Selling the X & Bought an 75 Datsun 280Z

Found this disconnected wire. Nice sensor fix, huh? Must be same guy that did the fusible link solder job
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Looking on classicZ , I found a post that referenced the 4 sensors found on a 75- that one is apparently EGR, so I'm not going to worry about it.
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lookforjoe said:
Found this disconnected wire. Nice sensor fix, huh? Must be same guy that did the fusible link solder job
View attachment 71404

Looking on classicZ , I found a post that referenced the 4 sensors found on a 75- that one is apparently EGR, so I'm not going to worry about it.
View attachment 71405
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This was not easy to find as I believe it's 75-76 only. I got an OEM 1 from Australia on Ebay. I didn't have any specs to search an alternate & was happy I found 1 and jumped.on it. Mine was holding on by 1 strand. Fuel economy was poor & black soot in the tailpipe. Hard hot starts sometimes & woukd skip when backing in the driveway. Replaced late fall so I haven't driven it outside the neighborhood since but starts & runs better.
 
JKIDD said:
This was not easy to find as I believe it's 75-76 only. I got an OEM 1 from Australia on Ebay. I didn't have any specs to search an alternate & was happy I found 1 and jumped.on it. Mine was holding on by 1 strand. Fuel economy was poor & black soot in the tailpipe. Hard hot starts sometimes & woukd skip when backing in the driveway. Replaced late fall so I haven't driven it outside the neighborhood since but starts & runs better.
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Ah - so perhaps its creating a vacuum leak at the EGR valve? I'll have to read up on the EGR circuit & function. I will likely just remove it all & cap the ports. EDIT ; Based on this reading - I should disconnect the vacuum to the EGR valve until I fix that - otherwise it's open

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As an aside, The customer service at Connector ID sucks. The lid tab on the MTA 030089 snapped off from normal effort. The rep Erinn Breaux, states that there are no quality control issues with the part, and will not replace the box or lid. I used the earlier one I purchased for the 740. I will be looking for an alternate setup going forward

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If I hadn't gone & looked, I'd have said yes... But, no lights. The seat belt light comes on in the console & has a buzzer, but that's it.
 
Removed the wiper motor & transmission today. Pretty easy, except the manual doesn't actually describe the process specifically.

Cowl off for access
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DS is missing 2 screws - the small Phillips is just sitting there, not actually screwed into anything
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Unplug the motor harness, unbolt the pivot arm from the motor, unbolt 4 bracket screws, remove motor. Remove pivot arm screws, remove wiper transmission
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Pass pivot is seized. Common issue it seems. Motor works just fine, but it is sloooow, so the Honda motor mod will take place. Much cleaning & painting before I put anything back in that space, though

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superficial surface rust, for now. Washer jet in bottom left. Neither is connected to anything, so I guess I'll be looking at that too.
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Tune up parts arrived, so I took care of the air filter, plugs cap rotor & wires.

yuk
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Did a compression test while the plugs were out, warm engine. Forgot to hold the throttle open, but still...
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Denso 3057 plugs, gapped to .032" NGK wire set, SMP cap & rotor
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Noticed a disconnected wire at the coil ballast - I'm assuming it was removed due to some problem, so I left it off for now. ( EDIT - coil condenser feed wire)
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brake booster hose is cracked & loose, so I redid it with some hose I had, Volvo check valve
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The downpipe flange gasket is leaking, and that motor mount is toast
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Surprisingly crusty in spots for an inland, Ca. car. Was it garaged mostly, or had the owner just put it aside for a spell?
 
I went to check my ballast the AM & found a difference between the 2. Yours:
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only has 1 spade connector located here. Mine:
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Has a double ended spade connector, oriented 90deg. to yours. Is it possible yours "broke" at some point? The wires are white & blue, which looks to line up with yours. I would think, with your abilities, you could fab up a new connector if you can remove the retaining nut without damaging anything. Or maybe use a piggyback terminal?
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JKIDD said:
I went to check my ballast the AM & found a difference between the 2. Yours:

only has 1 spade connector located here. Mine:

Has a double ended spade connector, oriented 90deg. to yours. Is it possible yours "broke" at some point? The wires are white & blue, which looks to line up with yours. I would think, with your abilities, you could fab up a new connector if you can remove the retaining nut without damaging anything. Or maybe use a piggyback terminal?
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Thank you for looking at that. It is interesting to note variations, esp. for the same model year.
So, without knowing the function of each wire, it's hard to say, since it could be a CA vs.49 state thing. I'm going to have to clean all the wires & identify their purpose.
I overlaid your photo on mine, the wire that I found disconnected goes to a terminal I indicated with an arrow. I think yours has two in that location also, but maybe not. I would say the resistance would be different, given the location on the winding of the resistor.
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EDIT - this is the wiring diagram from the Nissan Manual:
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tvmaster said:
Surprisingly crusty in spots for an inland, Ca. car. Was it garaged mostly, or had the owner just put it aside for a spell?
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The car lived in Madera County, wherever that is. He said it was garaged, but how knows .
ng_randolph said:
That accelerator linkage is "intricate". Rube Goldberg would have been proud.
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Yeah, it's odd. Since the pivot is hard mounted on the firewall, having bad motor mounts means the pivot mechanism for the lever is getting stressed, I would say. Odd.
 
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I doublechecked, & I don't have a spade anywhere but on the "center" terminal. For the record I have an 8-75 build date & is (ugh) automatic (for now).
 
lookforjoe said:
Yeah, it's odd. Since the pivot is hard mounted on the firewall, having bad motor mounts means the pivot mechanism for the lever is getting stressed, I would say. Odd.
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Fiat did something similar on the 124, it was a terrible solution as the soft motor mounts would allow the engine to rock which would adjust the throttle opening, the cars could get into this brutal rhythm as one tried to modulate it. A change to a cable actuated throttle resolved the problem. Doing so with that set up will be easy given you have nice cranks already in the system, adding a cable mount will be easy.

One has to remember the quality of rustproofing and paint prep on Japanese cars at the time was frankly abysmal. Nissan/Datsuns of that time would literally rust out in three years in a bad climate like where I grew up in northern Vermont. Fiat wasn’t any better. Japanese cars of the time were better quality in terms of reliability, the bodies, not so much. This car likely would not have survived in a wetter climate just due to the manufacturing quality and engineering.
 
Did they ever put a cross flow head on that block or is that only possible with the change to a later block/engine?

Searched and the answer is yes but the head alone costs as much as the car…🤯
 
So it begins:

“brake booster hose is cracked & loose, so I redid it with some hose I had, Volvo check valve”

The Z guys are going to have a stroke :)
 
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