zKars

You need it for proper spacing of the pump arm. It also serves as a heat insulator. You could make one, I can tell you the exact thickness. I'd send you one, but I'm down to almost none at the moment. Let me look. Gott help a fellow Canuck....

SEM makes some wonderful vinyl dyes that let you change your plastic and vinyl color to the original stock color if you feel that's important. Originality only really matters when everything is truely original, not restored in any way.

It's true. They are different. Driver weight compensation. Whether you notice a difference on 45+ year old springs, well, your experience my differ from others.

Could be worse. 2+2, beige, smoker PO, sticky rugs, national park stickers on the rear glass, Anybody else got something better?

You just noticed my addiction now? You looking for another project? Talk to me in the spring.

For completeness, here is the back of the two types of fuse boxes. First the early long tail. Power comes in on two identical white wires and powers all five fuses on the right side of the box, including the top two for the head lights. The later short tail box has the top two right side head light fuses separated from the rest. The lower three are powered by a single white wire with a ring terminal and screw fixation system. I wonder if my wire crimp corrosion and those aweful 0.312 spade connectors in several places that corrode and melt the coverings.

Staying on the topic of electrical issue handling, yesterday was combo switch cleanup and modification day. Now this car is a 5/70, and as I mentioned the dash from a 71, but fortunately the dash wiring harness is still the early type. Now what does that mean? Well two things identify it as such. One, the fuse block is the LONG pigtail style, and two, the head light wiring is what I call "Ground Switched" rather than the later "12V switched" variety. In the early cars, the head light switch connects the dimmer switch common terminal to GROUND to turn the headlights on. When in the OFF postion that terminal is simply left to "float" (not connected to anything). The headlights themselves have their common terminal directly wired to the fuse box (top right two fuses) and has power at all times. The dimmer switch just decides if hi or low beam bulb terminals are grounded. In the later cars (can anyone nail down a build date or VIN where this started?) the headlight switch connects the battery (white red wire at the switch) to the fuse box two fuses via the red wire at the switch to turn the lights on. The center terminal of the dimmer switch is hard wired to ground all the time. The position of the dimmer switch determines if hi or lo beam is on. Electrically it is better to turn power off in most of the circuit except when needed. Also its an easy system to design and document. Now in my case, while the dash wiring harness is "early", the combo switch that is in the car is the later version. Who knows where that came from. So the head light switch has the usual White and Red 12 gauge wires dangling there. And worse yet there are no 12gauge white/red and red wires coming to the combo switch in the dash harness from the battery and fuse box. So what to do? Get an early combo or modify what I have? Well I only have one early combo half with the ground switch wiring, so I don't want to use that up, so I just modified the wires on the late combo I have to appear to be the early type. All you do is un-solder the. white/red and red and solder on black wire and terminals so that you replicate the early arrangement. The dimmer switch common (center) also gets a red wire rather than the usual black. All other components are identical. Here is the starting point combo head light switch wiring. Fat white/red and red wires. Red wire turns on the fuse box top right two fuse positions. White/red comes direct from the battery. Here is what a real "early" switch looks like. Two blacks on the center terminal, and a red pig tail with a FM bullet. The fatter black goes to a large 0.313 spade FM that connects to the fat black chassis ground in the dash harness in the wiring at the combo. The smaller 18 gauge sneeks under the bottom and provides a ground for the wiper switch. Here is the finished mod with the Fat and skinny black on the center HL Switch (skinny black sneaking underneath to the wiper). The and the new red pigtail connected to a new matching red pigtail from the center of the dimmer switch (instead of the usual black). Now the switch when turned on connects the center dimmer terminal to ground.

The common fix is to trim some of the front of the hole, and possibly to obtain the right shifter. In fact if you move the vinyl and sound deadening at the front there you may see an outline in the sheet metal that tells you exactly where to cut to. If you need the oval-ish ring (4 screw holes ) that is used to hold down the stock manual shifter boot, let me know.

I love these thread threads... More to add to the ever growing hardware database. The other engine studs that come to mind are: 2 M8's on the fuel pump mount 3 M8's on the "other" end of the exhaust manifold at the downpipe. 1 M10 on the alternator mount 8 M8's on the SU manifold 4 M6 on the fan clutch to water pump flange. 2 M8's on the clutch master, though those are special splined ones BTW, I feel remiss that I did not check my "bolts verses studs" on the upper 6 intake issue. I have 6 bolts on 3798

Without concern for originality, the "right" thing to do is install a new fuse block with modern ATC fuses ALA what MSA sells, or make a new one. Maybe a couple of more circuits so adding a couple of basic things isn't an effort in futility. I'm trying to get this thing reliable and mobile, restoration comes later. Maybe really later.

If any of you haven't experienced this electrical issue with Datsun's, let me show you something. I need to clean and change some of the wires in the long-tail fuse box in this beast. The two 12 gauge white high current input wires needed new terminals on their ends, and appeared quite corroded where they were crimped onto the bus bar. So I decided to just change the wire. When I opened up the crimps on the bar, the situation is much worse than it appears on the surface.

Just happened to have a friend who had a battery explode with long term storage hot storage with a trickly charger on it. He heard that old batterys have an issue with plates that warp, then eventually touch and go BOOM. Sounds like you got generally lucky. Good lesson about aging batteries.

Send me a PM and I can send you a phone # or email me at z240@shaw.ca

Yes it's for sale. It is in excellent condition. 71.5-73 wheel with the holes in the spokes. With horn button. Asking $300 shipped.

If you PM me we can discuss options. Gotta pay for this resto somehow, right?

Yes, two different VIN's on the one car. The dash from from a 71 and has the non-matching 25xxx VIN.

Since the dash was changed there were several questionable things done to the wiring from the dash to other components. The tach was wired with new wire to the coil, but it didn't work. Well, it pegged out when you turn the power on. They scavenged a tach harness plug (likely from the original dash! Bastards!) and used it to wire the tach "their way" to the coil. I was able to re-attach the tack to the stock dash harness plug. Several other combo switch and area wires were left dangling open, with duct tape lovingly wrapped around each one "just in case". Flashers, washer pump, and one of the brake switch wires was cut clean off. Others had wire spliced into them mid run. The turn signal switch had a new connector spliced on. Need I say that all splices were merely twisted and wrapped with electrical tape? I have that all opened up and under repair.

The underdash wiring is a bit of a mess. The PO's added the usual assortment of goodies. There is a fog light switch in the blank hole above the hazard toggle. It was getting power from wire soldered into the fuse box. there were other power wires for who knows what soldered in as well. At least the fuse box is not melted at #3 right position. The plug ends are good with the usual exception of the high current white terminals. They were either totally burned or spliced and missing. Easy fix.

One seat in. The old ones were mounted unsafely. They used the stock rails, but the rear adapter "bar" to convert the seat spacing to car mount point spacing was two layers of maybe 20 gauge tin. Way too soft and flexible.

I haven't noticed the water pump yet. The front of the engine is covered in grease and goo. I will look!

Some progress with wiring and seating today. Also got the front brakes working well. Speaking of brakes, seems I have some original stuff up front. I know the slotted rotors (the old way!) have been discussed before, but check out these dust backing plates!! Don't remember seeing these before. Look Ma, I'z got air flow cooling race parts on ma Datsun!

Just a quick note about what's happening at Auto Parts stores, at least in these parts. While out enjoying a good slide in the Ford truck today (shopping too), I stopped into Parts Source (wholly owned by Canadian Tire) to pick up some 3/4 heater hose for the above aforementioned under-performing (and sealing) hose. Guess what? They don't stock heater hose any more. Yes that's right. When I enquired why, the confused partsman mumbled something about "there are so many hose types now they are afraid of selling the wrong kind to a customer"... What a load of BS. If there is no demand, fine, I get you're a business, but really? I had a similar experience with them and muffler hangers. They only carry a single type of generic hanger, and it wasn't the type I like. They do have the usual section of change it yourself stuff, but be forewarned, support for the older cars and their independant maintainers (us) is going nowhere good. So I've written them off the list for good and told them as much. Auto Value still sells heater hose and continues to be my choice in Alberta. LordCo in BC also continues to supply the right stuff. End Rant

When you're raised in this climate, it's just another day in the frozen north. It was high 80's low 90's most of the summer, unusually hot but I didn't mind. My shop is heated. There is very little suffering going on here. And there is a certain joy in having infinite drift capable tarmac at your finger tips to make what suffering there is all worth it.

Went out to the shop this morning. Found a fair good puddle of anti freeze on the ground. Seems one of the frayed crusty 47+ year old heater hoses didn't have the decency to stay together after one little spirited run last night. Coward. Now to it's benefit, I have to mention that every hose and clamp in the car was original, with the exception of one heater core to "T" hose that had a chunk of modern hose spliced into it.

Parts list of things I need but don't have. Series 1 specific Stock front valance sections, all three. A VIN plate for the dash with correct #. Correct Dash! (Yikes...). I think I have the right speedo somewhere, could just fill in the cig lighter hole. Cheating... Series 1 hood, the one with no holes either side of the latch on the underside. I could fill the holes but that's cheating. Ash tray cover. Of course..... Drivers side tool bin lid. Whatever else is missing I think I have. Mostly. Oh, and a boat load of $$. Someone buy my 73, problem solved. Oh rIght, been there, NOT done that..... And tomorrow I'll wake up and realize just what I've done and offer it all up for someone else to carry on with....