BACARDI_DWB Posted January 1, 2008 Report Share Posted January 1, 2008 1970.5 Datsun 521 L20B This is going to be a multi purpose truck. first of all I am going to need this to be reliable. It came with a 4.62 LSD rear end, drums on all corners, bench seat and a bad wiring job. I put my 32/36 carb on it and it runs pretty good except there was a bad headgasket. So far i have installed new plugs, wires, oil, ignition tumbler, fixed the doors so they lock. take out the evap can, replace some old fuel lines.... My main order of buisness is to make this truck safe to drive. (no fires in the engine bay or anything like that. My main purpose of this truck will be to be my alternate daily driver, take my quad out to the desert, and to have fun with. It has a L20 in it right now but i am already craving more but brakes are first in line before any power modifications go in. I have already ordered a new wiring harness from Summit, and I also have the Front brake brackets coming from fineline. well i will add more as i get more done. today i am getting a thermostat put in since it does not have one installed, it has a volvo cooling system (radiator and overflow bottle) measuring the Land rover electric fans to see if those are going to fit hehe. now for the pics Quote Link to comment
fisch Posted January 1, 2008 Report Share Posted January 1, 2008 Niiice one! And I don't see those wheels everyday either, cool. Volvo Radiator? Never heard of this swap. Have any more info on it? Does it look like it needed much fab work? Would love a shot of your engine bay. Quote Link to comment
BACARDI_DWB Posted January 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2008 I will get a shot of it here soon. right now i am pissed off cause i am over heating. so that volvo radiator is not doing so good right now. its prob cause it doesn't have a thermostat in it. I will get some pics and such. the radiator from the volvo fits fine. so will the intercooler (hehe) some small fabrication work is needed. right now its held be angle iron at the bottom and a temporary strap up top. the pipes i believe are the same but i am not sure. it was done before i purchased the truck. i will call and verify the setup. and those rims were offered from discount tire direct a while ago. you won't see them very often. i kinda like them. but the tires are the WIDEST you can go haha. i have 1/2" between the leafs and the tire. Quote Link to comment
Cruzn620 Posted January 1, 2008 Report Share Posted January 1, 2008 ask and ye shall recieve? i make mention of a project thread and look at the delivery! NICE! seriously, you have a beautiful truck and you seem to have already made pretty good headway on it. im jealous! when you get that wiring kit, post up about it, i might just save myself the trouble too and just re-wire the truck rather than mess with my rats nest under the dash Quote Link to comment
DatDoug Posted January 1, 2008 Report Share Posted January 1, 2008 I like it! Looks good and I love those wheels! Quote Link to comment
BACARDI_DWB Posted January 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2008 well i have some issues but its not that big of a deal. i blew another head gasket today so that most likely means the head is warped. i have another head sitting here that i will throw on tomorrow. that should hold it for a while until i can get the KA24 motor sourced. i have not looked too far into the front suspension but how hard is it to lower torsion bars on these trucks? what all is entailed? any good almost free mods? Thanks guys for all the replies. and i will have an entire wiring post when i do it. I need to get my SRT-4 up and running before i can take down the 521, i need to have one of my vehicles running so i can get to work. haha Quote Link to comment
LeDevil Posted January 2, 2008 Report Share Posted January 2, 2008 That's a pretty clean truck liking the rims now you should slam it :D Quote Link to comment
Icehouse Posted January 2, 2008 Report Share Posted January 2, 2008 Get Hainz's vid, we lower a 521 in it, super easy. the paint looks nice, why prime it? The wiring is on the ruff side, I noticed the house wiring connectors..... Never a good thing :D Quote Link to comment
BACARDI_DWB Posted January 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2008 well from about 20 feet away the paint looks good but if you are close you can see the top layers are coming off, plus the truck is 3 different colors : Silver, black, baby blue. the original color is baby blue. I am going to be tackleing the paint one body part at a time. i am going to start with the hood then moving my way back. the bed i am going to do different thou. i don't like how the sides of the bed are single layered. If you have something in your bed rolling around and it hits the side you can not only dent the inside of the bed. you dent the outside of your truck. So we are going to build bracing and then put a peice of sheet metal (or diamond plate) for each of the sides and then spray ryno liner in the bed. now where can i find this Video that you are talking about?? Quote Link to comment
fisch Posted January 2, 2008 Report Share Posted January 2, 2008 now where can i find this Video that you are talking about?? Write Hainz about it. It was the first thing I got when I picked up my 521 and it is simply awesome. Like 10 houres of Hainz and Ice working on 521's and 510's. Lots of L-motor stuff. And goofing off too! I knew nothing about dattos before that video. Quote Link to comment
Icehouse Posted January 3, 2008 Report Share Posted January 3, 2008 haha nothing better than home video's :D Quote Link to comment
BACARDI_DWB Posted January 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2008 I got some new pics!!! Now I am going to start this hopefully in feb. i want to have my new battery mounted under the bed with a cut out switch and a terminal relocators before i start. after that is done then i will start on the wiring kit. Quote Link to comment
Cruzn620 Posted January 4, 2008 Report Share Posted January 4, 2008 looks like a really nice kit and you can't beat that sweet free hat!! Quote Link to comment
BACARDI_DWB Posted January 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2008 oh yeah AND i got a new cam out of the J/Y for 5$, its a 260 duration cam. runs pretty good now. Quote Link to comment
Pacific coast Datsun Posted January 4, 2008 Report Share Posted January 4, 2008 Curious...how much was the wiring kit shiping included? Quote Link to comment
BACARDI_DWB Posted January 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2008 240 to my front door in 2 days (i even put ground shipping) Quote Link to comment
BACARDI_DWB Posted January 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 Well the small little hits keep on coming. my fuel pump died today. thankfully i have another laying around. Quote Link to comment
BACARDI_DWB Posted January 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 well this past weekend i got some stuff accomplished. pictures will come up soon. i don't know where i put my camera. well first thing i did is make some new door panels. they look pretty decent. now i just need to wrap them in vinal and put them back up. I also made some kick panels but they were a little too tall, so i have to cut them down a bit before i install those. next thing i did was lower the rear of the truck down 3 inches. it looks and feels a whole bunch better!! now i was going to do the front also but i ended up running out of time and we also found out that my transmission mount lost 3 out of 4 bolts, so that took some time putting in new bolts and holding it up there. so we put some new bolts in and its a solid mount so i actually noticed alot more vibration while driving. oh well and the last thing i did, i took the top dash piece out and put in a halfway redone one. it looks 120% better looking than it did. also while i was in there i covered up some bare wiring (just a bandaide for what i need to accomplish). i also came up with a sticker idea for the truck that i will post later when i get the pictures hosted up. so slowly things are coming along. my biggest thing that is holding me back is getting the front windshield rubber redone, cause when it rains (not that it does alot of that here) it leaks into the truck pretty bad. and i don't want to replace the carpet, wiring or anything until that little problem is fixed. also saterday i got my fineline front brake brakets in the mail. i need to paint them tomarrow for sure. but things are coming along slowly but surely. oh yeah. i am stealing Pac. Datsun's passenger side door to get rid of mine since it has a dent in it. i think that will be my first panel that gets paint haha. yeah i am going to do it section by section for painting. my girl is going to hate me..... she hates vehicles that are never all one color. Quote Link to comment
BACARDI_DWB Posted January 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 oh yeah, one more thing. i found out that my rear passenger axle seal is leaking. how hard are those to fix? weekend job? or is it more involved? Thanks Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted January 16, 2008 Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 If you can do a cam change for a motor I think you can handle a axle seal. Pressure wash that back side of the drum first to get rid of all the dirt!!!!!! Clean is the ticket here. Pull all the drum brakes off, well I did. If you dont you dont. mostly get the 4 nut in back and disconnect the parking brake the the dust shield and pull it out. Pull the axle ou Pry the Seal out and install a new one nice and flat. maybe a flat pc of wood/soft mallet add some grease then install the axle back in w/o damageing the seal to much.THIS IS THE OUTER SEAL ON THE DIFF HOUSING order the outer seal. The inner you have to pull the bearing off(dont do it) Just change the outer Get the seal tha has 2 lips. as I seen some NAPA one that were 1 lip. inatall the 4 nuts and parking brake line and brakes Quote Link to comment
BACARDI_DWB Posted January 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 hainz that sounds really simple, i may as well do both sides then. so napa carries the right seals? any special part number or anything? should i do anything else (upgrades/replacements) while i am in there. i am pretty sure its a good time to replace the diff gear oil. anything else i should do while i am there? Quote Link to comment
yello620 Posted January 17, 2008 Report Share Posted January 17, 2008 1970.5 Datsun 521L20B This is going to be a multi purpose truck. first of all I am going to need this to be reliable. It came with a 4.62 LSD rear end, drums on all corners, bench seat and a bad wiring job. I put my 32/36 carb on it and it runs pretty good except there was a bad headgasket. hainz that sounds really simple, i may as well do both sides then. so napa carries the right seals? any special part number or anything? QUOTE] While you are in there, I think that you should get us some details on this 4.62 LSD rearend that you mention. As for the seals, Pulling the brakes stuff is only necessary to access the parking brake cable, Get the cable out and youre good to go, disconnect the brake fluid line from the wheel cylinder and plug the line so it isnt dripping. There are two rear axle seals per side of the truck. You need the inner ones. The inners contain the gear oil into the center area. Then there is wheel bearing grease and another seal(outer). Make sure that you re-grease your outer wheel bearing. I use an needle attachment(napa) on my grease gun and squirt grease down inside the rollers of the bearing. The inner seal that you are changing will be in the axlehousing. Make sure to use a large socket or pipe to install the new seal. I the socket is too small it WILL damage the new seal and you will be doing this all over again. The fluid is easy to change, and a good time to do it. Jason Quote Link to comment
BACARDI_DWB Posted January 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2008 well i think i was wrong. it should be a 4.68 lsd rear end. at first i didn't believe it was an LSD till we set up a burnout box at a friends house. it surprized us all when it lit both of them up.... and its not a welded diff either, when it was in the air getting the 3 inch drop we made sure of it haha. Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted January 17, 2008 Report Share Posted January 17, 2008 Yelo620 is correct, I forgot which seal is which but get the seal the goes on the axle housing. The other is on the axle and most like you will not replace that one as the bearing needs to come off. I used a seal from the local parts store.It had 2 lips on there(Taiwan or Korean made. The Napa brand did not , it was just one lip(Made in USA) So I used the a Korean/taiwan one I forgot if i disconnected the hydralic brake cylinder or is there a way to leave it hooked up and separte it. but youll figure it out. But if you do make sure to use a brake wrench on those hard lines not to round them out. I notice 521 alot is 11mm on those as a 510 is 10mm Quote Link to comment
yello620 Posted January 18, 2008 Report Share Posted January 18, 2008 No way to get around breaking into the brake fluid system, the line has to come apart to get the axle out. Might as well get yourself a quart of brake fluid at the parts stroe when you get the seals and gear oil. Pretty sure that 4.68 was not a factory gear option. 4.62 or 4.88 i think were options. Still not very convinced about the LSD option. I you have the power and a wet burnout box it will usually spin both tires. But when you jack it up and rotate one tire by hand, what does the other tire do? Jason Quote Link to comment
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