1969 datsun kingcab project

[Willdatsun]

great truck! What vehicle was the 3.54 from?

[wayno]

great truck! What vehicle was the 3.54 from?

 

I cannot remember what year it was, but it was a nissan 720, didn't check the transmission type either, just seen the plate said 3.5, that's all I needed to know, spun the axle to make sure it was what it was supposed to be, and removed it in less than half an hour.

[wayno]

Here is what the truck looks like now, covered in snow.

[]2eDeYe]

Stay warm down there :D

 

 

 

PS My 3:54 was from an 83 720 with a Z24 and a 5 speed.

[wayno]

I messed around with the highbeams today, I put the amber highbeams in the holes, but didn't connect them to the wiring harness because it blows the fuses when I turn the lights on, as the metal housings of the lights ground out, creating a direct short in the 720 headlight wiring harness, but I don't drive a lot at night locally.

 

 

I also piped the mechanical oil pressure gauge yesterday, what a pain in the ass, as it turns out, the block oil access hole is metric, not british pipe thread, so baxters didn't have what I needed, and I remembered that SD25 block having the fittings for it on there like 3 years ago, so up I went into the attic, it took a while, but I found the fitting I needed in a old folgers can, and it worked great.

 

It has good oil pressure/PSI for a block I found on the side of some guys house laying in the mud with a home made turbo charger on it.

[wayno]

I got tired of not having brights because the bosch fogs were not compatible with the 720 diesel wiring harness I have in the truck, so I went to the craft store and bought a can of that "Krylon stained glass paint"(9024 yellow), they turned out great, and I now have brights again.

 

 

I have not done much with this project lately except to drive it.

[DanielC]

On metal housing headlights, that ground out, if you flip the plug going to the two pins on the headlamp, they should work, because the metal housing is no longer "hot"

[wayno]

On metal housing headlights, that ground out, if you flip the plug going to the two pins on the headlamp, they should work, because the metal housing is no longer "hot"

 

 

I tried everything except insulating the bulb itself with duct tape, I tried every combination with the wires and it made no differance, it just kept blowing fuses, so I gave up and just didn't plug them in, I have had the original bright headlights rattling around behind the seats for a while, so I painted them a couple days ago and installed them today, and they worked correctly the first time I turned on the lights.

I think they look better anyway, as the bosch lights were faded, and these are bright and evenly an amber color.

[DanielC]

From the factory service manual, bulb wattages are 37.5 for the low beams, and the single filament high beams. The high beam filament in the low/high lamp is 50 watts.

Most "high performance" replacement lamps are at least 55 to 60 watts, per bulb.

A 521 with stock headlights has 175 watts total on high beam. Divide that by a nominal 12 volts, and you get 14.5 amps.

Replace all four lamps, with 55 watt lamps, and wattage goes up to 220 watts. Current goes up to 18.3 amps. If you use a 15 amp fuse in the headlight circuit, it blows.

Another problem is 42 year old 521 trucks are legendary for having fuse box problems. The contacts (clips) for the fuses oxidize, and that adds some resistance to the headlight fuse contacts. This resistance creates heat, on the fuse end caps, and the fuse element inside the fuse, that is just soldered to the end cap inside the fuse comes unsoldered.

 

Another problem is the yellow lights. The reason they look yellow is because the yellow dye filters out all other colors of light but yellow. they look cool, a good percentage of the light the filament of the bulb is making never gets out of the headlamp.

 

You will get more light out of a white headlight, with bulb wattages being equal.

Post 33 on this page of my Ratsun journal details how I added an extra relay to the headlight circuit to divert headlight power away from the stock 521 fuse box.

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/30606-my-ratsun-datsun-521/page__st__20

[wayno]

From the factory service manual, bulb wattages are 37.5 for the low beams, and the single filament high beams. The high beam filament in the low/high lamp is 50 watts.

Most "high performance" replacement lamps are at least 55 to 60 watts, per bulb.

A 521 with stock headlights has 175 watts total on high beam. Divide that by a nominal 12 volts, and you get 14.5 amps.

Replace all four lamps, with 55 watt lamps, and wattage goes up to 220 watts. Current goes up to 18.3 amps. If you use a 15 amp fuse in the headlight circuit, it blows.

Another problem is 42 year old 521 trucks are legendary for having fuse box problems. The contacts (clips) for the fuses oxidize, and that adds some resistance to the headlight fuse contacts. This resistance creates heat, on the fuse end caps, and the fuse element inside the fuse, that is just soldered to the end cap inside the fuse comes unsoldered.

 

Another problem is the yellow lights. The reason they look yellow is because the yellow dye filters out all other colors of light but yellow. they look cool, a good percentage of the light the filament of the bulb is making never gets out of the headlamp.

 

You will get more light out of a white headlight, with bulb wattages being equal.

Post 33 on this page of my Ratsun journal details how I added an extra relay to the headlight circuit to divert headlight power away from the stock 521 fuse box.

http://community.rat...21/page__st__20

 

But I am just using stock 521 round bulbs now with amber paint, and I also am using a 1982 datsun 720 diesel wiring harness in my 521KC, that is why I was having issues with the bosch amber fogs, there is no ground after the headlight relays in the 720 harness, so the bosch fogs were screwing up the headlight circuit as the housing is a ground.

I had a lot of issues trying to integrate the the 720 harness into the 521 gauge cluster, I wanted a highbeam indicator light in the dash/gauge cluster, but everytime I connected the bulb to the cluster, the headlight circuit would screw up and headlights would be half on when off, or not work at all, and it all was caused by the highbeam indicator light being grounded out, once I figured this out and ran two wires to that indicator light in a plastic housing so it didn't ground itself, everything worked fine.

Same issues with the dash lights, I finally got tired of trying to make them ajustable and connected them to ign. power, they are on all the time now, when ever the key is on.

 

BTW, round headlight bulbs are wired differant than square headlight bulbs, you can't just plug them into a 720 harness, they won't work properly.

[wayno]

I made this today, it isn't what I envisioned, but it is what I ended up with, I am hoping the box will stay dry now, and people won't steal stuff out of it anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It isn't the prettiest, but it looks better than it did as far as I am concerned.

[mklotz70]

Looks really nice!

So where's the build thread on it? Metal frame? Wood? Covering? Hinges? Latch?

[wayno]

Looks really nice!

So where's the build thread on it? Metal frame? Wood? Covering? Hinges? Latch?

 

It's made out of a piece of thick plywood($40.00) with a 720 KC tonneau cover on it that I got from a guy out in gresham several years ago.

Right now it is just sitting on there with some 1 X 2s holding it centered, I was planning on using some bungee cords to hold it down, but right now it's just sitting on there as it started raining.

I originally planned on cutting the edges at an angle, but when I got home and measured the width, I realized that 4 feet wasn't wide enough, so I thought about it for a while and decided to go for function over looks, it kinda looks like what it is, a piece of plywood sitting on top of the bed rails, basicly no imagination.

[mklotz70]

Well....when the weather is a bit nicer, you could use a router with a round over bit and radius the top edges to give it a bit more finished look. Did you seal the wood at all? ....or is the cover water proof.

[DanielC]

In my working on boats, and wood waterskis, I have come across this stuff,

http://rotdoctor.com/products/cpes.html

That seem like an ideal product to treat wood with, that is going to get exposure to water. After that, I then use a marine grade epoxy,

this stuff,

http://www.tapplastics.com/product/fiberglass/epoxy_resins/tap_marine_grade_epoxy_system/27

to coat the wood. It is your choice to use it with or without fiberglass cloth.

The epoxy can be sanded smooth, final step of 320 to 400 grit paper, and then painted with automotive paints.

[wayno]

Well....when the weather is a bit nicer, you could use a router with a round over bit and radius the top edges to give it a bit more finished look. Did you seal the wood at all? ....or is the cover water proof.

 

 

Cover is water proof, but the water could sneak in from the sides.

I'll look at this one for a while, and when and if it annoys me, i'll make a nicer one, it's really there to keep people from stealing my things, if it's out of sight, maybe they won't steal it.

[Eagle_Adam]

i like the tonneau cover :thumbup:

[wayno]

I have a question for you guys, I have a SD25 nissan diesel engine in this truck, and I am wondering how often I should change the oil/filter, I was going to portland this morning and the engine sounded like it was going to come apart, I looked at the oil pressure, and it was at 50psi like usual, and going down to 25psi when idling, but it sounded terrible, so when I got home today, I  lifted the front and drained the oil, replaced the oil filter, and while I was at it, I replaced main the fuel filter also, the pre filter I left, as it was replaced a couple months ago, it sounds a LOT better now.

Here is the thing, I did have 3300 miles on this oil/filter, and it was 10 months ago when I did it last, and I may have added a couple quarts because of leaks, but 3300 miles doesn't seem like it so many miles that it would rattle apart because of lack of changing the oil/maintenance.

In the past I have put 5000 miles between oil changes(gas engine), but it was getting done every 2 or 3 months, as that was how many miles I was driving back then, and that engine was not using oil, I think I put 100,000 miles on that car in 4 years.

 

Do diesel engines need the oil changed more often?

[yello620]

When i was working at a shop, They recommended the usual 3k miles for gas vehicles and 5k miles for anything with a diesel.

[wayno]

When i was working at a shop, They recommended the usual 3k miles for gas vehicles and 5k miles for anything with a diesel.

 

There's no way I was going to listen to that noise any longer, and it is a lot quieter now with new oil.

Maybe it is something else, when I bought this engine sitting on the side of a guys house, it had a home made turbo setup on it, do the engines with turbos have there injection pumps timed differently, could this be why it has this sound the engine makes, like all the wrist pins are loose.

[Spoona_Jay21]

dude! looks great, i haven't popped into the thread much recently so this is the first time i have seen it finished. looks damn good!

[wayno]

dude! looks great, i haven't popped into the thread much recently so this is the first time i have seen it finished. looks damn good!

 

Thankyou, it's in daily driver status now, for about a year, it's starting to get scratched up now.  :hmm:

[Charlie69]

This truck turned out great.  I think the paint companies should name that paint color "Waynos' Red".  I am guessing your favorite color is green!  LOL

[wayno]

This truck turned out great.  I think the paint companies should name that paint color "Waynos' Red".  I am guessing your favorite color is green!  LOL

 

Yea, people just say take a right on this street, and find all the red datsuns, that would be waynos house. :lol:

[wayno]

I decided to put these on my 1980 datsun 720 project, but the headlight rings were to small, so they ended up on this project.