suspension / steering how to check for wear?

[shoom]

Hi all

well I don't have my 520 wagon back to my place so I can work on it yet, but I just thought I would ask some questions so I have some work prepared for it when it gets here (and there will be alot!)

Obviously being an unregoed car that has sat for a long time it will need some work to the suspension. I'm just wondering how to check the different areas for wear? Being a kingpin setup makes it more complex and lots more parts to wear out and cost $ to replace, and I don't want to replace things like bushes and rod ends if I don't have to. I'm just wondering if there's a quick way to check the different parts for wear while I'm under the car? I've seen some mechanics put vice grips or a long bar against tie rods / pitman arms and try and move them to check for wear so I guess I can do that. but are there any other areas I should check? things like kingpin rebuild kits for these are getting expensive! and I don't want to spend too much if I can help it, as later on down the track I will be splashing out on the adjustable custom top and bottom control arms from the members on here - so I don't want too many parts that are going to be eventually redundant. I hope I haven't answered too much of my own question! anyway, I appreciate any suggestions people can give me!

[ggzilla]

Suspension rarely goes bad from sitting. Just lube the suspension at all the Zerk fittings (kingpins, steering linkage, and tailshaft)

 

As far as inspection, you can use the vice-grip method, but just as well is to lay on the ground with driver's door open. Wiggle the steering wheel while you eyeball the steering linkage. If you see any up/down movement it is worn out. Should see *only* side-to-side movement.

 

Can we see pics of said V520? We've never seen one in person.

[flatcat19]

Lift the car on to jack stands.

Call friend to come drink your beer.

 

Step 1: Lay under car while your buzzed friend shakes a wheel from left to right in small motions.

Repeat with the other side. Take note of idler arm, pitman arm, tie rods and ends, and drag link.

If it is loose, or buckles, you will see/feel it.

 

Step 2: Put your jack under the lower control arm. Now take a big stick/big prybar and hand it to your now drunk friend.

You want to have the suspension loaded to isolate the king pins(also works for ball joints).

Have your buddy, who just downed your last Corona, pry the wheel upwards while you look/feel for any deflection.

 

Make a pot of coffee, have your friend crash on your couch, while you cruise RockAuto/eBay for your needed parts.

 

Remind your friend when he awakes that he owes you a half rack tomorrow.

[ggzilla]

much better instructions ... a case of VB will get all kinds of work done!

[flatcat19]

^

Yes.

Yes it will.

[shoom]

A case of VB will get you a trip back to the bottle shop to buy something decent in my case! like newcastle brown, little creatures, james squires or maybe corona! ;)

 

thanks for the replies people,

 

: flatcat : do you mean in step 2, with the jack under the control arm to jack it up until the wheels clears the ground? are you sure that won't bend or damage the control arm? just making sure cause I don't wanna cost myself more money besides what I blow doing it up anyway :)

 

here's a photo I found on a japanese site that I can't remember. It's not my car by the way, I wish! I really didn't know how rare these things were, no wonder I'm having so much trouble finding even a taillight lens. It seems also they stopped producing these in 1967 whereas the Ute (or pickup as they're known to a septic tank :) was carried over into 1968 when production stopped and the 521 came out AFAIK. luckily pretty much everything else expect the back tailgate is the same as the p.. ute ;) I really wouldn't wanna bend this thing, given the rarity!

 

[ggzilla]

aw that is so nice i'm tempted to sell my 1200 ute and search for one of those. Yello, wood panel, whitewalls. It's perfect.

[shoom]

I'm not a huge fan of the falcon squire 'woody' look , but the rest is pretty cool I agree. I just hope people don't say it's a datsun hearse because of the big rear windows! oh well it will be painted matt black in it's first incarnation because it's cheap and also because it's good at hiding all the little imperfections. As I said before I am not aware that they were officially released in the US , but I could be wrong and there also could be exceptions that slip thru the net like the guy who has the datsun 1000 over there that may have been bought in as a grey import. Also it seems that if something was released in one commonwealth country, most of the time it was released in most of the other ones too - so I'd say a safe bet would be that there should be some still kicking around in Canada. There was also a panel van version which is the same, just with panels where the glass would normally go (I'm still not sure if it has the fold down rear seats like the wagon but I'll find out soon) . But I've pretty much got a 1 car limit at the moment so having the ability to carry extra people around makes this car that much more handier for me than a ute.

 

*edit* ah and I forgot to say that the advantage of these is that they have the same full chassis as the ute, so while looking like pretty much a 2 door 411 wagon, they have the advantage of the chassis (at least in Oz anyway) allowing you to legally fit up to a LS6 smallblock engine because they are considered a commercial vehicle ;)

[dennis]

the woody look is bad ass on that wagon.

 

put it up on jacks and rock the steering wheel from right to left, left to right. If you feel any play get under there and start shaking shit with your hands. My 510 is a 72 and none of the suspension parts have been replaced. Still tight as hell, but I only have like 67k on the chassis.

[shoom]

flatcat19 : sorry I was reading your post ass about, so the car is already jacked up, now things make sense. When in step 2 you say 'put the jack under the lower control arm' do you mean wind the jack up so that it takes the weight of the control arm while the rest of the car is still supported on stands? and when you say pry it up and down do you mean so that the weight of the wheel goes between supported by the jack to supported by the pry bar? or do you mean just to see if there's any play in the suspension/kingpins - I think you mean this one :) anyway, cheers for info and appreciation everyone- of all the car project I've ever undertaken this one has me the most hyped up! can't wait to cruise in it when it's got the KA24 turbo, actually can;t wait to cruise it when it's bog stock ;)

[flatcat19]

On jack stands; use jack to lift LCA-not all the weight, just enough to "simulate" the suspension being loaded.

 

And Dennis...and OP...

shaking the wheel can help locate loose pieces-but you'd be putting any steering gear slop in the mix as well.

If the steering gear is loose, it won't ransfer all the way to the steering components.

Have your nearly passed-out friend shake the steering wheel to only test for steering gear looseness.

 

OP...good luck on your diagnosis.

There are a couple cheap sets of king pins on eBay right now. Jump all over those!

[shoom]

for all being a good class and sitting down quietly and not blowing spitballs or dipping the girl in front's ponytails in the inkwells.. here's another one in yellow, thats right YELLOW! Wiiiith Moondishes. I'm tempted!

 

 

and those are the rare taillights I'm talking about , those are obviously japanese models and different from the australian ones (our similiar but have a clear reverse light section at the bottom) and the Thai ones I've seen are different again!

Yes there are some bargains still to be had on ebay, most people are asking fair prices. But I have heard of some people buying stuff that is suposedly NOS and then receiving a slightly weathered / damaged product/ paying more than retail. Alot of the parts are still available from Nissan, and in most cases cheaper than what the average ebay price is ;) anyway I have found a website called carpartsmanual.com which has all the datsun oem parts numbers on it with exploded diagrams for each assembly on the car. I'll be heading down to Nissan spare parts counter tomorrow / Friday and seeing just what is still available. I think I might be able to even ignore my beef with paypal taking $50 in fees and then ebay taking another $43 to sell a $600 guitar, just won't be selling anything with them anymore that's worth over $150 or involves paypal!

[TENDRIL]

wow i love that 520 goon gimmie gimmie!!!

[ggzilla]

You are right, no V520 were sold in USA, nor am I aware of any existing here now (though there is a V320 here). The one Datsun 1000 is not a grey import, they were officially sold in Canada, and that one was brought over the border about four years ago (as a used car/personal import).

 

can't wait to see your 520 even if it's not painted yet. This is Ratsun after all...

[flatcat19]

Yeah.

Where's your car?

 

For all this info, we need some pics.

 

Oics or ban.

[shoom]

and what does OP stand for?? something nice I hope! :P~

 

pictures will come soon enough... just picture the other wagon i posted, but light beige instead of yellow, and a whole lot more rust and dings ;)

[ggzilla]

Original Poster - the person who started this topic. hey that's you!

[flatcat19]

:rofl:

[flatcat19]

WAIT!!!

 

No one noticed where the steering wheels were in those cars?

[shoom]

lol mater.. well at least he's not voiced by Owen Wilson , though he is a bit DodGE ;)

 

by the way I just realised I have a spare datsun 1000 D emblem that goes in the middle of the grille. I will trade it for the chrome D badge that goes on the front middle of the 520 bonnet. The utes had these so they're not that rare I don't think.

[shoom]

WAIT!!!

 

No one noticed where the steering wheels were in those cars?

 

yea... kooky isn't it? I suspect that the yellow one might be owned by the people behind mooneyes in Japan, and these pics are all just different variations of the same car.. I wonder if they got it from the same place they got the 49 (not up on my american iron years sorry) ford wagon maybe?

[ggzilla]

What's wrong with the steering wheels? Other than they are on the wrong side. In Japan, they sold LHD Datsuns (for use in Okinawa). Mooneyes being a Kustom company probably likes LHD as a styling feature.

[flatcat19]

lol mater.. well at least he's not voiced by Owen Wilson , though he is a bit DodGE ;)

 

You be careful what you say about Mater.

 

:rofl:

[shoom]

ggzilla : do you mean that the datsuns were sold in Okinawa for the US serviceman to drive over there? to the best of my knowledge the US handed back full sovereignty to the japanese in *edit* 72 - though they do still maintain active bases in Japan to this day. is this what you were getting at or is the LHD thing a regional preference?

 

hey and it's your teenth tow this month , so this one's onnn the house!!

 

[ggzilla]

Okinawa was LHD, but they switched in 1978. I imagine they only sell RHD since then.