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$250 for all this Datsun metal!


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Just purchased yesterday 7/16/11 for $250!! Then I drove it home!

 

 

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Interior isn't all bad, but part of the dash that holds the non-working stereo, heater controls, ashtray etc., is broken, but it's not something that I can't fix...

Yes that is my lovely

Fiancee standing beside our 1981 Toyo TE72 "Liftback" that we got for the princely sum of FREE!

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The passenger door has some really bad rust that runs the length of the door.... I find that to be a bizarre place for rust to be personally....

 

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The paint is SHOT, but I was planning on getting rid of the old crappy poop anyways... though it's not as bad as my old '81 310GX... that was Metallic Root Beer Brown...

 

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Overall, not a bad looking little car, it just needs a S*^& load of work..

 

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There's all sorts of noises from all over the place, I think the tires are most of the problem.. the rear end doesn't sound happy, the shifter is sloppy, the trunk lid was slack-jawed back into place, the trunk gasket is a frankenstein myriad of the original gasket, household foam sealant and some sort of adhesive, and the rear lights need to be disassembled, cleaned, repaired, new gaskets installed and re-wired because some moron tried to re-wire them.

It has the original A14 (Someone please tell me I've got the 990 head!), and a 5 Speed Manual. I am hoping that this combo nets me some amazing mileage figures after the mods I am planning to do.

Down here is my first car, a 1981 N10 (310) GX model. Originally came with an A15 and 5 speed but both of those died before my dad bought it, so they were replaced with an A14 and 4 speed. This was a freaking awesome car, and I still kick myself for selling it. It was parked for a long time before I acquired it, so I had the engine "rebuilt" and after that, I fixed it up and drove the hell out of it. I would easily pull down 35 mpg while driving like a moron.. I owned this car for 4 years before I sold it. This picture is what it looked like before I painted the interior.

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Cheers gentlemen!

Any help or tips that anyone can give me for the 210 would greatly be appreciated. I am normally a MoPar guy, I have a 1965 Dart GT that I drag race, a 1969 Valiant Sedan (For Sale), and my Fiancee also has a 1972 Valiant Sedan, all with the venerable 'ol Slant Six in them. I guess you could say that we love vehicles with bullet-proof engines in them... Slant Six, 1.8L Hemi (Toyota), and the A14 in the 210 we just got.

~RDE~

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Thanks Anthony!

 

Today I decided to do some tweaking on the 210. I did have a little bit of trouble seeing as how I didn't have my 3/8" drive ratchet.... dry.gif

 

I took the spark plugs out and checked the gap, plugged off some of the vacuum leaks I had, set the ignition timing 12 deg BTDC, and idle mix. Now it idles pretty smooth at 900 RPM, with 20.5" of vacuum. pretty darn good for a car with 204k which has sat since 2006. hyper.gif

 

The shift linkage is all screwy, and I think that will be tomorrow's project. Any tips?

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Going to be tearing into the shifter today, I am hoping I can make it better.... judging by the angle its coming up at, I think someone has put it in backwards... this would not be the first time I've had a car with the shifter in backwards...

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  • 2 weeks later...

So it turns out the bushing that goes into the shifter handle and wraps around the cross bolt was missing, so I took a piece of hard rounded plastic and made a bushing, it shifts much nicer now.

 

Since I aquired this car, its run rough. I cleaned and gapped the plugs, lashed the valves, and adjusted the timing. Then I removed some un-needed equipment from under the hood. All this helped immensely, but it was still running very rough.

 

Sunday, I decided to do a tune-up, so I put in new plugs, cap, rotor, filters etc, and raemove some more garbage from under the hood. Still running rough! So I put my hand on the Carb, low and behold it was not tight against the base. The base of the Carb was tight, but the body to the base was loose. So, off comes the Carb!

 

I noticed that there was what appeared to be a phenolic spacer of some kind, right on top of the heat shield. I removed the heat shield, and after tightening the Carb bolts and removing some more un-needed junk from the carb, I noticed that in this phenolic spacer was a small aluminum tube on the primary hole. The pipe was about an inch long, and looks to be factory. What is the purpose of this tube? I assume its to direct the majority of incoming air/fuel at the heated base of the manifold, but I'm not 100% on that. I took it out, but I am wondering if I should put it back in.

 

After all of this, I bolted everything back together, hit the switch, and was rewarded with a very smooth running little A14. Full tune-up cost $60, including filters and oil. For having almost 208k on the clock, it runs great. I was also impressed to see compression numbers as follows:

 

1- 123 psi

2- 117 psi

3- 118 psi

4- 123 psi

 

Can't complain about that. It does not smoke, or leak anything. Now I need to adjust the choke, I think that's what is causing my slight misfire on first start. My dads 720 napz does the same thing, almost sounds like its got a cam in it when first started.

 

Other than that, I still am looking for parts. I NEED the driver side rear tail light assembly, and the front passenger corner light lens. I would really like to get those replaced! Other than that, its going through the brakes, and body work.

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If taking out tube makes it run better ..well maybe you answered your own question.

Alot of people rip off emissions stuff to clean the compartment up only to end up making it run worse..laugh.gif

And good buy for a running car..you did better than scrap price even..thumbup.gif

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I'm not sure that the tube makes it run better or worse, since I changed so many other things too. I might put it back in after I fill my tank and check mileage to see if it makes any difference.

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  • 5 weeks later...

So far, drving like an old lady I can muster about 33mpg freeway, 30 in town. Driving like I stole dat shit I get 33mpg freeway, 28 in town.

 

Last Friday, the headgasket blow'd on number 4....

 

No big deal right? Managed to snap a headbolt, but Luckily its above deck. Gonna soak it some more with pb blaster and smack it some. Also had to remove the locating dowel from the bolt as it didn't stay in the head.

 

I bought the machine clamps so I can cut my front strut housings and lower the spring base. Gonna go about 4 inches in front for now. Oics soon!

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Yes, but that time will come when I get home.

 

As the 210 stands, she's back on the road! Got the busted headbolt out, cleaned everything, new gasket with spray-tak on it, and slapped her together.

 

Also painted the valve cover, and headlight surrounds flat black. Looks much more ratsun! Will be painting the grille and tail panel black soon too. Gotta get all the painting done before the "more rainy season" read: the rainier season out of the two seasons we have in Oregon.

 

This carburetor needs to be cleaned badly... as much as I like wondering if the car will die when I push in the clutch, its a bit aggravating...

 

Oic's to follow.

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Man, I wish I had seen this sooner. There was a TSB back in the day for the A-series head gasket. Cars built in this era were having issues with premature HG failures. The fix was simply to torque the 2 rear head bolts an additional 5 lbs. Probably not as mush of an issue these days due to improved gasket designs but I thought I'd throw it out there. One of my first cars was an '80 210. I drove the holy piss outta that thing and the only part that ever failed during the 20,000 miles I put on it was the fuel pump...in my driveway. One of the few cars I can say never made me walk :D . Looks like a good start. Enjoy it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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