I’ve been able to get some good time in on ‘Mighty Mouse’ over the past couple of weeks. Trying to get the little critter drivable as a couple other projects will be starting up soon (fence building, start-up of a small greenhouse, poolhouse projects, and more). I got the wiring loom just loose stuck back in along the right front fenderwell so I could start incorporating the changes that will be needed to wire in the electronic distributor, alternator, starter mounted solenoid, and other stuff. I will be adding a new wrap with gray electrical tape in the engineroom. I want to have the engine functional in the truck and all systems working properly before the wrap and reinstallation.
I jacked the back end up and ran a new wire to the brake lights. A previous owner had just strung a wire loosely back from the hydraulic brake-light switch and that just won’t get it. Also as I previously posted, I’m working in a mechanical brake light switch on the brake pedal. I’ll add in a pigtail at the switch so I can later add a third brake light if I decide to. Something that I’ve been kicking around since the start of the project. Got the driveshaft cleaned up and put a light coat of black on it and put it back in. Installed the new NOS Tokico 2004 shocks that I snagged a year and a half ago in Ft. Worth Texas.
Here's the 1 ¼” X 3 ¼” LED brake light temporarily stuck on with double-back tape, both outside & above the back window and at the top of the window inside the cab.
I’ve had other Datsun folks advise that they don’t like the idea of the third brake light as it just doesn’t fit in with the aura of the vintage pickup. Give me some feedback on what you might think. For the most part I drive quite small cars and I’ve been run over several times by modern behemoths. All the newer pickups scare the Hell out of me. I have a plastic right foot, at least half dozen broken ribs, broken collar bone, crushed and cracked vertebre, been scalped on the right front, and several other injuries from being targeted by bigger cars. At any rate the third light is still up in the air and if I do end up adding it, it will be worked in to look like it was born on the Mouse.
Back in the engineroom I mounted the later fuel filter at the original bracket on the left front fender. I took a filter bracket like the one on our 620 and flattened out the mounting arm and reshaped it to fit the 320 fender bracket. Here’s a pic of the reshaped bracket next to the bracket in the 620.
And mounted in the 320.
Polished a foot or so of stainless ¼” tubing and bent up this loop and plumbed the fuel through the fuel pump and up to the Weber carb. A really simple, clean, and easy to maintain setup.
Started up the E1 for the first time since reinstalling in the Mouse. Sounds so good. Could only let it run for half a minute or so since the radiator was not back in yet. I now have the radiator and drain c*** cleaned up and a light coat of black on the radiator and put it back in the engineroom. I’ll get coolant in next week and then it’s on to finishing the wiring loom and working up a throttle cable. I’ll have then reached a major goal in the project. I’ll have a first drive to check out all the efforts that have been incorporated into this thread to date. A report will be coming soon. I’m ready for some Spring cruising.
Steve