What's funny, the fact that the Datsun pickup is a xerox copy of the Sprite? Not surprising, the Asian method of car design is to copy something that works. The universal mc will probably work fine with the miata calipers. You have to make sure you do a good job with plumbing if you use a single mc, as you won't have the little bit of redundancy that you get with a dual. And it's possible you'll have to add a proportioning valve with either MC if the weight balance of the truck is different enough from the miata.
If my memory is correct, the Datsun B210 engine is a direct bolt up to the Midget/Sprite bellhousing. A dimmer memory is that that these Datsun engines were licensed from Austin England. An even dimmer memory - Back-in-the-day, the Datsun B210 engine and 5 speed transmission was a popular engine swap into Sprigets. Russ
TTT, you're correct. Quite a few UK vehicles and powertrains were built in Japan under licence. Now the Chinese just plagiarise whatever they want, and get away with it
Brake pedal ratio and master cylinder bore diameter can over come the power vs manual brake question. If you don't know what those terms mean, do a bit of research online. The power booster simply reduces the amount of pedal pressure required to stop the vehicle. A brake pedal that is longer on the pedal side of the master cylinder connecting point reduces the foot effort required to move the master cylinder. You will want to figure out the desired pedal ratio before you make the new mounting point for the master cylinder. When you make that new master mounting point, be sure the firewall doesn't deflect when pressure is applied to the brake pedal. I have experienced that before, until you know its happening and fix that, its hard to figure out why the longer brake pedal didn't change anything.
Austria calling here, forget the US, I'll take your ADR any day lol. We can get stuff approved but it's a serious PITA and expensive.
Sheet metal now has mounts. Next on the agenda is getting the bumper back on. Then blow it all apart again for paint and suspension bushings.
Bumper is back on. Mounts are made. Its about as straight as I care to make it at this point. The bumper is tweaked in a number of different directions. The nose took a hit and the p***enger side is back 3/4". I have no intent to make this a pretty truck. So these flaws will just add to its charm for now. The front clip will come off one last time, then onto finish welding the front frame, paint, and suspension bushes. Then motor transmission install...
I hate how tall this sits right now. Looking at a pic of me standing next to it stock and comparing it to now it appears to sit 4-5" higher. Good news is the engine isn't in yet. Google says the motor tyranny combo weighs roughly 330lbs. I climbed my fat *** in there and stood on the front ch***is and it dropped about 2", i weigh in typically around 225lbs.. So im hoping it settles down 3" or so once the engine is in. Then fine tune the miata struts from there. I'd prefer to go with a good strut lowering/ race spring combo. Good coilovers can get pretty expensive. But its a buy once cry once situation. There are loads of cheap coilovers online, but I dont wanna throw away money on **** parts.
might want to weight it front and back when it's all together, then you'll have a better idea of spring rates you need?
Yes, definitely get an ***embled front and rear weight if your going to buy new springs. With real numbers, a good spring shop should be able to get you a nice ride with enough capacity to do the job for a long time.
65 year old through frame shackle bushing. Im impressed Have to remove 2 frame cross membership. They sit right in the way of the torque arm and driveshaft. That 2nd one holds the hand brake pivot. I want to use the stock hand brake. So in the future I'll be re-engineering this setup to work with the miata parking cables.
That E brake lever on the body doesn't look like it has been used for a very long time. You may want to build some sort of center crossmember for that frame, especially since you have modified the front of the frame as much as you have. That crossmember you took out for the drive shaft clearance probably added a lot of frame cross flex control. If you don't need that crossmember for the back of the transmission support, you might want to pick a location where you can also include a loop to catch the front of the driveshaft at the same time.
After I get the guts in there I'll address it. Currently thinking either just 2 removable bolt in xmembers. Or maybe some sort of skid pan/ ch***is brace under the middle of the frame.
That hand brake is a pretty slick setup, or was 65yrs ago. The handle is on the floor to the left of the bench seat. Seized tighter than a nuns..... nevermind... I had to use the torch to loosen the pin from the linkage. The rest will free up just fine im sure.
That e brake set up has the look like it may not have functioned well for most of those 63 years. What does the e brake set up look like from inside of the cab?
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