Werner's 1300 '69 4-door

[Nerius]

It's been a while, and progress isn't going swiftly, but it's going.

Good news is that I've installed a new wiper motor with the help of this forum. Very happy with it.

wiper motor

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Btw, can anyone point me to the way how to post more pictures in a single post?

[Nerius]

Now I've been struggling with the stock front brakes for a while now.
I was having problems with getting new pads in so I've tried to loosen the screws with the springs but I killed one. I'm not sure how to go forward now. I don't see the part on Rockauto. Any ideas?

front caliper

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[Byron510]

I remember breaking one of these bolts on my very first 510 as I over torqued it on assembly.
It is a bit of a specific bolt, being shouldered and a specific length to support the spring.
Possibly someone has a spare and could mail you this part?

Byron

[MikeY]

Pm me your address and I will mail you one. I have more than a few caliper cores.

[Nerius]

Great thanks!!

[MikeY]

Its in the mail. I'm happy to pay it forward. Àctually 510s have been very good to me so it more like I'm paying back. Enjoy and good luck.

[Byron510]

Its in the mail. I'm happy to pay it forward. Àctually 510s have been very good to me so it more like I'm paying back. Enjoy and good luck.

Way to go Mike - awesome. That’s how a community works!

Byron

[Nerius]

Truly amazing!

[Nerius]

So a couple of things happened in the last period.
I've bought a garage in the city, so I can now use the metro to get to my car. I will miss the old space and the farm though...


The brakes were finished and that meant I could put my time in to get the engine running properly. I thought this would be a simple task as we had it running before. The only problem was, that I did work on the fuel tank which included having the inside coated. This was done too enthusiastically so the fuel outtake got clogged. As my idea is to run EFI in the near future, my buddy proposed to buy a fuel pump and use most of the parts excluding the actual pump to get the fluids flowing again. After getting all the parts (man, I've learned a lot about NPT type threads and such), a bit of welding we've got it done. I wouldn't be me without painting something gold. So here is the, baptised by my lady as, "golden egg".


Now I actually could drive the car for the first time! The engine ran pretty rough, and time was ticking because I had an appointment to get the car checked to get plates.
The gearstick had a lot of play, and I had the choke the engine completely to drive it, but it couldn't take away the smile of my face.
So quickly I had to go to the "RDW" for the checkup and the drive was very stressful. The engine turned off a lot of times, but my buddies were driving behind me to back me up and help me tow if it all went wrong. Next to that the crankcase ventilation hose is missing so the smell inside was "oldtimer" like. Luckily, I don't have a drivers side window, so the interior ventilation was perfect. (Still waiting for that one to come out of Portugal.....!)
I made it and the check went really well.


The only issue was the alternative fuel fill connection which wasn't taken of. I had to go back for this.
So before going for the follow up check, we had time to check the valves and the crank timing (this was way off, probably due to it running on alternative fuel). After getting this done it ran very well and the drive back to the RDW went smoothly.


Now I can finally focus on making the car better!
The L18 is waiting for me and I'm going to run EFI on it.


I'm looking for an EFI manifold, but google isn't helping. Anybody got a golden tip?

[Nerius]

Time for an update.
Through the Facebook, I've found someone from the sunny island of Madeira who could help me with a driver window in the colour blue. This was actually my third try to get one from within Europe. So happy.


Now that all my brakes were repaired, I've read somewhere that upgrading to braided hoses would be a change in pedal feel. So I went for it.
However, it actually went pretty horrible. The hard line was so stuck, I had to break it to get it loose. Quite sure it was on there since 1969. From doing a straightforward upgrade on the hoses, it turned out to be a job where I've learned how to do hard lines. It all worked out eventually:


So as karma was pushing me to use the new skills of building hard lines, it killed my clutch master cylinder with a vacuum leak. A new one ordered at rock auto had a different way of connecting (on the top, not the bottom), so I was at it again flaring and bending the lines. Also that eventually worked out.


Yay, I could drive again! Which I did for a short while. Because the next time I wanted to start the car, I saw several coolant leaks on the floor. Checking out the engine, it was apparent that my head gasket died on me.


This was a different ballgame for me. Luckily my Z buddy did that many times and we started taking it apart.


It was almost like the head wasn't torqued down at all. The bolts were almost loose. Maybe doing a torque again would be enough, but I wanted to do it properly.


I'm guessing European cars didn't have any problems with emission boundaries so closed chamber heads are more common here. Have a look at the L13 head. Or as I like to say, the pioneer:



I just went for a quick clean, as I don't want to spend too much effort on it (having the L18 in mind). This will do:


Ordered some Fellpro gaskets and putting it back together again went quite smooth.


I had a leaky gasket on the carb, which was an easy fix.

And in the meantime this happened!


Due to Covid AND Brexit, I had to wait 5 months for the Work Equip 03, opposed to the 6 weeks. It was worth the wait though, what a quality and beauty. They are 14" and front 6.5J, rear 7J.

Finally, after putting on the wheels and engine working, I could take the dime outside:



My experience is now, every repair story has a cliffhanger. And mine is, when I drove it outside, the brake pedal travel was suddenly too big. So checking the master cilinder, I found it was empty for the rear. Checking it, I saw the rear left drum brakes leaking.... Ow well.


(hmm, I'll redo the images, the quality is crap)

[Nerius]

As I continue.

The leaky rear drum was caused by a ruptured brake artery. I figured that out after I changed the cylinders (which was a pain, because they weren't exactly the same size as the original ones) and tried to bleed the system.
The new brake line wasn't a big challenge so it was a quick fix.



Great news was that after fixing it I could drive it again.



Next step was to fix that dodgy left outer rocker panel which was rusted out. I ordered a replacement at kfvintagejdm.com which came in surprisingly quick.
Only problem here is that I don't know how to weld (yet), so a friend of a friend helped me out and did a great job installing it.



It doesn't go completely to the rear wheel arch, so that last part was fabricated on the spot. The steel itself is fantastic quality and it will outlive the car.

I've had some suspension parts laying which I ordered from Maddat. Koni shocks, which feels a bit crazy, to order it from Australia but the factory is maybe 30 km from my place, and lowering springs. The install was easy even for me. It drives fantastic!





Here a comparison of the new and old spring:



The front suspension is pending, I need to make sure I have all the 280zx strut parts first. Nearly there.

As for the engine. I thought I fixed the accelerator pump, but apparently I didn't. And after we redid the head gasket, the engine was making a lot of noise. This was because the timing chain tensioner wasn't doing it's job.
So when removing the timing cover from the L13, we could see wrong bolts put in and other old sloppy work. Next to that the cam was pretty worn:


And I started to think, would I really want to invest more time and money in this engine? I still have an L18 waiting for me.
The decision was quickly made. Out with the old:



Change the L18 from front to rear sump (and change the dipstick location):



Paint some stuff



And in with the new-ish:





It looks like that went fast, but it didn't. I had to loosen some steering stuff to get it in.
I also need to change the wiring a bit as the new alternator has an internal regulator (luckily there is enough write ups on this, to make it less scary).
Hoping I can enjoy those extra 0.5 liters soon.

[bertvorgon]

This might help a bit with the handling...How to adjust/check steering box play.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20127&p=179694&hili ... nt#p179694

[Nerius]

Thanks Keith. I actually meant unbolting the steering idler, I couldn't come up with the right wording.

[Nerius]

Okay, in the meantime, I've managed to get the engine in, but it wasn't running. Which was logical due to a huge vacuum leak created from the intake manifold, which worked well for the brake booster on the donor car, but not for me. This was easily fixed and plugged.

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Also the angle of the throttle linkage on the "new" carb was different. So I had to swap it with the old one.

The linkage between the throttle pedal and the carb had to be changed for a longer one as well as the return spring.

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So after this, I rewired some stuff due to the alternator being one with internal regulator. I found somewhere (was is on this forum or on ratsun) how to do it:

20211224_151418.jpg (114.51 KiB) Viewed 1069 times

However, after I've untangled some wiring later on, I found out the white wire didn't go anywere. I didn't want to go into that rabbit hole yet so I leave that for rewiring later on.

The engine was starting and running pretty well. It sure does sound different comparing the 1.8 Liters to the 1.3.

Meanwhile, I've ordered some stuff for the EFI conversion at efignition.com. He is based in NL so it came in pretty quick.

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My buddy helped out and built some stuff to get the ignition sorted out for the ECU. Pretty hyped about the trigger! Hopefully, the pully fits... We'll see.

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And I've chosen to go wasted spark on this one. Got the coil at diyautotune.

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The EFI conversion isn't happening yet though, for now I'm just gathering parts here and there. And it's great fun to buy new stuff

[Nerius]

I'm not good at focussing at just one thing.

Last time I took it for a ride, mr Doraemon and I heard weird sounds and found out the half shaft bearings died on the right hand site.
With (really) a lot of effort, I managed to take out the shaft.

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Getting out the bearings was....tough, really tough. I've tried cheap bearing pullers, but they were bending. I've tried to use the weight of the car to push it out with a jack. I've tried to hit it out with different tools. Eventually I gave up and bought a C-press which easily did the job. I had to use a dremel to cut the last part out though.

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From there on it was easy peasy. Everything got installed and lubed up for another 50 years.

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