fizrat

Tried bleeding the line since it was the quickest cheapest thing to do, and it worked! Still mystified about why it would happen all the sudden, after sitting for only a couple weeks (it often goes a month or two without being run/moved), but it did the trick and I was able to move it! Thanks!

Hi, No driveshaft turning. 3rd 4th gear are same story - no engagement. Reverse is a no-go, too. Going back over to fiddle with the play on the clutch pedal and measure travel on operating cylinder. And then likely call in a tow truck tomorrow...

Oops, forgot some details: L20, 4 spd manual Just had the operating cylinder replaced 2 yrs ago, very few miles on it since.

I went to move my 620 camper and it wouldn't go. When I let out the clutch in gear it just acts like it's still in neutral. I checked and the operating cylinder is moving the clutch lever, but beyond that I don't know where to go from here. The weird thing is this happened all the sudden. I just moved it 2 or 3 weeks ago and it went fine. Only thing i did in the mean time was change the engine oil. How do I go about troubleshooting this? Thanks!

Grahem - Nope, but it'll be in that area soon enough. I'm in Surrey and moving to Saanich in the fall. Also: that's a lot of 620's you've got there!

Hey all, Here's a belated thank you for everyone who gave me advice on getting this thing into working shape. It's a motorhome on a 620 chassis, with an L20B engine. I bought it back in November and spent the next month frantically fixing and tuning it so our family could drive it down to Los Angeles from BC. I'm pretty much a novice at car repair, so during that time I made lots of posts and got tons of great help from y'all. People kept asking me to put pictures, but I was just too damn busy to get it done. So now, after a successful road trip, I'll make up for it: The day we left a big snow storm (well, big by Pac NW standards) started... this is what it looked like just north of Seattle. I think they ended up with 6 inches or so in Vancouver. The worst part for us wasn't the snow, but the strong winds, which didn't stop until we got well into California. And this thing REALLY catches the wind. White knuckle driving the whole way. At 50 mph (didn't want to push it much past that). Picture of the cab from the back out on the dry lake bed guard dogs Took us 3 days to go from BC to LA, because we were usually going around 50 mph (less uphill). Just before leaving to go back up to BC, I went to change the oil and noticed coolant dripping from the engine. After a quick panic, I saw the water pump was leaking, so I had to go and replace that. And then found that I must've stripped the oil drain plug when changing the oil last. So I had to get help drilling that out and retapping a new plug hole. But once that was done, it made it back up to BC just fine. Quick summary of work done: Speedo cable replaced Brake calipers replaced Wheel cylinders replaced Lots of brake lines replaced Clutch slave cylinder replaced Ignition timing done Valves adjusted Battery replaced Water pump replaced Serpentine belts replaced And planned work: Carb replacement (and rebuild old one, mostly just for learning experience) Ignition lock replacement Rear shock replacement Rebuild old calipers - possible rear disc brake conversion in the future? Dually rear wheels Lots and lots of electrical work in dash Door locks Get propane for furnace, etc working Again, thanks for all the expert advice. It's really amazing how quickly people respond on here, and how much knowledge there is collectively on this forum. You rock!

All done - a friend came and drilled/ground out the old plug and retapped with 3/8" pipe thread, and using pipe plug as a drain plug. I strained the old oil and poured it back in a couple times to wash out any metal left from our activities. Fresh oil in the morning and hopefully good to go!

Might just take you up on that oil pan offer. I'll let you know when I have a departure time and all. No luck so far on getting that plug out. It is not backed out at all, the head is flush with the pan, so I can't get a screwdriver in to pry downward (tried wedging it in, but don't think it was doing a whole lot). Using all my strength to pull with vise grips and turn it ccw, but about all I can say is that now there is a little oil dripping and the plug wiggles slightly. At this point I'm considering drilling it out. Ugh.

Thanks everyone. I'm going to try HRH's plan and tap up to the next size (18, I guess) and install that size drain plug. That is, once I get the plug out. It doesn't want to go anywhere. I've been pulling and turning and jiggling it with vise grips for an hour now and basically no progress. Any tricks? Silky - I'll let you know if it comes to that - right now I am just looking to get back up to BC from LA ASAP... I was hoping to leave Monday before all this hit the fan!

I went to change the oil on the RV before my return trip to BC, and got two unpleasant surprises: coolant leaking from the water pump and the oil drain plug turning and turning and turning and not going anywhere. I'm finishing replacing the water pump today (after O'Reillys initially gave me the wrong one - for A/C equipped vehicles), and then turning my attention to the oil plug. First, any advice on removing a stripped drain plug? Here are the replacement options as I see them: 1. Self-tapping oversized plug, if I can find it - can anyone tell me if these oil pans are made of soft aluminum so this will work? 2. Universal drain plug, something like this: http://www.pepboys.com/product/details/8328823/ - It looks like there would be quite a bit of bolt sticking out into the oil sump. Is there plenty of clearance for moving parts near the oil drain hole? Seems like there should be, but that's something I want to be certain about. Maybe someone can recommend one that works well on Datsuns? 3. Heli-coil/time-sert - don't have any experience with these, but have seen them mentioned - anyone done it on the oil pan? I want to get back on the road ASAP, so I am leaning towards #2 as it would be the quickest and least prone to human error (I have the flu and am not operating at peak condition, exactly).

Thanks everyone for the info. I'm not sure where I got the idea it had a DCH 328... maybe I misread the Haynes manual I have, which goes back to '73. I'm not sure how to tell by looking at the carb... there is a red tag on the top that might have had that info, but it's worn off. What's going on with the throttle is that when I back the throttle adjusting screw out in idle the RPMs don't decrease. When I push on it at the lever it will decrease (though not all the way down to where it should be RPM-wise, even if the screw is backed out all the way). So #1 on your list. I did adjust at the accelerator pedal to no avail. Though now that I think on it more, I don't feel confident I've eliminated the sticky linkage possibility. But anyway, I don't think that would account for the stumbling while accelerating. Talking it over with a mechanic, he thought the carb was at the root of that problem, and that it was probably an air leak at some seal/gasket. One thing I'm happy about, though, is that even with less than optimal performance, it still gets 17-18 mpg hwy... not bad for a camper!

I get the feeling I'm opening up a can of worms by asking this question, but here goes. I need to put a new carb on my 620-based RV (1979). I can't get the idle down below 1200 RPM (unless you manually push the throttle down), it hesitates and almost dies when accelerating from idle, and when accelerating at higher speeds it stumbles. It's the L20B engine, 4 speed transmission, with what I believe to be a stock carb (DCH328, I think). I think I'll take the old carb and attempt a rebuild mostly as a learning experience, but it'll be my first try at rebuilding a carb, and I'll want to take my time on it, thus I want to install a carb in the meantime. The question, of course, is: which carb? A Weber 32/36 or Hitachi DCH340? I'm pretty new at working on cars. I've gleaned some information on the carb question from the forum, but didn't see it all in one thread. Also I wanted to post in the hopes that folks could confirm or correct what I think I've learned and also to get more input. Here's what I've picked up so far: Weber pros: better performance at high RPMs simpler - fewer vacuum emission control tubes to deal with cons: dirtier emissions not as easy to tune (have to be tuned by changing jets) Hitachi pros: better MPG? can be tuned using adjustment screws cons: slightly less performance at high RPM What I'm dealing with is an L20b that's working pretty hard, lugging around a GVW around 2000 kg. On my recent road trip it couldn't really get above 50-55 mph and needed down to downshift on any significant uphill grades. I'm willing to accept that might just be the limits of this vehicle, but I'm also wondering whether the performance advantages of the Weber would be relevant to this situation or not. And since people always ask, here's a picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53954929@N07/8305861178/

Well, that was dumb. Blown fuse, is all. The wiring on this thing is a mess, and I think a short on some random loose wires probably blew it... time to clean things up a bit.

Hm, well, scratch that - looks like it wasn't the switch after all. After removing it and checking it with the multimeter, it looks to be working fine. I just assumed it was the switch at fault because previously you kind of had to jiggle the switch to get it to work. And then this morning the jiggling just didn't do it. So maybe a loose connection somewhere else... not really sure. I did notice that also the high beams don't work now... and if I recall correctly they did work even when the headlights were off. The running/parking lights work. So maybe something further down the line... going to do some searching now. Not too sure on the manufacturing history on this thing... whether Nissan made them or if it was converted or what. Right now it is single tires in the back. It sure would feel a lot safer with the duallies, though. The fellow I bought it from gave me an extra pair of tires that are supposed to be for the dual rears, but there was no adapter or way to mount them.

Haha, yeah, I keep meaning to put up pictures. Fair exchange for information, I suppose. I've been working on it frantically to get it ready for a road trip in a couple days, so taking pictures hasn't been a top priority. But here's one my wife took when I was working on the rear brakes. Having trouble with getting images on the forum, but here's a link anyway http://www.flickr.com/photos/53954929@N07/8281625121/