My 1971 521

[d.p]

I have my reasons and don’t fault people who do. Just me personally I try to enjoy life without any of that.  

[Charlie69]

d.p you have a beautiful truck drive it and enjoy it.  Yes I use mine as trucks also.

[d.p]

Holy shit loose bolts are going to be the death of me.  Today I found all my driveshaft bolts had worked themself loose so I tightened the shit out of them.  
 

Then one of my heat shield bolts worked itself loose and I lost the nut. Luckily the bolt wedged itself between the down pipe and the block.  
 

I don’t remember ever having to tighten a single nut on my l16 + 4 speed.  

[demo243]

18 minutes ago, d.p said:

Holy shit loose bolts are going to be the death of me.  Today I found all my driveshaft bolts had worked themself loose so I tightened the shit out of them.  
 

Then one of my heat shield bolts worked itself loose and I lost the nut. Luckily the bolt wedged itself between the down pipe and the block.  
 

I don’t remember ever having to tighten a single nut on my l16 + 4 speed.  

May or may not be the right thing to do... but I always put a dab of loctite on my drive shaft bolts. 

[d.p]

I may just do that but man those bolts in the middle a bitch to get to when up against the carrier bearing and the cross member there.  

[Charlie69]

Have a custom one piece driveline made get rid of the carrier bearing.  I do this to all my 521s.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Charlie69

[d.p]

29 minutes ago, Charlie69 said:

Have a custome one piece driline made get rid of the carrier bearing.  I do this to all my 521s.

I should have done that when I had it shortened.  Not sure I have the wherewithal to drop it and have it made into a 1 piece right now. Maybe over the winter.  

[d.p]

Ordered a vibrant resonator and magma flow muffler and have an appointment next week to get a 2.25” SS exhaust done up.  I also got my horn working button not sure the button is installed correctly. The only way I could make it work was to sandwich the horn behind the steering wheel inbetween it and the adapter. 
 

It works but I think the button should be on top of the heels behind the beauty ring but the steering column nut/bolt simply won’t allow that. Plus the opening of the adapter is bigger than the horn button itself.  Regardless nice having a working horn again.
 

[mrbigtanker]

Do you have the cheesey metal ring on the inside to clip the horn button into. Also the common problem with the horn not working is making sure the contacts on the back side is touching the new adapter. I always pull it out before I install new one the tab that is., its flimsy as hell. 

[d.p]

4 minutes ago, mrbigtanker said:

Do you have the cheesey metal ring on the inside to clip the horn button into. Also the common problem with the horn not working is making sure the contacts on the back side is touching the new adapter. I always pull it out before I install new one the tab that is., its flimsy as hell. 

hoenslty I don’t know. This is what it looks like without the wheel attached. Keep in mind this is the .5” adapter and I have a 1” adapter on it now.  

[d.p]

Oh and my horn works I just didn’t have the button installed because it didn’t fit with .5” adapter.  

[d.p]

Still think something is not right with my headlights and alternator.  Yesterday driving around at night and AMPs dropped down to 11.6 with my headlights on and nothing else.  Whats odd if I am driving around and turn them on it drops like.5 amps, but as soon as stop and idle it drops way down.  Then if I turn the lights off it takes forever for it to start charging again.

 

Is that normal? 

[banzai510(hainz)]

you using a AMP meter???????? or volt meter??????????

a amp meter works in series

a volt meter is just across the battery

 

[Crashtd420]

1 hour ago, d.p said:

Still think something is not right with my headlights and alternator.  Yesterday driving around at night and AMPs dropped down to 11.6 with my headlights on and nothing else.  Whats odd if I am driving around and turn them on it drops like.5 amps, but as soon as stop and idle it drops way down.  Then if I turn the lights off it takes forever for it to start charging again.

 

Is that normal? 

Definitely not normal....

My first thought is a loose ground...

Also make sure they have clean metal under the connection point.... 

 

[d.p]

VOLT meter.  Clean ground meaning no paint between the ground and whatever metal it is touching? I just don't know what would be causing, using same grounds as my gauges and they seem to work without issue. 

[Racer X 69]

1 minute ago, d.p said:

VOLT meter.  Clean ground meaning no paint between the ground and whatever metal it is touching? I just don't know what would be causing, using same grounds as my gauges and they seem to work without issue. 

What is the condition of the battery?

[d.p]

Just now, Racer X 69 said:

What is the condition of the battery?

 

Tested fine when I took it to the battery shop but it is from 2015 so its long in the teeth. 

[Racer X 69]

13 minutes ago, d.p said:

 

Tested fine when I took it to the battery shop but it is from 2015 so its long in the teeth. 

Check all connections, they must be clean and tight. I like to use contact grease to reduce the chance of corrosion.

[d.p]

16 minutes ago, Racer X 69 said:

Check all connections, they must be clean and tight. I like to use contact grease to reduce the chance of corrosion.

 

Battery connections? Or headlight?  Would a bad ground cause what I am seeing, it seems to be alternator related which I have fought constantly since rebuilding this mfer.  

[datzenmike]

Volt meter is across the + and - sides of the battery. Got to figure that the gauge is a long way from the battery and there will be losses from wire length and any connections. Wires for the volt meter must then be as stupid large gauge as feasible. You can ground return to the body as long as there is a good cable from the body to the battery you trust. 

 

 

Let me tell you what happened to me.

I put a much newer 2002 Altima 100 amp alternator in my 710 with the conversion to internal regulated and drove it for 3 years, no problem and no voltage gauge. Just before Canby I installed a 720 volt and oil pressure gauge and that night in southern Washington I noticed the gauge was creeping down from 14.5 and lights were getting dimmer so I stopped for the night. Next morning I had someone charge my battery with jumper cables and if I kept my lights off I could drive for hours and easily get there. About 3 hours later the gauge jumped up to 14.5 whoo hoo! The next stop for gas I shut off and no charge when re started and staed that way there. Borrowed an alternator from HRH (thankyou) and headed home at the end of the show. Half way to Spokane lights were dim and volts at 11.5 then 11 then 10. I honked the horn to see if the horn was weak and everything lit up and 14.5 volts again!!!! Drove home through Calgary and just ignored the gauge when it dropped. It never left me stranded.

 

Once home I thought about it and when I switched alternators the new one (all from '86.5 and up) had a much different two wire plug. One for the red light and one for the exciter. I researched which way to connect the Datsun plug to the Nissan alternators but I guess it comes down to 50/50 chance and I guess I got it wrong. I tried swapping the two wires and BOOM works perfect ever since. Being reversed hurt nothing and the sense wasn't telling the alternator to charge... but when the voltage dropped below 11 and/or when sometimes starting I guess enough residual magnetism to jump start the process.

 

Now the Red charge light comes on with the key. Never noticed it was on or off before.

 

Like I said I drove it 3 years and didn't know it was off and on charging until I put a gauge in. Ignorance is bliss.

 

So. Are you absolutely sure the two wires to the plug are correctly wired???

[mainer311]

Adding grounds won't hurt anything. I always do at least 2 to 3 large ground wires to the frame. 

 

Alternator to engine block

Engine block to frame

Battery ground to engine block

 

Also not a bad idea to use the same bolt to pinch the ground together at the same spot.

[Racer X 69]

2 hours ago, d.p said:

 

Battery connections? Or headlight?  

All connections. Positive. Negative.

 

All of them

[d.p]

2 hours ago, datzenmike said:

So. Are you absolutely sure the two wires to the plug are correctly wired???

 

How could they not be?  I never touched the two wires going to the plug since I have owned the truck and there is only one way for it to plug into the alternator.  Where they go on the other end I have no idea but that end wouldn't have changed AFAIK. 

 

The red charge light comes on with the key and goes off once I excite it enough (1500-2000 RPMs).  I just don't see how I can have the wiring wrong, its a T plug and 2 wires, one to the battery and one to ground.  

 

36 minutes ago, Racer X 69 said:

All connections. Positive. Negative.

 

All of them

 

Ok. 

Edited April 28, 2021 by d.p

[datzenmike]

Just asking as I'm not sure what alternator landed in your 521.

 

Shouldn't have to rev to 1,500-2,000 for charge.

[Crashtd420]

Dp are you using leds in your cluster?

I had that same issue having to rev it up to get it to start charging after I swapped to leds. I put a regular bulb in for the charge light and problem went away....