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My Rusty L320 Build


delariva

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Here's link to Ratsun page with photobucket fix for Google Chrome:

 

https://tinyurl.com/y8lmra4r

 

Page 9 on my 'Mighty Mouse' thread has the disc brakes and shock mount pics and a drawing for fabbing the shock mount out of 1 1/2" square tubing with 1/8" wall thickness.

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Wayno, If I remember correctly, your 320 that belonged to Mike K. has a proportioning valve.

 

Do any of your other pickups that have front discs have a proportioning valve and if not, do back wheels ever lock up on braking?

 

I haven't added a valve and occasionally lock the rears especially on gravel or loose pavement.

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Wayno, If I remember correctly, your 320 that belonged to Mike K. has a proportioning valve.

 

Do any of your other pickups that have front discs have a proportioning valve and if not, do back wheels ever lock up on braking?

 

I haven't added a valve and occasionally lock the rears especially on gravel or loose pavement.

I hardly drive them anymore since the medical issue I had, they are basically buried and take effort to get them out of where they are, the L320 is not finished so it sits in the garage.

The only one I have even had on the freeway is the NL320 I bought from Mike, and I have never had a reason to hit the brakes hard.

The other two do no have proportioning valves, and neither do any of my other trucks either, the issue I always have had is the front brakes locking up, not the back brakes, so that is not really an issue.

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Thanks, Wayno, I believe that Mike told me that he put a proportioning valve under the floor on driver's side with the adjusting knob under the seat when he had it.

 

But I coulda dreamed that ??

 

You were talking about different wheels with the disc brakes. I got a pair of the spacers from Mike that allow you to use the original 320 wheels. Still had to grind the rivets for clearance.

 

Wouldn't take for those discs. Much more peace-of-mind when you put that right foot down.

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I used 320 wheels on my L320 without spacers and they do not touch the calipers, but I did have to grind the tops of the rivets off also, I don't have spacers on any truck of mine and I use 520/521 wheels on some of them if I don't have a 620 any disc brake rims, all I do is knock the 8 high spots down with a hammer, 2 hits max, one if I aim good.

 

I have never used a spacer on anything with disc brakes, and I had 1990 Nissan V6 hardbody dual piston calipers on my 521 work truck until recently and I was using 521 rims, yes they hit if you don't knock the high spots down.

 

The 1964 NL320 I bought from Mike has a proportioning valve under the seat, I have never touched it.

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You can shrink the spot with a hot spot weld, then quickly quench it with compressed air or a wet rag.

 

That glove box looks really good.

 

Thank you. I'll give the spot weld a try, its not a very big area so that's a great idea. I

had a question for you. You know quite a bit about welding/fab. I was looking at Steve's shock mounts on his build thread. I only have a 135A mig welder. Do you think that will get good enough penetration to weld those shock mounts on? 

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Here's link to Ratsun page with photobucket fix for Google Chrome:

 

https://tinyurl.com/y8lmra4r

 

Page 9 on my 'Mighty Mouse' thread has the disc brakes and shock mount pics and a drawing for fabbing the shock mount out of 1 1/2" square tubing with 1/8" wall thickness.

I googled it when I got home, before seeing this post from you. I found a plug in for chrome that seems to be working. I was able to look trough your build thread again at least. I forgot how much I enjoy reading through your build. You did an awesome job. 

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Thank you. I'll give the spot weld a try, its not a very big area so that's a great idea. I

had a question for you. You know quite a bit about welding/fab. I was looking at Steve's shock mounts on his build thread. I only have a 135A mig welder. Do you think that will get good enough penetration to weld those shock mounts on? 

Yes. I used a 110 volt MIG welder fro years before I got my 220 welder.

 

The basic rule of thumb is that the bead should be the same thickness of the material, so if you're welding two 1/4" pieces together, you should have a 1/4" wide bead that runs deep into the metal.

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Thanks for posting those Wayno. The booster fits in there better than i expected.I'm sure it wasn't easy to make the pedestal, but it looks good. 

Why not try losing the booster pedestal altogether and mount it right to the firewall, then make an extension for the clutch master instead?

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The first 2 photos in my last post with photos are of the pedestal I made for my 521 work truck(right pedestal in photo below), it looked like the one on the left till I squeezed it far enough to be able to use the stock mount bolts and then I made the mount flange, the pedestal on the left is the type I used on my 520(second set of photos in my last post with photos), I had to knock the stock brake master mount studs out and drill new holes for that pedestal(not as easily reversed), I am very happy with the 521 pedestal.

DSCN7027.jpg

That is a 1973/74 Datsun 620 brake booster with the 1979 Datsun 620 brake master on the right pedestal.

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Yes. I used a 110 volt MIG welder fro years before I got my 220 welder.

 

The basic rule of thumb is that the bead should be the same thickness of the material, so if you're welding two 1/4" pieces together, you should have a 1/4" wide bead that runs deep into the metal.

 

Thank you again for the welding tips. I'll get some 1/4" scrap and do some practicing. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The clutch master push rod was bent, so I went to the pull and pay to see what I could find. I pulled the clutch master out of a 79 280zx. Here is a pic of everything before getting started.

 

master_01.jpg

 

I ordered a brake master kit for a 620. When I pulled the brake master apart I realized the kit I ordered isn't going to work. I am not positive, because I can't find much info on it, but I think the MC I have is from 510. Most rebuild info I have found show pistons that aren't slotted like these, and that are held in with one retaining screw. I can't find a kit for this MC with pistons held in place by the 2 long retaining screws. I cleaned the old parts and put it back together. If this master is worn out, I will just get a new aftermarket one. 

 

master_02.jpg

 

master_03.jpg

 

The clutch rebuild kit is in the old clutch master. I am just waiting on a 8mm x 1.25 die to get here in the mail, so I can shorten up the 280zx push rod. 

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Be very careful when mixing and matching master cyl pushrods. It sounds like you're using the pushrod that came with the master, but if you mix and match, be sure the psuhrod and c-clip and retaining washer don't hang up the piston from returning all the way. I've done this many times and learned the hard way.

 

Cleaned up nicely!

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Be very careful when mixing and matching master cyl pushrods. It sounds like you're using the pushrod that came with the master, but if you mix and match, be sure the psuhrod and c-clip and retaining washer don't hang up the piston from returning all the way. I've done this many times and learned the hard way.

 

Cleaned up nicely!

I am using the original push rod in the brake master. The clutch push rod is bent.  I took a push rod from a 280zx which is the same type of push rod, but it was longer. The 280zx has the threaded clevis so I cut it down. It doesn't seem like it is keeping it from returning all the way on the bench. If it doesn't return all the way when I get it installed to the clutch pedal, I'll just replace the clutch master.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just got back from my trip to Arizona. We enjoyed some spring training baseball, nice weather and picked up the windshield I bought about a month ago. I also purchased a stock rear view mirror from the same seller and picked that up while I was there. Here are a few pics since my last update.

 

I removed the tray under the dash, and the heater vent. The only thing left in the interior is the accelerator pedal. Its soaking in PB blaster some more so I can get it loose. The particle board on the tray is in bad shape.

 

tray01.jpg

 

tray02.jpg

 

I spent a lot of time on the roof. It had multiple creased dents like this one. I got them worked out and thought it looked pretty close to straight, until I sprayed a guide coat. I still have a lot of work to do.

roofwork01.jpg 

 

roofwork02.jpg

 

I had a really cheap hammer and dolly set from an auto parts store. I decided with all of the hammer and dolly work ahead of me, I would get some nicer tools. I ordered a new Martin hammer. After feeling the difference I didn't want to use my old body hammers any more. I have been ordering vintage Fairmount tools to save a little money. After cleaning up the faces, and installing new Martin handles on the hammer heads they are pretty nice. I am not getting them perfect like some guys that restore old tools, just trying to make them usable again. The dollies weigh almost twice as much as the cheap ones I had, and the hammers feel great. It really makes bumping metal a lot easier. 

 

bh01.jpg

 

bh02.jpg

 

bh03.jpg

 

bh04.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

I haven't posted anything in a while. Right after my last update around a year ago we moved in early June 2018. I spent most of last year working on the new house. Especially this spring when I spent almost all of my time and all of my budget redoing the landscaping. Anyway, I have been able to get back to the Datsun this summer. I did work on the driver door again over the winter. I decided to remove the body filler that was on there and try harder to get it straighter, then epoxy the metal before adding any filler or high build primer. It is a little embarrassing how many hours I put into that stupid door, but it looks a lot better. It is far from perfect, but this is the pic of the door with a coat of epoxy. 

 

door_primed.jpg

 

I don't have a lot of pics or even remember the little things I have worked on over the last year, but here are a few pictures of some recent work, and where I am now. 

 

priming_dash.jpg

 

I ended up doing some grinding and welding along the patch panel I put in to get the door gap to look better before priming the driver side quarter panel

 

weld_door_gap.jpg

 

I purchased the disc brake kit from Bluehands inc right before the move, and have been cleaning up the front suspension to get that put in. I'll get a pic of everything put back together for another update. I only have this pic of everything removed from the front other than the sway bar.

removing_suspension.jpg

 

Jul2019_progress.jpg

 

I probably won't post very often unless I make some noticeable progress. It sometimes feels lame posting small things, especially since I have been dicking around on this for so long. I just wanted to let whoever followed my build before know that I am not dead, and didn't give up on the old datsun. 

Edited by delariva
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After work this week I worked on getting the parts cleaned up and painted for the disc brake conversion. I am going to start installing the kit tonight.

I did not paint the lower control arm. I washed it and skipped the wire wheeling and painting. I may need to remove the torsion bars, and weld some brackets for front coil overs. While taking all of this apart, I don't think there is enough room to run the exhaust around the torsion bars. Until I get that figured out I'm going to leave the lower control arms unpainted.

Disc_Kit_Prep.jpg

 

 

I was able to find replacement dust boots for the upper control arm. They were really cheap too. If anyone else is interested here is a link and the part #

Nissan 54541 - 04100

https://www.nissanpartsdeal.com/parts/nissan-seal-dust~54541-04100.html

 

UCA_boot.jpg

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I don't recall if you have the steel or aluminum brackets.  The steel brackets will act as the template to mark where to cut the ear off on the spindle.  If you have the aluminum ones, you can print the template here.....  http://www.bluehandsinc.com/spindle-template-for-aluminum-bracket.html

 

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On 7/19/2019 at 12:42 PM, mklotz70 said:

I don't recall if you have the steel or aluminum brackets.  The steel brackets will act as the template to mark where to cut the ear off on the spindle.  If you have the aluminum ones, you can print the template here.....  http://www.bluehandsinc.com/spindle-template-for-aluminum-bracket.html

 

 

Thanks Mike. I have the aluminum brackets. The kit is amazing, you did a great job putting it together. The amount of thought you put into it, and the videos you share online make the install really easy. 

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