Greg’s ‘69 SRL311-07324

[Gregs672000]

Hahaha! The monster mash comment made me laugh out loud! So there we have it... documented confirmation of the dry ice method. I'm really glad that worked well as I recall doing the slow chip off method that I had patience for when 23, but would not at 60!

Onward!

[drieseck]

Stick, if you haven found a builder yet, these guys used to focus on Z's (L24, 26, 28), but, their site now lists U20!!
Likely well worth a conversation.

https://www.datsunspirit.com

[Stick]

Stick, if you haven found a builder yet, these guys used to focus on Z's (L24, 26, 28), but, their site now lists U20!!
Likely well worth a conversation.

https://www.datsunspirit.com

Thanks, my Father used these guys quite a bit for a lot of the work I listed in one of my earlier posts…. They are just
around the corner from him. For some reason, I think he felt like it was a better idea to ship it out to one of the other vendors who have been rebuilding them for decades and know them very well… I may have misunderstood him…. He didn’t have any issues with the other work they did for him.

Has anyone else here had Datsun Spirit rebuild their roadster transmissions?

[tig]

Subscribed! Great stuff. I appreciate all the pics.

[Stick]

Thanks! I’ve been watching your builds as well. I almost bid on Peggy the other week on BAT- great pick up.

[Stick]

I haven’t updated this with any of the progress on the interior floor but finished it up about a week or two ago.

Floors coated with the silver Eastwood rust encapsulator for good measure after slight clean up of any of the mild surface rust in certain areas.

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Then laid down new sound matting and expanded it to the transmission tunnel and rear shelf area to help dampen things a bit.

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Cleaned up the seat rails (removed all old lubes and grime and made sure they operated freely. Added a little bit of spacer with some washers, but didn’t go crazy because I didn’t have time to lengthen the studs … I may come back to that when I eventually redo the carpet kit. Worked a bit smoother.

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[Gregs672000]

Looks great, will provide peace of mind!

[Stick]

Today I built some wheel cribs to raise the car up to make getting under it much easier.

Decided I would finally dump the rear diff fluid and inspect the plug as it weeped a bit and would leave a bit on the floor from time to time. Once I slid under there I realized how much GUNK was all over the axle. I'm not sure if it was 50 years of leaking engine and trans oils blowing all over it or more likely a weeping brake line from the valve that's mounted over top of the passenger rear side of the axle? Either way it has been building up for decades!

I initially used a scraper to get the major build up off .... it may have dropped 10 lbs of grime and dirt mixed up! From there I "softened up the deeper layers with a degreaser and then toweled off what I could. Round 3 was about 1/2 gallon of GOJO lathered in with some rubber gloves ... what a mess. I think I got 80-90% cleaned up for today and will likely have a fresh go at it tomorrow with some more cleaners and scrub brushes to clean it up.

Positive news was that the fluid looked good.

[Stick]

While cleaning up some of the undercarriage and replacing the rear diff oil I noticed some marking on the rear diff housing ... anyone know what they mean?

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[david premo]

Not sure, but I think it could mean that the part is from the 15th week of 1969. Lots of production parts get date codes of this nature as a means to track potential production problems. I will try and look at some differentials tomorrow and see if they have similar markings.

[Stick]

Yesterday I completed the fluid changes in the rear differential, transmission and steering box.
Today I pulled the plugs just to have a look and #1 looked great but 2-4 were fouled pretty heavy with carbon (not wet). Cleaned those up and reinstalled after checking gaps (one slightly off).

Decided to pull the rocker cover and check the clearances (after reading some threads here). Engine was hot for this check and used .2mm intake and .3mm exhaust for targets ... most were close to double that spec ... did some more reading and found some estimated cold specs and used .006" intake and .008" exhaust figures as target clearances. Checked with the engine in TDC for #1 and #4

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I checked with multiple feelers and always tried to fit until it wouldn't go and then double checked with the largest that would fit. AM I DOING SOMETHING WRONG? The car seems to run pretty good as is and just had new cam, carbs and tune up (including electronic ignition) within the past year or two and the car hasn't likely been driven more than 500 miles. All work was performed by a shop (311 vendor) Just want to make sure I'm not missing something before resetting everything.

[JT68]

Not sure you have a good grasp on what you are trying to do?......For each valve, simply turn cam lobe so that it is pointing straight up and check the clearance between the rocker face and the cam lobe. They should be around .006 and .008 hot. TDC number 1 and 4 have nothing to do with the process.

You should not have .018-.032 clearance at any rotational position. If you do, something is way off or is wearing badly.

[Stick]

Likely don't have the most solid grasp ... I was tying to follow the manual I have for SRL311 on page 20 ("valve rocker clearance - adjust") but the description is more of an overview than a detailed procedure ... I found a separate article with a procedure and tried to follow that but use the tolerances listed in the manual for a hot engine... it said to check certain clearances at #1 and #4 TDC

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Additional reading found some tolerances for a cold engine.

Definitely have some pretty large clearances ... hence the post. just trying to make sure I have the procedure straight to make the proper measurements. I'll try to take each measurement with the intake and exhaust lobes pointing straight up and see what those reflect.
Need and appreciate any and all guidance.

[Gregs672000]

Like JT68 said, just rotate the engine (by crank... more precise, or by gentle and quick bumping of the starter, either method made much easier with the plugs out and NO SPARK) so an intake lobe and an exhaust lobe are pointing generally up (will be different cylinders). Intake clearance cold .006" (will be .008 hot) exhaust. 008 (will be .010 hot). The guage should be snug and have some resistance to sliding between the cam and the pad but do so, and getting it right can take some practice as things change when you tighten the lock nut down. Check them before you move on to the next set. Start with any pair of intake and exhaust valves, then just keep track of what you have done until you've done all 8. Check your lock nuts one final time and you'll be good to go. Be nice to the valve cover nuts!

[Stick]

Thanks again JT and Greg ... SO just to confirm, the method illustrated above in post #28 is incorrect (placing Cylinder #1 in TDC and taking measurements and then going to TDC on #4 for remaining measurements)?

I'm going to complete the exercise one more time as you both describe.