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mlracing

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  1. mlracing
    We have just received an order of clear R32 headlight lenses to our New Zealand location. These are ABS plastic and are a replacement for your original lenses. As these are in NZ we'll need to use Paypal, price on these is $212NZD (no NZ tax) + post which shouldn't be too much but send a message to me and we can work out post cost depending on your location.
  2. mlracing
    Went down to the shop and did some fiddling today. Short story, car runs on the triple carbs now, but won't idle. With a bit of throttle actually doesn't feel too bad but yeah long way from running nice yet. I purchased some new gaskets but turns out there were a few that weren't right so need to get a few more which I hope will improve the idling and running of the car. Old gaskets meet new gaskets. This is where I set the timing. Originally it was a bit on the retard side but read that it should be advanced for triples and this seemed to be about where it ran the best. What I'm not too sure about is the vacuum thing on the side. I presume I've got a vacuum advance distributor so unsure if leaving that vacuum line unpluged will make it run worse or better as there's nowhere for it to go. The new throttle cable looks and feels super nice, and it's strong too. A bit thicker than the original. It is a little longer though which is kind of annoying to route but seems to work. Janky ghetto fuel hose routing seems to work.. no leaks amazingly. Ideally get an electric pump, fpr etc down the line. So next on the list is to get the cold start/choke circuit working as I did find it would idle better when I activated couple of the chokes on the carbs manually. The interesting thing is even with the OEM single carb it wouldn't idle properly when cold (but it did run better than this) so I wonder if there is a different cam in here or something; it was always a bit lumpy on idle even once warm. Specs on carbs anyway are: Triple mikuni 44s 150 mains 200 air 60 pilots I did get some 57.5 pilots but seems like it runs a little better on the 60s which is kind of interesting as Mikuni recommends 52.5 for an L24 which is about as close as USA gets to an L20.
  3. mlracing
    OK since last post I have got the smaller jets now, just need to put them in. I also purcased the throttle cable mount and hooked that up.. but then suddenly the stunt went horribly wrong.. As I was tightening the nuts to hold the cable in place it snapped off. The metal is so old and soft it had no chance. I was able to jimmy it up and make it work but I'll probably just go to a bike shop or similar and get a new cable made up. Can confirm it does work well and opens the throttle bodies Also that white stopper thing seems to just dangle around and get in the way, perhaps not necessary for triple carbs. Scraping off shitty old gaskets is not fun.. There's still much to do.. get the fuel lines sorted and also block off a coolant hose which used to run to the single carb setup. Thinking I'll just get a bolt slightly too big and wind it in with a hose clamp on it too. OK so there's not actually that much to do.. just some small things that take ages. Oh, and regarding the sticky brake situation.. I've decided to just upgrade the brakes instead of fix it.. because that's what you're supposed to do right? I've also been toying up getting a new stainless exhaust manifold in because that rusty one looks nasty.
  4. mlracing
    Quiet afternoon at the shop so I thought hell with it, I'm gonna fit these triples on the car! I've ordered some new jets to bring it back down to OEM spec as at the moment they're way too huge (came off L28, big cam). Highly likely to run like garbage on the 2L but whatever, will look and sound sweet haha. Give me motivation to get an L28 working. Obviously there are a few things to work out before we can try to start it.. such as fuel hoses, coolant hoses, throttle and so on so there's a bit to do.. but they look rad! Will have to polish up the trumpets for sure! And annoyingly still the left brake caliper sticks. The whole brake system could use a going over so I will look into rebuilding the front calipers. PS: If you know of/have an L28 for sale holla at ya boi. Don't need most of the bits mainly just long block will be good. Needs to have been running, or still running.
  5. mlracing
    New caster arms have arrived with the most recent container shipment. So that was today's task.. pretty straight forward. So the reason I needed to change the driver side one was.. well as you can see it's bent. Looking at the area surrounding the front mount I would say it's taken a punt. If I had more time I would've done an oil change too.. oh well maybe in another year I'll get around to that
  6. mlracing
    Woohoo best day at work ever, I found the Butaketsu Laurel-type indicators that I thought I'd lost forever. Original Years of gunk and nastiness New No more orange ! They don't fit super well because they're not made for this car but with enough trimming and fiddling I could get them to sit flush. They'll do for now.
  7. mlracing
    Quickly took the car down for an alignment this arvo to try and work out the pulling to the left situation. Well have a look at the "before" spec below.. haha! As they didn't have a listing for hako on the system I figured Kenmeri woud probably be closest. One of the front caster arms is bent which is causing some of that issue and the toe adjust arms are a bit shit but managed to get them back in line. There is a lot of rust underneath so I'll be loading up on repair panels in this next container! Went to stop in at the compliance place on the way back but it was closed Also I think I need a GT-Kai badge.. everyone thinks it's a GT-R and are crushingly disappointed when I tell them otherwise haha Oh, so result of alignment car definitely feels like it drives a bit straighter, still pulls to the side occasionally but I think that may be as a result of my spring situation. I received a few more bits for it from Kevin san (the aussie guy previously mentioned) so one day I'll get to putting those in and see if that makes the difference.
  8. mlracing
    It's been ages since I've really done anything towards this so I decided to start tearing down the L28 that I have. When I got this I knew the bottom end wasn't good but the head should be fine. Feels like there is some mild port work done and I'm told the cam is quite big. I just wanted to put these on so I could make doort noises. From memory there was a bearing problem but as it looks like it was sitting around for a while partially assembled before I got it I'll need to take it somewhere to be inventoried and see exactly which parts are there, which are not and what can be reused. Might be easier to just get another block and put the head on. Also managed to find some OEM castor arms and some urethane bushes to replace the bent one on the car which will come in the next container. Things are happening.. slowly.
  9. mlracing
    Finished up the other side today and took it for a spin. I also took a couple extra pictures as a future reference potentially for anyone who needs this info as it took me a while to work this out. So in order to remove the brake disc from the hub took a bit of trickery for the average Joe. I suppose if you had a press handy you'd use that but this way is just as easy. First step of course is removing the bolts. Not too hard with an impact gun. Then bolt the hub to your wheel like shown above. Get a piece of wood or something similar and use it to hammer down on the brake disc. Moving around the disc eventually it should slip off the hub. I found this was quite an easy way to do it. Still took some decent hits but worked out good. One assumes you're replacing the discs at this point so risking damage on them isn't really a major concern. Then you end up with this, as you can see bearing and seal removal is not required but it's good to check them while you're there. Springs have settled a bit and actually look really good, about the same height as it was before. Still getting clunky noises and I'm fairly certain it is the springs as I can twist them by hand when the car is in the air but they are still captive. So perhaps just missing something more to push down on the top. The alignment is fully out of whack and almost certain it has positive camber now! It got quite wobbly on the motorway earlier at about 80-90kmh, so definitely need to take it to alignment shop. Although I'm not entirely sure how much adjustability will be available. The ball joint looks like it is OK but when it's on a lift I could check it better.. or more likely someone who knows what to look for can check it better. Also, the new discs work very well. Might just be my optimism but feels like it pulls up a bit better.
  10. mlracing
    Today sort of went ok.. I have since decided changing the brake pads in this car is a giant pain in the ass though. Plan today was to put the new discs on and new pads, sort of worked out. Check out these badboys, furious stopping power! The main hurdle I had after working out how the hub and disc comes off is this.. the piston at the top could not be pushed in enough to allow for one of the new pads to go in while sliding over the disc. What I ended up doing was a bit naughty by using one new pad and one old pad (which still had a bunch of material on it anyway) so I could slide it over the disc. Perhaps I need to get the calipers rebuilt or look to upgrade to the MK63 which most people go to. I've only got one side on there now as I ended up going out for a lunch longer than anticipated and got back late but it spins around and looks good. Once I get the other side on I'll take it out and see if they actually work. Made the mistake of opening the door while it was on an the jack.. Just a little bit of chassis flex in there. Plus side, rear springs are captive as do I'm not going to change them for the other springs. Oh, and I found that the hub nut was finger tight, so that was a pretty good find. Thanks cotter pin for keeping me alive!
  11. mlracing
    Oh apparently I haven't updated this for a while.. Finally had an afternoon free to do some work on the Skyline. I now have all the parts I was waiting on to work on the underbody and suspension parts. The reason it's taken so long as I wasn't super keen on taking bits apart then taking them apart again so my main hold up was getting OEM top hats so it's one less thing for it to fail on when it comes to inspection time. These finally arrived thanks to a Hako owner in Aus (Kevin, if you're in the scene you'll know him), total legend. When it came in the car was on cut springs, common in old Japanese cars so no surprise but it was no good here. Picked up some ZOOM brand low springs in our last container and today's task was install the fronts. After about an hour and two trips back home I managed to get one side done. Once I'd figured it out the other side took about 20 mins. Yay for OEM.. but that top nut is not correct as it was the one used with the camber adjust top hats.. I'm guessing I can just keep it there as it's doing the job, just doesn't look super great. Noticed this underneath too.. big dent on the sump which looks like it's cracked but it's not actually leaking. Perhaps someone repaired it in the past. However I have a feeling I'm missing some bits to complete the OEM top hat assembly as it still making clunking noises when I turn the wheel. The spring seats correctly but I'm not sure if just above that is meant to be something else before the top hat goes on above the upper spring seat. Also yeah the boots are goneburgers and maybe both the shocks are leaking.. yay! Took it out for a hoon around the block to make sure it was working ok. Initially pulled hard to the left but once I went full lock to lock a few times it sorted out but still pulls a little to the left. I suspect I knocked something while I was under there. Not sure, probably worth going for alignment anyway Short outside video - https://www.instagram.com/p/BQE6iE-AG8M/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Still, one thing less on my list. Hako makes it's first official public outing. I was asked by one of the organisers of a car show if I could bring the Skyline out to have on a Nissan stand. So I agreed. It's crazy to see the size difference between old and new.. everything has just become so much bigger.
  12. mlracing
    Hako makes it's first official public outing. I was asked by one of the organisers of a car show if I could bring the Skyline out to have on a Nissan stand. So I agreed. It's crazy to see the size difference between old and new.. everything has just become so much bigger.
  13. mlracing
    Not too much happened recently but for the sake of documentation I'll add it here. I picked up one of those C-Tek chargers which worked wonders on one of the old batteries I had in storage but no bueno on the Skyline one so I need to buy a new battery for that. No major, they're around I just haven't got to doing it. A couple of small rubber bits did arrive though the other week so got to installing them. Nice new rubber seal around the bottom of that cowling. Can see a bit of rust on either end of it as well as perhaps some quick repair done. These are common places for rust on Hakos so I suspect when the time comes I'll have to pull all that down and repair it properly. Repair parts are available for these areas. And these little rubber caps for the wipers were busted as you can see in the top picture. Replaced as per bottom picture. Yep, thrilling stuff.. but it keeps the momentum going I guess.
  14. mlracing
    It's sometimes the little things that make all the difference so I had a couple of bits I really needed to get fixed up. I purchased a new gear boot a while ago but the silver trim ring was smashed to pieces, the centre console is in poor condition with some pretty agricultural repairs so not entirely surprised. I have this one hook underneath which I've since been told isn't meant to be there, so I'm missing a bunch of clips that go underneath here which secure the shift boot onto the trim ring. Previously I purchased a replacement rubber boot for the shifter hole but I got the wrong one, now I have the correct one. After a bunch of prodding and poking, got it in there. So without all the clips in there the shift boot sits like this. Deciding whether to get some new woodgrain stickers but if I'm going to eventually replace the centre console anyway maybe there are better things to spend the money on.. really want to get a different shift knob though.
  15. mlracing
    So after my bust on the 180sx wiper motor I did a bit more research and found that majority of Datsuns of similar vintage shared (or 95%) the same wiper motor. There are some Honda ones you can use and various other things but mint16 on here had some 510 motors for sale so I contacted him and picked up two of those. You can see they're almost identical except the centre linkage shaft is longer on the Hakosuka one. I took apart/cut the plugs off and ran some quick bench testing. With old cars it's always better to have more spares than less and it's a good thing too as one of the motors was not as good as the other. One was better than my current one though so I used the not so good one as a sacrifice so I could take it apart without concern and learn about how it all works. What I learnt initially was how much of a huge pain in the ass these bushes can be, and how much of an idiot they make you feel like.. that is until you work out/research how to get them to stay in their sprung houses. Then you feel like an even bigger idiot, albeit an enlightened one. This motor (which was the best of the lot) looked like it had some moisture inside it sometime in the past. Nonetheless it worked OK so after giving it a little clean up I re-used that part. My main quandry was how to get the linkage shaft out and move it from the hako motor to the 510 one. I tried for ages to remove a washer on the outside to pull it out but then thought I'd see if it were possible to remove it from the inside, jackpot! Once this cover is removed you're faced with this. Pretty straight forward system. Simply remove that nut, couple of washers and the park position thing and a circlip then you can see this. Just lightly knock out the centre shaft and it pops out the other side. Easily enough to reverse the procedure with the hako shaft. Better look at the size difference. Bigger is better huehuehuehue Taking the advice of many, I also tried to lube up this linkage area. I couldn't for the life of me get the washer clip thing off the top but it was quite stiff to move around. I did clean it up and gunked it as best as possible and it definitely made it move more freely. So after putting it all back together it's not a major improvement but definitely an improvement. Also for some reason the park no longer works despite wiring being the same, the motor just seems to run continually so perhaps something isn't quite exactly the same. Anyway, don't need that so I've not plugged that in for now. I think definitely for a proper decent upgrade the Honda motor could be the way to go, but I learnt a bunch from this so I consider it a win win. I also learnt that I need a new battery and a trickle charger.
  16. mlracing
    OK so the 180SX wiper motor arrived and after closely inspecting it I can't see any easy way to make it work. None of the brackets line up (could make custom though) and the size is a bit different. So it's definitely not quite anywhere near bolt on. Even once I remove the mounting plate on the original one there's not really any way to easily attach it to the new one. Will have to think a bit more about the strategy. I'm not sure if this will be the same for other countries or models but this one is from a 180SX Type X, so later model. Perhaps early model ones are more suitable. I'll continue to look out for something a bit older and around the same period before destroying this one.
  17. mlracing
    Ever since I've had the car the wipers have not been great/hardy work at all so my mission today was to remove the wiper motor because I've been told that S13 ones can fit with some small adjustments. I was a bit worried that when I pulled off this cowling there would be epic rust underneath but actually it's very tidy. The cover has a little surface rust under it and on the car side the rust looking marks are just dirt from the seal being damaged and letting muck in. I've ordered a new seal to replace it. Also, an enterprising fellow the previous owner must have been as the rubber cover you see there above the access hole is actually the sole of a shoe. It worked well so can't complain. I had to cut it up to get in there though so I've also ordered the correct replacement rubber part for when it goes back together. The wiper motor is actually inside the car behind the glove box. Initially I couldn't work out how I would get to it but ended up quite easy once I actually had a proper look at it. That's the thing with these cars, once you slow down and have a bit of a snoop around it's pretty straight forward how things go together. Because of this you can get quite a bit of satisfaction from just doing simple tasks because you can actually do them! Also fun note, the glove box is made of cardboard material. As you can see it's pretty weathered and you can get new ones but at this stage it's not super high on the priorities. I could unstaple it and even make my own one using the original as a template if I really wanted. Got em! The S13 one should be here sometime earlyish next week so it will be interesting to compare the parts and see what I need to change. I've read that the shaft that connects the linkage to the motor needs to be swapped and maybe some wiring needs to be tickled but as I've not actually seen a proper write up on the process (in English anyway) I figured I'd give it a shot and see what happens. Can't get any worse..
  18. mlracing
    Parts parts parts parts Slowly I pick away and find things to buy to fix up the car, this morning a package arrived with Nissan OEM brake lines (seems like clutch lines are the same), Nissan OEM shift boot and also a rubber boot to go under it all as mine didn't really have one. Immediately run into an interesting problem. There are two types of these rubber boots listed for Hakosuka depending on the year, I picked up the one which was suitable to my year but it seems like the shifter itself is in the wrong place. So that makes me wonder if the gearbox is not a Hako gearbox, could be from any number of Datsuns of similar vintage. Regardless I put the boot there and it's kind of just sitting as it is better than nothing. This waas what was there before.. The shift boot looks cool! I just need to get a new chrome trim ring around the plastic where the shifter goes through. It looks like to get the boot to stay up it folds around that trim ring then the trim ring is screwed from below. I'm actually looking for a full new console as this one has cracks and various repairs etc out of it so not that great.
  19. mlracing
    Latest parts container has arrived so I went down for a nosey before the stuff gets delivered to our dispatch facility. Picked up a few things (Heaps of Boss coffee in stock now for anyone that's interested). There was a nice box that said my name on it and look what's inside! Ohhh, ahhh. Mikuni Solex 40s. Come off the L28 that is also in the container. I'm told explicitly not to open them up as they're setup and run perfectly for L28 with big cam on stock bottom end. Super happy the throttle linkage has the adapter on it for cable too, makes life so much easier as mine uses cable not linkages like the twin carb ones. Also these came in the box, some ancient MSD system. Looks pretty full on, not exactly sure how this would be set up or if I'll use it but will investigate that further down the line. Also these old as electric fuel pumps, neat! They look well used that's for sure.
  20. mlracing
    Did a couple of small bits the other day, decided to see why my wiper motor was not really doing a good job and install the rear emblem as well as finally put on the hood latch handle thing. So basically when I got the car it didn't have a proper handle connected to the wire to pull the bonnet latch so what I ended up doing is getting this washed and knob setup there which was ok but still difficult. Most excellently I found a whole wire on Yahoo but as it turned out I could just unscrew the handle bit and screw it onto my current wire which was great because it looked quite difficult to get the other one out. Next up I attached the emblem that I sort of reburbished just using some double sided tape (the kind used to attach wings and such) so that isn't going anywhere. Looks sweet! Also mocked up the black bit there but I still need the trims that go along the top and bottom then I can attach it on there properly. Still debating whether or not to get a badge for it, probably will. Next step rip into the wiper motor.. so what happens is when the wipers are on the windscreen it has one speed, slow. Despite having multiple actual speeds available (slow and slightly less slow). My first port of call, the switch. Sometimes people jump the switch if there's a problem or do some different wiring or wahtever. Definately some.. typical wiring jobs under here.. This one, twist and taped (and a gear boot which is broken that I have another one on the way). This one, casual wire just hanging around. This one, some kind of twist and tape splice method, appears regularly. Old mate twist (no tape even on this one). This is what I mean about the twist and tape splice method.. sans tape. Anyway after all that I did another test with the wipers not on the windscreen and it does change speed so I think the motor is just old and worn out and can't put through the power it needs. So I've got a couple of choices here.. I can take it out and see if it can be revamped somewhere or get a different one. I've been told that S13 ones may be able to work so I'll investigate both options. Also I got rid of a bunch of redundant wiring that I suspect was for the head unit/navi that was probably there before. Also I thought the car may have been red before and repainted to silver.. now I wonder if it's always silver and the floor was just red? No idea really.. probably had some shitty rust repair done on the floor before and maybe it's a coating or something.
  21. mlracing
    So previous owner debadged the lot and removed a bunch of trim. This is common as GT-R doesn't have the same kind of trim as the lower models and people try to go for this look. Being that mine is not a GT-R and not trying to be, I want to put the trim and badges back. Only problem is the previous owner covered over the holes which are typically used to hold on the badges etc Deciding what to do but I may just use tape to hold most of them on as a few of the mounting prongs are damaged anyway. Still deciding.. Also my bonnet cable is missing the handle so picked up another one of those to fit! The badges will need some restoration anyway so will need to research the best way to go about doing that.
  22. mlracing
    I'm still out of country not getting back until next week but I had these come through from depot during the packing of the container (which will be here shortly as well).. It's got a busted bottom end apparently, but block should still be OK. The boys also tell me it has a big cam but not sure spec on anything.
  23. mlracing
    Took the Skyline around the block to make sure all still working as it should be, rides a bit nicer on the new tyres compared to the cracked other ones so that's cool. Also did an Instagram walk around as hadn't done that yet. Got several puzzled looks in my short around the block journey haha, people can't work out what it is. https://www.instagram.com/p/BAEEuXSGbEx/?taken-by=mlracing_alex When I parked it up to open the garage it was in the right spot.. Squad.. with myself? haha I had a really good time just driving it around the block, it's made me excited for this year! Also the new woodgrain Nardi is so much nicer to use, perfect for the car.
  24. mlracing
    I had some tyres that needed to be removed from the car because they had cracks all through them, surprised they hadn't blown out! Luckily I had some already from other wheels. All different brands/models because I like to live dangerously. Also the sizes slightly different (two 175, two 185) so put the 185's on the rear, naturally. While I was under the car I had a look at the rust and repair places that will need to be fixed up. Some really awesome Japanese typical body panel repair jobs involving urethane, silicone, cardboard (or plastic) and metal tape. Just the usual. The good thing (but maybe expensive) is that inner/outer sills are available as well as a couple other common failure points as repair parts. Not genuine Nissan of course but a couple restore companies are reproducing them which is excellent. They were all like this, and also had cracking inside the tread too. New (old) tyres on.. I think there are some from China and some from Korea, quality. So much room for activities. Bit of a shitty look at the stainless exhaust. It's loud. Hmm those could be a problem. I had a feeling it was on cut springs after driving it. The rear actually is captive so that should be OK, but the front is no bueno, will look at upgrade options because the shocks look pretty average too. Looks like a bolt missing from there... and interesting exhaust hanger situation.
  25. mlracing
    Picked up this Nardi woodgrain wheel for a price I couldn't resist as was looking for something larger than the Momo that was on there in order to see the gauges properly (couldn't see water temp, somewhat important). With a bit of fettling it's on, and looks perfect. Feels really nice to hold, I've never had a woodgrain wheel before. Also took this opportunity to straighten the boss as the previous owner for whatever reason had the wheel on a slight angle which bugged me to no end. Now I need to get some repair parts for the centre console to get it back to it's former glory. When I took that photo from the driver's seat it reminded me of this one I took a little over 3 years ago at Rocky Auto: It was never a matter of IF I would own one.. but a matter of when!
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