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My new 521


mr928

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Well I just dove my new truck home and it was nearly flawless all 400 miles. It is a 1970 and almost all stock. I do need to address the following things that don't work.

Speedo

fuel gauge

water temp

dash lights

 

 

I also need to check out the brakes. I know they are non assisted drum but I hope I can get them to work better.

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Welcome to Ratsun, nice truck, don't see a lot of them looking like this anymore, even has the stock bumpers and hubcaps. :cool: Great score, enjoy your new ride.

 

Thank you. It's been fun so far and I'm looking forward to fixing up the small issues but leaving it as stock as possible.

Years ago my boss bought one new this color in 1969 and sold it to me about 10 years later so this brings back lots of memories.

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Nice truck!

Go to this page, scroll about 2/3 of the way down.

http://www.olddatsuns.com/

In the section for Datsun 521, look for "Datsun 521 Body and Chassis Service Manual"

It is a 30 MB PDF file. Down load it, even if you have to wait 3 hours on a slow dial up internet connection.

 

bookmark the page also.

 

Carefully pull up the floor mats, and clean under them. Make sure it is dry under them. Primer and paint the floor, to prevent further rusting.

 

For the speedometer, the cable just unscrews from both the back of the speedometer. Unscrew the speedometer end, and see if it turns when the rear wheels are turning.

 

More coming....

 

Here is a picture of the back of the combo meter.

Meter.jpg

The sorta square object, with rounded corners is the speedometer. the speedometer cable is attached to the part between the two Phillips head screws.

 

Above that is a rectangular object. It is held on the printed circuit board by a single Phillips screw, and has two connections onto the PC board below it. it is a crude voltage regulator, for the fuel, and water temp gauge. If both gauges go out, it is commonly bad.

 

You can ground the wire going to the water temp sender, in the engine compartment. I believe it is a yellow wire with a white stripe, the sender is under the upper radiator hose, screwed into the lower paer of the thermostat housing. Doing this, should make the water temp go full hot.

 

In a similar way, there is a trap door in the bed, forward and to the left of center. you can pry it up, and see the top of the gas tank. Connecting the two wires on the sender there should make the gas gauge go to full.

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Here is a picture of the pins on the back of the combination meter.

Pinout.jpg

Connect the pin at 10:00 to ground.

Connect the pin at 1:00 to 12 volt battery power.

The dash lights should come on. They are not really very bright. Before going to a lot of work, check them at night.

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Nice truck!

Go to this page, scroll about 2/3 of the way down.

http://www.olddatsuns.com/

In the section for Datsun 521, look for "Datsun 521 Body and Chassis Service Manual"

It is a 30 MB PDF file. Down load it, even if you have to wait 3 hours on a slow dial up internet connection.

 

bookmark the page also.

 

Carefully pull up the floor mats, and clean under them. Make sure it is dry under them. Primer and paint the floor, to prevent further rusting.

 

For the speedometer, the cable just unscrews from both the back of the speedometer. Unscrew the speedometer end, and see if it turns when the rear wheels are turning.

 

More coming....

 

Here is a picture of the back of the combo meter.

Meter.jpg

The sorta square object, with rounded corners is the speedometer. the speedometer cable is attached to the part between the two Phillips head screws.

 

Above that is a rectangular object. It is held on the printed circuit board by a single Phillips screw, and has two connections onto the PC board below it. it is a crude voltage regulator, for the fuel, and water temp gauge. If both gauges go out, it is commonly bad.

 

You can ground the wire going to the water temp sender, in the engine compartment. I believe it is a yellow wire with a white stripe, the sender is under the upper radiator hose, screwed into the lower paer of the thermostat housing. Doing this, should make the water temp go full hot.

 

In a similar way, there is a trap door in the bed, forward and to the left of center. you can pry it up, and see the top of the gas tank. Connecting the two wires on the sender there should make the gas gauge go to full.

 

Terrific information. Thank you so much. I will download that and check it out.

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Carefully pull up the floor mats, and clean under them. Make sure it is dry under them. Primer and paint the floor, to prevent further rusting.

 

Careful is right! That's Yosemite Sam! :o

 

Fantastic looking truck! Obviously DanielC knows what he's talking about - my floor pans had significant rust repairs.

 

One thing I noticed - your doors don't have locks? A 1970 thing or something? Weird.

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Careful is right! That's Yosemite Sam! :o

 

Fantastic looking truck! Obviously DanielC knows what he's talking about - my floor pans had significant rust repairs.

 

One thing I noticed - your doors don't have locks? A 1970 thing or something? Weird.

 

 

1968/69 didn't even have a place for that lock mechanism, 70 had the place but no lock yet, and 71/72 had a functioning system, personally I don't like it, everytime I use the squeegee, I lock the door unintentionally. Everyone that has a 521 has a squeegee, right. :lol:

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Well I just dove my new truck home and it was nearly flawless all 400 miles. It is a 1970 and almost all stock. I do need to address the following things that don't work.

Speedo

fuel gauge

water temp

dash lights

 

 

I also need to check out the brakes. I know they are non assisted drum but I hope I can get them to work better.

 

Nice 521! Welcome! Yup as you were told the fuel and temp likely point to the regulator being bad on the back of the dash pod. As of 2008 I was still able to order one from http://www.nissanparts.cc/ Youhave to look it up by part number, but you will get that when you download the parts # book where you get the manual. I think it was $24.

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If you clean up the connections of the regulator, the gauges will likely start working again, I could put my hand under the dash and press on the regulator and get them to work. After 40 years, the connections get dirty and such other things, and sometimes need cleaning. The dash light are just a pain in my opinion, test every bulb, and clean every connection, but first of all, make sure they have power to start with.

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