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Mighty Mouse Engine Rebuild & Upgrades


difrangia

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The only reason I even found out about the issue was that I wanted to thoroughly warm up the engine as I had not done that in a long while, but when pouring water into the radiator I noticed it was coming out the bottom of the engine compartment, so I shut the engine down and started pouring water into it again and found the leak, I am sure it likely saved the block, but what a pain.

I will have to remove the alt. and mount bracket to get to the other one that is completely out which I will not install, I will get a photo of the hole when I get around to this truck.

Unfortunately this is likely going to be my last build, so I am not really focused on it, I had gotten it to where I could start it, move/stop it under its own power, and it has just been waiting for me to finish all my other projects, it needs a lot, so I don't want to mess with it till I am ready to start and then finish it, otherwise it will just get tore down and sit for long periods of time which isn't going to happen.

I will check for any other plugs that have come out, I am hoping it is only the two.

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Curious no fishing pole in picture and the fish are in to good of shape for you to have used explosives, so please inform us of method used to get fish on stringer!  LOL  My gues from your clothing you used a fly rod.  I prefer old school split bamboo.

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Love throwing line with a fly rig; still got a volume of learning to do. I've acccumulated several of the modern carbon rods. Yesterday was a 9' Scientific Angler 6wt rod & Lamson Guru reel. I'll probably get around to trying some of the vintage tech stuff later on. I just took up fly fishing this past Feb. Wanted to do it since very early teens and just getting started as I'm knocking on 70's door (not 1970's; I'll be 69 years age next summer). 

 

Trout are not native to Oklahoma. They're stocked in bout 6-8 locations, some over the winter and some year-round. I've heard that Oklahoma trades bass fish stock to some of the western states for trout ?? I believe most stock is coming to OK from southern Missouri and I also believe that they do propagate in a few of the rivers below generating dams. 

 

Love learning new stuff.

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Matt,

 

Our young kids are grown. 

 

Our grandkids are grown.

 

The Great-grand is working on it (7 yrs).

 

Worked stupid overtime over most of my 9-to-5 career (not really; usually worked crazy shifts).

 

Stocked up on neat toys, many of the tools and equipment to maintain the toys, and the knowledge (or at least the means to get the knowledge) to do it over the years. 

 

Didn't fish or hunt much over the past 30 years. Other stuff seemed to always eat up the spare time.

 

One of the first things we did when I was setting up the retirement was to get our 'Senior Lifetime Hunting/Fishing License'. Cost $25 compared to $750 for non-senior.

 

Time to cut loose and be a kid again and be on pretty much 'Permenant Recess'. 

 

Yeeeee Haaawww !!!

 

P.S. - Just remember; It's all in your head.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not too much progress on Mighty Mouse over last few months. I've been runnin' around like a blind hound in a meathouse trying to get a greenhouse up to a point to move the pool plants into for the winter. Hasn't been much time for other projects I'm there on the greenhouse till the weather turns to early spring:

 

Greenhouse%201_zpsdxk8w2k7.jpg

 

I'm back to devoting a little time to the 320. The weather's gettin' a little crappy anyway and outside work is not so comfortable. I keep tons of projects on the back burner, both inside and outside tasks. So watch for more progress on this little project. I have been horridly enjoying local drives with the Mouse when the weather is decent.

 

Steve

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  • 4 weeks later...

Been back working on Mighty Mouse the past couple weeks. Top of the list was heater & wipers so I could get the glove box liner & door back in and a hood back on. Got the heater gone through, back in, & plumbed up. Blows like the Sahara Desert. It all works good. Been working up a replacement for the elbow that connects the heater intake to the cowl box and coming along right well. Pics coming on that. 

 

Wiper motor was off and in a box of spares with a new motor unit off something else (Maybe 520/521 ??). Wired it up to a battery on the bench and, wonder of wonders, it ran and parked fine. These units have an adjustable park which surprised me. I'm thinking that that capability is partly to allow the unit to be used on LH and RH applications. More on that later.

 

I was all happied-up and ready to reinstall the motor and discovered that the right wiper spindle was locked up so I removed the under-dash unit and started taking it apart. I'm not proud of it, but the right spindle was destroyed trying to take it apart. Left spindle came apart fairly easily and went back together with new lube easily also. They have a little bell shaped rubber boot at the outer end of the spindle just behind the serrated thimble that the wiper arm mounts on. of course these were deteriorated past the point of even measuring them. Solved this with a short length of 3/8" heat shrink tubing by shrinking it down onto the lip at the front end of the spindle and not shrinking it all the way down onto the shaft. Didn't think to get a pic at the time but will when I re-assemble the right unit.

 

 I did locate another spindle (Big thanks TH) that rotated freely. Started taking it apart and ran up against a wall. The shaft would only come out of the spindle housing about 3/8".

 

Wiper_RH_Spindle_Rusted_Up.jpg

 

Soaked it in PB Blaster a couple days and could only get it out a little further. So this morning I washed it down good and de-greased it good. Broke out the Naval Jelly and worked it down between the shaft and housing and fter about an hour of monkeying with it and re-jellying it, I finally got it out.

 

Wiper_RH_Spindle_Apart.jpg

 

Looks like I got a good weekend project. Stay tuned.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got the right hand wiper spindle blasted and re-assembled today. Stoffregen described this rebuild in another thread recenlty. The spindle and housing both required a little machine work as they had severe wear and a good dose of rust. There is a little bell shaped boot on the outer end of the spindle behind the wiper arm mount thimble that keeps water out of the spindle shaft. Needle-in-a-haystack to find a replacement boot so I ended up taking a 1/4" length of 3/8" heatshrink tubing and shrunk it down on thelip at the front of the spindle housing:

 

Wiper_Spindle_Seal_Shrinking.jpg

 

One of the pieces of heatshrink is laying on the vise jaw. I made the stainless wire garrote to help pull the heatshrink down into the groove behind the lip. Used the clothespin to keep the heatshrink pushed back on the unit till I got it shrunk down on the spindle housing:

 

Wiper_Spindle_Seal_Shrunk.jpg

 

Here's the assembled unit with the thimble back on. The deteriorated original bell shaped seals are in this photo:

 

Wiper_LH_Spindle___Assembled.jpg

 

Put the complete wiper unit together and wired it up to a battery and ran it on the bench to check the park position which can be adjusted. The unit goes back in tomorrow.

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Re-assembled wiper unit on the bench; front side (engine compartment):

 

Wiper_Unit_Front.jpg

 

Back side (in cab under dash):

 

Wiper_Unit_Rear.jpg

 

And a little bench test/run. One of the beauties of the Datsun 320 wiper unit. Almost any work that is needed is easier done by removing the complete unit and taking it to the bench. First take the motor off in the engine compartment and then the remainder of the unit comes out from under the dash. Piece of cake with the glove box out.

 

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I've been hammering away at the under-the-dash stuff on the 320 for the past month and got the last items finished up this morning and finally got the glove box liner & door back on. As I've related back up the thread a bit, the heater got an internal update. The outside housing wasn't in too bad shape so I just cleaned it up for now. I cleaned up the 'dealer install' (???) Clarion radio speaker and bolted back on the firewall.

 

Interior___Clarion_Radio_&_Speaker.jpg

 

Interior_Back_in_One_Piece.jpg

 

I need to get those floors covered and I know what I'd like to have, but haven't checked into how to get there yet. Anybody know anything about heat-forming rubber floor mats or materials available. I don't want to put carpet in.

 

I've been working on a set of molds for the past month to form an elbow to connect the heater unit to the dash air intake unit. If any of these were even available NOS, they'd probably be brittle after half a century on the shelf. I've tried several different ways on this and here's where I'm at now.

 

 

This is made from medical industry heat-formable plastic that is a bit pricey. I'm looking for material that is more affordable and If I come up with something, I may make a few to aid the preservation of these neat old pickups. 

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Zed1,

  I have considered some other materials and methods. The molds I developed would not work as they are now with the rubber compounds that you listed. I will archive those for future projects, though. The forms that I developed work with heat-moldable sheet material used in splint making that drape-form at 160F. I have been looking at other heat-formable sheet material that might be more economically priced. This is the original buck that I carved from dimensions taken from the vehicle:

 

Heater_Elbow_Form__.jpg

 

I did make one from 'Flex-Seal' reinforced with open weave nylon cloth. Screwed up the wooden buck and am now in process of repairing it. Don't have a photo of the  finished Flex-Seal elbow on the computer, but here it is at five coats of F-S and with the cloth applied:

 

Elbow_Reinforcing_Cloth_Embeded__2.jpg

 

I put five more coats of F-S on after this photo. Flex-Seal is the spray can stuff that they spray on screen wire on the bottom in an air boat on TV. Although I used two release agents, it stuck to the mold and I have repair to do. The one in the video above and on the truck was made on the two bottom male molds in this photo.

 

Positive_Molds_Out_of_The_Negatives.jpg

 

The male molds were cast in the females right above them. This has been a long learning process.

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  • 1 month later...

Since assembling the E1 and into the running in that I did on the roll-around cart and after the reinstallation into Mighty Mouse, I've noticed puffs of white smoke off & on from the exhaust. I've probably got the equivalent of 700-800 miles on the motor now and in driving I've noticed that accelerating after pulling down speed using the engine to scrub speed, I especially notice a small white cloud. A couple of the plugs weren't wet with oil but pretty sooty with a good coat of soot in the exhaust outlet. Also noticed a gradual drop of oil level. I thought this out and decided that it must either be that I messed up an oil ring on assembly or had some bad valve stem seals. I didn't like the design of the oil seals that came in the gasket set but used them anyway.

 

The original seals had two compression rings, one at the top that compressed the seal onto the valve stem and one down low that compressed the seal body onto the outer diameter of the valve guide. The seals from the kit were of rubber compound only with a small o-ring in addition. The cup of the seal was a real loose fit on the valve guide. I had a bad feeling about this but assembled them anyway. After I observed the smoke and thought about it a bit, I contacted motorpowerinc.com and sent them photos of the originals and inquired what they stocked. I was pleased with the info they provided and ordered ten seals @ about $1.40 a pop. Their seals have a formed brass body that presses down onto the valve guide with the rubber part at the top cast onto the brass sleeve and a coil compression spring to force the flexible seal onto the valve stem diameter. Here's a pic with the original on left, kit seal in middle and the motorinc seals on right.

 

Valve_Seals.jpg

 

Took the rocker assembly off and plugs out and rolled over to TDC firing position on #1 cylinder using the hand crank. Sawed off 15" of 1/2 metal electrical conduit and poked two 5/16" holes to fit the outer rocker shaft studs for a fulcrum bar to compress the springs from. Had a fitting that I made years ago from an old sparkplug with the insulator knocked out and an air hose male fitting silver-soldered in that I screwed into #1 sparkplug hole. Made this tool out of scraps to compress the springs.

 

Valve_Seal_Compression_Tool.jpg

 

Gassed cylinder #1 up to 110 PSI & tapped the intake & exhaust spring caps a couple times to loosen the keepers. Hooked the tool up and compressed the springs, removed the keepers, caps, and springs. Here's a shot of it all in place on cylinder #4.

 

Valve_Seal_Compression.jpg

 

Here's a shot of cylinder #3 showing the seal from the kit on left and pretty much how it was positioned up off the valve guide. The Motorinc seal is on the right.

 

Valve_Seal_Comparison.jpg

 

I highly recommend snagging a set of the motorinc seals if you're rebuilding an E or J-Series engine. I'll report back on the results of this little endeavor.

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