Lowering the Datsun

I've been researching how to lower the truck. I was originally planning on resetting the rear leaf springs, but then decided on getting some lowering blocks instead. I got a quote at Supercheap (!) for the aftermarket Nolathane kit for this car (part number 47960) and they wanted $200. I figure that's pretty steep for some u-bolts and a block of aluminium. I went chasing some u-bolts to do it myself but they turned out to be $75 for 4 of them. 

Luckily I found these guys at Online Performance in Hallam who had the kit for about 1/2 the price. And here it is

Here's the back of the ute at the standard ride height. 

And here's the standard u-bolts holding the axle to the leaf springs

Removing the existing setup was easy enough. Here's the lowering blocks in place. I ended up shortening the supplied u-bolts by about 40mm. 

And I had to shorten the existing rubber bump stops (did with a hacksaw)

Lowering the front

The front suspension is torsion bars which can be adjusted down to lower the ride height. Here's a pic of the adjustment bolts. With the existing bolts, you can get about 50-60mm drop at the front. Basically you turn these square nuts anti-clockwise to loosen the bolts to drop the height. 

So I ended up with around a 2.5" drop all around, which has really helped the stance.

Introducing the new project car

So I bought a Datsun truck. I have another car project on the go, but I saw this ad and couldn't help myself.

Daryl had the ad posted on Facebook for a while. He'd taken the car in a swap for a caravan from the guy who built the car. It had been sitting for a while out in the elements so there was a bit of rust on it, but it was basically complete. After a bit of haggling I managed to get the car for $1500. Here it is on the day it was delivered (luckily Daryl was a tow truck driver)

Also included with the car was a large container of spares, including 4 carburetors, a spare head and manifolds. 

So I set about inspecting the car. I must say it's in pretty good condition mechanically. The engine appears to have been rebuilt and (according to the guy I bought it from) the whole drivetrain rebuilt. Certainly looks it. He told me he got the engine started for a bit, but it wouldn't stay running. The steering is a bit loose on the car, but given the age and technology I'm not surprised. But on closer inspection underneath (and with one of my boys playing with the steering wheel) I noticed that the steering box wasn't bolted on properly.

So the first thing was to get the engine going. Given it had started recently I was pretty sure it would go again, so I went and bought some carby cleaner, fuel system cleaner and some lead substitute (as I'm not sure whether the engine had been rebuilt to run on unleaded - i.e. hardened valve seats). I put a battery in and started to crank (had to hotwire it because there was no ignition switch). I managed to get it to fire but it conked pretty much straight away. I took off the distributor and checked the points etc, then reinstalled and checked the static timing (been a while since I've had to do this). After tightening the distributor and giving it a crank it fired and kept running after I played with the ignition timing. I was still getting backfires occasionally but assuming it's because it hadn't run properly for a while. Here she is in action:

Next thing is to get the electricals sorted out and the fuel tank re-installed. 

Stripping the loom

So I've decided to strip down the loom and rebuild it. I'll probably end up reusing most of the actual wires because they're largely in good condition, but I want to clean it up a bit and get all the relays in the one spot etc.

Extricating the loom from the car was pretty easy with the only really difficult part was having to unbolt the radiator to get the last bit of the headlight loom out. I also had to totally remove the plastic sheath so it would unthread itself from the bodywork.

Anyway here's a pic of the engine loom out after I'd removed the 45-year-old insulation tape

And here's the entire loom after hooking the cabin loom back on:

There's an awful lot of wires that don't really go anywhere. The car had a lot of options such as heater, clock/radio etc that there are wires for but aren't connected to anything so I'll probably lose them. Funnily enough there is also provision for an under-bonnet light and switch so you can have an illuminated engine bay. Guessing that's for all the times that you break down and need to fix the car in the middle of the night.

Next step is to get the fusebox and new relays fitted to my board so I can start piecing the loom back together.