silroc

So, I was in the market for a bench grinder. One shows up on Marketplace – an old craftsman (old enough to be all metal) mounted on a post, mounted to an old wheel – all looked good to me. But in addition, I noticed from the picture that it is in an old car garage of some sort and there is a ’31 Ford in the background. Figured I had to check this out. Marketplace shows the location which was one of the sketchier neighborhoods around Pittsburgh. I got the address from the guy and when I Google street-viewed the place I could tell it had seen better days. There was a bar next door that was equally as divey that had proudly painted on the side of the building “Drinking is our sport”. Looked like a good adventure to me. On a spectacularly beautiful day, I enjoyed the drive there in my little truck, taking the round-about way on streets I’d never been on. When I got there, it was indeed pretty rough, but the guy that owned it was really cool. It was his dad’s place before him, so he’d been working there since he was a kid. Now in his 50’s he’s tired of working on new cars and dealing with the owners and he’s trying to get rid of stuff and get out. Anyway, I hung out with him for a while taking in all the antiquity of the place. Along with the ’31 he had a ’34 Model 40 flathead, 3 old Rambers, a '41 Zephyr hood, and lots of dirt and stuff! Back in the 40’s the place had been a Studebaker dealership. So, he was giving me a hand carrying the grinder to the truck, and when he saw it of course he was diggin’ it. It took a few minutes of chatting about it before a light when off in his head – he said with some excitement “I think I have something for you”. I followed him back inside and he leads me to some things hanging from the rafters. And lo and behold, hanging there in all its filthy glory was a 620 grill. He said, “give me ten bucks for it”. I gave him $20. It was a good day. Now I’m curious about a couple of things: First, is there a way to confirm this is an old Nissan part (which I’d guess it is, not like the Taiwan one I have), and second what year would this have been for? Some tell-tale features are that it looks like it had the chrome rings and that the flat plastic area between the high and low lights has a pebble grain to it. Are the rings available anywhere these days? I can see this as a winter project.

There’s nothing here that hasn’t been done and posted by many others. Read what you want, look at the pretty pictures. If you want more details on how I did anything feel free to ask. So last year I got the truck running well enough to drive it some and it was OK, but really lacking power and throttle response. I always thought it was going to die on me when I stopped at a light. That and new spark plugs 1 & 2 would turn black within 10 minutes while 3 & 4 looked fine. This year’s fixing includes: 1. Emission delete 2. Exhaust system 3. Weber carburetor using original air cleaner 4. Intake manifold 5. Temp gauge Emission delete I read all the arguments for and against the emission delete. For me the most annoying thing was the look of the clutter! And knowing that this is a summer car, I thought I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I’m very happy with the clean, clutter free engine bay. Exhaust system The original exhaust was not rusted through buy badly dented in and the muffler was kind of blown out. I was glad to get that removed. I went with 2” pipe all the way back, using car store piece parts, cutting them to fit a/r, then welded into an assembly. I used a “turbo” type muffler (from Rockauto) out back and a nicer Vibrant resonator in the middle (where the catalytic converter was). Very pleased with the look and sound. I purchased a header a long time ago from Bill’s Datsun and had looked forward to putting it on (the temptation of putting a header on a car is strong, isn’t it?). But after looking closely at the header and reading all of Datzenmike’s convincing arguments against headers, I used the original cast iron one – and am very glad I did. I used KBS paint products and am satisfied with them, just wish I had chosen a gray color instead of the jet black. Also, I had purchased quality header wrap, so figured I had it might as well use it. Gives some color that I wanted. Weber carburetor and original AC The carb was pretty straight forward, just a few mods; I used the Hitachi throttle cable lever instead of that cheap thing that comes with the Weber, but that meant I had to extend the throttle cable bracket out so the cable would pull straight. Also made my own throttle return spring bracket to increase the pull and in the best direction. Along with the Weber, I bought the “good” adapter as recommended in Ratsun posts. I agree it is well made unlike the one that comes with the carb. However, it adds considerable height. Even though the Weber is shorter than the Hitachi, the stack up still seemed too high to copy what difrangia did with the adapter plate, so I went my own [crude] way; I bought the Redline adapter, cut off the top to create a “chimney” that I could work with, then cut out the AC to fit the profile of the chimney and basically used a lot of black rubber caulk (3M Super Silicone Sealant 08622 – good stuff btw) to make it one piece. I made the AC cutout hole such that it was rotated and off center to the carb center in order to try and gain some clearance to things underneath (fuel connection and choke). But this meant the original bracket didn’t fit the same, so I had to do a little bending to that and make an adapter to move the mounting holes out, up, and over. Without the original round clamping mechanism, I wanted something else to hold down the back of the AC, so just went with a spring to a new bracket. The top of the AC is now about ½” to the hood underside at the closest point. As I said it’s pretty crude and was a PITA to get it all to work, but so far so good with everything. How many years will it last? Probably not too many, but I’ll deal with it then. Redline adapter - before cutting Intake manifold I purchased this shiny intake from Ebay years ago, again, figured I had it might as well use it. Seems to be working fine. Would have preferred a nice aluminum Offenhauser. The old gasket looked bad. Maybe this explains the 1 & 2 plug fouling. I used a quality gasket and sprayed both sides with copper spray-a-gasket. I heard mixed reviews on using that stuff but seems to have worked, I’m all up for better sealing. And all plugs are looking the same now – really clean after a fair amount of driving. Temp gauge Turns out the non-working temp gauge was due to a failed sender. Got a new one on Rockauto, works like a champ – runs nice and cool! Summary After all this work it runs really really well. I think just the combination of everything added up to the good performance. It starts and idles well and pretty much jumps at the throttle. I’ve read a few comments in Ratsun regarding performance and that “nobody really floors it anyway”, well I enjoy flooring it when it’s up around 3500 and I can feel the butterflys kick wide open and it actually has some pull. Still, it’s a little old 4-banger, but it’s that enjoyable experience of driving a slow car fast. A couple more things post script: A friend convinced me to paint the AC black. What do you think? The license plate I couldn’t believe it when I found this plate on etsy – correct year Pennsylvania plate and stickers, TRUCK, and 620. I couldn’t have asked for much more. Now if only PA DMV will agree.

Thanks for the replies

I finally got the Nissan wheels and tires put on. It was more of a project than I anticipated. The wheels I bought off craigslist years ago. They were fairly rusty inside and backside so I cleaned those up and painted over the remains of the rust. I tried “Rust Bullet” paint for the first time with mixed results if anyone wants info on that product. On the back inside of the rim it is stamped: J 15x6KK DOT TOPU 216 89 S3.8 NISSAN. Does anyone know for sure what vehicles these would have come on? For the tires it took a bit of looking to find 15” that were cheap. Turns out NTB had some for $62 so I got 205x65 for the rears, 195x65 for the fronts. I don’t need high performance, high speed, high mileage, rain or winter tread – only cheap. So that worked out. I had my local guy mount them and he put the balancing beads inside. My first experience with those, let’s see how that works out. For center caps I found the closest diameter ones I could on Amazon and got creative with adapting. See the pictures – cut them down in height but left little tabs I could bend out. I had some big, hefty Buna-N o-rings that worked perfectly to fill in the gap (1/8”) and hold them tight. [cap cover on front wheel is missing in the pic] The lugs and nuts were a bit of a fiasco. I was kind of going crazy trying to figure out just what I needed. I ordered 12mm x 15thd chrome lug nuts because that is what I measured on the front and all the old lug nuts could be used on any wheel. When it came time to put everything together, I finally understood why I was confused. The rear lugs were 12mmx12.5 which I think are stock. My new chrome nuts did not fit but at least I had some other new clean nuts to use. The fronts are what I had measured the threads on as 12x15, but the new chrome nuts wouldn’t fit those either! However, any of the old nuts would thread on! Turns out the old 12x12.5 nuts had been forced onto the 12x15 lugs and messed them up so the new chrome ones would not thread on. That’s when I got a 12x15 hex thread chaser to fix the lugs. Then the chrome nuts fit fine. I had purchased all new lugs & nuts that I intended to put on until I learned what a PITA it is to swap them. I would still like to put on the new ones eventually as the final result I ended up with seems a little sketchy. Now that it’s all done, I’m not sure how much I really like the look. I’m sad to say I might like the original look better. But that is what I’m used to, hopefully I’ll come around to this – see what kind of reactions I get.

This is exactly what you are not looking for, but thought I'd post anyway. From a Datsun Roadster, splines were the same. Getting that horn button working properly was fun. I think Nissan could have made that more complicated, but they ran out of time and money.

I bought carpet for my 620 from Ardvark motors - made for a 720. I think it was a mistake to get the "mass backing" option ($75), tho I'm not positive what the regular carpet is like. So the carpet had a heavy rubber backing that was formed to fit the tunnel and other floorboard features. Other than just trying to wrestle with the rubber, the main problem was that the tunnel shape was way bigger than the 620 tunnel. I had to add different materials between the tunnel and the carpet to take up the space so it would appear to be a snug fit. And that was on top of the B-quiet matting installed. Overall, it did require a lot of cutting and use of a heat gun to reform the rubber backing to fit/lay flat. Good luck!

Mounting close as I can get to the tank and still be able to plumb it. I chose 16AWG wire, should be plenty. I was planning on running it through a switch under the dash. The one I had laying around isn't really heavy duty but I thought surely that pump would only draw around 1 amp. I guess I could add a relay. Thanks for the input.

Well, I've started the process of pulling out the tank (to clean and check the non-functioning level sender), checking all rubber hoses (I can see the PO did not put things back together correctly), and... going with a new electric fuel pump by the tank. I fabbed a delete cover plate out of 1/4 SS and will also mount a regulator/pressure gauge on those same studs. Is all this necessary? No, but it's fun!

If my fuel gauge worked maybe I would have noticed. Probably not. By the way, I have some parts left over someone might want; some duplicates, some parts that were replaced by better ones, and – probably of most interest – I have an NOS tachometer. I decided to go with the $150 SW tach after reading some posts. The Nissan tach I have looks like new, still with its’ box. I bought it years ago on ebay (when they were more affordable). I didn’t test it. Don't know if it's for the older or newer model years. Other parts include L&R door rubber gaskets, windshield gasket, bucket seats (Nissan but not 620), ash tray, inner seat belts [receiver], misc stuff. See pictures. I guess I'll advertise these in the classified section, but I wanted to give first dibs to those who responded to my post. Tach pics

Ahh! Mystery of horrendous gas consumption is solved! That makes too much sense. Thanks a lot. One less thing on the list to troubleshoot.

3mpg that's correct. When I ran it from the (1 gallon) can, it sucked that down 1 1/2 times around the park, 3 miles. It will suck down that can in 10 minutes just idling. Looking in the window on the front of the carb, the gas level is in the middle of it. I think it is possible to install the new pump if I rotate the camshaft so to be farthest from the arm, and I manually push the arm in/up. But in this condition the arm is already compressed and if I then ran the engine, either the arm or the eccentric would probably be damaged. The old pump installed perfectly without that rigamarole. I'll return that pump to RA (hopefully). In the future, any reasons to not go electric? Yeah, redone 240Z seats - new foam and covers, some black touchup paint. Trying to get the mounting right was a learning experience.

...it's finally out of the garage I’d say the majority of the restoration is done. Of course it's never really done, but Body buffed and waxed: Engine bay cleaned up: Interior restored (obviously not to stock): It runs OK but having some fuel delivery problems. When I hit 3rd gear and 35mph it starts bucking and wants to die. I see a constant stream of air bubbles in the glass fuel filter. If I run it out of a gas can under the hood, I smoothly hit 50mph in 4th gear no problem (albeit slowly). Although it does only get 3mpg and I don’t see any leaking. Seems like it would smoke like a chimney burning that much fuel. Here is the only question I have for the group; During the fuel troubleshooting process, at one point I thought the fuel pump had stopped working (in hindsight I think it was vapor locked because of the hot day). So I ordered a new one from RA, installed it, then discovered this new one truly was not pumping. I removed the valve cover and saw that the pump arm was too short and horizontal – placing it under and beyond the camshaft. The arm was definitely different than the one that was on the motor. See pics Old one installed: New one partially installed: Comparing the two: Finding this hard to believe I contacted the manufacturer (USMotorWorks) to help solve the mystery. They responded after some research but only told me that they have sold these for years without such a problem. Any ideas? Do I have a non-stock camshaft or the eccentric is not installed correctly? I would like to make the new one work as it looks more original (with the screws on top). The one that came with the motor doesn’t look like that, but it works!

I too am curious about the graphics on my truck. However, mine are definitely painted on. It appears to be very well done and, although funky, doesn’t seem funky enough for a one-off custom job. Around the time I saw my truck on ebay, I believe a saw another one with the same paint scheme. So, these two things lead me to think this was a factory option or maybe one dealer in California was doing them. Who knows! I'm just looking forward to someday buffing it all out and shining it up - its all still remarkably intact.

I’m going through this same process so was glad to find this thread. In my case, if I have the bleeder screw removed, I can pump the pedal and squirt fluid. But when I insert the bleeder screw – even just a little – no squirting. It seems as if the master cylinder is working well enough when there is no pressure (open pipes) but the internal cup? is weak and is leaking fluid around it internally if there is back pressure. I went ahead and did the gravity bleed – letting the fluid flow out, then inserted the screw quickly and fully before the reservoir emptied out. But still there is no actuation of the slave cylinder when I pump the pedal and no resistance. I guess the next step is to disassemble the master cylinder, see what’s going on, repair/replace as needed. Unless there are some suggestions to save me from that effort? Are there rebuild kits for the master cylinder or just the whole thing?