Just bought a 1978 Datsun F10 SW

[Twoelouie]

I Have actually owned a 71 Z since buying it as a "survival present" when i returned from the Nam! Still got it and she's still runnin STRONG!

 

I just got a "deal i couldn't refuse' on a NICE 1978 Datsun F10 wagon! ( Datsun's answer to the Chevy "Nomad" ??) . I'm need'in to find some interior parts to 'doll it up" just a bit. ...and a front grill..( don't laugh too hard!) I'm also curious to poppin a Grant wheel on it , as the stocker doesn't leave a big ole fella like me much room for my right leg when I'm tryin to shift it! Anybody know if the adaptor kit # 4590 would be the correct adaptor kit to work on that car?

[KELMO]

Welcome to Ratsun. Now, pics or it didn't happen, F10 wagon, you can't say that and not post pics. Sometimes on the back of the packaging Grant wheels will list the hub kits (sometimes)

[Z-train]

There's an F-10 coupe for sale on here somewhere.Parts for that car are probably going to be the hardest to find out of any Datsun ever made.

[Twoelouie]

Alrighty then,give me a couple of days to "spruce'er " up a bit and I will figure out how to get a pic of her on here! Just got my rear left tail light in last night! Found it in a junk yard in Pasadena ,Tx and at only $50.00 total,i'm a happy camper! The car I got thru an estate sale of a 95 year old fellow that just passed and had bought the car new! 126K original miles on it! I'm waitin for my "fix'em' books get here that I found on Ebay so that I can figure out if the valves are as easy to adjust as on my 71 Z! ??

[LenRobertson]

Here is a grill, if you can get the seller to ship, and do a good enough packing job that is survives the trip.

 

http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/pts/2584018397.html

 

Or fly to Seattle and hand carry it back. LOL!

 

Look on eBay for a factory service manual (not owners manual). You should be able to find one pretty cheap, since there isn't a huge demand. The FSM has way more info than Haynes, or Chilton, especially detailed wiring diagrams.

 

I'm hoping to get the throttle cable installed on my F10 this weekend, and have it (maybe) drivable. I'm looking forward to seeing pics of yours.

 

Len

[ggzilla]

The valves are much easier to adjust than the Z car, you will see.

[king bee66]

Here is a grill, if you can get the seller to ship, and do a good enough packing job that is survives the trip.

 

http://seattle.craig...2584018397.html

 

Or fly to Seattle and hand carry it back. LOL!

 

Look on eBay for a factory service manual (not owners manual). You should be able to find one pretty cheap, since there isn't a huge demand. The FSM has way more info than Haynes, or Chilton, especially detailed wiring diagrams.

 

I'm hoping to get the throttle cable installed on my F10 this weekend, and have it (maybe) drivable. I'm looking forward to seeing pics of yours.

 

Len

 

 

sweet a real NOS grille and really cheap. buy that

[Twoelouie]

I did finally buy that grill from Seattle! NOW.... I need to find a tach that will fit it "dash hole" ,an inside door handle and a few other small parts and i'll be doin just fine.

[LenRobertson]

I love to hear of anyone saving/working on an F10. I just started mine a few days ago after it sat all winter. One front brake is stuck on, so I need to fiddle with that, along with a half dozen other small details. With the price of gas now, an A14 for a daily is seeming like a good idea.

 

Even in the Spokane, where Datsuns abound, F10s are almost unknown. The last one I saw at P&S, a year or two ago, was a coupe, and someone already grabbed the tach. If I remember right, the wagons never came with a tach. I thought maybe it used the same tach as the 200SX, but I looked at my cars, and the SX tach is bigger than the F10. You probably need to find an aftermarket tach and figure out a way to mount it behind the hole in the dash. I can't remember if the coupes and wagons use the same dash.

 

My '79 200SX uses the same style recessed inside door handle as the F10, but I'm not sure it is the same size or mounts the same way. If you can find a '77-'79 SX in a wrecking yard, take a look at the handle. There was an SX at P&S in Spokane, but was crushed just a few weeks ago. It seems other model late '70s Datsuns might use the same door handle.

 

It is always in the back of my mind I need to do a trip to Thornton WA and see if the six dead F10s are still there. I suspect they are long gone to the crusher. I got on Google satellite and couldn't see them where I think they should be, but there are lots of trees they could be hiding under. Even if they are still there, I'm not sure I want to know. I would probably decide I needed to save them all.

 

Len

[LenRobertson]

I got my stuck front rotor loose this afternoon. PB Blaster on the caliper, and a 5 foot long bar prying on the wheel studs did the trick. I drove it back and forth in the driveway, then tried going out in an area of really tall grass behind my shop. Not a good idea, as it started to bog down, and I was lucky to back out of there. I still haven't swapped in the new throttle cable, so I was doing this set on high idle (good to remember if you ever break a throttle cable. Just set the idle up and away you go, sort of). I hear a squeak from a rear wheel, probably a sticky brake there too. But it was all fun and exciting.

 

Now if the City tries to write me up for junk cars, the F10 moves under power. So the '70 Maverick is the only one not running. It hasn't run since 1988, so may be a little more work to get it fired up, but probably the same routine as all three Datsuns - get the stale gas out and lots of spray carb cleaner. The Mav also has a stuck front brake. My neighbor towed it from his place to my place last year with the wheel not turning. Yes, you can do that if the tow rig has enough power, and you can keep the steering wheel straight.

 

Len

[ofg]

I clicked on this topic and didnt see any pics.

[LenRobertson]

I just went out to take pics of the F10, and the camera battery is dead as disco. I put the cursed thing on the charger, so maybe I'll get something up later today. I really hate anything that needs batteries to run. A couple of fond memories - Left the Maverick head lights on in a parking lot in Seattle, so no start. No problem, the wife and I pushed it enough to bump start it, and we were off. I once watched a guy crank start his MGA. It was a surprise to me MGs had that feature into the later 1950s. I sometimes fantasize about adding crank start to my Datsuns. Now I'm gonna go pet my Nikon FM and Yashica twin lens reflex cameras. Decent film cameras that will shoot without batteries.

 

Len

[Z chopper]

did you see fisch's f10 rendition

[LenRobertson]

You wanted pics. Here are some pics, maybe not good ones, but pics. I did these yesterday after I remembered the digicam works while on the charger. So these are shot with the camera hooked to the charger tethered to a 30 foot extension cord. Good old 110 volts for power.

 

Sad F10 in among the other junk.

 

 

Sad, rusty F10. This looks worse in real life than in the pic.

 

Sam the Cat. He loves to help work on Datsuns.

 

'70 Maverick. I bought this beauty in Virginia in 1980, drove cross country to LA, then up here to WA State. I must have been crazy. If only I'd known to buy a 510 wagon.

 

Len

[ofg]

Yay! Pictures! Nice cat. F10s are cool. Can you imagine the sr20 and 5 spd out ouf a 91 ser in that little bubble back? WOW!

[LenRobertson]

Z chopper - I remember seeing fisch's fantasy F10, but I can't find it now. It was really cool, and I'd like to see it again if anyone can think of the thread it was in.

 

Twoelouie - Trying to find the fisch F10, I ran across this thread:

http://community.rat...__fromsearch__1

mike in Spokane has the missing F10 tach. You might shoot him a PM and see if he will part with it.

 

ofg - Glad you liked the pics. Thanks for the compliment on Sam the Cat. He is sitting on the chair beside mine washing himself. He just came in out of the rain, so needs to clean up.

 

I wish I had the energy and ambition to do an SR20 swap into the F10. Realistically, I hope to someday find a good home for the F10 with someone who will do a project on it.

 

I'd like to hear of somebody taking an F10 to Canby this year. I know mine won't make it, but I'd love to see the pics of one there. Or a '77-'79 200SX.

 

Len

[Twoelouie]

THANKS Len! I just sent Mike a msg...we'll see! F10 parts are sure hard to find ! I would "assume" that some 310 and 210 parts might be interchangeable??

[Twoelouie]

PS What are you doin with your F10?????

[LenRobertson]

Twoelouie,

I just clicked a couple of pics of the dash on my F10 coupe. I'm curious if it is the same as your wagon. I keep thinking there is something different between the two, but maybe just the tach hole has a blanking piece on the wagon dash.

 

 

 

Yeah, I know I could have wiped the dust off the dash, but didn't want to get sidetracked cleaning the whole interior.

 

I think there some shared mechanical parts between F10 &/or 210/310. Searching eBay for "Datsun F10" is always interesting. Usually some sellers dreaming of getting big money for parts, and others happy to get anything for parts for a car that isn't so popular anymore. Most F10 body and interior parts are probably unique to the F10 and need to come from wrecking yards. I can remember 3 or 4 F10s at Spokane yards over the last few years, so more will probably appear.

 

I should have tried fixing my throttle cable today, but we've had wicked wind yesterday and today. It is finally calming down now that the sun is setting. Maybe tomorrow will be decent. But I also need to work on my 510. The license on my 200SX expires the end of this month, so I'm wanting to put tabs on one of the others if I can get them roadworthy. I'm the classic case of too many cars for the time and energy I have to fix on them.

 

Love to see pics of any kind of your wagon. Or link to thread if you've already posted pics.

 

Len

[Twoelouie]

The dash looks pretty much the same cept the "idiot lights" ( on the extreme right in your pic!) and the tach are reversed in my 78 wagon! Speaking of the word idiot...I can't figure out how to post pics on this site....need'in some OJT ( military term for : On The Job Training! )

[LenRobertson]

I can tell you how I get pics to show up on Ratsun. Likely someone else has a simpler explanation, but they may not be reading an F10 related topic, so you get my rambling explanation. First, your pic must be up on a host site somewhere, As far as I know, you can't just send the pic to Ratsun and it is posted. I use Flickr to host my stuff. There are other free hosting sites. Photobucket is the only one I can remember at the moment. Once your pic is on the host site, you need to find the file name. It will look something like this:

 

http://farm9.staticf...333e8fc0b_c.jpg

 

That is the actual file name for my second F10 dash pic. If you put your cursor on that pic, right click with the mouse, a menu shows up. Click on "View image info" and it shows the file name (and a bunch of other stuff). You need to copy and paste the name of your pic into your post. Now comes the magic part. In front of the file name, type [], with the letters img between them. After the file name, type [], with /img between them. If it doesn't show up well on your screen, those are the brackets on the right end of your keyboard, after the O and P keys.

 

You can copy the above file name into a practice post and play with it. Copy the whole line and paste into your post. Type the brackets with img between in front of the file name, then brackets with /img between after the name. When you hit Preview, the pic should show up in your post. This is a bit difficult to explain because if I try to show the img letters between the brackets, when I hit Preview, the Ratsun program makes that combination of brackets and letters disappear. It "knows" that combination isn't supposed to show it the post.

 

 

The tricky part is finding the correct file name on your picture host. You just have to poke around to find that. I don't know for sure, but I have a feeling the file name will always begin with http;//

 

Sunday I pulled the bad throttle cable out of my F10, planning to replace it with one from a 310 (I think that is what I got it from). The slug on the pedal end of the 310 cable will need to be ground down to fit the F10 clevis thingy, but I think it will work. Monday I went to P&S and looked at the cable on a 210. It also had a different end from the F10, so I didn't get it. I figure the 310 cable will work okay. The 210 cable could be made to work, but I didn't feel like taking the time to remove it from the carb.

 

Len