2.5 Months Later...

So two and a half months later I've been working on the car in little bursts. Unfortunately work has been quite busy lately so I haven't had the chance to make as much progress as I'd like. Here's what's happened so far:

• Discovered the DAMB penultimate crossmember is the way to go unless you want to ship your crossmember to Australia to have Datsport install their kit on your crossmember.
  
• Discovered that my mustache bar has an odd size bushing, so I've purchased and will have to modify the 240/280z mustache bar poly bushing kit in order to make it fit. I'm thinking there will be a write up on this later
• The Engineered Datsun Products Wilwood caliper/300ZX disc combo will not work with 13" wheels, though it seems that it might work (tightly) with some 14" wheels.
• Wilwood's new 120-9689 two piston caliper has superseded the older 120-4060 caliper. I think it looks better to boot:
  

I also picked up a VG30E on the cheap, so I'll be pulling that apart to see if it seems like it'll still run.

Hopefully things will start to calm down for the holiday season so I can put some more time towards this project.

I love my air hammer

I've been busy with lots of things, but a lot of it has been waiting on the new rear poly bushings to come in for the mustache bar and crossmember. The air hammer has been pretty valuable in getting the old bushings out, but it's still one of my least favorite things to do.

Rear End Disassembled!

There it is, off of the car and mocked up on the floor with 40 years of dirt on it. I've ordered the Datsport DIY adjustable rear crossmember kit. I thought about the DAMB crossmember, but I'm working to keep costs down. The dime quarterly DIY method was a contender as well, but the datsport kit seems to be very well engineered and easy to adjust.

Next steps are drum brake removal, cleanup and paint for the control arms. The crossmember will get cleaned up, but not painted until the adjustable kit is mounted up.

Rear End Disassembly Night #4

Pulled out more rear end stuff. Had to cut the exhaust out in three pieces because of how the exhaust shop that did the current exhaust put it all together. Tomorrow evening I should be able to charge the compressor back up and use the impact wrench to get the remaining control arm off. I thought about taking the crossmember off as is, but decided against it since it'd be pretty unwieldy.

The guy just welded the washer to the crossmember instead of using a properly sized washer and lock nuts. Grumble grumble grumble.

Rear End Disassembly Night #3

Pulled the right control arm off today. The Energy Suspension sleeves really hold the bolt in, which is great so long as you never need to pull the thing out. I had a much easier time with the disassembly than I remember last time I attempted it.

My least favorite bolt on my 510 (so far).

Rear End Disassembly Night #2

Just pulled the diff out tonight. Will rip the control arms off tomorrow when I can charge up the compressor without disturbing the wife.

Rear End Disassembly Night 1

Tonight was the first night I've taken to work on disassembling the rear end. The plan here is to update the rear crossmember with slotted components for adjustable toe and camber (Dietz Automotive seems to be the most promising), as well as the rear disc brake conversion using EDP's brackets with Wilwood calipers. I'm not sure if I'll update to rear coil overs at this point, or make that part of the front suspension project. I'll also need larger wheels/tires after the brakes have been updated, and I'm leaning towards Konig B.Bomb wheels wrapped in something 205/50R15.

Anyway, tonight I got ~35% of the way towards having the rear crossmember detached, but I think the bits I've removed are the easier ones.

Those bolts attaching the half-shaft to the diff are a pain to remove if you didn't loosen them up prior to detaching the outside bolts. I'd suggest setting the e-brake and listening the bolts before taking it completely apart. As you can see my diff needs a new gasket as well. Who knows when the last time the fluid was changed....

One of these half-shafts was replaced shortly before I got the car. They both seem in good shape though. The exhaust that I had put on the car after I installed the long tube header years ago makes slight contact with the half-shaft when the suspension is fully unloaded on that side, though it doesn't seem to have done any damage.

So next time I'll be getting the diff out and the control arms off. I'll probably wait until I have a chance to work on the car during the day so I can use my air tools to make the job go faster. Not terribly excited to take off the control arms without them.

About Aaron's 510 Project

Hi, I'm Aaron. I've had my 1969 Datsun 510 for about seven years now. It's moved with me through eight or nine houses. It's raced in F street prepared earlier on, and sat around more recently. This is changing.

My wife and I have finally purchased a house, and I'm finally setting up a garage that will allow me to give the car the attention it needs. Here's my project list for the car so far:

• Phase 1 - Rear Brakes, Rear Suspension
• Phase 2 - Front Brakes, Front Suspension
• Phase 3 - Powertrain (V6 swap?)
  

Since I'm not a fabricator, I'm hoping these projects will show me the best that the niche aftermarket for this car has to offer. The drive train swap will be something from Nissan (so I can continue racing in the Street Modified classes).

Hopefully this blog will stay up to date as the projects progress. Keep your fingers crossed for me :)