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My Dragon Datsun 521


DanielC

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This morning, I worked on all the minor things you remove, when you pull an engine.  First, I put the fan, waterpump pulley, and V-belt on the engine.  Then I put the radiator in, and sorted through some hoses.

RadiatorHoses.JPG

Heater hoses.

HeaterHoses.JPG

I cleaned some hoses a little, and chose an upper, and lower radiator hose, and two heater hoses, and put them on the engine. 

 

Then I put the starter on the transmission, and moved on to hooking up wiring for the alternator, and starter.   This truck had a higher output alternator, 60 amp put in it, and also was wired for an amp gauge, in the 1970's.  Back then, we put amp gauges in cars, and we liked it.   Putting an amp gauge in requires putting wires in big enough to carry the full output of the alternator into the cab, through the gauge, and back out to the engine compartment.   You also have to wire the gauge so that if the battery is supplying current to the electrical system, it shows minus, and if the alternator is charging the battery, it shows plus.   So I had to remember how I wired the amp gauge, back in the day.  (1970's)

I also did some wiring on the headlight circuit.  I had to figure that out, and this truck also had the fuse box replaced, and the wiring to the fuse box is changed to accommodate the amp gauge.  

 

After messing with all that, It became possible I might get close to starting the truck today.   I pressure tested the cooling system, found one leak, fixed that by adding another hose clamp on the heater end of the long heater hose, and tightening up both clamps on that connection. 

If you let used antifreeze sit in a bucket for a while, the small particles of rust will settle out of it.  I took a cup, and skimmed cleaner antifreeze out of a bucket i had antifreeze sitting in, and put that into the radiator.   Checked the oil, it was pretty new, and now, ready to start.

 

The dashboard, and the cab wiring harness are not in Dragon.  But this plug is the one that supplies power to the ignition switch, and takes power back out to the ignition coil, and the starter solenoid.  This jumper turn on the ignition.

IgnOnJump.JPG

 

No dash board, no idiot lights, no gauges, no power to the alternator to turn it on.  I did want to see if it at least had some oil pressure.  The test light ground is hooked up to the oil pressure switch.  The probe of the test light is on the positive battery post.

 

The test light on top of the battery is off, because the engine is running.

 

EngineRunning.JPG

The air cleaner is off the carb, because when I first started the engine, I did not have the throttle or choke cables hooked up.  They are now.

 

The brake master cylinder is empty.  I need to find that leak, and then I can actually start and run this truck, if I need to move it.  The hand brake does work.

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When I started Dragon yesterday, I had not yet hooked up the small wire on the alternator, it was not charging, and I did not expect it to.  Remember this truck currently has no dash, so no idiot lights, so nothing to energize the alternator.

If you remember, from the bottom of page three of this thread, I put an alternator from a Nissan Pathfinder on the L-18 engine.  the spacing on the lower alternator ears fit the L-18 lower alternator bracket, and held the alternator in the correct position to align the V-bely pulleys.

 

So far the alternator was just an idler pulley to keep the waterpump belt tight.  Yesterday, I did hook up the ground wires, and the hot, or output wires to the alternator.  The alternator is an INTERNALLY regulated one, with the "S" and "L" marking on the small wires to it.

The "L" terminal grounds the idiot light in the car, if the alternator is not working, or turning.  The "S" is used by the alternator's regulator to measure the voltage at a location different from the alternator.  The voltage at the output of the alternator is NOT the voltage at the battery, especially if electrical accessories, or the lights are on, or if the alternator is charging.  

 

To make the alternator charge, and test it, I needed to hook up the "L" and "S" terminals.   But before that, I needed to put an ammeter in series with the alternator output, and the battery.

I had this panel mounted light, with two wires, and a non grounded case.

LightBox.JPG

 

This is the test harness I made to hook up the "S" and "L" terminals. 

The " S" is the green wire.  it goes to the dark red terminal, that connects to battery positive.

the "L" is the yellow wire.  It hooks to one wire from the light, and the other wire from the light goes to the battery.

TestWires.JPG

 

When you plug the white "T' plug into the alternator, and the lug to the positive battery post, the light should come on, with the engine not running.

AltLight.JPG

 

This is with the engine running. 

ChargeVolts2.JPG

 

And I then turned the engine off.  The voltage is a little high, but was dropping fast.  Notice the light is on again.

NoChargeVolts.JPG

 

And this was charging current, after the engine had ran a little bit.  Initially, the charging current was above 60 amps.

[ChargeAmps.JPG

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  • 1 month later...

I brought Dragon out into the warm Oregon sun yesterday.

 

[DragonInDriveway.JPG

 

[DragonAltLight.JPG

 

DragonCharge.JPG

 

 

While running Dragon, I noticed a small leak in the long heater hose, near the front of the engine.  I drained the radiator, and changed the hose, and refilled the radiator.   We will see if that hose will work.  I am also trying to see if I can find an alternative to the no longer available hose from Nissan.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I pretty much finished the exhaust system on Dragon.   

When I moved Dragon into the garage, the foot brakes were not working, some of the brake fluid had leaked out. 

This is how I bled the air out of the brake master cylinder.

 

BenchBleed.JPG

After doing that, I bled the right rear wheel cylinder, and the brakes worked again.

 

I did wire the truck with a temporary jumper wire, because it has no dashboard right now, so I could move it around to work on it.  It has been hard to start, and keep running when it was cold, but once I got it warm, it would start easily.  

I cannot remember the last time I put some fresh gasoline in Dragon.  I used a electric fuel pump to suck the remaining gas, of onknown age out of Dragon, and put five gallons of fresh gas in it. 

Dragon starts much easier now.

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I have been driving Dragon around a little on my property, and using it to move some stuff.

find this picture:Dragon/521sInYard

I put the two cabs on the trailer, and then backed then into the carport.  The cabs were in the garage, but I wanted to do some work on Dragon, in the garage.  So I moved the cabs out of the garage, and into the carport.

 

I put this fuse block in Dragon.  It is a Blue Sea systems ST blade fuse block, their part number is 5035.  You will also need Blue Sea systems terminal block jumpers, part number 9217.

BlueSea1.JPG

Another picture.

BlueSea2.JPG

 

Right now, I am running Dragon without a dashboard.   There are also some extra wires going to the fuse box, to accommodate an ammeter.

BlueSeaAmp.JPG

The light is also wired to the switched hot side of the fuse box, to power the alternator.

Pay no attention to the fuse values.  With no dashboard in the truck, the fuses are not hooked up to anything.

By the way, a Datsun 521 will run without any fuses in the fuse block.

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I have been driving Dragon around a little on my property, and using it to move some stuff.

521sInYard_zpszdgxptrc.jpg

I put the two cabs on the trailer, and then backed then into the carport.  The cabs were in the garage, but I wanted to do some work on Dragon.

 

I put this fuse block in Dragon.

BlueSea1_zpsdmfd7lxs.jpg

Another picture.

BlueSea2_zps45n7j8on.jpg

 

Right now, I am running Dragon without a dashboard.   There are also some extra wires going to the fuse box, to accommodate an ammeter.

BlueSeaampAmp_zpsobqsm41g.jpg

The light is also wired to the switched hot side of the fuse box, to power the alternator.

Pay no attention to the fuse values.  With no dashboard in the truck, the fuses are not hooked up to anything.

By the way, a Datsun 521 will run without any fuses in the fuse block. 

Yea mine is screwed up also, I can pull every fuse and it keeps right on running. :(

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Wayno,

  I think a 521 being able to run without fuses is normal.   I have traced the paper wiring diagram, and there are no fuses in the ignition circuit.  

  I have also followed the wires around on a few 521 trucks, and you can get power to the coil, again without going through any fuses.

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My only problem with this fuse box is trying to mount it, using the original fuse box holes in a 521 cowl, without pulling the wires to a place where the wires are under some strain.

Because i had already replaced the fuse box once, I already had ring terminals on the output wires of the fuse box.

 

I am working on using a piece of ABS plastic that used the original fuse box holes for mounting the plastic, and then attaching the Blue sea fuse box to the ABS plastic piece.

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On page three of this thread, I cleaned and primed the floor of Dragon.  That was March, 2014.   

The floor on Dragon had some rust damage, a few pinholes, and some pitting, but was generally good structurally.  I did not want to go to the work to replace the floor, at least for now.  Yesterday, I scuff sanded the epoxy I put down a year ago, and reprimed the front half of the floor.  Then today, I fiberglassed the floor

This is a fiberglass piece I cut for the drivers side floor.

 

FiberglassFloor.JPG

 

I also cut a similar piece for the passenger side floor.

Then I used Marine epoxy, from Tap Plastics to put the fiberglass down on the floor.

Drivers side.

DriverSideEpoxied.JPG

Passenger side.

 

RightSideEpoxied.JPG

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The fiberglass will add strength.  Although the floor was not rusted through, except for some pinholes, there was a lot of pitting of the metal on the front parts of the floor.

The "correct" repair would be to cut and weld in new metal.  I already have two 521 trucks I am doing that to.

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Yesterday, I sanded, and then sprayed some primer on the fiberglass I put on the floor.

1RtFloorPrime.JPG

Other side.

2LeftFloorPrime.JPG

 

Paint stuff on bench.

3PaintStuff.JPG

 

I use masking tape to make a pour spout on the paint cans.

4TapeSpout.JPG

 

Pull the tape off, and the top and side of the can are clean.

5CleanEdge.JPG

 

A lot of the time , I am mixing small quantities of paint.  This is how I measure it.

6MeasuringCups.JPG

 

This morning, I sanded some on the primed floor, primed it again, and then sprayed a surfacer on the primer.

1RtFloorFill.JPG

 

The other side.

2LfFloorFill.JPG

 

 

And now for something totally different.

The Blue Sea fuse block was not secured in the truck, yet.  I did not want to drill more holes in the truck, so I used a piece of ABS plastic to hold the fuse block.  The two countersunk holes match the spacing of the original 521 fuse block.  The metal inserts are "T" nuts.

DragonBaseCountersink.JPG

 

The back side, showing the "T" nuts.

DragonFuseTNut.JPG

 

Flathead screws used to hold the ABS plastic to the cowl.

DragonFHMS.JPG

 

The ABS plastic piece screwed down.

DragonBaseMounted.JPG

 

The fuse block screwed to the ABS plastic.

DragonFuseBlockMounted.JPG

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