Running on a Budget - '63 PL-320

[Li'l Truckie]

Hey there 320 fans,

Li'l Truckie has been nose, eyes, and brain deep into reading literally 100s pages, researching journal articles, preparing for the last presentation, and finishing up the last paper for class. All is well, at least until the next class start on May 21st. So we have some catching up to do.....

I have manage to change out the front hubs and wheel cylinders on the one '65 and help the son change the PITA spark plugs on his 4.3l Jimmy, and even managed to get a few things accomplished on Whitey. So here where we stand .....

Engine wiring harness has been repaired, installed, and is getting hooked up. Both the Low and High to horns are in and hooked up. Voltage regulator is mounted and only needs the wires attached.

Fuse box and wires are hooked up and we added a little bling with a Lucas Sports Coil!

Still need to add about 6 inches of the correct color coded wire to the rear wiring harness as I went ahead and remove all signs of the spliced in wiring harness for the tow lights, brakes and blinkers. As you can see by looking at the fuse box wires the Denatured Alcohol did a pretty good job cleaning the wiring harness of all the dirt and grim. Everything here should look pretty clean by tomorrow noon.

Found the alternator and the modified generator mount...it was hiding out in the part 320 cab in the back of the garage. So we will need to clean this up a little and figure out which set of holes to use and then weld up the other four.


Having a few issues with the generator. Someone for some reason pulled out the brushes and springs and then long bolts tight. So I know a trick and we'll see if it works.

We'll that's about it for now and what I'd like to get accomplished tomorrow if the weather stays half way decent. Supposed to rain, so we will see.

For Sunday we will take it easy and look at the bucket seats from the 510 and determine how much upholstery we need to get and I'll share a few pieces of highly classified information on spray paint so you can match the grey heater box and the light grey emergency brake handle to make these look factory fresh the day your 320 rolled off the assembly line and onto boat bound for the West Coast!

[Li'l Truckie]

Good evening there 320 Fans,

It's been a few days since our last update and unfortunately we met with some issues...okay more than a few . So here is a quick run down of what has been identified and needs for be fixed or fixed since the last update.

-Heater core. Told my son to check is out and see if its okay before putting the heater back together. A few minutes later he was back with the bad news. Not just one or two leaks, but three in different locations! Great. This will require some work...so the son will be busy.
*Tech Note / Caution - if you need to sweat the joint around the valve be advised there are two rubber O-rings inside that may and will melt if you use a torch! Just use extra care when removing the copper O-ring that holds the valve in as it will bend easily.


- Generator. Knew this was going to require some work, but not that much. One brush was seized in the Rear cover and one was missing along with one screw. Somewhere along the way I squirreled away two of the correct size brushes and saved the screws from the old points. So all was well after a good day of cleaning, painting, and reassembly.
New brushes are available and your electric shop should have access to an online catalog. Just remember to run all the early Datsun models with the E1 by them as they may not be listed under the 320, but the 410 and 310, 311, 312 Bluebird Sedans all used the E1 engine with generator and positive ground (just not the Fairlady which is the SPL-3xx)

*Tech Note / Caution - Remember to remove the two screw that fasten the brush wire to the rear plate assembly as the screws will not clear the opening of the generator casing. And same when reassembling. Put the rear plate assembly on first then insert brushes and screw. Also note that the spring are a little tricky to put back on. I use a C,E, or O-Ring clip pliers to open the spring a little and then slipped it over the spring tab on the rear plate. You might also need to unwind the spring a little too. And one last note is you can always go a little bigger on the brush and then simply file/grind down to fit.




- This was a long process of "why won't this work" but the generator arm stud off of the MGA would not work. It put the arm too for forward so when I tried to hook up the arm it was a a weird, no way this will work angle. So off with the stud and insert a 2 1/2 bolt. Simply tighten bolt to front plate, slip on the generator arm, lock washer, and nut. Walla! Perfect alignment.


-Starter Solenoid - Okay, if you lose, misplace, or cannot find the one or both nuts for the starter cable and the white generator/ignition wires, you are okay! These are M8 jam nuts. That's right metric...so much for the brochure saying the little 320 is all SAE.


Well that's about it for the past week. Here's what the engine compartment looks like as of this evening. Check out that signature Li'l Truckie black and gold radiator! I know my son says the same thing, why do you waste your time and money, its just going to get all scratched up and people might think you weird or something. He's probably right as I did not boil the radiator, so we will see.



Will start to work on the fuel system and hydraulics over the next few days and will take a real hard look at whether or not to change out the front and rear suspension with the cleaned up and painted pieces parts from the '62 parts 320. I'm a little apprehensive about dropping the front end and then putting it all back together at the correct height , so we will see.

cheers,
Li'l Truckie

[Li'l Truckie]

Hey all you 320 fans,

Li'l Truckie with a quick update as part of my weekend was working on an '88 Blazer's automatic transmission - what a PITA - but it runs and shifts smoother.

Okay, so started working on the front end of the '62 parts 320 as I going to tear it down, clean it up, rebuild as necessary, and swap out the rebuilt parts with those of the not so nice parts on the '63.

So here is a few pics -

So all ready to go! Lots of work ahead getting these clean up. So it all broken down and I am looking to have most of these parts media blasted, just waiting on an estimate for time and money.

Well that's not looking good. This is supposed to be grease....okay it is grease, but its not suppose to look like this. More than likely this will require replacement of both the inner and outer bearings. Seals are a given.

Yeah, that grease is hard as a rock so its soaking.

So here is the front axle with king pin assembly. I will clean this up before I decide whether or not to replace the king pin. Might be more work than necessary. Also, you will see the cork O-Ring gasket. That is the only part I have not been able to source at this time. So I'll call an order in to Victoria British and see if I can match up a gasket from an Austin Healey 100 (yes, it was known as a 100 first and only a 100-4 after the 100-6 came out. Oh and the 100 is a blast to drive) or a MGA, though I think from the schematics the 100's a closer fit. Other than that all parts necessary to rebuild the front suspension and axle are available. I post the parts list tomorrow as I obviously need quite a few parts.

Well the 510 seats are all broken down and ready to go. But Yokohama, we have a problem......

Well, a bit of bad news here. The seat brackets from the 510 are not all the same. I forgot all about this. As you can see the seat rails are different heights and the reason I held off from getting upholstery last Friday. I still have the seats out of my parts 510, but cannot remember if they were rusted out....hmmm....

Well that's about it for this past extended weekend. Again, I'll work on the parts list for the front end and get those posted for you and on order for our project.

v/r
Li'l Truckie

[AZhitman]

I think some steel stock and some bolts and a welder would be a preferable solution to the stock 510 seat brackets. In fact, they may place the seats at a problematic angle on a flat floor, such as what you have in the 320. Remember, the front of those 510 rails sat up on a 3" tall riser (brace running across the 510 floor).

[Li'l Truckie]

AZhitman,

You know I haven't tried the seats parallel to the floor, should be easy to fit a couple of 1 x or 2 x pieces of wood for fitments. And this route might let me keep the original outside bench seat mounts - just add a mount near the transmission tunnel.

All I did was turn the mounts around on the seats and put the 6'4' 225lbs son in the driver seat. It was a snug fit for him, but he did have a little more on the passenger side.

Will cut up some scrap wood this afternoon, place overgrown son in both sides, and see how it feels. The reverse seat rails did kind of have a weird angle when you hopped in.

thanks
Andy

[Li'l Truckie]

Hope all is well 320 Fans!

Well its been a week of some ups and down. On the down size Shroom ('64 Bamboo Tan 320) is ready to go...sort of...not spark, so need compare the wiring to on the running '65 320s and maybe pull the distributor, but that's will have to wait until next weekend.

Work on Whitey is coming along ever so slowly. Front suspension rebuild/refurb of the parts from the '62 320 parts truck is almost complete and most (I might have forgotten to order a part...maybe) if not all the necessary parts are on hand or on order and on the way.

So here's where we're at so far -

Lower Assembly, steering spindle bracket, and torsion bar bracket painted


Steering knuckle and spindle waiting for paint


Nuts, bolts, lock washers, and washers ready to go! Remember everything that is tagged in RED is for the right side.


Okay, not going to replace the lower fulcrum. Chromium plating looks good with no rust or pitting. The threads will be okay once bathed in grease. I will replace the grease fitting on the end caps....all grease fitting will get replaced. And if you go back and look at the grease in the wheel hub, well the fulcrum grease was not far behind.


Also had to reset or rather tap on the king pin plugs a couple of times to get them back into place.


Besides knocking off the caked on dirt and oil, I haven't touched the A-Arms links, so need to work on these over the next week.

Oh, and somewhere in time last week I managed to fix up the ventilation system directional box or what ever its called -

And of course the shutter foam rubber seal just disintegrated so this required replacing. So I cut two ovals out of sheet rubber material - a half inch in diameter larger and smaller than the circumference of the shutter. You can glue one oval on with gasket material, let dry over night and then glue ONLY half of the other new seal as the shutter must be affixed back inside the ventilation assembly on the shutter spindle. Once bolted back on you can glue the over half seal to the shutter and other rubber seal. In three to four days the ventilation assembly is looking good as new...okay, I could have made a few straighter cuts on the two seals but they will serve their purpose.


Well, rather long winded tonight on our update, so lets end this one for now and I'll start another one for the interior and some special info on paint.

cheers
Li'l Truckie

[AZhitman]

Beautiful work buddy!

[Li'l Truckie]

Okay 320 now for some good news!

Finally made it down to National Fabric here in KCKS last week and picked up the upholstery for Whitey! So a special shout out to Dominic for getting us the right fabric and recommending going largewith 5 yards to save a few more dollars, pretty much that last yard was free with the bulk discount.

Colors are Capitano DareDevil (4586900) and Capitano Conch Shell (44800100). The Capitano is the fabric pattern.



And a close up of the two colors -

Sorry the photo is not the best, but at least you know why fabric store do not show upholstery color on line as the true color will be grossly misrepresented and interpreted by our computer screens.

So if you would like a small sample just PM me and I'll send you a sample out. I also have the "as close as you can get to OE" light green if you would like.

As far as the pattern is concerned we are going to stay with the EO style and measurements! Just scaled down a little from the bench seat to the 510 bucket seats.




I know what you are thinking, this bench seat is beyond bad. But what you might be over looking is the fact that this in an original factory seat upholstery. That's the original red and cream colors, just have to tear apart a seam a little. But more importantly this is an original factory seat with all of the original factory measurements! So if you are looking to go back to an original factory type upholstery design let me know and I'll shoot you the measurements.

Well that's about it for the upholstery update. Should be taking the seats and material for new door panels for Whitey and the Shroom over to the upholstery shop this week!

Take care,
Li'l Truckie

[AZhitman]

That cream color is the same as my pristine, original interior, '63 Bluebird seats (mine have a green insert).

Mt '60 Bluebird seat is IDENTICAL to your center color, but it's all red (not two-tone).

[Li'l Truckie]

So the sedan has an all red interior....didn't know that. I know I've seen the red/cream, mint green/cream, and the one Bamboo Tan Bluebird sedan that sold last fall had an all light brown. Really mad I didn't pick this one up.

[Li'l Truckie]

Hey there 320 Fans,

Here's a quick update to where we stand with Whitey's front suspension rebuild -

So just a quick reminder of where we came from over 4 weeks ago-

Needless to say after 4 weeks of laborious work with wire wheel, the drill with an assortment of different shapes and sizes of wire wheel, the old fashion wire brush and various grits of sand paper - the next time I'll simple tag everything and pay to have these parts media blasted. As I know I just could not get some of those cracks and corners cleaned up. So I guess it four weeks of do it yourself cleaning for minimal cost or 4 weeks of calling your local shop to check on the status of your parts - pick your poison

So as of last Friday night we only had a few more piece to clean up and paint


And here is a picture of all major front suspension components cleaned up and ready to go -

I even replaced the grease fittings!

So what's left - well need to source the right angle grease fittings for the end caps for the upper A-Arms, clean up the remaining nuts, bolts, washers, and lock washers in the yogurt containers, finish cleaning up the sway bar and mounts, and take one final inventory of ALL major suspension items, nuts, bolts, and new replacement parts.

ISSUES -

Well only two small issues at this time...I think.
#1. Didn't notice this until I got the Upper A-Arm spindles cleaned up. As you can see by the photo the one end of the spindle has offset threads. Though I know which spindle goes on the left and right, I don't know whether the offset threads go towards the front of the truck or towards the back. So we will have to be careful and not forget to take pics of the spindles on Whitey as we are disassembling the front suspension.


#2. At this time I think there is only one good tension rod out of total of four. I snap the nut and thread portion off of one of the '62 parts truck and both of Whitey's are a bent a little out of shape and both have been welded on. So its off to couple of metal/machine shop later this week to get a price and time for new ones.

Well that's about it for the past week, just lots of cleaning parts. If you have any particular question or need a better photo just let me know. And as always more pics are here on Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/113742723 ... 146818419/, 391 to be exact.

cheers,
Li'l Truckie

[Li'l Truckie]

A rainy good evening 320 fans,

Rough week for Whitey - dismantling the front end issues, parts replacements issues, and the smell, oh the smell.

So here we go with the disassembly of Whitey's left side/driver side -

As you can see everything is all dried up, caked in a mixture of dirt, grease, manure, and a little rusty.

After whacking away on the front drum a few times with the 2lbs sledge and oversized screw driver, I resorted to removing the hub with the puller.

This was the start of the headaches for the day. I could not loosen the brake adjuster and as a result there was a loud pop when everything came loose. The brake adjuster back slide tab broke into two piece and since this is white metal (or pot metal like your Tootsie Toys) it can't be fixed or repaired - okay you can use JB-Weld/cold weld but it will not hold under stress. So you can write of the front brake adjuster. So with the pop everything came apart and went into the baggies and the box marked Left Side/Driver Side to be clean up at a later date for the next project.

Brake shoes are also trash as after 50 years they are cracked, glazed over, and worn down a little to much to work effectively - even new/rebuilt 320 brakes are not that great so if you have not looked at your brake shoes since you have had your 320, might reserve and set aside some time on a weekend a take a look -


So with the drum, brakes shoes, busted brake adjuster and springs all removed it was time to remove the back plate.

Pretty simple to remove, clean up and paint. Just bend back the locking tabs and use your 9/16 socket to remove the bolts. The top two have a nut on the backside - 9/16.

NOTICE the front wheel cylinder is still stuck in place. I highly recommend that if you need to remove the wheel cylinder that you remove it with the back plate. The w/c are a pain in the butt to remove in the first place, somewhat fragile, and expensive to replace if you can find them. So please, just remove them as a unit, move to your work bench and use the appropriate tools to press the w/c out of the back plate. Its a lot easier on your back, knuckles, and wallet.

So at about this time the wife sticks her head out in the garage -

Sniff, Sniff, My love, why does it smell like cows out here?

Shut the door and go back in the house, my love.

As you can see from the back side there is plenty of dirt, manure, grease and oil coating the steering knuckle, lower control arm and tie rod.

You can see the smashed and disintegrating bushing on the sway bar link and the upper A-Arm bushings and what's left of the rebound stops - they just fell off once I removed the upper A-Arm. The A-Arm bushing's metal bearings were, or rather still are, seized to the bolt, while the rubber bushing just fell out on the garage floor.
On a positive note all the nuts and bolts came off with little to no problems, no cheater pipe or groaning gorilla sounds to take everything apart. And I will clean up the shock absorber and mount it as you cannot get any more original than this -
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3850/142 ... d6e385.jpg

When removing the tie rod ball joint from the lower steering knuckle arm I highly recommend a ball joint splitter like the one pictured over the ball joint forks you pound on with a sledge hammer.


Here's a picture of the left side tension rod - again not good and in need of attention.

Repaired, worn, missing a bushing up front and another in the back, and bent out of shape. I couldn't believe the nuts came off so easily. Now to find a machine shop to make me a couple of these.

Moving to the removal of the torsion bar was a little confusing at first as there is constant tension just like a coil spring. So treat it like a coil spring! Use your jack and place it under the steering knuckle/arm and raise about 1-2 inches. Now the pressure is on the jack and you are good to remove the upper A-Arm assembly. Be sure to keep track of the shims, if any, and mark them for the front or back bolt. This is important for proper suspension/steering geometry and wheel alignment. Once the upper A-Arm is unbolted from the mount and the bolt and bushings removed from the upper steering/axle stub release the pressure from the jack. As the jack goes down the torsion bar will follow until there is no more tension / "twist" in the torsion bar.

You have three nut/bolts to remove up front on the lower control arm. One is the big 3/4 bolt holding on the lower control arm to the sub-frame and the two bolts holding the torque arm in place. There is also one last bolt to remove and that's the torsion bar adjusting bolt. At this time the torsion bar assembly is ready to be removed, but do not forget to score the torsion bar and torque arm for proper alignment when re-assembling later.

Also I would recommend leaving the torsion bar complete with the rear adjuster in place - pretty sure this requires a machine shop and a press to remove.

Make sure you look at the torsion bar adjusting bolt as years of rust might have ruined the threads. Yip, mine where rusted up and tore up the adjusting threads when I removed the bolt out the bottom of the frame mount for the torsion bars. This ultimately lead to a day delay in that I had to clean up the torsion bar assembly for Whitey to put right back on.

Well that's about it for the disassembly, I'll read through this one more time to make sure I haven't forgotten anything or failed to add any tricks here or there during the disassembly process.

Let me know if you have any question! In the mean time, I'll run through this post one more time and figure out how to re-assemble the front suspension and torsion bar to get it close to where we started from height wise. I've got a pretty good idea as the Factory 320 Manual was a little lacking in explaining the re-assembly procedures.

cheers,
Li'l Truckie

[Li'l Truckie]

Good Evening 320 Fans!

This is going to be a two part front suspension parts update. We'll cover what's on hand tonight and then cover what we are missing and break the bad news tomorrow night as we have run into a few issues. There's a couple of options to the issue. But lesson learned -

DO NOT THROW ANYTHING AWAY remember your grandparents - a bird in hand is better than two in the bush. Or rather an old, questionable parts is better than a part you think you can get on line or at the parts store. But more on this later.

Let's go with the good news tonight as Mr. Zip delivered the small package from DatsunLand SoCal
http://www.ebay.com/itm/110935084683?ss ... 1497.l2649
Even though the kit is for the roadster the A-Arm seals for the spindle are a perfect fit!


However, that's about all we can use from the kit as the lower fulcrum seals are just a little to wide to work on the 320's lower control arm. I'll work on it some more to see if I cannot get it to work, but for now I would recommend going with the Cork O-Ring, Part # 14-402, from an Austin Healey 100-4. And a few pics -

Size matters -

A better fit with the Cork O-Rings

And part info (see part # 29 or 14-402) and VB contact info - call in and get yourself a free catalog! If only for reference and the schematics. You'll want the one for the AH, MGA, and Sunbeam and if they'll send you two get the AH Sprite Midget also.


For the drum brake, brake adjuster, the least expensive ones I could find were from Z Specialties. Just could not beat the price at around $42 a piece.
http://www.datsunstore.com/brake-adjust ... -1257.html
And I went with four; two each left and right. Just in case we need to replace all four on Whitey or for another one of the 320s in the driveway.


Here's the info on the sway bar link. It's from MOOG (Federal Mogul) and is available from you local parts store. Looks a little long, but it can be cut or ground to size on the grinder. I'd also recommend going lock nut like what's on the old link.

Oh, you will need to order two! As each link is sold individually. So yes, I need to head back to the parts store and order one more.

And while you are at it, don't forget to replace the sway bar bushings -

As you can see the one is pretty shot!

Well that's about it for Part 1 of the parts update. We'll cover the bad news tomorrow night or Thursday as I have class Wednesday night. And I'll vent my frustrations. Let's just say Federal Mogul (mama) is wrong!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu7A8LIzL1o

cheer and have a good week!
Li'l Truckie

[AZhitman]

BRILLIANT!

[Gemmer]

Truckie,
What makes the brake adjusters " left " or " right " ? I am in the process of working on my brakes and thought the brake adjusters were identical . Confused!

[Li'l Truckie]

Its the threads on the two piece adjusters so that when you rotate either serrated adjuster down the center plunger applies pressure on the front brake shoe that is distributed evenly with the back brake shoe by the springs. Down to tighten and up loosen.

YES, it does matter! A downward movement, on either left or right side, of the brake adjuster is supposed to tight brakes, up relieves pressure. Lefty Loosey (an upward movement on the left brake adjuster) relieves the pressure on the left brake shoe forward, while Lefty Loosey (downward movement on the right side) on the Right side will push the adjuster out and applies pressure to the front shoe that is then evened out by the springs. That's why the left side has a right hand thread so that the center plunger pushes out when you rotate the adjuster downward.



Yes, I'm sure I have screwed this one up when piecing together a few brake adjusters to make one functional one on my first 320 brake job. Does it matter to me? Not really. These are old little trucks. Brakes, even rebuilt, are not the best. And this is the reason why I jack the truck up, pull the tire and drum and then adjust until I get a snug fit with the shoes and the drum - takes a few tries. But better than breaking the fragile brake adjuster (most of mine are missing one or two of the little mounting "feet" too) or trying to pry the serrated adjuster with a flat tip screw driver from the back side of the brake assembly plate. All my drums are in pretty good shape, but this does not work on a worn drum that has a lip cause by the shoes.

Hope that make sense,
Andy

[Gemmer]

Truckie,
Thanks, that makes perfect sense.

[Gemmer]

Thanks for the link to Datsun store. I see they have the rubber boots that go on the back of the plate to cover the adjuster holes. Need four of those, thought my chances were slim to none to find those.

[Li'l Truckie]

Just put them on when you get them. I drove Shroom, my '64, around today on the wet streets with out them...oops.
Andy

[Gemmer]

Okay 320 fans,

Getting ready for the big weekend of March Madness, nice weather, and working on our '63 PL-320. Not much accomplished yesterday and today due to school, studies, and taking the wife out. However, I was able to pick up a few more parts, so here is the breakdown and picture -

0-149 Cupped washer (valve cover washer) 2 @ .68 = $1.36
1-722 Gasket Timing Cover $2.66
1-725 Gasket Oil Pan $3.11
12-4312 Stud Long (we now have 3 total) $1.31
9-1018 Boot Clutch Arm $2.95
1-7411 Gasket-Cover Front (transmission) $1.31
1-7001 Gasket-Side Cover (transmission) $1.76
12-4106 Gasket Fiber (tappet cover) 2 @ .50 = $1.00
TAX $1.35
TOTAL $16.81

So not bad, but don't know if I want to pull the crank pulley to get to the timing cover as this entails replacing the graphite rope gasket in the timing cover. That's why I mentioned in the one photo I would look for an three bearing MGA/B timing cover as this uses a seal. The 3/8 inch graphite rope is available is sold by the inch/foot.




Okay, time to get a good night sleep for our big day tomorrow

Li'l Truckie

Truckie,
In this post, what are the sources for the gaskets listed? My tranny is leaking so I have to pull it and fix. Thanks
Gemmer

[Li'l Truckie]

Gemmer,

Yip, for now. I'll consolidate a parts list and start a new thread within the next 2 weeks. Don't forget to o-ring seal (Timken) for the reverse and forward cross shafts and the rear output shaft seal (National). The only two parts I have not been able to source is the felt ring and the 1 7/8 inch fiber seals/washer for the cross shaft.

gemme a few and I'll have you a belt number. Heading out now

andy

[rkldesign]

I am too working on my 65 L320 and have found that the wiring has been changed to neg ground. It startes and drives but the lighting and charging is not working properly. Voltage regulator does not look right and want to get it back to original. Is it simply reversing the battery and putting in a new voltage regulator?

[Li'l Truckie]

rkldesign,

This is sort of a trick questions as quite a few things could be wrong.

So let start here.

found that the wiring has been changed to neg ground.

For this see pics above for proper wiring. Here is the link to another thread where we discuss wiring to the coil and an explanation as to why with diagram/wiring harness schematic. Might want to review it also.

coil-wireing-t593487.html

Here are the links to Moss Motors "how to" videos for polarizing your generator and voltage regulator -

Generator - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV8FFgia7uU

Voltage Regulator - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPUfQtVEJGg

Might watch these a couple of time, hit pause, ID exactly what the narrator is talking about before touching wires here and there.

So yes, you will have to re-polarize your system

Okay Lights and Charging - Have you had your generator checked lately? If both are inop at the same time your generator may not be charging correctly. Best is to remove the generator and take it to a shop that specializes in Starter, Alternator, and Generator repair. Should be a quick turn around as its not planting/harvest time. They may or may not charge you to stick the starter on the machine (Jimco) for a quick bench test. Anything over $10 is extortion in my opinion. Take your voltage regulator with you. An extremely good shop can bench test your generator and voltage regulator together and adjust your voltage regulator. Here is KCKS/KCMO there is only one shop that can do this or maybe better to say know how to do this. More than likely they will charge you for bench testing the two together and adjusting your voltage regulator - price here is $10. If the shop can not get your voltage regulator to adjust, more than likely it is bad and will require new copper windings. Just keep the OE Hitachi voltage regulator and get a new one.

So...for charging either the generator or voltage regulator or both are bad - so obviously no charging and the "GEN" light should be glowing a dim orange.

Okay, lights - start checking your connections and wiring leads at the fuse box. They probably need to be cleaned and the zinc little screws and lock washers chucked in the trash. I'd get new brass screw and bronze or brass lock washers from the hardware store and replace. The black wet/dry sand paper is best to clean the wire terminals. Also replace the fuses with new ones if you have not done so already.
New bulbs for the brake and turn signals might help. More important for these lights is the cleanliness of the housing/socket as this effects the ground. The rust, dirt, and grim must go for each light to be properly grounded. Easiest way to clean the sockets is with a small wire wheel on your dremel power tool.

Last thing you might check for the rear turn signals is the wiring from the distributor to the coil and the coil over to the fuse box. The wire from the distributor should go to the POSITIVE terminal and the wire from the coil to the fuse box should come from the NEGATIVE terminal.

Okay, that should give you enough trouble shoot for now.

Let us know how this works or doesn't work out.

v.r
Li'l Truckie

[AZhitman]

Also - to my knowledge, the lights and radio are the only things on the early cars that need to be changed when switching to negative ground. If the prior owner didn't switch them, there's the issue.

Check for power at the headlight terminals. If they're not seeing voltage, then they won't work.

[22350]

I know this is ancient history, but do you remember what the part number was for the brushes. they don't appear anywhere these days