Rehab of Patrol L60-2-00655

[r1lark]

Nice work! Was the o'ring a new compatible part or something Bill robbed off another distributor. It looks unused.

It was in a Nissan bag with a part number so I assume it's a NOS part.

Did you happen to save the bag, or the part number?

I've got a picture of the bag River, I'll post it tonight or tomorrow.

[r1lark]

Ok, update to get this caught up with today.

So prior to this morning, the spark plug wires in the distributor cap were pulled and inspected. Some of the wires were not pushed down all the way so the end of the spark plug wire was not stuck in the 'spike' at the bottom of the tower. Three of the plug wires plus the coil wire were like this. You could see that they had been arcing. One wire was barely pushed into the tower and arced so bad that it arced some of the tower away and put a hole in it:

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So.......a good used cap was substituted (once again, thanks to Mild Bill!) for this one, trimmed the ends of the wires that had arced, and pushed them all in properly and tightened the threaded caps. Luckily the 'sorta' o-rings that seal the wires to the caps, and the metal threaded pieces, are all in great shape.

Also cleaned the spark plugs that were in the engine. Not sure if these are original but suspect they are, they are NKG #BS-43. My Nissan Patrol engine book says the plugs are B54E?? I'll use these until the engine runs decently, and then put the new waterproof Champions in. Anyway, cleaned and gapped the electrode end, and also cleaned the other end where the spring/insulator attached to the plug wires contacts.

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River asked for the part number of the o-ring that seals the cap to the distributor body:

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Nissan 22114-43800 appears to be discontinued, at least from the Google and eBay searches I did.

Today's progress: Put some more Marvel Mystery Oil (MMO) in the cylinders, put 5 quarts of oil in the engine, and connected a direct reading oil pressure gauge into the oil gallery right next to the electric oil pressure sensor (picture taken from underneath the Patrol looking up):

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Used my homemade priming rod to prime the oil system (sorry for the lousy picture):

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Was able to easily build 40 lbs of oil pressure without cranking the drill spreed up too much. Turned the engine over a bunch of times while holding oil pressure with the drill. Added MMO to the cylinders several times to lube up the cylinder walls in preparation for starting the engine. Had the rocker cover off while doing this to make sure there were no odd things happening with the rockers/valves/pushrods.

Had trouble finding the marks on the crank pulley to set the engine to #1 TDC, and was running out of time, so stuck the distributor in the engine and tightened it down, knowing I'll have to pull it out again next time I go. Next trip will be to correctly install the distributor, take a battery and turn the engine over with the starter, put in the correct plugs, and hopefully try to start the engine. Fingers crossed that the fuel pump is ok to pump some gas to the carb from my temporary tank.

When I got home, a package from nissanparts.cc had arrived, a factory oil filter with the correct o-rings (seals)! I put a new Wix filter in it last trip, but after running the engine some I'll dump the oil and change the filter anyway. The only o-ring the Wix filter had that was correct was the large square section o-ring, the other two originals were usable but I want to change them. The factory filter has the correct two small seals, so I'll replace those when the filter is changed.

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[RiverPatrol]

Wow, I think that's the worst distributor cap I've ever seen. Those spark plugs are the waterproof plugs, probably original. Thanks for the pic of the parts bag. Nice to see that nissanparts.cc is still sending out Patrol parts!

[Esteban]

Excellent pictures. Thanks for posting them and also the details.

A must follow thread!

[r1lark]

Got a question. Working to get ready for the next trip to the Patrol. As mentioned earlier, one thing needed is to properly set up the distributor by getting the geared shaft in the right position when #1 cylinder is at TDC. Back when I was driving this thing in the '70s, it always ran great and never had to adjust the timing or mess with the plugs or car adjustments, so this is new territory. Doing some searching here on the forum, I now know what the four timing marks on the crank pulley represent. But when I took a quick look yesterday for the timing pointer, nothing in the area of the front cover jumped out at me as being the pointer. Approximately where on the cover should I be looking for the pointer? (Hoping that it hasn't somehow been broken off or fallen off......... )
Thanks for any "pointers" you can give (pun intended).

[Esteban]

I have a spare engine sitting on a trailer, and took this picture. You can see the pointer spot welded to the timing cover. Maybe yours is missing. If that's the case, at least the mark of the spot weld should be present.

I crudely measure the angles with my phone, and it's roughly 20° from the vertical. Sort of in the middle of the space between the water pump pulley and the alternator pulley (where you normally will place the timing light)

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[r1lark]

Wow, great photo Esteban, thanks! That shows perfectly where the pointer should be. There is a buildup of mud/dirt in that area, so maybe that's covering the pointer up. If the pointer is gone, as you suggest hopefully the spot weld will be visible. Now I know where to clean up to find it.

[r1lark]

Went to work on the Patrol today. Pulled out the 'temporary' plugs and put a squirt of MMO in each cylinder. Got the distributor installed properly (found the timing pointer easily from Esteban's pic, thanks!). Set the intermediate drive shaft/gear up per the shop manual with #1 cylinder on TDC; took a while to get the oil pump positiioned correctly so the intermediate drive shaft/gear would fully seat down into the pump. Brought a battery with me; cleaned the cable ends and hooked up the battery. Heard a click-clack, click-clack, click-clack -- the turn signal switch was on left turn, and the turn signals were working! Positive thing. Oh yeah, speaking of positive, the battery is hooked up positive ground per the manual.

Checked the transmission gear lube level, and it was a little over the hi/full mark. Wanted to pull the tranny drain plug (the pessimistic part of me worries that there might be water in the bottom of the trans, making the oil level higher than normal ), but couldn't get it out. Was using an adjustable wrench, and didn't have anything heavy to hit it with. So I measured the square plug size and next trip I'll take an 8 point socket and breaker bar and a heavy mallet, and get it loose.

Spun the engine over with the starter and blew the MMO out of the chylinders, and put the cleaned water protect plugs in, and hooked up the plug wires. The accelerator linkage felt a little stiff, so lubricated all the pivot points and seems to be working good. Decided to spray a little starting fluid down the carb and see if the engine would fire, before hooking up the temporary gas tank. Unfortunately, it did not want to hit at all. Scratched my head a little. pulled the coil wire out of the distributor to see if I could get any spark out of that, and nothing. Pulled the distributor cap, and checked for spark at the points and yes there was. So, pulled the coil off and took it home to check it out.

Sorry, nothing to take pictures of this time.

Had hoped to get the engine to run for a few seconds this trip at least, but missed that goal. Right now I'm suspecting the coil, but any suggestions and advice is definitely welcome.

[RiverPatrol]

Coils are not a common failure point on Patrols. You didn't mention if you checked that you were getting power to the coil.

[r1lark]

Coils are not a common failure point on Patrols. You didn't mention if you checked that you were getting power to the coil.

Hi River! Yes, getting power to the coil, and power to the points. With the distributor cap off and opening/closing the points manually with the ignition switch 'on', I am getting spark at the points. But when I pull the coil wire out of the distributor cap and place it about 1/8" to 1/4" from a chassis ground and crank the engine over with the ignition switch 'on', I'm getting no spark.

The coil has been replaced in the past, because it's not a water protect-style coil. Also, the coil is clearly marked "USE WITH EXTERNAL RESISTOR", which of course the Partrol doesn't have. So, doing some checking, a Standard UC-15 coil which is for a 12v system without an external resistor looks like what I need. This was verified by doing a search on this forum, and finding a post by Esteban that a Standard UC-15 is a good replacement option for the Patrol.

I'm gettting ready to test this coil (primary side restistance; primary to secondary resistance; primary side to ground; and secondary side to ground) but even if it seems good, I'll replace it since it's not the correct coil for an electrical system without an external resistor.