New Zealand Datsun Club

on a side note,

just went through the hassle of stripping and painting my FJ rocker cover.

pretty much the only stripper i found that works on that old paint well, was the aerosol CRC gasket stripper.
all the other brand stuff didnt really work at all...

It'll be going in the hot tank at the engine shop I use with an L28 head I need to get cleaned too. I'm too lazy to try and do it manually

yeah, i hot tanked mine too, after stripping it. the casting is full of tiny pinholes, but the hot tank dealt to those...

Got the brake master cylinder back and painted the booster, the booster itself it pretty pitted but it's at the bottom so you can't really see it. I'll keep my eyes out for another one and if I ever take the motor out (which I think I'll have to do at some stage) I'll swap it over.

Reinstalled the booster and master last night, I really hate trying to get under the dash to get the clevis pin & r clip back in, what a pain in the ass but it's all bolted back together, just need to put the reservoir back on and fill/bleed it.

I wire brushed as best as I could the area around the steering box where the master has been dripping on to and put some rust killer on it, I'll probably give it another wire brush and another coat of rust kill before I primer/paint it.

Also found a very odd looking patch where it looks like some rust has been cut out in front of the steering box on the inner guard, it's been patched but hasn't been painted on the engine bay side, can't really see anything on the wheel well side so hopefully they haven't just patched over the rust. There's not much that I can do about it without taking the engine out (which I think they probably would have had to do to put the patch in there in the first place). Makes me wonder who complied it when it came into the country and if it was there before that.

Still waiting to get the lower ball joint back from being reconditioned, should hopefully have it back sometime next week then I can get it back in for the recheck. I still haven't had a good look at the head lights but I had to take the steering wheel off to get under the dash so I might just swap the indicator stalk unit for the spare I've got.

Got these sweet fittings today, they are aluminium. I got them so I can keep the check valve that comes on the Bosch pumps, no check valve = have to keep cranking till fuel gets back up to the rail.




Here's a bad picture of the patch, I can't really get in there to get a good photo.




Master back in place, I have to put the wiper motor back in, I've just given it a little coat of paint. You can see the outline on the strut tower where there was probably a strut brace back in the day.




I replaced the fuel filter tonight, it was a JECS one so might be factory? Also confirmed the ignition leads were made in 1992.

Did the Mazda ratchet chain tensioner mod today, little bit fiddly but pretty easy.

Original at the top, Mazda one at the bottom after I removed the rubber pad. The little spring right at the bottom is part of the ratchet mechanism, yes, I did put it back in




Gasket in the hole, you can see at the bottom right it's just touching on part of the casting




Used the die grinder to put a bit of a chamfer on the tensioner body to clear the casting




The guides I found on the next said to cut the spring down to 53mm, I'm not really sure why they suggest you cut it that short, I measured the overall length of the original plunger and spring then cut the new spring down to make them the same length, I removed about 6mm of spring.




And then I forgot to take a picture of the finished installation but you get the idea. After dinners mission is to start on the fuel pump swap.

Drained the diff oil while I was under there, it was a bit of a mission getting the back of the car onto the ramps, I had to let some air out of the tyres so I could get them under the wheels hah. Anyway, the oil was red and looked reasonably clean but I'll change it anyway.

Removed the original fuel pump, it had really tiny wiring going to it so I might have to do something about that. First problem was the new pump has what looks like a 5/8" inlet, I managed to stretch some 1/2" fuel line over it, I think it'll be fine for the moment. Second problem is the new pump doesn't fit in the old holder which I was expecting so I've just bought one of these brackets, just have to wait for it to turn up. The old pump is about 54mm OD, new pump is 60mm.

Going hard dude - the tensioner mod is a must with FJ's apparently as they are pretty horrid on start up with the original.

Yeah, the noise was hard to describe but it didn't sound good. I haven't actually started it with the new tensioner as I've got the rocker cover off at the moment, but I'm guessing it's going to be the best $22 that I've spent on it so far

Made up an adaptor after work today to mount the pump bracket onto the original mounting plate that bolts to the floor of the car. It's mounted but it's a bit of a tight squeeze, I'll try and get a pic tomorrow.

Discovered a problem though, I've measured the fuel line and it's only 10mm coming out of the tank all the way to the pump, the rubber line between the metal line and the pump is actually stretched over the 12mm barb on the pump from the factory by the looks of it. I've got some ali tubing so I'll make up an adaptor from 10 to 12mm tomorrow.

I'm picking up the rocker cover from being hot tanked tomorrow, I just have to find an oven big enough to fit it in after I paint it. There's a small chance my lower ball joint will be done tomorrow but probably next week.