KELMO Posted December 27, 2023 Report Share Posted December 27, 2023 I check out for a couple days and look what happens. I REALLY like the repurposing of the shift boot. That is some Wile E. Coyote stuff right there. But I'm not gonna tear apart a 1200 to do it.....unless I feel I have to. 1 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted December 28, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2023 On 12/27/2023 at 9:19 AM, KELMO said: I REALLY like the repurposing of the shift boot. That is some Wile E. Coyote stuff right there. It actually worked a lot better than we expected. On 12/27/2023 at 9:19 AM, KELMO said: I'm not gonna tear apart a 1200 to do it.....unless I feel I have to. This was a necessity due to the rack and pinion steering conversion on this car. There is a u-joint in the steering shaft that wants to be in the dead center of that hole, meaning the stock boot would no longer work. As of right now, the only parts on this car that are 1200 parts are the shell and the tail lights. 😄 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted December 28, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2023 Also, TIm did not mention we made a fair bit more progress last night. We filled the fuse boxes with fuses and hooked up 12 volts to the battery terminals to test all the circuits. Fortunately, (almost) everything works as it should. Tail lights function as the should, side markers, front lights, fan, horn, fuel pump, all good. The head lights were another kettle of fish, and was probably just irksome enough to keep Tim from posting about this last night. 😉 We think that somewhere in our relay array up by the headlights, there is a wire or two crossed. Low beam switch is not triggering the headlights. DRLs work fine. But when you flip on the off-road lights, then it shoots power to the headlight high and low beam at the same time. The good news is, 90% of the stuff on the car works fine, and the stuff not working seems to be in the front engine harness, not the interior harness. Also, we have a good plan of attack for how to fix it that should get it done. Tim has a spare relay box, so right now the plan is to remove these relays on the fender and replace them with the relay box. This will also allow us to add connector plugs pre and post relay box so that it can be removed if need be down the road, or if we want to repurpose a relay down the road. 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted December 28, 2023 Report Share Posted December 28, 2023 42 minutes ago, datsunfreak said: was probably just irksome enough to keep Tim from posting about this last night. I typed and deleted a post three times before just giving up, taking a hydrocodone, and going to sleep. Quote Link to comment
KELMO Posted December 29, 2023 Report Share Posted December 29, 2023 16 hours ago, datsunfreak said: As of right now, the only parts on this car that are 1200 parts are the shell and the tail lights. 😄 Say what you want, but still a 1200 bro. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't be here.🤪 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted December 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2023 3 hours ago, KELMO said: Say what you want, but still a 1200 bro. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't be here.🤪 I did not mean that, but rather that a lot of the things are we are doing to it (like the column boot) are not really applicable to most 1200s. 😁 But glad you're here reading along. 👍 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted December 30, 2023 Report Share Posted December 30, 2023 (edited) We started working on the wiring issues by ditching this mess... We will be replacing that with a relay/fuse box like the one we installed in the Dajiban... Ironically, both of them were originally purchased for this project! I still don't remember why I went the other way on this car. We cut it out and installed some "Datsun Connectors" in line. These are the circuits which do not go through the relays. From the firewall.. To the DRLs, turn signals, and park lights... This, out of focus one way down in there, is the harness that does go through the relays (AKA the signal wires to fire said relays)... I will be making the pigtail for that on Monday. Also, there is a power distribution block connected to that big red wire. The following is the harness that will run from another pigtail to all the lights, and fans, and horns, and people, and motors, and shit... And finally, we made brackets to mount the relay box... but I forgot to take a picture of it "installed." I'll do that Monday as well. Edited December 30, 2023 by dimlight65 Comma, comma, comma, comma, comma chameleon 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted January 1 Report Share Posted January 1 (edited) So first off, Happy New Year. Now, on with the re-rewiring saga. First I ran leads from the power distribution block to the individual fuses in the relay box... Then color coded wires from the fuses to the relays. Left to right are: High beam, Low beam, two sets of Zookie lights, Radiator fan, and Horn... Color coded signal wires from the switches also went in... Then grounds for all of the relays (except for the horn which grounds through the horn button) but I didn't take a picture of any of those. I made the pigtail to feed out to all the gubbins out front (lights, horn, and fan) and connected that to the plug I installed on the gubbins harness... And connected the relay box's signal pigtail to the harness from the firewall... and hung everything in place... I'll tidy it up a little more after we test everything and it is determined that I don't need to re-re-rewire it. Edited January 5 by dimlight65 4 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 We made progress on a few fronts today. And since I am a post whore, I will probably tell y'all about it in multiple posts. First off, I can't locate my hood prop so I "acquired" one somewhere and installed it today... It's a little shorter than the stock 1200 prop (and I lost the retaining clip anyway), so I made a new retention device... And am using a hook and loop cable management strip to secure it... John arrived just as I was finishing up and we moved on to testing circuits... which all worked! No pictures of that though. Then I had the bright idea of taking the letter stamp punch thingies and a heat gun to "brand" some information in the lid of the relay box. It turned out... not ideal, but it "works." H=Horn, F=Fan, Z=Zookie Light (of which there are two), L=Low beam, and B=Bright (or high Beam). I also added an angled leg to connect the free floating corner of the box to a superfluous hole in the upright leg... And made a plastic cover for the top of the power distribution block (yellow arrow)... Then we had a look at the rear sway bar. But that needs its own post. 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 (edited) After we crawled under the car, we determined that the chassis end of the lower control rods needed to be narrowed so the sway bar would line up... Driver's side before... and after... Passenger side before... and after... Then we tried out the sway bar with the bushings... but that didn't provide nearly enough ground clearance. We then angled the bushings upward... and liked that a lot better. Unfortunately, it also meant moving the bar back further than I had planned so we need different bushings. See, I wanted to run one set of the control arm bushings on the narrow part of the rod and bought two 20mm bushings for that. With the bar further back, I need all eight to be 22mm. Minor hiccup. We should have all the bits to put everything together Wednesday. Edited January 6 by dimlight65 3 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted January 7 Report Share Posted January 7 (edited) On 1/6/2024 at 4:36 PM, dimlight65 said: We should have all the bits to put everything together Wednesday. Or, as it turns out... TODAY! However, the new 22mm bushings are quite a bit narrower than the others for some reason... I probably could have forced them on, but a few... ok, several minutes on the bench grinder narrowed two of the brackets sufficiently... Time to crawl under the car and install them... And with a little fiddling, I managed to get the bar to ride higher than the bottom of the differential! We will do a final hunker on them after we set the alignment of the rear end with the rods. I'm quite chuffed with this sway bar. It did come at a cost though. I managed to whang my head, not once, not twice, but three times on the nose of the differential! Oh well, that's one of the many hazards of being an old, fat, bald guy crawling around under a car. Edited January 7 by dimlight65 Spellinge 2 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted January 7 Report Share Posted January 7 (edited) So, those of you following the Dajiban thread may remember this thing leaking and getting replaced with a regular oil filter... But before I bought that one for the Dajiban, I had bought one for this project... Well, once bitten, twice shy. I wasn't going to risk it again, so I got a Mobil1 PH8-A equivalent for it... Now, I think, we might be just about ready to pour in some fluids. 😬😰 Edited January 7 by dimlight65 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted January 13 Report Share Posted January 13 I want to wait until tomorrow when I finish before talking about this, but I just can't. So I'm sitting there, barbecue sauce on my titties... wait, no. That's not it. I'm sitting there waiting for John to arrive at the shop. I'm staring at the oil pan hanging down there all unprotected... "I need a skid plate!" I says to myself. I search around the shop and find this heat shield that came frumunda the Dajiban... so I cut off a chunk of it... The plan is to attach the "stickie-uppie" bit to the valance and the rear to the cross member. We made a couple bends to this part (and took no pictures) and drilled some holes. The "stickie-uppie" bit's holes still need some massaging, and I need to trim a corner of the rear to clear the steering rack. I'll do that tomorrow and have some more pictures. 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted January 14 Report Share Posted January 14 20 hours ago, dimlight65 said: I'll do that tomorrow and have some more pictures. ...because it is butt-ass, butt-butt cold! Quote Link to comment
bananahamuck Posted January 14 Report Share Posted January 14 (edited) we have it much easier cold wise up here in northwest but last couple days It’s so cold here , had to thaw deadbolt lock on garage with little propane torch get in .. I have to use same key ring to open house so lock door to keep a tiny bit warmer… By the time I hauled studded snow tires from containers in back.. had to re-thaw lock again . It’s mostly because it rained like a cow pissing on a flat rock for months . ,, by Tuesday it will be back to probably 55 and over cast . Edited January 14 by bananahamuck 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted January 15 Report Share Posted January 15 22 hours ago, bananahamuck said: by Tuesday it will be back to probably 55 Our forecast is back up to 55 Thursday. 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted January 15 Report Share Posted January 15 (edited) Skipped work today for doctor stuff (and it's butt-ass, butt-butt cold!). So after giving some blood and pee... I went to the shop to feed the cats... look at the skid plate (and decided not to mess with it onnacounta the aforementioned butt-ass, butt-butt cold)... and bring home my thermal coveralls so I can go to work in the butt-ass, butt-butt cold tomorrow... That's Purrcival giving the suit a "Cat Scan" at home. I don't think he approves of the shop cat scent on them! Edited January 15 by dimlight65 Comma, comma, comma, comma, comma chameleon 2 Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted January 15 Report Share Posted January 15 Cardboard. Great insulator is cardboard and it's universally available for free. Couple of layers and the frozen concrete is just fine to lay on. It's also softer than concrete. Keep the insulated coverall on though. 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 A pile of parts have finally arrived. I've got new bronze (brass?) shift bushings, a boot to seal the top of the shift tower, and a set of driveshaft bolts ready for the next trip to the shop. Of course I took no pictures of them. Maybe tomorrow. 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted January 28 Report Share Posted January 28 I finally "finished" the skid plate. I took the following crap pictures, which really don't show how it sits in the car very well. r Hopefully we can get some better shots later, but I really wanted to show y'all that progress is being made. 3 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted February 1 Report Share Posted February 1 (edited) John was not a fan of my hood prop retention system... So he made me change it... Yeah, ok. He wasn't wrong. This is better. Edited February 1 by dimlight65 3 Quote Link to comment
KELMO Posted February 1 Report Share Posted February 1 I was gonna say you can still get the original clip (65722-01E00 97% sure on that #) from the dealer if you are using the original prop rod. But I see you aren't. That looks like the Atima design, maybe? Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted February 1 Report Share Posted February 1 You guys should have a TV Show on Motortrend! 🙂 1 1 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted February 1 Author Report Share Posted February 1 2 hours ago, KELMO said: That looks like the Atima design, maybe? If you mean the clip, yes. I grabbed this one from a 2020 Rogue Sport, but they use the same one on Altima, Sentra, Versa, etc, any modern Nissan without hood shocks. I like these because they have enough base plate area to be able to screw them down instead of relying on it snapping into a hole like the stock one. Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted February 2 Report Share Posted February 2 On 2/1/2024 at 9:07 AM, Duncan said: You guys should have a TV Show on Motortrend! 🙂 I'm sure our Half-Assery would make for some good, "Yeah, don't... don't do it like that," television! I do pride myself in being a "Bad Example" on occasion. 2 Quote Link to comment
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