Help!... I'm ruining my new truck! :/

[banzai510(hainz)]

a 79 should have come with a matchbox distributor .

 

Most car run better at idle with alot of advance. But it should be around 12 degBTDC I think for a L20 using a light.

It will be hard to tell what your tmming is at 2k rpm. i forget but assume it moves when you speed the motor up as most motors go full adv at 3 k or so(I think)

 

 

if truck was running ok before you fucked with it then its whatever you fucks with that broke. meaning if you didnt remove the oil pump or timming chain stuff I bet that is still good and in time.

 

where is the box on the side of the distributor I dont see this/wires? maybe the shawdow I cant see it

 

I rarely change my cap and rotor myself. I clean them with sand paper and ck for water under the cap if hard to start.

[mattykrab]

Ah! You beat me to it hainz! I was fiddling around this morning trying to figure it out. I thought "hmm... It's not that it's idling fast, it's that I'm not even using the idle circuit. So I tried my best to close down the throttle to get that lower circuit working to no avail... And then I was about to make a post asking what the "fuel stop solenoid" did... And then I read your post that mentioned "idle stop solenoid" and I thought "what? Really?".

 

Sure enough it wasn't getting voltage! But I still need to figure out how it works because as a temporary fix I spliced it into the choke heater wire. The previous owner had rigged some really ugly wire to both the solenoid and choke heater, ran it through the firewall and squeezed it into a fuse holder. I undid all that because it looked dumb and decided to try to wire it the right way.

 

So by the drivers side headlight where a big group of color wires split apart, According to the diagram, I attached a blue wire to the choke heater and red to the fuel stop (which I assumed had NOTHING to do with idle... Thanks for the Education on that :)...but maybe this is wrong? Red was getting no voltage

 

sooo....how does the stop solenoid work anyway? What tells it to flip during driving? I assume it's to cut off the idle circuit at higher speeds or something?

 

I'm learning a lot from you guys by the way. Just wanted to say I'm very appreciative of the advice. Thanks! :)

[datzenmike]

The idle cut solenoid is a spring loaded valve that normally closes off fuel flow to the idle circuit. When the ignition is turned to ON and START it is energized and is held open against the spring and fuel can get to the idle circuit. When the engine is shut off the spring snaps the valve shut and helps to stall the motor quickly and prevent hot motor 'run on'.

 

If working you will hear a clicking sound at the back of the carb when the ignition is turned on/off/on/off. (not start) I've also had this and 2,000 seems to be the lower idle limit when the solenoid isn't working.

[mattykrab]

Ah ok... It's anti-dieseling. I thought it had a different purpose. So my temporary fix is fine to just make permanent then.

 

Here's a question though... What might cause a strange grinding noise when the steering wheel is all the way to one side? It's happened a couple times trying to turn hard left. I can feel it in the wheel like it's something binding in the gearbox maybe? I tried adjusting the sector shaft nut to eliminate some play but maybe I did it badly due to my newbness :P

[datzenmike]

Probably the tire is rubbing. Take a look for a shiny spot on the frame on either side.

 

When adjusting the play raise the front wheels and turn the wheel from side to side looking for any tight spots or binding. If it gets tight at the far end of the turn re-adjust it slightly looser and test again.

[datsun brat pack]

what's the ride height in the front ? i had to set the rid height to 24inchs or it rub real bad turning left making a bad grind nose.

[datzenmike]

Look on the front of the lower control arm where the torsion bar would come through.. There's a bolt head there called the lower link spindle center. With a carpenter's level that is resting up against the rear most bolt that attaches the tension rod to the lower control arm, measure down from the lower link spindle center to this horizontal line. Adjust the torsion bars to get a measurement of 4.92" or 125mm.

[banzai510(hainz)]

My 521 had a electric choke.later I got a carb with a idle cutoff selinoid. I just jumpered(dasey chained a wire) from the choke wire to the selinoid.

 

so what I did is the stock Datsun plug is female. I made a male end then double wired to a female blade connector. plugged that in to the male end of the choke and the otherwire routed to the idle cut off selinoid. So no stock wires are cut.

yes on 620 the idle cout off is on driver side harness I bleieve. Datzen mike would know more on this and colors

 

as for turning noise.

Could be steering link hitting exhaust

tires rubbing

In my 521 I had a bigger alternator and and belt was streched out to almost max and when turning the alternator was hitting the idler arm. I believe most trucks ran a 35 amp. People will put the bigger 5060 ampers and they are more rounds and take up more space and the idler arm bracket on the side frame gets in the way.

 

Hey what do I know. Im not a mechanic.I was a Avionics guy on F15s

[mattykrab]

Haha... Thanks for the tips! It's coming together quite nicely now. Runs great, valves could probably be tightened up but I'll get to it eventually. I'm a little scared of doing it for the first time honestly.

 

I need to fix my exhaust leak next..Someone is craigslisting an l-series exhaust header here. The guy told me it would fit l20b but didn't say what it was from exactly. Are they all relatively compatible? He's asking 150 but I'm trying to negotiate 10. :P

[datzenmike]

Truck ones will clear the torsion bars. Car ones most likely won't..

[Buzzbomb]

Haha... Thanks for the tips! It's coming together quite nicely now. Runs great, valves could probably be tightened up but I'll get to it eventually. I'm a little scared of doing it for the first time honestly.

 

I need to fix my exhaust leak next..Someone is craigslisting an l-series exhaust header here. The guy told me it would fit l20b but didn't say what it was from exactly. Are they all relatively compatible? He's asking 150 but I'm trying to negotiate 10. :P

 

Valve adjustment on these engines is EASY...I was also nervous about doing it after installing a head gasket last year, but it was probably one of the easiest parts of the entire job. Some will say to use slim wrenches, and I'm sure they work great. However, I bought a set of crow foot wrenches from Harbor Freight so I could bust the hold down nuts loose with a 18" breaker bar and tighten them with a torque wrench, and it worked awesome. You do have to use a open end wrench to move the adjusting nut, but the crowfoot wrenches make the hold down nut a breeze to get tight. You can also get a decent set of feelers at HF too.

[mattykrab]

Ah, good ol harbor freight... The chrome is already starting to peel off of my 2 month old set of open ended wrenches. Lol. Still work I suppose...

[datsun brat pack]

Make sure the header came off of a truck i got one and my truck was to low for the collector and would drag on the ground. In less u like sparks Lol.

[]2eDeYe]

Valve adjustment on these engines is EASY...

 

x2

 

This should help. :D

 

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/16539-l-series-valve-adjustment/

[Buzzbomb]

2eDeYe' date='16 June 2010 - 08:56 AM' timestamp='1276700167' post='315188']

x2

 

This should help. :D

 

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/16539-l-series-valve-adjustment/

 

Man, that's great! Wish that was around a year ago :P .. I looked for the article I used, I think it was also by mklotz, but couldn't find it, but now I see it in teh same link. This is even better though..

 

If your Harbor Freight tools are falling apart..Take 'em back. They have a lifetime warranty :confused: ..I also tried to find a nice set of crowfoot wrenches, but the cheapest I found were Craftsman, which were almost $50 for the set. My other car is a domestic, and I haven't used the crowfoot since I last adjusted my valves, so why spend $50...This IS Ratsun, right ;)

[mklotz70]

I'll add this in case someone else has a prob getting the idle down and it's not the idle cut off solenoid. Something to watch out for is that the secondary butterfly in the carb is not closing completely. If any air at all gets past it, it will cause the idle to go high. If the primary is open too much, it will also cause a vacuum signal to the dizzy, which will advance the timing causing a high idle. When setting the base timing, you want disconnect the vac advance hose. It's best to have the idle set so that there is no vac signal coming out of the carb. I don't think hitachis are quite as sensitive to this, but weber are really sensitive to butterfly position.

 

This forum keeps getting harder and harder to find stuff on. In the last upgrade a week ago? my list of topics I've started is missing a lot!! It's rather annoying to have to go hunt down a thread I started. I really need to start moving my how-to's over to a real web page that won't keep changing. Anyway... :)