Captain Obvious

Perfect!

Haha!! I've always done the same thing. For years, aligned clutch disks by calibrated eye and fingers without an alignment tool. Lost track of how many. Then once I actually had an alignment tool for whatever I was working on at the time and felt like I was cheating. And your note about turning the output shaft was exactly what I was getting at about the futility of trying to align the rotation of the input shaft to hit the splines perfectly. I've always used the "put it in gear and rock the output shaft around" method. The worst you can be off is half a spline width. I've had trannys go straight in without a fight, and I've had them where I had to wrestle them for a frustrating amount of time before getting things to mesh.

Couple questions and suggestions. It's been many moons since I've pulled the tranny out while leaving the block in the car... Once the tranny cross member has been removed, isn't it necessary to support the rear of the engine to keep it from rocking on the two side engine moutns? Block of wood on a jack under the oil pan or something? Or is a support under the front pulley? I don't remember which direction the engine wants to tip. Other things? You don't need an alignment tool to remove the clutch plate. It'll drop a little bit once you remove the pressure plate, but no big deal. No need to mess with the alignment tool there though. You got two hands. And when putting the new clutch plate into place, I'm not sure the clutch alignment tool fits through the spring fingers of the pressure plate. The reason that 's important is that I think you might have to put the pressure plate on first. Loosely into place before you reach in and lift up the clutch disk to slip the tool into place. But again, been many moons. This step "Turn clutch tool to match trans input shaft as best as possible." I think is an exercise in futility and optimism. I don't think you can align the splines rotationally by eye before trying to fit the tranny into place. And even if you can, wouldn't it be a lot easier to turn the transmission input shaft to match? Haha! Lastly, You used the word "hammer" a bunch of times. I would prefer the word "tap". It's semantics, but if other people are thinking of using this procedure, I think it conveys a better mental image.

Looks pretty! I would clean the paint off the oil washed surfaces though. Especially the pressure relief valve. I worry that the paint will come off that ball once bathed in hot oil. Probably not enough paint to really matter, but just for the insurance, a little carb cleaner on a rag should wipe it off. That's just me. :)

Wow. That's quite the failure. So on a good selector fork, the only thing that contacts the synchronizer slider sleeve is those two little plastic pads on the tips? Woof. Is there a thinner grooved channel worn into the side of the slider where the rivet heads were located? Or are the rivets so loose that they just slide back forth inside the fork? And on the steel forks... It looks like they don't use plastic pads at all? Seems like a much better (albeit more expensive) design. Wonder if they changed it to make it cheaper or quieter (or something else).

Is the cheapo HF scale good enough to do the weight matching? Mine has resolution down to 1g (in theory). I have no idea how accurate it is on an absolute reading, but it ought to be reasonably good at relative (comparative) measurements. You don't care much about the absolute number... You just want to see if they're all the same.

Agreed. Those pistons look fine to me.

LOL. Yeah, there is that. There are lots of relays in the world, including plenty that pull in at an appropriate voltage. But you won't find them at the local parts counter where everything is expected to work off 12V. You'll have to go somewhere like Digikey as SteveJ suggested. Or, as suggested, change the actuation source to somewhere else that would work easier with a 12V relay.

The reason you aren't getting enough voltage to consistently trigger FPR1 is because of the way the "N" terminal works. Clearly academic, but just in case anyone wants to know... That "400 RPM" cutout is a bit of a misnomer. They use the "N" output from the alternator to pull in the fuel cut relay #1, and that "N" output from the alternator is actually the "Neutral" connection of a three phase "Y" connected generator. The voltage on this neutral output is the normal alternator output voltage divided by the square root of three (about 1.73). So for example, when the alternator output is twelve Volts, the neutral wire should have about seven Volts on it: Datsun assumes that by the time the engine is spinning at 400 RPM or higher, the alternator is up and operating, and the voltage on the neutral output is high enough to pull in the fuel cut relay. So you need a relay with a pull-in lower than 8 Volts in order to be guaranteed to pull in with the L-N (Line to Neutral) voltage from the three phase alternator.

I got nothing technical to add, but wanted to say this thread is awesome.

LOL. Well it sounds like Anthony is making progress regardless, so whatever works!! Maybe we are helping?

I feel like we're coming in at the middle of a story... What's "the yellow". Is there a yellow wire going to your relay? What relay? @SteveJ, You're already on top of this one?

The pull-in voltage is the voltage at which the relay will be guaranteed to pull-in. So a relay with a pull in spec of 8v means the relay is guaranteed to actuate if you put 8 Volts across the coil. Less voltage might not pull in, but eight volts is guaranteed to pull in.

It really is the current that matters, but to make things easier to think about (and apply in use) they spec it by voltage instead. The relay coil has resistance. You apply a voltage to that resistance, and current flows. The higher the voltage, the more current will flow. Apply a high enough voltage, then enough current will flow to create a strong enough magnetic field to pull the relay in. But for most applications, you don't want "a relay that pulls in at 160 mA". You want "a relay that works on 12 Volts".

I'm not sure I would call it "lame" but some of the aftermarket sprockets have the timing marks on the back and some don't even some of the good name brands don't have the marks on the back we went through a bunch of them recently here on the forum search around on the site for more info and as for the "brass" link it doesn't line up with the dimple every rotation it only lines up every now and then we talked about that recently as well and I believe it lines up every eleven cam rotations but you should search around for that too just to confirm for sure.

Thirded. (or fourthded?) On the low end of the spec range. What number was it your machinist recommended? I know you told me, but I don't remember what he said. Glad the indicator survived the trip. Always a little apprehensive shipping measuring equipment. And don't forget that you'll likely have to grind the ring gaps. Make sure you're ready for that!

LOL. Of course they are! What's next in line?

Haha!! I'm not quite to that level. How about a fanny pack with a handful of Canadian Tire gift cards and some ibuprofen topping out at 88 km/h?

Excellent! Glad you got that one issue knocked off the list. Now on to the next one!

Yes, there's actually two of them. one in front of the plate and one behind. But I believe those two small holes will be blocked off by the simple plate. It's the big ones that need additional work other than just a flat plate.

Here's a pic of what you'll be looking at. The large hole no the left of the pic leads to the front side of the throttle butterfly plate and the hole right in the middle leads to the back side (intake manifold side) of the plate. The BCDD plunger is a valve that regulates the air passing between those two holes. Problem is you completely remove the plunger so those two holes are wide open to eachother. Figure out a way to plug at least one of those holes and then put a sealing plate on. RTV gooped into the holes should work, Just don't start the engine until it cures so you don't suck still soft RTV into the intake manifold. Whipped up a quick sketch to show what's going on. Fill the yellow cavity with RTV maybe? :

Yeah, with the throttle body upside down and the plate removed, you should see the holes. I've never made a block off device for the BCDD and the only easy suggestion I have is to fill the whole lower cavity with RTV to seal the hole and then put the plate on. Really rough way to do it, but certainly simple. Just make sure you don't squeeze RTV up into the throttle body where it matters. I've heard of people taking the throttle body off and welding the hole(s) shut.

Agreed. I'm assuming that when everything was brand spanking new, tight fitting hoses and gaskets, little blow-by, and all that... Maybe it made enough of a difference that they felt they needed to disable it at idle (and WOT), but these days on worn engines with probable small leaks elsewhere, it's just a tiny unaccounted for offset that doesn't make much difference.

Quick empirical test... I pinched off my purge line on both a first started cold engine, and a fully warmed up engine and I had no discernible change in my idle quality or speed. Doesn't mean much, but I got that. Could mean my valve is closed. Could mean my valve is hanging open, but doesn't make much of a difference either way. Could mean my pinch off was not a complete seal. If I get energetic, I'll pull the control line and apply mouth vacuum to it at idle (to force the valve open) and see if I get any discernible change. But I'm running out of Z days now before the weather turns and they salt the roads!