Bomber Green '73 620

[Datsunrider71]

Coming out fresh bra!!!!? Keep up the good work.

[cruznude]

Damm man, after looking at your build thread and all the work you've done, I would of pulled my hair out trying to solve the issues.. But its coming along and I say Kudos to you bro!  Its really coming around and lookin good also.  Keep up all the good work!

[Work280]

Looks like fun to me. On the grinder try a cutting disk that you can make cuts like a pie to remove more material the other option is to use a grinding stone disk and do the same but they make a huge mess. Than finish with your carbine tip to get it nice and smooth. It's coming along really nice keep up the good work

[KlassicMotion]

Well, I finished by using the technique I started with, it just seemed to work the best for me....

 

I ground down the center on both sides, then I used the carbide bit to finish the cut:

 

 

 

 

Here's the finished cut:

 

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[url=http://s250.photobucket.com/user/Millkyl/media/1973%20620/011-2.jpg.html]

[KlassicMotion]

It occured to me today.... The wheel balancer uses the center bore to center the wheels on the machine to balance them for tires.....  I wonder if this will be an issue!! :confused: :rofl:   If that doesn't work, I wonder if they have a lug-centric adapter for the tire balancer... Or, I suppose all else fails, I could pull a hub off, bolt the hub to the wheel and they can run the hub/wheel combo on the balancer...  We'll see what they say when I take them down to the tire shop.

[KlassicMotion]

Finally got around to cleaning and painting the wheels, and mounting the tires on.  I tried something new when painting the wheels;  since the black paint on the inside was still pretty fresh, I used some "cling wrap" to mask the holes, so the red paint didn't overspray.... Worked pretty well!

 

 

 

The wheels seemed to balance out just fine..... But, I went to put the rears on... and they hit the frame before touching the hub.... That was unexpected, but easily fixed with some 1.5" adapters from ezAccessory.com:

 

 

 

Here is how it sits with the 16x6.5" wheels and 215/60/16 tires:

 

[KlassicMotion]

Next up, while I was doing a radiator/coolant flush, I found a leak in the radiator at the pinch weld for the top of the tank. Since I'm already over budget, I thought I'd try and see what I can do before spending $200 on a new radiator. I did check with my local radiator shop about repairing it.... he said if it needed a new core, that would cost $100+ $150 in labor... So I went down to the local Ace Hardware and picked up some soldering flux and 60/40 acid core solder:

 

 

 

I used a wire brush and acetone to clean the area first.... I learned I should have cleaned the surrounding area MORE. Give a good half inch around the area to be free of old paint, otherwise it will get down in to your joint as you put the heat on it.

 

 

 

And soldered up:

 

 

 

And painted:

 

[K_trip]

- removed -

[KlassicMotion]

While I was getting the engine hot to test the radiator repair, I got to fiddling with the carb. The previous owner put a rebuilt Hitachi on it:





While fiddling, I found a fuel leak under the glass float bowl. It didn't seem to be the float bowl but rather the main jet caps. So I went ahead and removed the carb. My symptons are: it idles fine, but off idle, it stumbles or hesitates, but after that, it revs just fine. Of the possible culprits, one of the options is a clogged main jet.... So I removed both main jets, and sprayed some carb cleaner down the ports, put the jets back in and made sure the caps were tightened down (they were a little loose, which is probably why it was leaking). I also pulled the glass off the foat bowl and cleaned the gasket and put it back on, since I was there. Also while the carb was off, I tried an old trick I learned a long time ago... multiple times over, but especially on my 1985 Subaru Brat
I learned you should always buy a NEW carb over a Rebuilt carb when possible. The biggest problem I find it that the throttle shaft wears out. And most rebuild companies don't bother with the propper rebush on the throttle shaft. This Hitachi has had a rebush, but it's was a pretty shoddy job and there is still a lot of wiggle in the shaft. What I did was; totally cover the ends of the shaft with a healthy dab of dielectric grease. This usually seals off any vacuum leak....

And in this case, one of those two solutions worked, because now the carb runs great!!

Also while fiddling with all that, I noticed the ignition would occasionally not get power. So the first thing I did was take apart the... whatever relay this is (below).  I attacked this relay, becuase it makes a "click" whenever I turn the igniton "on"....

 

I cleaned the contacts points and the ground strap, and the connector prongs. I also had to make a new gasket for it:

Before:

 

Removing the nut to clean the ground strap

 

I used some emory cloth to clean the contact points. Then I used some electronics cleaner/lubricant to clean all the parts. Then I made the new gasket for it and put it all back together.

 

That didn't solve the problem, though I'm certain it's making a better contact now. What I also found to be a big issue, was a bad connection at the fusable link. So I cut some new fusable link and got it soldered in. Now the ignition problem is solved!

[KlassicMotion]

I felt pretty good getting all that fixed up, so for some reason I just happened to test the headlights..... nothing....  So okay, while I'm on a roll, I will clean the headlight switch:

 

Try this first, before throwing that old relay away!!!  Or do this to your relays anyways to get get better current flow out of them:

You can do the same to switches too, like your headlight or wiper switch.  They don't use contact points, but they have connections that get oxidized and dirty.

 

If your not confident to do this, contact me, you pay shipping, and I will do it for free.

 

 

Clean the contact points on your factory relays (headlights, horn, voltage regulator, etc) it's just like the contact points in your distributor.   The points get burnt, dirty, and oxidation accumulates on the copper ground straps.  Doing this will usually will bring a dead relay back to life.

 

Here's the headlight relay from my 620;  I did the same to the relays on my 510.  The 510 high-beams wouldn't work;  I did this and they worked again.

 

 

 

Bend the 4 tabs holding the metal cover on, and separate the bottom from the cover:

 

 

 

Cover off:

 

 

 

Remove the screw holding the copper plate on, so you can clean the copper surface.  Brass wire brush, or 0000 steel wool works well.

**Pictured are two versions of the screw/nut holding the copper plate on.  ***Be careful not to break the wires... Yes they can be re-soldered if they break.

 

 

OR

 

 

 

Contact Points:   Use Emory cloth to clean/smooth them (Local parts store usually has Emory cloth in the sheet, or roll)

 

 

 

Emory cloth:

 

 

 

I used some needle nose pliers to tweak the points a bit so they made better contact:

 

 

 

Dont forget the connector terminals:

 

 

 

I quickly cleaned the cover and made a new gasket for it:

 

 

 

Don't forget to clean any and all terminals, especially the forgotten ground terminals.  This includes making sure the screw holding the terminal on, and the surface the terminal touches has clean bare metal touching all contact surfaces.  Cover the connection with dielectric grease to keep moisture and corrosion out of the connection.

 

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That didn't work, but again I'm sure it only helped improve the current flow.

 

I don't figure it will help, but I had already purchased a new fuse block to put on the truck since mine was toast.... litereally one of the fuse sections was melted away from the panel:

 

 

 

With that on, I tried the headlights.... "TA DA!! "  as my 2 year old says.  The headlights work!!  I'm assuming the fuse connections were just dirty... 

[KlassicMotion]

Next up... This was all in the same night... I was in the garage 'till 3:30am.  I wanted to install my replacement wiper transmission rods that I just got from Kim (420n620).  The nylon pivots on my wipers were busted:

 

 

 

Here is a dissassembled view of the wiper pivots:

 

 

 

The dirty/corroded shaft:

 

 

 

The cleaned shaft:

 

 

 

Cleaned shaft with white litium grease and graphite:

 

 

 

Cleaning the Nylon pivots with a brass wire brush to get the rust from the shaft out:

 

 

 

Put them back together and isntalled them!!  I went around to the wiper switch... the switch is broken..... :(  I went to eBay, and ordered an NOS switch from that guy in Saudi Arabia, only he won't ship to Alaska, so I had him ship it to my father in KS, then he will ship it up to me....

[w_datsun_a]

Next up... This was all in the same night... I was in the garage 'till 3:30am.  I wanted to install my replacement wiper transmission rods that I just got from Kim (420n620).  The nylon pivots on my wipers were busted:

 

 

 

Here is a dissassembled view of the wiper pivots:

 

 

 

The dirty/corroded shaft:

 

 

 

The cleaned shaft:

 

 

 

Cleaned shaft with white litium grease and graphite:

 

 

 

Cleaning the Nylon pivots with a brass wire brush to get the rust from the shaft out:

 

 

 

Put them back together and isntalled them!!  I went around to the wiper switch... the switch is broken..... :(  I went to eBay, and ordered an NOS switch from that guy in Saudi Arabia, only he won't ship to Alaska, so I had him ship it to my father in KS, then he will ship it up to me....

 

No love for Alaska?  Is it because you guys already have oil?  ;-)

[KlassicMotion]

No love for Alaska?  Is it because you guys already have oil?  ;-)

 

A lot of sellers on eBay are like that.... I don't know why...  As long as they enter the info in the shipping calculator correctly, or use flat rate boxes, it's no different.

 

Did you know....  Alaska only has one refinery.  We ship the oil down to the lower 48 to be refined, then it gets shipped back up here to the gas stations....  Gas is around $4 gallon, and it comes from here :no:

[KlassicMotion]

I just finished installing some 210 side marker lights onto the front of the 620.  Next I plan to convert them to flash with the turn signals, I just need to pick up some turn signals that are in better shape and the proper connectors to wire it all up. 

 

I didn't have any side markers on the truck when I bought it, so I wasn't sure what the stock units looked like in person.  First I bought a set off eBay from Thailand....  I think I mentioned before about how worthless those are.  So in addition, I bought set of used stock marker lights; and as a possibility for the 510, I bought another set from a 210 off eBay.  I didn't like the look of the 210 units on the 510, but I did like the look of the 210 units on the 620, better than the huge stock units... So here is what I did to get them to fit.  But as a side note first, as I mentioned I'm looking to convert these to be turn signals too.  If you take a look at this write-up from DQ Vol. 1 Issue 1;  When you do what the author suggests, you turn the entire metal housing into a "hot" link when the turn signal flashes!  That is serious cause for alarm... unless you have side markers with the full rubber condom that surrounds the metal housing.  At which point, you just need to drill out the mounting screw holes larger in the housing, so the screws don't risk touching the metal housing and cause a short.

 

I hadn't realized this until I got started, but luckily a friend of mine had just given me two headlight/signal harnesses from a '99 Jeep Grand Cherokee, that I was able to scavenge from and come up with a pretty cool solution:  Now onto the pics:

 

So here is the finished product first:

 

 

 

And here is the completed unit before install:

 

 

 

I first cut the plastic housing off the 210 units. "Why?"  Well I wouldn't have had to, but one of them was already broken, so it seemed like a good idea to convert both in the same fashion.

 

 

 

Next, I painted the inside chrome, for some better reflectiveness, and the exterior semi-flat black for looks.  I also cleaned the 210 units with soap, and a tooth brush.

 

 

 

Next I modified the housings from the junk Thailand units to work with the 210 units, but also I made them a lot safer to use as a blinker with the turn signals:

 

Here, I removed the stock style bulb socket:

 

 

 

Then I drilled the socket hole out to 5/8" using my step-drill bit:

 

 

 

Next, I flattened the socket area:

 

 

 

And by using a flat file, I notched the socket hole:

 

 

 

And this allowed me to insert some sockets I got off the Jeep harness:

 

 

 

Now, how this works;  The metal housing, I put on the inside of the fender, and the 210 unit, I put on the outside of the fender. 

 

I had to attach some zip nuts to the metal housing, then I put the rubber gasket around it, and put it on the inside of the fender.

 

 

And as you saw before, here is the final look:

 

[KlassicMotion]

Here is that write-up from DQ for that turn signal conversion:

 

 

[Eagle_Adam]

might have to follow suit with those blinking marker lights....

 

 

 

and i found the ashtray piece you were after if you still need it 

[]2eDeYe]

Looking good, need to get those lower fenders under control :lol:

[KlassicMotion]

might have to follow suit with those blinking marker lights....

 

 

 

and i found the ashtray piece you were after if you still need it 

 

Thanks for the offer, but Kim (420n620) hooked me up.  I think I have everything now..... But we'll see, you never know!!

[KlassicMotion]

No progress, but I had to move it out of the garage, so I got some a couple of pics.

 

 

[Eagle_Adam]

That and out great man!!!

[KlassicMotion]

Damn the luck!!  Just as soon as I buy most of the missing parts the truck needs from you guys, and pay for the shipping costs, someone posts on Craigslist that they are parting out a '78 620!  All he wants is the frame and bed to make a trailer out of it.   Soooo, for $150, the guy delivered the '78 to me, I'm stripping everything off I want (most everything), and he will pick-up what's left when I'm done.  Seems like a great deal to me.  But now I've got the problem of having duplicate parts for the 620! 

 

So please everyone, don't be offended if you see me post the parts, or similar parts, that I bought from you.  I'm not trying to make money, only recover the money I've spent.

 

I still need a good valance, fuel sender unit, gas tank, retractable belts, a non-leaky steering box, and other little parts.  So I figure, those parts, plus the good bumper, wheels with good tires, straight fenders, and a complete dash, spare side windows and regulators, spare wiper transmission rods and motor, that should be worth the $150, especially if you consider the cost to ship things up here....

 

Anyways, here are two pics of the parts truck:

 

[KlassicMotion]

Ok, so here are some questions:

 

My truck is a '73 with king-pin front spindles and drum brakes.  The '78 has the ball-joints and disc brakes.....

 

What does it take to swap the brakes? Or can they?

Can the control arms be swapped?

 

Is there anything I should make sure to grab off the '78 that I haven't already mentioned?

[Eagle_Adam]

no, nothing swaps between the two front end types 

[Eagle_Adam]

some reading material 

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/20432-disc-brake-installed-on-a-drum-brake-truck/

[KlassicMotion]

Thanks for the link, that helps.   I toyed with the idea of swapping frames, but not worth the effort..... 

 

Alright, well I guess that means less work for me.....