Getting the 73 Back on the Road

[SteveJ]

I installed the Nissan door striker latch. After a little adjusting, the door closes and latches just like it should. Before I did the install, I asked the wife to pick out which latch was stock and which was aftermarket. She picked the wrong one, but I thought it was for good reasons. We compared the two, and she pointed out some details that I didn't noticed on first inspection.

The Nissan latch is on the left. The aftermarket latch comes down too far at the top, and it looks thicker on the left side. I'm thinking that it may not allow the striker to come in far enough to latch reliably.

After being satisfied with the door, I turned my attention to finishing off the carburetors. I installed the banjo filters, buttoned up the carburetors and installed them back on the intake. They will be ready when I need to call on them to fuel the engine. Here's a photo of the new filter next to the old, rusty filter.

I finished up the evening by replacing some connectors at the solenoid. That allowed me to mark another thing off the list.

The window channel felt should arrive on Monday, so it will go in next week. The new air cylinder for the QuickJack is estimated for Wednesday, so I should be able to get the car in the air the following weekend.

[SteveJ]

I started putting the seats back together last night, but I ran into a glitch. I counted and recounted the screws, and I found I was 1 short. The wife made a Home Depot run today to get a M8x1.25 machine screw and some 5/16 star washers. I used the new screw on the first seat, and as was putting the second seat together I noticed I had an extra screw. Apparently my counting skills were not what they should have been yesterday.

So the seats are together and ready to go into the car. I'm going to pull the center console first because I want to replace it. The replacement console is sitting the hatch area of the car.

[SteveJ]

Today's episode is "While I'm at it..."

Since the seats are still out of the car, I figured it would be a good time to replace the center console with one I've had lying about for 8 years or so. I removed the console and removed the ash tray cover. The cover was pretty dirty, so while I'm at it, it would be good to clean it. I transferred the clean cover to the replacement console, and then I proceeded to remove the outer shift boot. Well, it was pretty old, and some of the threads broke. Then I looked at the rubber shift boot. It was torn. While I'm at it, I might as well find the replacement boot I bought many years ago. (Okay, so the wife found it for me. She knows the spare parts room better than I do.) I also found another outer boot during the search.

The shifter was pretty sloppy. The bushings were MIA when I bought the car in 93. While I'm at it, I'll find the brass bushings I bought 4 years ago and install them. It only took searching the same places twice to find those. I followed the tech tip on Blue's ( @240260280) page (link below) and used my vice to press in the bushings. I even had Wendy shoot a video of me pressing in the second bushing. Well, I couldn't crank down hard enough with the vice to get the bushings flat enough to fit inside the fork. So I took the shifter to the 20 ton press. THAT got the bushings flat enough. The shifter slop is gone. During all this, I got the drawstring out of the old outer shifter boot and threaded it into the new boot.

Tomorrow I will attach the rubber boot to the transmission tunnel, attach the outer shift boot to the center console, and get the center console back in place. If it all goes quickly enough, I might start getting the seats back into the car.

[SteveJ]

I thought things went well tonight. I got the center console prepped and installed. The biggest challenge was trying to figure out how the fuse box lid should be attached to it. Having never seen it attached properly I had to guess. I know I didn't it differently from stock, but I was happy with the result. It looks less redneck than what a previous owner did.

With the quick install of the center console, I turned my attention to the seats. I got them in and secured. I couldn't help but just sit in the driver's seat for a little while. I haven't been able to do that for a few years. After enjoying the view and thinking of what is left to do to actually get the car on the road, I finished off the evening holding up the window channel rubber to the frame and putting the steering column cover back on. It's starting to feel like a car again instead of a collection of parts taking up a bay in the garage.

[SteveJ]

Short update today. Yesterday I replaced the bad air cylinder on the Quickjack. It was a fairly easy task. Today I drained the gas tank. First I siphoned about 4.5 gallons out via the filler neck. There was some junk in the gas that came out, but not too bad. The gas wasn't too much darker than what you get from the pump. I then deployed the Quickjacks to finish draining the tank via the drainplug. I got another 4.5 gallons that way. There was less junk than I got from siphoning the tank. The gas smelled bad, but again, it wasn't too dark.

Tomorrow, I'll blow some compressed air through the hard lines in the fuel system, remove the electric fuel pump in the back, and replace the fuel hoses. They have been on there for over 25 years now. 

[SteveJ]

It's the weekend, so progress was good. I bypassed the electric fuel pump for now. I took off the old hoses in the back and had the wife blast air through the lines in the engine bay. There were no signs of blockages. As a matter of fact, there was still old, stinky gas in the supply line.

Then I went to replace the hoses in the engine bay. I noticed a while back that one of the blocks that holds the fuel lines in place was damaged. When I removed the hose from the supply line to the fuel filter, I found this.

I'm not sure why someone would cut off the fuel line like that.

Anyway, the new fuel hoses are in place.

Next up:

1. Get a new battery.
2. Remove the valve cover and pour some oil over the cam.
3. Remove the spark plugs and put some oil in the cylinders.
4. Turn the engine to circulate the oil.
5. Add some gas to the fuel pump, carbs and gas tank.
6. Attempt to start.

[jfa.series1]

23 minutes ago, SteveJ said:

 

I'm not sure why someone would cut off the fuel line like that.

 

Pretty sure I've seen that situation before. It had to do with a car that had A/C added and the fuel filter was relocated rearward to the shock tower or nearby. The supply line was cut to better mate to the filter. Major bummer!

[SteveJ]

Fortunately Jim, this will be more of a comfortable Ratsun than a show car.

[SteveJ]

Speaking of comfort, it's good to reduce wind noise. The window channel rubber/felt was in two conditions: missing and rotten. I pulled the window frames out and worked on prepping them for new channel rubber/felt that I purchased from ebay. In case anybody is curious, here is the listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/272740934276. Even though the seller is in Thailand, it only took just over 2 weeks to arrive. I can't complain about that.

I dug out the rotten channel rubber from the driver side and used a dremel with a wire brush to remove the remaining adhesive. There was more of the rotten channel rubber in the passenger side frame plus some of the thick felt at the bottom of the back part of the channel. There was also more adhesive residue. For that I started with a narrow gasket scraper, and I finished up with the dremel and wire brush. I took measurements of the frame to prep the window channel length and finished up by cleaning out the inside of the frames with denatured alcohol.

Tomorrow I will cut the window channel to length, apply a thin coat of adhesive to the frame and work the window channel into place.

Here are some before and after photos of cleaning out the old adhesive from the passenger side frame.

Before:

After:

[SteveJ]

With a helping hand from my wife, I got the new window channel glued into the window frames. The fit is good, not great, but that's fine with me. I reinstalled the window frames and buttoned the doors back up. There are fewer and fewer straggler parts lying about in the garage.

After I was finished with the doors, I got in the car with the windows rolled up. It was blissfully quiet in the cabin. I situated myself into a nice driving position to get the feel of how it will be after the motor is back running, and I pressed on the clutch pedal to feel ABSOLUTELY no resistance. D'oh! A new master and slave are now on order. They were added to my task list, too.

I'm thinking that the first attempt for engine start will be this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

[ETI4K]

Nice to have help like that. 

Starting that motor will be a wonderful moment when all goes well.  Fingers crossed.

[Captain Obvious]

11 hours ago, SteveJ said:

I situated myself into a nice driving position to get the feel of how it will be after the motor is back running

Translation - "After she left the garage, I sat in the drivers seat, grabbed the steering wheel, and made 'vroom vroom' noises. It was fantastic."