SteveJ

Well, if the dirt on the tires are an indicator, it wasn't buried much in the mud. It doesn't even look close to the floorboards. If so, that was a nice acquisition, especially for the price.

Another alternative is to take a chance with another VR. Rockauto has some wholesaler closeout ones pretty cheap.

Bob, the strange thing is that Alex says that the black wire on the VR is going to pin #2. That should be the A wire to the battery. Even if the ground wire coming from the harness has been compromised (which there is always a possibility of that), it wouldn't account for the fact that the wires aren't lining up properly between the VR and engine bay harness.

At this point, I don't have a 280Z to verify wiring on the harness or VR. If you notice in your picture, the terminals for the other 5 wires are insulated from the case. The one that smoked was not. Combined with the wire color being black makes me pretty sure that it's a ground wire. I'm not sure how you could be charging your car without something connecting the VR to the white/red wire. This leaves you with three options. 1. Hope this never causes you problems. 2. Wait until someone with a 75-78 280Z can verify anything on this thread. 3. Swap to an internally regulated alternator following the guide on Blue's website.

Something isn't right. If you had it such that the black wire on the VR went to pin #2, I'm not surprised it burned to a crisp. In DC wiring, black is typically used on ground wires, hence the first posts from me and Stephen. If someone managed to install the VR without lining up the pins properly, and the black wire on the VR ended up on pin #2 of the engine bay connector, it would burn up quickly because it's a dead short. With the battery disconnected, try the plug such that the black wire on the VR lines up with pin #4 on the engine bay plug. See if it plugs in that way.

One common cause of dieseling in the 240Z is the electrical system backfeeding through the ignition. I had that happen when I converted the alternator to an internally regulated alternator. If that is the cause of your dieseling, a diode properly oriented in the alternator circuit will end that problem. Details can be found here. As for your idle issue, are you choking the car when you start it? Have you checked to see if the choke cables are moving the choke or if they are bound? Are you sure you have stock carburetors? If so, search online on tuning SU carburetors, or contact Bruce Palmer, a member here, about buying a copy of the Z Therapy video on working with your SU carbs.

Seven years in the mud without rust? Pics or it didn't happen.

Alex, I'm confused by your response. Pins #6 and #2 don't connect. They are separate wires. The attached picture shows the pin numbers on the VR connector, too. By the way, do you have a voltmeter (not the gauge in the car) to see how much voltage you read at the battery with the car running at 2500 RPM? Steve

As an engineer who designs control systems for emergency power switchgear, I would say I would want both voltage AND current. (Note: The following diatribe is for the amusement/information of those people who wonder why some people talk about using voltmeters as opposed to ammeters.) The downside to current measurement is that essentially all of the current is traveling through the meter. If the meter fails in a way that the wire loses continuity, most of the electrical systems in the car will fail. To keep the meter from blowing up, it has a pretty wide range and therefore little accuracy. Another member here asked me how to read the ammeter to know what's going on. The way I explained it was to picture the alternator and battery as two water towers that are connected with a pipe. The ammeter is the flow meter between the water towers. When the water is flowing toward the battery's tower, the ammeter reads positive (Battery is charging.). If the water is flowing toward the alternator's tower, the flow is negative (Battery is discharging.). If the ammeter is WAY positive, there is a hole in the battery's water tower (Battery is going bad and cannot maintain a charge.). Taking that analogy, the voltmeter shows the water level of whichever tower has more water. Again, the resolution on the voltmeters doesn't give a lot of information (It's better than the ammeter, though.), and if the meter hasn't been calibrated, it can be even less helpful.

Contact Roger at Zbarn.com. He can probably sell you a cover at a good price.

My guess is that it's the ground since it's the only black wire on the VR. I'm attaching a picture from the 76 FSM. The wiring should be the same on a 77. Match it up to the plug on the wiring harness side. The top of the VR plug lines up with the bottom of the wiring harness plug. The letters on the VR side will tell you the function. If you don't know what the function is, post the letter going to the VR.

Zcar.com has seemed close to imploding for a while. I believe Tony D called it when he made an observation about traffic spiking around the school breaks. The poor choice in forum software a while back just killed posting traffic. The new forum software fixed some of that, but let's face it, the search engine for Zcar.com is terrible. It's difficult to perform good research there anymore. It is sad because the site was a great resource.

Wiper blades - I purchased a pair last month And I believe this is the pull you are looking for.

I haven't had any problems with the Z connection. Shop carefully, though. Sometimes his prices will be higher than BDA, MSA or Nissan. I usually have the BDA and MSA catalogs open when I look at his stuff, just to get the best bang for the buck. The Z connection WILL combine shipping to lower the cost some. My last purchase from him was early this month. I had the shipment in my hands in about 5 calendar days, USPS.

Put the cover back over the steering wheel. It becomes obvious where the combo switch and turn signal switch need to be mounted.

Heck, I'd love nothing better than for him to share what he knows about flat tops with me. I'm still running them on my 260Z, and I can't come up with a reason why I should swap them out. (Is that an invitation for the sheeple to start bleating about how the flat tops are no good? I had to channel Tony for a moment.)

Just out of curiousity I clicked on the links for Datsun 240Z and 240Z Parts over at Zcar.com. The results were great as long as you weren't interested in 240Zs or 240Z parts. And I have to agree with Todd. There is no need to call us mature. My wife will vouch for the fact that I should NEVER be labeled as such.

While John hasn't been here much, he has done quite a job stirring up the hornet's nest over at Zcar.com. I was hoping he would make his presence felt here. Maybe Blue will make the jump, too. John - Encourage him to come over here. He has too much information to go to waste. And, of course, I was talking about the infamous Tony D. There is nothing like seeing him taking someone to school, even if that someone is me. He gives out a lot of great information to those willing to listen.

John, I'm glad you decided to join us over here. Your expertise on lighting will surely be welcomed. I wish Tony would spend more time here, but he prefers hybridz.

Hey, the OP asked where to start looking. I just listed the easiest place to start. I like to eliminate the easy ones like that and then really start taking things apart later.

He's fine to buy "low cost" bits and pieces from, but as others mentioned, I'd be careful about purchasing anything significant from him.

You can still get the proper fusible links here.

Something tells me that you'll find a link (eventually) off of this website. I keep checking to see if the registration has gone live. I don't care whether or not I get #1. I just want to get registered since I couldn't go last year. Anyway, extra shirts are listed under the registration link. I'm sure that just ordering a shirt and wanting it sent would incur an additional S&H charge. (The Georgia Z Club still has plenty of hats and shirts from the 25th anniversary convention. I have suggested to the president that he put them up for sale.) Also, if one checks the contact page for the convention, there is a Karen listed as being associated with the Z Island graphics. That leads me to believe that unless someone is pulling off an elaborate hoax, Karen, aka Venus, is essentially whom she says she is. IMHO, if anything, Karen is guilty of failing to get a good temperature of the types of conversation on this site before initiating her threads. Of course, long-term members are granted more lattitude on the topics they post to General Discussions merely because it's human nature to accept such behavior after one has been "accepted by the pack." I would love nothing more than to have these burger threads locked to cool the suspicion and defensiveness that they have engendered. Then Karen can have a chance to see more of what goes on here and maybe blend in better, if you so choose, Karen.

Leonard is right. Just replace everything, and that car can be saved.

Just wanted to mention that I received the speaker panels from Derek yesterday. They look really nice, and I can't wait to install them, especially since my speakers were installed redneck style by yours truly about 18 years ago.