1973 Corona MarkII wagon MX29. The saga is now complete. (2015 update)

[Cuts metal like mad]

Sometimes the stars and planets align and the perfect match is made. I think thats exactly what happened with Duane and this Mark II

[greengoon]

Thanks, Joe. We just got back from the beach on a weeks vacation and it was cool to see the Mark II sitting there in the garage waiting for me. I turned the key and it fired right up. Been working on some more items including putting the dash pad on and cleaning up the gauges. I will post up pictures soon.

[greengoon]

I've been working with the dash cluster hooking things up and replacing burned out lights. The speedometer cable had not been connected all the way so I hooked it up properly and it started registering correctly. In its first trip out I noticed that the engine was revving higher even with the clutch in. After some diagnosis and driving a little bit I realized that the revs would come down below 15mph. I would hear a little mechanical click from the dash board and the rpms would return to normal. I disconnected the cable and the car is back to normal.

 

I'd like to have a speedometer but not at the cost of the higher revving. Has anyone experienced this before and is there something I can disconnect electronically to be able to use the mechanical speedometer? I'm thinking it is some sort of primitive engine management and maybe its malfunctioning which is all the more reason I'd like to remove it. Thanks!

 

…more pictures and updates soon.

[Cuts metal like mad]

...revs would come down below 15mph. I would hear a little mechanical click from the dash board and the rpms would return to normal. I disconnected the cable and the car is back to normal.

 

I wish I could help you with this, I put the engine and trans in, but don't believe there is anything like that. Gosh, I'm stumped brother.

[hosestop@msn.com]

Hey Duane check out AC system if had or has one ,sounds like a dash pot activating.

[jrock4224]

hey ...swing by olympia wa on your way down to jccs and i wil help u gander at it with u.....what its onl ylike a extra 1500 miles....im totally on the way :thumbup: :rofl: :w00t:

[greengoon]

Joe- yeah, I would think it was all mechanical so I was pretty surprised. I will tinker with it and solve it. Worst case scenario I use one of them period gadgets called a GPS. :rofl:

 

Brad- The dash pot is exactly what my father-in-law said it was. The car that the drive train came out of had A/C but there's no sign of it now. How can I identify this dash pot?

 

Jrock- I wish it was that easy. I've already taken 2 complete cars from the Pacific Northwest. You'd think I'd be able to come and visit.

[hosestop@msn.com]

Looks like vacuum adv. with two wires ,or start pulling fuses !I will check my 20r with AC and see what I find out , yippee my LIEN sale is over on my Corona wag(I own it now ) but came back 1st sold in 76 so I need to pass smog test now ,Cali. sucks I hope the law changes to 1980 as DMV has posted.I should reg. and let someone drive to parking lot of jccs, then I would have to work on it and slam it.

[SMD Basshead]

Wow, the wheels did change the whole look of the car! Can't wait to see more updates. :)

[a.d._510_n_ok]

 

I love the front sheet metal/grill on these things! they look evil? sly? but in a good, stylish way!

[greengoon]

After trailering my 510 and my Hilux down to the previous two JCCS, I decided I wanted to get a car down to SoCal under its own power. I chose to take the Mark II as it is bigger than the 510 and rides really well despite being lowered a bit. turns out its a very enjoyable car to drive for a long trip and was not the least bit fatiguing.

 

Me, my 11 year old son (and 3 time JCCS veteran) Miles and my friend Dan were the occupants. The plan was to cruise down with the JDM Legends crew. They were driving the green 4 door Skyline and the primered Starlet and trailering their just finished RX-7 and a two door Skyline. Well, as with any last minute crunch we decided to get on the road without them. We were happy we did this as they left nearly 4 hours after we did.

 

We were planning to meet up with Charlie (Dirttrack510) and his second year of driving out to the show from St. Louis Missouri! We finally caught up with him in St. George, Utah.

 

]

 

We continued with him to the Plaza Hotel in Vegas where he already had reservations.

 

 

After checking out Fremont Street and getting a little bit of sleep, the next morning we met up with Ian (PurePontiacKid) and his friends at the In-N-Out on Tropicana.

 

 

After breakfast, we headed out on the I-15.

 

 

Outside Primm, NV (Stateline) climbing a steep hill, we encountered out first problem of the trip. The Corona stumbled and lost power which would become a recurring theme for the trip. I still haven't determined if it is vapor lock, or electrical but it became quite annoying. We made it to the rest area for some old car rest.

 

 

The car did fine after that and we finally caught up with the JDM Legends crew in Baker, CA. Aptly named cause it was the hottest part of the trip.

 

 

Next, we took a rest in Barstow and then drove the rest of the way to Lawrence's (BRE510) house in Whittier. We were so glad to get off the road. Caravanning is fun but its definitely quicker when you are on your own :)

 

 

The only other trouble on the way down was when we left Barstow, the car developed a light metal clanking sound. We thought it might have been a heat shield but checked everything several times and could not find anything. After the show on Saturday, back home, we finally found the culprit. One of the bolts holding the alternator together got loose and kept randomly sending itself into the alternator's pulley fan. Solved that one.

 

The car did great on the way down other than the stumbling up the hill that one time. It stayed reasonable cool even through 100+ degree desert. Getting home was another story. I will get to that but here are some pics from the show.

 

 

More to come...

[jrock4224]

nice .... still cant believe u sold the hi lux ... but looks like its in good hands...

[Dat Lurka]

I swear that's a 710 wagon with a Pontiac front end.

[sedition88]

Still bums me out that I had to miss this again. Next year I WILL BE GOING!!

[Tristin]

Still bums me out that I had to miss this again. Next year I WILL BE GOING!!

 

This.

[greengoon]

Getting home from SoCal to Salt Lake was a whole adventure in itself. We started out Sunday morning with a leaking mechanical fuel pump. It was weeping a good amount from the underside. A quick trip to Auto Zone and we had an electric pump. Installed it, checked everything and hit the road.

 

Car did great until we tried to climb out of the valley toward Victorville. It did not like the quick 4000 ft elevation gain and had us off the side of the road a couple of times. Car was warm but not over heating. It seemed like fuel delivery problems. Several more random (even completely flat ground) times and we became stranded at the first Barstow exit. This time, we just couldn't get it to behave. This is also where the exhaust pipe finally cracked all the way through and the muffler ended up in a dumpster :) Car sounded much better though. Its premuffler was just enough to make a non annoying rumble.

 

 

We started calling everyone we could think of for advice. Then we remembered on the caravan down, we met a local guy named Chris, who had had his share of Datsuns in the past. He had told us that if we needed a garage and tools, he was just a few minutes away. We managed to get a hold of him and limped the car a couple more exits and coasted to his house where we spent the next several hours adding a pressure regulator, changing plugs and generally chatting about cars. Charlie even caught up to us after spending some time at the beach. Chris' wife even called a friend and arranged us a really nice room at the local Ramada for a great price since it was about 10pm and we hadn't covered 100 miles yet.

 

 

Charlie was going to stay in Barstow and wait for an alternator and voltage regulator to come in so in the morning, we said goodbye to him for the second time and hit the road.

 

 

We got a good amount of trouble free driving under out belts and finally broke down on the long steep hill north of Baker, CA. Several roadside stops later and we made it to the top of the pass. 10 more trouble free down hill miles and we made it to Primm NV at the CA/NV border. Had lunch, got some gas and headed out again. Now we were starting to plan to make it to my sister-in-law's house in Henderson, leave the car, get a rental to get home and come back later with a trailer. There is about 14 miles from Primm to a hotel in the middle of nowhere, Jean NV. About 12 of those miles were fine. The last few, we were on the side of the freeway 3 times. We get off at Jean, drive around the Gold Strike Casino, look at each other since the car was running fine, then get back on the ramp. Half way up the flat ramp, the car dies. We get it started, back down the ramp, find a shady spot and accept our fate.

 

 

Here, we started making phone calls and even took the carb apart to check the float. All looked well so we became convinced that the stock carb with all of its emissions crap and vacuum lines must become a boat anchor when we got home.

 

We looked into having it towed to Henderson but by the time we paid towing and rented a car, then came back to get the car at a later date we were well on our way to the cost of a truck and trailer. We said screw it and found a U-Haul truck and trailer and decided we would be home before dawn on Tuesday. It just so happened that Eric from JDM Legends and his wife came by as they were returning home from their photo shoot of the RX-7 by Speedhunters in downtown LA.

 

 

I hitched a ride with them, they dropped me off in Vegas to get the truck, then I drove 25 miles back to Jean to load the Corona up.

 

 

By this time, Charlie had gotten his part and caught back up with us again. We said our goodbyes (again) and hit the road about 7pm. This time we were confident that we would not be stranded on the side of the road although every little jolt of the truck brought back bad memories. We made it home at 5am Tuesday morning.

 

It ended up being an eventful and expensive trip but the fun we had and the wonderful people we met along the way made it all worth it!

 

 

There is now a role reversal in my garage as the Corona is in the back corner while I wait for the Weber 38 DGES to arrive. Some guys on JNC say that this is the way to go with the 4M. We shall see... Meanwhile, the Datsun is seeing reliable daily driver duties. Love my 510. I actually really like the Corona too, it just needs to be more simple and act like a Datsun :)

[jrock4224]

nice little adventure....bummer about the break downs but sounds like u made the best of it.....and i agree, every car should act a lttle like a datsun

[]2eDeYe]

Sounds like a good road trip, well except the breaking down but that's kinda part of a good trip anyways. Great pics. Thanks for sharing :)

[Cuts metal like mad]

Wow, this is my first chance to read the aftermath. Too bad about the break downs, sucks i know. My only question is wheres the conclusion? Weber installed yet? C'mon... i gotta know now.

[greengoon]

I've been meaning to send you an update. Been super busy lately so its been sitting in the garage. Dan came over a couple of weeks ago to start the carb swap but instead it seemed to be running fine so we drove it around the neighborhood and then took it on a longer drive. Got a couple of miles from the house and it died and wouldn't start that time so we borrowed my father-in-law's truck and towed it home. Since then I have pulled the old carb and the emissions off and cleaned up the intake manifold. Hopefully I will have some time this long weekend to get the new one on and start tuning. I miss driving it so hopefully I can get it back on the road soon. My Datsun wagon is super reliable but the Corona is bigger and a night and day different driving experience.

 

Since everyone loves pictures, here are some of the parts car that is stripped and will be heading to parts car heaven very soon :)

 

 

 

[sedition88]

Holy cow you've done alot on the parts car. If I wasn't headed to potato land this weekend I'd come over and help. Good luck with the carb work

[jrock4224]

screw that put the sheet metal and doors back on and toss it in your lawn dumped on some cool mocked up wheels ....i love me some vintage tin yard art....plus once your wifes leaves you for hoarding the lawn u can rent me that wood shed out back to live in ...

 

on my friends 68 corona he ended up making his own adapter and welding it to the intake to get a dgev/dfev on his car ...as no kit was made for it .... runs like a top now ....looking good on all accounts...i still watch the wagon heitage vid now and again....

[Cuts metal like mad]

I read back through... I can only assume. You pulled the fuel filter and checked for crud, gunk, or stuff? Other than that, I like to follow a rule I learned from Hainz... and it works 90% of the time on MY cars. If you think its fuel, its probably ignition. If you think its ignition, its probably fuel.

 

Webers are VERY forgiving. Should bolt on and run almost as well as stock without tuning.

 

Heres my baby.

 

[Ranman72]

nice story thanks for sharing

also thanks for the pics

charlie bought a rear end from me and put that in his 510 before the trip glad that all worked out

The wheels make the car good choice I hate gold wheels but like them on your car

[greengoon]

I read back through... I can only assume. You pulled the fuel filter and checked for crud, gunk, or stuff? Other than that, I like to follow a rule I learned from Hainz... and it works 90% of the time on MY cars. If you think its fuel, its probably ignition. If you think its ignition, its probably fuel.

 

Webers are VERY forgiving. Should bolt on and run almost as well as stock without tuning.

 

Heres my baby.

 

 

 

Love the Falcon! I'm sure its a little bigger than the MarkII and I bet your kids love it. Great color too, I saw a color post of it.

 

There wasn't a lot of crud in the fuel filter and I put a new one on before the trip. The points were good and we changed the plugs in Barstow just for good measure. The randomness of the problem pointed us to fuel but do you think ignition would cause bogging under load? Even after we got it home and it would sit for a week, I could reach in the window and start the car up without even touching the gas pedal. It would idle fine most of the time too.

 

Changing the carb and getting rid of as much emissions crap as I can is a good thing anyway but do you think I should throw a Pertronix elec ignition into it or even a new distributor whether or not the carb swap helps? All in all its been a good learning experience.

 

 

 

nice story thanks for sharing

also thanks for the pics

charlie bought a rear end from me and put that in his 510 before the trip glad that all worked out

The wheels make the car good choice I hate gold wheels but like them on your car

 

Thanks! Charlie was a great guy to hang out with and it was definitely the most memorable JCCS I've been to. His car is amazing and so reliable. My wheels were just a quick, cheap addition but as most car guys, I'm always on the look out for another better set :)