1962 Datsun U320

[DRIVEN]

Glad you got the driveline figured out.

[wayno]

Glad you got the driveline figured out.

So am I, things get hard to figure out when there is more than one issue, especially when they involve the same part, I would not have even given the driveline balance issue a thought if it had had a weight on it for balancing it, but it did not have one and that seemed strange to me, maybe I got lucky, maybe not as that vibration had to come from something.

So I wired in power and a switch for the heater fan, and I put ducting in for the defrosters, I used 1947-53 Chevy heater ducts, I had them left over from when I had one, they are a coiled piece of wire with a cloth like material over it, it will likely last longer than the paper ones, they are not original but can be easily replaced if looking for an original vehicle, I have everything needed to put this truck back to original except the brake lines.

I need to have that driveline balanced, but "six states distributors" will likely want a large fortune to do that as they will replace the awesome U-joints that have the grease fitting in the middle instead of the end of the cap where only that cap gets grease, maybe I should take it apart and have them just balance the shaft, I have a feeling they will not do that.

I actually want to put an RMP gauge in this, but the dash bottom does not have holes in it to mount a bracket/holder to hold the gauge and I am not drilling any holes either, I will figure everything out eventually.

[wayno]

I did a few things today, I wired the horn the way it was when I got it, I put a temporary tach in it, also the dome light comes on when I open the driver side door, I tried really hard to get the temp gauge to work, I pulled the sensor/sender a couple times and cleaned it, it still did not work, I found another one in my parts and it acts the same, I found yet another slightly different type that fit, I think it rises a little, I will need to drive it to find out, the thing is it came as a positive ground truck, I am not sure if it will work negative ground, that is why I am not sure about the different one, maybe it was made for the polarity switch or maybe the gauge will never work negative ground, but I am hoping, the gas gauge works fine.

I was trying to put a Grant type steering wheel on this truck with the adapter, but it does not appear it will work, the base is hitting the column shaft end and I cannot think of a way right now to move the adapter out an 1/8", that wedge ring is not adjustable, the other one I have has a 3" gap between the wheel and the turn signal assembly and I don't like that and the steering wheel itself comes out farther, too far in my opinion for this truck.

I did not drive this today, after figuring out the vibration issue I did not want to find anything else wrong today, by the way it poured over the last couple days while test driving it, the windshield did not leak.

[wayno]

I took it on the freeway today, the tach I used is not correct, it says I am doing 7000rpms/8000rpms just driving along with traffic, I will admit it is above 4000rpms for sure, but not at 7000rpms+.

I also put an aftermarket temp gauge in it, I went to Baxters (carquest now???), and they did not have a fitting/adapter to put the aftermarket sender/sensor in the block/head, these auto parts places are almost worthless anymore if you have something old unless it is a Chevy, anyway I came back home and looked thru my container of brass adapters again and found something I did not notice before, two adapters and a plug all screwed together, I took the plug out and the sender/sensor actually screwed in, but it would not go all the way in as the large adapter tapered down to a small hole, so I drilled it out to the size of the threads(I did not drill the threads out) and I put it together and the sender/sensor end is about level with the end of the adapter, so I thought can it hurt to try it?



This is the hole it fits in.



And here it is installed



I wired it in and put another temp gauge holder on the bottom of the dash using the heater box screw to hold it this time, I used the steering column screw to hold the RPM gauge, these are all temporary holders.



So the gauge would not show anything above 150 degrees, I do not remember if there is a thermostat in this, but it acts like it has one, it is always around 140/150 degrees, maybe it is not in the flow enough for an accurate reading, but it is something I can watch looking for trouble.

I am feeling better about this now except for the paint, it might actually make it down there and back, I have only driven it on 5/6 mile test drives so far, this last drive with the door window down was the best drive so far, it actually sounded almost normal for a drum with wheels as it only has that original vinal covering, I also noticed that I still have the tow package I made on it, all I have to do is connect a tow bar and tow it if I have to, I did this when I took it to Canby, I was considering towing it down there, but I am unsure about how the transmission would fair without disconnecting the driveline, before when I was blissfully ignorant I would just tow everything home and never had an issue, but I have heard stories and do not do that anymore, so drive it and if it has an issue, tow it somewhere, get a ride home, and drive the work truck down there and tow it home.

I was just now wondering what would make a tach inaccurate, so I went out and looked at how I wired it, I grabbed the power from the wrong side of the ballast resister so it was not getting 12 volts, I wonder if that was the issue, I do not feel like test driving it right now.

[DRIVEN]

Tach may just not like POS ground.

[wayno]

If I suggested this was positive ground truck it is not, it was converted over the negative ground in Australia I believe, they used an MG distributor.

I drove it down the block and back and putting the wire on the 12 volt side of the ballast resister and it changed nothing, I have a feeling this thing is made for electronic ignition, it likely does not like the points, it kinda jumps around a little, I have an older version tack but it is an in dash type, I also have an MG positive ground in dash tach, but I am not changing this truck back to positive ground, all the wiring is there for it, I even have a regulator, but I do not have a generator, and I cannot express this enough, I do not want to deal with it, it runs fine.

The aftermarket gauge is in there, it may not be accurate, but it likely will tell me if something is going south before I see steam, I will rol with that for now unless someone tells me the stock gauge will work wired negative ground, I have asked around about that but have no replies yet.

[DRIVEN]

Yeah, you mentioned it just a couple posts back but I somehow missed it. Carry on.

[wayno]

Well I have been told it works wired either way, so I guess I need to remove the thermostat housing to see if it has a thermostat in it, I am not happy about doing this as it does not leak, and it leaked bad before, it is a 50+year old part showing it age.

[wayno]

This is what I did last night.



What happened was hauling this back from Canby about 8 years ago the spare tire carrier/triangle dropped off the bracket that holds it up and it dragged down the freeway for a while as I could not hear it, so last night I made a new end using this as a template(I copied this), I changed one thing though, I had the arm point the other direction, so anyone that knows these trucks will know it is not stock.



I also installed a speedo cable, it appears I do not have any 320 cables, this was a surprise to me as I thought they were just a 521 cable, but the threads to hold the cable on the speedo are on the inside as you can see in this photo.



So I used a 720 cable which worked easy enough, I shoved the cable end inside the hole on the back of the speedo as it is the perfect length, I expect if one could somehow install the stock fitting on the cable that would hold it in also, but one would have to remove the end to get that fitting on the cable, or possibly slice a gap in the fitting to get it over the cable and just do not tighten it too hard.



I used a tang holding the sound deadener in place with a small hose clamp to keep the cable at the right angle and to keep it from being able to back out of the gauge hole.



I did a couple of smaller things like put antifreeze in it, I bought new wiper blades for it although I put Rain-x on the front and back windows last night and it works great, I had a spare ignition key made, I cannot get the door lock to work, but I found a lock in my stash that does work, but I did not want to remove the door card to change it out, the spare door lock and my locking gas cap use the same key, but no other key will make the door lock work, I also installed new rubber bumpers on the sides of the tailgate opening to keep the brackets from rattling, I am ready to go to the Brooks meet/show tomorrow, I have 2 full gas cans of non-ethanol fuel and a full tank, my tools, a floor jack, an impact with 3/4" and 13/16" sockets in case I get a flat as I do not want to use the stock jack behind the back seat, my 320 hubcaps are in the back seat as I will not drive with them on the truck, 620 hubcaps are what I use when driving.

By the way, I forgot to remove my 320 hubcaps from the NL320 driving home from the swap meet, one fell off and I heard it and stopped, but it hit the curb and got scratched, well when I grabbed the 320 hubcaps for this truck, it appears I have 2 extra good ones so I have a replacement, I also was looking thru my 320 photos on my old computer and seen a photo of new rear shocks on this truck, so I hunted around for a while and found them, so i wasted a $100.00 on new shocks, I forgot I already had new shocks, but I still have not found the cover for the box on this truck, I put it in a safe place like the shocks and cannot find it anymore, although it is beat up and not usable it would be nice to find it and have another one made for it.

[wayno]

Well I made it there and back without issues, I averaged 60mph there and 65mph back, the speedo was jumpy on the way there and rock solid on the way back, I cannot recall having so many people passing me even when I was towing a diesel home with my other diesel, semi trucks were passing me and not slowly, the speedo appears to be off by 10 percent, 1 mile is 1.1 miles on the odometer.

The drive home was better/smoother, it did not rain at the meet/show while I was there, I left at 9am and got home at 8pm.

[DRIVEN]

Why can't I see your pics?

[HRH]

I can see them. Do you get the image fail or just a box with a red x?

[wayno]

I am sorry about no photos, I used to take photos of everything, but not so much anymore.

Everything was spread out alongside the road or in any gravel areas as we were not allowed to park in the grass as it was so wet, some places had standing water in the grass.

I did not count how many were there, I have seen more in the past, more than likely the weather forecast scared a few so they did not come to the show/meet, as I said it did not rain there or rain on me except within 5 miles of my house, lightly when I left my house, and coming home it started raining lightly around Foster on 205, and then very hard around Powel all the way to the 205 bridge, by the time I was in Washington it was light again.

When I posted this photo you guys should have told me the wipers were set up for "left hand drive".



I figured this out while laying in bed this morning before getting up, all fixed now.





I almost left without taking the 320 hubcaps off, I drove about a 200 feet before stopping and removing them and installing the 620 hubcaps, one of the 320 hubcaps is not tight and I would have lost it, I have to spin it till in binds so it will stay in position, I have a large fortune into 320 hubcaps, I do not need to be losing them or damaging them.

[DRIVEN]

I honestly never even considered that the wipers were handed.

[wayno]

I do not know why they describe it left or right hand drive, all I know is that the blade is supposed to be below the drivers eye level when parked, not below the passengers eye level, it will work either way but the blade clears more windshield in front of the driver when properly set up, the early Roadsters both park in the center.

I had to find the wiper arms, they were in a box that came with the truck as they are angled on the end to orient the blade properly.

This is goofy stuff to worry about, but I am trying to get it put together right/properly.

[wayno]

Today I worked on the doors, first I worked on the door lock(drivers side), I had 3 lock assemblies and all 3 were different, in the end I had to modify the one I wanted as my locking gas cap and door lock will use the same key.

Next I put the new wing window gaskets in, one I just switched over the frame that was already done, the other I removed the new gasket from that frame because it had holes in it for a mirror and put the gasket in the frame that was already in the truck, I got all the clips to work on the door cards this time, a lot of talking to myself was involved but they are done, it was a short day working on the U320.











I need to figure out why I have no heat for the defrosters now, I had heat coming out of them before or at least I thought I did, I need to warm it up and feel the heater core to see if it is warm.

[wayno]

I did a few small things today on this and the NL320, I thought I had a thread for the NL320 but could not find it.

I started with the NL320, I put the new battery in it I bought at least a month ago.



I started it and revved it a few times using the throttle linkage on the Weber clone, I had fixed the accelerator pump so I could drive it to the swap meet, well it was leaking again so it was not what I did to fix it before, I pulled the pump cover again and looked at the diaphragm, it looked fine this time also, but I went inside and started looking at all the kits I have collected over the years, there was one DVG kit I did not even know I had and it had the diaphragm, I put the new one in and started it and it did not leak, but it did not leak before I left for the swap meet either, this is what I am calling an accelerator pump.



I was looking at things and seen the fuel filter, I had taken the stock one out because it had an air leak and all the fuel would drain back to the tank over just a few days, while putting the U320 together I have been going thru all my boxes and found good looking stock fuel filter assemblies, so I decided to go back to stock, I plugged one end and blew in the other end and it leaked air, I took it apart and the gasket had shrunk, I had bought extra seals of different sizes for the U320 assembly so I went searching for that bag of gaskets, it took me over half an hour to find the bag, I used a flat rubber one on this assembly, it appears to work fine so I installed it and started the truck, it took way longer than I expected for fuel to start filling the bowl, but the engine never stumbled waiting for the fuel.



Next I put the rubber splash guards on the U320 engine compartment inner fenders, I should have done this before, but the way I did everything I needed to be able to see as I dropped the body on the frame with the engine already installed in the frame, it just would have been way easier if I had done this before putting the body on the frame, it took me a few hours to install them, and once installed it is hard to get photos of them, I could not get photos of the drivers side, I did not break any of the tangs bending them down over the little washers that hold the rubber piece in place, getting the washers in place and bending the tangs was a challenge.

[wayno]

Well it is gone to a new home.

[HRH]

I'll take a picture of my ugly mug for you when I check it out. I'm actually quite excited even though it's not mine.