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New 320 owner, 62?


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Thanks Charlie!

 

It looks like the original wire harness for the switch was removed to wire in the aftermarket switch. I see the correct switch has male tab connectors and the aftermarket switch has nuts pinning down the wires. 

 

How difficult will it be to rewire in the switch linked above with the male tab connectors?

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Thanks Charlie!

 

It looks like the original wire harness for the switch was removed to wire in the aftermarket switch. I see the correct switch has male tab connectors and the aftermarket switch has nuts pinning down the wires. 

 

How difficult will it be to rewire in the switch linked above with the male tab connectors?

If they just changed connectors/terminals on the old harness it should be as easy as clipping those off, stripping the wire, and attaching the female push on terminal for the factory ignition switch. If they removed the original harness, and changed the colors it might be a little more time consuming to trace the wires, but still not too bad.

 

here is a link to the 320 wiring diagram so you know what wires you're looking for.

http://www.datsunforum.com/Datsun_Wiring_Diagrams/Datsun%20320%20Pickups/Datsun_320_Pickup_Wiring_Diagram.pdf

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I just realized/noticed that the heater box in the photo in your post below is an early 1962 320 type heater box as the valve is on the left side, I didn't notice that before.

I would venture to say that your truck is indeed a 1962 Datsun 320, I don't know why I didn't notice the heater core valve location right away, but I didn't notice until re-reading the thread this evening.

The thing is that grills can be changed/transferred to other years fairly easily, as I have done it myself, so the grill is not a good indicator of the year of the truck, but that heater box only came on the early 1962 as far as I know.

 

Thanks Steve for the kind words! I'll definitely get the paperwork lined up before I dig in too deep.

 

Wayno, my truck's up on Phoenix at my parent's house and I'm down in Tucson so I won't get to check for the Vin number for a couple weeks. I was reading about 320 VIN numbers and think the 61-63 320s have a year digit right after the 320 in the VIN. So a '62 would have a VIN that starts with L-320-2... Does that sound right?

 

Also here's a pic of the heater. Does this give us any clues?

x0qrg5.jpg

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If they just changed connectors/terminals on the old harness it should be as easy as clipping those off, stripping the wire, and attaching the female push on terminal for the factory ignition switch. If they removed the original harness, and changed the colors it might be a little more time consuming to trace the wires, but still not too bad.

 

here is a link to the 320 wiring diagram so you know what wires you're looking for.

http://www.datsunforum.com/Datsun_Wiring_Diagrams/Datsun%20320%20Pickups/Datsun_320_Pickup_Wiring_Diagram.pdf

You can download that file for your personal use.  You may also take it on a thumb drive to your local copy center and have it blown up and printed poster size for easier tracing of wires.

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Blowing it up poster size sounds smart. The truck is at my parents house in Phoenix and I'm down in Tucson but I'll be heading up next week to dig in. My parents mistakenly thought the years of having their kids drag home POS cars to park in the front yard were over!

 

First order of business is to look for a sticker or stamp of the DMV generated VIN, and track down the real VIN and engine type. And throw a battery in it and see if I can get her to start! 

 

Thanks everyone for your help--the level  knowledge here is nuts! 

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Dude...... That truck is bomb...... Looks prime for a nice lime/yellow candy pant.... monster notch and 4 link the rear...and a Body drop to make it lay in the weeds..... And air on all 4 corners...post a pic of the rear end so we can see if the truck will take a roll pan..... And shave that goofy front bumper

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Battery question... Does this look like a positive ground and someone reversed the colors on the clamps or has it been converted to a negative ground? Notice the red clamp sends a wire off to the solenoid and the black clamp runs to the ground.


 


battery.jpg


 


Any thoughts


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Which battery terminal is larger? The one on the red cable or the one on the black? Positive battery posts are larger.

 

But this doesn't really mean squat. It could have been in the hands of someone who didn't know and ran it that way, or modified by someone who knew what they were doing.

 

Not all of the electronics can run on either positive or negative ground, but some can. The starter doesn't care and a simple mod to the generator allows it to be used neg ground, but the gauges are the kicker. If run on negative ground, they can smoke. I believe there is a simple mod to change the gauges over.

 

Try googling "reversing polarity on MGB". I did this many years ago and it was a pretty simple process on my '63 MGB and on my '65 Austin Healey. I say MGB, because they share a lot of the same engineering and layout.

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Which coil wire goes to the distributor, positive or negative side?

Wayno it definitely goes to the positive side. 

 

When we fired it up and drove it around with the battery wired in negative ground. Nothing smoked, everything seemed happy. Not sure if the generator is working though since it's a new battery.

 

Also, unrelated the engine number is J15 207593

 

***Edit*** 

 

I just did some digging and see the J15 is actually a 520 engine! What're the chances it was converted to negative ground when the engine swap was done? 

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That would normally make it a positive ground as the positive side of the coil is going to the distributor which is ground, but I have heard of folks having the coil wired backwards and it still ran.

I looked at the photos again and it seems to have the 320 generator, but the J15 engine is a negative ground engine, without being there I really cannot tell anyone how their truck is wired.

My NL320 is a negative ground vehicle, the fuel gauge works great, I do not know about the temp gauge as I have an aftermarket one and will likely not try to convert it back to the stock gauge.

The J15 would be an upgrade.

Wayno it definitely goes to the positive side. 

 

When we fired it up and drove it around with the battery wired in negative ground. Nothing smoked, everything seemed happy. Not sure if the generator is working though since it't a new battery.

 

Also, unrelated the engine number is J15 207593

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Boy, that's a tough spot you're in. I honestly don't know how to tell for sure what you have. I guess you could unhook the gauges for now, wire it negative ground and run it. Once you've figured out the gauge thing, then hook them back up.

 

Call The Gauge Guys (APT Instruments) http://www.gaugeguys.com/. They will be able to help guide you.

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So we just went for it... We hooked it up positive ground and started it up. It ran but pretty quickly smelled burning and shut it down. We hooked it back up negative ground and it turns over but won't start. The coil heats up crazy hot so I think we fried it by running the current backwards. I just picked up a new coil and hope it does the trick. Anything else we likely fried by running the current the wrong way? 

 

Wheel cylinder question... Any chance wheel cylinder from a 520 or 620 fit the 320? My brother who just did the brakes on his 620 swears they're identical. Would the brake shoes from a 520 or 620 fit a 320?

 

Last question... There's no coolant reservoir, just a rubber hose that spatters out into the engine compartment when it heats up. Does anyone have a picture of where/how the reservoir mounts? Also anything I need to know about flushing the system?

 

Finally found the original VIN, definitely a '62 and looks like maybe # 568 off the line:

VIN.jpg

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Tough call, but you had to do it.

 

The 520 wheel cylinders may fit, but I think the bore size is different. Not all that bad of a problem though. The size of the piston is usually cast into the cylinder body, but if it's not, you can easily verify it by removing the dust seal and measuring the bore. The later wheel cylinders most likely use metric threads, while the early wheels cylinders use SEA threads.

 

One mod that I would highly recommend is a dual circuit master cylinder. Get one from a 510 and bolt it up and your brakes will improve and be safer.

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The auto parts store had a 620 wheel cylinder and it fit! The threads on the center (hollow) bolt fit, but the threads on the four mounting studs are different than the stock nuts. Stoffs I'd imagine you're right the 620 studs are metric and the 320 nuts are SEA. I'm going to take it to hardware store, find the right nuts, and should be set! 

 

Also I replaced the coil, hooked up the battery negative ground and she runs! We had a blast driving it around the neighborhood figuring our the shift pattern. I'm shocked at how peppy she is and 4th gear is a dream! 

 

Next up, finish the breaks, install a new thermostat and coolant overflow, and drive her around some more! Oh and maybe bolt down the seat and install seat belts. 

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Be careful of the brake line threads. I know positively that the 320 cylinders use 3/8-24 threads on the brake lines. I also know that a 3/8-24 brake line nut will thread into a 10mm x 1.0 hole, and it will even tighten a bit, but it is not right and will strip or leak.

 

If the 620 has metric mounting holes, chances are it also has metric threads on the line inlet. Verify it by using a 10mm x 1.0 brake line (auto parts store if you don't have one) and try to thread it in. If it goes, it's metric. The 10mm fittings are larger than the 3/8 so the 10mm won't thread into the 3/8, but the 3/8 will thread into the 10mm.

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620 brake parts are 10mm x 1 metric thread and the stock 320 brake parts are 3/8" x 24 SAE thread.

 

You will need to get an adapter or cut the hard line, remove the 3/8" x 24 SAE nut and replace it with a 10mm x 1 nut, then redo the double inverted flair on the end of the hard line.

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Yes, there is a banjo fitting on the 320, thank you guys for pointing that out. In that case, you should still be able to use the 320 banjo fitting, but you will need a metric banjo bolt to fit it to the 620 wheel cylinder.

 

I think I have a few of those banjo fittings left over. If I can find one, I'll snap a pic later today.

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