Get it done, 521

[volkswagner]

I'm overdue on this one. I picked this 521 up from Jrock over a year ago. The main motivator was that I just bought my first house and it requires quite a bit of maintenance . remodel. So I figured I needed something better than my wagon to haul around lumber etc.
As I said, I'm a bit late on the thread, so we'll have to see what I can dig up for progress photos.

 

Here are a couple of the photos I based my purchase on, 

 

Jrock dropped it at Jeffs house where it stayed for a couple months or so while I transitioned to the new house, So no work done then.
Jeff and I did the initial start up in his driveway, lots of chatter. Jeff realized the motor had thrown a lash pad, we fixed that and it ran much better. Until it started spewing white smoke. Realizing a head gasket was in order, I towed it up to my new place.

 

Straight into the garage for a head rebuild. I don't have any pictures but there wasn't really anything to see. Standard head gasket job with some valve lapping and all the other maintenance type tasks that it takes to get one of these relics back on the road. Brakes cylinders, clutch cylinders, electrical gremlins, etc. etc. I really just wanted it on the road asap  for the home depot trips. 


Straight to work once it was running, dump runs galore!

 

 

Hit it with a pressure washer, AKA patina gun. It did quick work of peeling off the loose layers of the 4 or so different colors the truck has been.
As well Carter hooked me up with some wheels and tires from his 620. Thanks a gain Carter. I like the stock wheel look quite a bit and will likely switch back eventually but it wasn't worth any tire swapping. 
Also, I'm missing a stock center cap if anyone has spare to get rid of.

 

 

various new bits, custom battery mount, etc.

 

 

Nice to have a truck for parts runs :-)

 

Spent a lot of the summer rebuilding the new garage. Straightening the structure, redoing siding, electrical, paint, etc. Ended up taking more time than intended.

Started having electrical issues. Started digging into the harness. Both my reverse light sockets look like this!!!!!! Yuck.
Anyone have a tail light harness?

 

Chasing harness issues resulted in this, ended up driving it this way for a couple weeks since my wagon decided to rod knock at auto-X and I needed to get around. 

 

Turns out there was loose plug pins under the dash. Decided to just take it all out. Going to restore the truck from the inside out, mostly because I'm not sure if I'll ever get to restoring the exterior since I plan on using the truck for truck sort of things that can result in damage / wear. But I want the interior to be comfy.

I found a wrecking yard with an older 521 with the all metal dash, got it shipped over and dropped it at the powder coaters along with some JBC parts.

 

Since I have to drive the 521 while I rebuild the wagon, I decided to do a push to get the interior done and and some of the other daily driving annoyances. 
First up, King pins. They were shot, lots of vibration above 40mph, Kinda scary on I-5.


14 hours later, I can say WTF!!!!! That was a terrinle experience. Everything was seized, all of it. Everything, No really.
I brought the spindles to work to press out the king pin. 17,000 lbs of force was required to break them loose. Finally got them though.

 

Reassembly was much easier, who knew these started as slip fits.

Back where they belong, test drive felt great, no more vibrations. I may have mad them a bit tight since the steering won't return to center 100% but that will probabaly wear in quick. 

So, 14 hours total, but next time I'm sure I can do it in 10 but, that irrelevant because I'm NEVER doing that ever again.


Next up, carpet before re-installing the dash. POR-15 first.

 

As well, gearing. The 4.38 rear end is unbearable on my commute. There happen to be a 720 king cab at the local yard with 3.7's.
YOINK!

 

Now pushing to get whats torn apart, back together. 

[flatcat19]

You seem to be getting down real quick! Watching.

[wayno]

Going from 488 gears to 370 gears will be like starting out in second gear with the 488 gears.

I like the 437 gears myself, still have power off the line and can still haul heavy stuff, I found 390 gears to be too hard on the clutch when hauling loads, but what I call a load and what you call a load might be two totally different things.

I have 370 gears in my 520ute, but that truck is not meant to haul much/a lot of weight, it's more of a looker, people always approach me at gas stations when I drive that one, it has an L20b, 219 head, and dual SUs.

[volkswagner]

Going from 488 gears to 370 gears will be like starting out in second gear with the 488 gears.

I like the 437 gears myself, still have power off the line and can still haul heavy stuff, I found 390 gears to be too hard on the clutch when hauling loads, but what I call a load and what you call a load might be two totally different things.

I have 370 gears in my 520ute, but that truck is not meant to haul much/a lot of weight, it's more of a looker, people always approach me at gas stations when I drive that one, it has an L20b, 219 head, and dual SUs.

I have 437 now not 488. Don't plan on hauling huge loads. I'll take the commute comfort for now but, I'll keep the 4.37's for the future since the dream would be having this tow my racecar to the track....

[mklotz70]

I'm curious.....did you hone the bushings for the kingpins or ream them?  

 

Great work on the truck. :)

[volkswagner]

Reamed, thinking i should have honed though. 1 ended up non concentric with the second bushing so i had to "correct" the angle, not great.

[wayno]

I have 437 now not 488. Don't plan on hauling huge loads. I'll take the commute comfort for now but, I'll keep the 4.37's for the future since the dream would be having this tow my racecar to the track....

I guess when you wrote 438 gears I seen 488, going from 437 gears to 370 gears isn't as bad but as I said, I went from 437 gears to 390 gears and found I could smell the clutch burning up more than once, especially when starting out uphill from a light, but I haul loads on my flatbed and tow a small trailer with all my equipment in it, I can smell that clutch with the 437 gears sometimes when I have a big load, even my LZ2.3 struggles to get that mass going sometimes.

 

I did my kingpins once back in the late 90s, I had to do them twice as the first time the steering wheel would not return, I honed them bushings for hours, never will I ever do that again, what a pain that was, what is sad is I converted over to a ball joint front end soon after I had everything drum brake related rebuilt, I still have the new upper control arms to this day, they have been sitting on a shelf for over 12 years now.

[mklotz70]

Reamed, thinking i should have honed though. 1 ended up non concentric with the second bushing so i had to "correct" the angle, not great.

 

Ah....Sorry to hear that.....but also glad to hear that.  I tried the reaming once.....had the same result, so now I pay to have them honed on a Sunnen hone.  Thanks....that just helps me to confirm that it's worth the cost of honing. :)

Mike

[volkswagner]

Ah....Sorry to hear that.....but also glad to hear that.  I tried the reaming once.....had the same result, so now I pay to have them honed on a Sunnen hone.  Thanks....that just helps me to confirm that it's worth the cost of honing. :)

Mike

I think in order for reaming to work you would have to have a nice jig to hold the spindle and allow for it to be indicated in. For doing one set, way too much work, might as well pay to get them done, If your doing a ton of sets, could be worth it.

[mklotz70]

The reams I have are too short to reach both bushings at the same time.  If I build a guide for one end, it might go better, but I wasn't thrilled with the surface finish the ream left.  Mine chattered quite a bit.  The Sunnen hone is the proper/best way to do it.  Considering how much of a pain it is to to the rest of the kingpin work, it's worth it.  

 

Did you get lucky with the cotter bolt at the bottom of the dogbone?  It's pretty hard to get them out in usable shape.

[Icehouse]

You skipped the most import part!  Why isn't it low?  

[volkswagner]

The reams I have are too short to reach both bushings at the same time.  If I build a guide for one end, it might go better, but I wasn't thrilled with the surface finish the ream left.  Mine chattered quite a bit.  The Sunnen hone is the proper/best way to do it.  Considering how much of a pain it is to to the rest of the kingpin work, it's worth it.  

 

Did you get lucky with the cotter bolt at the bottom of the dogbone?  It's pretty hard to get them out in usable shape.

Noted: Sunnen Hone next time. 

 

Not a chance on the pins! A buggered the threads on both getting them out. I ended up pounding them in and then bending them over on the exit side so they won't come back out. 

 

I even had to drill out one of the kingpin cotter bolts, got new ones of those though of course.

[volkswagner]

 

Much more comfy, now to find a clean bench.

 

[mklotz70]

Noted: Sunnen Hone next time. 

 

Not a chance on the pins! A buggered the threads on both getting them out. I ended up pounding them in and then bending them over on the exit side so they won't come back out. 

 

I even had to drill out one of the kingpin cotter bolts, got new ones of those though of course.

That's one way to anchor them in! lol

I guess I should put up the ones I made on my site. lol  

[mrbigtanker]

Looking good. Now go lower.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Great updates. Keep going.

[banzai510(hainz)]

where you get the KingPin set?

I had a guy here in Seattle do my Kingpins. He only charged my 60$ a side I suppled the the kingpins. and got new lower pins from Mike on here as spares if I needed them.

 

the kingpins really need to return to center. when driveing. The last guy that did my Pins said they would wear in. Bullshit and that was only onesdie installed I didnt want to risk a tie rod busting

 

 

most elelctricalis by the fuse box so I dont see needed to rip the whole harness out(most is just corrssion issues

 

on thelamp sockts just PB Blaster the socket to get the lightbulb metal hpusing the is rusted in there out. you can get new ends and maybe JB weld o epoxy them back to the light bulb housing. Wheninstalling new bulbs I put antiseize on the metal part as it wound rust in there again. I also drill the bottom of the lamp assemble housing to drain the water asmine would fill up which caused the rust as you have

 

 

Interior looks clean!!!!!!!!!!!

[volkswagner]

Got the kingpin set on ebay, "moog" not so sure about that since the parts in the box were wrapped in newspaper...

 

$60! Ill be asking you for your guys name next time.

 

They both moved easy enough by hand once built up, they return to center mostly just track to what ever side they came from. I honestly dont know if it did it before since i never paid attention until after.

A busted tie rod! Yours must have been damn near seized.

 

Had to take the harness out to pull the dash.

 

Theres no saving the sockets, the plug side metal rod is corroded to pieces, or are you saying there is replacement plug side parts? Either way the whole tail light harness is cobbed together since it had a few trailer lights splice in over the years.

[banzai510(hainz)]

the autoparts stores sells sockets. maybe you can JB weld new sockets in the blastic housing or get another set from Ted on here or another guy stripping down a 521

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I've installed new receptacles in light housings with solder and silver solder. If you can get the metal clean, either should work fine.

[wayno]

They make light sockets that clip in with spring tension, the hole in the housings when the stock socket is removed is around the right size, I will admit they are kinda cheap, but I believe they are sold to get a person home legally.

I used Ford Pinto/Maverick sockets in my 520, but it has metal housings so I didn't need to add a ground wire to the housing/socket housing.

Everyone here needs to keep in mind that the 521 has a plastic taillight housing except for the 1968 Datsun 521 that don't exist according to some, but this is not one of them.

[volkswagner]

Whoops, accidentally made my truck a 3 cylinder.

 

Not sure what the cause was. Since my wagon is out of commission I decided to yank the head from my L20 in that. The L20 head is a ported open chamber big valve A87 so I hoped it would breathe a bit better on the highway. Then the added bonus of being able to put the closed chamber A87 on the wagon where I actually care about performance. 

All bolted up and been driving a few days, all seems good and it actually does seem to handle my high RPM highway commute much better.
 

[gene knight]

wayno: pm sent

[wayno]

wayno: pm sent

OK Gene I will answer your question here, you were asking about the sockets I suggested in post 21 in this thread, I bought these at the auto parts store a few/several years ago when I was working on my 520 taillights, I ended up using Maverick/Pinto taillight sockets in them housings, anyway the sockets in the photo below are spring loaded, you squeeze the sides together and install them in the hole and let loose they they hold themselves in there, but they do not have a ground wire, that would have to be added if put in 521 plastic taillight housings.

These aftermarket taillight sockets also have a lot of spring pressure to hold them in the holes, well this may erode/break 521 taillight housings if they are old and falling apart, there are a bunch of different types of taillight replacement sockets at my auto parts store as I actually looked today, but they didn't have the type in the photo above anymore at the Baxters close to me, fact is this Baxters don't even sell Felpro gaskets anymore, I might have to start going somewhere else for gaskets.

[wayno]

This is what I did in my 520 I mentioned above, I used Maverick/Pinto sockets in my metal housings in the 520, I used screws to hold them in position.