280z space saver spare tire replacement?

[chaseincats]

Hi guys,

Is there any place where I can get a replacement space saver tire for my '78 280?

I will be driving to zcon and want to make sure I have a spare tire on-board that isn't 40 years old (yes I have AAA too haha).

 

Any ideas?

-chase

[S30Driver]

There is no new replacement for that 1st generation space saver tire.   However,  Capt Obvious found a solution with a modern donut tire that works for him.

The thread is in the archives,  perhaps Bruce will comment on the details.  @Captain Obvious

[siteunseen]

 

[chaseincats]

18 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

 

It's a bit tough to understand without the pictures.  Why didn't he just have the tire from the spare he bought mounted onto the original wheel that had the collapsible tire?  Basically I'm asking why he needed the datsun roadster hub.

[Zed Head]

That's a good question.  Plus, you need an old wheel.

But, I'm pretty sure that other people have found late model spares from import cars that swap over directly and fit the spare tire well.  There are common 4 1/2" bolt patterns out there.  Tried to find some of the threads but haven't yet.

[S30Driver]

I am no expert on the space saver spare except to test mine with an air pump.  If I had to guess, it may be a unique setup where the tire is not intended to be removable.

In CO's case,  since he usually leaves no stone unturned, there must be a reason preventing him from using the original nissan wheel.

.

[Zed Head]

Post #8 here is good.  CO is in the thread but he was on a mission based on the presumption that modern rims wouldn't fit the 280Z hubs.  Doesn't seem to have been confirmed.  There's a good list to start from.

 

[siteunseen]

He must be a little horse at the moment making that hotels.com money?

[chaseincats]

Thanks guys, I'll scour the junkyard for one of these.  In all reality, is fix-a-flat seriously good enough that spares are no longer warranted?

[siteunseen]

Google 280z junkyard spare. It's a Sentra or Altima that works. @Mike Wwith the 260 knows.

 

[chaseincats]

1 minute ago, siteunseen said:

Google 280z junkyard spare. It's a Sentra or Altima that works. @Mike Wwith the 260 knows.

 

That tire is too large to fit into the reduced size spare tire well added on the 77/78 cars unfortunately.  I guess that's the price we pay for a marginally bigger gas tank ?

[Captain Obvious]

Sorry for the delay.  I haven't been on-line much over the past few days.  Some details about my spare tire project...

What I ended up using was a  115/70/14 tire from something in a junkyard. I don't remember what it came from, but it was probably a Nissan product. Older Sentra or Maxima probably. I bought it because it had the right 4x4.5 lug pattern. Problem was... I tried it on my car and it fit OK on the back but wouldn't clear the front calipers.

So I took the tire off the space saver spare and had it remounted on the narrowest wheel I could find that had the correct offset and would clear the front calipers. The wheel I used came from an early (65) roadster) and it is four inches wide

I didn't move the space saver tire over to the 280 original spare wheel because I was worried that the 280 spare wheel was too wide. The space saver tire was originally on a four inch wide rim and the original 280 spare wheel is five inches wide. I wasn't comfortable stretching that narrow tire out to a five inch wide rim.

I think you could use a 4.5 inch wide rim, but since I was in there messing around anyway, I took the opportunity to make it as narrow as possible so I could drop the false wood floor down and gain some more cargo head-room back there. I ended up dropping the floor level about an inch-and-a-half.