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

[oldskoolvws]

It's even easier if you have the cable attachment for it :)

 

Ain't this the truth!

[DanielC]

My Ratsun Datsun can move itself!

Here it is out in a pasture, and I drove it there.

 

Here is a picture of my seat.

The seat from a slightly different angle.

Here is a lovely hole in the floor.

[izzo]

haha, leave it as is and drive it to canby. Bet you win an award.

[Z chopper]

get a lawn chair mounted as the seat, or an office chair

[DanielC]

"get a lawn chair mounted as the seat, or an office chair "

I tried a short stool, but one or more of the legs was over a hole in the floor. The blocks of wood span the holes.

[wayno]

I have found if you use a lawn chair seat pad it is more comfortable, but a pillow will work to. :lol:

[DanielC]

On this page:

Lawnmower gas tank, under hood, then in bed
Fuel filler hose part number
Oil pressure adapter
Engine pictures
Brake inspection, missing parts
Dragon pictures
Garage crash, and fender dents
Fender removal, spot weld saw for access to dents.
Used fender purchase
Blond girl wakeboarding
Aerostar fender painting
Burning remaining trash from bed of Ratsun.
Fender in electrolytic rust removal
Used fender paint removal
Used cab purchase
Some work on second cab
Matchbox wiring diagram

 

When I drove Ratsun out into the pasture yesterday, you may have noticed the hood slightly open on the right side. Here is a review picture.

The hood was being held open by this gas tank, put the engine compartment, ahead of the battery, wedged between the radiator, and fender well.


I am going to pull the gas tank. I want to clean it out. The truck was last ran in the 1990's, and it did not have a gas cap when I got it. Who knows what is in the tank. I removed the threaded plug from the bottom of the tank yesterday, and nothing came out.

So I can still move the truck, under it's own power, and close the hood, I moved the lawnmower gas tank to the bed, like this.


I got a new Nissan fuel filter to hook up the stock fuel line to the engine. Part number on the fuel filter is 16400-H8501. I also got some new fuel hose for the connection in the engine compartment to the fuel filter. I also blew compressed air backwards through the fuel hose going to the stock gas tank, to clear it out. Then I put the lawnmower gas tank in the bed, and hooked it up th the stock fuel line.

I had to do some running around today, and since i already had the old cracked and crumbling fuel filler hose out of the truck, I took it with me to Clackamas Auto Parts in Oregon City, and asked if they had any hose like it. The parts guy measured it, went in the back and came out with this Goodyear hose.

That looks like a pretty good fit to the filler neck.

While I was there, I also got a fitting to adapt the oil pressure port on the engine. This port on a Datsun L-16 engine is not a standard pipe thread, It is a 1/8-28 BSP. A normal pipe fitting is 1/8-27 NPT. The fitting is made by Edelman 265220. You need this adapter to hook up an oil pressure gauge to your Datsun.

[banzai510(hainz)]

1/8-28 BSP

 

I have a few of those adapters you have to look in the back fittings bin as most parts store guys also send you to the Oil meter sceting but most I ever seen are the 1/8-27 size and most people dont know it.

all Nissan is the Bristish size

Autometer carries these BSP to the standard adapter.So you can screw it in the block

[DanielC]

I did little stuff on the truck today, little stuff that takes so much time. When I got the truck, the air cleaner was sitting in the cab, and kind of rusty. I went to my collection of air cleaners for L-16 engines, and picked one out, and cleaned it up, and put it on the engine. Then I started to look for the "Y" shaped bracket, that goes in between the air cleaner, and intake manifold. After moving a boat, so I could open a door on another Datsun 521 I have, and looking through several boxes, I finally found a bracket. Bonus, I also found a bracket that holds the middle of the choke cable, and a piece of wood I made for holding the timing chain. Then a bolt search, and chasing threads, and the bracket is on the engine, and holding the air cleaner securely.

Next, I put the fan shroud on the radiator. Do this while the radiator is out of the vehicle, if you can. With the engine still in the truck, I had to drain water, remove the upper radiator hose, and put it in. The truck came with only two of the four bolts I needed to hold the fan shroud on the radiator. And again, a search for bolts.

 

Now I need to find the little plastic clips that hold the spark plug wires.

[DanielC]

I am thinking about taking a 521 to Canby. I do not know yet, if I want to take this one, or another 521 I have. I need to get the other 521 out into the light of day, and evaluate which might be easier to get to Canby.

When I get the other 521 out of the garage, I will take some pictures of it.

[DanielC]

Here are some pictures of the engine as is is in the truck, on May 8, 2011.

Center view.

From the left.

And from the right.

 

I also started to work on the brakes. I moved the truck over in the garage close to the right side, so I could work on the left side of the truck. I took the left front brake drum off with the hub, to see what the front brakes looked like. They looked like this.

I did not remove the shoes, or other stuff. What you see, is what I got. I put the front hub and drum back on, and went to the back of the truck. Removed the wheel and tire, and sprayed some penetrating oil by each stud, and around the hub of the rear axle. I notice the rear brake plate is bent from somebody using a puller to get the rear brake drum off. I loosen the adjuster, and after three medium hits with a mid sized sledge hammer, the brake drum comes off. This is the easiest brake drum I ever got off a Datsun pickup. Once inside, the lining is almost off the entire rear shoe, and I have to remove the broken emergency brake cable anyway.

 

I cleaned up the drum with a wire wheel.

 

And the end of the rear axle too.

I then put the drum, and the wheel back on the truck, so it will still roll.

And now I know what brake parts I need, at least for one side of the truck.

[DanielC]

It has been a week. Outside of a miracle, this truck, "Ratsun" is not going to make it to Canby in 2011.

 

On Monday, May 9, I wanted to clean out the garage. I also took some stuff that ended up in the bed of Ratsun, and put it into more long term storage. Then I backed this truck, the one I call Dragon, out of the garage.

Right side.

Left side.

Front.

Back.

And the engine bay.

 

After sweeping out the garage, I put both Dragon, and Ratsun back into the garage. It is a old small two car garage, it has room for two Datsuns, and not much room for anything much bigger. Because of a motor home my deceased dad owned, blocking one door of the garage, I can only open one door of the garage, and when I put a Datsun pickup in it, I generally have to back the trucks right up to the door to have enough room on the other end of the truck to work on them.

 

Previously, I first backed Dragon into the garage, and them I could work it forward and back a few times, and move it over into the blocked stall. I decided to turn it around, so the back of it was against the door, so I could work on the front of Dragon. It is much more difficult to put the truck in the garage this way. Lets just say I need a floor jack, on wheels, that I can put under the "pumpkin" of a rear axle to move a Datsun sideways. Really bad. I do not have one yet, so to move it sideways, I jacked it up, with a jack in the center of the rear bumper, until the rear wheels were off the floor, and push it sideways, and it fell off the jack, and moved about 5 inches sideways. And than repeat until it is moved over far enough.

 

Then I drove Ratsun back into the garage. Ratsun has no brakes. No hand brake, the cable is broken, no hydraulic brakes. I ended up coming into the garage with a little too much speed, and even with turning the key off, the truck had enough momentum to bump the workbench at the back wall of the garage.

this is the right fender damage.

And the left fender damage. The new left fender damage is on the top of the front end of the fender.

 

Monday evening, I removed the left fender, and took the sheet metal piece that goes under the headlight mount off the fender using a spot weld saw.

Here is a picture of the piece removed.

And then I started work on roughing out the fender dent I made, and some old damage.

 

Tuesday morning, I ordered a new hand brake cable from Nissan. I also have been communicating with Mklotz about front disk brakes on this truck.

 

The rest of the week, I painted some wood water skis with clear coat for my waterski team, mowed some lawn, and if you look again at one of the side pictures of Dragon you will see a plastic bumper cover for my Aerostar on top of the bed. That cover is now painted, clear coated, and on my Aerostar.

 

In bits and pieces of my spare time, I have been cleaning the left front fender of Ratsun, and putting it in to an electrolysis rust removal process.

 

On Thursday, I went over to D510Addict's house and bought a right and left fenders for a 521.

Right side.

Left side.

 

Up to date for now.

[bilzbobaggins]

Love this thread....Was itching for a fix last night...All better now

 

Awesome Work

 

Jeff

[DanielC]

Did a little work on Ratsun yesterday. Tuesday, I got a call from my local Nissan dealer that the hand brake cable I ordered last week was in, and then I called another local auto parts store I use a lot for rear brake shoes. The brake shoes would be there Wednesday morning.

 

Wednesday morning, I blocked the truck up in the air to get all four wheels off the ground. I took the wheels off, and slid them under the truck. Since I removed the rear brake drums last week, they just slipped right off. The front drums I removed with the hubs, and then used my hydraulic press to push the hubs out of the drums.

 

I loaded the drums into the daily driver, and into Oregon City. first a stop at Active Water Sports to get some parts for a boat I am working on, and then to Clackamas Auto parts. Pick up the shoes I ordered, and then I have the machinist measure the brake drums. One is .010 over stock, one .020, one .025, and one is at .050. I think I will put the two smallest drums on the back wheels, and use the two larger ones as an excuse to put disk brakes on the front.

 

I then head up the hill in Oregon City, and go to Rainbow Paint. I bought some PPG DPLF epoxy primer, in white, some metal conditioner, (it us used to remove rust), a slide hammer, and some other stuff. Back down the hill, and out I 205 to Tigard, I go to Oregon Bolt, and get some 1/4 -28 bolts and nuts, this is the size bolt used to hold the fenders, and hood on the truck, and then down to Tonkin Nissan, and get the hand brake cable I ordered.

 

I came home, and was able to put together a good hand brake cable for both rear wheels using the new cable I bought, and an old cable I had from another 521 truck.

 

Tuesday morning (April 17) she wanted to go wakeboarding, and it was also her birthday.

 

Monday morning, I did this to my Aerostar.

 

I am doing some body repair in this.

 

Oddly enough, my Ford, uses metric fasteners to hold body parts on. My Datsun, uses American sized fasteners.

[DanielC]

I have been busy with a lot of other work around the horse stable I run, and playing with my boat, and working on other boats.

Went out in my boat again on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

 

On Saturday evening, i did this.

Why a picture of a burn pile? Because when I first got Ratsun Datsun, the bed had a lot of "organic" crap, bamboo, and old pieces of wood in it, and I just threw the crap that would burn on the small pile I had already started. Before I started the fire, the pile had grown to about six or seven feet across, and about four feet high. It was a nice clean fire, very little smoke, and I was able to keep the fence wet, so it did not even get scorched.

 

During the last week, I also have kept a left fender, and a back hood brace in electrolysis, removing rust from them. Here is my current setup, working away.

[DanielC]

It was raining a lot today, so no working outside, or on boats.

I have some 521 hoods, that have damage on the back brace, the part that bolts on to the hood hinges. I have removed the back brace from these hoods, and i am working on removing the rust from them, so I have a better chance of welding and repairing the back brace. I have continued cleaning the parts with electrolysis, it is a slow process, but on the other hand, I can put the parts in the tank, and just ignore them, for few days at a time.

and another picture of the electrolysis.

 

I took the fender that was in the electrolysis, and washed it off, removed some undercoating from it, and did some sanding on it to see what I had to work with. I found these holes in the front of it. I put a trouble light behind the fender so the holes would show up more.

I also found this rust through in the back of the fender.

Here is a closer look at the hole.

We will maybe work on this fender later.

 

I then started to work on the fenders I got from D510Addict.

A few days ago, when I had the pressure washer going, I cleaned the fenders off. This fender looked like this before,

and it looked like this after pressure washing.

and this is the front of the fender, after pressure washing.

I sanded the fender down, and found these dents,

And some body filler,

but most of the fender looks pretty good, and I found no rust holes, so far.

[DanielC]

I have been really busy with other stuff. The weather is warmer, and with all the rain Oregon has had, grass is growing like mad. I also have some areas of pasture that I cut blackberries from, and I need to re-cut the germinating ones about every week.

 

D510addict has a 521 being parted out, and previously, I got the front fenders from that truck.

 

On June 4, I drove over, and got the cab off that truck. Look want followed me home.

 

The floor is in better shape than the Floor of Ratsun, but will still need repair.

Right side.

Left Side

There is also some damage to the transmission tunnel. Keep the drive line bolts tight, people.

 

The windshield has one small repairable rock chip, and a scrape from bad windshield wiper, but other than that, in pretty good shape. The roof has a few repairable dents, but no holes. Most of the threaded inserts for the fenders are good. It has less rust on everything.

 

Right inner fender.

Firewall, from engine side.

Left inner fender.

[DanielC]

Yesterday, June 7, I put the back axle brakes back together. I used the new hand brake cable I got from the Nissan dealer, used some new Nissan wheel cylinders, and some new brake shoes. I also removed the gas tank, and then lowered the truck off blocks and and drove it out of the garage, to clean the floor of the garage.

In case you are wondering how I drive the truck without the gas tank in it, I did this to supply gas to the engine.

.

 

It looks like the next major thing I need to do is to repair rusty floors on a cab. I have the Cab from Ratsun to work on, and the newer cab I got from D510Addict. With Ratsun rolling again, I can move the cab from Addick into the garage and work in it.

 

I have an oxy-acetylene torch setup, and I can attach two pieces of metal together, not very pretty, and I can use that. I am also contemplating getting a wire feed welder, but I am not sure yet.

[521chowda]

great work dude cant wait for more!:thumbup:

[DanielC]

I made a brief appearance at Canby, about a hour and a half, around noon. I should of had a 521 there.

 

Armed with a little inspiration from my time at Canby, I did a little work on the cab I bought from D510Addict. I lifted the cab up on to the back (bed) side so i could wash, and inspect the bottom of the floor, to determine a way to repair the rusted parts of the floor. This truck had a bad rear seal on the transmission, so the bottom of the floor was dirty.

A closer look.

 

I cleaned the bottom of the floor. I started off by pressure washing it, and then scrubbing with a brush, and some super clean. It helped a little, but not much. I then got some solvent from my parts washer, and using an old sock for a rag, (with nitrile gloves) and with that was able to remove the gunk off the bottom of the cab, and then back to the super clean, and pressure washing again.

The good news about a bad rear transmission seal, the leaking oil pretty much prevents rust from the bottom of the cab.

 

Here are some pictures looking through the floor.

Right side.

Left Side.

 

I am looking for advise on how any of you have repaired rusty floors in your cars, or trucks.

Do I remove braces (hat channels) that are on the cab, remove mounts, and cut out the bad floor sections?

Here are some close pictures of the bottom to the cab, cleaned.

Right side.

Left Side

 

So, I am looking for ideas on how to fix this cab's floor.

[DanielC]

I made a brief appearance at Canby, about a hour and a half, around noon. I should of had a 521 there.

 

Armed with a little inspiration from my time at Canby, I did a little work on the cab I bought from D510Addict. I lifted the cab up on to the back (bed) side so I could wash, and inspect the bottom of the floor, to determine a way to repair the rusted parts of the floor. This truck had a bad rear seal on the transmission, so the bottom of the floor was dirty.

A closer look.

 

I cleaned the bottom of the floor. I started off by pressure washing it, and then scrubbing with a brush, and some super clean. It helped a little, but not much. I then got some solvent from my parts washer, and using an old sock for a rag, (with nitrile gloves) and with that was able to remove the gunk off the bottom of the cab, and then back to the super clean, and pressure washing again.

The good news about a bad rear transmission seal, the leaking oil pretty much prevents rust from the bottom of the cab.

 

Here are some pictures looking through the floor.

Right side.

Left Side.

 

I am looking for advise on how any of you have repaired rusty floors in your cars, or trucks.

Do I remove braces (hat channels) that are on the cab, remove mounts, and cut out the bad floor sections?

Here are some close pictures of the bottom to the cab, cleaned.

Right side.

Left Side

 

So, I am looking for ideas on how to fix this cab's floor.

[Uncle Laulau]

This is very helpful. I cant get my matchbox to work, and am now going to try and copy your wiring. I left out the ballast resister first try, and didn't ground the distributor. Hope this fixes things, I miss driving the truck. Thanks again, I'll try and post pictures of my progress after finals arrrg.

[mklotz70]

I'd leave the floor brace in place and cut the sheet metal from around it. Drill out the spot welds holding the floor to it and remove the last piece. When you get your new piece cut, lay it in, mark the underside with a sharpie, pull it out and drill new holes so you can rosetta weld the two together. Good as new :)

[DanielC]

Laulau,

This is a schematic of the wiring I used to make my Matchbox distributer work. I am using the stock 521 "use with a ballast resistor" ignition coil.

The black with white wire comes from the ignition switch, and supplies power in the run position.

The black with red wire comes from the ignition switch, and supplies power in the start position.

This retains the stock full voltage to the coil, bypass the ballast when cranking the engine. In the run position the coil and the matchbox get power through the ballast resistor. I have not driven the truck at high rpm, with a load yet. I may need to get the proper coil, without the ballast resistor to run good at high RPM.

[DanielC]

Mike,

I am thinking about buying a wire feed (MIG) welder. I have an Oxy-acetylene torch, and also a 225 amp AC only Miller stick welder. I do have 220 in the garage.

I can put two pieces of metal together, with the Oxy-Acetylene, but my welds are not really pretty, but more functional.