Welcome to Z-land! You will have many hours of fun fixing it up!
Here's a few of the answers you are looking for.
it is non-turbo and I guess what they
> called GL?
The GL model stands for Grand Luxury. There is also another model called the Deluxe which doesn't have a lot of the nice things.
> Well shortly after buying it I discovered
> the heater or anyhting air wise doesn't
> work... So Dad and I started digging in the
> fuse panel only to find there was no
> wire/connections for the blower!
The heater blower has it's own fuse. This is a tricky little bugger to explain but there is a big white wire that is fed by a fusible link just in front of the battery. This big white wire feeds a fuse on the bottom of the blower motor. You can see it if you stand on your head under the dash on the passenger side, but to change it you will need to remove the lower dash panel and heater duct. Leaving this fuse is a yellow wire that goes to the blower relay and motor. If the blower motor isn't running, this is the first thing I would check.
Now, once the heater motor will run your next problem is to make sure you have vacuum to the heater components under the dash. (This fuse will also affect that). So here's what you do.
Turn the selector switch to low, auto, or high. Then go under the hood to the vacuum canister located next to the under hood light. There is a magnet valve with a black cap on it and on that valve there are two wires. Use a voltmeter or test light to check for voltage on the blue and red wire when the selector is in any of those positions. If you have voltage, then the blower fuse and circuitry are good, so if the blower still will not run suspect the motor, relay or blower amplifier.
If everything is working so far, then make sure you have vacuum from the intake manifold to that vacuum canister. This is supplied by a small hose with a white stripe running from a vacuum port close to the rear of the manifold. If you have vacuum to the tank then check for vacuum on the hose coming out of the magnet valve with the black cap. This is the one that supplies vacuum to the various doors that direct air flow and opens the water valve. If you get everything working so far, you should at least be able to have heat and air.
Not to disappoint you but if your auto temp control doesn't work you probably won't be able to fix it. This seems to be a common problem. The good news is that you should be able to get heat and air you'll just have trouble maintaining the temperature.
There are two products I would suggest you invest in. The first is a Haynes manual for the 79-83 280ZX. The second is a Popular Mechanics CD-ROM for the 1982-1987 Imports (mercedes through volvo). You should be able to get either at a parts store, and K-mart here is handling the CD-ROM. The biggest advantage to the CD-ROM is that it has better wiring diagrams and vacuum hose diagrams than the haynes manual. You can get a reprint of a factory manual from Dyment Distributing. Look in the archives of these forums for more info on that.
Good Luck and Have Fun with your Z!!!
Bob A.
IZCC #5497
Here's a few of the answers you are looking for.
it is non-turbo and I guess what they
> called GL?
The GL model stands for Grand Luxury. There is also another model called the Deluxe which doesn't have a lot of the nice things.
> Well shortly after buying it I discovered
> the heater or anyhting air wise doesn't
> work... So Dad and I started digging in the
> fuse panel only to find there was no
> wire/connections for the blower!
The heater blower has it's own fuse. This is a tricky little bugger to explain but there is a big white wire that is fed by a fusible link just in front of the battery. This big white wire feeds a fuse on the bottom of the blower motor. You can see it if you stand on your head under the dash on the passenger side, but to change it you will need to remove the lower dash panel and heater duct. Leaving this fuse is a yellow wire that goes to the blower relay and motor. If the blower motor isn't running, this is the first thing I would check.
Now, once the heater motor will run your next problem is to make sure you have vacuum to the heater components under the dash. (This fuse will also affect that). So here's what you do.
Turn the selector switch to low, auto, or high. Then go under the hood to the vacuum canister located next to the under hood light. There is a magnet valve with a black cap on it and on that valve there are two wires. Use a voltmeter or test light to check for voltage on the blue and red wire when the selector is in any of those positions. If you have voltage, then the blower fuse and circuitry are good, so if the blower still will not run suspect the motor, relay or blower amplifier.
If everything is working so far, then make sure you have vacuum from the intake manifold to that vacuum canister. This is supplied by a small hose with a white stripe running from a vacuum port close to the rear of the manifold. If you have vacuum to the tank then check for vacuum on the hose coming out of the magnet valve with the black cap. This is the one that supplies vacuum to the various doors that direct air flow and opens the water valve. If you get everything working so far, you should at least be able to have heat and air.
Not to disappoint you but if your auto temp control doesn't work you probably won't be able to fix it. This seems to be a common problem. The good news is that you should be able to get heat and air you'll just have trouble maintaining the temperature.
There are two products I would suggest you invest in. The first is a Haynes manual for the 79-83 280ZX. The second is a Popular Mechanics CD-ROM for the 1982-1987 Imports (mercedes through volvo). You should be able to get either at a parts store, and K-mart here is handling the CD-ROM. The biggest advantage to the CD-ROM is that it has better wiring diagrams and vacuum hose diagrams than the haynes manual. You can get a reprint of a factory manual from Dyment Distributing. Look in the archives of these forums for more info on that.
Good Luck and Have Fun with your Z!!!
Bob A.
IZCC #5497
