Into Your L Series Engine.
Obtaining The Distributor.
The First thing is to find the distributor. After hunting around Melbourne
for a while I ended up calling Nissan wreckers. People have said its possible to
get them at places like "Pick A Part" but I wouldn't trust this because there is
no warranty on any of the parts and its very rare that the distributors are
still in the Bluebird by the time they make it there.
Your best bet is to
call wreckers, I live in the south eastern suburbs in Melbourne so the best
place for me to start was in Moorabbin, due to the large number of wreckers off
Warrigal road. The first place I called was Datt/Niss wreckers down in
Cheltenham. They quoted me $175 for one but when the guy went looking for one
found out they were all broken. My next call was Nisscar which is down off South
Rd. Anyway they wanted $185 which was the full distributor including the Cap ( I
know they are cheap but its nice to get the whole distributor ). Also it had a
thirty day warranty which is nice. I can hear you now saying "Why pay so Much ?"
Well when you consider that these distributors from Nissan new are $300 or so, I
thought seeing I get the same warranty as Nissan I could almost get it for half
price. I've heard people have obtained them for as low as $50 from a wrecker who
doesn't know there thing but I'd spent awhile looking around and not finding one
I thought $185 wasn't to bad.
Other Parts Required
Ok so you've obtained ur distributor from where ever. Now you have to change
your coil over from the points type to the new electronic type. This will cost
you about $50. I recommend and so do most ignition places for that matter, the
Bosch coils, simple because the Series II Distributor is Bosch made. The model
number is HEC275.
Now the other thing you have to decide is do you want to
hook up the Vacuum Advance system from the Dizzy to the manifold. If your
running a stock manifold this is easily done, but if your running a DatRally
manifold like my self for a set of Twin Webers then your in a bit of trouble
because the only way to get the vacuum from the manifold is via the brake line
which runs to my brake booster. Now I can hear you saying, "But what happens if
the piping breaks, you've lost your brakes. Well I solved this problem because
on the hose I have a One Way Valve which means if my pipe breaks then there is
still pressure until I turn the car off which means I can then fix it.
The
best way to break into the brake line is to get a T-Piece. It took me a little
while to find the right brace piece but I eventually did at a Hydraulic Fittings
place called Purple Pig. It cost me $18 which is pretty expensive but
considering I'd just spent $235 all up so far, I thought another $18 was well
worth it for the car to run super smooth whilst idling even with a lumpy cam.
This T-Piece has the top bit with the larger brass pipe and then the smaller
fuel line piping which I run from there to the vacuum advance on the
distributor.
Installing The Distributor.
Ok so your home with your new ( oh well close to in my case ) distributor and
its time to spend about 1 hour putting it all in and hooking it up.
Here
is a list of what you will need:
-10mm open end or ring spanner.
-Wire clippers.
-Wire strippers.
-Cable joiners.
-Pipe clamps (
if installing vacuum advance ).
Removing The Old Distributor
Before you start its my advice that you take note of how the old distributor
was placed in relation to timing on the distributor housing on the block. Mark
this with a pen or what ever, I actually found that if you look on the base of
the Bluebird distributor and u will see 2 metal lines which mark the approximate
middle of the distributor. I actually installed the distributor with this in the
centre and it worked perfectly, even with my custom head and cam etc.
Ok
well grab ya 10mm spanner and undo the two bolts which hold in the old
distributor. Take the cap of the points distributor but leave the Distributor
leads attached for later on. Put your old distributor aside and grab the
electronic one. Put the new one in and put the two bolts back in and adjust the
distributor so its approximately cantered. Do the bolts up firmly but not
tightly so you can still turn the distributor when you start the engine.
Wiring It Up.
Ok so the dizzy's in, now its time to do the wiring, this is were people seem
to panic but I actually found it the easiest part of the installation. The two
wires coming out of the distributor are pink and green. Firstly don't disconnect
the 2 wires connected to ballast resister, just leave them connected for the
moment. Also while your at it remember which wires went onto the positive side
of the coil and what went onto the negative.
Now mount the new coil ( which
ain't a cylinder unfortunately ) but ur old holes should fit the new mounts. Now
the PINK attaches to the positive bolt on the coil and the GREEN on the
negative. Once this is done, put the double adapter on top of the positive+ and
on the negative- because if you have a Tacho you will have to hook it backup.
Once this is done take the two wires off the Ballast Resistor and cut the
connectors off, strip the wires and join the two wires together. From there
connect the positive wire to the positive side of the coil. Now there should be
one connection left over, this is simple an earth from what I can tell so don't
bother connecting it up. If you forget what your positive wire was don't stress,
simple connect one up to the negative side of the coil and try and start the
car. Now if it starts then you have the right one connected, if not don't worry
it doesn't hurt the distributor in anyway because its just an earth, so connect
the other wire and you should be in business.
The car should start first go,
( I can't believe how well it starts ). It may idle rough, this is were you
adjust the distributor, just basically make it so it idles pretty quick then do
the bolts up. You can do the timing now on your new distributor if you don't
plan to hook up the vacuum advance. If you do plan to use the vacuum advance,
hold on there is a little more work to be done.
Hooking Up The Vacuum Advance.
Ok so your pretty pleased with your self because the car starts, well its time to make it idle smoother than you've ever experienced via the Vacuum Advance. Now grab the brass fitting I told you about. In my case the Brake Vacuum line runs from the Brake Booster, over the rocker cover and into the pipe coming out of the manifold. Well on the pipe, about 10-20cm after the brake booster I have my one way valve installed so prevent brake failure ( hopefully I haven't tested this yet). So my advice is where the pipe runs over the rocker cover, cut the Brake Vacuum line in half. Put the brass T-Piece in and use the Hose clams to keep it tight. From there connect the thin pipe ( the fuel line ) to the T-Piece and running it to the vacuum advance on the distributor. Use another 2 hose clams to keep it in place. Just a little note, its prolly worth trying to keep it off the rocker cover so it doesn't melt. Once this is done, start the car and check that the brakes still work, ull know if they don't because they will be ROCK Hard. Another note, make sure if you take our your one way valve that you put it back in the right way. I didn't and it caused me about 40minutes of heart ache, wondering why the hell my brakes didn't work anymore.
Setting the timing.
Well your nearly home and hosed with your new dizzy. Now all that's left is to do your timing, well most people know how to do this, if you don't, take it to ur local mechanic and get him/her to do it for you. JUST remember, if your gonna take it to ur mechanic, tighten those bolts for the distributor right up so the dizzy doesn't start rotating on you whilst you drive to the mechanic.
All Done.
Ok so its all done, well now your car should start a whole lot better on the cold mornings due to the stronger spark and other factors. There should also be more torque when getting away, and if you were to put it on a dyno, a smoother torque curve. Also there will be a power improvement on the dyno. Not much but it will be a nicer car to drive all round. Most mechanics / auto electricians reckon its one of the best things to get more noticeable power out of your Datsun.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of daniel foster
Sent: Tuesday, 8 March 2005 7:27 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: electronic ignitionhi guys
im thinking of putting a series 2 bluebird electronic dissy on my worked L18 and was wondering if it is a straight bolt on project or if i have to get something altererd on the dissy. And can any one tell me of a good plugs, leads and coil combination for my engine
any help apreciated
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