I bought a 1973 FSM on Ebay. It came in the mail this past week. If anyone has the 1973 manual could you let me know what the quality of the photos in the manual are? The one I have has very dark photos. Much like you get when you try to photocopy pages from a manual. Did I buy a well packaged photocopy of a original manual or was the quality bad from the first printing. The text and drawings are very readable, the photos not so much.

What's the color of the cover?

E

Escanlon: It is a pale yellow with white lettering. The cover looks just like any of the othe ones I have seen and the binding is very good. just the photos are vey dark.

Dan

My '73 FSM is the same. The photos are very dark and look like they've copied once or twice. My '71 FSM is similar. Chalk it up to technology of the 70's

I asked about the color since most guys reproducing will not go to the expense of colorizing the cover to match the original. I didn't comment on the photos, since just about every FSM and Car How To book (Clymer's, Haynes, Chilton's, Motor) are infamous for poor photography.

I have a Clymer's that purports "Full Color" photos, and it's only a spark plug chart, whoopee!, brown, gray and dark brown and gray!

2¢

E

What you have is a “factory authorized re-print” (photocopy) of the original 1973 FSM. The 1973 manual was the first Z car manual (followed by the ’77 one) to become “out of print” back in the mid 1980’s. In the mid 1990’s Nissan decided to re-issue the out of print manuals but they would be bound photocopies of the originals. This is also how the FSM ‘s for the 1970 and 1971 240Z were created. The original 1970 and ’71 service manuals for the 240Z was actually a set of several manuals, one for the engine, one for the chassis, one for the transmission, etc. The 1972 240Z FSM was the first that had the entire vehicle information inside one manual.

Nissan also re-issued bound photocopies of the glove box manuals for several of the earlier Datsun cars (like the 240Z).

Thanks everyone for the information. Escanlon, I was heading out the door yesterday when I replied to you question. The cover is orange with white lettering not yellow (not sure where I came up with yellow?). I will now give a positive feedback to the seller on ebay as the manual is in perfect condition other than the quality of the photos. Again thanks

Dan