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waynos 1963 L320 project


wayno

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Hi there guys & gals, I have a 63 datsun L320 truck I picked up a year or two ago, and it has been in the wood shed since, I warm it up every couple weeks or so, until it ran out of gas a month or so ago, so it has been waiting in there for me do something about it, well I did today.

Now the float has sunk, it moves just fine as I thought it was stuck to the bottom when it flooded the engine, so I tapped on the needle and seat area lightly with a hammer(old timers trick to loosen a stuck float) and i watched it bounce up and down, so it is not stuck. How do I fix this? Can I buy this float anymore? Here are a few photos of the carb and bowl area with the fuel level correct, but the float is sitting on the bottom. What should I do? wayno

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"* Repair the float with a bit of solder "

 

Wayno,

Remove the four screws holding the sight glass on.

Carefully remove the clamp. There might be a gasket under it, to pad the glass.

Before removing the glass, there is a small bushing, that holds the float in place. It is very easy to lose. Trust me.

Carefully remove the glass. There might be a square cut rubber ring under the glass.

Remove the "easy to lose bushing"

 

The float will slide out, off its pin.

The float may have some gas in it. You need to get it out. If you can find the hole, hold the float so the hole is at the lowest point.

 

THE NEXT FEW STEPS YOU ARE PLAYING WITH GASOLINE, AND GASOLINE VAPORS. NO OPEN FLAME! NO WORKING IN THE BASEMENT OR GARAGE WHERE THERE IS A PILOT LIGHT ON A FURNACE OR HOT WATER HEATER!

 

I suggest you do these few steps outside, even though it is around freezing outside.

 

Get an electric soldering iron, and heat the bottom of the float. This makes the gasoline inside the float boil, and pushes it out of the hole. Keep doing this until the float is empty.

 

Once the float is empty, find the hole, clean it, and resolder the hole.

Check for air leaks in the float by holding it under water and very gently squeezing it, looking for air bubbles.

 

Once the float is resealed, put everything back together. You will probably have to reset the float level.

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"* Repair the float with a bit of solder "

 

Wayno,

Remove the four screws holding the sight glass on.

Carefully remove the clamp. There might be a gasket under it, to pad the glass.

Before removing the glass, there is a small bushing, that holds the float in place. It is very easy to lose. Trust me.

Carefully remove the glass. There might be a square cut rubber ring under the glass.

Remove the "easy to lose bushing"

 

The float will slide out, off its pin.

The float may have some gas in it. You need to get it out. If you can find the hole, hold the float so the hole is at the lowest point.

 

THE NEXT FEW STEPS YOU ARE PLAYING WITH GASOLINE, AND GASOLINE VAPORS. NO OPEN FLAME! NO WORKING IN THE BASEMENT OR GARAGE WHERE THERE IS A PILOT LIGHT ON A FURNACE OR HOT WATER HEATER!

 

I suggest you do these few steps outside, even though it is around freezing outside.

 

Get an electric soldering iron, and heat the bottom of the float. This makes the gasoline inside the float boil, and pushes it out of the hole. Keep doing this until the float is empty.

 

Once the float is empty, find the hole, clean it, and resolder the hole.

Check for air leaks in the float by holding it under water and very gently squeezing it, looking for air bubbles.

 

Once the float is resealed, put everything back together. You will probably have to reset the float level.

 

 

I will try to get it apart without losing anything, right now it is in the datsun cave, it is really dark in there.

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as a last option, not even a mile from my house, there is a carburetor shop that rebuilds/sells carbs. i was going to send mine there which is a weber for my j15 but Charlie69 said he wanted to rebuild it for me.... but one day i walked in to see about the shop and there was carburetors galore.... the point to the story was they had a brand new rebuilt nikki sitting right on the shelf and it has been some time since my visit but the price was respectable..... just throwing it out there.

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as a last option, not even a mile from my house, there is a carburetor shop that rebuilds/sells carbs. i was going to send mine there which is a weber for my j15 but Charlie69 said he wanted to rebuild it for me.... but one day i walked in to see about the shop and there was carburetors galore.... the point to the story was they had a brand new rebuilt nikki sitting right on the shelf and it has been some time since my visit but the price was respectable..... just throwing it out there.

 

Hey Burrito, I am going to try to fix it myself, I actually am planning on putting an A14 or A15/5 spd. in this truck after I do my thing to the cab. I still don't know if I am going to narrow a 720 frame and put the 320 cab on it, or do all the modifacations to the stock frame, either way is probably going to be the same amount of work, but narrowing a 720 will be a first for me, a new challenge and would likely work out better in the end. But I still have a lot of measuring to do before that decision is made, for the moment I like/need these vehicles to move under there own power.

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I did get the gas out of it, but I had to use a propane torch, and it melted some of the solder, but that let the gas out faster. I tried to resolder the thing, we'll see how long this lasts this time, it was running fine when I moved the truck out from where it was to remove the front LCAs.

I'll tell you guys one thing right now, it takes a lot to make me give up, but I spent hours trying to remove the lower bolt in the front control arms of this datsun 320 truck, I ended up resorting to this,

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and it didn't work, I was wailing on that plate because it was hard to hit the rebar centered, but I could really swing with this setup, and it didn't move, I was flairing the end of the bolt while the nut was on it. I gave up, as it will take a machine to get them out, and if I cut them out, it will take a machine to press the new bushings in if I can find them, and I would also have to find a torsion bar bolt with the teeth to replace the ones I cut, it just isn't worth it.

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I have those bolts Wayno. I have a scrap metal guy coming today to pick up my steel. In that pile is the front clip I cut off the truck I sold to Eric, If you want them, let me know...FAST!!!

 

If you can get them out without a big/giant effort without ruining them I will buy them from you. Keep in mind that I found out today that the ones on the 521 will work also, just have to drill the one front hole in the LCA bigger. We(Mike K. and I) all thought that the LCAs were the same from the 320 threw the 620 drum setups, but there are differances, but in the end, I can use the Z'd 521 LCA, spindle/steering knuckle on my 320 for the front drop with no issues, there's a set on my NL320 now. It would be nice to have the stock part though, but if they don't come out easy, then forget it, it's not worth the effort. If they come out, pm me with the total, and I will paypal/send check, how ever you want to be paid. wayno

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I have been learning a bunch about datsuns lately, especially the 320s, while in california I found a good door seal for the 320 truck, it is not NOS, but it seems to do the job, I thought I took a photo of it, guess not. You need 25' for two doors, part #1120A223 from McMaster-carr. (562)692-5911 lasales@mcmaster.com I have enough for two more trucks other than mine, I want $50.00 for 2 doors(set) if your local, I might do my NL320 doors over the next couple days and take some photos. I did one NL320 door with window channel felt today, I tried 510 channel felt, as I thought it would fit in the channel, and it does fit in the channel fine, but the gap that the window sits/rides/fits in is to big, it does not make a seal, therefore I do not recommend 510 channel felt on the NL or L320s, I then tried the roadster channel felt, and it works fine, I did the drivers door and it is great, the only draw back is the fact that I only had enough to do one door because the roadster doors are much smaller, and there is only enough to do one NL/L320 door, even though that is enough to do two roadster doors. There is a company that sells channel felt called "LK Technology, inc", part#10K96(2), not sure what the 2 is anymore, they are in Cleveland Ohio, (888)663-9830, www.technologylk.com, this is what Terry is using in his 65 L320 for channel felt, this channel felt takes a significant amount of work to install, the roadster(311 series) window channel felt sold by "rallye enterprizes" will also work, part#802-24, you need to double check this number with them, http://www.datsunroa...erstripping.htm ,not sure which is more expensive anymore, and I am not sure how much you get from rallye, this is the channel felt that came with "ol' 320s" 65 L320, which was not installed yet when I was there, at least it looked like roadster felt to me. The gas filler neck gasket that Terry used is from "Steele Rubber Products" part#70-2203-39, as I look at my notes, I see that I have one part #, but two differant parts, this company also sells the rubber front hood bumps, that might be the number for them. I bought my 510 door window channel felt from a vendor at canby for my 521.

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I edited the last post of mine, I was saying that 510 channel felt might work for the NL320/L320 trucks/pickups, I tried it today and came to the conclusion that it will not work, it fits in the channel just fine, but the gap the window rides/sits/fits in is to big, and doesn't touch both sides of the window at the same time, so the window can move back and forth in the channel. The roadster felt works great, and I called Terry about his channel felt, and he said his windows are tight, so that channel felt in the previous post is good(LK technology). wayno

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Wayno, in ur above post about the channel felt from technologylk...part # 10k96 u stated that u were unsure what the (2) stood for anymore, I ordered some from their company... I haven't yet tried to install the felts, but it appears it will work just fine. I came to the conclusion what the (2) stands for. The felt comes in 96 inch lengths when u order it....96 inches is not enough to do two 320 door window tracks....so I would assume that the (2) means u need (2) lengths of 96 inches to have enough to do both doors... hope I didn't confuse anyone with my explanation, this is only my assumption..

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Wayno, in ur above post about the channel felt from technologylk...part # 10k96 u stated that u were unsure what the (2) stood for anymore, I ordered some from their company... I haven't yet tried to install the felts, but it appears it will work just fine. I came to the conclusion what the (2) stands for. The felt comes in 96 inch lengths when u order it....96 inches is not enough to do two 320 door window tracks....so I would assume that the (2) means u need (2) lengths of 96 inches to have enough to do both doors... hope I didn't confuse anyone with my explanation, this is only my assumption..

 

 

It takes over 6 feet to do an NL320 door, let us know how well the window fits in the channel, Terry said the window fit tight without side play, that was the issue with the 510 channel felt, there was side play, like the window wasn't thick enough, I talked with Terry on the phone about how tight his was after I tried the 510 felt and seen how loose it was, he insisted that his was tight, but that was not something I thought to look at while I was there, you know how it is, I didn't know to look till I did my own, now I know what to look for.

The roadster felt works great, but it is like $50.00 a door, spendy to say the least.

I do not use glue to hold my felt in, it seems to stay where it's supposed to by itself.

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So I tried to install the product from lk technology, the part number 10K96 is more of a steel reinforced rubber coated "U" shape with fuzzys on the inside, unless I ordered the wrong item I can't see it working very easily or at all. I thought it looked like it would work pretty well, but it has no flex to it at all and is extremely tight and will not slide past the threaded blocks to bolt the frame to the door, im considering drilling out the spot welds to detach the little block and see if I can slide it into the track that way....I see no way of getting any into the top track at all, but it does seem to hold the glass pretty well, I just can't see how to get it into the track anyway.... wayno u said roadster felt works great? Do u know of a supplier for it?

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So I tried to install the product from lk technology, the part number 10K96 is more of a steel reinforced rubber coated "U" shape with fuzzys on the inside, unless I ordered the wrong item I can't see it working very easily or at all. I thought it looked like it would work pretty well, but it has no flex to it at all and is extremely tight and will not slide past the threaded blocks to bolt the frame to the door, im considering drilling out the spot welds to detach the little block and see if I can slide it into the track that way....I see no way of getting any into the top track at all, but it does seem to hold the glass pretty well, I just can't see how to get it into the track anyway.... wayno u said roadster felt works great? Do u know of a supplier for it?

 

 

Terry was able to install it in his L320 truck, so you need to convince it a little, can't the side be squeezed over a little, so the bottom can go threw at an angle? I have never tried to slide my felt in from the end, but all the stuff I have been using is not metal re-enforced.

Yes there is a place to get the roadster felt, this is the link to it, http://www.datsunroadster.com/, go to "new parts index", then go to "weather stripping", the part number is 802-24, each full order for a roadster will only do one of are 320 doors, they give you 8 feet per order, and it takes a little over 6 to do a door. Terry got his installed, try a little harder, and don't drill anything out, you shouldn't have to.

I will email Terry, and see if there was a trick.

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