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A 521 in Massachusetts


Crashtd420

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Seems garage time is hard to come by lately.... its not a bad thing, I enjoy spending time with my son, but it makes it tuffer to get things done as he gets older .... good think I got the majority done already..... 

 

I think it's funny, it took me 4 years to bring it back to life and after 2 years of driving it I'm still not finished with the original restoration.... just little things now, sort of .... 

 

I was able to mess with the front ride height today... i rotated the torsion bars 1 spline so now I'm back to the same ride height with room to actually adjust it up to where I want it....

 

I did give my self some motivation,  figured I should probably try to start the truck since it's been almost 2 months.. once the fuel primed it fired right up, it was nice to hear it run... hopefully only a couple more months before i can drive it again....

Next up is removing the intake and adding a pcv valve... 

 

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Oil cap seals came in today.....

 

20200106-170158.jpg

 

At first I thought I bought the wrong part... when I initially looked at them they seemed way to small... I quickly went to the garage to check and lucky for me they were correct because I bought 2 since they seem to be a little tricky to find.....

 

Old one has seen better days...

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So Is there any trick to keeping extra seals good?

Can I oil it then bag it up?

 

I dont think I'll need the spare seal for a long time but when i do i want it to still be good....

I plan to get a couple plastic bins to organize my old parts, spare parts and other stuff....

 

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10 minutes ago, mainer311 said:

If it’s natural rubber, don’t put anything petroleum based on it. I’d grease it up with some synthetic grease and throw it back in a bag.

 

I doubt the oil cap seal will be made of rubber. Think about it.

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1 hour ago, wayno said:

The Ratsun oil caps I bought use a rubber o-ring and I have had one on my 521 kingcab diesel engine for years without issues.

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Mine actually has a groove in the oil cap specific for that seal... And I actually just went and looked and I probably could have just used the o ring in the valve cover instead but it was only $11 for 2 shipped.... 

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Well apparently I dont know how to mark a straight line on my torsion bar or something..... I have the front end level but one adjuster is further up than the other and I still want to go up a little more. .. I think I'm still 1 off on the passenger side.....

 

Here's a question are there the same amount of spines on both ends of the torsion bar? 

 

Because I rotated the driver's side up by the control arm and the passenger side at the adjuster end..... 

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1 hour ago, DanielC said:

I have the torsion bars out of one of my 521 trucks, I can go and count splines a little later, I am eating dinner now.

If you find your self out there... dont make a special trip .. I'll be working on it tomorrow and can examine it better...

The idea of the ends being different popped into my head after I was done for the night... I was just wondering...

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This weekend was a nice surprise yesterday was in the 50s and today was around 65.... and then it will be 35 tomorrow and snow on Thursday.. 

 

Unfortunately I had to work on the wifes Subaru instead of the datsun.. i had to replace the rear wheel bearings which should be fairly easy... it's a complete hub assembly.. i was able to get one side done but not the other.... I'll be sending that to my mechanic Tuesday....

 

So then I had to work on the datsun, because I'll need to drive it for a day or 2 since the wife will need to drive my Chevy while the Subaru is in the shop...  I was able to get the ride height and camber set and take the truck out for the afternoon running errands.... 

I do miss driving the datsun.... 

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"I do miss driving the datsun....  "

I get that.  It is just fun to drive my 521.  I like that I can feel of the roads are getting icy, even in going on a straight line.  I can feel the difference of a wet road. in the steering.  I like haveing a manual five speed transmission I put in the truck, and I can anticipate knowing I need to shift to the gear I need before accelerating, instead of waiting for the transmission to react to what is happening.

I like that $5.00 or even $2.00 of gas can get me through a day, and that a fill up is rarely more than 10 gallons, and that will get me over 200 miles.

 

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I always index at the control arm end.  The splines are the same but the end with the L/R is the adjuster end, if installed backwards the adjustment is different then when installed in the correct direction.   Also be sure that if you remove both torsion bars that you keep the Left/Right orientation correct.

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36 minutes ago, Charlie69 said:

I always index at the control arm end.  The splines are the same but the end with the L/R is the adjuster end, if installed backwards the adjustment is different then when installed in the correct direction.   Also be sure that if you remove both torsion bars that you keep the Left/Right orientation correct.

I would have but the other end came of so I just went with it..... 

And yes I kept everything oriented properly....

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I have had the same situation.  On one of my 521s I was not able to get the torsion bar out of the control arm end so I did the adjuster end and the adjusters were clocked different when the truck was level and the same height on both sides.  To get the adjusters about he same I had to pull the torsion bar with the control arm bracket attached and tap the bracket off the control arm with a hammer and a brass drift and then reassemble.  always clean and re-grease the torsion bar ends.  I always put a refence line on the control arm bracket and the torsion bar so I can see how many splines I am indexing.

 

I have also experienced a worn out torsion bar that was weak.  This is really rare but does happen.

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