A 510 goon named Cactus Peel

[Anonymous Waffle]

2 hours ago, datzenmike said:

Amazing, I also have '84 Maxima wagon struts? Love them.

 

Driveway across the front must be level.

 

You can't expect equal settings to look equal. For one thing the battery is on one side. Maybe sit someone in the driver's seat when setting the camber. Adjust till equal, this is why they are adjustable. I uses a torpedo level on the rotor to set vertical. Or close to it.

You've got a good point there, thank you. I do need to take it to an alignment shop, but I've got other things to take care of first. Just wanted to get a few ideas on it. I'm betting the camber is different even with the plates set the same. It is a 53 year old wagon with 40 year old struts.

 

But yeah, they're 82 maxima struts, the originals I pulled off my kaido maxima.

[Anonymous Waffle]

More updates.

 

Found a dash mounted ignition switch online. I can finally put my 620 ignition back in the truck lol!

 

 

 

Tore apart the front cover to do a timing set. Found lots of surprises.

 

 

Looks like someone ported the oil pump. Haven't seen this before. I'm guessing it promotes oil flow? 

 

 

Found the culprit for the timing chain chatter. Jesus. Looks like it was like this for a while. Thankfully I didn't run this engine more than this.

 

Im guessing whoever did the head work didn't do the timing chain right. No block maybe. Found half the spring laid on the bottom.

 

 

 

 

Of course aftermarket parts don't fit right. Tension guide holes didn't line up. So I had to file it to fit.

 

 

 

I just used a large washer here that I cut in half to clear the side of the timing cover.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by Anonymous Waffle

[Anonymous Waffle]

Also, had to drop the transmission. I took it for a test drive after the timing set, and it sounds like a box of marbles. It sounds like a knocking noise in neutral, clutch engaged, and has a wicked bearing noise in gear, clutch engaged. Fun times.

 

 

 

Made a video of me talking about what I think the problem is. 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by Anonymous Waffle

[Anonymous Waffle]

Lil update time. Still haven't rebuilt the transmission, that'll be soon. I've got almost everything I need to disassemble and then reassemble the transmission. While the goon is on stands I went to cleaning out the gas tank, and boy am I glad I did it. 

 

First thing I noticed was the vent tube was "patched" with electrical tape in the past.

 

 

Good sized Bo and Luke Duke dent on the gas tank lol

 

 

Broke just one bolt.

 

 

Prepping to wash the exterior 

 

 

Looked surprisingly good! 

 

 

So I prepped a gallon of Acetone and spent a better part of a few days sloshing, dumping, and shaking the crap out of the tank. Every dump just let out more and more of this.. sand. It's sand like, but its more like gasoline dust. It smelled funky and just looks like old dried up gas varnish.

 

 

The broken bolt was drilled and pulled out.

 

 

More shit. This little velcro strap thing came out too. I guess someone dropped this in here 15 years ago lol

 

 

This was the last of the crap I got out... The "nuggets" are chunks of varnish, acetone, and the dust all in one. After it dried out it turned into the oozy black varnish.. gross.

 

 

 

 

Cleaned up. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Anonymous Waffle]

Cont. 

 

Spray prep. Nothin fancy, I just wanted to stop any possible rust on the exposed metal. Amazingly enough the inside of this tank does not have a spec of rust in it. The exterior had light rust that I knocked down. So its time to protect it!

 

 

A couple of vht gloss cans later. Well more like 1.5 cans. 

 

 

Following the Dimequarterly blog post on wagon gas tanks, I bought aeroqup 10 AN hose to replace the vent lines, and I like to use (what I think is high quality) continental brand fuel lines. I want to do this job once and never worry about it for years to come. 

 

 

 

While I was prepping the tank area to install, I saw my passenger tail lens wiring was broken and had been "fixed". So I cut it til I had good wire and just crimped it back together. I also did a little wrap on the wire to protect it from rocks and junk for the future. I don't have the filler neck protection panel underneath which I think slightly protects this area as well. 

 

 

 

 

Cleaned the ground that was located here as well. Gave it dielectric grease to stop any future corrosion. 

 

 

It was awkward to install it by myself, but I managed to do it. The aeroquip 10 AN hoses were tight to fit onto the vent tubes, but it did work. I did have to heat up my filler neck to slip over the gas tank fill neck. But it went together just after the sun set. 

 

 

 

 

 

[KELMO]

Whatever Nissan used to paint the gas tanks with seems to hold up well. I have done 2, ok 3, gas tanks on 1200's and when they were removed, they looked to be in similar condition to yours. 1200 Coupe gas tanks are also mounted outside of the cab of the car.

 

If I could pimp you into taking a pic if the inside of the quarter panel where the filler tube comes in and goes down to the wheel well opening, that would be awesome.

[Anonymous Waffle]

On 10/21/2022 at 6:14 AM, KELMO said:

Whatever Nissan used to paint the gas tanks with seems to hold up well. I have done 2, ok 3, gas tanks on 1200's and when they were removed, they looked to be in similar condition to yours. 1200 Coupe gas tanks are also mounted outside of the cab of the car.

 

If I could pimp you into taking a pic if the inside of the quarter panel where the filler tube comes in and goes down to the wheel well opening, that would be awesome.

 

Here are the photos for ya. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Anonymous Waffle]

So I've finally rebuilt my transmission. Currently as im typing this I am 99% done with the rebuild. I damaged a snap ring when it snagged and over-stretched, thankfully its just the standard one that holds the rear most main bearing. The transmission looked to be in pretty good condition (afaik) besides the destroyed bearings. Here is a video of me showing the destroyed bearing. Hopefully I'll get the snap rings from Nissan quickly, or ill be taking apart the junk 4 speed for a snap ring lol.

 

 

The rest of the transmission had some scorched looking surfaces on the hardened bearing races, but no scratches, so I called it good enough for me. (Not that I've got an option anyway) 

 

First things first, I needed to make a tool for the main shaft 38mm nut for when I finished the rebuild. So I received a old yoke from @Dav and I chopped the ears off, ground it flat, and welded a harbor freight socket onto it. This way I can torque the 38mm nut via the "output" shaft/main shaft of the transmission. 

 

 

 

 

Butt ugly weld, but I just wanted good penetration for this thick socket and yoke. And I haven't welded anything in maybe 5 years. 

 

Studied up on the dimequarterly blog and got to disassembly. 

 

 

Chose the safe path and cut away at the main shaft nut. 

 

 

Holy Fuck this snap ring sucks to remove. I'm glad I didnt break it either because Nissan still sells these... for 55$.

 

 

 

Doin things as right as I can

 

 

Some things need cleaning. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Anonymous Waffle

[Anonymous Waffle]

Cont. 

 

I'll be replacing all of these needle bearings that ride underneath the gear assemblies. I bought brand new ones from Japan. 

 

 

Looks pretty good. 

 

 

Doesn't look pretty but feels completely smooth.

 

 

Same here.

 

 

 

Fresh new bearings 😍

 

 

New syncros to boot too.

 

 

Looks sketchy here, but this was hard to do by myself. I just took alot of care to take it slowly and made sure all the bearings went in smoothly. I used the dimequarterly blog's method for installing both shafts in order to not bind the bearings. Tricky, but do-able with a 12" 1" pipe, and a 24" 1 1/4" pipe.

 

 

New nuts too. 

 

 

Here is my jank tool in action. Worked like a charm to torque that nut. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Anonymous Waffle

[datzenmike]

 

 

 

They are all like that. However if you do replace get one from a D21 Hardbody/Navara KA24E or KA24DE engine They have longer rotors inside and move 13% more oil boosting low RPM pressure...

 

 

 

The tensioner spring is lower left.... It just wore out.

 

 

Push the slack side (curved) guide as far to the right as you can while holding the tensioner in to the left as far as you can then tighten the mounting bolts.

 

 

This is from a 720 truck and has an earlier L series front case swapped onto it. Not sure when they started using these but it was built before '85....

 

You can lock the transmission mainshaft by pushing any two shift rods into gear such as in 1st and 3rd at the same time. If shift rods are off, just slid the synchro hubs.

 

 

 

 

[Satisaii]

Retaining Rings

 

McMaster Carr is a great resource for nuts, bolts, and other things.  If I place the order early enough, I can even get them delivered the same day.  And I don't think I have ever ordered a part that was out of stock.  They also provide Solidworks models for the parts, which is great for when I am designing a new product.

 

Just in case you ever have to do it again.

[KELMO]

Fuel filler pics are just what I needed.

Thanks!

[MikeRL411]

4 hours ago, Satisaii said:

Retaining Rings

 

McMaster Carr is a great resource for nuts, bolts, and other things.  If I place the order early enough, I can even get them delivered the same day.  And I don't think I have ever ordered a part that was out of stock.  They also provide Solidworks models for the parts, which is great for when I am designing a new product.

 

Just in case you ever have to do it again.

 

The real benefit of McMaster Carr is that if you order Grade 8 hardware. that's what you get!  No mystery produced and improperly marker merchandise, After-market fasteners are notorious for being mismarked.

[Anonymous Waffle]

McMaster Carr is a online store I frequent often. But I didn't think about McMaster selling snap rings. And I'm betting they have different thicknesses, as the nissan used to sell different thicknesses snap rings for tightening up end play. Nissan only has one, maybe 2 thicknesses available these days.

 

Appreciate the comments!

6 hours ago, Satisaii said:

Retaining Rings

 

McMaster Carr is a great resource for nuts, bolts, and other things.  If I place the order early enough, I can even get them delivered the same day.  And I don't think I have ever ordered a part that was out of stock.  They also provide Solidworks models for the parts, which is great for when I am designing a new product.

 

Just in case you ever have to do it again.

 

1 hour ago, MikeRL411 said:

 

The real benefit of McMaster Carr is that if you order Grade 8 hardware. that's what you get!  No mystery produced and improperly marker merchandise, After-market fasteners are notorious for being mismarked.

 

[Anonymous Waffle]

7 hours ago, datzenmike said:

 

 

 

They are all like that. However if you do replace get one from a D21 Hardbody/Navara KA24E or KA24DE engine They have longer rotors inside and move 13% more oil boosting low RPM pressure...

 

 

 

The tensioner spring is lower left.... It just wore out.

 

 

Push the slack side (curved) guide as far to the right as you can while holding the tensioner in to the left as far as you can then tighten the mounting bolts.

 

 

This is from a 720 truck and has an earlier L series front case swapped onto it. Not sure when they started using these but it was built before '85....

 

You can lock the transmission mainshaft by pushing any two shift rods into gear such as in 1st and 3rd at the same time. If shift rods are off, just slid the synchro hubs.

 

 

Yup a KA oil pump is on the list of things to do. Extra volume is always good, I'll just buy a new one. Maybe nissan still sells them.

 

That transmission is out of a 85 or 86 720. I swapped the bell housing just for this specific use, since it's a 5 speed that's short and allows me to use the stock driveshaft, and doesn't require a new hole on the floor. 

 

And yes, locking the gear assemblies together made it easy to tighten the nuts, but I still needed a way to actually get a torque spec on the main shaft nut. The trick is to either have the nissan factory tool, make a extra long 19" 38mm socket, or make a yoke tool like I did that allows me to torque the shaft, and all I have to do is hold the nut with a 1 1/2" wrench. 

[Anonymous Waffle]

Finally got around to chopping my struts to the correct height for my sw20 mr2 adjustable shocks. Since the maxima struts are about 2 inches shorter than stock 510 struts, I only chopped 1 5/8" off of these. I don't ever weld so these welds are not very pretty but should do the job just right. 

 

Here are the struts next to stock maxima struts.

 

 

 

Mocking up my wheel to double check i've got enough clearance when I lower it. 

 

 

 

Some gentle sanding away was necessary for these shocks to seat fully down the strut tube. 

 

 

 

I also chose to chop these and gave myself a 1/8" clearance to use a shim inside the strut tube. I didn't trust myself to cut these perfectly, so I wanted to cut it too big than too small for when I assemble the gland nut on.

 

 

Zapped on

 

 

 

This is the shim I found in my bolts bin. Slipped onto the bottom of the tube to get me the perfect clearance for the gland nut.

 

 

 

I need a proper sanding tool.

 

 

And bam, done. Now I chose to keep the 2" clamps because I may want to change the perch height in the future, and I didnt want to weld a perch in permanently. I may also need the spring helpers for full droop now, since I am running these pretty low. 

 

 

Also ordered a bunch of steering components. Boy its hard to get those today. I bought a center link for a datsun 710 I guess, part number TRW DS849. I saw on a few posts that this part number was interchangeable. Lets hope it is for 75$. The autozone part number is NLA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Anonymous Waffle

[datzenmike]

While the 710 cross link may fit the earlier 510, the 610 is an exact match by part number. The 610 immediately followed the 510 on the production line and a lot of parts interchange, specially the '73.

 

510 & 610.... 48560-21404 and 48560-U2000

710............... 48560-U5200

 

 

 

For insurance I tacked two very tiny welds 180 apart on the strut tubes up against the split collars. No way they can move downward now but a touch of an angle grinder removes them if later they have to come apart.

[datzenmike]

Any thought on the induced bump steer introduced from this lowering?

 

 

I held a level up against the center link end, the part that lowered, And measured up to the knuckle end that stayed with the strut and estimated that a 1/2" of spacer between the knuckle and the bottom of the strut would level the tie rod.

 

I traced the bottom of the strut and made a cardboard outline. Locally went through a scrap bin for some left over 1/4" aluminum and made these...

 

 

All I needed now were longer bolts and 1/2" did the trick on the first try. Locally there is a dip in the pavement on one side of the pavement and as I drive through this there is a noticeable tug on the steering wheel to that side as I pass over it. With the spacers the steering geometry is restored and the tug is gone. The scrap was free the bolts $5.

[Anonymous Waffle]

5 hours ago, datzenmike said:

Any thought on the induced bump steer introduced from this lowering?

 

 

I held a level up against the center link end, the part that lowered, And measured up to the knuckle end that stayed with the strut and estimated that a 1/2" of spacer between the knuckle and the bottom of the strut would level the tie rod.

 

I traced the bottom of the strut and made a cardboard outline. Locally went through a scrap bin for some left over 1/4" aluminum and made these...

 

 

All I needed now were longer bolts and 1/2" did the trick on the first try. Locally there is a dip in the pavement on one side of the pavement and as I drive through this there is a noticeable tug on the steering wheel to that side as I pass over it. With the spacers the steering geometry is restored and the tug is gone. The scrap was free the bolts $5.

 

I appreciate the information! I bought these at the spring datslocos this year for 5 bucks with the bolts so im covered there 🤘 I just forgot to install them the first time around lol.

 

 

And great suggestion on adding a tack below the collar, that's good insurance. 

 

 

[Anonymous Waffle]

I put the waggo back on the ground,

 

 

 

I took the steering wheel off to clean the turn signal switch (thankfully I did, as I found that the steering wheel was never actually tight. The nut was entirely loose 😳

 

 

It works better after cleaning it out, but the hi-beam switch is very loose, almost like theres no spring inside it, so it's super easy to accidentally hit the hi-beam. I may replace it with a spare unit i've got. 

 

I also bought one of these on ebay, and found a second one at datslocos. Fucking score. So I anti-snotted the hell out of it, and now I've got adjustable drum brakes.

 

 

 

I was messing around with all of the lights on the wagon. Found a nice surprise under the broken driver tail lens haha. Funny enough the light still worked underneath the nest. Would have been cool to leave it alone, but it's more of a fire hazard than anything else.

 

 

I also finally cleaned out the back. 

 

 

 

I'll be putting all these door seals back on after I finish removing all the black paint in the door jams. I've also got new door seals for the fronts. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Anonymous Waffle]

I took it for a few test drives around the neighborhood, and I've been having an issue with a lean, bogging/hesitation in the low rpm end. Below 3000 rpm's or 1/4 throttle, either cruising, tip in, or shifting through the gears, it would pop and hesitate pretty bad. To drive it, I basically had to go to half throttle and accelerate out of the bog. 

 

This told me that I was having an issue with the idle/progression circuit. I also found that I had the incorrect exhaust/intake accelerator pump discharge valve. I had a .40 return valve, which gave me a weaker accelerator pump. After ordering and replacing it with a .000 closed valve, it did improve the drivability with tip-in, but the hesitation was still there. 

 

I pulled out the 38mm chokes that were installed in this 45, and threw in a pair of 36's. This helped a little bit. 

 

 

I did some research and found that some alfa romeo guys, and one datsun fellow on this forum had similar issues with a 152 model 45 dcoe, which is what I have. 

 

I experimented with a 55f8 instead of a 50f8 idle jet, and it helped the bog, but destroyed my idle quality. So I modified the progression circuit on the carburetor. It required me to create a new hole, just half a mm offset the first progression hole, and I also made the 3rd progression hole slightly bigger. 

 

 

This was my first attempt. I based this hole off of the online alfa forum help, but was incorrect for my carburetor. Even if its a 152, the progression holes are in different locations compared to mine. SO I drilled this hole too far, and basically made a progression hole behind the closed throttle blade. I refilled the hole with 2 part jb weld that's fuel safe, and tried it again, with a small 1mm jewelry drill bit. 

 

It was either going all out with this mod, or buying a different carburetor, since the 152 is kind of shit. Well thankfully this modification worked like a charm. Completely fixed the lean bog and hesitation. Makes driving it alot easier, and I'm not essentially flooring it everywhere I go. So I took it for a quick trip to my local autozone. 

 

 

Although, once in a while, it will kind of pop when I take off from a standstill. I think now I've got a little too rich in the progression circuit and its causing a rich pop. I think I'll fix this by reducing my 50f8 to a 50f9. A 55f8 will probably still be too much, but the bigger air hole in the f9 may help. Gotta order that next. 

 

So currently these are my settings on my carburetor after a bunch of testing and "tuning" in my driveway on my 45 dcoe on a lynx manifold.

 

36mm choke

180 air jet

145 main jet

.50 pump jet

Closed accelerator pump jet

50f8 idle jet

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by Anonymous Waffle

[KELMO]

The stance on this wags looks really good.

[mrbigtanker]

Where in California do you live ?

[bilzbobaggins]

Trash can is from Sacramento County.

[Anonymous Waffle]

On 11/13/2022 at 6:17 AM, KELMO said:

The stance on this wags looks really good.

 

Thanks! Front is nice and low, but the back needs to come down an inch. And I kind of want to space the rear out just a touch. I know that snowflakes on a wagon are a teensy bit positive on the rear and tuck in. It'll be nice to space it out just a touch once its lower. 

 

5 hours ago, mrbigtanker said:

Where in California do you live ?

 

Sacramento 🤙

2 hours ago, bilzbobaggins said:

Trash can is from Sacramento County.

 

Good eye haha