So I bought a 620...

[KlassicMotion]

Yes, it's the stock carb.

 

Blow the air through your fuel line before you drain the tank to see if that works first.  If it does, then it will be necessary to drain it.

 

For your dieseling issues, test the idle cut-off switch;

Take it off, hook the body of the switch to ground, and put a positive lead to the wire.  You should be able to see the end of the switch move. 

 

[KlassicMotion]

BTW, for your tool list, you will need a 1 1/16" socket for turning the crankshaft pulley bolt...  I'm using one now to assist with setting the valves on my 620.

[mrbigtanker]

For the basic stuff on the Datsun;

 

This is what you will need most often; 

 

Wrenches and Sockets:

8mm

10mm

12mm

14mm

 

There will be times you need:

13mm

15mm

17mm

19mm

21mm

22mm

 

Screw drivers, of course.

 

Get yourself a couple of hammers.  Something like this will work for most things:

http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-mechanics-hammer-set.html

 

A 12" or 15" adjustable wrench comes in handy.

 

There will be other stuff you will need, but this will get you on your way.

 

I'd suggest checking craigslist for tool sets.  Sometime you can find some good deals.

I would just buy a Snap On truck to work on your Datsun.But sears will do just fine.lol  Nice truck

[c4ck4]

The fuel pump passed the test running out of a container, it sucked up almost 12oz of fluid before finally firing, I think all the lines, pump, carb etc were dry.

I finally got it started and drove up under some cover on level ground where I can jack it.  I never found a plugged piece of tube though and that makes me a little uneasy.  I hooked up the air compressor between the tank and fuel filter and couldn't get any air to flow through, but when I reconnected it to the tank, then unhooked a 2ft piece of rubber fuel hose from the metal line, gas spurted out freely (lower than the tank).  I thought the rubber line MUST be plugged, but when I removed it it was clear too.... I opened the drain nut under the tank and the fuel came out pretty clear, so I just replaced the short rubber hose anyway in case it was collapsing or something, but I still don't get why the air didn't flow through it.

[c4ck4]

 

For your dieseling issues, test the idle cut-off switch;

Take it off, hook the body of the switch to ground, and put a positive lead to the wire.  You should be able to see the end of the switch move. 

 

 

 

Thanks I'll check this!

[c4ck4]

I pulled off the front drums and found the front left was spraying fluid all over the shoes and inside of the drum.  No wonder it pulls to the right, I probably have zero stopping power on that side.  I checked local auto parts stores and most of them are $25-40 for wheel cylinders and even then almost all of them have to special order.

 

On rockauto I'm seeing a front left wheel cylinder for $5.22.  wow.  Are there any brands to watch out for on there or are most things just closeouts and discounted for other reasons?

[KlassicMotion]

I don't know....  When there is that drastic of a price difference, I get skeptical on the quality...   I noticed when I was shopping for brake parts, Autozone and O'Reilly's had different brands, but who knows, it's possible they are manufactured in the same plant.  The one thing I can tell you, is that the Autozone's house brand brake shoes, are the same brake shoes as the O'Reilly Brake Best Select brand...  I think you will have to just pick what feels right to you.  Cost wise, up here, Napa and Autozone are a lot more expensive than O'Reilly's so I was going to order my parts at O'Reilly's, but now I think I will check out RockAuto before I make a decision.

[c4ck4]

Interesting, in general where I'm at Autozone is the cheapest, then O'reilly, then Napa being the most expensive usually.

 

I ordered a wheel cylinder, some brake shoes, and a brake drum hardware kit (springs and such) tonight.  I wanted to wait and order other stuff too but I haven't had time to check the idle stop solenoid and other stuff.

 

I also ordered a factory service manual for my exact year ('77) from amazon for $14.95 which sounded like a steal to me, since it appeared to be way more in depth than haynes/chilton etc.  I've been using the '74 & '78 .pdfs on the page you guys suggested: http://www.davidcmurphy.com/olddat/620tech.htm

 

It's still nice to have a paper manual though, I hate getting grease on my computer.

[datzenmike]

The Nissan produced FSMs are the last word in auto manuals. Chilton's and Haynes have to cover about 7 years of 620 production and have added appendices that are incomplete. Terms such as '77-'78 similar or assembly same as disassembly do not help. Every year had different emissions equipment and carbs.

[KlassicMotion]

I've got a '78 620 manual.  You won't be disappointed, and that is a good price!

[datzenmike]

'78? me too. I gave someone in Las Vegas a flex plate cost me $12 to ship, shrug, no big deal. Without asking they sent me a '78 620 FSM. What a deal!!!

[c4ck4]

This is kind of off topic but...

 

I bought the truck to be a daily to replace my '85 honda that I got from my aunt.  I was going through the glovebox to see if I should keep anything and found the original financing paperwork from when she bought it.

 

There was a line item for trade in, and it turns out she was driving a '73 610.  :rofl:   Who knew?  I wonder if one of you is driving it now?

[banzai510(hainz)]

Datsun as a daily?

You better get this up quick and learn fast.

 

get soem fuel filters for this and keep that carb clean!!!!!!!!!!!

learn the ignition. Points ignitions are the worst for the inexperienced.

Over heat. Ck the hoses and maybe get new heater hoses also.

 

find a radiadtor as a spare.

 

rock auto has good prices but be careful where it shippes from. soem are different warehouses. If really cheap buy a couple as most are Taiwan units and go bad in 5 years. If Japan is old stock they getting rid off and its a good deal buy them up first.

[KlassicMotion]

The Datsun is very simple to work on.

 

The main thing they need is routine maintenance like any other classic car.  Keep up on the routine stuff and there shouldn't be anything to worry about.  In fact at this point in time, the Datsun will probably take less work to keep as a daily than the '85 Honda.  The Honda has a lot of switches, relays and vacuum lines that are probably about to start failing.  If it's anything like my '85 Subaru, it's not always easy to find the relays and switches you need.  But with the Datsun, there is less to go wrong, everything can be sourced, and you have Ratsun as a great wealth of knowledge!!!

[c4ck4]

 

Datsun will probably take less work to keep as a daily than the '85 Honda.  The Honda has a lot of switches, relays and vacuum lines that are probably about to start failing.

 

My Honda had vacuum lines out the wazoo, and my skill level is far below diagnosing that kind of thing.  It was way too complex for me.  It had trouble idling and needed a new radiator, but I still sold it for $600.  So with $1000 in the truck I feel like I got it for $400 and couldn't be happier! :D 

 

My brake hardware arrived today, should be able to get that on tomorrow or the weekend.

 

When I replace the wheel cylinder do I have to bleed the whole system or just that cylinder that I remove?  Do pretty much all passenger vehicles use DOT 3 brake fluid?  If somebody put in a different type and I topped it up with new DOT 3 would that be bad?

 

I thought I only ordered one set of shoes for the driver side, but they sent two sets which is probably good, I guess it makes sense to swap both sides at once so they'll wear and be ready to change at about the same time later on.

[KlassicMotion]

Bleed the whole system, starting with the furthest cylinder from the master.  It would be in your best interst to just drain out all the fluid and put new fluid in (technically it's recommended every year, but no one does).  At that point, you might as well upgrade to DOT4. 

[c4ck4]

Apparently I'm confused about what's included in some of the parts on rockauto.  I ordered two units of "drum brake hardware kit".  Apparently one kit is for both sides.  So I ordered 4 sets of springs in total and only used half.

 

Oh well, at least I had enough hardware to replace the shoes and springs on both sides, plus replace the leaky wheel cylinder on driver's side.  Putting the springs back together was actually a lot easier than when I did a brake job on my honda few years ago.  I turned out that on the passenger side one of the shoes was actually bent and was missing some pad material on the back edge where I couldn't see till I removed it it.  So I'm really glad I changed that one.

 

It took me a while to figure out which shoe was on the forward side and which was on the back side, but I finally figured it out based on the small black spring that hooks in the 2nd hole.

 

I adjusted the adjuster quite a lot, but had a lot of trouble getting the drums back on anyway.  I fiddled with one of them for probably half an hour or more before I finally got it rammed on, but then I couldn't dream of turning it, so I finally got it off again and adjusted them till I could slide the drums on and turn them by hand without much resistance.

 

Tomorrow I'll bleed the brake system, and begin tackling the overheating issue, which I haven't started yet.

[KlassicMotion]

Put your drums on first, then you adjust them until you have a bit of drag....  Check again after breaking them in.

 

 

Do you have a whole set of spring hardware front and rear, left over?  I was going to buy a set for the front and rear of my truck...  I'd be interested in purchasing a set, if it's whole...  I can get both the front and rear for $18 locally.  If you want to recoup some of your money, I'd pay $20 if you want to ship them to me...

[c4ck4]

Put your drums on first, then you adjust them until you have a bit of drag....  Check again after breaking them in.

 

I'll have to go outside and check again, but I'm pretty sure the drum completely covers the adjuster and I just don't understand how that could work.

 

 

Do you have a whole set of spring hardware front and rear, left over?  I was going to buy a set for the front and rear of my truck...  I'd be interested in purchasing a set, if it's whole...  I can get both the front and rear for $18 locally.  If you want to recoup some of your money, I'd pay $20 if you want to ship them to me...

 

I was only planning on doing the front brakes this time and so I only ended up with a full set of three springs for each front side, yellow, orange and black.  After seeing what I saw on the shoes I wasn't originally going to replace, I think I should definitely check out the rear brakes too and see what they look like.  I don't think the front springs work on the rear but I'm not sure, if they do I'd probably keep the springs.  Also they only cost me $3.34 from rockauto.

[KlassicMotion]

Cool, I will check out rock auto for those springs.

 

My shoe adjusters on the '73 have an access hole on the backside of the brakes, through the backing plate.

[c4ck4]

 

My shoe adjusters on the '73 have an access hole on the backside of the brakes, through the backing plate.

 

Hmm, I can take a picture and show you what I mean, maybe it's different or maybe I'm not seeing it.

 

Okay well, I started bleeding the system and the front master cylinder bleeder worked the first few times, then stripped out with very little pressure and started leaking out some fluid.  I tied a big wad of paper towels around it to help contain the leaking.  Looks like I'm adding New Master Cylinder for my task list.  It was looking pretty crusty anyway.  Also while the GF was pumping the brakes to bleed it, I noticed the whole master cylinder/booster assembly seemed to be wiggling quite a bit.  The bolts appeared to be snugged down but this seemed concerning.  I wiggled it and she could feel it through the pedal too.  Here is a video showing how much it wiggles.  Does that look bad to the rest of you?

 

[GRpufnstuf]

The adjuster access port is at the bottom of the backing plate. There is a clip looking dealy that you need to slide back, according to my Haynes manual.

Mine was already open when I did mine.

Then You use a large flat blade screwdriver and very patiently turn the adjuster by pryin against the toothy part of the adjuster barrel.

 

Almost all brake drums are made this way so you should have a port back there.

[KlassicMotion]

Is the bracket broken for the brake booster? Or, is the fire wall "broken"?

 

The bleeders on the master cylinder are for when you put a new master on, and you need to bench bleed it.  Otherwise, all you need to do is bleed each wheel cylinder.

[c4ck4]

 

The bleeders on the master cylinder are for when you put a new master on, and you need to bench bleed it.  Otherwise, all you need to do is bleed each wheel cylinder.

 

Well either way it's screwed up now because the bleeder is leaking fluid.  I barely tightened it to make it spin freely.  I can get a new one at a local parts store for around $30 so it's not a big deal, it's just a bit more work than I was expecting.  I was following a bleeding procedure I found on another thread that said:

 

I am an old hand at brake bleeding datsuns. Under the pass. side mounted under the inner frame rail is the Nissan Load Sensing Valve (NLSV for short).It is a load sensing proportioning valve. It has 3 bleeder screws on it. Proper brake bleeding procedure is as follows:

 

Master cyl Front

Master cyl Rear

Front Wheel Cylinders (either one 1st)

NLSV Front

Rear wheel cylinder (LEFT one first)

NLSV Rear

NLSV Center

 

This operation, in my travels has had to be done at least twice to get a good pedal. Do not attempt to use a Mity Vac or other vacuum pump in this situation, not that it won't work, it will just take a really long time. It really requires a human foot pumper to bleed out the NLSV, I have never had any luck getting it right with the mity-vac........

 

As long as the master cylinder is off, is there a test to see if the booster is still good?  Btw, I looked under the dash near the pedal and found out the booster was missing a nut on one of it's three bolts so that explains the wobble.

[KlassicMotion]

Ah... My bad, I forgot you had the '77 with the NLSV.  There is another guy on here that just bought a '73 like mine.

 

That guy you quoted is right, but not because he is an "old hand at brake bleeding Datsuns"  But because that info is strait out of the factory '77 manual!!

 

You need this manual.  It has the answers to your questions.  It even covers testing your brake booster.

 

Go here to download it;  http://www.datsun510.com/manuals/

 

or these were the cheapest I found to buy:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1977-DATSUN-PICK-UP-FACTORY-SHOP-MANUAL-/121167758996?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c36294694

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1977-DATSUN-PICK-UP-FACTORY-SHOP-MANUAL-/121167758996?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c36294694

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1977-Datsun-Pick-Up-Service-Manual-/130603265707?pt=Motors_Manuals_Literature&hash=item1e688faeab&vxp=mtr