Running/dash lights
 

My wife and I just got a '82 280zx w/ ttops and we have electrial problems. The running lights only worked for about 45 minutes, they came on about half an hour after turned on (I am assuming the same goes for the taillights). I turned the car off,restarted it and no dash,radio or running tail lights, headlights work great and no fuses blown. I have been looking online for a hour or so tonight and I saw a couple of people have had same sort of general problem and it was in the switch on the steering column, any suggestions where to start looking?
Other than heater/ac not working everything else seems nearly perfect, all original as far as we can tell after 24 hours.

Caveman, You are correct about the light switch. Nissan used an electrical grease on the contacts to keep them from arcing, but the grease they used is corosive after about 15 yrs. Causing a problem they tried to avoid :confused: If you feel confident enough you can take the switch out and clean the contacts yourself. Or you can simply go buy a new one, Not a used one because it will probally give you the same problem. Hope this helps.

Another place to look would be the realy box under the hood. Sometimes they get loose and all you really have to do is plug 'em back in.

But, I'd go ahead and replace that switch first. You'll end up doing it anyway.

I have that problem about once a year. Its always the plug under the dash.
Remove the under dash panel below the steering wheel. (the panel with the light in the middle) There is a large connector that that connects all the wiring from the steering column to the rest of the car. Unplug it and plug it back in or just push it in and move it a little. This should make contact and get your lights back on.

I had that problem, but mine was a little more difficult, it seemed my fuses we'ren't contacting fully, because of corrosion, so i went to a junkyard, pulled a fuse panel out of another 79', that had shiny contacts, redid all the wiring and it worked...

I know this is an old thread, but I was having the same issues, so I just pushed on the big connector, now they won't come on at all, blowing the fuse everytime..what route would I go to fix this?

If you pushed the connector in and it's blowing the fuse you've got a short somewhere....

Switch?
 

Hi all, my dad and I are trying to fix up his '82, but recently we encountered this problem (no running lights outside the car, no dash lights). The fuses are all fine except for the "clear tail lamp" one, which I replaced and was blown again after we drove the car. I am planning to investigate that as well, but in the mean time I tried unplugging the big wiring harness under the steering wheel and plugging it in but that didn't fix the problem either. I know that a lot of people have mentioned a switch being the problem, but I am unsure which switch people are talking about. Any advice about where to look to fix this problem would be much appreciated!