Goodbye old friend

Due to other options presented to me, I had gone over a year without driving my G37.  The G is a great driver's car and a superb balance of power, comfort and handling.  As hard as it was emotionally, it came time to part ways.  Goodbye, old friend; you're going to a good home.

Controlled Reception

After replacing the Pioneer tape deck that was in my 280z with a Retrosound unit, I found that I was annoyed when the power antenna would rise when I set the unit to Bluetooth mode.  Why would I need the antenna in this mode?  Even though the unit had separate wires for an amplifier remote switch and power antenna, they both apparently were energized at the same time.  I don't listen to the radio much anymore so every time I powered on the head unit to listen to podcasts I heard one less rise tick off of my aging antenna.  I had told myself some time ago that the next time I pulled the console out I would add a switch inline with the antenna so that I had more control over when it was extended.  Since my head unit had become loose after installation I decided to correct both issues at the same time.

To control the antenna extension I decided to use a toggle switch inline with the power antenna trigger wire.  This was simple to construct and splice into the harness.

The trick would be where to mount the new switch.  I definitely did not want to drill any plastic; while that would be the easy route it would also permanently change whatever was drilled.  I decided to construct a bracket out of a strip of steel.  I used one of the HVAC blower bolts to secure the switch under the dash and mostly out of sight.

The result?  I can now extend my power antenna only when I need it.

Brake Warnings

Ever since I have owned my 280z, the emergency brake indicator on the speedometer has not done it's job of indicating that the emergency brake is applied.  The test when the key is turned to the "on" position indicated that the bulb was in working order (which I was confident in since I had swapped it with an LED a couple of years ago) so I felt positive that the issue was in the switch itself.

I already had the console out for some work on the radio, so I went ahead and pulled the passenger seat out to get full access to the area.

The switch itself pops out with just a bit of pressure and after disconnecting a spade just below I had the switch on the workbench.  Disassembly of the switch entailed the removal of a single screw holding the contact wire to the plunger.  Be sure to have a hand on it so that the spring doesn't fly out!

Once the switch was apart my problem was obvious...

There was nothing holding the wire to the contact other than a small bit of insulation.  This would be an easy fix!  I opened the crimped connections on the contact, stripped a bit of wire and crimped it into place as well as adding a dab of solder to secure the connection.

I then finished by cleaning up all electrical contacts with a wire brush and adding 3M dielectric silicone paste to the contacts as well as the plastic plunger to keep things working smoothly. The result was a indicator that actually indicated when my parking brake was engaged!

More Power!

The battery terminals on my 280z were pretty chewed up from years of connections of charge and jumper cable clamps.  Since cables are cheap and I was working on the starter I thought I'd simply replace the cables to clean things up.  To do this I would need cables that supported an accessory as I wanted to avoid a stack of terminal rings on the clamp bolts.

In researching the electrical accessory connections on the battery I found some interesting information:

1. The connections from both the positive and negative terminals led directly to the Bosch L-JetTronic fuel injection control unit (The L stands for "luft" meaning that the fuel mixture was controlled by an air vane).
2. The positive connection was supposed to include a fusible link which had been removed from my car at some point.
3. The electrical connectors used for these wires were no longer manufactured.  I want to retain as much of a factory look as possible so using normal spade connectors wasn't appealing to me.  I found a company that reproduces older Japanese connectors for motorcycle restoration.  Many of the connectors used by Nissan were offered from his website: http://www.vintageconnections.com/Products/Connectors .  The specific connectors for this work were located here: http://www.vintageconnections.com/Products/Detail/140 .  I ended up ordering several different types in the event that I need to replace any in the future; you never know how long treasure troves like this will be available!
4. The proper size fusible link is .5 mm squared.  I derived this from the information at the following links:
1. http://datnissparts.com/x-green-fusible-link-at-battery-datsun-75-77-s30-280z-24022-u2700-24022-n4200-24022-89905/
2.  http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun/Z-1969-1978/electrical/wiring/engine-room-(dec-74-to-jul-76)
3. http://datsun1200.com/modules/mediawiki/index.php?title=Fusible_Link

Creating the fusible link was no more exciting than crimping two of the female connectors on each end of an 8" length of the proper sized (8mm sq) fusible link wire.  I also carefully soldered the wire to the connectors as I prefer this extra bit of insurance when dealing with automotive connections; I say carefully because this is fusible link wire and you don't want to heat it up too much.

It was more of the same when attaching the new connectors to the accessory wires on the new battery terminals as well as the L-JetTronic power wires.  One thing to be certain of is that the positive and negative wires have different connectors as you don't want the possibility of reversing the polarity to the control unit!  From the factory the negative wire from the control unit has a female connector.  The fusible link has female connectors on both ends.

The finished product looked much cleaner than the previous setup of chewed up terminals, crimped splices and broken connectors!

Persnickety about Hose Clamps

In my efforts to ensure the engine bay on my 280z looked as close as possible to factory I wanted to replace all the worm-gear hose clamps with the wire-type that originally secured the hoses.  The original clamps can no longer be found even from Nissan; the Nissan offering now has a hex-head bolt instead of the original pan-head.  Given this fact I decided to see what was out there for purchase.  This type of clamp was surprisingly rare although I found some limited offerings on Amazon.com.  Purchasing various assortments and sizes I used these on all the hoses except for the heater hoses which I will replace at a later time.  I was pleased with the look that this type of clamp provided.

Just cool it

One of the "unknowns" with my 280z that I hadn't explored yet was the radiator.  I knew it was a bit of an eyesore and it was definitely the original unit.  

Given how much gunk came out of my heater core when I cleaned it out, I thought I'd pull the radiator and check out that part of the cooling system.

Pulling the radiator wasn't a very big task.  After draining the coolant I pulled the shroud, hoses and the EGR carbon canister.  I already had the intake and AFM out of the vehicle for other work.  At that point the radiator was ready to come out.

At this point I pulled out my scope camera and began inspecting the tubes on each end of the tank.  They weren't blocked but there was definitely some scale built up in there.

I decided to circulate a vinegar solution through the radiator to remove the scale and corrosion.  I set up a recirculating flow of vinegar and water to begin breaking things down.

As I let this solution circulate through the tank I began other work on the car, taking advantage of the missing radiator.  One task was to clean up the coolant reservoir mount which was beginning to rust.  The mount is to the left of the A/C condenser in the below picture.

It was at this point that I noticed something on the radiator cross brace...

Inspecting the radiator in the same location as the above rust revealed that my radiator had a leak in the seam of the top tank!  As I pondered my options I steered away from a shiny new aluminum radiator as I wanted the engine compartment to retain a factory look.  There are still copper and brass radiators available for my car but they were about $100 more than the aluminum counterparts.  Then I happened upon a clearance item on ZCarDepot's site: a three row copper and brass radiator for $70 that was a direct replacement for my model year!  The item listed cosmetic blemishes that would not affect performance.  I thought the price was worth the risk so I ordered the radiator.  Upon arrival I noted that the only real issue with the radiator was that a column of fins had some damage but the damage did not seem to affect the integrity of the tubes.  These fins would be hidden behind the fan shroud so this seemed to work out perfectly for my needs.

I also ordered a new thermostat inlet, thermostat, stainless mounting hardware, gasket and hoses.  I figured since I'm here I might as well make sure all the components are in good order.

Checking the thermostat turned out to be an interesting endeavor.  The first thing I noticed was the fact that the bolts holding the inlet onto the housing were different sizes; this shouldn't be the case.

When I attempted to remove the inlet I came up with a theory on the reason.  First of all, "offsize" bolt's threads were missing.  There was also quite a bit of corrosion in the hole.

My guess is that corrosion on the original bolt left the threads attached to the aluminum so a smaller bolt was forced into the hole as a quick fix.  Since I had purchased stainless replacements, I needed to clear this out.  I started by using drill bits of increasing sizes, rotating them by hand to clear out the junk in the hole.

I then followed up with several passes with Q-Tips to remove the crud on the very bottom of the hole.  This was in preparation for the next step: cutting new threads.  Being very careful to be straight, I worked the tap in and out of the hole clearing the aluminum shavings as I went.  Once the tap reached the bottom of the hole I cleared it one last time and tested fitment of the new stainless bolt.

Using a Dremel and a wire brush attachment I cleaned the gasket surface around the thermostat.  Attempting to remove the thermostat itself proved to be troublesome as it seemed to be stuck.  Even though I had ordered a replacement I had read that the factory unit was much less prone to failure.  I decided to not risk damaging the original unit which was functioning perfectly so I left it in place.  Using the new hardware and gasket I put the new OE inlet into place.

After prepping and painting the rusty section of the cross brace I was ready to install the new radiator.  The fit was tighter than I expected but the mounting locations were correct for my '76 (in later years the mounting holes were spaced one inch further apart vertically).  Using the new stainless bolts I secured the new radiator into place.

The hoses and shroud attached without issue.  I did make sure to return the anti-collapse spring into the return hose to keep the coolant flowing at all RPM's.

Finally I returned the freshly painted reservoir mount before calling this job done.

What a difference this new radiator has made to the look of the engine compartment!  I am so happy that I did not have to use an aluminum radiator for this replacement.

Light 'em up!

After wrapping up another visit to the Providence Cruise-in recently, the lights on my 280z did not behave as expected.  Particularly, the parking lights would behave erratically.  Finagling the switch would cause the lights to flicker so I felt confident that the issue was in the switch itself.  Ironically, one of the reasons I added headlight relays was due to the fact that running full current through the switch would cause them to fail over the years;I guess I passed the point of imminent failure before addressing that issue.

While researching a fix for this common issue, I came across the following article which I used as the basis for my fix: http://www.kamikazeracing.org/dl/ZTech/Rebuild_240Z_combo_switch.pdf

To start, I removed the headlight switch from the steering column.  The bullet connectors for the headlight and parking light wires were buggers to separate and I eventually had to use a small screwdriver to spread the female end of the connector.

In retrospect this process could likely be performed with the switch on the car but having no idea what I was facing I decided that removing the switch would be better for me.

After removing the switch from the steering column I quickly tested the switch with a VOM to confirm high resistance in the contacts.  Both the parking lights and the headlight circuits read almost 200 ohms.  For direct copper-to-copper switches that was very high indeed.

I removed the headlight switch contact casing from the column switch assembly.  This should make it easier to remove the bakelite board and access the switch contacts.

Next was to carefully bend the retaining tabs upward so that the contacts could be accessed.  I did this using a very small flat-head screwdriver followed by some needle-nosed pliers.  Go easy on the tabs since you'll have to bend them back down later!

With the contacts exposed, there was evidence of the high current (and thus high heat) that has run through this switch over the years.  The headlight switch was especially dark on top.

The contact base looked to be in good shape.  I used a small wire brush on a Dremel to clean up any carbon and corrosion that may have existed.

The switch rockers told an interesting story.  Check out the indentation in the headlight switch due to the current load...

 

The above photos were taken after the rockers were cleaned up but they had their share of carbon scoring on them.

At this point I reassembled the switch which is as straightforward as reversing the disassembly.  As mentioned in the reference article, I swapped the two rockers to give a "fresh" contact for each switch (the parking light rocker moved to the the headlight side and vice-versa).  I did use a coat of 3M Dielectric Silicone Grease on the contact points and the plastic, spring-loaded "nubs" to ensure smooth operation and to keep arcing to a minimum.  The result?  The VOM registered less than 10 Ohms for each switch and the switch now operates with smooth perfection!

Start me up!

The starter in my 280z was looking worse for wear and it had some corrosion on the terminals.  I decided to clean it up a bit and make sure things were in good working order.

Extraction was pretty easy and involved the removal of the two bolts that hold it to the bell housing as well as removing the positive battery cable and the energizing wire from the solenoid.  From what I can tell this unit is not the original but a re-manufactured unit added in the car's history.

Disassembly was not incredibly complicated, although I did not remove the armature from the motor itself.  I was mainly concerned with the gears and the solenoid.

The solenoid came out with two bolts.  My unit did not look like the pictures in the factory service manual which is why I think my unit has been rebuilt.  The "hook" on the end of the plunger is different in that the FSM shows a ring instead.  The good thing is that after cleanup and testing the solenoid seemed fit for use.

I separated the gear housing from the motor to inspect the clutch and bendix gear.  They were dirty but not damaged so I cleaned them up.  I did learn that greasing the starter gear and bendix are discouraged, so I had to perform some cleanup where I acted before researching.

With the gears cleaned up I returned the gear housing to the motor housing and cleaned up the unit for painting.  Using Rustoleum gloss black caliper paint for the motor body and champagne mist metalizer for the motor cap and solenoid I was able to give the unit a nice factory-fresh look.  Yes, I used my pickup truck tailgate as a hangar for the heavy starter while painting...

I then cleaned-up the bell housing where the motor was mounted before returning the starter to its proper home.  I used new mounting bolts that I obtained from ZCarDepot to finish off the installation.