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

[Gregs672000]

Sure it wasn’t the fan belt? Sometimes they can sound metallic. Maybe take it off to see if it’s WP or Alt? Or other. Good luck

Exactly what it was... my reference to the alternator being loose! Was just feeling a little gun shy after two teardowns in 5000 miles!

[theunz]

Installed my Jon Frampton GPS converted speedometer. Or how to make a simple job complicated!
My car is a 69 and I have a 68 parts car both 2000’s. Now, I like to keep all I can original or period correct. I try not to make any changes that can’t be undone. I have 4:62 gears which I swap out with the 3:70’s every so often. Since I don’t have the speedometer gear for the 4:62’s and my cable long ago bit the dust a GPS speedometer seemed to be just the ticket. So, not wanting to alter my 69 speedo I sent the 68 to Jon for the conversion.
I get the stock unit out pretty easily after removing the seat and steering wheel. First thing I notice is that the light for the high beams is on the top of the 69 and the bottom of the 68. No biggie, looks like the wires will reach since the conversion comes with a built in high beam light that has about a 6” pigtail that you splice into the original bulb wires (after you cut the old socket off). Next issue, I have LED’s in all my gauges and one of the receptacles isn’t quite deep enough due to the conversion. What to do? Doesn’t look like I am going to find a shorter bulb, so I can put in normal bulbs, or one norma and one LED. I don’t want the backlighting to look different between gauges and I don’t want to go back to all incandescent’s. Hmmm, maybe I can shorten a LED. Yep, I can take the end light panel off a LED and the four side panels still work! So now it fits, but just barely.
Now where to run the 1/4 “ grey antenna cable? I could run it up between the dash and the A pillar, but that’s a very tight fit on my car. Now I’m thinking maybe drill a hole in one of the defroster ducts and come up that way, but I’m worried about breaking one of the fragile “fingers”. While I looking at that possibility I spy a small hole next to the serial number plate. Bingo! Oh, did I mention the cable is GREY!! Roadster dashes are black! I’m a bit of a pack rat, so let’s see what we can find. How about a perfectly sized piece of black vinyl tubing. after fifteen minutes of wrestling the vinyl over the antenna wire problem solved. Now there are 3 wires from the speedometer and 3 wires from the antenna along with the 2 wires for the bright light indicator. I want to be able to remove the speedometer without cutting wires so a lot of quick disconnects are in order. Ok so now we need power to the unit so that it can operate, preferably only while the key is on. I find the proper wire in the ignition switch plug and remove that spade and put in a new spade with a short wire along with the original wire. All good let’s put the speedometer in.
What the heck?? It doesn’t fit up right at all! Now, early on I noticed that while the mounting tabs were in the same place, the forked Mount was on the top for the 69 and the bottom for the 68. No big deal their in the same place and it doesn’t matter wether the fork is on top or the bottom. WRONG!! closer inspection revealed that the distance they extend from the case is different between the forked Mount and the captive Mount. Crap! Now what? Send it and the 69 speedo back to Jon and have him swap the GPS to the 69? That defeats my original intent.
Time to get serious. Let’s drill out the spot welds holding the mounts to the case and reweld them in their proper location. After eight or ten drill bits of increasing size they finally let loose. Now to weld them back where they need to be. Well, not quite, now one of the light housings interferes with the mount. Fortunately a little grinding on the mount solves that problem. The welding goes smoothly
Ok let’s see how it fits now. Close, but not perfect of course. Out comes the Dremmal and with elongated mount holes we’re there. Wrestle the speedo back in its place, tighten it down, and time to hook everything back up. Remember that LED that I just barely got short enough to fit? You guessed it, in the tight quarters it’s too hard to push it in far enough and make the twist to lock it in. It was difficult to get the speedo into just the right position and tighten everything down. I DON’T wank to do it again. Several attempts latter to further shorten a bulb a hard decision is made to go with one LED and on incandescent. Guess what? You can’t tell the difference. Could’ve saved myself a half hour of killing LED bulbs!
Every thing else goes fairly smoothly. So now it’s time to see if it works or if I fried it by welding on it! Jump in the car and put my seat belt. Ahh, why won’t my seat belt move? Yep, a bit of the belt was under the seat rail when I bolted it back down. Good grief, will this project ever end?
Redo the seat and off for a drive. IT WORKS!!
Now I can get rid of the windshield mounted GPS that has a habit of loosing my mileage.
I like it!

[bossbob]

From this;

Day 1.jpg

to this;

20210906_104248.jpg

[Gregs672000]

^ Tell Peter (Iloveredmeat) "I just crossed my arms, blinked my yes and POOF, it was done!"
Congrats on the progress!

[RustyBucket]

Sweet. $

[RustyBucket]

I’m using rattle cans

[bossbob]

I don't blame you, it's a lot cheaper!!!

[RustyBucket]

It looks really nice Did you go with the water based paint and few coats of clear ??

[RustyBucket]

It looks really nice Did you go with the water based paint and few coats of clear ??

Looks like you painted from jam to jam and all the bits between, which is a lot of Extra work. Did it few times in my younger days

[cbez]

Pan drop again...no more metal really maybe 1% of what was in it last time. Not too happy with the permatex 2. Seems like it just squeezed out past the sealing surface and into my oil pan. I used gasket tack on the pan side this time instead and tried not to torque it too much.

I also pulled the filter adapter and studs, put thread sealant on them and new right stuff on the adapter. Hoping it was leaking thru the stud threads and not from the filter itself. The filter had no leaks until I went to 10-30.

Tomorrow going to fill with 20-50.

Was leaking what to me is a pretty unacceptable amount. I keep hoping the rope seal is just dry from sitting for so long and will plump up.

[Gregs672000]

I think that's about what my rear main is doing. I've built several engines over the 30+ years and this is the only one that has leaked from the rear main. I was hoping it would stop, but not so far. I hear you on the sealers... I'm very very conservative with the amount, really only a tack coat to dress the gasket. I always use locktite on the pan bolts as they always seem to loosen up. Hard to know how tight to go given the squish of the pan gasket.

[unklpat]

I have a spare filter adapter, if you have an address. Pat

[cbez]

I have a spare filter adapter, if you have an address. Pat

I'll let you know - this one looked like it was leaking out past the studs.

[iloveredmeat]

^ Tell Peter (Iloveredmeat) "I just crossed my arms, blinked my yes and POOF, it was done!"
Congrats on the progress!

I knew that would work!

BossBob -- that looks great! More inspiration!

[cbez]

I may have the dubious honor of having every type of roadster leak there is.

For the record I have already fixed leaks at the thermostat tower, oil pipe to dizzy, oil pressure sender, speedo cable, brake lines, clutch line, fuel line! (multiple spots...), fuel filler cap...

Yesterdays efforts seemed to have reduced the volume of the engine oil loss quite a bit. Still a minor leak on the oil adapter (appears to still be from the stud to me? I used thread sealant on both sides...)



Still losing some out the pan. I snugged those rear bolts up some more..



Clearly pinion is leaking and slinging gear oil..



Aaand you can see trans output doing the same



Lovely.