This week is basically, 'try and get Nanna going' week. I've got the whole week off work and a (sort of) unlimited budget to get the car running. The two big things are...
1/ Make it run.
2/ Make it stop.
I'm sure my wife feels like no.2 about my whole car habit. Anyway, she's stuck with me.
1/ Make it run.
Before I went away I got a good spark and the starting turning well. My issue now is the fuel system. Having put a new filter in and cranked it over, the fuel bowl started leaking.
I put it back together with a little RTV and then, of course, the accelerator pump started leaking as well. So, by some sort of miracle, my local parts shop had a carby kit in stock for the car.
Which leaves me in the not so inviting situation of going through the carb. Did I tell you how much I HATE carbs?
My mechanic mate warned me it would be a disaster, but to be honest, the carb was so dry it's almost falling apart. Most of the screws aren't much more than finger tight. But the fact that I'm inside updating you instead of working on it tells you how much I love it. Not a lot.
2. Making it stop.
This has been a more serious situation. Seems like every brake part I pull off the car is pretty knackered, dried out or full of junk. The master cyl and calipers are off at the brake shop being rebuilt as I type. Just well. The master cyl was so nasty, that when I tried to top it up, it wouldn't even go through the filter baskets in the fluid pots. Ouch. The front calipers on the car were bone dry, so I'm installing the Girlock units I got with the bigger struts. By some miracle, the brake booster is fine, aside of some perished rubber and surface rust.
Onto the back brakes, this has been a bigger debacle thanks to these things...
Shoe adjustment screws. Please tell Nissan never did this to any of their other cars. Why would you put such a small head on such an important screw? Anyhow. I had penetrant, freeze and release, then finally a gas torch on it before it finally freed up. In terms of not ruining the head, I did this with my small socket set...
That's an allen adapter to an allen bit, into the same sized socket. Then you use the 1/4" driver as the square socket for the adjustment screw. The driver side let go with a little penetrant and some time thankfully. Inside, the drums look pretty good. They'll get some new slave cyls, rubber hoses and shoes and that should do it.
3. Unrelated rubbish
You'll note in the pic above, there are bright red rear coils. I'm assuming they're not stock. They are the same colour as the front ones I got with the 200B/810 struts. I also found the car has these shocks on the back.
I assume it's been used for a bit of towing from time to time and was probably a farm car. because there's dirt everywhere, but it's pretty dry and straight. It would also explain the 'Travelling Wilburys' tape in the glovebox. No kidding. I'll install the Bilstein's but it's nice to know there's some decent if I have to have them rebuilt. The heavy duty rear springs will stay for now.
Found some speed holes in the exhaust...
Dunno what to do about that. I'm tempted to throw a cheap exhaust wrap over it to get through inspection, because it's getting a full 2" system down the track.
As I mentioned before, I've had the head off the L18 I bought. It looks as tidy as the L16 in the car, which is pretty great.
Here's the cam profile I mentioned before...
So far, I've called a few Cam grinders and it's none of there's. It says 'made in japan' on it. But I don't know if that's the billet that's jap made, or the whole thing was ground there. The mystery continues. Apparently it's got plenty of lift.
Now I'll go back to my favourite job. Carbs...