My Dragon Datsun 521

[gene knight]

DanielC: pm sent

[DanielC]

I have been having a minor problem with Dragon running warm.   See this post for details.

https://ratsun.net/topic/77895-thermostat-water-pipes/

 

Since I had to drain the coolant to change the thermostat to see if that would cure or help the running warm problem, I also took the opportunity to change some cab interior parts in dragon for parts I have previously cleaned and painted.   I removed the heater, the air box above the heater, the emergency brake handle, and bracket, and the gas pedal.

 

The place where the air box was.

 

There is a rubber gasket that fits in between the air box, and the cab sheet metal.  I used this weather strip cement to glue the runner gasket to the air box.

 

The screws that hold the air box to the inside of the cowl are threaded 1/4-28.  I had previously chased the threads in the cowl with a tap, and the screws that were holding the air box in were not very tight, so they came out easily.   I also had put the old air box in without the dashboard in the way.  

With the dashboard in the truck, I could not get a screwdriver, #3 Phillips on the top two screws holding the air box.   I do have some Phillips bits in various sizes.  I removed the two control levers from the lower part of the dashboard, and a long 1/4 drive socket extension would go through the hole where the lever was.  I put a socket on the 1/4 extension that fit the Phillips screw bit.  there is a piece of masking tape to hold the socket and bit together.

 

The ratchet end of the 1/4 extension is turned by a ratchet, and the angle of the Phillips screw bit matched the screw angle.

 

The bottom two screws on the air box I could reach with a #3 Phillips screwdriver.

 

One of the screws that hold the air box to the cowl broke the first time I removed it.   I just used a 1/4-28 bolt to replace the broken screw.

 

With the air box attached to the cowl, I put the heater air door lever back in the dashboard, 

 

and attached the rod from the handle to the air box door lever.  

 

With the air box back in the truck, I then started to remove the gas pedal, and I found out you need to remove the emergency brake handle and bracket to get clearance to remove the gas pedal.

Lets look again at this picture.  There are two hex head bolts by the air box that hold the aft end of the hand brake bracket, and a third bolt on the firewall, close to the top of the gas pedal.   You can also see how close the gas pedal top is to the hand brake bracket.

 

I think it is easier to keep the whole hand brake linkage together to remove it.  but first you disconnect the cable that goes out of the cab, that pulls on bell cranks on the frame of the truck.  The screwdriver points to a clip that hold a pin in the hand brake linkage, the pin pulls the cable.

 

In this picture, from left to right, the pin clip from the hand brake, the "C" clip that hold the gas pedal, and the clip from the top of the gas pedal.

 

This is the pin from the hand brake cable, it also has two nylon bushings that center the cable on the pin, inside the had brake linkage.

 

I removed the two hex bolts by the air box, 7/16 head, and the shoulder bolt on the firewall, and removed the hand brake bracket, with the hand brake assembled to it.

 

Now the gas pedal can be removed.

Remove the clip at the top of the gas pedal.

 

Another picture of the cable clip, with the cable slipped off the top of the gas pedal.

 

Remove the "C" clip on the gas pedal shaft,

 

Lift the spring off the top arm of the gas pedal,

 

Then, with the hand brake bracket out of the way, you can slide the gas pedal out of its plastic bushing, and remove the pedal.

 

I need to clean and paint some pas pedal springs, but I have not yet, so I just used the spring as is.  The spring is held in the bracket by the bushing.  push the bushing all the way in.

 

Earlier this year, I painted a bunch of small interior parts, including some gas pedal.  I put a little bit of grease on the gas pedal pivot, and then put the pedal pivot in the bushing, on the firewall.

 

The "C" clip that holds the gas pedal in the bushing was slightly sprung open, and I used pliers to close the clip slightly.

 

I put the clip on the gas pedal, and hooked the pedal spring over the gas pedal.

 

and finally put the gas cable on the top of the pedal.

Edited July 18, 2020 by DanielC

[datzenmike]

 

We have something called Naval Jelly. The stuff I used years ago was a paste you rub on like car wax.

 

 

Daniel, it's getting warmer so there's less differential between ambient and hot coolant. If it's at 185F and it's -10 there will be a huge heat transfer but if it's over 100F out a lot less.

[banzai510(hainz)]

I have a new China made champion 3 core and it works as I run cooler and a 160deg 54 mm stat I’m there.

i had a OPL brand rad before and was leaky from brand new but they looked both the same.

they need about a 1/4 spacer to help relieve it from the core support upper lip.

 However even on say above 85 deg it will warm up to mid level and maybe higher in stop and go traffic..I think a electric fan on a temp switch would help But I don’t run one.

also I wonder with the age of the blocks that have scaling on them if the heat transfer changes over time.

also a newer tight motor run hot for a little bit also.Steffgr on here would know more on this that build a lot of engines

[DanielC]

This is just going to be words for now, I will add pictures later.  I also added more pictures to the previous post I made.

Mike, we have Naval Jelly here, and I have used it a few times.  Naval Jelly is basically a phosphoric acid solution, that had been thickened, or jellied.  It is the phosphoric acid that dissolves rust, and converts some rusted metal to slow down more rusting.   The steel still rusts, but slower.

Chroming steel parts prevents rusting by covering the steel with a layer of chromium metal.  People think chromium does not oxidise, another work for "rust", but it does.   But what happens with chromium is that it forms a very thin layer of chromium oxide in the surface, this layer does not break down, and it prevents further oxidation.  But on steel, if the chromium layer, and the layers of nickel, and copper below the chromium on the steel are broken, you have different metal metals in electrical contact with each other.  When wet, this sets up a galvanic corrosion process, with the steel being the sacrificial anode, and the rust will actually work under the copper, nickel, and chromium layers.

Naval Jelly does remove rust.  But you need to try to removes as much of the residual phosphoric acid as possible.

The Quick-Glo has a wax in it that helps make a thin layer that reduces water, and oxygen getting to bare steel.

Using a wax on the chrome after cleaning rust will also have same effect as using Quick-Glo.

 

More on cooling issues.  The instrument cluster in Dragon had some issues.  Occasionally one turn signal lamp would not blink, some illumination lamps in the cluster would not come on, both gauges would quit working, and when working, the gas gauge would stay on full, even though I have been using gas in the tank.

I have extra instrument clusters.  I took one of the extra ones apart, cleaned lamp contacts on it, painted fluorescent orange on the three gauge needles, and put a different cluster in Dragon.  After a long enough test drive, including a run on the freeway, at 65 MPH, and then driving back up the hill I live on, the temp gauge in Dragon was reading more to where I would like it to read.

 

I suspect the engine in Dragon was not actually running warm, just the gauge was indicating warm.

I need to get on of those "point at a hot object" infra-red thermometer gun tools.

In my experience, a Datsun 521 in decent running condition, timed correctly does not run hot.   I have put enough of a load on 521 trucks over the years to find out if they had a tendency to run hot.   My experience, 521 trucks are "under engined" and "over radiated"

 

 

[DanielC]

I did not take many pictures of putting the hand brake, or heater back in the cab of Dragon.   It was getting late.

There are three bolts holding the hand brake bracket in the cab of a 521.  One on the firewall, and two next to the air box.   I used a screwdriver to hold the hand brake bracket, and the cable lever that is inside the bracket to the firewall temporarily.

 

Then I swung the hand brake assembly up, and put the two bolts by the air box in loosely.

 

Then I put the shoulder bolt by the firewall in, tightened it, and the two bolts by the air box.

 

I put the heater in the cab.

 

 

This is the air boot that goes from the air box to the heater.

 

Another view of the air boot.

 

It may not look like it, but I cleaned the air boot with dishwashing detergent and water, and let it dry.

 

 

To repair the cracks in the air boot, I put a piece of plastic bag over a spare air box, and then put the boot back on the air box.

 

This is a product you can get at a marine (boat) shop, or you can order it on Amazon.

 

I painted the liquid electrical tape over the cracks in the air boot, then put a second piece of plastic bag over the repaired area, and then put some rubber bands over the plastic bag.

 

After waiting over night, I had this.  I painted a second layer of the liquid electrical tape on the boot.  Another over night wait the boot was ready to go back in Dragon.

 

Boot in the truck.

Another picture of the boot in the truck.

 

Edited July 20, 2020 by DanielC

[DanielC]

I have driven Dragon about 80 miles or so on roads now, and finding minor things that need attention.   I have an extra instrument cluster, or as Datsun calls it, a combo meter.   I changed the combo meter, and the temp gauge is now indicating about what I would expect.   The gas gauge reads a little lower.  Before getting Dragon driving on the road, I drove Dragon around the farm a lot, and once it ran out of gas, when the fuel gauge was not completely on empty. 

In my experience, when the fuel gauge is reading empty, you watch the fuel gauge when you first start the truck.  If the gauge stays on empty, you need to get gas first thing.  if there is still a little more gas in the tank, when you first start the truck, the gauge will "flare" a bit above empty, then drop down as the mechanical gauge heats up.

The first time I took Dragon on the freeway, the speedometer was reading way high.  It had a 17 tooth black speedometer pinion in the transmission.  Last year I was able to get a 20 tooth red pinion from a 620 in a junkyard, and I put that in the transmission last week.  Now the speedometer reads within a few MPH of what my cell phone says I am moving.  To change the speedometer pinion, I drove the rear wheels up on some ramps I have.

Putting the rear of the truck on the ramps lets the gear lube in the transmission run forward, and away from the speedometer pinion hole.

The headlights needed aiming, I did that, and took another short test drive at night.  Dragon has Cibie 55 watt H4 high beam headlights.  

As I was started to drive Dragon around local roads I have driven Ratsun on, it seemed that Dragon was rather gutless.  I also could not really feel when the secondary of the carb was opening.   Ratsun has a 1980 720 tired? L-20-B, with a wide ratio five speed, 4.375 rear axle.  I believe that transmission has a 3.6 first gear ratio.  Dragon has a rebuilt head on a L-18, with a five speed transmission I bought new from a Datsun dealer in the late 1970's, this transmission has a 3.3 first gear, and closer gears through out the range.  I am not sure if overdrive fifth is the same on both transmissions.   

Anyway, I used a small pair of vice grips to clamp the gas pedal to the pedal stop with the gas pedal floored.  Then I reached under the rear of the air cleaner, and still could move the primary throttle open more, quite a bit.   I adjusted some slack out of the throttle cable, and also adjusted the pedal stop on the floor lower, to allow more gas pedal travel.  I also checked the ignition timing, and was able to advance it a bit.

With those two changes, Dragon does not seem as gutless any more, but generally Dragon likes to be about one gear lower than Ratsun does going up hills around home. 

Dragon runs smoother than Ratsun, and is a lot quieter, and actually a little more pleasant to drive.  But I am still staying closer to home, to give me a change to find any other issues that might be inconvenient on a longer trip.

Here is a picture of the left side of Dragon.

 

The hood on Dragon is from another one of my 521 trucks, and I need to finish straightening a front apron, and paint it, and put it on Dragon.  The cab and bed need body work, and fresh paint, and soon I plan on adding fog lights to Dragon.   The interior needs work, the steering need repair, I am messing around with some fiberglass and marine epoxy to repair the steering wheel.   The cardboard glove box is not in Dragon, it needs repair too.  

But I can drive it, and after about a month and a half delay from the state, I finally got the registration stickers for it.

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by DanielC

[DanielC]

One of the illumination lamps, in the combo meter I put in Dragon last week, was not working, and when I used the left turn signal, the illumination lamp closest to the left turn signal would blink.   I have changed the four illumination lamps in the combo meter to LED lamps.

 

To fix this, you need to remove the combo meter from the truck.

Disconnect the negative battery cable.

 

My 521 has a tachometer, mounted to the steering column.  I disconnected the tachometer from the column, and just let it hang on its wire harness.  

There are two sheet metal screws at the bottom of the plastic cover over the combo meter.  Remove the two screws.

 

With both bottom screws removed hold each end of the plastic cover, and gently pull straight down.  Do not pull away from the dash, slide it down, while holding it close to the dash board.

 

The cover slid down.

 

 

The speedometer cable is held to the back of the combo meter, with a nut you unscrew.  In this picture, my fingers are on the nut, above the bracket.

 

There are two machine screws, with nuts and washers holding the top of the combo meter in the dash board.   Usually, by turning the screw, the nut will loosen.  The nut cab be held with a 3/8 open end wrench.  I hold the nut and washer with my finger as it is loosened

 

After the screw is out, I carefully slide the nut and washer out until I can put my thumb on them, to avoid dropping the nut or washer.   If you do drop them, they may stay on the lip in the bottom edge of the dashboard, or they could fall on the floor of the truck.

If you vacuum all the crud on the trucks floor before you start this, it will be easier to find any dropped parts.  I am right handed, and I can this easier on the right top screw than the left side.   For left side top screw, do not completely remove the nut.  There is enough room to slide the combo right, and it is free of the left side screw.

 

If you have not done it already, disconnect the speedometer cable.

 

There is a plug on the back of the combo meter that makes all the electrical connections to the combo meter.   Very carefully work the plug off the back of the combo meter.  The connection pins can be pulled off the combo meter's printed circuit board.

 

This is the plug disconnected from the printed circuit board.

 

In the center of the picture is the speedometer cable.  

 

The combo meter is out of the truck, and now you can work on it.

 

Here is a picture of the back of a combo meter, one from one of my other 521 truck, Ratsun.   This was from April 2011.

 

First thing, what do the pins hook up to.

 

I had to clean the contacts on the circuit board, the contacts in the bulb holders, the bulbs themselves. Here is a picture of one of the lamp holder holes, half cleaned. I used a Scotchbright abrasive pad to clean the contacts. In this picture, one side is cleaned, the other is not.

 

I also had to repair some grounds on the circuit board. the circuit board does not have a full copper trace for the grounds, but uses the metal case, and rivets through the circuit board to complete the grounds. To repair the grounds, I had to bridge the head of rivet to the trace on the circuit board.

 

Then I had to test the combo meter.

Get a 12 volt battery, and hook the negative up to pin 10.

Apply 12 positive to pin 1, the four dash lights should turn on.

Apply 12 positive to pin 2, the left turn light should turn on.

Apply 12 positive to pin 9, the high beam light should turn on.

Apply 12 positive to pin 12, the right turn light should turn on.

 

Apply 12 positive to pin 7, and ground pin 4, the oil light should turn on.

Apply 12 positive to pin 7, and ground pin 8, the IGN (alt) light should turn on.

 

Apply 12 positive to pin 7 and ground pin 10, and also ground pin 3, the fuel gauge should go to full.

Apply 12 positive to pin 7 and ground pin 10, and also ground pin 11, the temp gauge should go to hot.

 

OK, back to the combo meter from Dragon, in July 2020.  A quick review, one illumination lamp was not working, but it did flash with the left turn signals, but not flash the turn signal indicator.   

This is what I call a "wacky electrical problem".  Wacky electrical problems are almost always caused by bad grounds.

 

Using a small 12 volt battery, I connected the ground pin, at 10:00 on the circuit, to battery negative, and dash lights pin, at 1:00 on the circuit board to battery positive.  If you look near the bottom of this picture, the holes in the fuel gauge back are lit up, but the light in the upper right corner of the picture are dark.

 

In this picture, the upper right corner is lit.  There is also an electrical probe contacting the brass rivet, and the copper circuit board trace below the rivet. 

 

I used a small piece of 400 grit sandpaper on a pop-sickle stick to clean the edge of the brass rivet, and the copper trace by the rivet.   The roll of solder in the background should give a clue to what I did next.

 

I put a small bead of solder bridging the rivet to the copper trace, reconnected the ground and illumination lights pins to the battery, and the light is on.  the tuen signal lamp holder is out of the board at this point.  I put it back in, 

 

I moved the wire from positive battery to the left turn signal pin, 2:00 on the circuit board plug.  I left the ground wire on the 10:00 pin on the circuit board.

 

With the combo meter repaired from this problem, time to put it back in the truck.

I pushed the left top screw with the nut and washer already on out away from the dashboard.

 

At this point, I held the combo meter close to the dashboard, and plugged the electrical connector back in to the board.   Look back at the picture labelling the pins, there is a key way in the center hole that matches a key on the center pin of the wire harness plug.  carefully plug the wire harness to the printed circuit board.

 

I then slid the combo meter bracket under the screw head, and tightened it some, but not all the way.

 

This is the right side combo meter bracket,

 

I put the screw in through the bracket, and then the hole in the dashboard, and carefully put the washer on the back of the screw, and then balancing the nut on my fingertip, held the nut, and then turned the screw with a screwdriver, no picture of that, both hands were occupied.

 

Tighten both top screws on the combo meter brackets.   Then holding the plastic cover below the combo meter, and next to the dash board slide it up.  It will snap into place, if hooked correctly.

Then put the two bottom sheet metal screws back in the bottom of the plastic cover.

 

When nothing works on the truck, go back and reconnect the negative battery cable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by DanielC

[DanielC]

Since mid July 2020, I have been driving Dragon on more longer trips as I gain confidence that it will not leave me stranded somewhere away from home.   At first, I noticed a whine or soft howl from the rear axle, that seemed to be either getting worse, or getting on my nerves more.  

This is going to be a convoluted story, but hopefully I can explain it clearly.  It involves three of my 521 trucks I have named. Dragon, Ratsun, Dragon Two, and a spare later model steel differential carrier I picked up about two or thee years ago.  It is nice to have spare parts around when you drive 50 year old vehicles.  

In September of 2019, I was driving Ratsun to a close doctor's appointment, and there was very loud bang, with a sound like the driveline ringing as if was hit with a hammer.  I was going down a hill, and upon hearing the noises, I pushed the clutch in, and the Ratsun continued rolling down the hill, more or less normally.   At the bottom of the hill, with the engine still running, I let the clutch out, and with momentum of the truck pushing against the closed throttle but running engine, the rear axle got noisier.   stepping on the gas made a lot less, but more than normal noise.   I drove another mile, or so, and went to doctors appointment.

After the appointment, I looked under Ratsun, and noticed a fair amount of gear oil under the rear axle.  I thought, the damage is done, lets try to drive it home.  Ratsun made it home.  

I tried to swap the differential carrier that was in Ratsun with the spare later model steel differential carrier, but for some reason, the axles did not seem to be going in to the axle housing.   I needed Ratsun to get some hay, so I then replaced the whole rear axle from Ratsun with the rear axle from Dragon Two.  

So now we are back to the present, and back to Dragon.   I pulled the rear axles out of Dragon enough to remove the differential carrier, and then took the steel carrier that was going to be under Dragon Two, put it in Dragon, and I have been driving Dragon, and now I need to get rear axle parts together for Dragon Two.

I called Wayno, He some times has extra parts.  i was able to drove dragon up to his house, and get a second steel case differential carrier, that needed some work.  From south of Portland to Washington was the longest drive so far.   The carrier I got from Wayno needed some cleaning up, and the pinion turned pretty hard, but the price was really good.

 

Two days ago, I called my favorite local auto parts store, Clackamas Auto Parts, In Oregon City, to see if they work on rear differential carriers, they did not, but recommended Holbrook Specialities, In Gladstone Oregon.  Holbrook main focus is Jeeps, and axles, and gear ratio changes for 4 wheel drive vehicles, and after talking to them, they seemed really familar with Datsun/Nissan H-190 rear axles.   

 

The next day, I put the differential carrier in Dragon, and started to drive to Holbrook, and about a mile into the trip, the clutch started to feel funny.   I came back home with Dragon, shifting with out the clutch, and took the diff carrier to Holbrook with Ratsun.   After the trip to Holbrook, Thursday morning, I called Clackamas Auto Parts, and ordered a new Centric clutch master cylinder, since looking under Dragon briefly, I did not see any clutch fluid leaking.   The master cylinder arrived Friday, and I got it with Ratsun.

 

The steel carrier I got from Wayno, that I then took to Holbrook for repair will go under Dragon Two.

 

This morning, I looked closer at Dragon, found out the slave cylinder was bad, and used a spare slave cylinder I had on hand, to replace the bad one.  I took a short test drive, the clutch hydraulics seem good.

 

Last week, I also took Dragon down I-5 toward Woodburn, Or.  There is a measured 5 mile speedometer check on I-5 there, both north and south bound.  The odometer on dragon gaind about .15 miles in the 5 mile section.

 

I do have pictures of axle work on Dragon, I need to review, organize, and rename them.

 

Edited August 15, 2020 by DanielC

[mrbigtanker]

Wow that’s a lot. These clutch slaves are really junk. I wish they made a better one, I was stranded once before. 

[DanielC]

I ask for Centric hydraulic cylinders at my local auto parts store, Clackamas auto parts. 

The slave cylinder that was in Dragon has been in there easily for more than 30 years, but there is a long period of time from the mid 1990's to about 2007 that Dragon was not running.  Then Dragon spent a lot of time being driven on my farm, not getting many miles, and some of that time I did not even have the dashboard in Dragon.  

Dragon also has a 2000 roadster pressure plate, that puts a lot more pressure on the clutch hydraulics

[DanielC]

I knew I needed to flush the cooling system on Dragon.  This is what came out of it.

 

A little back story.   I was driving Dragon into the mid 1990's, and for some reason I quit driving it, and left it parked in a carport for a few years, without enough antifreeze in the coolant, and mainly water.  Yes, it froze, cracked the cylinder head, a peanut head, and pushed some of the core plugs out of the block, saving the block.   I had another head rebuilt, to get the engine running, and put the core plugs back in the block.

 

This is where the drain plug for the radiator is located, if you still have a stock 521 radiator.

 

If you remove the plug, the old coolant will run over other stuff on the truck, and make a mess.   I cut part of an old oil bottle to make a funnel.

 

I then remove the drain plug part way, and with the oil bottle funnel under the drain plug, let the radiator drain.

 

This is the drain plug, notice the rubber washer.  Sometimes the rubber washer sticks to the radiator long enough to lose it.   Make sure the washer stays with the plug.

 

As dirty as I knew the cooling system was, I already had decided I am going to pull the radiator, and back flush the engine block.

I removed the top radiator hose, and then disconnected the lower radiator hose from the radiator.   There is also a clip holding the temp sender and distributor wires on the radiator.  I freed the wires from the clip, and removed the radiator.

 

I then drained the remaining coolant out of the radiator, and flushed the radiator with a garden hose.

 

I filled the radiator with clean water, then shook it, and repeated with both the top and bottom radiator hose connections.  Sorry, no pictures of shaking the radiator.   Both hands were busy.

 

There is also a drain plug on the block by the starter.   I unbolted the starter, to get it out of the way, and also to reduce the amount of rusty coolant running over and into the starter.  The drain plug on a Datsun L-engine is a British pipe thread, and the head fits a 9/16 socket.  It will be tight.  I used a 6 point socket on the drain plug, with a 1/2 long breaker bar to loosen it.

 

The block drain plug.

 

The next thing I did was to remove the thermostat under this cover.

 

This is the thermostat, with rust sediment on it.

 

This is actually an OEM Nissan thermostat, (JDM YO) and I rinsed it off, and reused it.

 

Then I put the thermostat cover on the engine, without the thermostat. and put a longer radiator hose on the outlet of the thermostat cover.  The longer hose to take dirty coolant away from the truck.

 

Then I put a garden hose into the lower radiator hose, that I left on the engine.

 

The block drain plug at the back of the engine is still out of the block, and at this point, the heat valve on the heater is closed, or off.   I am going to stir things up some more.

 

With the garden hose in the lower radiator hose, the water came out of the top radiator hose was rusty at first, then became clear.

 

Then I used an air blow gun with a rubber tip into the block drain.

 

The air in the back of the block with water agitated a lot more rust sediment, and flushed it out.

This is after the water coming out of the block ran clear, but then with air being blown into the block.  I let the block refill with water from the garden hose many times, and when the block was filled, blew air into the block again.   I repeated that until the water came out clear.

 

The radiator is flushed, and the block is flushed.  Now for the heater.  The heater has two connections.  There is a valve on the heater core, on the top heater hose connection.  If you flush from the bottom of the heater hose to the top heater hose connection, it tends to flush dirt away from the heater valve.

I removed the heater hose from the back of the cylinder head.

 

I put this small nozzle on the garden hose.

 

And flushed the heater with the water from the garden hose.

 

Then I put the heater hose back on the cylinder head,

 

Put the starter back on the engine, and hooked up the oil pressure switch connection.  This connection was slightly loose, I gently squeezed the connector to connect to the oil pressure switch a little more firmly.

 

I put the radiator back in the truck, 

 

And finally the drain plug.

 

Normally, that would flush and clean the cooling system good enough.  But because of letting this engine sit for a long time, I wanted to do a little extra to help clean the cooling system.

This is a radiator flush/cleaner solution made by Prestone.

 

I put it in the radiator, and refilled the radiator with clean water, and ran Dragon on a short trip.  

Then I drained the cleaner out of the radiator, and refilled the radiator with fresh water, and then drained that, twice.

Finally, I refilled the radiator with new premixed coolant, and am running that.  This fresh coolant is starting to look a little cloudy, it probably will get changed again, and then I should not have to worry about the cooling system on Dragon for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2020 by DanielC

[banzai510(hainz)]

There was a still some aJapan Nabco brand Slaves out there, Rock Auto or PartsGeek  even O Rileys had them but a lot more $

 

beck Arnely Brand is or was rebranded Box Nabco

 

Centric is China and all the same as Chinese made Datsun stuff. don't last more than 5 years.  Unless the slave arm is adjusted wrong and just blows it out te back

Edited August 22, 2020 by banzai510(hainz)

[wayno]

Centric is made in Taiwan, if you ask someone that lives in Taiwan if they are Chinese you will likely have an argument.

[banzai510(hainz)]

Taiwan?  I got to recheck  My Centric Boxes it moves around so fast now on parts.  I bought a whole bunch on I believe the recommendation from ratsun maybe you or others on there.  Most I see on Brake and Clitch masters has the 3 circles like the LedZep 4 album.  or really it the German Krupp 3 railroad circles

I seen made in Japan  and under  the labol ,made in China  so very questionable.. But I know Germans and Japanese labol there parts as the are proud of their goods.

remember the 70s everything said Made in Honk Kong but really all was made in China they just had trade and tax exempt as HK is actually a very small place and is not a industrialized factory Zone

 

 

There was a story I heard, theta the English didn't like the Germans and wanted to punish them in some trade issues a long time ago. So The English told the Germans the had to put MADE IN GERMANY on there goods thinking it would make people not buy them. The Germans started making their stuff better and so goes the" Made in Germany "Labol.  If actually made in Germany it will be stamped on the part. Same as Japanese goods..Quality became the Made in Germany Labol which backfired on the British.

 

Now not confuse with designed in Germany if different then most likely made else where

[DanielC]

So this morning, I noticed a L-20-B carb and manifolds for sale in the Ratsun classifieds, by CarterB.   I am in need of those parts.

A quick phone call, and I found out they are north of Seattle.   I live south of Portland, Or.  I have taken Dragon on a 55 mile trip, but this is considerably much longer.  About 422 miles.   All the way up, and back 60 PSI oil, 14 volts, temp gauge within a needle width of center.    I got gas in Fife, just south of Tacoma, on the way up, and picked up the parts, and came all the way home.  Dragon still has about a 1/4 tank of gas.  Gas where I live is more expensive than a shorter drive to the next town over, across the river, so I did not feel like driving more to just get gas.

Dragon was getting over 27 MPG, taking into account a slight 3 % too many miles.

[banzai510(hainz)]

crap you should have swung by Im just north of Fife.

 

I went to eastern washing and back once. I never do that again in a 521  5 hrs each way and over a Mountain Pass

 

[DanielC]

I was pretty focused on just getting up to the parts, and getting home, and slightly nervous about the first long trip, and the day before doing major cooling system flushing on Dragon.

I will keep your location in mind the next time I go to the Puget sound area.

I am just going to add to this post, August 25, 2020 did some basic maintenance on Dragon.   I changed the oil, and oil filter, checked the valve clearance, put a new fan belt on the engine.

 

Edited August 26, 2020 by DanielC

[Tony620]

On 8/22/2020 at 4:17 PM, banzai510(hainz) said:

3 circles like the LedZep 4 album.  or really it the German Krupp 3 railroad circles

 

[DanielC]

I don't understand the reference, but OK...

 

I have not been posting a lot, been busy with some other things, and wildfire smoke made it very uncomfortable to be outside.

 

Monday Sept 21, 2020 I put this on the dashboard of Dragon.

 

I did that so I could plug this in to the lighter.

 

That device charges this battery.

 

That makes this RC model airplane go.

 

[datzenmike]

After the war Japan was being rebuilt with allied help. Their industry was woefully behind the time and mostly destroyed. Lots of outdated machinery was given to them (dumped) by the US and way they went on their way. When I was a kid in the 50s anything labeled MADE IN JAPAN was the poorest of quality. If something was cheap or broke you shrug and say 'must have been made in Japan.' But then things turned around and one the thing the Japs are really good at, excel at, is copying something... but they almost always fix it and improve it.

 

Now they make better cars than the Big Three. Better mileage, better build quality and better design.

 

[DanielC]

Datzenmike, nothing wrong with what you just said, I agree.  Even into the 1960's, your sentiment rang true.  

 

As I have mentioned before, I used a  521 to tow a two horse trailer, with two horses all over the Pacific Northwest in the 1970's.  I also used some full sized Ford pickups, and the Datsun probably was more reliable, and durable.

[mainer311]

Nice, I used some Spektrum stuff too, but mostly in this:

Edited September 23, 2020 by mainer311

[thisismatt]

Pictures are broken 😔

[DanielC]

What pictures are broken?  I can see my pictures, and other peoples pictures.