Spawn

Hi Kim @420n620, I just replied to your PM with my address and contact number as you asked for. Looking forward to hearing back from you to be able to get this part and get my transmission mounted.

Does anyone know if this would work to support a 5 speed transmission for a 620? I don’t have much capability to modify things at home and would like to have something that just bolts in, ideally. That’s why I was really hoping to get back in touch with 420n620.

Hello, I’m trying to reach out to Kim Bedwell (username 420n620) to purchase a transmission crossmember that he had listed in the classified’s here on the site. We emailed back and forth a bit while he was trying to get photos off of his camera to send me. I would really like to get back in touch to purchase the crossmember as it was listed, but he doesn’t seem to be responding to my emails or messages here through Ratsun. I’ve emailed and messaged my phone number to him, but don’t have any other means to contact him. I’m hoping someone on here may know Kim personally and can help me get back in touch with him so that we can finalize the purchase and I can continue with my build. Any help that can be provided would be much appreciated! If there is a better spot where this should be posted, please let me know! Thanks in advance!

I did manage to find a place called Gas Tank Renu-USA that has a location near me, but when I called to ask about getting it repaired, the rep was saying that it would be about $400-450 just for a standard clean up and renewal, but could be more expensive depending on how bad the tank was (varnish, sludge, whatever builds up inside the tank after sitting for 5-10 years without having been drained). My friend and I tried to remove the pickup from the top of the tank, but it seemed like it was seized in place. I put some PB Blaster on it to let it soak and haven't had a chance to see if it has freed it up to the point where it could be removed.

Unfortunately I don't have any kind of welding equipment at all, that's why I'm hoping that I can find a replacement or an alternative. I know there's always the option of something like a race fuel cell that you can bolt into the bed of the truck, but I'd prefer to keep the bed clear for carrying things in.

Thanks guys! We removed the switch from the firewall (fairly easy to do as it was simply a threaded shaft with the switch on it that went in to the cab - just had to remove the accelerator pedal to be able to get the locknut removed inside the cab and then unthread it from the engine bay). This allowed us to get the KA situated at the right angle to be able to install the transmission. One thing that I'm not sure if others have been doing or not, but we used the 5 speed manual transmission from a 1990'ish Nissan D21 Hardbody, as the overall length of the transmission is a bit shorter than the 240SX transmission, and positions the gear shift lever almost exactly where the opening is from the original 620's transmission (just had to trim a bit of the cover plate back to see the whole gear shift lever port). We're slowly making progress on the project, but some of the bigger hurdles that we are running into is that we need to get a transmission mount cross member that will fit properly underneath the transmission. The original cross member for the '72 4 speed actually was almost a flat cross member going across (it actually went up slightly in the center). For my '77 the cross member actually drops down in the center to provide more room for the transmission. I'm trying to locate a cross member of this style, but have not had managed to purchase one yet. You can see the differences in the cross members here: https://imgur.com/a/a5VN3jW The other thing that we need to get sorted out is the fuel tank. The original tank when the truck was first bought could never be filled beyond approximately half full, as the fuel would start to spill out onto the ground where you were filling it. While the vehicle was sitting for several years, something gave way and the fuel started leaking onto the garage floor (had a very strong odor that was making my wife ill anytime she was walking near the connecting door to the attached garage). I did not get the opportunity to determine where this leak was coming from, as I had to drain what remained in the tank and then use some cat litter to try and soak up what had leaked onto the floor. After dropping the tank out, we didn't see any obvious points of leakage, but it was dropped several weeks after everything was drained, so I don't know that we would have seen anything apparent. We did notice that one of the smaller rubber lines was torn and also was missing a chunk out of it after we had dropped the tank out of the way. I'm not sure what this smaller line is for, but there appeared to be two of them going to the top of the tank. I'll try and get pictures later this week or early next week. Does anyone know if it's feasible to really repair a tank this old, or are we better off trying to source a replacement?

The LED conversion went relatively well, however, I am not getting the warning lights to come on like they used to during startup. It may be due to the fact that I haven't completely reattached the dash cluster to the dash, or possibly that the LED's I used may be polarity specific. I did notice that I could get the high beam indicator to flicker depending on the position I put the dash cluster into. I also see a bit of a very faint steady light coming from the right turn signal indicator when not on, but when I do use the turn signal indicator it is quite bright! I haven't posted an update on all of it, as the project has kind of been sitting on the back burner due to the driver's floor pan rusting out to the point where the cab mount is no longer actually attached to the chassis via the floor pan, so it won't pass inspection. I should probably create another post seeing if anyone in around Upstate New York (Capital Region) might happen to have a couple of front fenders, as they have rusted out to the point where they are going to be needing replacing. New York weather is not extremely kind to older vehicles like the 620!

Including transmission crossmember? I didn't know you had transmission crossmembers as well! Count me in. I've already got a set of the mounts for my son's '72 SB 620, but hey, you can never have too many mounts, right?

It would be possible if there were any shops near me that actually did cable manufacturing. None of the shops that I've spoken to have the ability to manufacture a new cable or know of any place that does. On the plus side, the shop that I took the truck to spent a little extra time and managed to get the front cable un-seized and adjusted, so I'm back in business with having a functional parking brake, but who knows how long it is going to last for. I'm still hoping that someone might happen to have a replacement front cable that I can get from them just to be prepared for when the front cable finally decides to fail on me.

I'm guessing from the lack of a response that nobody happens to have a spare front parking brake cable and bracket off of a parts truck or laying around that I would be able to get from them. I was really thinking/hoping that someone in the drier areas of the country where there generally tends to be a lot less rust might have something. I suppose it's time to come up with plan B. I've still got a bit of time before this needs to be done, so hopefully someone will reply sooner rather than later. If someone does happen to have something, you can also just message me directly through here. Thanks!

Well, I'm now in a bit of a pickle. I am in need of the front parking brake cable with the bracket for the rear cables to attach onto. I'm hoping that someone on here may happen to have a spare cable lying around or maybe a parts truck that has a good cable on it that could be pulled? Thanks in advance to anyone that happens to have a front cable that's in good condition and is willing to part with it!

So if I just get the SRK-142H short hub along with the NRG steering wheel, then the only thing additional that I would need would be an adapter plate to go between the hub and the steering wheel? Would you happen to know where I would be able to find the adapter plate, or is it something that has to be custom made?

I know that there are a bunch of people who have installed different steering wheels in their 620's. I'm looking to get an NRG steering wheel and was told by their technical support that I would require their SRK-142H along with any of their quick releases version 2.0 or higher. I'm not 100% sure that I want to have a quick release, so I'm wondering if anyone has happened to install an NRG steering wheel without a quick release, and if so how did you manage it? The NRG tech support also mentioned something about being able to use a MOMO crush hub, but didn't go into further details. Has anyone here ever managed to use a MOMO hub on a 620 with an NRG steering wheel?

Thanks again Don! I was looking at the Dorman cables listed on their website as replacements and was wondering from their images if this may not happen to be what you were talking about. I'm wondering if back in the day all of the cables may have had these rubber bellows to try and keep the cables as clean and dry as possible to extend their longevity? It doesn't seem as though the replacements for either side have the rubber sleeve on them, only the main cable coming from the cab. The Front cable (C93156): https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-44281-c93156.aspx?year=1977&make=Nissan&model=620&parttype=Cable%20-%20Parking%20Brake This looks in the pictures like it has the rubber bellows sleeve on the cable attached to the bracket. The Rear Right: Long Bed cable (C93296): https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-31482-c93296.aspx?year=1977&make=Nissan&model=620&parttype=Cable%20-%20Parking%20Brake It looks as though this cable has similar ends on each end of it. The Rear Left: Short Bed Cable (C93263): https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-18930-c93263.aspx?year=1977&make=Nissan&model=620&parttype=Cable%20-%20Parking%20Brake Interestingly, this cable appears to have a spring around one end of the cable, while the other end has some sort of spacer clip? Unfortunately, with me being in Austin, TX working for a couple more weeks, I'm not able to go out and see how things are setup on my truck (I've got it at a shop back at home waiting to do the work on it once I get everything figured out and can get the correct parts). I greatly appreciate the help you've been able to provide in trying to get this all sorted out.

Don, Do you happen to have the actual length of the cables that you measured? Can anyone else confirm that the setup is the same for a standard cab with long bed and a king cab with standard bed?