and give you guys a real datsun enthusiasts opinion, straight from the car.

Don't feel bad Arne, Now you know what I went through finding parts for the headlight harness. Don't give up yet. keep your chin up, it helps you breathe when you're wollowing thru all the crap. Dave.

This is what I'm working on for the tail lights. I might have a simple fix for the dull parking lights that the 240Z's have. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?p=157640&posted=1#post157640

Keep in mind that the car was not running at the time of the test so the voltage readouts were lower than they would have been had the altenator been charging the battery

What would you pay if I told you I might have a fix for the dim parking lights?? Right now i'm working on my brothers early 240Z's (taillights, sidemarkers, and front parking lights) With 12 volts the battery, I put a voltmeter onto the left rear sidemaker. It measured about 9.5 volts (give or take 0.2 volts) When I added power via a relay near the passenger side kick panel, the voltage kicked up to 11.2 volts and the lights got significantly brighter. Even the dash lights got brighter and use of the dimmer switch was still present. I'm going to do a lot of tests before making them for the open public but I thought I'd give you guys (and gals) a heads up on a posible fix for the dull lights that we all suffer from. And ask you all about the price you'd pay for a simple fix that includes: 1) Mounting a relay on the passenger side kick panel using one of the bolts or screws that hold a stock relay in place ( must be a grounding fastener) 2) running a fused power wire from my relay to the battery thru the rubber grommet on the firewall below the heater duct, about 30" inches of 12 gauge. 3) tapping the parking light wire that is right there near the new relay( 6" of 12 gauge and a easy-on T-tap that squeezes onto the wire w/ a simple pair of pliers) 4) running one small wire (16 guage) thru the underside of the dash to the steering column. tapping one wire and cutting one wire. Please keep in mind that I reserve the right to change the design of the wiring and installation proccess at any givin time that I find neccesary or fit! The whole process will take less than an hour using a #1 (a phillips screw driver to mount the relay and the ground wire and take off the lower half of the steering column cover) #2 (a pair of pliers to squeeze on 2 T-Taps) #3 (the correct size wrench to remove the nut that will hold the new power wire to the positive battery terminal) #4 a wire cutter to cut one wire near the steering column. The Kit will include full detailed instructions, the relay and all neccesary wires and 2 T-taps. I'll do more research on the use of this product in all 240Z's but the use of curcuitry in the 260 and 280Z's may prevent this from being used. I'm not sure yet. Spit some numbers my way and lets see if they match what I'm thinking. Dave.

depending on the year of the Z, The headlights receive 1 positive and 2 negatives. the 2 negs are your low and hi beam wires. when the lights are turned on to low beam, the wiring is as follows 1) main positive is sent from the switch to the headlight 2) the low beam wire turns into a negative (in order to complete the curcuit) 3) the high beam wire receives a positive also to keep it from turning on until you flip the switch when you flip the passing switch to hi beam: 1) the low beam wire turns into a positive 2) the hi beam wire turns into a negative 3) the main power wire stays positive When you shut off the lights on a 70' thru 72 1/2', the power wire and the two other wires (hi and low beam) turn into positives (all 3 +) Don't ask me why, I did'nt design the thing. I only tried to improve on an existing design When you shut off the lights on the 72 1/2' thru late 73', the positive shuts down and the hi/low wires turn into negatives, thats why I had to change my harness wiring on the first harness's that I made. Because my relays had power (+) from the battery and negatives (-) from the relays, my relays turned on after you shut the lights off. I fixed this by getting my relay power from the headlight plug instead of the battery. With no power (+) from the plug, the relays could'nt turn on. It sounds confusing but thats me, I can take you from understanding something to complete confusion in 3.5 seconds flat.

O.K. lets try this one and EVERYBODY say thank you to Enigma for his hard work

Attention! I have two or three people working on getting it all on here properly so every one can read it. Patience my good people, Patience! (my momma always said "Good things come to those who wait") so breath and relax, Damnit!:classic: :classic: Dave.

I'll try to get the rest on here as soon as possible, thanks again for your patience, Dave.

O.k. N.w.cubsman Converted It For Me So Hopefully All Of You Can Get Or Read This.

here a link to a new forum that has some of the updated instructions on it, we're working on getting a full detailed list of every thing you need to know for the harness onto this forum or thread. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19934&highlight=headlight+harness

Gogriz91 - Glad to hear it and good idea. If you or any one can figure a way to get a 7.73 mb page with 10 pics on to this or any other same subject forum, We'd all be greatly appreciative. I'll E-mail it to who-ever wants it or can get it onto this or any of the other same subject forums/threads. The page is just 10 pics of parts and techniques with the Fig # written above the picture, its in ''word'' format. Dave.

You'll have to forgive my lack of getting things done around here but if you had any idea of the crap that I've put up with this month, you'd understand. Here's what I got so far......and if anybody can tell me how to put a one page "word" document (7.73 MB)with pictures on here, I'll show you the "Figs." that the instructions refer to. The uploader only allows for 1 MB.

Oh thats just cheatingLOL But seriously, what about parts that have rubber perminately attached, like the upper front strut assembly that houses the strut bearing and bolts to the body? Or the lower lower control arm, if you plan on not converting to poli-urethane bushings? Thought i'd burst your bubbleLOL

All good suggestions so far, and here's my 2 cents worth. As for getting to bare metal to do it right, I started by scraping off years of gunk and grease, dust, and dirt with a standard 1 inch metal (flexible) scraper or some people call it a putty knife. Next I used a wire brush for all the corners and grooves and loose dirt and such. Then I used a degreaser (like GUNK ) which makes it easy considering all you do is spray it from the can, wait ten minutes, wire brush the part to make sure every thing got loose, then spray it off with the garden hose. As for stripping paint, the best stuff I ever found was a product called Mar-Hyde Tal-Strip II. It's an aircraft coating remover in a 15 oz. spray can. It's safe enough for aluminum but rips thru paint crazy. Takes a couple of minutes but you'll be happy with the results. Wipe the paint off with a wet cloth (wear the heavy dish washing gloves from the super market) wipe again to get it all off and most of the time it only takes one regular coat. If you have an air compressor, GET A MEDIA BLASTER!!! mine only cost my $80.00 at Harbour Freight Tools, Get the Aluminum Oxide media for about $20 for 30 pounds worth. That enough to last you quite a while. Months in a small blasting cabinet. Aluminum Oxide will remove paint, rust, por-15, tar or what ever is in the way, with out distorting the metal or hurting it. It take a little practice, but I guarentee you'll be happy with what you can do with it. When priming almost any metal, use a (Metal-Etching Primer) It chemically adheres itself thru use of an etching acid) to the metal which helps keep it on there much better than regular primer. thru use of the blasting cabinet, you'll most likely eliminate all the rust and won't have to use a rust converting primer. Every piece will most likely require a different process of prep to get the desired look that you're going for Brake calipers can get VERY HOT. There are many Paints that are specifically made for drums and calipers. They are usually HI-TEMP (800 to 1200 degree) and chemical resistant to keep your brake fluid from eating it back off when bleeding the brakes. The best one I found was from VHT. it cost a little more but remember that you get what you pay for. Visit my galley for all the update pics of the front and rear suspension work that I JUST got done with. Your main concern is to keep the rust from coming back. So if you like the shiny surface that the wire wheel makes on a freshly sandblasted bolt. Clear coat it with a hi-temp engine clearcoat from Duplicolor. it's an enamal with ceramic in the paint so it will hold up to the heat and stay clear without yellowing like most clear coats. Good luck, Dave.