Finishing The Morris

Once we were able to get the motor in the car for the final time, everything bolted up Then came the hard part. We discovered that the drive line, though the directions said it was an easy install of the Morris “just fit the slip yoke from the Datsun”. We we didn’t get the Datsun drive line and we didn’t have a slip yoke. So off to the drive-line shop we went and put in an order for a new drive-line.

While we were still under the car, we decided to finish off the clutch linkage. Here too, we found that we were missing parts. Thank goodness we have a talented crew. Our guys took on the design challenge and came up with a very suitable linkage system that worked nicely.

Once this was done, the final task below was the exhaust.  We did receive an adaptor pipe but unfortunately it was for a different car.  So we had to modify that as well.  That being done we were able to lower the car and get started on the painstaking work of getting everything hooked up.  One thing can be said for Japanese cars, they have more hoses going more places and doing less things that any car on the road.  We did have a good diagram of what hoses went where, and what hoses did what, so we cut and plugged about two thirds of them and went on to hooking up the carb linkage.  This actually went quite well.  The Morris cable, with a few modifications, worked.  Then it was off to the wiring.  Fortunately the Morris dosen’t require much electrical.  The hard part was figuring out what we didn’t need on the Datsun.

After five days of work, and a little frustration and some standing back in amazement that we could do this, we put the cooling system together; which by the way, there is only room for a piece of paper between the water pump shaft and the radiator, but we found a fan to work.  We tested all the systems, and they all worked.  It was time for a test drive and a shake-down so to speak.  Wow, the Datsun engine really made a difference.  We have installed several B210 five speeds, and they really enhance the driveabliity of the car, but we had no idea the boost in horse power from the Datsun engine would make this much difference.  All in all it was a fun project, and the results were above expected.