powderfinger

There were no 85 models with a throttle body. To my knowledge that only existed in the 86 year model and only in the ST trim package.

Yep. I was just throwing this size out there if he insisted on a taller tire. If so, this is as tall as I would go. When I wear these out I will likely drop down to the 235/70R15

For drivability, yes. If you want to go a little larger for looks like I did you can run a 235/75/r15. Looks better without robbing too much power, but will still likely be noticeable. I wouldn't know because I have never driven my truck with the 215/75s. This is an older pic of my truck with the 235/15s on it before I got it road worthy.

I have had good luck with the Duplicolor Interior Spray for vinyl. Never tried to find the tan that matches though. I have only used the black but it has held up well. I think it holds up really will to something like your arm sitting on an armrest. But it will still scratch off some if hit with the side of a shoe a lot. My console around my shifter used to be blue and I painted in black. It looks great but there are shoe marks on it now that show a little blue. The key to using this stuff (and all of these are VERY important). 1. Clean, clean, clean. All contaminants need to be removed from surface. 2. Scuff surface 3. Light coats, this is extremely important. If you try to do this with two coats I guarantee it will not work well.

The biggest issue I see with installing a lift is, if you plan to actually drive the truck on the road with the stock engine then the lift is a waste of time. You only put a lift on so you can fit larger tires. Any tire tall enough to require a lift will cause the truck to be so underpowered it will be miserable to drive.

Used coolant recovery and washer reservoirs will be difficult to find in decent shape. The old plastic gets real brittle. I think you may be able to get the coolant tank new on eBay sometimes. Or retrofit universal tanks.

you can remove everything below the dash like the blower and evaporator box without removing the dash although the clips on the back of the evap box can be a real pain in the ass to get to

wow the body of that truck appears to be in great shape Since the truck has been sitting for a while I would, at a minimum, take the fan blower out and the AC box out and clean them. No telling what has gotten in there while it has been sitting. Then you can put new air seals on all the joints during reassembly.

Yep, seems like the drivers side bulbs are in the wrong position somehow. Not sure the wiring harness has enough play to allow for that though.

There used to be a guy on the GarageJournal message board that could make stickers like this. I had him make me the factory stickers for an old bench grinder I restored years ago. I don't remember the process. He may be able to use a picture and you send him the exact dimensions, not sure.

When deleting the balance shafts you remove them, install a sleeve blocking the oil passage to the upper right shaft, install a small "dummy" shaft to fit in the location of the left balance shaft, then use a smaller chain routed like below.

It actually had two balance shafts. One is ran off a chain that turns the same direction as the crank (drivers side). The oil pump is connected to that same chain and the oil pump has an internal gear that turns the second passenger side balance shaft (opposite direction) I found the pic below that shows the setup. Ignore the comments in blue it was just on the pic I found. I circled the two balance shafts in red. The gear that is missing teeth in this photo is the same gear that was missing a tooth or two on my engine. A common problem with these engines is the upper right balance shaft bearing fails, puts extra stress on the small chain turning it, and since that chain is connected to the oil pump when it breaks bad things happen.

It is a twist in and doesn't fit very snug at all. Shouldn't be hard to fix. The car definitely has a "buzz" around 3000RPMs especially when suddenly off the throttle and decelerating. I am guessing this is a combo of new exhaust and mostly the deletion of the balance shafts, although I don't remember noticing it on the short 10 mile drive I did before putting the exhaust on the car.

Time for an update. I wish I was one who could remember to take pictures of progress along the way but it's just something I always forget to do. I have been working on the Fire Arrow off and on over the past couple of months. Just a quick catch-up for anyone interested, I test drove the car. In the middle of the test drive it completely lost oil pressure and started ticking. I ended up buying the car along with another one and half cars and all the spare parts the guy owned. I dropped the oil pan to take a look at the timing chain and the oil pump drive chain hoping to get lucky and I did! This engine has a smaller chain in front of the timing chain that drives the oil pump and balance shafts. If you look closely in the pic below you can see that chain is broken and hanging down. Now it was just a matter of fixing that and hoping the engine wasn't damaged from being driven ~0.5 miles with no oil pressure. The chain breaking also broke a tooth off of the gear that drives it but luckily I had a spare. I went ahead and deleted the balance shafts while I was in there since the drivers side balance shaft bearing is a point of failure on these engines. Glad I did this because that bearing was definitely not long for this world. Got all that back together, fired it up, and to my amazement the engine sounded healthy and was holding really good oil pressure. After swapping out rear diffs due to the one in it whining really bad (I'll try to remember to take some pics of that). The gear wear is very visible, looks like someone assembled it with improper gear mesh. The ring gear is wearing on the outer 1/8" of the gear. Here is a pic of the car after it's maiden voyage of around 15 miles. I just drove the car 25 miles to work and so far so good. So far only issues are some rattling I need to find which is typical of a 70s Japanese car and I can't keep oil from escaping from around the filler cap on the valve cover and getting all over the valve cover and side of the engine.

I'll try the Hainz method. Luckily I have a few spare alternators so it's pretty easy to just swap it out. Just haven't done it yet, been working on my Arrow.

I need to dig into something similar to this on my 720. My battery light is always on but very dim and the brightness pulses with the turn signals. It also gets brighter when in reverse. Basically with any additional electrical load. Actually that's not true. I don't think the wipers affect it, but the wiper are unusually slow. It's dim enough that you can't hardly tell its on in daylight. Alternator is charging fine, I have been figuring maybe it is a ground somewhere that isn't the best but haven't really dug into it other than checking the main grounds. Been like that since I got the truck on the road.

Is this a question?

I have several of these just laying around. Maybe I should see if I can piece together a set and sell them. I will never use them.

Good luck, I had a shop replace the windshield on a 720 I used to own and the windshield never leaked until they put the new windshield and gasket on lol.

I'll second Mike here. From my experience the Delco synthetic, which is what I have in my transmission, provides smoother shifts that the Sta-Lube. I saw a noticeable difference when I switched fluids.

Yes, those seats will directly swap. If you want them to be more comfortable, take them back out and put those seats on the factory Nissan seat bases from your old seats and reinstall. I didn't like those seats until I did that. The back of the seat sits too high. Swapping to factory bases fixes the seating angle and helps with headroom.

I had a squeak coming from my instrument cluster that I thought was the speedo cable. Ended up being where the speedo cable plugged into the cluster. I took a spare cluster I had and used all the best pieces from both while making sure I used the actual speedometer from the spare and the swapping the speedometer fixed it. My original plan was to add a little lube to the speedo but I didn't really see anywhere I thought I could lube that would fix the problem once I had it apart.

No way to know what it is worth without pics but I wouldn't sell because the head gasket is blown. That is not a super difficult repair on these old trucks, plenty of people on here will help you through the process. Just don't start without getting a detailed step by step on it because there is one step in particular that you don't want to skip which is wedging the timing chain. I am sure if you run a google search you will find old threads on this site documenting the process. Biggest question will be is the head warped which can be measured with a machinist's straight edge and feeler gauges. If it's not warped then the repair won't cost that much. How much are you willing to put into the repair? If the head happens to be warped or cracked it will cost several hundreds to repair. If the truck wasn't overheated the head is likely fine since these trucks are known for blowing head gaskets. Do you have your own tools? You won't need anything special except for the timing chain wedge and a straight edge although I am sure many people put them back together without checking for flatness. Can't say I can recommend that though. Anytime you are dealing with disassembling anything on these old trucks you also run the risk of breaking bolts/studs. If you do this yourself be very careful removing all bolts and nuts. If something feels like it is stripping or getting harder to remove, spray with penetrating oil and thread it back in and take your time removing. Usually they can eventually be freed without stripping, usually :-)

Your picture is what my 4x4 has always been at for some reason. I just keep driving it.

The temperature guage in my 4x4 has never read over 1/4 I don't think. The same engine and same thermostat in my old 2x4 truck read in the normal range. I just keep driving it :-). I figure if it ever goes higher than it is then it's starting to overheat lol. I guess it is possible the guage isn't capable of going any higher for whatever reason but seems unlikely, I think :-).