521 Rescue

[mklotz70]

Actually.....I realized after I made my rig cap post, that maybe Hyphy had read your thread closer and you actually had a drip rail problem. :) Anyway....

 

As for the phone.....you can wash electronics....as long as they're not on. There's a slight chance it will survive....set it on a desk under a desk lap about 6" away.....let it sit there a warm up for a couple of days so that the moisture will evaporate out of it. Good chance it's dead, but there's a chance it's not. I used to know a guy that took his tv's apart every year and wash them out with the garden hose.....then let them sit in the sun for a couple of days. Anyway......it used to work with older electronics. I dropped my pager in a clean toilet.....let it sit on the dash of my car for a day or two ...worked fine.

 

Nuke.....I started the roadster engine :) ......on the dolly......what's the hold up? :) j/k! ....seriously...I did start it.

[ImInked]

Thanx mklotz, but it was on and i watched it die. i took it to apple and their tech told me to stick it in a jar of rice! they said it dries out faster that way. so i did and it still doesnt work

[Charlie69]

Hey nukeday,

 

I hope you can put those parts to good use. Some of them might only be good for display (nik naks). Please have fun with your little truck. You have a great bunch of mentors helping you.

Edited March 7, 2009 by Charlie69
spelling

[nukeday]

Wow, life has thrown a lot at me the last couple of weeks. Whew.

 

Finally got the apple and pear tree burned and the yard cleaned up, so I worked on the truck today.

 

I used MKlotz's little hit little list, and blazed through it until I melted a set of points to the dizzy shaft. Oops. I heard a little bzzzt bzzzt from the dizzy and opened it up to wafting smoke. The push stop to open the points had melted to the shaft. Took it apart again, cleaned it a bit better and put it back together.

 

Thought I burned up the condenser, but it turns out the one I swapped in was bad and the original one survived. So, here's how this works, using Mike's method: With the test lamp on the battery + and the other end on the - of the coil, when you rotate the engine, the light should go off and on. If the points are closed it should come on immediately when you hook it up this way. Mine didn't, which indicated a bad ground to the distributor. I had to clean and check everything about 3 times, I just couldn't seem to get it to stay steady. Once I got a solid, consistent ground, I ended up with too much ground and melted the points. I must have knocked some crap loose when I cleaned it, because this didn't happen until about my 5th attempt to start it.

 

Put in a set of used points, verified the on again off again of the test light by manually cranking the engine over, and then put a plug in the coil wire. Snap-snap, right through a ton of gunk and oil. Put the coil wire back in the cap and went to fire it. Nothing. Pulled #1 plug and tested it to ground, nothing. Checked my test lamp and manually rolled the engine over, on-off-on-off. So the points are opening and closing, power to the cap, but nothing to #1.

 

Remember that little comment Mike made about the rotor being too short? First thing I did this morning was test fit it to see if it was the proper length. Of course it was. What I didn't check is if it was the proper height. Doh. It's 1/2 inch too short. Have obligations with the kids so I had to put it all up, the local parts place has them in stock, should have one tomorrow. I'm not sure I'll mess with the truck in the rain, but I hope to have the garage empty next week. :)

 

Charlie69 sent me some really cool stuff, the carb, temp sensor, rad are all J13 parts. The rad and shroud look to be the correct dimensions for my 521. Save me having to drill new holes in the other radiators I have here.

 

 

 

 

So close to having it run! Arghhh....:blink:

Edited March 14, 2009 by nukeday

[mklotz70]

Sweet...nice work :)

[nukeday]

I've been tinkering with this off and on, and it looks like I need a little direction on how to set up static timing.

 

I've ohm'd out the cap, rotor and wires, and if I put a plug in the coil wire I have spark. So, it's fairly obvious that the timing is off enough to keep the spark from jumping from the rotor to the cap.

 

What's the best way to start? Just set it at TDC? I'm not sure the vac advance is operational, but I plugged it anyway, to try to get it started. I don't want to mess with any more adjustments than are needed, but I don't know if it ran when it was parked.

 

I can't believe how long I've let this thing sit! It's so close to starting I'm ashamed of myself...:o

[nukeday]

Did a little research, and TDC seems to be the place to start. I went ahead and adjusted the dizzy. Checked each plug for fire, using a jumper cable to the neg post. Got fire all the way through now, so it should run, right?

 

No. Got a nice little fire in the intake manifold from my starting fluid, but it wouldn't fire from one cylinder to the next. Turned over just fine. I even watched the flames in the intake flicker with the opening and closing of the valves. (I had a fire extinguisher in hand.)

 

This is a J motor, so either I'm an idiot (a distinct possibility) or this is turning out to be more work than I hoped for. Bleah, I had hoped it would run on it's own.

[mklotz70]

pull plug one. Rotate the eng by hand (CW) while holding your left thumb over the plug hole. As the timing mark comes up on TDC, you should feel pressure blowing your thumb away. If not, keep turning another revolution and it should push your thumb off on the next go around. When you notice your thumb getting blown off.....watch the timing mark and stop at TDC. You are now at TDC on the compression stroke. Pull your dizzy cap. Make some kind of reference as to where your rotor is pointing.....ie....if it's pointing right at a hose clamp...just keep that as a mental reference for now. Put your cap back on. If the static timing is close, the plug tower on the cap should be amost perfectly lined up with the end of the rotor.......it should be between the center tower of the cap and your visual reference. Now, make sure that the wire from that tower is going to plug one....closest to radiator. The next tower......going in a COUNTERCLOCKWISE direction (you can pm paccoast to find out why I capitalize that :) )...the next wire should go to cyl 3. Next goes to 4. Last to cyl 2.

 

If the tower on the dizzy doesn't line up when you put the cap back on, loosen up the hold down bolts and turn it until it does. Snug it back down.

 

Now that you have it statically timed, you can put the plug in the end of cyl 1's wire....ground the plug....and crank it to see if you have spark at the plug. If you do, put the plug back in and prime the eng....my preference is starting fluid, but you can use an oz. of gas(a 35mm film canister is 1oz.) Try starting it!! :)

 

I smell food....so we'll see how this works out for you. :)

[mklotz70]

doesn't sound like your valves are closing right. You may want to pull the valve cover and check their adjustment.

[nukeday]

Well, MKlotz, as usual, nailed it. plug wires for #3 and #4 were switched. Put them on correctly, reverified spark and here's what happened...

 

 

My wife was running the camera and she freaked out...lol...I pulled the rag off and danced on it. No worries, I really didn't want to fill the intake with fire extinguisher stuff...

 

THANK YOU MIKE!!!!

[dat521kid]

that was kinda cool todd.. should have posted the video of you dancing

[mklotz70]

You bet. I guess this is how a midwife feels.....not but baby, but happy and proud just the same :)

 

CONGRATS!!!!!

 

I guess you need to get a carb on there :)

 

Having it fire up kinda relieves the stress that you might have been working on a bad eng.....also ups the motivation a bit too.....right? :)

[nukeday]

There are a bazillion questions on 'will this fit my car/truck', so I just thought I'd post a specific photo of the rims I'd like to put on the 521. I can pick these up pretty cheap w/center caps. Chevy Suburban, later model 16" x 7", 6 lug on 5".

 

 

I have some 215/60 R16 M&S tires to put on them. Comments?

Edited April 10, 2009 by nukeday

[KFD]

Magic 8-ball says yes, but I am sure some senior Ratsuners would give you positive insight.

 

This is a great thread. I have really enjoyed watching what happens. I can't wait to have my own thread like this soon!

 

So anybody wanting to offload a 620 (or a 240z), hollacha boy. I just got into dive school, and I need a truck to take the Aprilia cross country to Panama City, and I am not doing this with a seabag on my back!

 

Keep up the good work, good luck on the job hunt, mang!

 

KFD

[Farmer Joe]

good job on gettin it runnin man!! i liked the fire show at the end of the video!! lol

 

so now pretty much all you need is a carb. do you still have any carbs from the luvs? one of those should bolt on shouldnt it? itd prolly be jetted a little fat, but it would get ya goin.

 

anyways, keep up the good work! youll be drivin it sooner than later!!

[nukeday]

Hope to install some of the parts Charlie69 sent me next week. Not sure if the carb is any good, but it's off a J13 so it's worth a try. Charlie also sent me a radiator, and water temp sender.

 

I still need to figure out what I'm going to do with the alternator. The one in there now is internally regulated, so I'll have to figure out jumpering the VR out of the circuit.

 

All of the hydraulics have me intimidated, I won't lie. I'm not sure if I have the right tools to rebuild the master cylinders, and I know I don't have the right flare wrenches for the brake lines...

 

Seems to make sense to do the brakes first, then the clutch. No sense putting it in gear if it won't stop. Anyone know what size wrenches I need for the brake lines?

[Farmer Joe]

the brake lines should take a 10mm wrench. or in some cases 'the vice grips'. lol

 

dont be intimidated by the hydraulics. theyre pretty simple. especially on that vintage of truck. i dont think 521s have a load sensing valves for the brakes, so that makes it even easier.

 

the master cylinders should be easy to rebuild. if the bores arent wore out you should be able to use a rebuilt kit with some good results. thing is, for the price of a rebuilt kit for the master cylinders, you can just get new cylinders.

 

same goes for the wheels cylinders also, but i know how it is to be tight on money. if your lucky and the bores on the wheel cylinders are still good, you can get the rebuild kits for em for like 5bux each for the rears and like 7bux for the fronts.

[mklotz70]

All the lines on the 521 are SAE.....but I don't remember if they're 3/8 or 7/16. Rebuilding the cylinders is easy enough......if you can find the kits. HF has the flaring tool for $10

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=40878

 

Now would be the perfect time to convert the m/c to a dual resevoir version. I'd go new, but you could probably find one in the s/y that still works. You can probably still get a rebuild kit for a newer one too.

[sdsurf]

all the lines on the 521 are sae.....but i don't remember if they're 3/8 or 7/16. Rebuilding the cylinders is easy enough......if you can find the kits. Hf has the flaring tool for $10

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?itemnumber=40878

 

now would be the perfect time to convert the m/c to a dual resevoir version. I'd go new, but you could probably find one in the s/y that still works. You can probably still get a rebuild kit for a newer one too.

 

7/16

[Charlie69]

Hey nukeday,

 

Great job it runs, good to see your wife is helping you. I would spray out that carberator I set you with carb cleaner snug up any loose bolts or screws, put it on and try it.

 

Please for safety try it outside in the open in case of fire.

 

I hope that the parts are helpful. I still have the intake & exhaust manifolds if you need them.

 

Great little project.

 

Oh by the way Harbor Freight has a great set of flare wrenches for $9.99 in metric or SAE.

 

Charlie

[nukeday]

Well, since it was Father's Day, I carved out a bit of time to work on this truck. It is 5/21 after all. :D

 

Installed the radiator, carb and water temp sender from Charlie and fired it up. The poor old Nikki was leaking so badly from the front cover that I only got it to run for about a minute. The water temp sender allowed me to finally mount my fabbed in alternator. I didn't hook it up, but I needed something to turn the water pump. Filled the radiator with water, put the fuel pump intake line in a can of gas and got it to actually run in spurts. Still had to prime it to start, but it's a bit closer to being a runner.

 

 

 

 

The exhaust manifold got just warm enough for me to get really worried about the carb leak so I stopped working on it after I drained the gas out of the carb. Got caught up on most of my honey-do list, so I'm hoping to work on this thing a bit more often.

[mklotz70]

Sweet.

The "oring" from any hitachi carb should fit your window.....it should go between the body of the carb and the glass....maybe it's not there or in the wrong place. You may have a better one on another carb.

[nukeday]

That's what I thought, Mike. I pulled apart one of the others my dad brought over, and pulled out the O-ring. It looks too thin, but I think it should work.

 

I forgot to open the garage door when I was messing with this, and I've been sneezing crap for the past 12 hours. There was a cloud of nasty smoke in there, and I had to leave the doors open before I buttoned it up for the night. Add to that the shellac odor from the carb and fuel pump and it was a stinky, gassy, cloudy mess.

 

I'll ventilate better next go 'round.

[nukeday]

I had to tighten up some more stuff, and this poor thing still seems to sprout leaks from every possible source.

 

I had it running about 10 times this evening, the longest for about 3 minutes. The accelerator pump in the carb was stuck, and it took awhile to free it up and start delivering fuel. I replaced the bowl gasket and it still leaked, until it ran, then it sucked it up tight. I put an old Chevy valve cover under the glass to keep the fuel off the exhaust manifold.

 

So, when it was running, I was getting flash/sparks from the around the exhaust ports. Obviously the gasket there is leaking, looks like I'll need to replace those. I tightened them up, but there are actually chunks falling out on the intake side.

 

On the rear of the engine, the rear exhaust port was spitting out either fuel or water, I'm not sure which since it didn't run long enough to see any difference in the water level. May have a bad head gasket, or a cracked head. I should probably compression check this thing before I do much more.

 

I used an old 10 ft long piece of septic pipe on the exhaust and opened the garage door this time. Guess what? The wind was wafting all the crap right back in the garage...so, I stink again.

 

I need to figure out the alternator wiring so I quit running down my booster box.

 

It's coming along. :)

[nukeday]

Will stock, '02(?), 6-lug Toyota steelies fit the 521?