FS on Seattle Craigslist--1981 720 KC pickup w/SD22 for $100

Buy it, sell it, negotiate, haggle, drag it out from under the workbench or behind the garage and make it someone else's problem!

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redmondjp
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FS on Seattle Craigslist--1981 720 KC pickup w/SD22 for $100

#1

Post by redmondjp »

Newbie here with a find for somebody:

http://seattle.craigslist.org/car/154809949.html

It's on Vashon Island
1982 Datsun 720 King Cab, SD22, 86K miles (sold)
1981 Rabbit LS 4-door, 1.6D, 130K miles (sold)
1996 Passat TDI 4-door sedan, 197K miles
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asavage
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#2

Post by asavage »

Welcome to our sandbox, Red!

I called the owner, Reed, at 10am today (Thursday). The engine has a rod through the block. He's never driven it. He said one door is rusty -- which may imply other rust too.

Ferry fare for me to take the car trailer to Vashon Island (round trip) is $63. The car dolly might be a little less, but also might not. The van is 15', the trailer 20'. The price goes up every 10' in length for the combination, with a steep increase at 40' (which is why I don't tow across the ferry with a fullsize PU, but use the Aerostar instead).

The second '82 720 diesel I sold is very rusty and needs a new cab & frame. After talking to Reed, I called the owner of the rusty one and told him to go look at the one on Vashon. If it hasn't sold by then, I think that he'll go look at it tomorrow. It has to be substantially less rusty than the one he's got now, or it isn't useful.

For a parts rig, the diesel trans alone is worth the $100, but you have to figure in the cost to get it off Vashon Island too -- unless you live there, of course.

===============

Anybody else see the Chev. S-10 w/SD22 conversion on eBay?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 8059020851

Or this '83 Ranger, that's in pretty poor condition but is up to something like $2300!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 4633812929
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
glenlloyd
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Location: Des Moines, Iowa

#3

Post by glenlloyd »

97 Jetta TDI, 86 VW Golf D
89 VW Fox diesel, 92 MB 300SD W140

gir - won't the sploding hurt?
zim - silence!
83_maxima
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#4

Post by 83_maxima »

It's a nice, clean car, but $6500 bucks!

How about the diesel rabbit pickups? Did anyone see this one:

http://tinyurl.com/l7zco
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asavage
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#5

Post by asavage »

asavage wrote:I called the owner, Reed, at 10am today (Thursday).
Trying to set up a time to go inspect this thing, now he's not answering his phone -- probably sick & tired of answering the same Qs over & over.
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
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asavage
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#6

Post by asavage »

Going to look at it tonight (if it hasn't sold by then). Apparently it's rustier than he first revealed. Holes in floor; no title. Price may be coming down. Still good for parts (trans, IP, etc.). I will be the transport agent only, friend Peter will actually buy it and store it..
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
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asavage
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#7

Post by asavage »

We picked it up today. It has no title, and at some point it became "free"; the ferry cost to take the car trailer to Vashon Island and back with two of us was $59. I burned a little more than 12 gals of gasoline. Add in the cost of lunch, and it still pretty cheap.

The driver's door is very rusty and the lower hinge is torn out. Hole in oil pan. Factory sunroof. 9-81 production date. New Hancook rear tires, decent tread on fronts. Dash appears to be from a gasser -- note the tachometer with 5500 redline, and clock. Some rust-though on the floor, I didn't really look at it. DPC is present but the rod from it to the IP is missing, and a coat hanger arrangement is attached to the IP's lever, through the firewall. Engine looks more or less complete, broken rocker arm on front floor and valve cover loose so head is likely shot too.

We loaded the rig backward and after the first mile the canopy flew off -- apparently it wasn't actually attached to the bed. Bed has bedliner. Tailgate pretty good. The whole thing is more or less there. Lacking a spare SD22, it probably will not be put back on the road.

(click on any image for larger)

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Factory sunroof.

Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image
Note the tachometer, and the glow plug indicator too. A hybridized cluster?

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Oil pan is air-conditioned. Oil leaked out as the electric winch pulled it up the ramps.

Image Image Image

The truck just barely fit on this trailer that is designed for moving safes, not vehicles.

Interesting tidbit for those of you familiar with the Wash. State ferry system in Puget Sound area: The Southworth-Vashon-Fauntleroy ferry run is the most confusing thing I've ever dealt with. I've been riding Wash. State ferries since 1973, and it was a very weird experience.

First, I pulled the empty trailer to the Southworth ferry terminal (there are two ticket booths) and proceed to get into a five-minute discussion with the booth worker. Have you ever had a five-minute discussion with a ferry ticket seller, where you weren't actually stuck in traffic? Me neither. Weird.

Then she tells me that in order to get off on Vashon Island, I need to back the trailer onto the ferry! Down the dock backward, around a corner for gosh sake, and down the ramp. I'd never heard of such a thing! For staging, I got to drive down the loading area, do a U-turn and pull into the carpool lane facing backward. Then, after all the other cars were loaded, I and five other vehicles destined for Vashon backed 200 yds onto the ferry. Strangest thing. We had a minus tide at the time, and I was backing down a very steep ramp to get it on the ferry.

Coming back from Vashon to Southworth, I had to back the trailer (with the pickup loaded on it) onto the ferry again, but the tide had risen and the ramp was more or less level.

Image

The ferry loading ramp is to the left of the picture. See the pickup behind me? It's facing the "right" direction. I had to back this rig onto the ferry. Felt very odd.
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
redmondjp
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Location: Redmond, WA

#8

Post by redmondjp »

Hi Al,

Glad you were able to save this from the boneyard for your friend! After looking at the pictures and your description, I agree that this is a parts car only. Any chance that a few misc. body parts may be available? You can PM or email me so I can talk directly to the new owner offline, if he's interested.

Did you have any stability problems while towing? I did as you did recently (towed a vehicle on a double-axle trailer backwards), and almost lost it on the highway--the trailer started oscillating side-to-side violently at speeds above 50 mph. Too much weight behind the trailer axle(s) = not good! Kept it below 50 after the 2nd time it started to happen at 55 and all was well (would have really sucked to wipe out right in the middle of the 520 bridge and block both lanes!).

And, as happened to you, I had something blow off as well--lost a glass sunroof from the car--it was fully closed and latched, but unexplicably came open, and the air apparently caught it and it blew off--mysteriously defeating the mechanical interlock which is supposed to keep this from happening. This scared the heck out of me when I first discovered that it was missing, as I was really afraid that it may have hit another car and injured somebody. It was an all-glass piece with just two small clips and the latch, so I think (hope) that it just shattered into tiny pieces when it hit the pavement. I'll never tow a car loaded backwards again . . .

Fascinating bit about loading backwards onto the ferry as well--that couldn't have been fun. Q: What's less fun than backing up your trailer with a truck on it? A: Backing it up onto a ferry (and, part B, getting charged by the foot for it)!
1982 Datsun 720 King Cab, SD22, 86K miles (sold)
1981 Rabbit LS 4-door, 1.6D, 130K miles (sold)
1996 Passat TDI 4-door sedan, 197K miles
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asavage
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#9

Post by asavage »

The axles on that trailer are fairly far back for a 20' trailer, and towing it empty (with the 8k lb winch, toolbox, and battery for winch all on the front end) the tongue weight was fairly high. I've got a weight-distributing ballmount, but that trailer isn't set up for it. So I was a bit front-heavy. Based on that, I wanted to try loading backwards to try to get the tongue weight down around 400 lbs. Instead it was too light in front, and I had exactly the same experience as you, only my threshold for ocsillating was 41 MPH. A few times I could get fifteen seconds or so at 45, but eventually the tail would always start to wag the dog. After a couple of tries, I said to hell with that, and on stretches where I would be expected to be running closer to 55+ (Hwy 16, Hwy 3), I just ran the four-ways and stayed in the right lane at 40. Sunday night, light traffic, and good weather, everyone could get around me easily except for seven miles of Hwy 3 where it's two-lane. Driving 40 instead of 60 cost me an extra 25 minutes [shrug]. Out here, you can get away with it.

I considered offloading/reloading the truck nose-first, so I could drive faster, but it just wasn't worth the extra time it would have taken.

With other car trailers I've used, loading backward worked fine, but then again I used to haul a lot of VWs and Corvairs! And other trailers I've had have been set up with sway control. The swaying wasn't really unexpected, once I had the truck loaded and could see the hitch height, but we really were running a bit tight on time by the time all was said and done.

The biggest downside was that I was quite under-braked. That trailer is equipped with electric brakes, turns out they don't work. The Aero is not a truck (though I use it as such) and though my brakes are in A1 condition, I still smoked them on one long 7% downgrade down to the Vashon ferry dock. By that time, I'd been towing the loaded trailer for 15 miles and knew I would be short on braking, so I was in low gear and 20 MPH at the top of the grade, but could smell brake lining heavy at the bottom of the grade, with my foot almost on the floor. I won't be using that trailer for car-hauling again, it's not suitable: too short, box & winch not mounted far enough forward, ramps too short for loading vehicles, and most importantly the brakes aren't set up correctly.

All's well that ends . . .

I'm certain that parts could be had from that rig. However, Peter is not wired (much to his chagrin: he's living off grid in the woods for a while and while that has its advantages, internet isn't on the list), so you'd have to actually call him. He's social and approachable, so if you are still interested, email me (asavage@iname.com) and I'll furnish his cell number. Oh, and keep in mind that he's on Marrowstone Island -- which does have a bridge, not a ferry anymore. MapQuest it for locale.
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
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asavage
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#10

Post by asavage »

Today, I bought an '86 720 non-KC gasser 5-spd 2WD, in Arlington, for $50, off CL. It's yellow, supposed to have a blown head gasket, over 300k miles, aftermarket Les Schwab rims, one minor wrinkle, bad front bumper, some blotchy surface rust on the hood but the rest of the chassis: no rust! Driver's door panel missing, decent canopy, bedliner, straight tailgate and rear bumper! Good windshield. Ign switch off the column and laying on the floor (no problem for me to make a key). Clear title. Decent bench seat, brown interiour, some mold, definitely some urine on the floor, it reeks bad. But solid floors and no paint bubbling. Slider back window.

Cost me $22 for the ferry ride over to that side with the dolly, but would have cost $52 to bring the truck back on the same ferry, so I drove around, via the Tacoma Narrows: 120 miles from his driveway to mine, one way. So $50 of fuel and $22 ferry and $50 acquistion cost plus six hours of drive time. Not bad. I had printed out the CL ad about a month ago ($100), and then a week later a new ad came out with the reduced price, but I still didn't get around to calling until yesterday, long after the ads had expired.

I'll pressure wash it tomorrow, then ascertain the head gasket issue. If true, the truck will be the new donor for Peter's '82 720 KC diesel that I sold him a year ago, which has holes larger than basketballs in the floor, and the frame is rusting through at the rear axle arches. He can swap in his engine/trans, fuel tank, and graft the wiring, and should have a decent enough truck. He's going to miss the KC though. I'll need to find another front bumper though, and the hood will need some paint to halt the progression of rust.

I go to the greatest lengths to avoid working on my own stuff!
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
TheDieseliminator
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Location: Florence, AZ

#11

Post by TheDieseliminator »

Al, sounds like a good pick up on a good truck. One thing you have to consider is that you bought the last year for the 720, which is a really good thing because you have the newest possible truck body, frame, etc. Is it a longbed? I'm looking into buying a single cab/longbed truck (the pickup bed is not really needed) and I posted a wanted ad in the classifieds section on the Nissan/Datsun 720 group. No replies though. :( Reason I'm looking for this certain truck is because I'd like it to be the candidate for an SD25 conversion. Also, want to pop in a factory dual wheel rear axle to make the truck a dually. My dad and I own two of these axles and they came out of later model (85 and 86) cab and chassis trucks. If you happen to find a good longbed 720 do let me know and if it happens to be somewhat on the east coast. On the 86 that you bought also let us know if the SD22 bolts right in on the frame mounts, as it would be really interesting to know how that turns out. I would really think that the SD25 should bolt right in on the 84-86 later model 720s because the engine was an option. Of course most you see have the gas powerplant though. Once again sounds like a decent truck and for $50 you can't go wrong.

Salvy
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asavage
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#12

Post by asavage »

Yeah, it's a longbed non-KC. Pretty good GEM TOP canopy too, and bed is Line-X'd.

After spending all day on it, this $50 truck is now a $250 truck, so I'm still at break-even. The engine runs fine -- after replacing the rotor. It was blown through, arcing to the shaft. Took me longer to figure out than usual. One problem of doing this kind of thing all the time is that you kinda start looking for the most common problems first, rather than doing the textbook diagnostic tree. In this case, I had NO history on the engine, just a vague "it's got a blown head gasket, maybe". Other fingers have been into it over the years. This is a computer-feedback carb with EGR but without AIR, so there's a mile of old vacuum lines under the hood -- gack! It would crank and do a lot of backfiring but the starter never sped up, so no cylinders were doing anything of value. Dist twisted against one stop.

Most likely would have been a dead coil (the coils are powered by fuses in the fusebox, and if you lose one of them, you'll still have power to the second coil but not both, and it won't start -- BTDT) or someone had the dist out and installed it wrong, or wrong firing order or something like that, but I dbl-checked that stuff first and no-go. Then I did the diag tree and found spark going into the cap (both coils) but spark not coming out. After that it was all downhill.

Lots of nesting material came out the exhaust, probably a quart! And the heater blower was solid with nesting stuff, I took a pic of that. Drove it up the road and back, has a siezed RF caliper so can't drive it much (pulls to left and smokes), but trans is fine. 315k miles on the odo, engine looks original, sounds loose but OK. Doors and Ign have three different locks, each takes a different key, none will interchange -- I'm right now swapping in a lockset from a JY Maxima I got and saved earlier in the year (yeah, Carimbo, from the silver '82 @ the Lynnwood PAP: I found a use for them). One door done, one to do, then bolt the Ign assy to the column, put the plastic back on.

It's a pretty good $50 truck. Still stinks pretty bad, it'll need some swabbing. No radio. Needs a list of stuff, but with the brake fix, oil change, air filter, it could be driven daily right now. Peter will likely just sell off the engine/trans, since they're good enough that someone might want them. A Z24 an 5-spd doesn't get much around here though.

Anyway, another weekend shot to hell ;
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
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asavage
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#13

Post by asavage »

I have a notion about this blown-up (rod through oil pan) SD22: I might (might!) turn it into a two-cylinder diesel, if the crank isn't completely shot and there are still a pair of cylinders that are decent.

I have a 1968 ex-military (MEP-018a) 10Kw genhead (only) here and haven't decided on a prime mover yet. An SD11 :shock: might just be the thing :lol:
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
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asavage
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#14

Post by asavage »

I can't believe mention of an SD11 didn't garner any comment.

=================================================

I'm scrapping the "Bellingham Truck" this weekend (no thread, but various pics can be found here) (engine to go in the "Arlington truck" (1986 720 gasser w/310k miles) in future; the "Vashon Truck" will be scrapped later this Spring, possibly sooner rather than later. I will be pulling all reasonably salvageable parts from both, but storage is limited. Both trucks are quite rusty (20" square hole in floor of B'ham truck; driver's door falling off Vashon truck) so I won't be saving any body parts. I probably won't be saving any suspension parts either, and maybe not the rear ends either, so those parts would be "free", if you're interested in anything. I just do not have the space, and am unwilling to pay $25/mo. to store the vehicles ($300/year per vehicle).

I am, of course, retaining all the diesel-specific parts (in particular the IPC, DPC module, GPs and GP controller, everything bolted to both engines and transmissions, radiators) but if someone wanted, say, a brake caliper or hub or A-arm, steering gearbox, hood, wheels, the factory sunroof on the Vashon truck: all those could be had for nothing or near enough. If I have to crate something, my time would have to be recompensed, but I'd really like parts to go to someone who can use them.

No taillights, turn sigs, no good bumpers, no tailgates. The Bellingham truck's bed is a shortened D21 bed and I doubt if it has any value, and its frame is rusty above the axle -- seriously. But the frame on the Vashon truck is probably OK. I haven't looked at its bed in a while.
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
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asavage
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Location: Oak Harbor, Wash.
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#15

Post by asavage »

moose60 wrote:I'm looking for an idle throttle lock for my truck. To clarify, it's the little black knob you can pull out and lock to raise the idle. I'd like to get the whole assembly(if you've got one).
I'm not paying to store the trucks right now, but I will: I'm losing the space where Peter is storing them (they are not "my" trucks, but effectively they are, in this case).

I will save out the throttle lock from one of them for you. The other we'll need for the conversion of the yellow '86 "Arlington Truck" to use the "B'ham Truck's" engine/trans.
Regards,
Al S.

1982 Maxima diesel wagon, 2nd & 4th owner, 165k miles, rusty & burgundy/grey. Purchased 1996, SOLD 16Feb10
1983 Maxima diesel wagon, 199k miles, rusty, light yellow/light brown. SOLD 14Jul07
1981 720 SD22 (scrapped 04Sep07)
1983 Sentra CD17, 255k, bought 06Jul08, gave it away 22Jun10.
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