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hooptylife

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    North County San Diego
  • Cars
    '79 Datsun 620
  • Interests
    Making very broken old rusty things less rusty and semi-functional.

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  1. Hey hey!! Success my friends. Here's what i did: -checked plug wires (all good) -cleaned those four posts inside the distributor cap (kinda cruddy, kinda worn; its getting replaced) -taped up a pin hole i just noticed on the vacuum advance hose (the little hose to the dist?) Started it up and could tell right away something was changed - for the better finally! I set the timing and took it for a spin, ran kinda rough at first, lurching a bit. Then the idle started to race. I think that's just the result of my desperate and drastic spinning of screws on the carb. I'll figure that one out:) But bottom line is, the symptoms of rough idling and dying when hitting the gas are gone. Which one of those little things i checked fixed that? Any ideas? Thanks to everyone who's helped out, its great to have it running again!
  2. Thanks, racerx. That helps me know where to start. On the cap and rotor i am looking for corrosion and wear, correct? I've popped those off several times in the past and never saw anything concerning, but i'll check 'em again tonight. Datzenmike, i adjusted the valves last week, setting all the clearances to the cold specs. All the exhaust valves were tight, they're adjusted to the .010" spec now. I was going to adjust them hot soon, but need some time to start rebuilding my tool collection first.
  3. The Backfire was definitely out the tailpipe. Alright, thanks for explaining that datzenmike. I will set the timing like that today with the light. So if this is pointing towards an ignition problem, I'm going to hold off on the carb work and look at the distributor, ignition coil, and wires in between. Any ideas what exactly i should be looking for? I've got a test light, multimeter, and some time..
  4. Alrighty, got some updates but no real progress. datzenmike: i tried adjusting the timing per your recommendation Friday morning before work. When i was pumping the throttle to get it revved up (and listening for that ping you mentioned), the truck backfired really hard. I mean REALLY hard. So hard that it caused a recall of all personnel in this area of the military base where i live/work (because someone thought it was a gunshot). Needless to say, got a timing light at harbor freight; one with the total advance knob like you recommended racerx. Then tonight i discovered all my tools had been stolen over the weekend. Great. Still wanted to try my new timing light, but i couldn't even get the truck to idle on its own. It kinda surges when i start it then dies in a few seconds if i don't pump the gas constantly. ^^This is new. It would idle on its own (roughly) on Friday. Also, i had the thought that this might be something electrical, maybe a sensor of some sort, since the truck ran fine the day before all this started. Maybe? Tomorrow i plan to remove the carb and clean it up as much as possible. Oh, and banzai510(hainz) i get a strong squirt of gas into the carb when i blip the throttle. Looks like its getting fuel fine, i changed the fuel filter tonight just to make sure it wasn't that little thing. What exactly should i check in the dist. for wiggle? I'll check it out tomorrow too. Any thoughts or suggestions will be considered heavily here, thanks again for your time. Damn i miss my tool bag..
  5. Alright, no access to a timing light tonight, but i did adjust all the valves. All of the exhaust valves were too tight, and a couple of the injection valves too. datzenmike: the choke appears to be working just like you described. banzai510(hainz): i tried the mexican tune up a few times in a row, no luck. With no timing light my options are pretty limited right now. Any way to get it close without a light? The truck still starts ok, but i have to pump the gas - if i just step on it it dies. Idle is rough too. Definitely something still going on in there... What's my next step to narrow this problem down? I'll do my best to borrow a timing light tomorrow.
  6. Update: compression is good on all cylinders. 1 thru 3 read between 140-145. Cylinder 4 read a bit over 150. Tomorrow night I'll try adjusting the valves. Anything else i can check then?
  7. Crap. Things escalated quickly here. Jumped in after work to go pick up my girl this evening and truck warmed up slowly but surely with lots of pumping the gas pedal. BUT as i accelerated down the road I lost all power. It sounded to me like my dad's mower when a spark plug went out (new plugs and wires on the truck, though). The engine idles roughly now and just wheezes and misses when i try to accelerate. It'll move, and even sound moderately normal when i rev it. But there's no power behind the pedal once i put it in gear. Not sure how to describe this better. Would this be caused by a bad exhaust valve, kelowg? Could you point me towards where I can learn to check/replace those? Any other ideas? Man, such a down when something breaks after a weekend of "improving" this ole thing... thanks in advance to anyone who shares some knowledge.
  8. Thanks for all the help and education, i'll be ordering in the carb repair kit and giving it a go soon. Also, I've been wanting to check the valves so it sounds like that'll be up next.
  9. Hello! I'm trying to get a feel for this carburetor adjusting business and coming up short. I've read all the hitachi tuning threads i can find, but not after a few hours of fiddling still can't get my '79 620 to idle right after I start it. This has been an on-going problem for quite some time. Every time I fire it up, whether its first thing in the morning or after an hour of interstate driving, for the first 2-5 minutes the engine refuses to idle by itself. I have to keep pumping the gas to get it started and to keep it running during that time. With high expectations i adjusted the idle mixture and idle speed screws on the hitachi this morning, in accord with datzem mike's instructions. After struggling thru those first couple minutes just to keep the truck running, i was able to make the adjustments and the idle is smooth and quiet now. But the start-up problem remains. I played with the choke just to see how it worked, but that can't be my problem since it still dies even after the engine is warm/choke opemed up fully. At leadt that's my thinking. Any ideas for me to try? I've got a long weekend and would really like to be able to solve this issue to make it easier to drive.
  10. My '79 620 did the exact same thing to me two months ago: pedal inconsistent, then all of a sudden *nothing there (glad neither of us got hurt). Only difference in symptoms is my pedal did not stiffen up after turning the truck off. Not an expert here, but after taking everything apart and replacing all sorts of crap to no avail, i found the source of my problem was a bad seal around the piston in my master cylinder. It had just a small chip in the rubber, allowing fluid past and of course rendering the whole brake system useless due to the lack of pressure. The $20 mc rebuild kit from rock auto fixed my issue. Its nice to push on the brakes now and not have a heart attack..
  11. Okay, problem is resolved. Turned out to be something really simple: the e-brake cable is broken and the slightest push or tug on the housing of the cable caused the brake to engage.
  12. Hm. The pads on my shoes aren't placed like that. If I'm not mistaken, they both look like the one on the right in your picture (the rear shoe). I know i compared the two shoes from one side after reading a thread here on ratsun, and both of mine are identical.
  13. flatcat19 I was thinking that might be it. datzenmike, the adjuster on that wheel is tightened all the way in. Looks to me like that should bring the pads as far in as possible, maximizing the clearence of the drum when i try to fit it on. However, the issue persists. Firgot to mention earlier, at times i can get the fully assembled drum and hub to spin in the reverse direction, but it literally clunks to a dead halt when i try to spin it forward (or with the wheel on, push the truck fwd). So getting the drums turned sounds like my next course of action. Anything else i can try gents?
  14. Hello, i've been tearing into the brake system on my datsun for the past month. Its been a classic case of start fixing one thing and find several more problems in the process. Tonight i rebuilt the master cylinder and finally got the pressure needed to bleed all four brakes. Pretty confident that thing is solid; however, its all coming back apart Friday to fix a pesky leak. My major issue now is the passenger rear drum: for some reason its totally locked up. Everything (shoes, springs, etc.) have been disassembled and cleaned and the adjuster was lubed up so it slides back and forth smoothly. But when I try to put the drum back on, its very difficult to squeeze over the shoes and nothing turns once i finally work it all the way on. Just spent a couple hours comparing it to the opposite side and trying to decipher where the issue lies, but i don't see anything bent, broken,worn, or assembled wrong. Would worn shoes or a warped drum cause this? Wouldn't that have been noticable two months ago when i was driving around? Any help, any ideas greatly appreciated!
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