Duncan Posted April 6 Report Share Posted April 6 5 minutes ago, dimlight65 said: Oh, it has nothing to do with stopping better. It's all about "The Cool" It's cool to have the brakes last much longer on a nose heavy van. Groovy Baby!! Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 6 Report Share Posted April 6 20 hours ago, Duncan said: It's cool to have the brakes last much longer on a nose heavy van. Groovy Baby!! Yes sir. Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 7 Report Share Posted April 7 (edited) I decided to get the van inspected today so I can renew the license plates. First, I labeled all my switches to make it easier for the inspector... Then we tested all the stuff the inspector was going to look at and discovered that the wipers had stopped working. We did a few tests and (incorrectly) determined the problem to be in the new Chinesium wiper motor. I also decided to ditch the 27yo, stock plug... in favor of four individual female spade connections. (Yeah, screw "Future Tim," this is a "Today Tim" problem.) The new "Tail of the Pig" looked like this... You might notice the past tense there. Yeah, those wires were criminally short. I re-remade the pigtail, but forgot to take a picture. With it all in place, I gave it another test... And of course it didn't work. I removed the wiper motor for some bench testing... and discovered that it does work... when grounded properly. I made a jumper to supplement the factory jumper around this bolt... And now it works swimmingly! I buttoned everything up and hauled ass to the inspection station... It passed! Next, I go to DMV to renew the plates, joy. Edited April 7 by dimlight65 4 Quote Link to comment
EDM620 Posted April 7 Report Share Posted April 7 Found this online today Dajiban needs PIPES! Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted April 7 Author Report Share Posted April 7 And center caps... 😁 So I took the liberty of making some cooler ones for it. Screwed the ARE cap down to some MDF and used a router to make a pattern... Then cut some rough shapes out of carbon fiber sheet... Screwed those down to my template and used the router to shape them... They will get the edges sanded and their faces polished up a bit before install. Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 7 Report Share Posted April 7 4 hours ago, EDM620 said: Found this online today Dajiban needs PIPES! The '97 sliding door vans (like mine) have a stupid little kick up under the passenger door. Which is where I (and a few "real" Dajibans in Japan) have routed the zorst... I think it "ties the room together" and makes the kick up look like it's there for a reason. Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 7 Report Share Posted April 7 Yesterday I installed this ground wire on the wiper motor... Then I remembered I had these... so I replaced the, frankly kinda ghetto, wire with a pretty braided copper strap... Can you see it with the hood open? Of course not... but I know it's there! 2 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 7 Report Share Posted April 7 Occasionally, I get a "Death Wiggle" shimmy in the steering. Frankly, it scares the crap out of me that it could happen on the freeway where I can't slow down to make it go away. So I want to install a steering damper. Looking at the setup... it really shouldn't be too difficult. Oh, disregard that motor mount. I have new mounts to go in there... eventually. Quote Link to comment
EDM620 Posted April 7 Report Share Posted April 7 57 minutes ago, dimlight65 said: Occasionally, I get a "Death Wiggle" shimmy in the steering Make that a top priority. Death is the key thing to avoid for you & others. Way back I had a '75 F100 4x4 that had a 1 year only steering setup, a power box coupled with a power ram. By the time I aquired it, the death wobble liked to introduce itself at only 50mph, effectively undriveable. Forced the seller to give me my money back. Too bad, had plans for that beast, 390 with 4spd manual with granny gear. Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 7 Report Share Posted April 7 37 minutes ago, EDM620 said: Make that a top priority. Death is the key thing to avoid for you & others. Way back I had a '75 F100 4x4 that had a 1 year only steering setup, a power box coupled with a power ram. By the time I aquired it, the death wobble liked to introduce itself at only 50mph, effectively undriveable. Forced the seller to give me my money back. Too bad, had plans for that beast, 390 with 4spd manual with granny gear. Fortunately, it has only happened at around 30mph or so. I think I have found the setup I want, but I'm going to have to cobble it together myself. But yeah, this is priority #1, for sure. 1 Quote Link to comment
goes2fast Posted April 8 Report Share Posted April 8 (edited) The damper will only mask the problem. You have wear somewhere, or an alignment problem causing the death wobble. your safety is at issue here along with others, so fix the problem, don't just put a bandaid on it. When I had my Jeep many had the dreaded death wobble and the best cure was an aftermarket track bar that was better quality than what the cheapo Chrysler factory part. Your van doesn't have a track bar, but something in your steering or suspension has slop in order to cause the death wobble. Back when I was a youngster my grandfather called it shimmy and that meant a trip to the alignment shop. Edited April 8 by goes2fast Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 8 Report Share Posted April 8 21 hours ago, goes2fast said: The damper will only mask the problem. You have wear somewhere, or an alignment problem causing the death wobble. your safety is at issue here along with others, so fix the problem, don't just put a bandaid on it. John has made the same argument. Ok, we will grok the steering bits and fix what's ailing it. Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted April 10 Author Report Share Posted April 10 Cleaned, and some (hopefully) UV resistant clear urethane put on... 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 12 Report Share Posted April 12 (edited) I'm sad because I can no longer justify the added expense of the DAJIBAN license plates... So I have to run regular plates like a cave man... But I am happy because the van is legal to drive again... But I'm sad again because I'm 99.78236475% certain that I blew out one of these today... Probably this one... It started out popping like an exhaust leak (duh!) then got worse and worse as I drove. Now, I might as well be running open headers. Edited April 12 by dimlight65 Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted April 12 Report Share Posted April 12 Maybe someone could pop out an all white graphic of the "DAJIBAN" to stick on the back window. I feel the money pain, too. I took three friends to lunch at a regular (not too fancy) Mexican food place yesterday, and the bill (with tip) was $100. Everything's way too expensive. Cool, that's it running and back on the road. 👍 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 13 Report Share Posted April 13 (edited) This look... was not cutting it for us. But I didn't want to run these... so John made some... which look like... when installed. I think they are awesome! Edited April 13 by dimlight65 4 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 13 Report Share Posted April 13 The driver's window has a bad habit of coming out of its track when rolled all the way down. So I made a travel stop... which... um, stops the travel... when the window is this far down... Hopefully this will keep someone from dropping the glass out of the track again until we can replace the channel rubber. 2 Quote Link to comment
EDM620 Posted April 13 Report Share Posted April 13 1 hour ago, dimlight65 said: when the window is this far down... enough sticking up you could maybe grasp it with your fingers if need be ☺️ Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 13 Report Share Posted April 13 1 minute ago, EDM620 said: enough sticking up you could maybe grasp it with your fingers if need be ☺️ Is good plan, tovarisch! I had not considered that, actually. Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 18 Report Share Posted April 18 We recycled one of the "Dajiban" license plates... I'm not 100% sure about it yet, but I'm sure it will grow on me... 3 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 19 Report Share Posted April 19 A tie rod kit, drag link, and window channel seal have been ordered... so the woes of earlier posts should be resolved in the coming weeks. We discussed Heim joints (or the ultimate wackiness of rack and pinion), but decided on stock replacement for now. 2 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted Sunday at 01:23 PM Report Share Posted Sunday at 01:23 PM Once all the parts arrived... we removed all the bit for disassembly in the vice... Some pickle fork action made quick work of the various rod ends... With it all apart, I "cleaned" the drag link... and popped the idler arms back on... I measured the outer tie rods several times before swapping the ends, but I'm only about 5.23754% confident in their lengths... And I didn't take pictures of them. Back under the van, we bolted everything up with (mostly) new hardware (we lost one cotter pin)... We still need to grease all the Zerk fittings (and I want to zip tie the flap under the radiator back up again), so she is still on stands. Wednesday (if we get the driver's window to cooperate) we'll put it down for a test drive. 2 Quote Link to comment
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