Learning The Datsun Way - Hooray for 720s!

[SoundByte]

I'm new to Ratsun, and overall fairly new to car work, but I recently picked up an '84 720 King Cab for $400 on Craigslist. The only catch was that the PO had driven it into the corner of their neighbor's house, so the passenger side of its face was/is pretty mangled. I got excited about getting to work on it, and completely forgot to take a before picture. However, I did snap one after the first serious session of removing junk parts, and pulling the corner out with ratchet straps and my friends' bumper. 

 

 

I'm really excited to have this rad little truck, and I thought I'd share it with you all, since my Datsun friend sent me here. I've been helping him out with his 510 and his 280Z, so when I started looking for pickups, a Datsun seemed like the way to go. 

 

I just put new rubber on it today, and that improved things a lot (the tires that came on it were scary, dangerous junk). Tomorrow, I'm driving 200 miles (road test!) to get some parts from a Ratsun member who's going to sell me the body parts I need for what (I think) is a very generous price. I'm definitely looking forward to puttering around in this truck for many years. 

[Justin Berni]

i just got a 720 also, before i had it i always thought they were the ugliest datsun pickup but man it grew on me!

[SoundByte]

I DD an E30, so I'm all about boxy 80's vehicles. I can't get enough of simple design. Also, the more I look at 720s, the more I dig their lines. I'm also totally all about the Z24! What a badass little engine!

[Justin Berni]

yeah its a poor mans 8cyl haha, but e30's are too cool man! . I wanna see your e30 and 2002! 

[SoundByte]

I've been having a lot of fun with them. The E30 is my brother's old car (he never took much care of it, crashed it and sold it to our dad), and the 2002 is my dad's old car (he left it to me when he died, and he DD'd it for 40 years. No garage queen here, but was a quick fix, even after 5 years of sitting).

 

I don't have a good picture of the 2002 on its own, but I snapped one of the pair when I had the E30 in for some work:

 

 

I managed to crack two of those white rims (RIP) in preposterously thick fog & dark, driving through the land of wayward medians (Hillsboro).  Also, this is before I replaced that gravel shield with a faux oem air dam. The stock bottlecap wheels all had corrosion-related slow leaks, so I eventually drove up to Tacoma to get a set of basketweaves, only to later discover that two of them were damaged, one with a chunk out of the lip. Craigslist can suck.

 

Right after I finished bolting the air dam on at a friend's place:

 

 

Anyway, the moral of this story is that BMW people tend to be assholes, and so far I way prefer Datsun people. 

[elmerfudpucker]

My Lil Mule has served me well, I beat that truck like it owes me money and It gets me where ever I need to go! Looking forward to the rebuild!

[Justin Berni]

dude i started to say something about typical BMW douches then i deleted it cuz i didnt wanna offend you haha! but yeah bimmer drivers are usually assholes who think they are the shit. That e30 needs some low in my opinion, but damn you have a nice set of cars.

[nerdistmonk]

dude i started to say something about typical BMW douches then i deleted it cuz i didnt wanna offend you haha! but yeah bimmer drivers are usually assholes who think they are the shit. That e30 needs some low in my opinion, but damn you have a nice set of cars.

 

it depends on the owner really, most of the time people driving the older 'beamers' arnt too bad, they bought it because it was a nice old car much like our datsuns, BMW isnt a bad vehicle at all, i never got into them because well i dont think they had a pickup truck (or if they did it was very hard to get).

 

Its usually the guys with the brand spanking new ones that end up being Poidy-Toidy and cant see anything but the end of their nose and the sky.

 

Though you can occasionally get that guy who buys an very old bmw and thinks the same as someone with a new one (takes it way too seriously).

 

Anywhos nice cars man, hopefully you can bring that datsun back, better, stronger, faster....you get the drift ;)

[elmerfudpucker]

You know the difference between a shiny new BMW and a porcupine? The porcupine has the pricks on the outside!  :poke:   :rofl: 

 

I kid, I kid!!  :thumbup:

[SoundByte]

Hahaha, awesome. It's nice to know that not everybody assumes that I'm a dick. I've definitely gotten lucky with vehicles, and I'm trying to deserve them by learning how to take care of them. The 2002 doesn't get driven a lot, as I can't exactly afford to keep up 3 cars at once (much less an oldie that I would feel terrible about running into the ground). One day, I'll get around to it. Anyway, back to the important stuff. 

 

The 720 just successfully got me 750 miles down the road in the last few days! On wednesday, I drove it to Pasco and back to replace the really trashed parts, and the next day I loaded it up and drove to SOAK (where I ran into another Ratsuner with a blue 280z!). Here's a picture of the most recent fixes (pass. headlight is a bit droopy because it's ziptie'd in. I'll install the grille once I pull the corner out a bit more and bolt the headlight in):

 

 

Also, speaking of E30s and BMW not making pickups, check this fucker out (found at the ///M musuem, apparently):

 

[Tinman]

^^^ I love stuff like that!

[SoundByte]

So, I've been having cold start issues, and I'm not quite sure how to solve them. Basically, the truck chugs/shudders and dies when I try to apply power right off a cold start. I can overcome this (with some gurgling) with more throttle, and it evens out at operating temp.

 

The carb looks pretty tired, and I ordered a rebuild kit from rockauto, but then I figured out why my airbox was missing one of the two bolts that thread into the valve cover. There's a hole in my valve cover! Could all of my issues be related to that? 

[datzenmike]

no. The valve cover is vented to the air cleaner anyway, a hole would only leak some oil.

 

 

Carb motors have a slight lack of power when cold but when set up right, will start, idle and run just fine. Chances are your choke is not proper and part of the choke system is a fast idle to prevent stalling and warm the engine in the shortest time. A good rebuild should include instructions for setting both.

[Tinman]

The choke is the most common problem with these carbs.  Look down from the top and see if the plastic arm that links it to the vacuum pull-off is broken.

 

 

A rebuild is a good idea.  When this carb works right, the truck starts and drives just great.  Mine does, but I did rebuild the carb twice in 28 years now to keep it working right.

Kind of mandatory with California emission testing.... no weber for me.

[SoundByte]

Word. I haven't yet spotted the arm that you're talking about, owing to having spent most of the day helping a friend move. I did however get the grille mounted. Again, hooray for zipties! Sooner or later I'll finish pulling that corner out, but for now I'll take the quick fix mileage improvements.

 

Picture!

 

[Cyph34r]

...

 

Right after I finished bolting the air dam on at a friend's place:

 

 

Anyway, the moral of this story is that BMW people tend to be assholes, and so far I way prefer Datsun people. 

God I hated that E36 so much.

 

Other than a vibration noise at like 35 that truck is running better than before you took it to SOAK. The hesitation/loss of power when its cold is almost compeltely gone.

 

And I'm pretty sure this is my first post, so: Hi Ratsun.

[SoundByte]

That E36 was an accursed Russian demon car. I sleep better at night knowing that it probably ended up in the crusher at PnP. 

[wayno]

God I hated that E36 so much.

 

Other than a vibration noise at like 35 that truck is running better than before you took it to SOAK. The hesitation/loss of power when its cold is almost compeltely gone.

 

And I'm pretty sure this is my first post, so: Hi Ratsun.

 

Welcome  B)

[Cyph34r]

That E36 was an accursed Russian demon car. I sleep better at night knowing that it probably ended up in the crusher at PnP. 

 

Didn't I tell you I thought I saw it on Multnomah at some point after you told me you'd spotted it at PnP?

[SoundByte]

I'm still convinced it ran on pure spite. 

[Tinman]

When you look straight down at the carb, follow the metal arm that links the choke plate to the vacuum diaphragm on the side.  If you look closely, the metal arm attaches to a plastic piece that is part of the diaphragm.  THAT little plastic piece is prone to break, so as soon as the engine starts the choke is NOT pulled open a liitle.... causing rough running and other problems.  There is a replacement often seen on ebay, but you have to take the carb off to fix it.  Sometimes you can also epoxy the metal and plastic part together.

 

This is a common failure, so check on that first.

 

Truck's looking better!

Word. I haven't yet spotted the arm that you're talking about, owing to having spent most of the day helping a friend move. I did however get the grille mounted. Again, hooray for zipties! Sooner or later I'll finish pulling that corner out, but for now I'll take the quick fix mileage improvements.

 

 

 

 

[SoundByte]

I found the arm. It looks to have melted apart, but I'm thinking of trying to patch it back together with a soldering iron (throwaway tips are pretty great for welding plastic). If worse comes to worse, I'll find some donor plastic, and fill it out with that. Thanks for the help! Hopefully repairing that arm and replacing my fucked up valve cover will smooth things out.

[Tinman]

Yep, that little plastic part is where they break.  Good luck!

 

I've seen these fixed with wire melted through and wrapped around the metal stud, and seen epoxy.  But in the end you may have to replace the pull off assembly outright.

[lilbrown720]

Glad to see someone else on here that's into BMW's especially e30s.  

 

See here

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/48005-lilbrown720-intro/?do=findComment&comment=772972

[SoundByte]

The solution ended up being a Weber 32/36. It smoothed out all kinds of stuff, including the automatic trans sketchiness. I also found an ST wheel at the scrapyard, and relaced the wrap. Pretty pleased with how that turned out. The fuel pump shat out and was replaced, so now the only remaining problems to solve are the power steering (the pump is leaky AF, and hardly providing any steering assist at all), and plugging the EGR holes on the exhaust manifold. Trying to track down a pair of M24 x 1.0 bolts, which is easier said than done.

 

Now, pictures!