Well...IT'S FIXED!!

I disconnected battery cable, looked to see if anything looked obviously wrong to my untrained eye...pressed brake pedal down for 20 sec or so, checked fuses near battery... wiggled fiddled and pressed them down firmly. put cable back on, and the alarm horn sounded the second it touched the terminal... what a beautiful sound that was. pressed fob button and it stopped. sat in car and it fired right up! HOLIDAY WEEKEND SAVED! Not sure exactly what it was still, or if there is a problem that needs further looking into, but I'm on the road again for now... will be getting it checked out this week for sure.

Thanks to all of you for all your input and solutions, this forum is AWESOME!

Glad you got it fixed. :driving:

Did you see any whitish stuff on the battery posts or connectors? It sounds like the battery post/connector that you removed may have had some corrosion that was causing a high resistance connection. Removing/replacing the connector cleaned off enough corrosion to make a good connection.

If you think corrosion may have been the problem, remove both connectors, clean terminals and connectors with a wire brush until all corrosion is removed, then put a VERY LIGHT coat of bulb grease on the mating surfaces before reassembling. Check for corrosion during your periodic inspections.

If your windows or other electrical items are acting up, search this site for "window reset", &c.

I have to agree. :)

There is also a lot of stuff that, as a base member, you don't get to see. TPTB were nice enough to make sure base members have access to all of the technical stuff but some of the social/fun stuff is limited to paid members. Click the "Premium Membership" link at the top of every page for more info. The decals alone are worth the price of admission, IMNSHO.
And then there's all that help-support-the-site-that-helped-you-out stuff. :)

Terminals were clean as a whistle...I think either the electrical system reset with brake pedal worked, or one of the fuses near the battery was loose. I'm still stumped as to why everything was dead except brake lights. they were literally the only thing that worked... not even dome lights... very strange indeed

will definitely be looking into premium...who doesn't love stickers! I do love my Z, get compliments on the midnight blue all the time. Folks who don't know much about cars always think its some expensive high end car. When I tell them I paid 30g they are floored. Gotta love the poor man's Porsche! I think the body lines and curves are way sexier than a Porsche anyway!

The FSM has schematics and most of what you need to know to troubleshoot and repair anything on your Z. See link in my sig.

If you are sure that the battery posts/connectors were not the problem, I'd check the links and fuses (especially the ones that you handled) for corrosion. You may have gotten some water into that area.

Glad to hear it was a simple fix! :tup:






Hats off to everyone helping out a fellow member. :tiphat:

You have been visited by the Nissan/Datsun Gremlin.

Having driven them for more than 39 years, I can tell you that I am no stranger to unexplained catastrophic electrical failures that appear from nowhere and disappear the same way.