hi guys, been a long while since posting or owning a Datsun but here I am.
I recently acquired a 1200 ute and it has a absolutely horrible knock from both front struts when you go over anything with any remote speed, I believe it has stanza struts with adjustable tops fitted.
I have read you can change the oil to 20w50 engine oil but cant find any directions on how to do this, ive never played around with old struts

cheers

My first thought is the terrible knock I had on my 1200. It turned out to be the Idler Arm bushing


If the strut nut is loose, the strut insert can rattle up & down in the tube making terrible noises. Tightening it is a very low cost fix


I don't believe changing the strut oil will make a knock go away. If a strut is bad it's like a bad shock and the body will bang against the suspension when going over bumps, even at low speed. That's not caused by the type of oil, but by worn valving. You can fit thinner or thicker oil to fine tune the damping but it won't fix worn/swollen rubber valving parts

Thanks for the reply mate, I’m yet to go through the steering and bushes to have a good look, just thought id get some ideas floating around while I’m lining up jobs.
I’m currently in the middle of building a new wiring harness to replace the extreme fire hazard that was under the dash

Strut nut

Yeah an easy fix

usually done with the spring off ... but maybe can be done with big channellocks through the coils. Loosen the front wheel, Jack up the front, remove the wheel/tyre, and see if it is loose

The nut is about 45mm size

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Thanks for the info guys, I’ve just put in my new dash harness now onto the engine bay before the strut inspection.

hi guys, an update of what ive found so far.
-stripped struts down, all seem good, replaced spacers for the shocks in the tubes all cleaned and reassembled.

-has adjustable tops fitted and thrust bearings were in upside down, had 12mm shock rods through an 18mm hole in rose joint just slapping around so made some brass bushes and shrink fit them into the rose joint.

-ive just replaced the old rubber LCA bushes and on reassembly found the castor rods are both stamped R (for RHS i guess) and the side that knocks like hell doesnt line up with the LCA bolt holes by like 10mm which would give me massive neg castor on that side.

is there much difference between the castor rod lhs and rhs?
should i machine the shoulder back on the castor rod to get them lined up at the same height for both sides so effectively having same or close to same geometry for lhs and rhs?
should i bolt it all back together, somehow, and see what camber/castor it has and go from there before reworking stuff?

anything else helpfull much appreciated, i have been through all the tech wiki already

not keen on shelling out$360 for a set of maddat adjustable castor rods at this stage

There is a Left side rod, and a Right side rod

The rods for a Left Hand Steering car are the same as for a Right Hand Steering car. In other words, USA and AUS 1200s use the same castor rods

Maybe your car has two right-side rods, and you just need to find a left-side rod?

Or maybe your car has an early LCA and a late LCA. This difference is the late one has the bolt holes further apart

cheers mate, its actually the RHS that has the issue with the rod stamped R. it seems to line up just fine on the LHS with the R stamped. they are the later model rods with the cut out and longer hole spacings, both rods are identical.

anyone in aus have spare LHS castor rod sitting in their parts bin id be more than happy to relieve you of it?

fyi i have sorted this out, struts were fitted with lower springs and the strut tubes were original length causing the strut tube to smash into the bottom of the camber plates.
i chopped the strut tubes and welded back together and fitted a sv20/21/22 camry shock, working very well!