Popular Post fletch Posted October 1, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted October 1, 2014 discussion here //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/45321-fletchs-1974-datsun-260c-wagon/ Bought this car back with me from OZ end of 2013 when i moved back here. Its pretty original, got it from the original owners in Tamworth, NSW. They were getting a bit old so it has slight damage to every corner. 8 seater wagon, factory AC, 3 speed manual an the column, electric rear side window. Pretty flash for its day. It belongs to my mrs. she liked it so i put it in her name. so i can get another one Here's some photos. When i first bought it Back at my place in qld. 2000kms from where i bought it. Only lost 1 hub cap and hit 1 skippy on the way Then i reconned the front end. Yuk Steering arms refurbed with new boots and a few pumps of grease I have had a battle sourcing ball joints before. Its hard to find front ball joints for this model or the earlier 130 model. One option is to fit the whole 330 series front end. I could not find a 330 front end without buying the whole car so i did a bit of creative engineering and reamed out my axles to suit the later, and more importantly, available, 330/720 ball joints Sorted! 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fletch Posted October 1, 2014 Author Share Posted October 1, 2014 We bought a 40foot container over at the beginning of november. It cost more to get from mackay to brisbane, than brisbane to auckland.................. Got it registered 2 dec. was easier than i thought. Took it to silvia park vtnz. Had no trouble. Kangaroo dent in front bumper. I hope it can be repaired without re-chroming. First job back home was to strip the electric window in the rear quarter. It was only going down 1/4 before tripping the circuit breaker. No photos but i stripped it all apart and greased everything and the slides and now its nice and smooth, and fast. While i had the cover off the inner guard, i popped the dent out of the back quarter. Can hardly see it now. The dash is pretty far gone from 40 years of Tamworth summers, so i got a new one from Japan. It wasnt cheap... Hope to fit it in a few months For new years we went away to the beach with a few mates. around 1200kms all up. The chev had some pretty big running issues on the way there and we discovered a big vacum leak in the inlet manifold. Once that was solved it ran a million times better. The 260c has been running worse and worse and when we got back, I discovered the vacuum hose to the brake booster was all old and hard and split. Fixed it up and it runs far better 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fletch Posted October 1, 2014 Author Share Posted October 1, 2014 After our road trip at new years the car was running bad and getting worse. The carb kit i ordered came in so Gen and i rebult the carb. I thought it would be a simple strip, clean, new gaskets and o-rings, and throw it back together. But it was not to be. The main shaft in the carb has worn into the housing and the butterfly has worn the side off. This made a big air leak that was making the idle bad. I think it was caused by the mechanical linkage from the firewall being spring loaded towards the firewall and pulling on the shaft. The shiny bits on the shaft are where the shaft has worn, and also worn into the carb base. Also, both screws sheared off when i undid them LUCKY for me, i had another carb in stock from an e13 datsun sunny. Its the same carb but later type. The 240c and 260c have the hitachi DAF 342 carb, and the sunny had the later DCH or DCF 342 carb. the 342 means 34mm secondary, 32mm primary butterfly. The later carb is a better carb and has electronic choke, but my one was damaged by the spectacular failure of the engine it was attached to. Im looking for another one as the jets all swap over. Long story short, i swapped the main shaft, butterfly, and bushes into the 260 carb and it went back together sweet as. I didnt bother cleaning the outside as the air cleaner covers it Now it starts and idles with no choke! Great success! I also fitted a rebuilt 280z electronic distributor. The points were shitting me so i got one from ebay us cheap and threw it in there. Its a common mod in the 240/260z community. You have to change the base plate to suit the dizzy. Ooohh shiny! Dizzy installed I didnt have a 12v coil in stock, or the time to scrounge one off one of rays relics, so i just did the quick bypass on the ballast to give the 6v coil 12v. gets warm but runs sweet I put Gen to work cleaning the interior, but it obviously was hard work and boring so she went to sleep.. My old man took it for a test drive and got 15 minutes away when a cloud of smoke came out of the dash and the engine stopped. Turns out an electrical addition by the previous owner was loose and shorted out. It blew one of the fusible links in hte engine bay. Lucky the car comes with a spare which went straight in and away it went again. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fletch Posted October 1, 2014 Author Share Posted October 1, 2014 So i have been keen to increase the number of speeds in the wagon since i got it. I picked up a z16 column change d21 navara box cheap ages ago, and pinched a l series box from ray recently. the other day i pulled the front housings off both boxes for an inspection and to put the L front on the z rear. The z box is a FS5W71'C' and the L box is a 'B' No major differences, slightly wider gears in the C, larger countershaft bearing, larger 1st/2nd selector fork. The only problem i see is the ratios of the z16 box are terrible. see the table below z16........Lseries.....260c wagon 1st 4.219.....3.321......3.143 2nd 2.539.....2.077......1.641 3rd 1.641.....1.308......1 4th 1...........1 5th 0.818.....0.864 Currently 1st gear in the wagon is not bad, maybe a bit tall, so the 3.321 of the l series box i have would be good. For an overdrive, ill take whatever i can get. Im thinking i should fit the l series internals into the c series case to get a better spread of gears. Or buy a few cheap boxes and mix and match the gear sets. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fletch Posted October 1, 2014 Author Share Posted October 1, 2014 I pulled the 3 speed box the other day to do a measure up. its 135mm longer than the boxes i have. dammit. You can see the extra length here and here The design of the 3 speed box (and 4 speed as an option in some cars) has all the gears in the front half of the box. The rear part of the shaft has no spline on it for 5th and reverse. My first plan was to slip some extra gears in, that was before i opened it up and saw the bare shaft. See the pic below, there is also no room for 2 pairs of gears to fit in the longer housing. At least the mounts line up So heres where im at today I need a driveshaft like this, but 135mm longer, which is 452mm between uj centres. Same yoke as s13/s14/r32 etc I went to a few wreckers today and they all told me the sideways hat brigade has bought them all to do manual conversions on laurels and cefiros. I did stumble upon a GD21 navara at a wreckers on my way home with the parts i need but i have to wait a few days until they decide if they are going to wreck it or keep it for a farm hack. Also looking for a tidy H190 diff head. 4.11. Diff code HF41. came out in ka24e d21 navaras. i dont think we got them, or japan either. I drove one in american samoa a few years back, but im not going there again.. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post fletch Posted October 4, 2014 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 4, 2014 couple of interior pics for those that are interested short people in the back hearse spec http://s470.photobucket.com/user/fraz_bandit/media/260c%20wagon/20141002_165818_zpsb83bc960.jpg.html'> hope to get around to the interior one day. Not really a priority as its all there, just tired 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fletch Posted October 10, 2014 Author Share Posted October 10, 2014 Some progress on the gearbox front i chose the L series gearset as it had the better ratios. I thought i would just change to the column change selectors and be done with it. one problem with this is that nissan went to a larger 1/2 selector shaft in the later gearboxes I couldnt run the larger shaft as the selector that fits it is for the bigger synchros that the earlier gearset does not have. Here is the larger 1/2 selector on the earlier shaft 14mm vs 16mm The column change 1/2 shaft also has a notch in it for clearance of the selector. I decided to make a sleeve to fit the fork to the shaft. cant be that hard. Using some precision engineering skillz i learned from my brother in law Ray, I lined up the 2 detent notches and marked where the new hole for the dowel pin needed to be. I ground a flat and dot punched it then drilled. Some of my workmates told me i would never drill it as it was some kind of hardened tool steel shit. They were wrong. I used this fine quality chinese drill press and only fucked 4 drill bits Then i made this sleeve up to go from 14mm up to 16mm. Pressed it on, machined a notch in it with 20 axis angle grinder Test fit last night. Its the top one WIN 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fletch Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Bit of a late update. So i reassembled the gearbox and it seemed to change gears ok. After i chucked it in i made cut up the navara driveshaft to make a new front half 130mm longer. I used the UJ's off the navara front half as they were sweet and the hanger bearing rubber was still good. I turned the tube off in the lathe and cut a section out of the rear half to go in. A mate gave me a hand to assemble it on his bigger lathe and we arc welded it up. It looks like its sticking out a long way from the box, but its only about 8mm further out than it was in the navara. The column changer shaft on the wagon was a tiny bit short but the navara lower half was a perfect fit. They are splined together to be collapseable in an accident. Also the wagon lever did not have enough in and out travel to select the extra row of gears. The part i am holding is the bush from the wagon which i punched out and as luck would have it, the navara with the spring return fitted perfectly I turned the old stopper off the navara shaft and made a new one to grub screw on Complete Once i had it all installed i used a mixture of the navara and wagon linkages to get the shortest shift travel and also mixed and matched the best bushes for minimum slop. First test drive was around the block then the next day ray and i went to hamilton for the night and the next day went to auckland for the cruise to the leadfoot ranch then back to new plymouth. Around 950kms test drive and it went well. Only problem was the bolt on the column change shaft nearly fell out a few km from home and the gear changes got real sloppy. Also by pure luck the driveshaft that was welded by a pair of low flying seagulls seems to be perfectly balanced. got it up to 136kmh and no vibrations Only downside was my rebuild of the gearbox. I mix and matched the synchros but put the 1st and 2nd around the wrong way. When the box is cold it wont go into 2nd when moving. Its no trouble when warm. Also, the speedo drive is on the other side of the tail housing so the cable hits the exhaust. Im waiting on a right angle drive box for the right price to come up on ebay and ill be away. For now its all good. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post fletch Posted April 20, 2015 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 20, 2015 Picture less update. Went to Hamilton the other weekend for a new windscreen as i cracked it on the way to Nats and it got worse on the way home. Got it done by Hamilton Windscreens/Windscreens Direct. Cannot recommend them highly enough. They let me be a fussy prick and get in their way and muck about with the trim and stuff while they were working. Plus they had one in stock! New WOF also, had to get rid of the bob jane australian allrounders im sorry Bart. Plus a wheel alignment. Handles a lot better with 8.5 deg of camel toe removed. Off to CHCH this weekend with the Mrs and 12 week old, what could possibly go wrong.... 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fletch Posted May 4, 2015 Author Share Posted May 4, 2015 Got back from chch last night. Around 2100km total by the time i went and caught up with some mates and a bunch of chch OS gc's. Bit heavy on the way back. 2x l28, 1x h190 diff head, 1x datsun 430 front suspension complete, a bunch of concrete garden ornaments from the in-laws, a pair of KEF home speakers (about a ton each), a whole pile of baby related shit, blah blah blah just off the bumps at the back These fuckin hubcaps are terrible for falling off. Nearly lost another one and i checked them all at wanganui I unloaded using the ray approved method. couple of pallets and a few old tyres on them and just push the motors out the back Now im going to sit back and drink beer until my 90 deg speedo drive box turns up and my shed is finished 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post fletch Posted November 23, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2016 Long time no post. Just got back from Hamilton via rotorua. Still going strong. Have picked up some kind of vibration. Hoping it's a wheel bearing. Also, next stop.... Zu tutu tutu tutu! !!!!!! 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post fletch Posted January 30, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 30, 2017 so i have picked up a vibration that i think is coming from the driveline. It has been getting worse but i cant find it so i have been driving it hoping it will fail and the problem will be obvious.... Before nats the tired l26 will be changed for an 'running' condition l28, rebuilt gearbox, maybe twin carbs. It needs to make it to chch and back also... The turbo conversion is on hold until i can find the vibration problem I started to strip a gearbox to build another column change box to fit the car. I got it cheap from somewhere i cant remember. Unfortunatley it contains all of the sparkles In the spirit of os nats, i will leave it another month before i start repairing it 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post fletch Posted March 4, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 4, 2017 Progress has been slow due to general life and family commitments. So I stripped the box to get the short mainshaft, then stripped a long box that I had in stock for the rest of the parts. Stripped Then it got out of hand and I had to rob some parts from another box I had stripped earlier I also replaced the bush in the rear housing. Nissan won't sell you one, only the complete rear housing for $184 usd. I found one for $12 nz and got it yesterday from the US. Changed the box over into the car today. Bad idea doing it over my head on the hoist as I still have a crook shoulder from dromageddon. .. Next, the diff has a lot of slop. So I thought, easy, I'll just swap it over for a spare I have. Well the spare has stuffed spider gears by the feel of it. I have another head but it's unknown condition. I suppose I'll have to make 1 out of 3 next week. Hopefully it won't be @governorsam banana skin spec to get to choose and back... 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fletch Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 All of the diffs have some kind of issue so the the one with the least slop went in. I also parted with some cash for someone to make a new front piece of the driveshaft and balance it. Been burning around in it today to make sure there are no issues. Gearbox - check Driveshaft vibration - check Diff - hmmmm. I'll take some bananas Front end - not so good I pulled the front left apart and the outer wheel bearing has decided to shit the bed. Same bearing as 80 series cruiser kingpins and the 12 roller version that I have is prone to dying. Tomorrow is Taranaki anniversary so no shops open. I'll try and get some overnight parts from Japan from Auckland. Leaving for chch Friday with my 2 yr old son. Don't think he will be that keen on sitting on the side of the road for a day waiting for help. Maybe I should join the aa? No photos of bearings due to me being busy swearing at the fucking thing. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post fletch Posted August 12, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 12, 2017 Started building a motor for this. L28, flat top pistons, twin hitachi SU's maybe a cam. Thought i would put the pistons on myself. Watched a bunch of videos of some rednecks doing it and it looked easy. Made a jig out of plywood to hold piston and allow the pin to pass through the correct amount to get the rod centered. Borrowed an IR thermometer from work and heated them to around 200degC Easy Gapped the rings last week. Next i will clean up a couple of cranks i have and see which one is the least wonky. Going to try something different with the head and use an uncommon combination. I put this one through the bandsaw to see how much i had to play with Hope to have time next week for crank and then assemble bottom end the week after 22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fletch Posted July 14, 2019 Author Share Posted July 14, 2019 whoa, a year later... so i got the bottom end together But to get to this point took a few steps back and forward. I opened up the combustion chamber a bit and it turned out i would be around 12.5:1 comp which is not daily driver material. The bore spacing of the head chambers to the bores is lol so i had to mark each one to the head. The head gasket is also terrible spacing, but some guy in the us is getting cometic to make him a custom one to his design so ill try and buy one of them Gave the piston a bit of dish to drop the comp a little. Not sure if we did it the right way, but it worked out sweet 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post fletch Posted July 14, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 14, 2019 next step is the head. i have been gathering up parts for a while. some manifolds and carbs etc here chose a manifold to run and started matching up the ports and chambers Got a couple sets of carbs and rebuild kits, but decided that efi was the way to go, so gutted a pair of them, pressed in some aluminum and bored the centre out. Have fitted some injectors but havent taken pics yet. hope to finish the head in the next week, and get it to the shop for a skim. I got to get my act together, the family is coming with me to chch for nzdatsun nats in october! 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post fletch Posted July 14, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 14, 2019 I also got a new friend for the wagon! just need a coupe now right? Its the best starting L series i have ever seen, low kays, been in a shed 15 years, immaculate interior. Undecided if i will keep it. might start a build thread 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post fletch Posted June 15, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 15, 2022 long time no hear. Have had the work/life balance tipped way too far to the work side since jan 21 and haven't done much on the car. I did get the engine assembled, and @Bistro gave me a hand to install and test drive/run it in sometime maybe earlier this year. Engine went really well. Knocked a bit with the old gas in the tank, but is going sweet with some fresh stuff. Just running a stock cam and single carb at the moment. I have a cam and a MAXX ecu to run the injected carbs. Need to do the fuel supply inside the carb hats, and order some lash caps to suit the cam. Hopefully ill get onto it later in the year. Image hosting seems to have packed a shit so ill try something else. As it sits, a good storage area for my other projects... 30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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