# New to the Z world... Guidance on some issues please.



## Shayne (Aug 7, 2014)

Hey there, I'm Shayne. I am a mechanic apprentice going through the first phase of my apprenticeship (boring school work) in Canada. I own a Mazda 3 that I love as my daily driver but I always dreamed of getting a 3000GT, Evo, F-Body or Z car for my summer whip.

Lo and behold a fair condition 86 300ZX pops up and I am all over that like butter on bread. I am in the process of acquiring the car, including down payment already done and so forth.

It is an 86 though, and she is rough around the edges. I've already spent about 6 hours tonight going through some various Z31 forums and I like this one the best so here I am.

The problems are:

Rough idle - Fairly easy, distributor cap was apparently tampered with so that is my first guess. My second guess is the timing belts because they looked like garbage. Thanks to SMJ999SMJ and some recent posts I have already sourced out timing belts and instructions and such. Thanks a lot man!

Fan shroud gone - Not so much a huge problem... but I wanted to know if anyone has converted the stock fan into an electrical fan, and if so what did you splice into to do so? The person I am getting the car off of has a fan for the car and this was his plan in the first place. Any insight to this would be great.

Then I have no apparent power to the gauge cluster. As it seems from looking around forums, a relatively easy fix that involves taking it out and resoldering a few links and playing with some clips. Any in depth guides on how to do this kicking around?

And the last problem I can currently think of is the most difficult, installation of new e-brake cables. This one sounds like it could be a bit of fun, particularly the price tag included. I did a few searches here and didn't turn up too much so if anyone knows of any good directions/tips about this feel free to share your wisdom along with where I might find good, cheap cables. Best I found so far was evilbay and around 250 CDN. The problem is the e-brake doesn't engage. I know this doesn't need to mean the cables are gone, so any guidance on this would be great.

So if anyone has anything to say about any of these topics, please feel free to let me know. People keep telling me that the best mechanics never stop learning, so hopefully I can learn some more stuff from folks here!

Thanks in advance.


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## i r teh noobz (Apr 26, 2007)

Start with a tuneup and timing belt, then chase the rough idle if it persists.

E-fans are a common mod. You will have to wire it yourself, there is no existing fan wiring to use. Some models had a temp probe in the radiator that you can use.

Assuming you have a digi-dash. The cluster or power supply likely have a bad solder joint.

Brake cables are a common failure. Look around, you might find a set used for a good price. 

Check out z31performance.com. This forum is a tad slow in the Z31 section, you will get more answers on Z31p. 

Xenonz31.com has factory service manuals for download.


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