The least reliable, "reliable L series" ever

[jim.nos]

So I finally made a topic about my car which I bought in October 08, a '68 510 4 door.


When driving it in July '09 I broke my car here by turning left rather quickly.

I was at Canadian Tire buying some aluminum polish for some reason.

Aftermath: I broke the right rear lower control arm almost in two. Severed the brake line to the right rear which caused me to lose all braking (it shouldn't have). Caused the half shaft to come off the right rear wheel and slightly damaged the wheel itself with everything rotating and banging around while I figured out how to stop. I guess just too much force coupled with an old hairline fracture decided to break. I could tell the fracture was old because only part of the break was clean, part was rusty.

Between then and now I haven't done much because I'm a lazy bum but earlier tonight I nearly finished collecting the pieced I'll need for a repair.

[Byron510]

I am nearly positive that this is the original Chicken Man car!

It was once green, and at one time - like 15-20 years ago, belonged to a then young guy named Brad James, in and around Port Moody - who was (is?) a pilot...somewhere.
It's was at that time an LZ2.2, twin carbs and other good stuff from the era, and has race history at Knox and Mission. Likely Richard will find photos of it in the album that he borrowed from me last week.
It's so cool that this car is still around! And I'm so glad you are here on the site!
You should drop in on our club X-mass party on Dec 5th - need info, just PM me.
How about parts? The local club is a great source - there are a few hording everything they can get their hands on to keep the local cars from vanishing forever.

Byron

[McShagger510]

Sounds like you have some unilug rims on your hands. They're designed to fit a varity of different cars and bolt patterns so they require those special washers. Good luck on the fix. Freaky failure...... could have been a whole lot worse. I meant to ask you at the All Nissan Show if that is Brad James' old car?? Looks like the one that was on Craigslist last year.

James

[kayakdude07]

Jim, I was wondering when you would show up on here...

[okayfine]

I have no idea about the history other than that I probably don't want to know because the VIN is from a '69 but the car is a '68.

Tis a '68 for sure.

Severed the brake line to the right rear which caused me to lose all braking (it shouldn't have).

and as such, a '68 would have a single-circuit brake master cylinder from the factory, which would cause exactly that failure.

[Byron510]

It is quite common for cars of this era to be registered as a later year than actually produced. During this "age" of auto sales, cars were registered when they were sold, not when they were produced. So consequently, you may see a 74 Datsun 510 4dr or wagon, when in fact there was no production of these two models beyond late summer of 1972! Ole Blue, my ‘68 L13 car, is also registered as a ‘69, but it's a ‘68 production date for sure. This is common, and you can usually get this date changed at the insurance office with a little effort and proof. I can help you out there if needed, with sales brochures and factory printed dealer updates for annual model changes that occurred including chassis numbers. I do have the documentation to prove this. Let me know if you need help in correcting this, if it matters to you. No problem there.

Byron

[okayfine]

If that is an older build, I'd love to see how they did the rear flares on that four-door.

[hang_510]

I'd love to see how they did the rear flares on that four-door.

looks like a 4dr version of bertvorgan's car

[rnorrish]

I'd love to see how they did the rear flares on that four-door.

looks like a 4dr version of bertvorgan's car

just another Specialty car. there's a few of them up here.

[jim.nos]

Pics of what I actually broke.


On the replacement lower control arm and the existing left side arm I'm planning on welding some reinforcement onto the break location... just in case.

...registered as a later year ...

I've got the best insurance agent around and when I went to go insure it last summer it was so casual to change it. I had no problems whatsoever changing the colour. I didn't change the year however. My car is PL510-070262. That number seems far too big to be a '68. Strange.

Sounds like you have some unilug rims on your hands.

So they are supposed to be like this? If so, that makes a whole lot less work for me which I always like.

special washers

They don't look very special to me. Thy just look like overtightened regular washers. No pics because I couldn't find them.

a '68 would have a single-circuit brake master cylinder from the factory, which would cause exactly that failure.

Oh, I should change that.

If that is an older build, I'd love to see how they did the rear flares on that four-door.

[okayfine]

On the replacement lower control arm and the existing left side arm I'm planning on welding some reinforcement onto the break location... just in case.

That's not a common failure, despite another turning up just a few weeks ago. OR, it could be becoming a common failure, you're the second it's happened to, and we're all next

My car is PL510-070262. That number seems far too big to be a '68. Strange.

The wipers pretty much nail the '68 model year. It's possible to retrofit the setup to a '69 (as it is with the front-only sidemarkers and the '68 grill you also have), but that's an awful lot of effort.

So they are supposed to be like this? If so, that makes a whole lot less work for me which I always like.

They came drilled to fit and unilug, so it's tough to say. I'm not a big fan of the unilug theory.

Thanks for the pictures of the rear flare/door intersection!

[rnorrish]

Pics of what I actually broke.


On the replacement lower control arm and the existing left side arm I'm planning on welding some reinforcement onto the break location... just in case.

We've had the same thing happen to the (ice) race car.
We've started to reinforce all the trailing arms with some plate. two pieces, one on top, one on the bottom.
We also do routine crack checks around the bearing housing... and reweld if necessary.

I have a feeling tubular arm will be much more common in the years to come, starting up here in the wet weather climate.

[Byron510]

Pics of what I actually broke.


On the replacement lower control arm and the existing left side arm I'm planning on welding some reinforcement onto the break location... just in case.

We've had the same thing happen to the (ice) race car.
We've started to reinforce all the trailing arms with some plate. two pieces, one on top, one on the bottom.
We also do routine crack checks around the bearing housing... and reweld if necessary.

I have a feeling tubular arm will be much more common in the years to come, starting up here in the wet weather climate.

I had the same thing happen to the car that eventually became the 2nd rally car. Only in my case the control arm separated so badly that the only thing holding the wheel was the half shaft and a rather bent and twisted shock! I clearly remember the day. We were setting up the club autoX at the Toy's'R'Us parking lot - I wanted to test the course, but didn't want to have an unfair advantage over everyone else, so I sent Mark Ward out in the car and clearly told him to drive the course hard (which is pretty funny since the car was on 165R 13's and was a bone stock, rusty 1600 automatic!) Anyways, on the second lap as Mark dove into a good sharp L hander, leaning that poor car right over, the A arm parted company like Moses doing his action on the sea! We all had a great laugh, hauled the car off the course and proceeded to have a great day of solo'ing!
I have actual photos...somewhere - this was my time before the great digital wave of photo's now floating around out there.
In my case, rust was clearly the issue, but in your case Jim, I wonder if in all the racing your car has seen over the years, fatigue may have been a issue.
Byron

[vgwagon]

I have no idea about the history other than that I probably don't want to know because the VIN is from a '69 but the car is a '68. When I registered it it, ICBC thought the car was green. It isn't.

This was common back then for a car to get registered a year later than built. Byron's blue 68 (used to be my car) is registered as a 69 also.

[jim.nos]

My car is PL510-070262. That number seems far too big to be a '68. Strange.

The wipers pretty much nail the '68 model year.

That, the single license plate light integrated into the rear bumper, the b pillar interior lights, and the dash styling also say '68.

Thanks for the pictures of the rear flare/door intersection!

It's too bad I couldn't take a picture with the wheel on because the tire is like right there. It's really cool looking I think.