new 521 owner from Tennessee

[mrweld]

Just purchased a 1969 521 Monday and brought in home last night, also have a 1970 roadster, 240z and 260z. Im anxious to get started on the restoration on the 521 with my own creative flair..  Looking to you guys for help as I go Im sure..  Im not very good at all on computers, Ill post pics after I figure out how!!!!

[mrbigtanker]

welcome aboard and were are the damm pictures.lol

[MikeRL411]

Go to "General Discussion" pix posting how to is about the tenth entry.

[mrweld]

[mrweld]

[mrweld]

[mrweld]

My truck is a 2 owner with 47000 original miles, hasn't been driven in years, got it home last night and within 10 minutes had it running, not driving. Ordered lotsa parts today hopefully Ill be driving soon.  I work 2 jobs so my time on my projects is limited. Check out some of my work on FB Gas Axe Chop Shop!!!!!!!!  Theres where you will see PICS!!!!!!!

[mrbigtanker]

new battery air in the tires and,gas and boom your golden.looks like a really good start. :thumbup:

[zed1]

Very nice.

Keith

[420n620]

nice score. Would you look in the drivers door jamb and tell us what is stamped on the vin plate and what year does the title say. Thanks

[mrweld]

Finally got my title, It says 1070. Previous owner had told me 1969, makes no difference to me. Build date is 8 /69. wheels off to be blasted and powder coated white. Have new 14 inch white walls waiting for me at the tire shop. New clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder on, have new brake master cylinder and front brake hoses to put on and check out the wheels cylinders and brakes. I have replaced battery cables, have all new hoses, Had to make all the heater hoses, deleted the hoses running to the intake. I rebuilt the carb, have a new electronic ignition to install with plugs and wires, cap and rotor. I am waiting on the fuel pump ( 4 days now) will be here tomoro. If the wheel cylinders aren't wasted I will get to go on its first ride in 5 years hopefully by the weekend!! Having two jobs SUX!!

[]2eDeYe]

Welcome aboard, nice looking start you got there. :D

[DanielC]

Datsun L-engines in a 521, and probably many other very early 1970 Datsun cars are notoriously cold blooded.  I have had 521 trucks actually start running very poorly, because of ice forming in the carburetor.  

 

Without manifold heat, from the hot engine water, and warm air off the exhaust manifold in the winter, gasoline will not fully vaporize in the manifold before it gets to the cylinder.   So you will have to run a richer mixture to get it to run, and the excess gas washes oil off the cylinder walls.  You get a little more power now, but you will wear out the rings, and guess what, poor compression will lose much more power than you gain by running cold air into the engine.

 

Remember this is not a modern fuel injection engine, with a computer, and an O2 sensor that can monitor engine operation, and adjust the fuel air ration.

 

In the Summer, you can get away without hot air going to the engine, and possibly without manifold water heating, after the engine is fully warmed up.

 

But to delete the manifold heating going into Winter, probably not the best idea

[mrweld]

HMMMMMMMMMM  , Maybe Ill plumb that sucker back in then.  Thanks for tip. Those heater hoses are a pain in the butt!!  One on that line will be simple but the one on the rear will require making a adapter from one hose size to the bigger. Oh well, I have to spin out adapters for the other two, one more wont kill me. None of my local parts stores carry the formed heater hoses and I have searched the web for them with no luck!!

[DanielC]

There are many parts for a 521 that are still available at your local Nissan dealer.  Try there.  Some parts are common to other Datsun trucks.  Brake drums from a 320 trucks will fit, as will 520 trucks.  620 brake drums will fit, and even the rear brake drums off an early 720 will fit, I think.  Brake wheel cylinders for a 620 will fit, but although they are the same size, the brake cylinders on a 620 are metric.  

521 trucks use American SAE size bolts on the body, and the hydraulics.  The engine, transmission, and I think the rear axle are Metric.  The oil pressure fitting on the engine, and other pipe fittings on the engine are a British standard.  

 

Some useful stuff:

A wiring diagram:

 

Part numbers, and pictures.

http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun520/Datsun520521Index.aspx

 

General information, I know it says it is for 620 trucks, but 521 trucks are closely related to 620's

http://www.olddatsuns.com/

 

That page has this link, and halfway down, you can down load factory service manuals for 521 trucks.

http://www.davidcmurphy.com/olddat/620tech.htm

[mrbigtanker]

No not the wiring diagram thing.aahhhhhhh.lol

[mrweld]

Little help please...  Two hoses on the right side of the intake, right at the base of the carb, one is a short 90, small on one side and bigger on the other, one has a 90 fitting in the intake, both are right at the base of the carb but in the intake. I think they are vacuum but they were not hooked up when I got my truck. I first thought one was part of the coolant intake heater but determined that only the one that hooks from the metal line in the front is coolant. It may be smog stuff, nothing was hooked to the smog pump. I have removed it since it was just hanging there. I know I have to plug a few lines since it is not in use but Ill get to that later.

[cruznude]

Yes the water lines are hard to find.  Especially the one with 2 different size ends. I called my local nissan dealer yesterday trying to find them for my 620 and he didn't have.  He gave me a # to a place in S.Dakota called Billion Nissan and shows they have them.  I'm gonna call today. Heres the # 605-361-1818. Check them out..

[mrweld]

Thanks for the info, I have set out to make my own machining out adapters to go from one size hose to the other using common parts store inventory. I have successfully done this in the past with other hot rod builds so we will see how that goes..  Thanks again

[DanielC]

Here are some engine pictures that may help.

 

PCV hoses.

The small pipe coming off the crankcase PCV tube goes to a valve in the engine bay, that vents the gas tank, on 521 trucks with evaporative emission control.  These trucks can be easily identified by a cover plate in the bed, that is in front of the left wheel well.  There is a fitting sticking up and to the left at about a 30 degree angle.  This goes to the gulp valve, and then to the air pump.  If no air pump, it can be plugged.  The threads on the manifold are a British standard, a normal pipe plug will not work.   You can use this fitting for a vacuum brake booster.

 

PCV vent hose.

 

There is a small fitting behind the two wires hanging down.  This also goes to the gulp valve.  It too can be plugged.

[mrweld]

Thanks for pics, big help

[mrweld]

Hose issues solved last night, have one left to replace. The pick up hose from the tank to the steel line is split. Just my luck. I put a small gas tank on the fender  to at least start the engine and let it run for a bit and wouldn't you know all I got was a click at the solenoid..  fooled with that for a while with no luck and called it quits for the night. Two days ago it was turning over just fine!!  Again just my luck. battery is hot, even had a booster on it, new cables, great connection at the solenoid so Im back to scratching my head tonite..  And yes I even tried running a hot wire directly from battery  to starter!!  again this is just my luck ... 

[DanielC]

This is my project thread on Ratsun, a 521 i bought as a parts truck in April of 2011.

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/30606-my-ratsun-datsun-521/

 

The first time I ran Ratsun, I used this gas tank to get gas in the engine.

 

I found by holding the tank up in the air, gas would flow down into the carb, through the fuel pump without the engine running,

I have been daily driving Ratsun, since August 8, 2013.  I have put about 1350 miles on it so far.

 

Here is a bit of electrical tech form a Jeep forum. 

http://www.vernco.com/Sparks/id606.htm

It talks about doing a voltage drop test on the starter circuit on a 6 volt Jeep.   You can use a voltage drop test ti isolate exactly where you have a bad connection.  Checking the voltage across the two big terminals on the solenoid, will confirm if the solenoid is bad.

 

If you have the original starter in your 521, it is easy to remove the solenoid, and take the contact end of the solenoid apart, clean the contacts and have it work again.

[mrweld]

Finally went on my first ride (around my shop) in the truck. Brakes a little soft still after replacing the rear lines and master cylinder, bleed them a couple more times and Im sure I will resolve this. The front seems to be fine as well as the wheel cylinders. Dropped the gas tank to clean it out, Im running off a small tank in the engine bay for now, and I find it is completely rusted out beyond repair and believe me I have fixed some tanks that were very bad. Had a little trouble getting the truck to go into reverse, the shifter seems to me to have a great deal of play in it to just supposedly having 47000 miles on it so I will check that out soon.. Best place to pick up a tank??? Ideas???

[DanielC]

Some vehicles have two ports going into the brake slave cylinders.  The 521 does not.  This makes it a little more difficult to get air out of the slave cylinder.  You have to keep the bleeder open, with the brake pedal down, until the springs retract the brake fully, and that pushes air in the slave cylinder back out to the bleeder.  If you use a pressure bleeder, the brake shoes may not retract, expelling the air. 

 

Obviously, the best fit would be another Datsun 521 gas tank.  But that is much easier to do here in the Pacific Northwest, than in Tennessee.  

I believe a 620 had the filler neck on the other side of the truck, so it may be difficult to use a tank from one of those trucks.  I think early 620 trucks had the gas tank mounted to the bed, but that soon changed to a frame mounted tank.  It seems that as the small Japanese  got popular, they imposed a large duty on imported complete vehicles.  So they shipped 620 Datsuns without the bed attached, and instead of importing complete vehicles, that were importing "truck parts" that were assembled in the USA.