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CLUNK taking off with spirit

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Thanks Trevor,
Yes I looked at the rear spring hangers and the nuts accepted a bit of tightening but they were not to the falling off stage.

I guess I'll jack it up again today and try to find more loose stuff.
While under there I suppose I could put some oil in the diff. How do you drain the pumpkin & what lubricant is advised?
 
90 weight oil, regular rear end stuff. To drain is a fitting on the bottom, a 3/8 drive rachet works for me.
 
I remember a recommendation to fill to about 1/2" below the fill hole. I filled it up to overflow, then pumped a bit back out (with one of those little hand pumps). After my first diff fluid change I just filled to overflow and called it good. Shortly after both rear hubs had leaked through coating everything in oil. Coincidence? Maybe but after rebuilding the hubs I only filled as above. FWIW.
 
Funny story, I always slide my big a$$ floor jack under and raise the car from the bottom of the diff. Then I put the jack stands under but I leave the jack sit there. So when I look at the thing underneath of course I don't see the plug on the bottom. As soon as you mentioned it I could see it in my head and realized why I almost never see it when I'm working under there! :wink:

SO - the 3/8 square with no attachment fits in the hole? Sounds like fun.
I'll go buy some 90 weight now... and how do you get it to run up and into the fill hole???
 
RickB said:
SO - the 3/8 square with no attachment fits in the hole? Sounds like fun.
I'll go buy some 90 weight now... and how do you get it to run up and into the fill hole???
Click to expand...

I had to slip a washer in with the drive, not a good fit even then.
I bought a little hand pump, made for outdrives on boat to pump oil in and out but works well for pumping oil up and into various places. Still a bit tedious.
 
My ratchet did the trick very well, when I bought the gear oil they also had one of those pumps - have I mentioned I really love my True Value hardware store?
Right across the street and lots of things for the LBC owner. (not to mention home owner)

Looking at the rear leaf spring hangars I find the top to be in good nick but the bottom links both sides the bushings are shot.
Where do I get new bushings for those? I could start by calling NAPA I suppose, just for grins. :wink:

While we are lubing up stuff under the car... What is suggested for a Datsun 4 speed tranny? I assume it's the same as whatever goes in the 1500 Midget tranny - motor oil? Gear oil? WHat weight?
 
Heres a goof story. Hence my name I did have a corvair once. I had pulled the drive train out in my dads backyard and replaced the diff for a taller gear. Got everything done off the stands and put it in drive. KERPLUNK! Moved maybe 6" than Locked up. I was [censored] I took it all back out again replaced it again even though everything moved freely. But it was still stuck. Than I looked around the front of the car. I had gotten the front valance wedged over a tree stump that I forgot my dad left oh about perfect height! Chaulk it up to a life lesson.

I tell my guys all the time. Dont mess with the carberator til you check to see if it has gas! Common sense goes a long way.
 
I hear that one Scott - you never can tell if you don't look around enough.

Well looking up lube specs it seems this tranny wants 80 / 90 gear oil.
I'll have to go out and get some more of that, one quart went into the diff and it looks like the trans will take another two quarts.
 
Motor Mount.

Same one I replaced a few months ago.
This time instead of trying to be smarter than the computer down at the parts place I just told them the year make & model and asked for a right side motor mount.

Whatcha know, it was different than the last one I got.

I pulled the old one out and put the new one in, started the car & the motor was steady as can be. Going to go out and try it out after I clean up.

It will be nice if the CLUNK is gone. :wink:
 
and...
 
Much better.
I remember now what I did wrong last time was that I took the old one to NAPA and they looked at it and ordered one the same. Turns out that was not the correct one in the first place so I put another 'wrong' part in place.
It didn't last long.

As near as I can tell my motor is out of a 1980 Datsun B210 Deluxe.
This time I ordered the part that's right for that car, it fit much better than the other part. The PO who did the engine swap cut out the mount for the Nissan engine and welded it in the engine bay. Not bad work, not exceptionally good but not bad. When the mount goes bad the engine rocks side to side quite a bit.
When the mount is good she is steady.

Now to the "rest of the story"...

The clunk when taking off or shifting up is gone!

There are other creaks & groans and clunking sounds I'm hearing since fixing an exhaust leak. I'm sure a lot of that is just that it's a 31+ year old car.
I still need to replace the lower shackle bushings, that will help.
I know there are other bushings that are worn, especially in the front end.
I'll plan on replacing a lot of that this spring.

I really feel better having the right motor mount in there.
 
Ok - now I believe I understand why the PO used the 'wrong' motor mount.
These are pretty standard mounts kind of in the shape of an "L7" with rubber in the center and a stud that protrudes from the top and another from the bottom.

Unfortunately on the "correct" mount the "7" part comes down too far and touches the frame. This negates any vibration dampening of the rubber and causes the body of the car to vibrate at varying frequencies.

So here's how it went:
Find old motor mount broken, replace with correct mount.
Get everything tightened up and go for a spin, things seem better.
The following workday notice a great deal of vibration at some speeds and at idle quite a bit of noise from all around me.
Yesterday - look very closely at engine, noticing that the new mount extends too far down and has metal to metal contact between the engine and the frame.

Tomorrow's plan: remove new mount, grind off about 1/2 inch so it will not contact metal... reinstall.
 
FIXED:

First I took out the MM and ground off 1/4 inch.
Painted it black, reinstalled it in the car.

Still had metal to metal contact!!!!! :frown:

Took it back out and ground off another 1/2 inch.
SUCCESS!!! No more vibration, everything is all better now! :laugh:

In true style, anything worth doing is worth doing over and over and over...
 
better than my philosophy - cut it twice and it's still too short.

congrats!
 
One thing you really don't want on a street car is having the engine bolted right to the frame. Ouch!!!
 
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