NickJ

Thats quite handy if its the right car I guess a bulk pack of deutsch connectors off Ali plus legit cable locally not what you're after?

No fixing, just hooning update. Went for a cruise down to lake Tekapo with the Datsun club. Car ran great except for the usual niggles, up one of the last hills into Tekapo I seemed to loose fuel pressure, couldn't find any issues on the side of the road and got home no trouble, will pull the filters as first call and go from there. Secondly had the alternator pulley split in two a few hundred meters from home, will dump that out for what I hope is just a quick tightening. Have noticed the back end feels a bit loose at times but with a person in the backseat it feels much better, having checked all the bushes can I interpret that the car is requesting a light serving of low? (is currently on standard springs) I've been instructed 180b rear coils are worth trying, any other suggestions? With the Canterbury winter gloom only a few weeks away, I feel that might be all the driving she gets til spring, winter is Niva season!

But if you had a curve to cut, that may work out easier than cutting on the small edge and then needing another operation to cut the radius.

The lack of bounce landing off those dunes is really impressive! Whats the ride like in the cab?

How many turns off the seat are the idle screws? off idle sounds to me like the idle jet needs to come up a fraction. screw depth off the seat is a good indicator of where in the range the idle wants to be. Also not returning to idle is a potential sign of a vac leak, is it possible that might be messing with you?

Pretty sure I flipped one throttle shaft so the two short ends where facing each other to make mine fit and had to custom fabricate the linkage. But what I really don't understand, how can you balance the carbs and not test drive?

Is that the factory exhaust position? Underside looks very similar to my 510 but the exhaust runs through the crossmember. Have wondered if that way would work but it always looked too close to the ground?

fix it til it is?

Ok cheers guys, I think the Datsun will get a short stay on stands while I scrape together some cash. As long as they aren't as loud as the mud tyres on the Niva, I think I can live with that

Electrical issue turned out to be worn brushes in the distributor, after a solid tour of Chch looking for a replacement brush housing I ended up finding a young fella at Repco who took one look and said, you need bush set xxx, see, they can be soldered in right there. Not often you find someone at a parts store that has the right knowledge, he set me off to another branch with stock and the repair was made in 5 minutes for less than $10 Valvetrain tick investigating time...... Once again, couldn't find much, but one lashpad and rocker had a burr which I took off, unsure if it really changed much. After some more driving and a worsening sound I rechecked the gasket, turns out the new gaskets don't have reinforcement around the exhaust ports, didn't last long! Put the old one back in with a helping of sealant, so far so good. Whats really odd is the tick is most noticeable in the cabin, with the bonnet up it is there, but is drowned out by general engine noise and you'd struggle to pick it up. I'm starting to lean further towards i'm just being paranoid. The only thing I am yet to do (and probably should have done first) is check clearances when hot, that might offer a different view. Went for a hoon down Central Otago way Was a bloody good drive, midweek and late afternoon meant little to no traffic through all the fun bits, until overheating at lake Pukaki on sunset, I topped up with water and limped into Wanaka, unsure to the exact cause as it drank quite a bit of water, wasn't down on power or using fuel and the oil was all good. Turns out I had blown a heater hose and thankfully the old L series is a tough beast, a quick visit to tractor services for some tube to bypass the split hose and she was all go again. However I no longer had a heater. Calling around the usual suppliers and Nissan didn't provide any replacements, the hoses are all listed NLA so to the parts shelf I went Generic Gates hose 01-0005 covers the heater feed behind the block and a Holden commodore hose Gates 02-0912 was just enough for the return line. While in the mood, next on the list was to get the 3.5 R180 diff into place. Standard R160 top, R180 bottom. Quick check up, close enough. Out with the old In with the new. Needed a pair of sump plugs which were happily provided by pick a part and their solid collection of R180 equiped Subaru wagons. This should bring the 100k rev limit down around 3200rpm, it may be at the cost of of the line go, but the car is more of a cruiser than racer now, its worth a go. During the process I cut my hand on the wheel, not sure if its from being old or due to damage, but a new set of tyres is now on the list. Bloody happy to have found it here and not on the Lindis! Have also sorted CAD files for the badges, currently waiting on some tiny carbide end mills to feed the machine, this is so I can keep the actual badges on the shelf and not be paranoid of them falling off. Numb nuts put them in the scanner opposite which is why one is upside down!

Thats exactly it, when it's a car that I enjoy driving, why not put grip on it! How many Ks do you think you've put on them?

Not sure if we have a tyre tech thread? Swapped diffs out on the Datsun today and cut my hand on the tyre, glad I noticed it! Well the tyres are pretty old so no real loss. As for replacements, whats a good 205/60/13? Seems to be heaps of budget options, anything sporty other than semi-slicks? On that side, anyone run semi-slick tyres on a weekend car, do they last long? Bear in mind it's a Datsun and driving in the rain is a serious corrosion hazard!

Will it read DC?

Do as Alex suggested, you'll be able to file back 2mm more than accurate enough, the backlash in the distributor gearing will give more grief than careful filing.

Cheer mate, just tracking down all the bits so I can knock if over in a day, i'll be in touch

Will he then be offended when I turn up in an L series Datsun?

Hey guys, Anyone have a valve spring compressor poking about I could potentially borrow this weekend? Might be whipping the head off the Datsun to search the mystery click Cheers

One kit should coat the engine a few times over but remember it needs to be clean, fully degreased (serve a meal on it to the inlaws spec) for that kind of stuff i'd use water based degreaser for the bulk, dry fully (even bake off) then rinse off with brake cleaner before going through the steps. it really works best on machined surfaces, if there is a crack it will find it, however crack testing on a cast surface can be near impossible, hard to clean up the dye after application then the developer sucks it out of the surface porosity hiding any cracks, if the crack is in a corner of a journal between casting and machining you may need to do a few applications to convince yourself what is going on, take heaps of photos if you do multiple tests! Its been a while since I was using the stuff regularly, but from memory I left the penetrant on much longer than advised to be sure it got everywhere (searching fatigue initiation on stainless parts) we could find pretty small defects that otherwise were invisible to the eye. When cleaning off the excess penetrant, take you time and have heaps of clean rags on hand. Hopefully that makes sense? been a long day and i'm a few beers down

Going by the above are you off shore? one trick I read about but never have never tried is to mix kerosene and food colouring (pretty much all the dye penetrant is anyway) and substitute talc or climbing chalk for the developer, the trick will be getting it lightly and evenly dusted

We use rocol at work, pretty simple really, just follow the instructions, why the long wait?

Went for a hoon with some GCs up to Hanmer for the car show over the weekend, had a brief look around but realised I'd much rather be driving/tinkering/sharning than walking around a paddock looking at cars. There was a very tidy sss that I drooled over but came to the realisation that pristine cars aren't really my thing, presentable yes, but I don't want this to end up a shed queen i'm too scared to get dirty. On the way home as I dropped to third for an intersection the charge light came on, my first instinct was the fan belt had jumped off, so I pulled over and baled out fast expecting a run back up the road for a desperate recovery as multiple stock trucks ground it into the asphalt, sadly everything was in order, a quick shake of the main alternator wires and a check of the fusebox I shrugged my shoulders and finished the short drive home. Main suspect now is the fusebox followed by the mechanical regulator then alternator, place your bets! Have also been giving the valve train region click some thought, 500 miles since I really noticed it and no big change, odds are its not terminal/engine killing? I'm thinking a measure up of the rockers/seats might shed some light, so once the electrical gremlins are expelled, I plan to throw some feeler gauges in that general direction.

Looks like we'll be heading up for the day

i'll have to check my spares and look into this, could be some fun learning Must admit I have been tempted to park next to the 1200 a few times

I have no idea, can the springs be swapped to alter performance?

I had the same thought, gasket has been replaced, I'm not quite ready to rule it out though as it is the most likely origin, now with a fresh gasket any leak should be obvious.