Hi everyone, new to the forum. Im sure I will have a number of questions getting my truck up to speed for reliable daily use.
Needed a small work truck, came across a 93 HB that had suffered from a poorly conceived lowrider conversion. Otherwise, really liked the truck, wanted to save it from these misguided kids that need a good smack instead of a drivers license.
Truck is not in otherwise poor condition for my area, body is ok, damage to the driver door and rocker from inpact making a 14 inch long, 2 inch wide gap between door and floor. That will be fixed hopefully soon. Some typical rust in the bed poorly repaired, and what looks like a rusty stress fracture in the frame behind the front tires on both sides. That will be fixed too, very soon. Super base model, one aux belt that drives the alternator. Everything else is manual. Just what I was looking for. Very few things that can break.
Adjusted ride height off the rubber stoppers, put some tires on it, fixed the brakes, and now ive just been driving it to get a feel for its quirks. Problems left to fix before safety inspection are trashed wiper motor transmission from ice and retarded kids without a scraper or a clue, seized rusty parking brake cables, corroded lighting, and a rear bumper from somewhere. Also, I am not too happy with the bearings after all the jarring they have experienced with no suspension; I will probably replace all 4 before winter comes around.
Runs great, but I am getting very poor fuel economy. Needs a tune up this weekend, but what should I be looking for in mileage from the 4 cyl 2wd 5-speed model once things are new?
I still have the window sticker from my truck, 1988 Z2.4i w/automatic. It says I should get 18 city and 26 freeway. In real life I get 24 mpg on free way.
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1988 Nissan Truck - bought it new a few years back.
2006 Honda VFR800i
alignment coming up, I did a quick tape measure verification just to make sure the wheels arent sanding, and its pretty straight at the moment. Ironically, it looks like it was aligned before they screwed with the ride height, because now it tracks straight back to stock.
Have a lead on my fuel economy problem. When I picked the truck up, I had a brake drag that would eventually stop the truck from moving at all after it heated up enough. I put two new calipers and pads on the front (rotors were good amazingly), and new shoes and hardware on the rear. The lower pins on both calipers were seized and I dealt with that thinking originally that was the problem. The problem is a lot less, but there is still a slight drag that heats up and nearly stops the truck, but not from the calipers or any brake hardware.
The problem has to be somewhere else, there is pressure being applied just slightly on all 4 wheels, and its causing a consistent problem.
The POs put a new master cylinder on it, is there an adjustment for this truck? I know on some vehicles a misadjustment can cause a similar problem. any ideas?
-Replaced driver side crushed door with nice junkyard one, took it to a body shop that was able to actually pull the rocker panel back out almost completely to my amazement. They also reinforced and painted it nicely.
-Installed a 1998 chrome bumper off of a frontier that actually fit fairly nicely. I only needed to drill two holes in the brackets and bolt it down.
-Repaired assorted electrical problems and installed new wiper transmission.
Total investment so far is 500 bucks for the truck, 30 for the bumper, 30 for the door, 200 for the rocker repair, 200 for brake work and whatnot. Looks like Im going to exceed my budget for 1000 bucks, but in the end the truck will be nice and solid.
Now I am fabricating some frame reinforcement steel plates for the rust problem. Went through the whole truck frame with a ball peen hammer looking for other surprises, and its pretty good otherwise.
The bed is horribly rusted; I will leave it alone until after winter, its a pandora's box that is wise not to open right now. Structural integrity is good, but there is very little left of actual bed floor and it has been 'repaired' with thin sheet metal and screws.
The brakes are still an issue, verified pedal adjustment, but I still have not pulled the master cylinder and measured the rod. anyone have a pic of a stock one?
Ill have to do some research on how to post pictures, my understanding is that the free way is to post in the gallery and link to here? That or use an image hosting domain which I need to figure out how to do.
Got the brakes narrowed down to three possible causes, on further more advanced inspection it seems that its not all 4 brakes seizing up, just the front two. I drove a few miles down to the auto store to pick up some other parts, and when I left, the brakes locked up so hard I was nearly smoking the rear tires trying to get across an intersection to park the truck. Not a good situation. Took a 30 minute walk, came back, hopped in and drove back no problem. If I continue to push this, I will toast the rotors and damage the wheel bearings further.
When I put new brake hardware on there, I did not to my shame remove and clean the slides on the caliper brackets with a cookie or a sandblaster, I just hit them with some sand paper which was not enough. Rust and corrosion underneath the new clips could be making it hard for the pads to slide properly.
2nd option is that the master cylinder on there could be adjusted too far out, causing a slight drag that could be doing the same thing.
3rd could be failing brake hoses to the tires, they could be broken down enough that they are preventing proper return flow of brake fluid and are keeping the pads in contact.
if the brakes are locking up then it is most likely the out put rod of the booster is too far out and is keeping the mc on all the time even though the brake pedal is not pushed..
Check the condition of your brake fluid...it's probably never been changed if they were a s stupid as you claimed them to be! New mater cylinder and front calipers may be needed... but I'm just long distance guessing ! You'll need to look into these items further!
put in new rear springs and welded in my 1/4 inch plate frame reinforcement plates, I made three pieces for each side that sandwiched the frame all around and welded it all together. It is now by far the strongest part of this truck.
Still working on pictures through alternate hosting. Ill post some up when I figure it out.
Also picked up a nice aluminum side accessible cap for almost nothing. Only problem now is that thing is hideous in flat black, a green door, and a yellow cap.
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