[james008]

I suggest leaving the original tape on the loom if its not coming off in places.
That is one consumable i wish i could find. Factory harness tape. Both the thin and not goopy stuff generally used in the cab around the bare wires.
And also the stuff they wrap around the split conduit for looms that run down the chassis. This stuff again is never goopy and is almost conformed to its shape and can go brittle with age but if left alone will hang on tight for ever.
I hate nothing more than unwrapping a piece of factory loom to then have to use that junk nitto tape cos thats all you can get.

I feel your pain, I haven't managed to find anything that's half as good as the factory stuff. I have previously used basic electrical tape and it's just no good for automotive applications.

I would imagine Tesa and 3M will have products that work well, but its just a matter of tracking down the right one(s) since they both make so many varieties. Buying several varities at $10+ each could soon get expensive for the purpose of experimentation too.

I feel your pain. I avoid electrical tape like the plague. I'd much rather use split corrugated tubing or braided sleeving, with heatshrink. If tape is unavoidable, I use TESA cloth tape.

@james008 can you perhaps clean the old paint off the original covering? Maybe with a bit of metho...? It'll drive me nuts as well.

Cloth tape seems to be an increasingly popular option from the little searching I have done. I'd always assumed it would trap dirt in the weave of the cloth, but I could be wrong. I'll try and stick with PVC anyway as that is what Nissan used.

I have tried metho, but unfortunately it wasn't overly successful. Brake cleaner works a bit better, but it does affect the tape. I even tried a razor blade held perpendicular to the surface which somewhat worked but was obviously no good in little dimples or crevices.

 

[Yeti's Beast]

Spray it black


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[james008]

Spray it black


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Not gonna lie I'm still considering doing exactly that.

 

[Yeti's Beast]

Not gonna lie I'm still considering doing exactly that.

It was on the chassis? Spray it all black and no one will know or use that spray on tar stuff. Amazing stuff at hiding things.


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[james008]

Yeah its just the chassis loom. Luckily the underbonnet wiring, which is much more visible, is unpainted and in good nick.

I might end up grabbing some proper loom tape anyway. I just had another look at the loom and there's a small area where the tape has been removed for the trailer wiring splices. Completely forgot about that since I gave it a quick wrap of tape to protect it.

 

[Yeti's Beast]

Yeah its just the chassis loom. Luckily the underbonnet wiring, which is much more visible, is unpainted and in good nick.

I might end up grabbing some proper loom tape anyway. I just had another look at the loom and there's a small area where the tape has been removed for the trailer wiring splices. Completely forgot about that since I gave it a quick wrap of tape to protect it.

🥱


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[james008]

Not too much has happened lately, I've only really been able to go on with putting the front diff back together and continuing with painting, and both painting crap and rebuilding swivel hubs are a PITA.
While I've been waiting for restrictions to ease enough for me to go back to work I've picked up a couple days work with a tree lopper too, nice to have a couple more dollars coming in but it also means I should probably do a bit more on the wagon instead of procrastinating.

Anyway, everything in the front diff looked okay except for the inner axle seal which was the reason for pulling the centre out.
Only thing that was worth mention was a bit of uneven wear on one of the carrier bearing races.

Bit odd that it was only that one spot. There's no evidence of excessive heat in the race or the bearing, there was no uneven wear on the bearing, and if the housing or bearing cap was out of round I would have expected another mark opposite this one. Maybe its a slight machining imperfection in the race.
I decided to do the right thing and pretend I didn't see it.

All the other junk was cleaned, bearings all looked and felt good, so I just regreased them and replaced the hub seal.

Hubs also got a quick coat of paint and new discs installed. Dunno what the black coating is, maybe zinc phosphate or something.

As much as I hate the stupid two lock nut method for wheel bearing preload, it was a good decision to get genuine Nissan washers. The little tab didn't immediately bend over once the outer nut was tightened passed 14nm, it was much quicker and easier to get the correct bearing preload without both nuts and the washer spinning during tensioning.

 

[james008]

I decided to try Narva tape on the wiring loom, its more expensive than Nitto so it might be better. But probably not. So I glued the ends down with flexible super glue anyway given the lack of faith I and several other posters in this thread have in electrical tape, hopefully that'll stop the ends peeling up.

Turns out Narva also make harness tape, not just the insulation tape I bought. Insulation tape is 19mm wide and 0.2mm thick, harness tape came in 19 and 25mm wide and was 0.13mm thick. No idea if that means the adhesive, temperature or chemcial resistance is in any way different. If I ever have some side by side maybe I should test them.

Also if Narva give a spec of 0.13mm without a listed acceptable deviation, then deliver consistently on that, then good on them. 1/100th of a millimeter is a very fine production tolerance. I am positive there would be allowable tolerances though lol.

But I digress, I tried to follow good practice with wrapping the loom - consistent overlap, not tensioning the tape too much, wrapping around branches etc, but consistent wraps were sometimes a bit difficult to achieve given I did not want to stretch the loom out, after 40 years the wires have definitely taken on a 'memory' even after being coiled up. That 'memory' also gives a nice guide to positioning the loom as close to factory as possible, allowing for clip placement, allowing enough movement and routing around cross members, components and such.

Turns out I forgot to take pics, but it looks alright, I got it installed and it's not coming back out just to take a picture. You'll just have to take my word for it while forgetting what my actual workmanship looks like lol.

 

[james008]

A few new parts arrived today.
More paint, thermostat, radiator cap, oils, fluids and coolant, belts, hoses, wiper blade refills and cleaning stuff.
I'm still waiting on one wheel cylinder and a set brake shoes to arrive, and still have to order a clutch master, slave and some colour matched paint which I'll do when shops reopen here in Melbourne.

Once that is sorted I think I'll just need tyres to get the wagon finished. Not sure if I'll go new or a decent 2nd hand set since this thing will not be driven too often and I don't particularly trust the 20+ year old tyres on it.
But thats a problem for later.

I removed the throttle cable, bonnet release cable and pulled the engine bay loom through the firewall, so the engine bay is now completely empty and ready for sanding, priming and paint.
Its amazing how theres 15,638 connectors for the 3 electrical items in the car. Luckily, its now in the drivers footwell so I can shut the door and pretend it doesn't exist.
Excellent.

I painted the headlight buckets, brake booster and an under bonnet cover.
I can't remember if the brake booster worked or not, I do remember a pile of rust under it when I pulled it out, there was some more rust today, so I suspect it's probably not great.
I'm sure the paint will fix it though.

 

[Yeti's Beast]

Paint fixes everything, I’ve been told it can make your car go faster


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[rgren2]

Paint fixes everything, I’ve been told it can make your car go faster


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Only red paint does that. 😉

 

[james008]

I hadn't really considered painting anything red, but I could probably use the 15hp power boost.

 

[james008]

Went to put the handbrake drum and transfer bash plate on, and remembered I had this to deal with:
A slight weep from the transfer output seal

And a hacked up drum shroud

Bent drum shrouds are pretty common. A combination of old gearbox mounts and some hard whacks on the skid plate underneath the gearbox/transfer will allow enough movement for occasional contact. Transfer seals are less common on these boxes, they're normally pretty good. At the moment its just a very light misting of oil in the handbrake, no puddles or drips, and from memory the handbrake worked fine too so the shoes aren't too contaminated.
I have a spare shroud, drum (which also had a lip cut off) and transfer seals are cheap and available, but that might have to wait since theres no driveline or brakes to stop the transfer from spinning, and I don't think the little 18v impact will have a hope of breaking the output flange nut loose.

Anyway, more parts got painted

And I stripped the fuel tank. I was initially going to leave it, since it was painted in the same silver crap as everything else and its supposed to be silver, but decided against that.
It turned out pretty good, inside and out its in very good condition.

 

[Knuckles]

Oooh, shiny!

 

[rgren2]

A new project for when you get the Datto Ute. 🤣😉
https://www.reddit.com/r/AbruptChaos/comments/jj765p

 

[james008]

Oooh, shiny!

There was a moment in which I considered sanding, polishing and clear coating the fuel tank
But that seemed over the top for something that lives underneath a 4x4, will never be seen and is covered by a spare tyre and a few brackets.

A new project for when you get the Datto Ute. 🤣😉
https://www.reddit.com/r/AbruptChaos/comments/jj765p

I didn't know that people did that to utes.
It looks like a couple of transformers on cocaine.

 

[james008]

The sheer neck snapping power of 70kw of naturally aspirated diesel fury has claimed yet another victim... or someone didn't check the wheel nuts.
LH rear wheel studs are all on the piss.

I could just knock the studs out of the red car, which was destined to be a parts car....
But every part I've pulled off it, I've replaced or purchased again anyway since I still have pie in the sky hopes of reviving it in some way. I just don't know what I want to do with it yet, and its also been 10 years, so with my rate of progress the chances of that realistically happening are slim to none.

But I'm still gonna preemptively save 10 years (minimum) in the future me 30 minutes of work and $25 by buying new studs now.

 

[james008]

Painted the fuel tank, which looked great after 2 coats

Unfortunately the third coat was ruined by dust and dirt. Left it a couple of days and tried to lightly sand it out, but since epoxy enamel is crap it just gouged the paint, hadn't fully cured.
That led to adhesion issues on a test patch that I touched up, so I stripped it right back, and I'll get a coat or two of primer on it this arvo.

Replaced the sway bar bushings. The old ones were a little past their best.

That'll be going in soon. So far a couple of the steering arms are in, the driveshafts and I finally worked up the motivation to paint the diffs.

Sparesbox decided to cancel my order for 1 wheel cylinder and the rear brake shoes. I find it hard to believe there was unexpected high demand for MQ rear brake parts, but whatever. I'll order them somewhere else.
I still haven't got colour matched paint for the body either.
I have organised tyres though. 225/95R16, a touch taller and wider than the original 7.50R16s. They're from a new 70 series cruiser so they don't have much more than delivery km on them, come with tubes and at $125 each, they're at least half the price of a new 7.50.

 

[james008]

Picked up the tyres yesterday, they are literally brand new. Even those little coloured stripes are still showing on the tread blocks.
Pretty tall for a 32" as well, and combined with being a massive 1" wider than the 7.50s, be prepared to be envious of the muscular stance they will provide. 35x12.5s on -44 rims will have nothing on these.

Unfortunately my complete lack of research has failed me (funny that) and modern Toyota rims are one piece, not splits and are tubeless.
Of course I realised this once I got home and denied the tyre shops offer of demounting the tyres off the rims for me.
These being a skinny tyre and rim, and fairly heavy construction these should be good fun to demount using the old manual bead breaker. But with a good vocabulary of curse words and supply of beer she'll be right.

 

[geeyoutoo]

Picked up the tyres yesterday, they are literally brand new. Even those little coloured stripes are still showing on the tread blocks.
Pretty tall for a 32" as well, and combined with being a massive 1" wider than the 7.50s, be prepared to be envious of the muscular stance they will provide. 35x12.5s on -44 rims will have nothing on these.

View attachment 525856

Unfortunately my complete lack of research has failed me (funny that) and modern Toyota rims are one piece, not splits and are tubeless.
Of course I realised this once I got home and denied the tyre shops offer of demounting the tyres off the rims for me.
These being a skinny tyre and rim, and fairly heavy construction these should be good fun to demount using the old manual bead breaker. But with a good vocabulary of curse words and supply of beer she'll be right.

A skilfully driven 4WD slowly pressurising the outside edge of each tyre should do the trick .