'71 Deathmobile - Mountain Wagon

[MtnGoat]

The head corrosion is being welded up today. Tore down the SU's and gave them a good bath, they're looking great now. Needles look good, fuel hose still pliable.

Tore the dash apart to fix my temp/fuel gauge issue, found it was exactly what the Dime Quarterly tech article said...corrosion on all instrument, board, and regulator contacts. Sanded them a touch, it all works now.

Next is the wipers... after cleaning the fuse box contacts I have +12 on the red/blue wire at the wiper motor, but still no joy. I'll try to figure out which pins to short to ground at the connector to see if I can get it to go, prior to checking the rest of the harness.

Happy plus to cleaning the fuse block, the secondary headlight circuit for the extra set of high beams came to life, so now it works like it's supposed to. Arming switch off, standard low beams (lo X 2), standard high beams (low lamps in high mode X2, high beams X2). Arming switch on, standard low beams, all six on for high beam (low lamps in high mode X2, high beams X4).

[MtnGoat]

Yes, it's alive! Details in L18 powertrain thread, but it's running nicely. I really miss the grunt of the L20b, but that's how it goes. Purrs real nice except for the occasional lower RPM 'puff' or 'wheeze' out one of the carbs while driving. Doesn't happen often, and it's just a single sound, not like a backfire.

I learned a valuable lesson. Do not assume the wiper motor is bad when bringing a car out of mothballs and the wipers don't go no matter how much of the electrical you check out. Turned out the linkage bearings were all frozen up.

It ran today for the first time with the new block. I took it out for an hour and all seems just fine. Tomorrow I'm going for it and doing a run to Seattle, 5 hours of interstate away. I think I'll make it. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Yes, I am taking my toolbox.

[MtnGoat]

Well, the round trip is over and it ran fine except for the misfire issue noted in my L18 thread. I'm sure it's tuning screwups on my part.

It got dark during the last hour of the trip and I was happy I got the extra high beam circuit working before I left. I forgot how great it is, all six lights really light up the road very, very well. Crucial for the last leg of the trip which is 20 miles of very rural two lane featuring wild turkeys and deer at night for excitement.

What I did discover is nearly all the door latch mechanisms need to be adjusted. Drivers door cannot be locked with key, passenger door will not open with outer handle. Driver's side rear passenger door will not stay latched (I think I mentioned this before). The rear hatch doesn't latch well, sometimes it doesn't catch. The sole fully functional door is the rear passenger side door.

[MtnGoat]

Just back from round trip number two. I've got some ideas about carb tuning which I posted in powertrains. The left rear is really howling now, time to change out that bearing. It's not grinding yet, but it's done.

Other than that, running great. As I get more dialed in, I've been pushing it more, and I have to say that the fat sway bar on the front combined with the stiffened rear suspension results in a real nice cornering balance and very flat turns. The front doesn't feel stiff, it simply doesn't lean much. Even with the tall all terrain tires I'm running it stick really well, probably due to the sheer amount of rubber on the pavement with a wider tire. Very slight braking oversteer, and if you keep pushing the corner to the edge the tires will start to complain very predictably and then it just understeers a bit until you knock it off. Pretty nice really..I came down the last 20 miles of up n downy twisty bits pretty fast and had a ball.

This this is so much more fun to drive than the Four Runner. I'm still pining for the lost 20b, though. Hmmm....what's the biggest plug in block that will drop in the same mounts, use same bellhousing, and take an L head...Z22?

[MtnGoat]

Been out and about all summer, had some issues as folks reading the technical forums know but it's all stuff that goes with a 40 year old rig which sat for 10, and is driven hard on really lousy roads.

two weeks ago we went up to Timberwolf Mtn in the central Cascades, 6200' feet of flowers, great views and still some snow.



Last week we went to Bench Lake (really foul road) on Mt Adams E flank for some fishing...

[Byron510]

Damn, it just makes me chuckle every time I see a front shot of your car, with the row of lights jumping right out at you. The grill is the polar opposite of McShaggers two head light grill set up. I love it.

Byron

[McShagger510]

Thats funny Byron, I was thinking the same thing too!

James

[MtnGoat]

dirt road vid from yesterday's trip in the outback of north central oregon

don't know how to embed here so the link will have to do

[Byron510]

It's nice to see your car is actually used.
That country side extends north - pretty much unaltered right into the Kamloops/Cache Creek area of central BC. I grew up in that area- grass plains, sage brush, not a heck of a lot of rain, but great gravel roads as well, thanks to the logging companies.

Byron

[MtnGoat]

The fact that the north end of the Sonoran desert climate zone goes all the way into BC is not well known. Yes, the Deathmobile is used and then some. As my favorite parts guy at Nissan back in the day used to say when he pushed new goodies across the counter.. 'put em in and run it hard!' (Gosh I miss factory parts at cost plus 5%. )

I have a friend up in Kamloops area I may be going up to visit in the fall, if I can cross the border without the people tearing my car apart there I'll post up some pics them.

On another note, I love how the exhaust sounds on that vid...it's got a very nice sports car tone to it. At least that and the road noise cover up the howling rear diff. I'm going to have to figure out which ratio it is and get on that thing before it goes. 41 years and 300k+ miles is enough.

[banzai510(hainz)]

You running KYB Gas A Just shocks? those would be good for that rig. High pressure.

I like nice 510s but I love beat 510s that get used also esp here. Its pure function and practicle.
Only weak spot is the alternator bolts esp the L16 ones asa the y used a smaller bolt

[MtnGoat]

Heck I found out about that one in the first few months of dirt with my first 510! Probably my second ever mod to a 510 was drilling out the alt mount for bigger bolts. First being bigger tires, if that counts.

Hadn't thought about gas adjust shocks for a while. Interesting idea.

[MtnGoat]

Nice shot from last spring...

deathmobile and greyback.JPG (63.9 KiB) Viewed 3294 times

[q-tip]

i have been thinking on a color for you, im thinkin herculiner. tougher than anything else and you can paint it any color!!