New Zealand Datsun Club

Turbo should be done over the weekend, $280 all up including a genuine Garrett rebuild kit so I should have this thing going again Tuesday.

Talked to Fred today, turbo is all done. Turns out this star spring washery thing was missing which from what he tells me is what keeps the thrust bearing in place so no wonder it all turned to crap! It's been missing ever since I got the turbo and I didn't even think about it when I put it together.

Turbo is back on, just need to put the intercooler and air filter piping back on.

Started on the gearbox rebuild tonight, the front cover gasket that came with the kit was ripped so they sent me another one for free. It's been a few months since I took it apart and I chucked it all in a big bin to take it down to work to wash and assemble so it's been a bit of a mission figuring it all out. I got up to this point then I realised I hadn't put some bits in the synchros so I have to take a bearing and gear off again to get them in but that's not too bad.

There's about 10 bearings in the gearbox that didn't come in the kit as well, all needle roller bearings but they seemed okay so I won't bother changing them.



These are the bits that need to go in:

After spending all weekend on it I got the gearbox back together, had to buy a 16mm drill bit to drill out the selector rod hole. Wilson Bros couldn't find quite the right thrust bearing, the one they could find was very slightly too small on the ID but I got it to fit anyway.

Got the gearbox back in the car after a lot of dicking around, the gearstick is going to be too close to the radio/heater panel so I'll have to bend it back a bit and then upright again. Need to spend another couple of hours on it to get it all done, I was hoping to have it going tonight but I mashed one of my fingers trying to get the centre hanger bearing back together.

The oddball crossmember I found worked out perfectly, I bought some new Nolathane style crossmember bushes from Japan as all the rubber ones I had were perished. I had to knock the dust shield off the driveshaft, the one on the gearbox was already missing and I don't think it would have worked anyway.

When I drained the oil from the original gearbox there was more metal and another piece of bearing cage on the drain bung, it doesn't actually look bad inside apart from the one bearing.

This thing was going well till I decided to dick around with the shifter. There was a spring and circlip missing from the OE Nissan shifter I was using so bought an SR/CA short throw shifter kit for $60, I knew there was a difference between the RB and SR/CA boxes but I wasn't sure exactly what it was. Turns out the shifter sits slightly further back on the latter, the top plate where the shifter goes is slightly different as well.

The SR/CA one was in a better position for the DR so I decided to try and make the short shifter work, while doing this I managed to get the box stuck in first gear and was unable to get it out (the shifter rod is a real pain in the ass if you aren't careful). So I had to pull the box out and apart again tonight. I'll post some pics later of what I had to do to make it work but I'm just about to start putting it back in, hopefully it goes in alright!

Box is back in and the shifter feels really good, I'm glad I decided to make it work!

So to get it to line up I chopped the shifter thing up just after where the plastic bush on the end of the gearstick goes in and welded in a piece of 10mm thick plate that was approx. 14mm long which is about the difference between the two types of shifter.

Also the bigger threaded hole on the right hand side of the picture isn't there on the short shifter plate (so not on the SR/CA boxes), I chopped the hex off the original bolt then cut a groove into the remaining thread and screwed it in to the hole, there's a spring in there, I'm not sure exactly what it's for, something to do with the side to side movement of the gearstick. The threaded piece is below the top of the flange and the shifter plate sits on top so it doesn't really matter if it comes loose as it's not going anywhere.



This is the short shifter kit, I'm still working on a gear knob for it, I need to cut the thread off and weld on an 8mm bolt so that I can use the knob I was using before which is actually a 280ZX one! The aluminium piece in the middle actually does nothing at all, it's circliped on. The OE ones are actually 2 pieces with rubber in between where that bulbous bit is, I'm not sure if the gearstick boot sits there in R32s/S13s etc etc.

Your a machine Daniel, looking good though and it sounds like you have the shifter situation under control.

Thanks man, I'm well sick of gearboxes after doing that Beamer and then this thing twice!

Did a little bit of digging and for anyone interested Cometic do inlet and exhaust manifold gaskets for FJs even though they aren't listed on the website. I will be buying a couple of each soon. The prices are USD list prices, I don't think either of them are steel but that shouldn't matter.

EX571064AM NIS SKYLINE 240RS EXHAUST .064" AM FJ20 MOTOR $33.11
IR920060AFM Intake Gasket FJ20 .060 AFM FJ20ET $16.75

be wary, a 240RS (Fj24) has a completely different exhaust flange pattern to a FJ20e/et.

strange its listed for both?