My 1984 Maxima

[ArchetypeDatsun]

 

 

captaingamez, on 02 Jul 2014 - 5:40 PM, said:

 

Thanks for the compliment, I try to get all my information in the forum so everyone else can use it at their will.

 

 

I am always looking, so far I have only seen one other Maxima at the salvage yards. And thats where my pedals, transmission, and driveshaft came from.

 

 

Now that I can see the pics, you have a VERY beautiful Maxima, take good care of her, That is one of my favorite colors.

 

 

I was watching Orange is the New Black (with the wife) on Netflix, and there is an episode with an 84' Maxima in my color in it, during an 80's flashback of one of the inmates who has cancer. I wonder where that one is now, cause it was freakin mint.

 

 

I've seen that part when my girlfriend was watching it I got excited up until the guy died.

[captaingamez]

hahahahaha, I knew I couldnt be the only one who saw that!

[cardana24]

Okay, I worked on the car a little bit over the weekend.  

 

1) I have brakes now.  I did not see any signs of leaking fluid so I put all new pads on and rotors on the rear (I bought front rotors too but they were wrong).  I pulled all of the calipers off and greased the slide pins.  One or the rear pins was frozen.  I then bled the brakes....lots of brown fluid came out.  Anyway, I have brakes now.

 

2) Next I tried to figure out why my radiator was dry.  I topped the coolant off and let the car warm up.  I let the car idle for about half an hour.  I never saw a leak.  So I decided to do a compression test.  Here are the results

6-190

5-175

4-190

3-190

2-185

1-190

 

Cylinder 5 was the only one that was a little bit low....but I am thinking if my head gasket is blown I would think the cylinder would be much lower...thoughts?

 

Also, after I let the car idle for a half an hour the temp gauge only comes up to about 1/8 of the way.  I am thinking either the thermostat is either stuck open or the temp sender is screwed up.  Any ideas on this?

 

3) I tried my horn and it sounded like a duck dying :rofl:   Then I pushed it a few more times just to see if it would sound any better....now it does not work at all.  What would cause this?

 

4) If for some reason I need to swap my engine before I am planning on it can the maxima automatic handle a l28et?  Its not my first choice but I am just curious.

 

5) One of my window switches will not work on the "up" function.  Is there any easy way to fix these or is there somewhere to buy them other than the junk yard?

 

6) The car usually takes a few attempts to start.  It seems that if I leave the key in the on position and let the fuel pump prime longer it is less likely to start than if I just hop right in the car and turn the key over right away then it is more likely to start.  Once it does start it idles smooth, and runs fine.  Ideas?

[captaingamez]

You can get good compression sometimes if you have a bad head gasket. Does it smoke at all? Does your exhaust smell like coolant? If no to both of these, there is low likeliness for a head gasket problem.

 

If your radiator is good, it shouldnt come past about 1/8th-1/4 of the way on the gauge. I am honestly thinking the empty radiator may have been a fluke. Seems you have good cooling though. but with old radiators you should always keep an eye on that temp gauge.

 

The 4 speed auto will definitely hold a stock L28ET.

 

You have to clean the window switches with some DeOxit, or contact cleaner. Just take the switch out and fill it through a side hole with cleaner and actuate the switch a bunch of times.

 

Not sure on the last one, could be something to do with your cold start injector, unhook it and see what happens.

[cardana24]

You can get good compression sometimes if you have a bad head gasket. Does it smoke at all? Does your exhaust smell like coolant? If no to both of these, there is low likeliness for a head gasket problem.

 

I have had blown head gaskets before but I got much lower readings.  The car does smoke some when you rev it up, but it has also sat for at least a year.  I added some new gas and it has fresh oil in it.  The coolant in the overflow bottle looks nasty brown so there could be oil mixing in with it or it's just old nasty coolant...I really don't know at this point.  Is the head gasket the only place that can fail causing fluids to mix?  I know on some cars they have a "wet" intake manifold and if that gasket fails the fluids can also mix there.  As far as I can tell the exhaust does not smell like coolant, and I do not smell coolant while the car is running even after it's been running for a while.

 

If your radiator is good, it shouldnt come past about 1/8th-1/4 of the way on the gauge. I am honestly thinking the empty radiator may have been a fluke. Seems you have good cooling though. but with old radiators you should always keep an eye on that temp gauge.

 

Every car I have ever owned has come up to about half way on the temp gauge when it's at operating temp.  These are the times I wish the car was obdII so I could plug in a check to see what the car thinks the coolant temp is.  

 

 

The 4 speed auto will definitely hold a stock L28ET.

 

Is this the same auto trans that came in the 280zx turbo?  I really want to do a five speed swap too, but the engine is much easier to find that maxima5 speed swap part.  

 

You have to clean the window switches with some DeOxit, or contact cleaner. Just take the switch out and fill it through a side hole with cleaner and actuate the switch a bunch of times.

 

Thanks for the advice, I will try that.

 

Not sure on the last one, could be something to do with your cold start injector, unhook it and see what happens.

 

Where is the cold start injector?

[captaingamez]

I had a blown head gasket in my Honda K20, it had absolutely perfect compression. Only way I could tell it had a BHG was that it was slowly eating coolant and the exhaust smelled like it when cold. I still track raced it in this condition!! (and at 255,000 miles, Behold the power of K-series!!!).... LOL. But they CAN be hard to track down, or they can be easy as hell to spot. If your exhaust smells nothing like sweetness, or coolant, then I would say there is probably no coolant mixing with combustion gasses. Have you lost any coolant since you filled it? There is coolant running through the throttle body, but not in a way that it can leak, and you would also smell it if it were coming from anywhere like that.

 

In every early Maxima I have seen in person (that makes 4) the temp guage sits between 1/8 and 1/4 when it is warmed up and running at the right temp with a good thermostat. If you dont trust your guage, you could use a cheapo analog guage from Autozone.

 

No, the 280zx came with the 3 speed auto only, which was also a weaker transmission. The 4 speed will haul a boat. In all honesty, This is actually one of the few Autos that I have EVER driven that I didnt mind so much and actually shifted really nicely. Maybe mine was an odd experience, but I liked the L4N transmission. Unlike almost all other Datsun transmissions, the L4N has a locking torque converter Another advantage to the 4 speed is that it has a one piece driveshaft. Which is why I had to switch to 5 speed, the driveshaft was blown and it was either go 5 speed, or have a new driveshaft built for the auto, and I was not about to pay for that.

 

The cold start injector is in front of the intake manifolt, it has a plug similar to the other injectors on it. Unplug it and see if your start issue changes at all.

 

 

I reccomend getting a real factory service manual. It has to be an 83 or 84, because 82's only came in 3 speed auto. Seriously there is so much stuff in that manual that I would be totally oblivious to if I hadnt bought one.

[cardana24]

I had a blown head gasket in my Honda K20, it had absolutely perfect compression. Only way I could tell it had a BHG was that it was slowly eating coolant and the exhaust smelled like it when cold. I still track raced it in this condition!! (and at 255,000 miles, Behold the power of K-series!!!).... LOL. But they CAN be hard to track down, or they can be easy as hell to spot. If your exhaust smells nothing like sweetness, or coolant, then I would say there is probably no coolant mixing with combustion gasses. Have you lost any coolant since you filled it? There is coolant running through the throttle body, but not in a way that it can leak, and you would also smell it if it were coming from anywhere like that.

 

In every early Maxima I have seen in person (that makes 4) the temp guage sits between 1/8 and 1/4 when it is warmed up and running at the right temp with a good thermostat. If you dont trust your guage, you could use a cheapo analog guage from Autozone.

 

No, the 280zx came with the 3 speed auto only, which was also a weaker transmission. The 4 speed will haul a boat. In all honesty, This is actually one of the few Autos that I have EVER driven that I didnt mind so much and actually shifted really nicely. Maybe mine was an odd experience, but I liked the L4N transmission. Unlike almost all other Datsun transmissions, the L4N has a locking torque converter Another advantage to the 4 speed is that it has a one piece driveshaft. Which is why I had to switch to 5 speed, the driveshaft was blown and it was either go 5 speed, or have a new driveshaft built for the auto, and I was not about to pay for that.

 

The cold start injector is in front of the intake manifolt, it has a plug similar to the other injectors on it. Unplug it and see if your start issue changes at all.

 

 

I reccomend getting a real factory service manual. It has to be an 83 or 84, because 82's only came in 3 speed auto. Seriously there is so much stuff in that manual that I would be totally oblivious to if I hadnt bought one.

 

I have a FSM for the car I just have not had much time to look at it.  I charged the battery last night so hopefully I can mess with a few things tonight if its not raining this evening.  I looked at the fuel rail and I figured out where the cold start injector is, but like I said the battery was not charged last night so I could not try anything.  What am I looking for with this?  I assume it should be harder to start when this is disconnected?  I'll report back when I have a chance to do this.

 

I really have not let the car run long enough to know if I am loosing coolant yet.  When I checked the radiator after the car ran for half an hour it was still at the same level...so more time will tell.  Once I can get it starting reliably I can test it more, at this point I am afraid of being stranded with the starting issue so I have not put it on the road yet.  Plus one of the tires may possibly pop if I try to drive on it, the it is coming open on the tread :ninja:

[cardana24]

So I took the window switch apart and cleaned it, and it started working again, so now all of my power windows work!!  I also went out a bedded my brakes last night and they were biting pretty good.  Once I am able to get a set of tires on this thing I can test it out on the road.  I do know either the alignment is way off or else I have some majorly worn steering parts.  I am sure the alignment is off because the tires that are on there have really bad camber wear, but there may be other messed up stuff too.  I guess time will tell.

[captaingamez]

Sweet, yeah clean all the switches and they will stay working for a good long time.

[Raggleflaggle]

They bear alot of similarity to the lesser equipped euro sport/luxury cars. Prolly cheaper sticker price too.

[cardana24]

Sweet, yeah clean all the switches and they will stay working for a good long time.

I just realized the switches for the rear windows mounted on the center console are not working, but each switch that is at each window works.

[captaingamez]

same thing, clean them.

 

When I got my car, none of the window switches worked. cleaned them all and they work perfect. I might need to clean one of the rear passenger one again.

[cardana24]

I will probably get a set of 280z eibach springs for the maxima in the near future, what struts do you all recommend to run with the springs?  Can I run something like a KYB GR2 or will they blow out when the car is lowered?  Any suggestions?

[cardana24]

I ended up going with the eibach springs and the KYB GR-2/Excel Struts.  I also rebuilt most of the front end while I was doing the front.  Here are a few pictures.  The wheels I ordered are supposed to be delivered this Saturday.  I am really happy with the amount of drop these provided, I did not think they were going to give me this much drop.

 

 

 

[cardana24]

I was googling something and I hit on my own thread and realized I had not updated it in a while.  I figured out why my temp gauge was not coming up to the middle of the gauge...I was not getting much of any heat from the car so I replaced the thermostat.  Now I have heat and the gauge comes almost up to the middle when up to operating temp.

 

My horn still does not work, but when I push the horn button I hear a faint clicking in the passenger side area.  Does anyone know where the horn relay is located?

[cardana24]

realized I have not updated this in a while.  I have wheels on my car now but I am waiting for extended studs so I can space out the front a little bit.  Here are a few pics:

 

Before

 

need to roll the fenders in the rear

 

 

 

I don't like that I had to take my chrome fender trim off in the rear, but I don't think I can run it with out mounting it a different way so the tires will not hit it.  My front studs are supposed to be delivered today.  The fronts clear the struts but only by a very tiny bit, so I want to run a small spacer to make sure the tires will not hit the strut if the tire compresses a little bit.

[ArchetypeDatsun]

I have the same color 84 Maxima.

[cardana24]

I finally got my wheel studs and I installed them yesterday.  I also realized I already have some 10mm spacers that I had on another vehicle years ago and they are drilled for the 4x114.3 pattern too, so I am going to see how they work before I get anything else.

[HRH]

Sweet!  Before I got my steelies, those were one of the choices I was planning on running on my wagon.

[cardana24]

 

sock lug for comparison

 

[mhub91]

So how do you post pictures here?  Also the quoting feature is not working for me...what am I doing wrong?  I hit the "quote" button and it drops me down to the reply box but nothing is quoted...

 

 

Are you using Internet Explorer? I had this problem when using IE. Try switching to Firefox or Google chrome.

[cardana24]

Are you using Internet Explorer? I had this problem when using IE. Try switching to Firefox or Google chrome.

 

Thanks man, yeah I figured it out.  I switched to Chrome and it works fine now.