NickJ

A good head and being honest with your abilities is far more important than any $$$ on 4wd gear. As long as we have a toolkit, highlift and a few different tow options we'll be sweet up there. I'm all keen for a day of river crossing, working on waterproofing the Niva and need to do some testing, have no idea of whats local to chch

Yeah, but when the doc hut is 8 hours walk in, it doesn't see much traffic, i'll still be camping though. The gate is locked to vehicles as the track is across private land, just have to book the key in advance from the station owners.

Top of lake Coleridge, pretty sure Mof has been up there before to give a better description, from what I understand its more of a farm track than challenging 4wd expedition. There is a doc hut that you can drive to the door, plan to camp there the night, yarn, drive home.

Lush! I have a key booked for the Avoca, 21-22nd March, OS goes feral bush?

High roof safari definitely wins on the comfort factor, i'm slightly nervous of getting one stuck, I can get the Niva out by myself with a highlift, those granroads are monsters! The few i've seen for sale sound like value for money. We had a S3 on the farm when I grew up so have bit of a soft spot for them, kinda like a Niva but with tweed..... Drove one the other day and was quite happy with it, just sparing the cash for something with less interior trim than the Niva is seriously questioning my sanity.

No worries there, I really do need to put "No modified drivetrains" into the requirements, its just hard to find a capable 4wd that is useable, so far putting a roof tent onto an SUV body is the most workable option, just it would be nice to have more headroom in the back for when you just want to chill for a bit and be crunched up. Landcruiser troopy or Defender are about the only two options at present

I'm currently trying to decide how to upgrade to a diesel 4wd, looking for a decent off-road abilities for heading up the eastcoast valleys but also can be set up for camping with the missus. This machine keeps popping into my head as fitting most requirements. Keen to see your camper attachments when they get started

Loving the clean workshop floor and space to move around the car, looks very inviting to get shit done

Sparkplugs can't get wet if you're floating.... Might hit up the godley next week, the starlet would most likely make up there ok

Well, glad I made a recon trip before committing to a longer few days out, the river has cut right against the true left about 10min from the diversion and flows at the usual brisk pace, watched two trucks cross in bonnet deep water, spoke to one who commented it was on the limit of what they were comfy with and there were two more mandatory crossings further up.... Yeah if I had to, I would rate 80% chance of success, but neither of us wanted to drown trucks. Retreated back to lake Coleridge for a pleasant picnic in the willows, lovely sunny day up there, weird to drive back into mist and rain on the plains.

Come be a responsible, normal adult and leave them even longer! Leaving town just before 8

That would be quite a party bringing all them up, might pay to leave the caravan behind though. Looking to book a key for the Avoca at the end of January, stay up in a hut there if you can swing that?

Unbook/Bring booking along?

Anyone keen for a 4wd trip up the Wilberforce tomorrow? Mellow 4wd up the riverbed until it looks too truck breaky, have a picnic then head home?

Would have thought for that price a steam clean of the engine bay and fresh leads/hoses would have been worthwhile? Is the old car market in the UK like here, really small pool of people with money, when they find what they want, they will pay heaps which then gives everyone an inflated idea of their cars worth? Watched a Datsun similar to mine sell for moonbeams at auction about a year back, similar ones have popped up since for about the same asking price and not moved.

That makes me shudder, our new import came with a 60gb hard drive of jdm pop that hurt the ears whenever you disconnected the ipod. Thank god minidisc players are in short supply. Quite a rough looking engine bay, have they just imported it to sell on?

Been having hot start issues with the engine, worst of all being random which hampered troubleshooting. I also didn't bother refitting the fan when the engine was out as i've often wondered how much effect it gives without a cowl and so far back, unfortunately it draws sufficient air to keep the engine cool at idle so leaving the car running for short stops was not an option. (Must re-fit...) Keeping to my usual mantra of when it seems like the carburettors are playing up its the ignition I started swapping out bits that I could. Given the brand of the coil I was left unsure of the results, resistance to start hot was still present, or do I have two faulty coils? This game carried on with all major components including stripping and checking the distributor to no avail. Just maybe it is fuel this time? Fitting the wideband straight away gave the answer, massively lean at idle..... Quick spray of butane found the leak point and left me quite impressed that the drivability was not noticeably worse. Remove carbs, clean, check refit + new gasket. Aaaaaaaaand its back to life, solid idle just on the rich side of 14.7 to aid starting. Now on summer break I have plans for some trips away, one task on my list that remains unchecked is to drop the steering box and inspect. This is where the personality of the Niva starts to come out.. I have been unenthusiastic about this task due to all the nasty hidden bolts and knocking off ball joints etc, took a solid 4 hours to get the box out along with almost everything else on that side of the motor, as painful as it is to remove half the engine bay to access one part, i'm quite glad its not modern Japanese and I can fit my hands and spanners where they need to be! Once again inspection found trouble, grittiness in the box was due to pitting/chipping in the gears, quite likely from rough treatment prior to purchasing joint pullers..... Not wanting to put that box back in, I pulled out a spare, being of unknown quality I decided to strip it down first, what a fun mistake that was! Only seal I really cared about was the lower one, carefully hidden under the pitman arm, initially I hooked up my 2 jaw puller but it just didn't like the shape falling off with only moderate load, at 17:20 I had enough and headed down to Repco and brought a pitman arm puller, as they closed for the day, even with greased up threads I couldn't budge the darn thing, stern words were muttered and I left it for the night retreating inside for tea. After a second prolonged struggle using various combinations of tools, percussion and finally the purchase of a gas torch, the arm relented, clean-inspect-reassemble resulted in one new condition steering box. Lovely clean looking steering box too, and possibly the most expensive maintenance item for some time! Only a few short hours will have the Niva back on the road...... except for NY hangover, just lifting tools is bit of a challenge right now, hence i'm writing about fixing rather than actual fixing!

How hard is it to specify the #poles? just throw in an even number and see if it looks about right

Super motivated to rebuild the motor over Christmas break except stupid me overlooked that machinists take Christmas off too! So I have just cleaned everything up and made measurements where I can. Gearbox has come up pretty good after 2l of kero, bearings flushed out and appears visually OK, syncro rings all measure up in the upper limit which is handy, i'm pretty certain now this box had a rebuild not long before the rust became too much. Just need two new seals and it can go back together. Oil pump is a little concerning, while it measures up in spec, it has considerable scouring, speaking with L series folk this is relatively normal and should still push around sufficient oil, have tabs on a spare if required. Last day of work the sidedraft manifold adapter blank arrived, i'm in two minds as to how to proceed, CNC the ports or just get in there with a die grinder - leaning to option 2 as i'd like to port match it in any case. As much as I want it done, going into work during holidays is not high on my want list. Had word Supercheap had some Datsuns on the shelf, couldn't resist a mini-me. Have given the electronic ignition a bench run and it seems to be playing nice, will get that polished and fit it to the car to see what improvements it offers.

I guess you'll rig up a guard for the rail? won't like splatter too much

Sounds like transformer or rectifier? I understood contactors usually fail open circuit I have an old 1phase cebora mig sitting in the corner that you can borrow if its home stuff you need to finish

Its just a 3 phase contactor no? any electrical wholesaler will have something of similar abilities

what was fancy about the diffs in them?

Get underlay from modern cars and trim to size was the advice given to me

Stripped the head and block today for a scrub up, they always looks better without the grime. Made an improvised valve spring compressor with a long socket, extension and strong magnet tucked up inside, crush the spring and the collets jump out onto the magnet, quite effective. Will drop the head off for hardness testing and a clean, then i'll dive into measuring and making a plan for the build. No picture, but the front cover off the head had "Datsun b/bird" written on it indicates it or the engine is not original... Found this organiser at the warehouse last week for ~$10, helps with the workshop OCD