RB30X

I just sent two 260Z sumitomos front calipers away and they were just over 6kgs.

This probably won't apeal to most of you as your Zed's have a wiring harness. My car was purchased without one, and slowly I have been going through and wiring up everything myself. As I'm looking to put the dash in soon (which still has its harness) I'm thinking of purchasing a heap of wire and terminals etc to re-wire the car. Now I could try to track down the original wiring colours and try to make it the same as the original diagram or build a custom loom according to my own diagram, but a lot of wires would be the same colour etc. My question is has anyone ever purchased a custom wiring kit to assist the process of re-wiring their car (any car) and probably in the long run make it cheaper after buying all the wires/relays/fuses and clips etc seperatley. These kits here look interesting. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Wiring-harness-kit-suit-Holden-HK-HT-HG-HQ-HJ-HX-HZ-WB_W0QQitemZ220517074131QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Car_Parts_Accessories?hash=item3357d784d3

OMG man, I hope you have an up to date will.

During the Chrissy holidays it was a bit warm to really do much so the Zed got neglected, until it started raining a bit which cooled things down. I tried wiring up a few of the spare alternators I had sitting around from this car and the 280zx's but they all needed external regulators. It was too complex for me to merge a 280zx wiring diagram with a 240z's so I asked an auto electrical parts store to recommend a generic external regulator. (You may have read the following from the thread in the electrical section) A BOSCH RE55 was the answer. Now how do they work??, I've drawn up a diagram to help anyone attempting the same job I've just done. Makes sense really, starting from scratch without all these extra wires. The reg has two pins in a tee, like the alternator does (see pic) The D+ pin gets a feed from the battery when the ignition is on only (otherwise it would drain the battery with engine off), this voltage is feed into the regulator which determines how much charge the battery needs, and regulates the voltage coming out of the DF pin. This can "regulate" from 0-12V determined by battery requirements. This "regulated voltage 'excites' the coil in the alternator via the F pin, determining how much charge comes out of the A pin which directly feeds the battery. Hope that makes sense. Santa (AKA AllZparts) also dropped me off a late prezzy yesterday, it probably sat at my local friegh site over christmas and new years while I was on holidays and got delivered the day I go back to work Anyway, better late than never. It hasn't been fully installed yet but it seems to fit well. I'll have to make up a support bracket to keep the lip from bending under at high speeds. Urethane is soooo good to work with, I wish all spoilers were made from it. Mind you I haven't tried painting it yet. Hopefully there might be some coil over sleeves next on the list.

6 days for it to double, or triple though Nice set but.

How much hp will you get from the 'so froth'? I don't know anything about carbs but I would look into availabilty of parts for the DCOM carbs (of which I have never heard of). Also, buy your carbs in three's. Guaranteed the two you buy first will have everything different to the third one.

I hope he gets some in soon too

What a sweet deal on the alternator. Looking good. Started her yet??

OK problem solved. Both of my alternators required external regulators, so I asked an auto electrical parts store to recommend a generic external regulator. A BOSCH RE55 was the answer. Now how do they work??, I've drawn up a diagram to help anyone attempting the same job I've just done. Makes sense really, starting from scratch without all these extra wires. The reg has two pins in a tee, like the alternator does (see pic) The D+ pin gets a feed from the battery when the ignition is on only (otherwise it would drain the battery with engine off), this voltage is feed into the regulator which determines how much charge the battery needs, and regulates the voltage coming out of the DF pin. This can "regulate" from 0-12V determined by battery requirements. This "regulated voltage 'excites' the coil in the alternator via the F pin, determining how much charge comes out of the A pin which directly feeds the battery. Hope that makes sense. Cheers

+1 And what you have to do to fit them etc, are the holes already drilled for mounts and what not.

I won't go into to v8's especially those ford ones. I had an LS1 clubsport myself, VX model, now that was magic.

Just my 2c but VT's and AU's would have to be the worst examples of either models ever. Why do it to yourself? They not worth anything, they use way too much fuel for the power you get in return, they've both got the last of the old engines before they upgraded, they're old enough to need big $$ replacements, they leak, sorry Rev........shivers.

If they are the ones that were on ebay for a bit, did you have any issues with number on primary hitting the block vent tube that comes out?? The photo of your engine on the stand on the last page shows it touching? The set I bought did, making it impossible to fit them without major hammer persuation, the flange also fowled on the thermostat housing. Looks very neat mate, it's all going back together quickly.

Mine is putting out those volts at a fast idle though, not high rpm??? OK, I've spent the day in the shed with litres of sweat dripping off every hour but I kept telling myself, I love Datsuns I tried Nzeders advice, I hooked up an external voltage reg which came with the 240 but don't know what model it is actually from. Still getting too high voltage to the battery. Can anyone tell me if this 280zx alt has a built in voltage reg? And this is the one originally on the 240. What would be really handy, if anyone could scan or link a wiring diagram for a 280zx that i could compare to the 240/260z manual to look for differences. cheers

Thanks but, could you go over that one more time? I'll get up early and read that tomorrow.

I've got a seperate charging issue which I thought I'd tag onto this thread. I've just installed a spare alternator from a 280ZX with a 'voltage reg' (black plastic cover thing on the back of the alternator) onto my L24. With a full battery 12.4ish volts, when the engine is running the alternator is spitting out 16.5-17.5 Volts depending on revs which weren't really that high. The only load on the battery would be the coil and fuel pump, nothing else. If I pull out the two wire Tee harness plug at the back the volts drop down to normal but it obviously means the battery isn't charging though. The engine revs also slow down if this plug is in and rpms increase again when the plug is pulled out. Do these symptoms indicate the voltage regulator is stuffed??

Thanks I feel all warm and fuzzy. Did you have to weld/install that bracket that the ball is attached to or was it already there. The specs of the toyota camry bonnet struts I just bought off ebay sound very similar. thanks again

Yeah I did try some of those struts, waaaay too long. Thanks for the feedback Nizmo, a glass bonnet would definetly exagerate any small issues over a big steel one. And I'll be using two struts so as not to have the twisting issue. Did you ever take any photos of where the lower section was mounted, and I'm guessing you had that same hole cut in that area. This is a similar mod to over in the engine swap section. I'm trying to make my old Z more like a new car similar to those pulling out the Lseries and going something newer. Should I just be happy with a rod and keep it old school? ;D Anyway , I've order some cheapies off ebay so watch this space.

I'm with Pete on that one. LS1's are a mental engine with nothing more than a tune and some bolt on's. Cheap to buy, get it engineered and never have to tune it or muck around with it again. To be dangerously honest, apart from making the wrong sound, they would be so much cheaper "if you were only after bang for buck", compared to the same amount of engineering and tuning and turbo accesseries and expensive things like cams for a jap six. An LS1 may have been a plan for my car early in the game as far as bang for buck goes but then you realise that isn't what its all about. Ask yourself a few Q's. Do I want NA? Do I want an inline 6? How much power do I want? Where do I want to use that power?

And they said nothing good happened in the 80's

I want to get rid of my torsion bars at the front to clean it up a bit, but without having to resort to a manual rod to hold the bonnet up every time. A mob in the US do these kits: http://store.zraceproducts.com/mountinghardwareparts.htm Has anyone here found a way to install some short struts to keep the bonnet up?? I was thinking of ordering a short set and having a crack myself. It does seem to require a hole to be drilled/cut out of the horizintal section near the radiator support panel. http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=18420&size=big&cat=

you're (you are) ineffective, not your The strut tops are larger on the 280zx's I think, if you have any specific q's waxhead I've got both sets sitting next to my shed.

is there any other head gasket symptoms, oil in water, water in oil. either into combustion chamber??? seems strange to just have oil weeping externally from the head flange.

So you played with your boost and suddenly you've got oil all over your block "down wind" of you dipstick tube (which is missing?). My diagnosis from those two pics would be a restricted crank case breathing system causing a build up of pressure, causing your oil dip stick to pop out and spray oil everywhere. Now it's either missing and you haven't noticed or you've removed it, but all they generally do is pop the seal and still sit there but with oil dripping out. Far better news than a head gasket if I'm right.

Nice job. Do you have any more pics of the 'slice' being cut out? I have a 260Z front bumper that I'd like to put on my 240Z but it seems a bit wider for what ever reason. If I take out a slice like you did, it would fit. Either that or I was thinking of cutting the sections out where the over riders sit flush with the verticle grill line so I just have two side bits with nothing over the grill itself. Do you know what I mean, does anyone else like that look or not?