New '77 620 - My first Ratsun!

[ECS620]

Greetings Ratsun fellows!

 

Picked up my first Datsun this weekend. I've had my eye out for a 620 KC for some time now and was able to strike a pretty good deal. She's got the L20B and a Webber 32/36. 4Spd, A/C, a bit of amateur body-work,  and a spare set of tires mounted on steelies. Runs great, couple of small exhaust leaks but no fluid leaks and surprisingly minimal rust for being a western WA pickup (It will need new rockers someday, but only surface bed rust, and nothing in the drip lines or cab corners!).  I trailed her some 350 miles pack to Pullman, WA behind the 4Runner (quite the grunt for the 3.4L auto) with no issues. Wipers, blower motor, turn signals and A/C fan were all non-functional so I lurked on the forums here for a day or so and discovered the old fuse-box lemon juice trick. This solved almost every electrical issue. The front end shakes pretty bad under heavy braking, so I'd like to re-bush everything up there and eventually use the Beebani caliper brackets for a disk conversion up front. I've noticed what seems to be a transmission cooler mounted in front of the radiator (tubing runs back near firewall and is plugged), and a goofy cotton boot around the shifter leading me to believe this is a manual-conversion truck (to my liking).  Very excited to have another mini truck, as I had a lot of fun wrenching on a Toyota as my first pickup back in high school. Very grateful for the vast amount of expertise and experience on this forum . I'll leave you all with some photos of the 620 KC and revisit this post as I make modifications and get her running (and hopefully looking) well.

 

Thanks for all the help you all have already been,

 

ECS620

 

 

[datzenmike]

Not a conversion I think. There are too many things done right in the engine compartment.

[Bleach]

4 hours ago, ECS620 said:

 

 

[EDM620]

Looks like you've got a good starting point for whatever direction you want to go with it!

[]2eDeYe]

Good looking truck. B)

[420n620]

Got any interior pic's and does the AC work ? I'm just south of you down in Lewiston. Nice to see another Datsun coming back into the area. 

 

Welcome to the form, lots of good info here.  

[ECS620]

3 hours ago, 420n620 said:

Got any interior pic's and does the AC work ? I'm just south of you down in Lewiston. Nice to see another Datsun coming back into the area. 

 

Welcome to the form, lots of good info here.  

 

Here are some interior pics. Sorry about the link, I need to either figure out Google photos better or sign up for another image hosting service. The interior  could use some work, door cards are falling apart, that will be one of the first purchases. I also plan to pull the dash and repair some of the cracks which should allow me to clean and tuck away or possibly do away with some low hanging wires here or there and freshen up the paint on the floorboards and cowl in-between the dash and windshield. 

 

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipM8gbCuWd7TOo4Sx1eVGBuLaGLxrX1hNP0R78DPX_Y3PVe7CS9g2evzDFSc7s3Xfw?key=UlEzX2R5XzFhQXJ1SkxiZGlhNVdOblFKTFdWdzVB

 

The AC does not blow cold, that's a project for further down the road I like my windows down anyway, gotta be seen in this sweet little ride.

 

 

[klam07]

For some reason when I host directly from google photos the images show up on my end but not to the public - is what I've found out. I end up having to use a third party like flickr for properly embedded images.

Nice truck!

[Stackedfish]

5 hours ago, ECS620 said:

 

Here are some interior pics. Sorry about the link, I need to either figure out Google photos better or sign up for another image hosting service. The interior  could use some work, door cards are falling apart, that will be one of the first purchases. I also plan to pull the dash and repair some of the cracks which should allow me to clean and tuck away or possibly do away with some low hanging wires here or there and freshen up the paint on the floorboards and cowl in-between the dash and windshield. 

 

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipM8gbCuWd7TOo4Sx1eVGBuLaGLxrX1hNP0R78DPX_Y3PVe7CS9g2evzDFSc7s3Xfw?key=UlEzX2R5XzFhQXJ1SkxiZGlhNVdOblFKTFdWdzVB

 

The AC does not blow cold, that's a project for further down the road I like my windows down anyway, gotta be seen in this sweet little ride.

 

 

 

Awesome template to get your own flavors going on there. Very keen to see where you head with it.
I've found IMGUR pretty awesome as a third party photo management tool. Just copy the BBC Code into your posts and away you go.  

[Farmer]

You can post pics directly to this site now. There's a thread in the general section

[420n620]

[RustedRails]

Looks great! 

[ECS620]

On 6/21/2020 at 8:51 AM, 420n620 said:

 

 

Right on! Thanks 420n620! Ill check out that thread.

 

 

 

[EDM620]

On 6/17/2020 at 12:26 PM, ECS620 said:

The AC does not blow cold, that's a project for further down the road I like my windows down anyway, gotta be seen in this sweet little ride.

 That's 260 AC - 2 windows down & 60 mph!

[ECS620]

Found some cool old  15x8.5" slotted mags for a good price locally and the guy offered to mount and balance tires on them when I found some. I ordered some 225/50/15 Kumho Ecsta ASTs and waited the excruciating week and a half for them to arrive and we mounted them up today. While I was waiting I ordered some 3" drop blocks for the rear. I managed to get it all put together this evening and take it out for a short low and slow cruise. Before and after:

 

 

[SONOFK-E]

Great find run it till I dies then start a project thats what I'm doing these trucks are fun daily drivers

[gene knight]

nice 620kc

[ECS620]

So yesterday I was taking the pickup to the fuel station to fill the boat fuel tanks and about 5 minutes into my drive the pickup engine cut out completely. I'm talking dead-in-the-water cut out. I throw in the clutch and dump it in 2nd gear as I'm coasting and get her to fire back up for a short moment, then the same scenario plays out again, the engine cuts out and I lose all power. I found a parking lot (after pushing the pickup by myself for about 150 ft through traffic!) and could get the pickup to start up momentarily, then she dies. I'm thinking this is a fueling issue (gauge shows 1/2 tank and I filled it up on Wednesday 8/19/20)  and I plan to replace the inline filter and blow out the lines (possibly replace some of them). I've seen quite a few anecdotes of folks on here "boiling" their fuel tanks, I'm wondering if this might be necessary. My question for you guys: am I starting in the right place? It sure seems like a fuel issue to me, all plug wires are tight on both ends. What advice can ya'll give a newbie?

 

Thanks,

 

ECS620

[banzai510(hainz)]

when this happens

look inside the carb and cycle the linkage. It should squirt gas in the carb from the accell pump diaphragm. If NOOOOO gas shooting in the the carb, float bowl is dry. Meaning the needle valve is stuck closed not letting gas in.  Or maybe the fuel pump bad or a hose is crack not getting good vaccum in from of the fuel pump(if manual pump on side of cylinder head)

 

one can pour a tiny amount of gas from a cup in to the carb and see if the motor fires up. if yes then your electrcal is most likely fine.

 

 

if you think electrical pull the center coil wire out of the distributor cap and place near ground and hit the START and it should spark near the chassis.

[ECS620]

1 hour ago, banzai510(hainz) said:

when this happens

look inside the carb and cycle the linkage. It should squirt gas in the carb from the accell pump diaphragm. If NOOOOO gas shooting in the the carb, float bowl is dry. Meaning the needle valve is stuck closed not letting gas in.  Or maybe the fuel pump bad or a hose is crack not getting good vaccum in from of the fuel pump(if manual pump on side of cylinder head)

 

one can pour a tiny amount of gas from a cup in to the carb and see if the motor fires up. if yes then your electrcal is most likely fine.

 

 

if you think electrical pull the center coil wire out of the distributor cap and place near ground and hit the START and it should spark near the chassis.

Thanks for the quick response Hainz. I'll try those suggestions tonight after work!

[ECS620]

Update to the problem I described earlier:

 

I can see fuel squirt into the carb from the accelerator pump when I cycle the linkage. I removed the “out” line from the fuel pump and I get fuel coming out as I crank the motor over. So fueling does not seem to be an issue. I pulled the coil wire and positioned it close to the block and turned the motor over and did not see spark, however the motor was turning over pretty slow by this point as I had drained the battery by crankin’ the old girl to see if she starts. The resistor near the coil was also pretty hot. I also replaced the battery leads and terminal clamps today and put it on the trickle charger over night. The leads were extremely corroded, and I’m getting much better voltage throughout the system now.  When I bought the truck, there were two ignition coils rolling around in the cab. Seems like this might be a systemic problem. Could the reduced voltage due to corrosion have caused the coil to fail? 
 

Thanks in advance! 
 

 

[datzenmike]

Check the points. They may be worn and need cleaning and gaping or just replace them.

 

Is the coil a black one or one of those fancy after market POS????

[ECS620]

26 minutes ago, datzenmike said:

Check the points. They may be worn and need cleaning and gaping or just replace them.

 

Is the coil a black one or one of those fancy after market POS????

Mike,

 

Points look nice and new. In fact, the dist cap and plug wires all look fairly new. The coil wire was not seated very well in the receptacle on the coil or the dist cap. Possibly not even making contact. I measured resistance through the coil wire and its 4.98K-5.01K ohms. I'm thinking this is where the problem might be. The coil is entirely black. I will clean the contacts in the coil and dist cap as well as either end of the coil wire and give it a try again tomorrow when that battery gets charged.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

[datzenmike]

Probably the stock coil, measure the resistance across the primary field winding + to -. Make sure key is off. Should be 1.2 to 1.4 ohms.

[ECS620]

11 hours ago, datzenmike said:

Probably the stock coil, measure the resistance across the primary field winding + to -. Make sure key is off. Should be 1.2 to 1.4 ohms.

Resistance across the primary winding was 1.4 ohms. With a fresh charge on the battery and contacts on the coil and coil wire cleaned I could get a little spark arcing from the coil wire to the block, the spark would not jump more than about 1/4" though. Is this enough? With everything back together I can crank the engine over and occasionally it will fire but never long enough to sustain the engine running.