sgiandubh Posted April 19, 2019 Report Share Posted April 19, 2019 I've had my eye on this car since I was a kid. It was my grandmother's car, and some of my earliest memories of her are riding in the back of it while she drove us to the pool. My grandfather bought it for her new in the fall of '77. The original title shows that it was first registered 10/08/77. It was never driven out of the Seattle area and has 76k miles. It's been sitting in her carport for the past 8-10 years, but much to my delight, I have been able to recently purchase it from the estate. There seem to be very few 810s left, and a similarly small number of tech threads on how to keep these cars on the road. The intent of this thread is to contribute to that knowledge base and document the journey back to daily status for a pretty well preserved example of the car. 1 Quote Link to comment
]2eDeYe Posted April 19, 2019 Report Share Posted April 19, 2019 Damn fine goon you got there. Welcome aboard. :) 1 Quote Link to comment
sgiandubh Posted April 19, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2019 Thanks @]2eDeYe! I'm stoked. First Datsun, so should be a fun learning curve. First order of business was getting the motor lubed back up after sitting for so long. So, I pulled the valve cover and drizzled some oil over the rockers and timing chain and put a cap full into each cylinder. Cranked it over 10 seconds at a time for 3 or 4 tries but the oil pressure gauge didn't move. I was getting oil up at the rockers from the pump so, I figured was good enough. 1 Quote Link to comment
Rays74 Posted April 19, 2019 Report Share Posted April 19, 2019 Proper thing to do would be to pull the pump and prime it, change the oil and filter..... BUT I say if you are certain you are getting oil up to the top of the motor than you are safe to go for starting it. I would however change the oil and filter as soon as possible once it is running. Check your coolant levels too and watch for a sticking thermostat once it's warming up......leave the cap off and pay attention to the water level 😉 Quote Link to comment
sgiandubh Posted April 20, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 Amazingly, the gas in the tank didn't smell varnished. Which was good considering that I broke my transfer pump trying to get it to work. Even more amazingly, it fired on the second crank! I had to shut it down instantly though, because as soon as it fired it raced. After a bit of trouble shooting I found that the the throttle linkage along the intake manifold was frozen. A little WD40 and it ran and idled! At this point I was pretty excited so my picture taking fell off, but I drove it on the trailer and got it home without incident. And gave it a much needed bath... 1 Quote Link to comment
sgiandubh Posted April 20, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 19 minutes ago, Rays74 said: Proper thing to do would be to pull the pump and prime it, change the oil and filter..... BUT I say if you are certain you are getting oil up to the top of the motor than you are safe to go for starting it. I would however change the oil and filter as soon as possible once it is running. Check your coolant levels too and watch for a sticking thermostat once it's warming up......leave the cap off and pay attention to the water level 😉 Good comments. Is the oil pump driven off the distributor in these motors? I didn't think to go that route, would have been a better approach than cranking. Yep, I will change the oil pronto. It seemed to manage temp ok, but ran slightly hotter than I'd like. I'll try your trick with the cap off to check the tstat. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) Hope it don't live in Seattle outside like that for the rest of its life. Sell it to me!!! I got some SSR Mesh that would fit that Edited April 20, 2019 by banzai510(hainz) 1 Quote Link to comment
bananahamuck Posted April 20, 2019 Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 is it an optical illusIon or something,,, how do you even get it in and out of .that parking spot ?? 1 Quote Link to comment
sgiandubh Posted April 20, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2019 6 minutes ago, bananahamuck said: is it an optical illusIon or something,,, how do you even get it in and out of .that parking spot ?? Ha! Its totally not an optical illusion. For whatever reason they redid the parking spots like that and the inside two are completely unusable for anything normal car sized. Works out good for me to use the space for my projects though. The van is mine too so I can move it if I need. 2 Quote Link to comment
sgiandubh Posted April 23, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2019 Fresh oil and a new battery and it was time to drive it further than 20 feet! I took a crappy cell phone video of the drive... but won't let me link to it for some reason. Summary of the shake down cruise is as follows. Wipers, radio, heater fan don't work. Alternator isn't charging. Left turn signal has a bulb out. A bunch of warning lights stay on all the time. Tires are REALLY dry rotted and totally sketch to drive on. Engine runs smooth and pulls strong. Trans is a bit clunky (main point of reference is my wife's IS250, all my other rigs are sticks, so I'm assuming its normal) but shifts and pulls fine. Even with the issues I couldn't resist driving it the 5ish miles to school. I wasn't prepared for nearly 4k at 70mph!! The engine felt totally smooth even spinning that fast. 60 felt more comfortable - or maybe it was just my mental block to cruising at 4 grand. 1 Quote Link to comment
sgiandubh Posted April 23, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2019 Some forum snooping and poking around under the hood and I found a melted fuseable link wire. I'll have to do a permanent fix, but splicing it back together brought back the wipers, fan and radio. Still not charging... Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted April 24, 2019 Report Share Posted April 24, 2019 (edited) Ck and clean the fuses. get a volt meter to make sure to see what voltages you are getting. you could always pull the alt and take to NAPA to load test. But could be a loose or dirty contack at the fuse box that powers the alternator windings your car is most likely unmolested so it will be simple fixes. Edited April 24, 2019 by banzai510(hainz) Quote Link to comment
ArchetypeDatsun Posted May 6, 2019 Report Share Posted May 6, 2019 You can upgrade to Maxi fuses to replace the old problematic fusible links. My 79 810 wagon has been sitting for 3 years I've tried countless times to revive it. Pretty soon I'm gonna get it painted and engine sorted out Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted December 5, 2019 Report Share Posted December 5, 2019 Wish there was a update on this. Better if I buy it and put it in the garage. 1 Quote Link to comment
yenpit Posted December 12, 2019 Report Share Posted December 12, 2019 This is cool! 😎 If you are contemplating a MANUAL swap, I have a 1983 Maxima with MANUAL pedals still in it. Trying to sell whole car now, but will part it out if no buyers. The pedals MIGHT be the same......I don't know. I will pull the pedal set out if the car has to go to scrap 😞. Swapping auto to manual in a Z car or 510 is a very straight forward swap, mostly bolt in...........I would guess this is similar?? TJ Denver CO Quote Link to comment
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