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Hmm haven't seen them, but then haven't really looked. These were cheap and I do like the style of them, just need to get em to fit a bit nicer

Yeah see how it goes, I just like having no orange on the car now as the rear lights of course don't have orange in it either. Yeah cheapies lol

Woohoo best day at work ever, I found the Butaketsu Laurel-type indicators that I thought I'd lost forever. Original Years of gunk and nastiness New No more orange ! They don't fit super well because they're not made for this car but with enough trimming and fiddling I could get them to sit flush. They'll do for now. Discuss: https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49704-mlracings-hakosuka/&page=8#comment-1816441

It's been ages since I've really done anything towards this so I decided to start tearing down the L28 that I have. When I got this I knew the bottom end wasn't good but the head should be fine. Feels like there is some mild port work done and I'm told the cam is quite big. I just wanted to put these on so I could make doort noises. From memory there was a bearing problem but as it looks like it was sitting around for a while partially assembled before I got it I'll need to take it somewhere to be inventoried and see exactly which parts are there, which are not and what can be reused. Might be easier to just get another block and put the head on. Also managed to find some OEM castor arms and some urethane bushes to replace the bent one on the car which will come in the next container. Things are happening.. slowly. Yarns: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49704-mlracings-hakosuka/&page=8#comment-1816441

Quickly took the car down for an alignment this arvo to try and work out the pulling to the left situation. Well have a look at the "before" spec below.. haha! As they didn't have a listing for hako on the system I figured Kenmeri woud probably be closest. One of the front caster arms is bent which is causing some of that issue and the toe adjust arms are a bit shit but managed to get them back in line. There is a lot of rust underneath so I'll be loading up on repair panels in this next container! Went to stop in at the compliance place on the way back but it was closed Also I think I need a GT-Kai badge.. everyone thinks it's a GT-R and are crushingly disappointed when I tell them otherwise haha Oh, so result of alignment car definitely feels like it drives a bit straighter, still pulls to the side occasionally but I think that may be as a result of my spring situation. I received a few more bits for it from Kevin san (the aussie guy previously mentioned) so one day I'll get to putting those in and see if that makes the difference.

Yeah the cutout is aligned (if we're talking about the same thing) as it wouldn't fit the hole without that being in the right place. Yeah those rubber covers have definitely seen better days.. but I think the spring seat is ok but could be right on that too @Sambo

Finished up the other side today and took it for a spin. I also took a couple extra pictures as a future reference potentially for anyone who needs this info as it took me a while to work this out. So in order to remove the brake disc from the hub took a bit of trickery for the average Joe. I suppose if you had a press handy you'd use that but this way is just as easy. First step of course is removing the bolts. Not too hard with an impact gun. Then bolt the hub to your wheel like shown above. Get a piece of wood or something similar and use it to hammer down on the brake disc. Moving around the disc eventually it should slip off the hub. I found this was quite an easy way to do it. Still took some decent hits but worked out good. One assumes you're replacing the discs at this point so risking damage on them isn't really a major concern. Then you end up with this, as you can see bearing and seal removal is not required but it's good to check them while you're there. Springs have settled a bit and actually look really good, about the same height as it was before. Still getting clunky noises and I'm fairly certain it is the springs as I can twist them by hand when the car is in the air but they are still captive. So perhaps just missing something more to push down on the top. The alignment is fully out of whack and almost certain it has positive camber now! It got quite wobbly on the motorway earlier at about 80-90kmh, so definitely need to take it to alignment shop. Although I'm not entirely sure how much adjustability will be available. The ball joint looks like it is OK but when it's on a lift I could check it better.. or more likely someone who knows what to look for can check it better. Also, the new discs work very well. Might just be my optimism but feels like it pulls up a bit better. Shit yarns: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49704-mlracings-hakosuka/&page=8#comment-1773147

Today sort of went ok.. I have since decided changing the brake pads in this car is a giant pain in the ass though. Plan today was to put the new discs on and new pads, sort of worked out. Check out these badboys, furious stopping power! The main hurdle I had after working out how the hub and disc comes off is this.. the piston at the top could not be pushed in enough to allow for one of the new pads to go in while sliding over the disc. What I ended up doing was a bit naughty by using one new pad and one old pad (which still had a bunch of material on it anyway) so I could slide it over the disc. Perhaps I need to get the calipers rebuilt or look to upgrade to the MK63 which most people go to. I've only got one side on there now as I ended up going out for a lunch longer than anticipated and got back late but it spins around and looks good. Once I get the other side on I'll take it out and see if they actually work. Made the mistake of opening the door while it was on an the jack.. Just a little bit of chassis flex in there. Plus side, rear springs are captive as do I'm not going to change them for the other springs. Oh, and I found that the hub nut was finger tight, so that was a pretty good find. Thanks cotter pin for keeping me alive!

Finally had an afternoon free to do some work on the Skyline. I now have all the parts I was waiting on to work on the underbody and suspension parts. The reason it's taken so long as I wasn't super keen on taking bits apart then taking them apart again so my main hold up was getting OEM top hats so it's one less thing for it to fail on when it comes to inspection time. These finally arrived thanks to a Hako owner in Aus (Kevin, if you're in the scene you'll know him), total legend. When it came in the car was on cut springs, common in old Japanese cars so no surprise but it was no good here. Picked up some ZOOM brand low springs in our last container and today's task was install the fronts. After about an hour and two trips back home I managed to get one side done. Once I'd figured it out the other side took about 20 mins. Yay for OEM.. but that top nut is not correct as it was the one used with the camber adjust top hats.. I'm guessing I can just keep it there as it's doing the job, just doesn't look super great. Noticed this underneath too.. big dent on the sump which looks like it's cracked but it's not actually leaking. Perhaps someone repaired it in the past. However I have a feeling I'm missing some bits to complete the OEM top hat assembly as it still making clunking noises when I turn the wheel. The spring seats correctly but I'm not sure if just above that is meant to be something else before the top hat goes on above the upper spring seat. Also yeah the boots are goneburgers and maybe both the shocks are leaking.. yay! Took it out for a hoon around the block to make sure it was working ok. Initially pulled hard to the left but once I went full lock to lock a few times it sorted out but still pulls a little to the left. I suspect I knocked something while I was under there. Not sure, probably worth going for alignment anyway Short outside video - https://www.instagram.com/p/BQE6iE-AG8M/ Still, one thing less on my list.

Looks like yours is a 250 so you'd need this link to scope out spares and used stuff - http://auctions.search.yahoo.co.jp/search?p=250+%E3%83%97%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B8%E3%83%87%E3%83%B3%E3%83%88&ei=UTF-8&oq=&auccat=26318&slider=0&tab_ex=commerce&istatus=2 It's not looking great.. but if you find something send me a PM we do the containers

Hako makes it's first official public outing. I was asked by one of the organisers of a car show if I could bring the Skyline out to have on a Nissan stand. So I agreed. It's crazy to see the size difference between old and new.. everything has just become so much bigger.

Hahah didn't have one at my disposal

Customer/friend came over today to collect something. Couldn't resist a quick photoshoot. He also works at a compliance centre and reckons the rust spots I pointed out to him aren't really a major compared to some things he's seen.. makes me feel a bit better haha

I remember those first aid kits, mum had one in her 89 lancer

So after about 5 months of not starting the car, it's time for it to wake up! I went about doing a few pre-start checks.. Oil? Black. Brake Fluid? Half missing. Clutch Fluid? Black. Water in radiator? Yep. OK good to go. With a new battery it cranked over really well, took a little while due to no gas in the float and mechanical pump but no worries. Little rough as you'd expect after not running for so long but once warmed up and the fuel was flowing it feels strong. I didn't actually take it out as there is currently too much stuff around and I couldn't be bothered moving it. Quick Instagram Vid - https://www.instagram.com/p/BJUYBs-B57z Still have a few parts to come in the next container shipment like springs, brake discs etc. I'm not in a major rush so container is all good. The current springs are very uncaptive cutties hahaha. Rides pretty well considering though, Discuss: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49704-mlracings-hakosuka/page-8#entry1705879

Yeah tell me about it, I was this close to giving up then I found some obscure post someone made on a Z forum and it was like a night and lightswitch had been flicked. I felt like such an idiot haha

It's still a major pain in the ass but to get the bushes back in their springy home while you're fucking around with the rest, loop the wire around the little catch at the end of each bit. That probably makes no sense. Assuming that's what you're talking about.

Not too much happened recently but for the sake of documentation I'll add it here. I picked up one of those C-Tek chargers which worked wonders on one of the old batteries I had in storage but no bueno on the Skyline one so I need to buy a new battery for that. No major, they're around I just haven't got to doing it. A couple of small rubber bits did arrive though the other week so got to installing them. Nice new rubber seal around the bottom of that cowling. Can see a bit of rust on either end of it as well as perhaps some quick repair done. These are common places for rust on Hakos so I suspect when the time comes I'll have to pull all that down and repair it properly. Repair parts are available for these areas. And these little rubber caps for the wipers were busted as you can see in the top picture. Replaced as per bottom picture. Yep, thrilling stuff.. but it keeps the momentum going I guess.

It's sometimes the little things that make all the difference so I had a couple of bits I really needed to get fixed up. I purchased a new gear boot a while ago but the silver trim ring was smashed to pieces, the centre console is in poor condition with some pretty agricultural repairs so not entirely surprised. I have this one hook underneath which I've since been told isn't meant to be there, so I'm missing a bunch of clips that go underneath here which secure the shift boot onto the trim ring. Previously I purchased a replacement rubber boot for the shifter hole but I got the wrong one, now I have the correct one. After a bunch of prodding and poking, got it in there. So without all the clips in there the shift boot sits like this. Deciding whether to get some new woodgrain stickers but if I'm going to eventually replace the centre console anyway maybe there are better things to spend the money on.. really want to get a different shift knob though.

Oh definitely could, but already have some of the parts here. Anyway, story for another time

I see you're pretty handy with making coilovers, can one purchase your services?

I'm glad I don't have electric windows, just another thing to fail haha

I actually bench tested some and yeah mine wasn't great haha

So after my bust on the 180sx wiper motor I did a bit more research and found that majority of Datsuns of similar vintage shared (or 95%) the same wiper motor. There are some Honda ones you can use and various other things but mint16 on NZ Datsun had some 510 motors for sale so I contacted him and picked up two of those. You can see they're almost identical except the centre linkage shaft is longer on the Hakosuka one. I took apart/cut the plugs off and ran some quick bench testing. With old cars it's always better to have more spares than less and it's a good thing too as one of the motors was not as good as the other. One was better than my current one though so I used the not so good one as a sacrifice so I could take it apart without concern and learn about how it all works. What I learnt initially was how much of a huge pain in the ass these bushes can be, and how much of an idiot they make you feel like.. that is until you work out/research how to get them to stay in their sprung houses. Then you feel like an even bigger idiot, albeit an enlightened one. This motor (which was the best of the lot) looked like it had some moisture inside it sometime in the past. Nonetheless it worked OK so after giving it a little clean up I re-used that part. My main quandry was how to get the linkage shaft out and move it from the hako motor to the 510 one. I tried for ages to remove a washer on the outside to pull it out but then thought I'd see if it were possible to remove it from the inside, jackpot! Once this cover is removed you're faced with this. Pretty straight forward system. Simply remove that nut, couple of washers and the park position thing and a circlip then you can see this. Just lightly knock out the centre shaft and it pops out the other side. Easily enough to reverse the procedure with the hako shaft. Better look at the size difference. Bigger is better huehuehuehue Taking the advice of many, I also tried to lube up this linkage area. I couldn't for the life of me get the washer clip thing off the top but it was quite stiff to move around. I did clean it up and gunked it as best as possible and it definitely made it move more freely. So after putting it all back together it's not a major improvement but definitely an improvement. Also for some reason the park no longer works despite wiring being the same, the motor just seems to run continually so perhaps something isn't quite exactly the same. Anyway, don't need that so I've not plugged that in for now. I think definitely for a proper decent upgrade the Honda motor could be the way to go, but I learnt a bunch from this so I consider it a win win. I also learnt that I need a new battery and a trickle charger.

What would be the recommended way to test the earth/circuit? Just make sure it's getting solid 12v? Or would it be better to test for resistance? I still reckon there's a problem with the motor anyway, it looks like the original one. Also lols about the vacuum wipers, I remember my mum talking about those and said it was pretty scary when it was raining