SteveJ

Correct on both accounts. John will also be out at the Mitty, too. At least that's the current plan. And for ZCON, the team owner may just show up, too.

I did...and stop calling me Shirley!

It is not...a reproduction.

I drove the Z car to work so I could go straight over to the GZC meeting...well, I didn't go straight over to the meeting from work. I took a slight detour to see this car.

Here's a nice video that includes seeing the car go through the corkscrew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0HGnFtqimc

Go to the downloads section on this site and get the factory service manual for the 76. There's a link in my signature (provided you're a luddite like me using a computer instead of a smart phone). Once you have a copy of the FSM, go to page BE-11. It gives a breakout of the headlight circuit. Instead of measuring random wires, target the circuit. For instance, do you have 12 VDC to ground at each of the headlight fuses when the switch is on? Also, there is not a relay in the factory wiring for the headlights. Where is it located? What factory wires are connected to it? Is there only 1 relay? Normally there would be 2 for the headlights.

A while back, I happened to search the web for specs on bulbs, in part trying to answer someone's questions on an electrical issue. I have to confess that I have been lazy in calling out 1156 bulbs for side markers, license plate lights and rear markers. In the 74 FSM, Nissan called out the bulb specifications rather clearly. Type 67 bulbs should be used for rear/side markers, and type 89 bulbs should be used for license plate lights. I pulled up the 1156 specs today because I saw a comment on another thread talking about a fuse box heating up, so I made a spreadsheet to estimate the current draw. If all of the type 67 & 89 bulbs were replaced by 1156 bulbs, the current draw in the running light circuit would go up by approximately 12 Amps. That's more than double the draw of the factory specified bulbs. Check your bulbs to make sure you and previous owners used the appropriate replacement bulbs. If you want brighter bulbs, consider going with LED bulbs. The fuse box you save may just be your own. Running Light Calculation.xlsx

Please allow me to clarify. The power for the pump is coming off the ignition switch. The power for the coil on Relay #1 is coming off the regulator. It's just enough voltage to energize the coil and close the contacts for the fuel pump power. If the relays are bad, you can adapt standard automotive relays to work. For Relay #1, you would use the 30 and 87 pins. For Relay #2, you would use the 30 and 87a pins. This may help you understand how to adapt a newer relay to replace the factory relay: https://fiddlingwithzcars.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/relays-simplified/

I don't know where he found a fuse for the fuel pump. The stock wiring goes like this: The pump is powered off of the black/white wire coming off of the ignition switch. It goes to Fuel Pump Relay #1 (aka Electric Pump Cut Relay #1). That relay's coil is energized by the yellow wire that goes between the alternator and the voltage regulator. (From the alternator, one branch goes to the VR while the other goes to the relay). When the coil is energized, the fuel pump power goes to the green/white wire over to Fuel Pump Relay #2 (aka Electric Pump Cut Relay #2). That relay is off unless the engine is starting. The green/white wire goes through a normally closed contact to another black/white wire to the fuel pump.

Surely you can't be serious.

Yes, it's very odd. That's why I want to inspect the harness closely. I could see a lot of vampire splices in other wires, too. That's usually not a good sign, but I hope we can restore everything to functional.

But if you have disconnected the circuit before the load or switch, you should not see continuity to ground on the side that is upstream of the load/switch. In this case, the W/R wires were disconnected on either end, so for all intents and purposes, we're talking about loose wires in the dash harness. However, I was still seeing 0.1 ohms to ground on either end of either wire. That is why we're going to examine the dash harness.

Thank you for mentioning that. The ones that were shorted to ground were the 10 AWG white/red at either end of C-5. It is curious that two wires that are independent from each other, as far as I can tell, are both shorted. Of course, there could be some previous owner shenanigans at play.

If you come up here, you could take her to the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame (https://www.facebook.com/georgiaracinghof/). No visit to this area is complete without it. Just ask @240260280 or @Captain Obvious. That place really outshines the Georgia Aquarium and World of Coke COMBINED!

That's probably over a 7 hour drive each way, but I suppose it could be done.

So in case anybody is curious... I went over to @lefty7126's house today. We tested for continuity between the fusible links holder and the negative cable of the battery. Unfortunately, as I suspected, we found continuity. I moved down to the shunt, unplugged it, and found continuity between the downstream side (away from the fusible link) of the wiring harness and ground. I traced through the wiring diagram for the white/red wire, and we continued to diagnose. First we removed the connection to the alternator. No change. Then we removed the C-6 connector on the engine to dash harness. Still no change. Next we disconnected the C-5 connection. That broke the short. There are two white/red wires on C-5. One goes to the ignition switch, and the other goes to the headlight switch. I disconnect both switches. Each end of both wires had continuity to ground. That was our stopping point for the day. Lefty's dad is going to pull the dash, and I'm going to return over Labor Day weekend. I believe the dash was out before, and maybe some wires got pinched on the re-installation. It's always good to meet a fellow enthusiast who is willing to get his hands dirty. @Jeff Berk, I looked at the build date of the car. It's 10/74, making it a "late" 260Z. Some components were rearranged from the early 260Z. The split-loom in the photo actually covers AC lines. There are some other wiring issues to sort out in the car, and those will be easier to deal with once the dash is out. The car looks to have good bones, too, so it should be a good starting point for Lefty's projects. @Pat Carr, we ended up going to a great no-name restaurant co-located with a Mexican grocery store.

Well, I fast-forwarded to the end. To my disappointment, there were no robot women at the end.

Nice breakdown in the video. Good diagnostics starts with a good problem description. When you had it isolated to the switch, you and I could both see how it needed to be tested. Once you isolated the component, you could find the root cause. That's exactly how it's done. Not once did I notice you wanting to "throw a part at it" to fix a problem. Hell, even I have been guilty of that many times.

Do a visual inspection, looking for damaged insulation or signs of melted tape on the harness. If the problem is with the switch, you should be able to see it grounding out either against the switch body or the ground wire (orange arrow in the attached image). The pins that have color are the only ones that should not be grounded during normal operation. If I understand you correctly, you should check the pins at the green and blue squares for continuity with the ground wire and switch body when you press the washer button. You can disconnect the 9 wire connector and ground wire to test.

Yes, that's John Morton behind the wheel, and he's still got it, too. He placed 6th (and the first Z car) in a field littered with IMSA Porsches. Just look at the entry list for class 4A: http://www.mazdaraceway.com/sites/main/files/file-attachments/7-27-2017_rmmr.pdf Of course, not all of those cars were running last weekend, but there were more Porsches behind him than in front of him.

It has a Magnaflow muffler, no resonator, 2.5 inch exhaust with MSA headers. After driving in the mountains, I found I need to run 93 octane in it. The 90 octane ethanol free just doesn't cut it.

I did the Xenon air dam on my 260Z along with stainless steel bumpers. There is a version of the Xenon air dam for the 280Z that doesn't have the lower turn signals.

Ouch

At Laguna Seca for the Pre-Historics

The Georgia Z Club held a Gumball Rally today. For the rally, you are given a set of vague directions and questions about various landmarks along the way. For these drives, it is VERY helpful to have a navigator. My wife declined to attend, so I just showed up at the beginning, found out the end point, and went on my own drive. Good fortune was with me today as I had some nice uninterrupted stretches going out and coming back to allow for some spirited driving. It was a good Z day. By the way, if you make it out for ZCON in Atlanta next year, you can drive these roads, too.