What did you do TO or FOR your Datsun today?(Roadsters only)

[Curtis]

I would but one of the local guys spoke up for them. Trading the wheels for work on my 5 speed. I have a set of unused 1971 Z steel wheels. Guy took them off the day after he bought the car. Still has the car.

I would like to be doing something for my roadster but the garage is only in the 50s at best. I have plating and chrome to get done since the car comes back from paint finally next month. I went looking and my wiring is mostly done. So I will finish that soon.`

[theunz]

I hear you about the heat. Fortunately I have a large heater in mine and I can bring it up to 63* in 10 or 15 minutes, I find that to be about perfect for working. If I let it get to 65 or so I start to get hot. Unfortunately it is not air conditioned and Oklahoma summers are miserable. Probably the opposite of your weather issues. Sounds like you should be on the road by summer

[SOUPY]

Unfortunately, I had to put down SRL311 04573 and send her off to the big car meet in the sky!

[70-1600]

Unfortunately, I had to put down SRL311 04573 and send her off to the big car meet in the sky!

RIP SRL31104573...

[Nissanman]

Well, nothing is simple is it?
Today I pulled out a faulty fuel level sender from my '65 SP310: after nearly 60 years it has gone intermittent.
I had already purchased the '68 VW Beetle sender which reputedly is a direct bolt in replacement.
Well, first up the float arm on the new unit was far too long and had to be shortened to approximate the OEM arm.
Needed to reform the loop at the end of the wire to clamp onto the plastic float.

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So now the float arms approximate each other.

Even though the 5 mounting holes were the same pattern as the OEM sender, they were clocked slightly differently which meant I couldn't mount the thing without the float arm fouling on internal baffles
Bear in mind the 5 holes are not evenly spaced and have only ONE orientation that matches the fuel tank holes.

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You can see to get the same float arm orientation and to match the mounting holes, I had to redrill the 5 holes a few degrees further CCW.
The rubber seal has a notch cut in it for the FRONT of the car which, of course, is the only orientation which lines up with the holes in the tank.

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So, now that tab "A" matches slot "B" matches the fuel tank,it was all go

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Needed to re-terminate the sender wire with a spade connector, the ground wire eye terminal went under one of the mounting screws.

Barring any calibration adjustments we now have a reliable fuel gauge

Now, that wasn't so hard was it?

[Curtis]

Well that's what you get for having a 65. I detailed what I did for my 66. Which was shorten the arm, stick it on the diagonal and away I went. Mounting holes are identical for later car and it didn't hit the baffle. I guess the VW one doesn't care about positive ground, just whether it's up or down since it's just a resistor.

[Nissanman]

I have the sender feeding a neg ground later model gauge with a custom built 8VDC regulator. Worked OK for years until the sender suddenly developed dead spots on the potentiometer windings . Off the team now!

[Curtis]

I have the sender feeding a neg ground later model gauge with a custom built 8VDC regulator. Worked OK for years until the sender suddenly developed dead spots on the potentiometer windings . Off the team now!

Aren't you Mr. Clever.

[drieseck]

Nice work-around(s), write-up and photos. Hard for some of us civilians to keep up with the masters of 12v electronics, but the dialog is appreciated.

[CSP311]

Just purchased a used Nissan sport option oil cooler, pipes and engine block adapter.

[Stick]

Cleaned the inside of the front fender "traps". Lots of dirt on both sides. Between both fenders and the under carriage I think I've dropped about 15 lbs of dirt, grease and grime

fender cleaning.jpg

[RustyBucket]

Exactly where my Datsuns have rusted out in the past. For the sake of a plastic inner fender baffle, we could have be spared to rusted out fenders belly and rocker rot

[RustyBucket]

It also gets trapped high upper up on the firewall cowling. There is an air passage that channels cooler air to the vents by your legs. The dirt gets stuck in there too. But you have to pull the fender off to get to it. . At least on my 69s and ‘70 cars

[Stick]

Could you use an air compressor to blow it from there inside out and save you from removing the fender?

When I cleaned mine out I used as screw driver to chisel and scrape big stuff, wire bush for some smaller stuff and an old paint brush to brush out cracks and then finish off with an air compressor ... it made a bit more of a mess but you could see where it blew dust/dirt out through some fender and door passages. Might be able to reverse that process and blow from the inside out?

[Curtis]

I was told by a Datsun/Nissan parts guy that I knew since the 70s that they came off the boat with rust.