superwombat

I'm dealing with the same thing on my 76 Z If you have four guages there by the thermostat then you probably have a california model like I do. The top left one with the single wire is for the temp guage in the dash, If you short it to ground with the key on the guage will go all the way to the top. The top right one is for the Exaust Recirculation (California crap) it triggers the exaust recirc. once the engine reaches operating temp. I haven't gotten to the bottom two yet, so I'm not sure on those.

Well.... The brake problem was caused by the rear drums not being rough adjusted well enough, so that one is fixed. The starter issue was caused by a poor ground from the engine to the frame. I still can't find any resolution or information on the bizarre STG-LOCK wires and why they keep blowing the fuse. I guess that's just more of a curiosity than areal problem since it works fine with them unplugged. Thanks for all of your help on this one.

I'll check the cables some more when I get home to look at her. I did not replace the master cylinder, I will check the orientation of the calipers, but I'm pretty sure I got it right.

Heh, funny you should mention that EFI and emissions crap. I have the California model of the '76, so she's stuffed with more emissions crap than anything, and is of course fuel injected. But just to clarify, I'm only talking about the dash harness so far, I haven't gotten beyond that yet, and in that case, the only thing that emissions adds is two wires for the "Floor Temp Lamp" -DD

I just finished rebuilding the harness from my 76 Z from scratch. I don't know of anyplace to get OEM connectors for the ends of the harnesses, that was my biggest problem. I wound up having to cut off the connectors on the car side and put on a whole different type of connector. Does anyone know where the OEM connectors can be purchased?? They have so many different shapes and sizes. Knowing what I know now and already having all the parts I think I could reproduce a harness in about 2 days (maybe 10 hours work total) With the exception of the connectors. BTW, the original wiring diagram in the '76 datsun service manual has at least one error, so you can't follow it exactly. The dash light circuit is suppossed to be connected to all of the instruments and to the variable resistor to change the brightness, but the service manual has the Tach on its own circuit without being connected to the others. A little bit of logic and looking at the old harness saved me from an annoying problem. Good luck on this wiring harness thing. I almost contemplated going into the harness production buisness when I saw how much Painless charged and how easy it was to make one myself.

Well, I've been searching through the forums for about 2 hours now and I can't find the answer to my question. (See, I'm being a good little forum newb) I recently purchased a '76 280z and have been fixing it up. There are a couple of little problems that I can't seem to get to the bottom of. 1. The starter. It was running and starting fine and dandy. I hopped in it to drive home from work and just got a 'click' No spin. The voltage guage read fine, I assumed my starter had just bit the dust. The car push-started just fine, but the Oil Pressure guage shot up to 90+ I KNOW it wasn't doing that before. About halfway home the guage went back down to the normal level. I swapped the starter with a rebuilt one from NAPA. I can hear a hum or a buzz from the starter when I turn the key now, and the radiator fan moves a couple of inches, but the engine still does not turn over. We shorted across the connects and got the same result. Took my old starter to AutoZone and had them test it, it tested out fine. Put the original back in and now it hums as well but doesn't turn over. We tried jumpstarting the car, still NG. Is there anything I'm overlooking? The battery is only 3 months old. I guess I'll have it tested just to be sure, and possibly get a second new starter in case I got a dud. 2. Brakes: I did the toyota conversion on the front end and replaced the rear brakes at the same time. Bled everything out real good and tested them out.... right to the floor, they do pump up if I hit the pedal a few times. I havn't heard that you need to do anything special with the toyota conversion, so I shouldn't have to mess with my proportioning valves or anything right?? I didn't rough adjust my rear brakes, because I read that those could be adjusted automatically by driving backwards and slamming on the brakes and that sounded kind of fun :-P I guess I sort of suspect there might be an air bubble somewhere but I felt pretty good about my bleeding job. Any other Ideas/Suggestions of things to look for?? 3. Electrical: This one is a doozy. There are two wires on the side of my ignition switch. In the Service Manual they are referred to as "STG Lock" If I connect these wires at any time, I blow a fuse marked "Dome Light". I don't see in the diagram where the dome light circuit has anything to do with the ignition. If I leave those wires unplugged the dome lights work just fine. I don't even know if those wires have a purpose since it seems to run/drive/start fine without them.... (Well, it used to start, doesn't now, read above. :-P) Any Ideas?? Thanks for the help. I've done a lot of reading and learned a lot of things from these forums. I've got a four day weeked coming up and I'd like to get the little lady road worthy before the end of it.