Little electrical problem

[datzenmike]

not to hijack the thread but there was mention of a painless harness.... i've got one of these with the intention of putting in my 521 in place of the rat's nest that the PO left me with... has anybody used one? and also, how long does it take to remove all the old wiring and rerun the new wiring, say with a new stock harness?

 

I pulled my 620 harness and put a 720 one in. Putting a 620 one with all the proper bends and length back in would sure be easier to do. Start by disconnecting all the motor end stuff carefully and feed it slowly through the fire wall hole behind the glove box, take your time it will all pass through that small hole. Installation is the reverse. Just take your time. I would think you could pull your old one and put one in in way less than a day, all hooked up too, I would think. Oh yeah... label any wires you aren't sure you can remember. The plugs are mostly different from each other and are at different lengths anyway.

 

Find another 620 with a non hacked harness and swap it. It's not that hard just looks like it.

[Figbuck]

Question along these lines. Anybody know about after market modular plug set? I would like to junk a bunch of the connectors on my 620. They are corroded or the wires got a little hot right behind them and are an open or short waiting to happen. I have looked and looked. I know I'm not looking in the right places.

 

I mean guys build hot rods and race cars from scratch. Where do they source the electrical components? You would think that you could find high quality modular fuse blocks, relays, one, two, four & six wire, male and female plugs that you can solder or crimp. I looked at those painless kits and I'm sorry, it's just a little too cobby for me.

 

Swaping out a 720 harness sounds like a plan, but you still have to modify it some right? I would rather make my own schematic, buy a bunch of quality wire and fab my own.

 

I know it seem intimidating if you don't have any experiance. I have done a lot of trouble shooting and reading the wiring diagram with a magnifying glass. It all make sense. It is a dead simple system. I have wired both residential and commercial buildings with some pretty sophsticated systems or all voltages and amperages. One of the electricians that worked for me, when we were trying to trouble shoot old existing work would say...

 

"either it's hot or it's not".

 

Thats about all you need to know.

 

There is a book that I got at Barnes and Noble about ten years ago called How to Keep Your Nissan Datsun Alive. It has a step by step method for troubleshooting the electrical system and every thing else. I highly recomend it for any Datsun Noobs. If your vehicle is still pretty stock, it is the best book aout there. Once thing have meen modified, it may be a little harder, but it still explains the basic principals.

 

On one of the other sites, there are guys that register, and log on to ask the dumbest questions, because they are dumb, ignorant, helpless too lazy to read or search... some combination or all of the above. They aren't trying to trick out their ride, they are just trying to fix the little gremlins and personality disorders that afflict old crusty Datsuns. I posted that they should go buy this book for $20. One guy actually tried to find it but said it's out of print. I went to Amazon and there are a bunch of copies used for $13 or $15. Mint copies for $25. Man, so worth it for all the info it covers.

 

Most of the Ratsun guys here, have lived with their Datsuns for long enough to know what the weaknesses are in the different systems and are simply remodeling or scrapping them altogether. If you have a stock vehicle, How to Keep Your Datsun Alive will give you a baseline understanding of how the stock systems works so you have. Then you can trash 'em an build better ones.

[datzenmike]

Figbuck, sorry I was only saying that I put a 720 harness in to illustrate the difficulty. Replacing the 620 WITH a 620 would be very easy!!!

 

The 720 harness was part of a larger project to swap a 720 dash/heater/wipers/steering column into my 620.

[OL YELLER]

figbuck......................you said that there are guys that build hot rods and race cars from scratch...etc. OK start by researching Hot Rod magazine, or any of those types of Mags....somewhere in the back of those publications are all of the ads and you can be sure that there are many dealing with electrical....I mean the amount of companies out there producing fuse blocks and relays and plug connectors for wiring systems is enless..you could also probably "google" the same thing.....since you are in the great northwest going to the Pomona Swap Meet wouldn't help you much...but that is where I have seen so many guys making wire systems for all types of vehicles...not Datsun per se, but you get my meaning here...

[tnip]

... so how hard would it be for me to source a complete 521 wiring harness and fuse block that is mostly unmolested and in tact? and how much would it cost? i literally have such a mess under my hood, and living where i do it's not easy to just go to a jy and pull my own.

[Guest DatsuNoob]

Painless makes a universal fuse block wiring kit. Saw it at Baxter's in Tacoma, was right around $150.00 if I'm not mistaken.

[tnip]

Painless makes a universal fuse block wiring kit. Saw it at Baxter's in Tacoma, was right around $150.00 if I'm not mistaken.

 

yea i've got a painless harness... i started myself a thread so as to not hijack yours completely :D

 

did you get your deal worked out?

[Figbuck]

That is what I was saying. I saw the Painless Kit at Baxters and just didn't look like something I would pay that much money for. I spent most of Sunday afternoon searching for electrical components, instead of working on my truck.

 

Never fails that I start to work on stuff and I realize that these Datsuns were cheap peices of junk made from recycled tuna tins. I just want to scrap the inferior systems and fab a new ones. Lot's of work but more than just doing the work, it's the planning or reachearch that eats the time. Planning is cheap, buying stuff and installing it cost money so I want to be sure that in the end it's a combination of what I want, need can afford and have the time to make it happen.

 

I took 'Ol Yellers advice, searched again and found some interesting stuff. I still have to make some calls and start to draw my own schematic, but I think that the searches paid off this time. I wasn't being lazy. I have searched may times before, just not the right key words.

 

Here is some interesting stuff that I found:

 

http://www.constructorscarclub.org.nz/Articles/wiringpart1.html

 

http://www.wire-works.com/wiringaids.php

 

http://kwikwire.com/products.html

 

http://www.haywireinc.com/

 

http://www.hrpworld.com/index.cfm?form_cat_id=133,53,363&action=category

[banzai510(hainz)]

I realize that these Datsuns were cheap peices of junk made from recycled tuna tins??

 

I dont believe that statment!!!!

 

My 510 and 521 have had hardly any electrical proplems. Yet alone if taken care of with dealer parts will last.

 

Connectors may get corroded but I find the Datsun eletrical is just fine if not better than newer vehicles

 

 

Its is proven that Datsun cranks and rods are as strong as Chevy LS1 rods.FORGED!!!!!

 

yes the bodies are cheap and rust just as fast as a K5 Blazer rear wheel arch.

But I have a feeling they are more Datsun 620s still running in the world than Chevy Vegas, Chevettes and later Corsicas!!!!

 

 

PS You have a nice truck

[hang_510]

My 510 ... have had hardly any electrical proplems.

Connectors may get corroded but I find the Datsun eletrical is just fine if not better than newer vehicles.

 

same here.

except for typical corrosion, i only have had issues when some moron "attempted" a qwik fix and failed miserably...

0 gauge wire taped together :eek:

wiring bypassed w/o being reconnected to the proper locations :rolleyes:

[hang_510]

Question along these lines. Anybody know about after market modular plug set?

 

most electronic shops carry multi-connection plug&socket sets.

Molex makes quality stuff.

most of the datsun connections that are low current, these work very well and are as compact as the stock connections.

[Figbuck]

I know the crack about the tuna tins was a sweeping generalization, but I see that you back pedal right away and say, "Hardly any lectrical problems and yes the bodies are cheap”...

 

It was a joke! I know that words kinda lay there in black and white. If I didn't think that the basic design and engineering was solid, I wouldn't be trying to keep it alive. I have been through a bunch of other trucks and motorcycles. I can’t work on my company truck, it’s got to much electronic stuff. You can’t tune it up, you just plug in new parts that the diagnostic program tells you have failed. I look in the Datsun engine bay and know what every single thing is, because it is such a simple vehicle. I have replaced, rebuilt or otherwise messed with every single thing. I look at my maintenance log and know with in five or ten thousand miles when my water pump, or alternator is going to go, because I have changed them a couple times. The best part, no smog checks.

 

"PS. you have a nice truck"

 

It was a nice truck when photo for the avatar was taken in 1974. Eventually it will be a nice truck again. Right now, it is in a thousand pieces in the garage. After 275K fast hard miles, it needs a little freshening up. I pulled the engine at 220K. The machininst I took it to, said that I must have changed the oil religiously because there was little wear. He machined the main bearings to the minimum, like twenty or twenty-five thousanths and we put the same stock pistons back in after he honed the cylindar walls and boiled the block.

 

After I put it back together and a couple thousand miles on it. I raced a guy in a BMW 528 or something, back from Salem one night. It was about three in the morning and this guy was following me in the fast lane with those obnixious Halogens. I pulled over into the slow lane and wound it up. The speedo needle was wrapped around the peg. I think that I was turning close to seven grand and still had some left. He got a little ahead of me and I just let him sweep for troopers. He couldn’t shake me for a long time. He probably couldn’t believe this rusty Ratsun was hangin’ with him.

 

L16s are a tough little power plants.

[tnip]

hahaha that's the kind of thing i like to hear. i know my eng won't be nearly that nice when it's time for a tear down, but if it had been mine it would be. what kind of tranny you got?

[banzai510(hainz)]

I have turned 2 blocks in the machine shop and the cranks were perfect!! No machining what so ever ,but did have to bore them out of one piston was out of round.

 

As for electrical proplems they were corrosion at the plugs or battery grounds proplems. Or just separeated fuse ends(Looks good in the glass)

[Guest DatsuNoob]

got my stuff worked out! traced the wire back to a shitty ground. Now she's sweet azz! Shoulda checked it sooner. Oh well, now I'm gonna check all electrical connections and reattach and solder any that look sketchy. Dont want to be getting pulled over for something that took 5 min to fix.

[banzai510(hainz)]

Now how simple was that???????

 

You was going to buy a Painless Wire Harness!!!!!!!!!

[Bleach]

I think some bodywork would have fixed the problem as well. :D

[Guest DatsuNoob]

I think some bodywork would have fixed the problem as well. :D

Hey now! Go easy! ;) I've seen worse. Hainz! I was just gonna think it over if I couldn't trace the prob. Wasn't really trying to spend that kinda dough or do that much work. I'm pretty cheap. :D

[banzai510(hainz)]

DatsunNoob writes , I'm pretty cheap.

 

Dont tell the women that!!!!!!!!!!!