Trucky-chan KA-T 620 project

[skyshadow]

Up and running! Good shit! 

[UnderControl]

 

Got my solution for the clutch slave in.  Dropped my drive shaft off at the shop to get shortened and turns out one of my flanges is bent. Going to snag one from another local member.

 

Still waiting on one thread die and then I should be done with parts buying. Which is good considering I blew the trans up in my mustang over the weekend.

[snapp_hunter]

finally made the visit to your thread! you're truck is sweet! can't wait to get mine going and get some Indiana Datsuns together!

[UnderControl]

Welcome to the party Hunter, and thanks again for the drive shaft. I'm hoping to have it back early next week.

 

In the meantime, my other thread die showed up and I started making my new center link.

 

I got most of the way through cutting the first side of threads when...

 

The poor abused vice just couldn't hold on anymore. So a trip to the cheap Chinese stuff store is in store for today. Followed by keeping an eye out for a good vice.

 

 

Finally got my pod filter in and on routed my throttle cable. Just need to get some adapters for the cable and then I'll be able to rev it with my foot.

[UnderControl]

Center link is nearly finished. Just need to grind a couple of flat spots in it for adjustment and slap some paint on it.



Also got around to shampooing the seats and they actually turned out better than I expected.

[UnderControl]

Out of town for a couple of days, but did manage to pick up my now shorter drive shaft before I left.

[UnderControl]

No pics from the last couple of days, which I realize violates Ratsun's primary rule.  Been more focused on getting things together than taking pictures.

 

Drive shaft is in along with my new carrier bearing spacer, nothing fancy here just box steel with holes in it.  Trans crossmember is notched for the exhaust and will be going back in tonight. Center link is done and will also be going back on tonight.

 

Only other modification that needs done before driving is the shifter cover. It needs about a 1/4" of height to clear the bolts that hold on the shifter. Once that is done everything just needs buttoned up.  I'm optimistic that I'll be able to get a shake down drive in this weekend.

[UnderControl]

Late start last night so I didn't get around to modifying the shifter cover. I did manage to get the trans crossmember back in as well as the center link.

 

 

Only picture I've taken since its the only one that is noticeably different, and didn't involve me crawling back under the truck.

[Draker]

Welcome to the party Hunter, and thanks again for the drive shaft. I'm hoping to have it back early next week.

 

In the meantime, my other thread die showed up and I started making my new center link.

 

 

I got most of the way through cutting the first side of threads when...

 

The poor abused vice just couldn't hold on anymore. So a trip to the cheap Chinese stuff store is in store for today. Followed by keeping an eye out for a good vice.

 

 

Finally got my pod filter in and on routed my throttle cable. Just need to get some adapters for the cable and then I'll be able to rev it with my foot.

 

 

Harbor Freight vice right? 

[UnderControl]

Harbor Freight vice right?

Yep, and really for the price it held up pretty well. It has been beat on for years in ways it probably shouldn't have been.

[UnderControl]

I set to work making my final checklist for getting this thing back on the road. Mind you this is not all the work left to do to call this phase of the project complete, but it's most of it.

 

 

After getting my list sorted I figured I'd get started on the single most time consuming piece I have left on the list.

 

 

Shifter cover is mostly modified. I just need to make a couple of triangles to fill in some holes toward the front, finish welding, grind and paint.

[UnderControl]

Well, I didn't get much done over the weekend and as a result I have been busting down the list the last couple of nights.  I haven't taken any pictures so, you'll just have to take my word for it when I say things are close.

[UnderControl]

Its been a busy week. Funny how estimating the amount of time a task will take never seems to be right.  Anyway, the moment I've been waiting for.

 

 

Since I forgot to take the standard gas station pic have these.

 

 

 

I also picked myself up a new plate.

 

 

Still have a couple of tasks to finish up and some kinks to work out, but very happy to be able to drive the truck again.

[UnderControl]

The truck is officially a two seater. Although, the seats will be coming back out tonight so I can repaint the floor and actually paint the brackets I made for mounting.

 

 

After driving it around all weekend I decided that everything was working well enough to go ahead and take it to work today ~15 miles of rush hour highway awesome.  The 5th gear really helped out a lot on the highway, no more 4-4500 rpm to mostly keep up with traffic.  Only thing that has gone wrong so far is that my speedo quit working. I haven't actually looked into it yet, but I'm guessing that the internal cable snapped due to excessively tight bends the way it is currently routed.

[skyshadow]

Looking good. 

[UnderControl]

Thanks. I'm really loving having this thing back on the road. Only a couple of minor things left to wrap up next week to call it done. I will be replacing the transmission a lot sooner than I had hoped, turns out I got my buddy's transmission with bad 2nd and 3rd gear syncros. That is going to be a giant pain in the ass that I'm not looking forward to at all, but at least I don't have to pay for the other trans and since he doesn't want the other one back I'll get it rebuilt and swap it back over when I boost it.

 

Beyond that this thread will die off until mid summer when I'll probably go ahead and swap out the stock ecu for a stand alone unit. I'm leaning towards megasquirt 3 pro, but at that price point there are several options.

[2wheel-lee]

Congrats on getting it running!

[UnderControl]

It's mid summer right?

 

 

I went ahead and bit the bullet on a Megasquirt, aided by finding one with the trigger ring, ait and Maxima coils on a 240sx forum. I opted for the MSpnp2 over the MS Pro 3; partly because cheaper, partly because didn't really want to rewire the engine and partly because there are a lot of features on the pro model that I just won't need.

 

Picked up the other transmission last night and have new seals and gaskets coming for it. I'm hoping to have it swapped out this weekend.

 

Also picked up a little mini amp to take the place of a radio in the truck. Bench tested it this evening and it seems to produce more than enough volume. Now I just have to figure out where to mount it.

 

[kingfuzzz]

Awesome build!

[]2eDeYe]

Wow, just got caught up. Nice work, sounds great. :cool:

 

I had that same vice break in the same place, I took the opportunity to buy the next size up :lol:

 

Got a question. Your using the 240sx trans, how much does it move the trans mount back? I am working on a universal cross member and don't have a 240 trans here. 

[UnderControl]

Thanks guys. ]2eDeYe, good timing on the question. I'm in the middle of swapping out transmissions now, so as soon I get the old one out I'll measure it.

[UnderControl]

OK, to ]2eDeYe's question. The mounting holes shifted 1" center to center for the KA trans and I extended the center section around 1-5/8". It might be worth noting that this is after I flipped the crossmember and mounted it to the rear most position. I did reuse the 620 trans mount.

There are certain reasons people may not want to use 240sx transmissions...


In all I spent around 7 hours from start to having the new transmission bolted in. I have not yet put the radiator, driveshaft, shifter or exhaust back in.

Yesterday I did manage to get tunes installed.



I have a spare ash tray that I'm going to cut up and figure out how to hinge so I can hide the amp and still allow for easy access for volume control.

Went to a dyno day last weekend while street car takeover was in town and now my truck is e-famous making both Street/Race Magazine's and 1320's facespace pages.

[Farmer]

Write up something once you get the mega squirt working. Thinking about going that route too

 

Larry

[kingfuzzz]

Same as Farmer! I am a little far out from doing my build but I am spending this time figuring out every detail I want. I am definitely interested in the MS and would love to see what you think.

[]2eDeYe]

OK, to ]2eDeYe's question. The mounting holes shifted 1" center to center for the KA trans and I extended the center section around 1-5/8". It might be worth noting that this is after I flipped the crossmember and mounted it to the rear most position. I did reuse the 620 trans mount.

 

There are certain reasons people may not want to use 240sx transmissions...

 

 

 

Thanks man :thumbup: 

 

Nice work on the e-famous thing :D