Waynos 1966 datsun 520 ute

[Dat521gatherer]

Looks great Wayno.

[wayno]

Thankyou, I try, basically just drive it once or twice a week right now, it's actually a smooth driving truck considering how low it is.

Looks great Wayno.

[Justinberni]

this is probably lower than my 720 and mine rides like ass.. Maybe because im constantly sitting on bump stops in the rear..

[wayno]

My 520 is on a 1986 720 frame, and for you to get the back as low as mine is, you would have to remove your bump stops and let the frame rest on the axle.
I have went to great extremes to get it low and still have a nice ride, I am not getting any younger you know, I like my spine the way it is, not compressed.

this is probably lower than my 720 and mine rides like ass.. Maybe because im constantly sitting on bump stops in the rear..

[Justinberni]

Wait is this the one you C notched? I know you c notched one of your frames.. It's gotta be this one right?!

[wayno]

Wait is this the one you C notched? I know you c notched one of your frames.. It's gotta be this one right?!

Yes, this is the one I notched the frame.

But it's the front being low that allows the back to be that low.

[Justinberni]

I'm thinking about C notching mine if I ever get to practice welding more any time soon, I don't like sitting on bump stops and I'm still not as low as I want. If I do it, I might do it how you did, seems like a rather simple way of c notching it.

[wayno]

I did it the cheapest way I knew how to, I cut a 720 frame apart a while back, I saved the frame pieces at the top of the rear arch, then when it came time to do the notch, I set the saved frame pieces on top of the existing frame, welded them in position, then I cut the lower frame piece out in a half circle the same size as the piece of pipe I had, welded the piece of pipe in position, then I added plates to both sides that had holes in them, once I finished welding the outside in position, I then welded all the circles to the frame pieces for extra strength.
It took most the day to do it, as I don't have an acetylene torch to cut the half circle, I had to cut and grind.

I'm thinking about C notching mine if I ever get to practice welding more any time soon, I don't like sitting on bump stops and I'm still not as low as I want. If I do it, I might do it how you did, seems like a rather simple way of c notching it.

[Justinberni]

I bet cutting that circle out with a grinder, or whatever you used, was real fun!

But did you have to cut up into the bed for the notch? It was it short enough that you didn't have to cut the floor of the bed?

[wayno]

Yea, I had to cut the bed/fender well, I have been looking for another 520 bed to get fender wells to hide the places that were cut, basically make the fender wells a little wider to hide the notch.

[Charlie69]

Wayno just cut along the lines and ad to it. We know you can weld. LOL

[wayno]

I will find what I need eventually, I have only been asking for maybe 6 months, I am still waiting to see if Royalseirra really bought that 67 520 in Portland.
I kinda wanted it to have the ribs, that way it would sorta look like it was stock, as the whole truck sorts looks like a Datsun, sorta.

[wayno]

Well I took the time to mount the sway bar today, I drove it for a couple miles, but am unsure if it actually made a difference other than it might be a little firmer.



And here it is sitting on the ground.

If I had known it was going to be as easy as it was, I would have done it a couple years ago.

[Laecaon]

Probably should do something about that rust.

[wayno]

Yea, the lower control arm needs to be painted, but it is just surface rust right now, the tension rod is going to be changed though, it works, but I am not happy with the design, I am thinking about going with a shorter tension control arm that is adjustable like a big turnbuckle with welded on connections rather than what I did, what I did is kinda weenie, but every time I look at it, it is fine, no bending or distortion, so I quit worrying about it, but that part is rusting also.
It all was just a test to see if it would even work, well it seems to be fine, so your right, I need to do something soon before it becomes an issue.

Probably should do something about that rust.

[wayno]

I drove the car, well actually the truck for a while today(I think of it as a car it's so smooth), not on a hiway but up to 50mph on a not so smooth road and I see no difference between having a sway bar and not having one, it didn't lean any less or more in the fast turns I made, so now I am starting to wonder what the deal is with them.
I have not had one on the work truck in ten years at least, I had to remove it when I put power steering on it, that one drives just fine also.
So what is the deal with sway bars?

[510freak]

They keep things from falling over,mostly in harder cornering

[wayno]

I thought the sway bar would do a couple things, one is stop the body from rolling as much in cornering, and the other would be when one hit a pot hole on one side, the other side would also drop a little to stop torquing/twisting of the chassis, I had/have neither of these issues with the two trucks, I suspect after thinking about it this evening that since I am using firm leafs in the rear on both the vehicles that don't or didn't have a sway bar, that the rear leafs do or have done the job that the sway bar was supposed to do in the front.
The fact is that the work truck has two extra leafs in a 521 leaf pack which was stiff to start with, it takes a lot of weight to make that truck lean at all, and when I am hauling that type of weight, I am not doing any hard cornering anyway.
This 520 has firm 720 4X4 leafs in the rear, but they don't seem to make the ride that rough at all, the only noise I have is the glass pack(cherry bomb muffler) and the tailgate chains rattling around back there which can be fixed with some garden hose or some clear tubing, I am just lazy.

EDIT

I just went out cut 4 pieces of hose off a scrap piece slit them down the side and put them on the chains, it's just to see how it works, and I will try to find something nicer in the meantime.

[wayno]

I went and picked this Z22 block today, it looks like it is crack free.


It looks like the cylinders are honed.


I am thinking about just getting this ready for an L head, but I need to measure the cylinders first, but the pistons are really tight in the cylinder holes, I can barely see them move sideways, I need to look at it some more, number one cylinder was burning different, its valves were a different color than the other 3 cylinders.

[RedBanner]

on the sway bar, you have to think about the effects on the stock application. it was made to allow one wheel move several inches before it really effected the other wheel. so on your ap, when a wheels moves, it probably doesn't move enough to start really transferring all that much weight... I imagine if you where to use 2 sway bars stacked that you might feel more effects? or get a really serius unit off of something else.