What's up guys. Well, at the urging of a few friends, I am ready to pull the trigger on an 85 720. As you can tell from my screen name, I live in Smyrna TN, Home of the Hardbody, lol. Anyways, I've been spinning wrenches professionally since I was 14, sooo, that's about 15 years now. I'm in the army, I work for the TBI, big into guns, Les Paul guitars, Impala SS/Caprices, all late model GM performance and most anything Chevy. This will be my first "Import" vehicle, but I know they all have wheels that turn, and all do the same basic thing. Suck, squeeze, bang, blow.

So, on to the pictures. I have a friend that wants to unload this truck for a righteous price. My question is, is it worth it? Z24, 5 speed, manual steering, A/C, Reg cab, 230K miles, good tires, american bed, mostly stuff you can see in the pictures. I'm bringing it home tomorow for a good once over to check suspension, steering, all electrical, see if it needs a tune up, all that stuff. Look at the pics and at the end, I'll tell you how much he wants for it.















Sooo.... Think it's worth $600 bucks?

If it runs good it's definitely worth the price. These drivetrains are pretty much bullet proof and will last and last as long as they're maintained. One good plus about these older Nissans is that they're sooo easy to work on.

I'd buy it at $600! Cool you are into LPs, I just purchased an older Yamaha SA1100 which is basically a ES335. I used to be a Strat guy but I am digging the Gibson scale length right now. Welcome to NICO! I'd buy that 720.

Right on man. Yeah it seems to run pretty good. Should have a better idea later tonight. Since I started playing electric, I've preferred either a humbucker or P90 sound as opposed to the fender single coil. The 24.75 scale length is a plus. What would really be the shiz-nizzle would be a Byrdland. 23.75 scale length. Plus Uncle Ted plays one. Right now I've got a 1980 Japanese LP copy. It's meh. I really want a Bonamassa studio. The secksiness.

Welcome to nico!

Heck yea you should buy it!

Nothing comes close to the sweetness of a P90. I bought a custom built solid body that has a Dimarzio PAF Pro bucker in the rear, oh man does it sing. I do still like the single coil sound though because it cuts through and just gives certain scales an eery tone. Keep on rockin' and let us know when you get the keys to that 720.

Wellll, I've pretty much made up my mind to get it. I was going to drive it home last night, but my buddy's roommate mistakenly grabbed the keys.. and he may not be home until next tuesday. Boo. Well, I did look it over good, and came up with a new parts list, and a what it needs fixed list. To the good:

Less miles than I thought, "only" 184K



New cap, rotor, wires, plugs, air filter and carbretarder. Well, reman carb anyways.







Amazingly solid. Only rust on the truck is as follows.







See all that factory undercoating? Woot woot!

Not pictured: New tires, Solid shocks, new battery, new battery power cable.

Bad:

Rearview mirror broke the f*** off. Where it is, I have no idea.

Fuel filler door won't stay shut.



Something is up with the tailgate. I don't know why it's apart.



No exhaust, BUT it does come with a Magnaflow cat to so I can pass emissions. And I think the valvecover is leaking.



Unknown heater issue. It might be a heater core, or it might be a stuck open fresh air door/missing ductwork. I have to dig into it and find out. I also have to do a little searching on what would cause this. Also, blower doesn't work, but it's got a new motor, so all I have to do is trouble shoot it. That's the easy part. And the cheap part. AC don't work, but it is complete and unmolested, so I can probably just evacuate it and recharge with 134a.





Needs dashpad and seatcover.



The alleged:

Allegedly it had ball joints and tie rod ends replaced within the last year and a half. Allegedly. When I get a jack under it we'll see...







All in all, I know this is a VERY solid truck. As soon as I can get the owner to take my money and deliver my product, it will be parked in my driveway. Ideally, I would like to be driving it by the middle of January. That'll give me a couple weeks to fix the small things to make it DD capable.

FWIW, I'll be the 3rd owner. I think that about covers it.

Watch out for the lowering thread to come... as soon as I fix the other crap.

Well, it's home now!First thing it needs fixed is the heater core. Leaks like a b****. While the dash is apart I'll reinstall the the duct work that the last idiots that put a blower motor in it left out. Also, I'll troubleshoot the blower motor circuit.

Next, the carb needs adjusted, some vacuum lines replaced and something in the steering is sloppy. I'm guessing the rag joint. Needs an emergency brake cable too. And a driver side door hinge. And a rearview mirror. Then exhaust, then wheels/tire/lowering. I mean, it's a $600 truck, I wasn't expecting perfection.

Glad to see you got the truck!!
yeah, the heater core isn't exactly the easiest thing to change out but it has to be done, luckily mine was in good shape when I got it but it could go at any time if it's original. As far as the blower motor is concerned, if the switch isn't working, locate the black ground wire on the switch and run a test lead off it to ground and see if it works, if it does with the test lead ground, you can either run a new ground wire or trace it and find where it connects to ground and fix it there. I chose to run a new ground wire by splicing and soldering in a new wire. There are other reasons the blower motor won't come on but that's what fixed mine. I've also heard others go as far as taking the switch apart and cleaning the contacts up to get theirs working again... in fact, this thread has more reasons and possible fixes that may help you with yours... heater-help-t519613.html

For the vacuum lines, there are good reference pics in the stickys at the top of the forum page that'll help, or you can block off all of them except for the vacuum advance and it'll still run properly. On mine, I had to completely rebuild the carb since it sat so long and the fuel dried up leaving crud inside that blocked off the jets and their passages. Other than that, there's only 3 major adjustments to the carb.. Idle speed, Idle mixture, and the electric choke (don't mess with the choke if it's working). There's also the float level inside the bowl but that's all there is to it.
You can replace the carb with a Weber later on for better milage (32/36 mm) and slightly better performance, or the 38/38 mm version for even more performance without killing the gas milage.

Hey man, I appreciate the heads up. If there's one thing I've learned from my years on internet forums, it's SEARCH! Chances are good you're not the first to ask a question. I had actually found that thread you mentioned. Also, I have pretty much unlimited access to Mitchell on demand and All Data, so I'll be refrencing those for wiring schematics and R&R procedures.

As far as the Weber, I've already got a line on one of those...

Welcome to NICOclub.

I took of my fuel door for the mean time and got a locking gas cap. I like it a lot.

Have fun with it.

While you got the coolant drained to play with the heater core, go ahead and replace all the hoses, coolant, hose clamps water pump and thermostat. It will cost a little over $100 for it all, but you'll have an entirely new cooling system. I went a step further and had my radiator flushed, pressure tested, and had a new nipple and petcock valve installed. They also put a fresh coat of black paint on it. My truck would average in the top end of the engine temperature, after I replaced all said parts, it never went past the half mark.

Everything you pictured as being wrong on that truck can be fixed and is in a sticky as a "DIY" here.