1975 620 Longbed "Shelley"

[]2eDeYe]

I made a video for this 🙂
 

 

[Jskinny]

21 hours ago, hobospyder said:

From me looking at the loose one you should have everything loose if you got the 3 screws in the gauge holes, wiper switch, lighter, radio and climate controls

Think you could post a photo of the back side of the bezel?

[hobospyder]

Best I can do

[Jskinny]

Thanks, I'll try to cross reference these. Now I see those 2 screws into the foam cover thingy.

[Jskinny]

On 3/2/2024 at 7:22 AM, ]2eDeYe said:

I made a video for this 🙂

Thanks for the reminder, I saved it a while back but forgot about it when I started in the dash stuff.

[Jskinny]

Under the heater controls were these connectors which needed to not be connected.

 

Also had to disconnect these 2 wires, circled below. I put this here so I can remember which goes to what.

 

Almost out

 

And finally out

 

 

So now I need to find this voltage regulator. It looks like theres just 4 screws holding the cluster into the bezel, so I'm a bit worried they'll crack the 45 year old plastic. Hopefully not but we will see.

[Jskinny]

Gauges are out of the bezel, one of the posts that hold them together cracked. I superglued it back in place, so while thats curing I'm looking at the gauge clusters.

 

[Jskinny]

6 clips that hold the clear plastic cover on, take those off, then the black cover with the gauge labels on it will also come off.

 

 

Next I took the colored plastic pieces out, there was a bit of moisture inside each, which is what it sounds like is causing the temp gauge to become corroded and result in issues.

 

Going to continue putting a bunch of photos in here since I haven't found much in depth/visual aids for this process.

Took the gauge off the cluster - just 4 nuts with lock washers on the back side of the circuit board.

 

I'm hoping the "white" wire coiled around the contact isn't supposed to be completely white - mine is brownish, which I assume is because the wire heats up?

 

 

Got some super fine sandpaper and lightly pulled it through the contacts on both sides:

 

Is there a way to test if this worked without having to plug everything back into the truck? Maybe using a multimeter? I'd just hate to find out I didn't clean the contacts enough after everything is plugged in and almost back together.

 

And the fuel gauge just for good measure, just 2 nuts and lock washers to remove/install:

 

And finally, here's what I was referencing to remove everything:

 

Also found some interesting gauge info here:

http://datsun1200.com/modules/mediawiki/index.php?title=Cluster_Gauge

 

Edit: going to add this thread/comment which took me a minute to find again:

 

Edited March 5 by Jskinny
added another link

[Jskinny]

On 3/1/2024 at 6:47 PM, datzenmike said:

I always forgot the cigar lighter.

Mine doesn't have a cigarette lighter, the manual choke is there. I would like to figure out how to put one in though. 

[Jskinny]

Well, I put the cluster back together and plugged the main 12-pin plug, and these 2 wires back in:

 

Hooked up the ignition wires, but now the fuel gauge doesn't move at all. There are a few wires not plugged in, so hopefully I'm just missing something, these are the wires I'm left with but neglected to mark connections before unplugging them:

I believe this is just to the heater - one yellow/red and one solid yellow. Not sure which goes on which tab on the heater box:

 

I'm assuming the 2 green wires in this photo between the 2 plugs are supposed to go together? but I'm not sure what they are - the harness hanging down goes to the hazard switch.

 

I think these are to the brake light switch? Black wires on the right go to the brake pedal, and the two wires on the left are green/yellow.

 

Not sure about these ones - yellow/green stripe and I believe solid blue...

 

Wiring/electronics have always been a bit intimidating for me, even with the relative simplicity of older vehicles. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I do have a Haynes manual I've been looking at but I get lost pretty quick in the wiring diagrams:

For 1975 USA models:

[Jskinny]

Looked at things a bit more. 

 

In this photo, the red highlights the brake switch (both wires are the same on both ends - solid blacks and green/yellow striped) so I don't think it matters which is which. I haven't tested lights and signals yet to see if the brake lights work.

 

I don't know what the plug in the blue circle goes to - not sure it was ever hooked up to anything to begin with...

 

The orange circle i'm not sure of either. When I plug the two green connectors in, and turn the ignition to on, it sounds like a flasher or hazard is blinking, but the actual hazard switch at the bottom of this photo doesn't have an effect on it. Are the two orange circled connectors supposed to be connected to something else?

 

On this one, I'm not remembering what the blue and yellow/green stripe wire are for, or where they go/come from.

 

Also, there was 2 yellow wires that I assume connect back to these tabs on the heater assembly - I read on another thread that it doesn't matter which of the yellow ones goes where? At the moment, the black and Blue/white stripe wires are not connected to anything, and I'm assuming this is why the heater/fan doesn't come on?

 

Now since the fuel gauge doesn't read at all now (the needle used to move up a bit when I turned the ignition to ON) I looked at the wires coming out of the temp and fuel gauges, and they both lead to the solid yellow and yellow/red stripe wires on the main 12 pin connector. (I highlighted those in purple) 

 

Any ideas on what could cause the fuel gauge to not read at all? I did the very light sanding on the contacts as has been mentioned a few times, and did a bit of light "wire wheel" (soft wheel in a dremel, so nothing too aggressive) on the areas around the bulb contacts since there was a bit of corrosion.

[Jskinny]

I've been super busy with multiple life changes but finally had some time recently to swap the temp gauge out with another working(?) one I bought. I'm stating to think there is something else going on because now both the fuel and temp gauge are moving at the same time in the same direction. First it will go full hot and the fuel gauge will read full as well, then both will back down to about halfway. It seems to fluctuate too quickly to be an actual engine temp problem. 

I drove for about 30 mins yesterday to see how and when they were changing, and discovered the dash backlighting also would randomly go out and flicker on/off, so there's gotta be a bad connection there too. I want to say when the light went out, the fuel & temp gauges went to max, and then started to come down when the light turned back on, but I'm not sure it was consistent enough to say for sure.

 

This is right after i plugged the gauge cluster back in and turned the ignition on.

 

This was soon after, I pulled off the highway a few times to make sure i wasn't actually overheating

 

This is while on the highway, thus the bad quality, but hopefully enough photos to show the gauges are just jumping around. 

 

The only consistent difference since between swapping the temp gauges is that now temp and fuel both move in the same direction at the same time. 

 

So I'm not sure where to go from here, if anyone has any ideas I'd be grateful.

[Jskinny]

Well I drove another 40ish mins yesterday and both gauges looked good the whole time. Temp gradually came up and hovered around the middle, and fuel came up to just over half a tank, which feels right considering my mileage since last fill up. The fuel needle moved down slightly as expected on a 30+ mile drive.

No idea why it's working now as opposed to 2 days ago. Only difference I can think of is that I kept the headlights & gauge lights off? Again it's not consistent enough for me to say for sure. 

Going to keep the dash bezel off until I've driven more to make sure the gauges are indeed working properly.

 

Gauges hung out here the entire time which was a relief. 

 

[Jskinny]

Went to an exhaust shop in Burlington and got someone to look it over. Most of it was fine but I got a new muffler and rest of the tailpipe. The guy who did the work was super helpful and took the time to measure everything out.

Still sounds kinda like a tractor but it has a slight burble when you let off the gas.

The exhaust system is actually exhausting the exhaust from only one spot now, so that's good.

 

Lots of rust, yes, but just surface stuff.

 

The guy had a cool exhaust holder thing made from a pipe welded to a brake rotor.

 

Original exhaust ended about a foot in front of the taillight, but now techincally I can call it side exit. 

 

 

Edited July 13 by Jskinny

[Jskinny]

Aside from that, the dashboard is back in after some time. So far temp & gas gauge is working properly. Nice to have an actual dash to look at.

Edited July 13 by Jskinny

[Jskinny]

On a different topic, I picked up a new 3D printer. The print quality is kinda mind blowing compared to my old ender 3. Will come in handy for mock ups or small replacement parts. I'd be happy to print some stuff if anyone relatively local (or not) has a need for test fitting stuff etc.

[Slow Loris]

Cool truck!

[Jskinny]

Finished hooking up the rest of the dash components and put the radio faceplate back on. Only had 2 screws leftover, I think they're just for trim pieces so no big deal.

 

My old rear view mirror was so sunbaked it was turning into powder, so I bought a new one from jdmcarparts.com. Was a reasonable price and seems like good quality. Here's the old vs new:

 

 

Looks like the fuel gauge is working pretty much how it should. I assume it's not going all the way to full either due to the different fuel tank (and float level inside - no idea how that was set up) or just being old, and having a slightly inaccurate signal, maybe old wiring or again the float wasn't precisely "calibrated". Temp was good too, I am happy both of these seem to be fixed. 

 

Also put another bushing in the shifter assembly, feels less sloppy but I'll probably just get the actual Nissan parts since I think there is one that should be on the inside of the shifter arm itself. At the moment I just have a printed petg one on one side and a drilled out penny on the other, because hey it works.

[Jskinny]

Got some photos (oics??) too:

 

[Jskinny]

Took a video of the exhaust right after I started it... sounds kinda funky to be honest. Sounds a bit better once warmed up but it seems like the muffler he put on was indeed for function rather than function and sound. Almost sounds straight piped but maybe the muffler was just a simple no frills one.

 

[Jskinny]

 

One of my favorites

[Jskinny]

Picked up a set of wheels. The guy said they are 14x7s and they seemed to fit, just have to get some mag lugs. He was going to put them on his 521 so they fit over my drums no problem. Just have to find 2 more center caps.

Not sure how these are measured, but I was reading that 195 is the minimum width you want for a 7in wheel, it sounded like 205s are a better width.

I'm fine with a bit of stretch but nothing too crazy. Not a fan of the rim sticking out farther than the tire itself.

I was watching a video  Larry Chen did covering an 11k rpm ae86 (13:20 - 13:55) 

the guy mentioned 15x8.5 and 195. Wasn't super clear on if the watanabes in the video were actually 8.5" wide but I'm wondering if I can switch my 195/75r14 tires to the new set. (There could absolutely be some differences here because the corolla's setup and fitment etc are completely different from my truck. 

Would be nice to not have to buy a whole new set of tires since the ones I currently have are pretty much brand new.

Any thoughts? 

Been trying to find photos of 195s on 7 inch wide wheels and haven't had much luck. 

 

Edited July 23 by Jskinny

[banzai510(hainz)]

stock wheels look better

[EDM620]

I still have these and have stripped off the old rubber. Found 2 original center caps. PM me if interested

 

[Jskinny]

53 minutes ago, EDM620 said:

I still have these and have stripped off the old rubber. Found 2 original center caps. PM me if interested

 

Got a photo of the center caps? If theyre black and the same 3" center bore size -  I might be interested. I also was thinking about slot mags for a while too, but the deal I got on the turbines was hard to pass up.