Li'l Yellow Bastid

[Icoblue]

Alright, so some of you have already seen a couple of my posts elsewhere on the site, but I have plans to turn this little yellow bastard into something special.

 

 

 

The background: I picked this truck up for $550 in a condition good enough that it drove from Walla Walla to Tri-Cities, WA with no help. It was real ugly at the time, but it's getting better, slowly but surely. I'll post some pics later. When I got it, it pulled pretty bad to the left. I pulled the brakes apart and found out that someone had put the shoes on wrong. Fixed. It still pulls to the left, but not bad. The steering is very loose, I probably need to replace the entire steering box, but that's alright because I have a spare for most of the parts on the truck, thanks to a '79 parts truck I picked up for $50 out of the woods in Chehalis, WA.

 

Here's the engine bay as it was when I got it.

 

 

Not pretty, but everything worked except the brakes. They'd stop you, but it took about 200 feet at 60 MPH. Those were the first things to get treated. I replaced the master cylinder with a reman that I picked up on Craigslist ($4), one wheel cylinder ($2), the front drums and shoes. I had to replace the wheel cylinder "Y" connection on the left rear in order to bleed it (someone had broken the bleeder screw off at the threads and pounded a wooden dowel into it to stop the ensuing leak), and tested and painted the vacuum booster. I'll post some pics later of the finished product. It looks nice now, and stops like a champ. Discs are still in the plans for the future, but for now it does all right.

 

The door has also been replaced and primed (the one good piece of sheet metal on the parts truck), mostly to cut down on the noise at freeway speed. I'll post pics of that, later.

 

I picked up the deal of the decade on Craigslist on Wednesday. I paid $400 for a Weber 32/36 and a Turner header, and it came with this free BMW!

 

 

 

Actually, I bought the car with a scrap affadavit (trans is missing, everything else is there), mostly for the wheels that were on it, and the guy's license didn't allow him to sell parts, so he threw them in with the car. The wheels are going on my black E46 that's in the background of the first pic, and I'm thinking about trying to put the dash in the 620. The BMW seats are definitely going in there as soon as I can get ahold of a welder to make some brackets for the seat rails.

 

So here are my current problems with the truck:

 

1. Getting no power and only 20 MPG with the L16 motor and L20 carb that are in it.

2. High idle (2200 RPM)

3. Can't get the Weber on it without an adapter plate.

 

I tried messing with the timing and the carb today to get a little of the power that this thing should have. I borrowed my neighbor's timing light and dwell/tach and his expertise using it. This is both my first carbureted vehicle and the first i've owned that had a points dizzy. So I pulled the cap and found out that someone has converted this thing to a single point instead of the stock dual points. Bonus there, I have read that the Datto duals sucked. Next I checked the vacuum advance by hooking up a vacuum tester. Smooth through full travel 5 times, and held 12" of 20" vaccum applied over 10 minutes. Definitely good enough. I hooked up the timing light and tried to find the mark on the crank pulley. Lo and behold! There are actually two exactly identical notches in the crank pulley , within an inch of one another. Eventually I'll have to find out which one is actually TDC, but for now, I fired up the light and used the one that was closest to the 12* this thing was supposed to be at. Turns out, it was at about 20* BTDC, with no adjustment left. We were scratching our heads until we found the coarse adjustment and saw that it had slipped and was all the way to one side. we centered it and adjusted to 12*, which brought the revs down a bit, but not enough. Also checked the dwell angle, and found 44*, which is close enough to the 46* it's supposed to be at that I don't feel like adjusting it at the moment.

 

Started messing with the carb. Immediate observations:

 

1. The choke plate looks like it's not opening fully. Loosened the screws on the choke cover and adjusted best we could, but it still doesn't go more than about 15*-20* from vertical.

2. Sprayed carb cleaner all around the intake manifold seal and the carb to manifold seal, no change in revs. I don't think it's a leak.

3. After having read a couple of DatzunMike's posts, checked the vacuum secondary, and pushed down on the rod there. If it moved at all, it made no difference in revs. Looking from the top, it doesn't look open at all.

4. This carb just sucks.

 

After messing with it for about a half hour, I got the revs to back down to almost exactly 800, which required turning the idle adjusting screw all the way in (soft-seated). Interesting, but my rudimentary understanding of carbs tells me that it shouldn't run at all like this. Anyway, being at 800, i took this chance to check my timing again, which is now at about 10* BTDC. Adjusting it now would only cause my idle to rise again, so I left it alone and gave it a few punches and slow climbs on the throttle to see how the response was. The response was decent, but when I let off the throttle, it wouldn't return to 800 RPM. Checked it, and now idling about 1900 RPM, still with the idle adjusting screw soft-seated (clockwise).

 

I'm at a loss, so I gave up for the day, pending advice from all you great Datsuners here. Let me know what you think, and hopefully someone knows what I might be missing entirely. Also, if anyone has an adapter plate for that Weber, I'd like to get it on my truck.

[Icoblue]

I guess nobody had any input today? If anyone knows what I might be doing wrong with this carb, I'd definitely appreciate the help. Spent most of the day pulling parts off of that BMW. Cut and test fit the front piece of the headliner in the 620 today, as soon as I get it fit in there, I'll post a couple pics. Eventually I'll mold it in with a new headliner, but for now I'm going to basically pin it in. It's going to add a new center pad on the roof that has a new dome and 2 map lights, as well as a sunroof switch, which I'm sure I'll find some use for. I also contains and hides the wiring for the automatic lighted mirrors on the back of the BMW sun visors which are going into the 620.

 

Then later on I got bored and added this to the tailgate.

 

 

It's actually painted on in metallic green, but it's impossible to tell in the dark. Turned out pretty good, shame it's going to go away when I repaint the truck. I'm sure it'll find its way back on there somewhere.

[izzo]

Stock carbs are shit :\

 

I think i have a weber adapter sitting in my tool box. yours for 10 bucks, shipped! (if its still there) Should take 1-2 days tops to get there since im just over in seaside.

[Z-train]

Webers & Hitachi's...diffrent but both are excellent units.The header you bought....useless.Sorry.Fix problems then up-grade.

[Icoblue]

What's wrong with the header? I haven't tried matching it up yet, but it came off an L20 truck. I don't see why it wouldn't work. I do realize that it's not going to do much for engine performance, but it was free, what do you want?

 

Izzo, I'll take that adapter, I need to get this Weber on my truck. Something is definitely wrong with that Hitachi. IM me with PayPal email and I'll kick it over. Plus then I can get rid of that shitty stock air cleaner housing.

[Icoblue]

Ok, so flatcat has been bugging me to update my project, and he's right. Where to begin?

 

Well, I finally found a Weber adapter from an awesome ratsun member, and when I pulled the stock Hitachi off, I figured out why I had an idle issue. Someone had taken what looks like a steel drift to the bottom of the primary butterfly. I can only assume that it was seized up and the were trying ti get it to open?! Either way, they bent the hell out of it, so even with the throttle "closed", it wouldn't make it down to idle. Anyway, the Weber is on there now and drinks like a fish. 16 MPG and I can smell gas on the freeway. This is with the idle mixture screw almost all the way in. Maybe it's way over jetted? Maybe I need a fuel pressure regulator?

 

The headliner still hasn't gone in, and I've been busy working on getting my parts truck down to the frame so I can get the disc brakes and the ball joints. All new suspension and steering components on the way, most of then here. I also pulled the head on my parts truck L18 and found that my A87 head is a peanut! New rings, bearings, valve seals and gaskets on the way, too.

 

New bed sitting out back that someone made into a trailer. Only a couple small dings and no rust to speak of.

 

Since I'm falling asleep writing this, I'm going to leave it at that. I'll try to post pics tomorrow.

[Skib]

What's wrong with the header? I haven't tried matching it up yet, but it came off an L20 truck. I don't see why it wouldn't work. I do realize that it's not going to do much for engine performance, but it was free, what do you want?

 

 

nothing, the stock manis flow good so its not always much of an upgrade.

 

 

long as its a quality header your not down grading tho.

 

 

 

 

 

I have a nice tube header on my tuck and i like it.

[Icoblue]

Ok, so obviously I don't update this thread like I should. Since the last post I've tightened the front driver wheel bearing twice, the second time I torqued the hell out of it and pinched that securing ring tighter than a nun's ass. Seems to be holding together now. I also replaced all of the steering components with all new parts, it feels a lot tighter now. I've repaired some of that damage to the cab behind the driver door. Primer is slowly taking over. Awesome replacement fenders came from a fellow Ratsuner and they're getting cleaned and primered. I sanded and cleaned up most of the new tailgate, which has the Datsun on it. I've got new tailgate handles, some decent floor pans I need to cut out of my new parts truck. All in all, parts are there, just need the time and space to put her together.

 

I'll try to post pics as I get to things.

[Z chopper]

well get some pics posted

[yello620]

Since the last post I've tightened the front driver wheel bearing twice, the second time I torqued the hell out of it and pinched that securing ring tighter than a nun's ass. Seems to be holding together now.

 

WOW.

Probably time to learn how to do this properly, since that method sure as hell isnt even close to right.

[Icoblue]

I'm open to suggestions

[yello620]

FSM, Haynes manual, chilton manual??

 

Not interested in spoon feeding. Overtight wheel bearings area a problem and that securing ring was not designed to be crimped at all.

 

Time for some research.

[Icoblue]

I'm familiar with tightening bearings, and there isn't a Haynes manual on earth that's going to tell someone how to do it. Without new parts, you make do with what you have. And pinching the retaining ring brought the worn pieces in to where they originally were, allowing them to function as designed.

 

I'd say that over 1000 miles without bearing failure means that the bearing preload wasn't exceeded, and since it hasn't fallen apart, I'm going to assume it'll be ok. Thanks for the smartass remarks, though. Let me rephrase my earlier comment and say that I'm open to HELPFUL suggestions.