mlracing.co.nz

Post for sharns

So I was hinting at it but today I picked up the thing. It's pretty tidy overall. Runs, drives, stops all good. Steering is vague and seems like a shit load of play in the steering box but brakes are good, sounds good, goes good. I need to check out one of the carbs as it has some problem with the choke hat causing a giant air leak when it's on. Also need to remove that funky intake and put trumpets on as well as give the engine a good bit of brake kleen. Flatmate reckons it should probably be OK for roadworthy without too much dramas so once I've fixed up the couple bits I'll send it in. Oh, also it runs on after I turn it off so have to figure out why that is. Could be carb or timing related perhaps.

Yeah can ship small things to aus, and will be able to ship big things to aus soon too when we open up container options there. Send me a message or email sales@mlracing.co.nz @Brucehc

Yeah not hard to come buy, just don't have one, it's on the list though because now I'm curious about that cam

Nope and nope lol I could take the cam cover off but I don't have a new gasket to put back on it at the moment.. and chances are the gasket will disintegrate when I remove it

Went down to the shop and did some fiddling today. Short story, car runs on the triple carbs now, but won't idle. With a bit of throttle actually doesn't feel too bad but yeah long way from running nice yet. I purchased some new gaskets but turns out there were a few that weren't right so need to get a few more which I hope will improve the idling and running of the car. Old gaskets meet new gaskets. This is where I set the timing. Originally it was a bit on the retard side but read that it should be advanced for triples and this seemed to be about where it ran the best. What I'm not too sure about is the vacuum thing on the side. I presume I've got a vacuum advance distributor so unsure if leaving that vacuum line unpluged will make it run worse or better as there's nowhere for it to go. The new throttle cable looks and feels super nice, and it's strong too. A bit thicker than the original. It is a little longer though which is kind of annoying to route but seems to work. Janky ghetto fuel hose routing seems to work.. no leaks amazingly. Ideally get an electric pump, fpr etc down the line. So next on the list is to get the cold start/choke circuit working as I did find it would idle better when I activated couple of the chokes on the carbs manually. The interesting thing is even with the OEM single carb it wouldn't idle properly when cold (but it did run better than this) so I wonder if there is a different cam in here or something; it was always a bit lumpy on idle even once warm. Specs on carbs anyway are: Triple mikuni 44s 150 mains 200 air 60 pilots I did get some 57.5 pilots but seems like it runs a little better on the 60s which is kind of interesting as Mikuni recommends 52.5 for an L24 which is about as close as USA gets to an L20. Thoughts, ideas, abuse etc all welcomed here - https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49704-mlracings-hakosuka/&page=8

OK since last post I have got the smaller jets now, just need to put them in. I also purcased the throttle cable mount and hooked that up.. but then suddenly the stunt went horribly wrong.. As I was tightening the nuts to hold the cable in place it snapped off. The metal is so old and soft it had no chance. I was able to jimmy it up and make it work but I'll probably just go to a bike shop or similar and get a new cable made up. Can confirm it does work well and opens the throttle bodies Also that white stopper thing seems to just dangle around and get in the way, perhaps not necessary for triple carbs. Scraping off shitty old gaskets is not fun.. There's still much to do.. get the fuel lines sorted and also block off a coolant hose which used to run to the single carb setup. Thinking I'll just get a bolt slightly too big and wind it in with a hose clamp on it too. OK so there's not actually that much to do.. just some small things that take ages. Oh, and regarding the sticky brake situation.. I've decided to just upgrade the brakes instead of fix it.. because that's what you're supposed to do right? I've also been toying up getting a new stainless exhaust manifold in because that rusty one looks nasty.

Quiet afternoon at the shop so I thought hell with it, I'm gonna fit these triples on the car! I've ordered some new jets to bring it back down to OEM spec as at the moment they're way too huge (came off L28, big cam). Highly likely to run like garbage on the 2L but whatever, will look and sound sweet haha. Give me motivation to get an L28 working. Obviously there are a few things to work out before we can try to start it.. such as fuel hoses, coolant hoses, throttle and so on so there's a bit to do.. but they look rad! Will have to polish up the trumpets for sure! And annoyingly still the left brake caliper sticks. The whole brake system could use a going over so I will look into rebuilding the front calipers. PS: If you know of/have an L28 for sale holla at ya boi. Don't need most of the bits mainly just long block will be good. Needs to have been running, or still running. Yarns: https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/49704-mlracings-hakosuka/&page=8#comment-1888368

Had a really good day today on the Skyline. Decided I was going to get it out of the shop and go for a drive. Picked up a new battery and went out, the left side was still pulling badly and I knew it was something to do with the brakes so I pulled off the caliper and pads and had a look. Turns out it was a really simple answer. These are two piston with two pads which are the same shape, one was worn down more than other and when I put them back in after doing the discs I put them in the wrong way so had the less worn one where the more worn one was. I think the calipers need rebuilding anyway as the pistons dont fully retract in so I couldn't put new pads in but for now the braking is back to it's normal uselessness and not pulling violently to the side. I was also testing out the replaced caster arm and it's worked really well. The car doesn't track entirely straight but I feel once another alignment is done it will be really nice. Feels good to have it out and about again, oh and wired up the front fender indicators too.

New caster arms have arrived with the most recent container shipment. So that was today's task.. pretty straight forward. So the reason I needed to change the driver side one was.. well as you can see it's bent. Looking at the area surrounding the front mount I would say it's taken a punt. If I had more time I would've done an oil change too.. oh well maybe in another year I'll get around to that

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