New World Datsuns...

Dang... that sucks!

that sucks wayno

Well after doing a couple small jobs I tore into the truck, I put it in the air.

I first pulled the drain plug, not much left in there in the way of oil, but there was some metal, BTW the oil that was in there looked fine(good color).

Once I got the transmission out I took a look in the bellhousing.

Well it was screwed up, I never had one bust like this, but I have seen this kind of damage on other peoples transmissions.

I have always said that are Datsuns talk to us, so I kinda always wondered why people drove their vehicles till they busted, well mine talked to me a total of about 2 seconds, so either my truck makes so much noise I can't hear it talking to me, I can't hear anymore, or I guess it can just destroy itself without much indication of a pending issue.
So another transmission is in the truck, I didn't get to Baxters before it closed, so I will have to buy gear oil tomorrow and put it in while it's raining, as I am going golfing in the morning, I still need to install the starter also, since it is out, I am going to put the aftermarket one in I bought from izzo quite a while back, maybe that one will work better than the one that has been in it.
BTW, I put it in reverse, spun the input shaft, it has no reverse, when I get the truck on the road, I might pull the tail housing off and see why it doesn't work, I still think the clustergear shaft is broke, but it's not broke in the front section.

Well it is back on the road, but the syncros are not the greatest on this transmission, but I will deal with it, looks like I now need to rebuild one, as I have ran out of extra short shaft transmissions.
It drives good without any noise, I used that starter I mentioned, it makes a weird noise, like it's not meshing correctly, not a good sound, I might try the other one I have if it annoys me to much, in the mean time I put the old starter in the back of the seat in case this one lets me down.

Glad to hear you got it back on the road, hopefully it will hold out until you can source another short shaft trans.

510freak wrote:Glad to hear you got it back on the road, hopefully it will hold out until you can source another short shaft trans.

I am pretty sure this one will last a while, but I do have one waiting for a rebuild, the first one I ever made that was put in the work truck, I tore that one out because it popped out of first under compression and second gear synchro was shot, it needs new bearings and synchros, and that is all it needs.

Nice you have one,just need to do

Well here was the reverse issue, just as I thought, the cluster shaft broke off at the rear bearing.


I would think that when the front lower cluster gear bearing took a shit, a bearing or some other piece of metal got between the gears and forced the cluster gear shaft down so far it busted the shaft at the rear bearing pivot point since there was nothing up front to keep it in position, the front gear next to the main input shaft bearing doesn't look good, it has a chunk of tooth missing, it has taken a beating, the cluster gear teeth don't look that good either.

Same tooth at different angle.

So this transmission looks to be only good for parts now, the synchros and rear case are good, not sure about the front case yet, I had just put this transmission in a while back, I cannot remember if this was a new lower bearing or the used one I robbed out of a known good diesel transmission because it was a Sunday.

Thats mantle material!

Pretty impressive. When I first got my Z, almost 20 years ago, the transmission had bearing noise. I ordered a rebuild kit and was planning to do it the next weekend. Was pulling out of the parking lot at work when the bearing let go. Luckily I was on gravel, rolling at about 2mph and my foot was in on the clutch. We freed it up and pushed it into the shop. I skipped class that day and my boss helped me rebuild my first Nissan transmission. I had plenty of warning and got LUCKY. My transmission had every right to look like yours.

I suppose it's my own fault, if I weren't so fixated on getting home in my Datsuns no matter what, I might have just needed to replace the lower bearing, but I just have this need to get home, I suspect that I lost the cluster gear shaft in the Safeway parking lot while I was still in second gear on my way back home, that was before I figured out to just use 4th gear, once I put it in 4th gear(direct drive gear), I didn't have anymore chassis jarring events, one was dramatic, but I did get home.

wayno » Wed Apr 08, 2015 10:17 pm wrote:

DRIVEN » Wed Apr 08, 2015 8:41 pm wrote:It's been at least a year since i posted anything there. Maybe checked in twice since then.

The only thing that will not move around here at this time is that L320, the damned thing will not start, it is a positive ground vehicle, so I cannot put electronic ignition in it, that damned distributor has weak spark when testing it on the bench, and it has no spark when I install it on the engine, I hate 320/E1 positive ground distributors, I have had more issues with the 2 I have than all the other distributors in all the cars I have owned in my entire life, and I have owned a lot of vehicles.

Well finally after all this time(a couple years?), I got that damned engine to run, I had the carb rebuilt professionally, I put new wires, cap, rotor, points, condenser, plugs, and a coil just yesterday, I pulled the dist out today again because I had almost non-existent spark when separating the points to check for spark, I figured that out, I pulled number one spark plug out and stuck a screw driver in the hole and turned it till it was for sure at TDC, I have never done this before, I have always guessed where it should be, there is no timing mark on the front cover, I turned the dist. till it gave me a jolt, put number one plug back in, and the damned thing finally started, I then timed it by ear, and it runs pretty good now, and it only took a couple years.
It did not run very well when it first started, it likely had a couple years of fuel in the engine from it not starting for all that time, I tried everything today, I tried it 180 out in case I was retarded about that, it didn't start, so I put it back to the way I thought it should be, I think I just got everything finally sorted out today at the same time, it was just time for it to start I guess, I am so freaking happy to put this issue behind me.

wayno » Sat Sep 05, 2015 10:33 pm wrote:...and it only took a couple years.

Sweet! Glad you got it handled.

I tried moving the 320 today, that didn't start out that well, the thing had sat there so long not running with the e-brake on that the e-brake was stuck on, I tried just dumping the clutch in reverse, but that didn't work, so I jacked up the rear driver side rear wheel, put it in gear and dumped the clutch, after the second try that side was loose, so I tried the same thing on the other side, that didn't work at all, the driver side wheel started spinning on the ground and the whole rear of the truck started moving sideways, so I dropped the truck back onto the ground, put it in reverse and revved it up and dumped the clutch, it broke loose on the first try that time.
So now it moves, I backed it out and cleaned up under it looking for lost tools, then put it back in and then timed it, I could not figure out where the timing mark was, so I decided to see where the U320 was timed, that is when I seen the timing mark, almost completely hidden under the water pump pulley, so I went back to the L320 and timed it the same as the U320, I don't think either of them have a good vacuum advance, as they only moved(advanced) a quarter of an inch when I revved them.
I suppose I should start a thread on this truck, but I am actually thinking about selling it, I have everything I need to make a kingcab out of it, but I have so many unfinished ones now, I don't want another unfinished one waiting for me to finish it, if it's gone, I won't have to think about it anymore.

This is where I started today.

And this is where I stopped today, it has no lights at all, I will fix that another day.

Good progress wayno

Well it has brakes again, it was kinda a pain, only one of the bleeders came loose with a wrench, the other 3 took extraordinary effort, one of the bleeders is round now,the assembly had to be removed and a vice used to get it loose.
I think before it is put on the road that all the wheel cylinders need to be removed, and checked to make sure the pistons are loose in the bores, but I have a firm pedal that functions/stops it.
So now it is back where it was when I bought it several years ago, need to decide what to do with it now.

Hopefully drive it wayno

I have a few other Datsuns with way more legroom than this L320, I had planned to make it a kingcab, but until the 66 Datsun 520KC ute is done, I am not starting another one.

510freak » Sun Sep 13, 2015 3:55 pm wrote:Hopefully drive it wayno

The ute hats a beauty