Geojaxon's 620 build.

[geojaxon]

Hey I am super excited to get started on my build thread. I have always had a special place in my heart for Datsuns. Here is me in my Dads 1980 back in about 1984. I love the little Datsun sign in the center console. Mine has a cd player there instead. BOOO!  

 

 

I purchased this 1979 620 not running for $700. Now the adventure begins. 

 

 

I confirmed it has the L20b under the hood and it's got a 5-speed manual I was told was swapped in 2 owners ago. It's been repainted you can see the white in the engine bay and when you open the doors. Interior is not too bad; it's got rubber on the floors and a blanket over the very torn seat.  I'm going to do a cheap refresh for now and plan on having a friend do the upholstery once everything else is nice enough to match.  

 

It has a couple of rust spots but not too bad considering. (way better than my jeep) I am planning on cutting out the worst of the spots and learning to weld in new sheet metal. I may never spend the money for a professional paint job but I don't feel bad using plasti-dip for a new look once and awhile. A rattle can slows down the rust as well. 

 

 

I don't have a plan for my Datsun start to finish I think I want to feel it out as I go what changes to make. After I get it running right the first thing on my wish list is the 5-piece Fiberglass fender/mud flap and air dam set I found on the forum here. My dad had that on his and for my whole life (mostly) I though all Datsun’s had them from the factory. lol My dad is already sending me links to Titan wheels for sale but I love the stockers and was thinking about taking them to a shop and seeing if they could widen them a couple of inches. I'm already working on the hub caps with some wadding polish. I was thinking about looking for an old shell for the bed but it would have to look very old school. I would love more power but an engine swap would be years out both because of money and knowledge needed to get it done.   

 

 

 

 

A little about me. I am a car guy through and through. Currently I have 5 vehicles 3 of which are projects nowhere near completion. I am hoping to learn while working on my Datsun. I want to take that experience and use it to restore a 1954 Jeep Willy’s wagon that sat in a field for the last 40 years with a transmission full of water and a broken engine. I am working on building a cafe racer style motorcycle out of an old Kawasaki Specter 750 this winter as an unplanned project. (Guy was going to make payments and didn't come through) My daily is a 2013 Infiniti G37X and a 2004 Honda Shadow spirit 1100. they both help to satisfy my need for speed. (never on public streets of course) My wife has a FX35 so we are Datsun/Nissan/Infiniti family. 

 

[geojaxon]

Reserved

[geojaxon]

Reserved

[Draker]

Welcome!!

 

We've got a few members here from Utah. My dad owns a 74 Datsun 620 down in Richfield.

[Lockleaf]

Welcome to the fun house.

 

I'm one of those Utah members Draker is talking about. Not too many of us, but there's a few.

 

Email or call these guys.

 

http://www.showcars-bodyparts.com/datspup.html

 

They still manufacture a fiberglass flares kit for the 620 I believe.

[geojaxon]

Truck is still not running right now. I checked spark and was not getting a very good spark initially. I tested the coil with my multi meter and got readings that were not what they should have been so I bought a new coil. (instructions I found said the coil should have 1.5 to 1.8 Ohms but when I tested i got 1.1) After swapping that out there was no change, the spark was still weak. I guess the coil was not bad after all. I had to put off working on the truck for a couple more days. 

 

Sunday I finally got some time to dig into the Datsun. I set the engine to TDC on cylinder 1 and adjusted the distributor to set the initial timing close enough hopefully. I took the Distributor off and cleaned inside and out put it back in and checked all the connections. I checked the spark from the coil and couldn't get anything. I decided to swap back to the original coil the truck came with. While swapping it back I noticed that there was a broken wire on the condenser attached where the coil mounts. I have read through a couple of ignition threads and from what I can tell my Matchbox style ignition shouldn't have a condenser/ballast. I am going to order a new condenser just in case. I also popped the fuse coming off the battery so I need to get some new ones before I try again. I found a couple of loose connections so I squished the connectors a tiny bit and now they have a much more solid connection. 

 

Photobucket is not working I'll post a pic of the condenser once its up again. 

 

My next thing to try is to run a jumper wire directly to the coil from the battery and test for good spark there. I believe this should point to the ignition wiring as the issue if the spark is good using the jumper. 

 

One other thing I discovered that is unusual. The clutch pedal has a switch/connector on it that is not connected. I am thinking this is the neutral safety switch or something similar that should stop the truck from starting with the clutch engaged. I know this truck has a swapped in 5 speed but I am not sure what was in there before. I would guess that if this switch was working correctly the truck would not even crank without the clutch pushed in. Currently it cranks either way.  I dont think this has to do with the truck not starting but though I should mention it just in case.

 

[hobospyder]

Dude the colour on that truck is pure sex

[geojaxon]

I am going to up to Bountiful for a Condenser since they are the only place in the state that has one and I'm too cheap to pay 8 dollar shipping on a 6 dollar part. Hopefully I get some spark. I am concerned though since I am not able to find the correct part. Napa said my truck does not have a condenser even though I have one in hand I took off. They are trying to sell me this. they looked up the part using 1977 instead of 1979 since there was none listed.  I see from the pic the wire only goes into one side of the part while the one I took off has wires on both sides. see below pic. 

 

 

you can see the bottom wire has broken off completely.  Is soldiering it a good idea?

 

I got a Haynes manual and I have gone through the Troubleshooting section for ignition but it doesn't mention the matchbox style distributor there,  only in the back where later model years changes are listed. 

 

I'm trying to not get frustrated but dang I just want it running so bad. haha

 

 

Hobospyder: 
I liked the color too until I got close the paint is sprayed on badly and has tons of drips. I was kind of thinking painting it yellow :) but i think it will get a plasti-dip Green coating soon. actual paint will be a couple of years I want to do some rust negation and learn to repair the worst of it. 

 

 

[hobospyder]

Well damn. Sucks it has to be resprayed

[Lockleaf]

Any 12v condenser should work fine regardless of what car they look it up for. Your truck will run just fine without the condenser on it. The consequence of this is short points life, but otherwise, no effect.

 

Here's a great discussion about them

 

http://www.hydra-glide.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=7208

 

And if you're traveling all over BFE, you are welcome to see me at the oreilly auto on sr92 in north lehi. I'll get you taken care of.

[geojaxon]

No points I think. 

 

I have the matchbox style distributor on mine since its a 1979, I thought a condenser was not needed either but in the wiring diagram in my Haynes it shows the condenser.  I read a couple of threads that stated if the condenser was bad the truck should still start and would die after warming up a bit but mine is not firing at all.

 

I have the fuses now and after I get this condenser tonight I should be able to try again. If that doesn't work I'm going to try just a jumper wire to the positive side of the coil. If that doesn't work I think I will call for reinforcements and get someone who knows a bit more to take a look at it. 

 

Lehi is not far at all for me, I will have to come down sometime and say Hi. 

 

 

 

I have a bunch of extra wires in the engine bay and i'm thinking its something to do with the emissions controls. Anyone know? 

 

These are on the passenger side near the plastic cover the relays were under. 

[Charlie69]

Welcome.  The 79 is a matchbox and the picture is of the noise suppression condensor.  It will run fine without that.

[geojaxon]

That is exactly what the guy at Napa told me last night. Glad I have confirmation on that. I am going to start over and follow my Haynes manual to TS the ignition this weekend and hopefully I can find the culprit.  

 

 

 

[geojaxon]

Got some reinforcements with better tools and I have figured out its not the ignition at all. With the help of an inline spark tester it finally shows a good spark. I guess holding the spark plug on the valve cover was not quite good enough. lol

 

We used a compression tester next and the best cylinder was at 15 psi and the worst was about 1 psi.   I find it hard to believe an engine could get this bad in each cylinder so I am going to take off the valve cover and test valve lash and check the timing chain to see if it has slipped a tooth or something like that.  Sounds like worst case I will be getting to learn how to rebuild an engine. 

 

This was always the goal however I wanted to get to drive the old gal around a bit before attempting a rebuild. 

 

Maybe the valve lash is just set very tight. 

 

The guy that helped me said the L20b is an interference engine so if the timing chain went the valves will be all bent.  

 

I am glad to know it wasn't just something dumb I was missing. 

[Lockleaf]

I have an L18 I might be willing to part with. If you have any interest, shoot me a pm and we can discuss it.

[geojaxon]

Moved the Datsun into the Garage for the winter so I can spend some quality time with it. I also hung my flag with a couple of Veteran buddies on Friday to celebrate before we went to enjoy our free food.


I took off the hood and air cleaner assembly to get to the meat of the problem. Then took off the valve cover and immediately found an issue. The timing gear connected to the camshaft is not even straight.




I turned over the engine a little with a wrench on the crankshaft and tried to find the timing marks. Someone has made their own but even those are not lined up. the bolt holding on the timing gear was really loose so knowing I was now at least going to have to re-time everything I took off the bolt and found why the gear was not straight. There is a locating pin so you can't put the gear on wrong and of course it was on wrong, the pin was holding the gear out on one side so there was no way it could be straight. The timing chain was wearing on the guide since it was not straight so I might need to replace the guide too.

 

I know that this little pin should go in that hole but the way everything is installed that is not possible. I for sure have to disassemble all this. 

I am going to drain the engine and start taking off the water-pump and fan so I can get to the crankshaft and set the timing gears and chain up correctly. Hopefully the valves are not bent all up. after resetting everything I will borrow a compression tester again and see if its any better or if I will have to pull the heads and check the valves.

[Lockleaf]

Wow. Just....wow.

[Leche]

It amazes me how people can do things like that, wow!

[geojaxon]

Hey everyone, winter is slowing me down but I haven't given up yet. It's about 40 degrees in the garage this month I just don't have the motivation to be that cold after work each night. lol  Bought a lowering kit to distract me from the expensive stuff and I'm about half way through installing that. 

 

 

 

I also found that the driveshaft carrier bearing is totally shot so that needs to be replaced as well.  

[HOGIE]

Moar lower is a good distraction. Pull those rear brake drums and inspect your brakes while your in there. With the lowing blocks it will be impossible to adjust the rear from underneath. Of course there is no adjusting the front discs.

 

When you have lowing blocks the best way to adjust the brakes is to pull drum and spread shoes, reinstall the drum and check drag. Repeat as needed.

 

Take some interior pics next time your out in that cold garage

[geojaxon]

I'm headed out to the garage tonight after work. I am planning on finishing lowering kit install and working on the rear brakes.  I need something to distract me from life and wrenching on something always seems to help that. I will grab some pictures of the interior but don't expect too much its pretty rough in there.

 

I am trying to decide if I should pull the motor and take it to a pro or if I should try to set the timing myself and risk the valves getting messed up if i do it wrong. Come to think of it I really don't know if the valves are good to begin with. 

[Draker]

It's pretty simple to set the timing, if you buy a chain with gold links.

[sebpv]

or you compare with the old chain and paint or perm. mark the corresponding links

[geojaxon]

Ok so way too cold in my garage to hold metal tools. I was freezing before I got any work done.  I did take some pictures of the inside but its pretty rough. The dashboard is cracked under the carpet cover the seat is even worse  and the moving blanket seat cover is about the most disgusting thing ever. I was going to wait until it was driveable before I worked on the inside but just taking these made me feel gross i might need to push up the timeline on that project. 

 

 

 

It has a CD player that is not connected right. The glovebox falls off if you open it. 

 

Its at least fixable and I have getto restored a truck interior before so other than the stereo wiring I am looking forward to making this a nice place to spend some time.  You can see the original white that the truck was at some point too. 

 

When I get her running hopefully the gauges and lights will work. 

 

 

I'm thinking new black carpet on the floor, fresh foam under a nice new seat cover, new shift knob and a nice steering wheel cover without all the bacteria. 

[geojaxon]

Spent a couple of hours in the garage on Saturday. Lowering blocks are finally installed and the old gal looks pretty good. One small issue though the fender gap is about 2 inches higher on the drivers side. I checked under the truck and even the axle to bump stop is about that much off. Makes me wish I would have measured axle to frame before I started this. I know that the shock on the drivers side is binding up a little bit so that might be some of the problem but I need to investigate further to figure this out.

I was going to try to measure the leaf springs from end to end to see if the one side is different. After double checking the blocks and the u-bolts none of what I changed would make it this much off.

The funniest thing is when I get in the truck on the drivers side it squats just enough on that side so its even. lol

I went back to the original pics I had of the truck and even there it seems to lean a little to the passenger side. I'm betting its the springs being messed up a bit. oh well its an old truck what can you expect.

I need to adjust the torsion bars next in the front to get that down a bit, or maybe I should get back to work on the engine issues.


Anyone with a lowered truck have load assist shocks with a coil spring on them?

https://www.amazon.com/Monroe-58417-Adjust-Shock-Absorber/dp/B000CGEJDQ

I was thinking it might help stiffen the back so I'm not banging off the bump stops too much. It looks like they have air shocks that might fit too. Any suggestions?