I don't see a specific area on the forum for build threads or similar for our rides, so I thought I would start this thread to document what I am doing to get my, new to me, van ready for the road. Feel free to move this to a more appropriate section. I thought it would get lost in the Carry section. My intent is to document the state of the van as I received it and my ongoing plans to get it ready to be a daily driver for local errands and things. I'll try to post pics of before and after and/or links to resources or products I used along the way. I intend to keep it stock, no intention to strip emissions or hotrod it, just get all the 25 year old cruft fixed up and running up to snuff.
So I washed and waxed the van in the past week. Needs a good go over it with a buffer to bring the paint back to a better shine. I've found a lot of small treasures in the van while going through it. Heres some of what I've found: Starting from the lower right we have a remote mount radar detector, a lrge coil of wire that was under the dash used to surface a DC power plug in the upper dash insert, a magnetic sign, a magnetic clip, a magnet, some randoms bits and at the center is a gizmo that plugs into the lighter. I also found a device mounted under the battery that is a large capacitor for boosting the battery voltage under load (some bs fast and furious stuff here): Still to remove this. I'm going to get a Type 51 EverStart battery and at that point I'll remove this thing.
I swapped all the exterior lights to use LEDs, heres the ones I bought off amazon that I've used in the past for other projects: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PFC1Q59?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JRE38EA?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details (1157 red for brake lights) I still had a bunch of 1156 leds from the same folks that I used as well. Heres some pics of the results: Front DRL bulb on passenger side is LED: Rear backup and brake lights using leds on left side: Front signals both with LEDs (hard to capture on the blink) Amazing how much brighter these are. I also swapped in LEDs for both of the dome lights.
I'm still waiting on my manuals from Lulu and I have an order for 4 new window crank handles, literally, coming in on a slow boat from china that I ordered via Amazon. Heres the link to them: for $8 a pair, its worth the wait. Should fit well. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MIBOEOC?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details I'll do before after photos when they show up.
Oh yeah I also got a hose to fix the preheat hose from the exhaust manifold to the air filter box. I order this and at 1 inch ID its a little small but with some cutting and aluminum duct tape I made it work. Pics to come. Its the closest I could find that would work. I even looked in McMaster Carr , Grainger, Jegs, and Summit with no luck for ~1 in ID hose like this. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FB7XNRE?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details
Yeah well, that and this type of hose is rarely used in car these days with no carburetors and EFI with direct injection etc. Its one of those paper/aluminum collapsible or bendable hoses that goes from the exhaust shield to the air intake on the carb. Very common in cars with carbs. Even the one I found was slightly too small of an ID diameter but I was able to use it.
So I was looking at the struts and shocks and noticed I have brand new springs under there. I wonder if they are replacements or enhancements. Meaning, the van rides kind of harsh and wondering if the springs are heavier than stock. Looks like they were swapped in without changing the struts or shocks at all. Its obvious the van was used to haul stuff around by the scratches on the painted areas inside by the rear door openings.
So the springs are blue and have the word DOWNSUS on them. I think they are HD springs, probably in the 200-300 lb range. I found mention of OEM replacement springs and it looks like the stock spring rates are 162 front and 158 rear. I may source these and replace whats there. I want a smoother ride. Not sure how wall the shocks work since the heavier springs may be limiting their affect on things.
Bought some silicone vacuum line from Summit and some things from Amazon, will try to attack the vacuum lines this week. Also grabbed some coolant hose and a new shift knob as well. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/tbs-ts-hv0303-be (20 ft) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077Z68ZDL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001C0AZ3O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C2SB98/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076JFC63Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Got a new battery to replace the old one that was in there with the big capacitor installed on it. The new battery is from wallymart, its an EvertStart 51 which just fits the van battery tray and hole. New battery being charged with SAE to JIS post converters: Old battery out and tray cleaned. Check out all the ground attachments on the neg side. Is this normal? Theres ground wires going to the tranny, engine, chassis in a couple of spots. All over! The new battery installed and hooked up. 500+ CCA and man it makes a huge difference on starts. Covered the posts in some Vaseline to help keep the corrosion down.
I then worked on replacing all the vacuum lines in the engine bay. Went with blue ones so I could keep track of what I was changing. I also pulled the aribox out, cleaned it and verified the heater hose vent system worked. I also pulled the intake snorkel off and coated it inside and out with Goop cleaner and cleaned it all up. Heres all the old hoses I yanked out: This is with all the new hoses. I bought 20 feet of hose and ran short on the EGR, which I used some black new silicone I had laying about. Theres still some more hoses up under the chassis so I'll get another 10 feet of blue to finish that out later. The white cover is off the choke/ throttle assembly as I also adjusted the idle and wanted to verify the fast idle works for the AC. Interesting thing to note, on this van the fast idle kicks in not just for turning on the AC but if any electrical load is placed on the engine. I checked this by turning on just the HVAC fans and watched it adjust as I incresed or decreased the fan speed and by turning on the headlights. It all seems to be idling good and dealing with load fine now. Before it was a bit tempermental until hot. I have yet to check the idle speed by hooking a guage up to the ignition, I'll do that when I do a tuneup. Next things to do are fuel lines and filters and coolant lines and flushing.
So I noticed that there are what look like 2 fuel filters on this van. Did some research on the parts diagrams and there is only one filter up by the tank before the pump and the other "filter" I see up in the engine compartment is called a fuel reserve. So I assume these are required to keep the flow regulated to the carb. In my picture above of the new vacuum lines, you can see t he fuel reserve in the lower right hand corner by the AC hoses.
Parts are in. Will commence with installation this weekend. I bought the parts through my dealer but they all ended up coming from G&R Imports in Mo. Small markup by my dealer but nothing crazy. So good on them.
My wheels had Nissan center caps but when I removed the driver rear wheel to get ready to work on the timing belt it said Suzuki. Looks like its a Wagon R wheel from a later model, 4x13 size with 4x100 PCD.
So did the timing belt, water pump, tuneup and replaced the fuel and air lines in the engine compartment. Also bypassed the charcoal canister by just hooking the output of the vent from the tank directly to the vacuum line that was on the canister (replaced that line as well). I did that to cure a deteriorating idle as the van sat for 3 hours idling while I was timing and tuning the carb adjustments. Made carb adjustments for idle and timing impossible. Now it still is a bit cold natured until warmed up (problem for another day when I replace water lines) but once warmed up it runs like a sewing machine and flipping on the accessories or the AC makes the idle jump up per specs now. So much better to drive around. Next up are new tires on the 13in wheels. Going with 175/70R13 Westlake rubber. The tire diameter will go from about 21.5 to 22.7 inches. Hoping these will also soften the ride a bit. Still thinking about getting stock springs back on there cause the blue Downus springs appear to be aftermarket and probably harsh.
Following this closely. I just got my Every not too long ago. Just started working on it as well. Thankfully I have had no issues yet. Sitting at 77K KM.
I'm just north of Jacksonville FL not far from the state line. I'm going to go out and take pics of my van as is to do the same thing... document the progress. I'll try to get them uploaded tonight. I like your idea of posting a progress thread as well.
So got new tires on my 13 in rims, Westlake 175/70R13. On the way to the tire store when I went more than about 70 kmh I could easily get a death wobble that was very pronounced. Having experienced this with other cars I knew it was some out of balance or looseness or both in the front end. Got the new tires on and the death wobble is almost none existent. The tire guy did notice the front end components each has a small amount of play but I suspect the tires were just crap. I will plan on refreshing the idler arm, tierods, ball joints and wheel bearings in the near future. The new tires make the ride less harsh as well. I probably need new struts/shocks as too.
The shift knob I bought doesn't fit, its off in diameter by about 1 mm, just doesn't go down over the should of the shift lever below the threads. Bummer. Oh well. It was a shot in the dark. Its this one in case you think of getting one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076JFC63Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The window cranks I got work but they are kind of cheap (what did I expect anyway) one broke when I pulled on it the wrong way. LOL I'll never learn. They fit ok and kind of match and don't look so nasty dirty as the orginals. I may vinyl paint the old ones and see how that goes. None of these set backs deters me, this thing is a blast. Taking it to a C&C this saturday for some smiles. The best part is I will take back roads and get to drive it at speed for probably an hour each way. It doesn't get anymore fun than that.
Just drove the van 1 hour each way to a C&C, averaging about 70 kmh, at times hitting 100 kmh. Really ran well and the wobble was almost non existent. I can feel that the steering is loose, so will need to address that. Also I need new struts and shocks. Rear shacks are easy, front ones will be $$$. I also filled up with 93 octane, was down under a 1/4 tank. I think it liked the better gas. I also feel like it needs something done with the exhaust system, I'm thinking its restricting flow a bit. May try pulling it apart and clearing out the catalytic honeycomb if its still in there. I also think I need to fuss with the timing. I have it set to the specs (7 deg adv). I'll use a vacuum gauge in it this time to see what gets me maximum vacuum.
These little vans are a total blast. Thanks for the updates! I'm on the hunt for 14" aftermarket rims. On 13s now and they ride nice. I usually run down the highway at 110kmh. Anything higher than that and it screams. I agree with the higher octane... I saw an immediate improvement.
14 in are hard to find decent rubber, I would go to 15 and use 50 series tires to still fit the 23in diameter maximum if unlifted. My tires are 22.7 in in diameter and fit well, theres only about an inch of space evenly around the tire in the wheel arch. I was able to fit 175 width easily but my rims are 4 in wide, you can go wider but you may run into rubbing issues if you do. Also be aware of the backspacing needed or you will need to use spacers to center the wheels over the hubs.