Hey, don't feel bad, it happens to all of us. The first time I went to
Shasta (1990) I drove down with a bunch of the Canadian roadster folks,
including Ross Mullen. Ross was driving a 67.5 2000 that I had sold him the
previous year. He had put a new motor in it because the old one was
seriously trashed. But he encountered driveability problems on the way down
and we all took turns trying to diagnose it, which made for a slow trip.
To make thing even more fun, it was hotter than hell on the way down, and we
were all pretty wiped out when we stopped at Roseburg for the night. But
when we pulled in, Ross reported that it had started making a sound
suspiciously like the infamous U20 Death Rattle. But, heck, this was a new
motor. After a bunch of head-scratching, we speculated that maybe Ross had
forgotten to put a gasket on the upper tensioner. Tom Thompson and I ran off
to find some gasket material (no tensioner gaskets in Roseburg, naturally),
then fabricated a new gasket and put it in. (Its now about 9:00 pm and we
are all exhausted, sunburned, starving, etc.)
But when we started it up the rattle was still there. Now, by this time
there are probably ten of us standing there with our heads under the hood
trying to figure out what the hell was going on, when someone happened to
lean over and put his hand on the Solex air cleaner AND THE RATTLE STOPPED!
Turned out it was a loose bolt on the air cleaner cover!
So we did the only logical thing we could do, we went out and got drunk.
Like I said, don't feel bad.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-datsun-roadsters@Autox.Team.Net
> [mailto:owner-datsun-roadsters@Autox.Team.Net]On Behalf Of John E.
> Stromgren
> Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2004 8:09 PM
> To: Datsun-Roadsters List
> Cc: MacDNH@aol.com
> Subject: Re: Nasty metallic scraping sound (and Chicken Little)
>
>
> Hey, There, Roadster Owners -
>
> Chicken Little, here, reporting with some chagrin, that, as it turns
> out, the sky probably wasn't actually falling after all.
>
> I took the excellent advice of several of you, and slipped off the belts
> so that I could spin the water pump and alternator freely. Gary Boone
> wins the prize for guessing the actual problem that had Chicken Little
> freaked out: one of the fins on the alternator fan was longer than the
> others, and was hitting the lower alternator mounting bolt. I filed it
> down, tried out the car, and all seems well again. There was a rattle
> that showed up at one point, but it wasn't constant, and I'm not afraid
> of it, so I have a better chance of thinking that one through
> rationally, whatever it is.
>
> I amaze myself at how medieval my thinking is, when it comes to cars:
> ignorance leads to fear, and wild imaginings. A better approach might
> be logical thinking, and systematic trouble-shooting, but I'm still
> learning how to apply that to cars.
>
> You folks are terrific! There's no two ways about it. I love this list.
>
> Thank you, all, for your very quick, intelligent, kind assistance.
>
> C.L.
>
> (John Stromgren)
> 1970 2000
> Portsmouth, NH
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