My Ratsun Datsun 521, now with L-20-B and a five speed

[datzenmike]

That's 2% or 1 MPH at 50..... nothing.

 

 

 

[DanielC]

Last time I posted to this thread, was January 23, 2019, and it is now August 17, the same year.   Ratsun had 43523 miles then, and 45736 as this is written.  Ratsun has been pretty trouble free, although the clutch slave cylinder went bad, and while waiting of one to arrive from Amazon, I finally called a local auto parts store, and the auto parts store had a slave cylinder the next day, I picked it up.  Guess what arrived from Amazon that afternoon.

 

The upper link pin bushings were worn pretty bad, and a few months ago, I replaced the bushings on the left side.  The bolt that goes through the bushing was rusted solid to the metal sleeve in the bushing, and after fighting that for while, I cut the bolt into three pieces with a cutoff disk in a small angle grinder to get it out.

Because a Datsun 521 uses SAE bolts on the body parts, the bolt is just a grade 8 1/2-20 bolt from a hardware store.  I was able to get the new bushings from my local Nissan dealer, but I did get them a while ago.

 

I started to remove the bolt that holds the upper link bushing with this press made with three pieces of all thread, and two pieces of 1/2 steel plate,

 

I got the bolt to move this far. and no farther,

 I tried using a punch on the bolt, with no luck, and that is when I decided to cut the bolt.

 

That was Saturday, a week ago.  The next day, I went to the Blue Lake Datsun meet in Troutdale, OR.  I actually took the next two pictures Monday, after the Blue Lake meet.

The other side of the truck.

At the Blue Lake meet, they had a raffle, and I won this, along with a die cast Nissan 2000 GT-R model driven in one of the Fast and Furious movies.

 

While working on the upper link bushings, I pulled one brake drum off the front hub, and noticed I needed new brake shoes in the front brakes.  The brake shoe change was done last Wednesday.  Friday of last week, I took Ratsun to Les Schwab in Clackamas, Or, and had them check the front end alignment, they changed a few things, and they put some other wheels with new tires on the front end of Ratsun.

 

With new brake shoes put in on Wednesday, I adjusted the front brakes again on Saturday.  Also on Saturday, while I was under the truck, I greased kingpins, tie rod ends, steering idler, lower link bushings, and the slip sleeve in the middle of the drive shaft.

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by DanielC

[datzenmike]

Uneven tire wear...

[DanielC]

Mike was right....

 

I actually replaced one set of link pin bushings in February, 2019, but got busy with other farm stuff, and did not pay attention to Ratsun tires for a while.

 

Also, somewhere between Febuary, and August, Ratsun started running poorly, and I just did not deal with it.  I put this air cleaner on Ratsun in December 2018,

and one of the vacuum hoses under the air cleaner broke. 

But that is fixed, and with new tires, and the front end aligned, Ratsun drives much better, runs better, and no longer has a front end shake about 42 MPH.

 

 

Edited August 25, 2019 by DanielC

[datzenmike]

 

Holy crap! Didn't know it was that bad.

[mklotz70]

Keep an eye on those rubber bushings.....they wear out pretty quickly.  

[DanielC]

So no pictures today, just words.

I heat my home with a wood pellet stove. 

On Labor day weekend, the local Coastal Farm store has a sale, on wood pellets, and Levis.  Long story short, Tuesday, I bought a ton of wood pellets, took them home, unloaded them, and went and bought a second ton of pellets, took them home and unloaded then also. 

If I factor the cost of the wood pellets at the price I can buy them normally, and apply the $20.00 gift certificate to the on sale Levi 501 jeans, I paid $14.99 for each pair Levis.  I got two tons of pellets, and two pair of pants

Yesterday, I had to go to work, my dentist, and after work go get 20 bales of hay.

[mainer311]

On 8/25/2019 at 9:23 AM, mklotz70 said:

Keep an eye on those rubber bushings.....they wear out pretty quickly.  

 

You ain't kidding. I replaced a set about a year ago and they're all cracked already.

[DanielC]

I have started the process of finding the original pictures I took at the beginning of this thread in 2011, uploading them to my server space I am renting, and changing the links to pictures that are clear again.  

[Charlie69]

That effort is greatly appreciated.  Thank you DanielC, it takes a lot of time. I have done it several times over the years.  Photobucket has be en emailing me wanting money again.  I use post image until I can do like you and get a webpage and server space.

[DanielC]

September 18, 2019 I cleaned out the garage enough to back Ratsun in to it, and I put the front end up on some drive up ramps, and then jacked up the rear axle, and put blocks under the spring brackets under the axle.

 

I drained the oil still in the rear axle,

 

Then I disconnected the emergency brake cables from the truck.  I took this picture after straightening the cotter pin.  Pull the cotter pin out, and then remove the pin holding the "Y" bracket, and the inner cable is free of the truck.

 

After freeing the inner cable, I put the parts back together, but without the cable. 

 

This is a picture of the clip that holds the outer emergency brake cable to the frame of the truck.  I used the pry bar to loosen the clip,

 

Once the clip is loosened, you can remove it completely with vice grips, or pliers.

 

And then the outer cable can be disconnected from the frame of the truck.

 

And finally, there is this spring that holds the emergency brake cable between the frame and brake plate.  It just untwists from the cable.

There is a pin holding the two sides of the emergency brake cable together.  It uses a cotter pin just like the "Y" pictures earlier, take that pin out and the emergency brake cables can be separated.

 

This is the fluid connection to the rear wheel cylinder.

 

Remove the bolt, 14 MM socket.   There are two copper washers on the brake banjo.  One between the brake cylinder and banjo fitting, and the other between the head of the bolt holding the banjo and the banjo itself.

 

 

While I was under the truck, I disconnected the drive line, and tied it up under the bed of the truck. 

 

It was getting late, and I forgot a few pictures.  There are four nuts that hold the brake plate to the axle housing, I took those out.  With the brake line, and emergency brake cable loose, the axle can just be pulled out of the axle housing.

After removing the axles, the ten nuts that hold the differential carrier can be removed.  After removing the nuts, I put a jack under the pinion flange on the carrier, and used it to break the seal of the housing to the carrier.

 

This picture was taken before taking the diff carrier off the housing, it was the most obvious crack.

 

This web was also cracked.

 

After setting the carrier on the bench, I found another crack on the top of the carrier.

 

I had the cracked carrier on the bench, and put the steel carrier I got last February just to compare sizes of the pinion flange and other things.

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2019 by DanielC

[mainer311]

Woops.

[datzenmike]

Aluminum case.

[wayno]

Did you loose a drive line when that happened?

[DanielC]

I was driving to my doctor, about an 8 mile round trip.   I was going down a hill about 40 or so MPH, and near the bottom of the hill, I heard a very loud BANG!!!.  I pushed in the clutch pedal, and coasted down the hill for a little bit, checked the idiot lights, both were off, checked a volt meter I have in my truck, it was reading 14.XX volts.  I watched the temp gauge for any movement it was staying right at where it is normally.

I let the clutch pedal out, and the truck then made some unusual noise, but by then I was at the bottom of the hill, and when applying some throttle, most of the unusual noise went away.  I continued to my doctor.

When I got there, I noticed a small trail of oil drops where I had just driven.  Looking under the truck a small spot was on the ground under the rear axle.

After I got the prescription refilled, I looked under the truck, and there was not a lot of oil on the ground, I decided to try to drive home.   I made it home, again it made noise coasting against the engine, and since it is mostly uphill coming home, on the downhills going home, I rode the brake pedal just enough to always keep the engine driving the differential.

 

Last night, I took the differential carrier off the rear axle housing, and there is a dent in the pinion gear where it looks like something hard got in between the pinion, and ring gear, and moved the pinion over, cracking the case.  

 

 

 

[ol' 320]

Daniel: Hopefully you can fix this without too much trouble.

I always learn something from your posts.

[datzenmike]

Something loose in there got between the teeth? Is the roll pin still in place?

[Charlie69]

Great opportunity to put a 1980 720 389 gear ratio behind that five speed.

[datzenmike]

I agree, and the later H-190 were steel housing.

[banzai510(hainz)]

man that sucks!!!!!  I hate dealing with my brake issue. Its a simple fix but cant figure it out quiet yet

[mainer311]

12 hours ago, wayno said:

Did you loose a drive line when that happened?

 

Lose, present tense of lost, as in "to lose your keys."

Loose, opposite of tight, as in "the screws in Wayno's head are too loose."

 

I had a spider gear cross pin let go on my h233b on my D21 back in the day. That made a huge mess.

Edited September 20, 2019 by mainer311

[DanielC]

I got the steel case diff carrier in February.   Some cleaning, and it is ready to go in.  It is a 4.375, I got it hoping for a 4.11.

I do not drive on freeways a lot, and a lot of times I have to use the freeways, the traffic is not going near the speed limit.

I just need the time to clean the steel case carrier, one axle seal had leaked into the brakes, and put it back together.  New brake shoes, clean brake drum, gaskets, and I should be done.  I already have gear lube on hand.

I did take some pictures of the disassembly, but I am missing some.  I did not want to touch my camera with gear lube on my fingers.

Edited September 25, 2019 by DanielC

[wayno]

It's an easy fix Daniel, get the back of the truck in the air and block the front wheels, remove the drain plug and empty it if there is any gear oil in it anymore, take the back wheels off, release the e-brake and take it out of gear, next remove the brake lines from the wheel cylinders/backing plates on both sides and then take the 4 nuts on each side off that hold the backing plates on,

Now crawl under the truck and remove the drive line, next remove the nuts holding the 3rd member in(10 of them), then it might be a good idea to pull the pin out of the "Y" on the e-brake cable assembly and let it drop to the ground, you may have enough slop in the cables to not have to do this, your choice, then crawl out from under the truck and pull the axles out of the axle housing far enough so that they are not in the 3rd member anymore then get under the truck again and remove the 3rd member, since it is broken just sledge hammer it out if it resists, clean the axle housing, you have different standards than I do so clean it your way, apparently I have loose screws in my head, then reverse the process and put it back together and bleed the brakes and fill it with gear oil.

When you pull the axles out(maybe 6 inches) keep track of the shims if they come with the axle, slide them back onto the studs.

I also put a plug of some type in the brake line ends to keep the brake fluid from draining onto the ground and emptying the reservoir.

I can do this in an hour or two at the most.

[DanielC]

Wayno, Thanks!

Unfortunately, the left axle seal was leaking, and I had gear oil through the left rear wheel bearing, and I found the nut holding the bearing was loose, but not coming off.  I spent part of yesterday cleaning brake parts.

 

A question.  There is a 1976 620 in the Portland South Pick-n-Pull.  Is the rear axle a bolt in into a 1970 521?  I know the brake cylinders have Metric threads, and the truck end of the emergency cable may be different.  Are the leaf spring pads the same distance apart?  Any other issues with this swap?

[NC85ST]

I take it you mean the complete differential. Yes it will bolt in. I used a ‘78 diff in my ‘70 years ago. Pinion bearing went out.  Not sure about the E brake cables mine were not hooked up. I don’t remember what driveshaft you’re using in your set up, I was using a stock 620 driveshaft with my l20b 5-speed, and of course it bolted up with no problem to the ‘78.  Of course the one thing that is different is the wheel stud size is bigger on the later trucks than the ‘70.  It worked out OK for me because I was running ‘73 front hubs anyway. That 620 rear end is a little wider as well.