I see! Either way it's enough pressure to create an obvious drag with discs. I was having confusion because I had forgotten that the MC I have came off a coupe with a disc front end and I couldn't work out why the front brakes weren't dragging also! silly me. I'm doing a bit of an experiment with just drilling a tiny hole in the centre of one of the drum valves. It should now be right!


I must for any lack of comprehension in my post last night. I'd just got back from the pub!

I have done some investigating for my self and have seemed to have found the problem. With drums there is a one way valve which is spring loaded and holds a certain amount of pressure in the break lines...(enough to hold the drum shoes out). With disc breaks you have a similar valve but with a small hole in the centre allowing no residual pressure. They are quite obvious when pulling apart a standard 1200 MC. I know there is a fair bit of fuss about upgrading master cylinders when upgrading brakes but could someone please explain why? I can understand the use of a booster but apart from that I can't see how it makes any difference.? There is the obvious variations in bore and stroke but shed some light....

Dodgeman what is involved with the master cylinder upgrade? Particularly when you put rear discs on with a master cylinder that used to push drums? I hear there is some sort of residual pressure valve or something you need to get rid of? Can anyone help

This is a bit encouraging cheers!

I just went and check then. The oil is quite clean which is good. The water however seems to have a tiny little bit of an oily slick on the top of it. It's kinda hard to tell though because I only have water(not coolant) in there because I'm not driving the car around yet, and may have to pull the radiator out again.

The water is a rusty colour, I assume this is just from the water galleries in the motor being filthy and it just needs a good flush.

G'day guys,
I've just been out in the garage and I ran my CA18 for about 5 mins, giving it a bit of a rev and what not. Anyway afterwards I noticed a large wet sort of steamy mark on the garage floor under the dump tip of the exhaust(It points at the ground). It seems a fair bit of moisture is coming out in the exhaust. Does this sound like a headgasket? I sincerely hope not but I don't know any history of the engine what so ever.

I just thought I'd add that the engine is rough when cold but runs well when warm.

If you have effectively two guages trying to read, or pass current, through the same sensor won't this throw both of them out as the amount of current allowed to pass through the resistor(temp sensor) at any time is constant, therefore the guages will only read a fraction of the current each passing through the resistor?

I haven't had a change to use 4th gear yet as the car isn't registered and have only managed a few drives up and down the street. I didn't change any cluster bearing when I changed the bellhousing. That's what I'm worried about. Would the bellhousing still go on if I had the wrong bearing? I might just pull it out and take it to someone and see what they think... THis is killing me. I get it all together and the gbox is stuffed and the clutch is slipping. When you think no more could go wrong something does!

G'day guys.
I've recently got my 1200 running with the CA18 and skyline box. The problem is that the gearbox is terribly noisy. I did the bellhousing swap on my gearbox and have now got myself worried that I must have buggered something up. The noise is definitely gearbox, as it goes away when I push the clutch in. Also I have a new thrust bearing. It sounds like a gearbox bearing and it's whiny when it drives. I can handle it if there is just a stuffed bearing in the box but I was just wondering if there may have been something I missed while changing the bellhousings which may be causing this problem?

Just thought I'd mention that this friday at calder there is going to be quite a datsun turn out I hear. It might be a chance for you guys to have a race? I personally know of a couple of turbo 1600's heading down.

hey guys, sorry to pollute all your photos with a dirty big bluebird.... Maybe next time I'll have the 1200 going. It's not too far off now!